Chen Jiajun restrained the urge to spoil anything. He’d let Bai Piao and the other players take their time experiencing it for themselves.
He casually closed the webpage, then logged into his QQ.
He had only gone one night without checking it, yet the Spend-Persuasion Club’s messages had piled up to 99+ again, and people were constantly @-ing him.
Chen Jiajun frowned, muttering inwardly:
What are these people talking about now?
Why are they tagging me?
Please don’t let it be anything lewd. If the group gets banned later, that’ll be a disaster.
He knew exactly what kind of people these old bros in the group were.
As long as someone started “driving,” there would be fun-seekers chiming in afterward with “lend me one to talk” and “link, please”…
Then some warmhearted old bro would send over a whole pile of links and racy pictures.
Jiuzhou’s laws now clearly stipulated that if something like this was reported, the group owner would be held jointly responsible.
Hiss—
Thinking of that,
Chen Jiajun hurriedly clicked into the group chat and skimmed through it roughly.
Thankfully, no horny old pervert had started driving.
“Stop arguing. I think there’s nothing wrong with doing this. Development costs money.”
“…”
But the atmosphere in the group seemed a little off.
A bit tense, with the smell of gunpowder in the air.
Just by looking at the scattered messages below, Chen Jiajun still didn’t understand what exactly had happened.
It wasn’t until he pulled back to the top and read through the entire chat log that he finally figured out what was going on.
“What’s going on? I only got my physical exam report today and was about to make a reservation. Why can’t I reserve anymore? (confused)”
“Holy shit, same here! When I tried to reserve, the page prompted: ‘Please wait for open beta information.’”
“Bro, why does this feel like they’re about to start charging? (terrified)”
“Charge away, good, charge away. Anyway, this bro already reserved, haha! (tongue out)”
“Awesome, I’ve got nothing to say. I knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.”
“No, Brother Jun never said it’d be free forever, did he? He reminded you all the day before yesterday. If your own hands were slow, who can you blame?”
The topic had started going off track from there.
After that, the chat became extremely unfriendly, and the atmosphere in the entire group took a sharp turn for the worse.
Among the players who had already reserved, some were watching the show unfold, while others stepped forward to defend the game’s official side.
Even more of them were netizens who hadn’t managed to reserve, as well as those who had been watching from the sidelines before.
They all began denouncing the act of charging money, saying things like “they shouldn’t charge,” and “if they charge, no one will play,” and so on.
In truth, they were just jealous that many people in the group could play without spending money, while now that it was their turn to want to play, they would have to pay.
They felt unbalanced inside.
And so it evolved into a war of words among the netizens, with both sides flaming each other.
These netizens’ mouths were truly vicious. Classic lines emerged one after another, each sentence stabbing straight into the other side’s sore spots.
All kinds of passive-aggressive sarcasm and national curses came naturally to them.
Even Chen Jiajun couldn’t help but marvel at the sight.
At a glance, they were clearly veteran trolls who had fought on Tieba for years, with profound inner cultivation.
In the end, even he could barely stand to watch anymore and had no choice but to enable mute-all.
“Everyone, calm down!”
“I completely understand everyone’s concerns about charging fees. From a player’s perspective, I also hope the games I like can stay free forever.”
“In fact, our team initially wanted to provide the experience completely free of charge as well.”
“But as everyone knows, Penguin copied Mao Pian and has been dragging things out while trying to acquire us.”
“Right now, the studio has no income to support itself. We’re even struggling to pay server fees, let alone later maintenance and content updates.”
“Besides, think about it. Even the worst virtual helmets on the market cost over a thousand, right?”
“We’re selling an integrated package, and the helmet itself also has costs.”
“I just want to say that charging fees isn’t for short-term profit, but so the game can go further.”
Group owner “Jun” lifted the mute-all.
“Brother Jun, how much are you planning to sell the game for?”
“Is there a presale channel?”
“Do group members get a discount?”
Chen Jiajun replied to all of them at once: “The price is still being discussed. There will be events when the time comes. Everyone can keep an eye on the official website for updates.”
Three Times a Day: “Brother Jun, since the helmet is going to cost money, can I offer a tiny little suggestion?”
Chen Jiajun: “Go ahead.”
Three Times a Day: “I tried it out yesterday, and there’s no problem with the game’s quality. But functionally, I feel like there are a few small flaws. In the future, could you guys introduce some top-up codes, or just launch an item shop directly? Like being able to directly purchase tanks, fighter jets, revive coins, and other in-game items. I’ve seen other games have them, like Vice City… Money isn’t the issue. The important thing is the experience!”
Chen Jiajun was drinking water and hadn’t had time to swallow yet. He nearly sprayed a mouthful onto his computer tower.
“My friend, thank you for your suggestion!”
“The company currently has no plans to develop in the direction of pay-to-win games.”
That habit of reaching for microtransactions at the slightest disagreement—one look and you could tell Penguin had trained it into him.
But Chen Jiajun knew what he was doing. He was still counting on this game to keep him alive.
He definitely couldn’t send himself down a dead end.
If the person was gone, what use was earning more money?
In the end, you brought none of it at birth, and you took none of it in death.
Moreover, he’d heard that burning paper money nowadays counted as feudal dross and might be banned.
If that law passed,
then when the time came, they wouldn’t even be able to burn paper money for him.
Sitting in front of his computer, Three Times a Day froze for a moment, his expression strange.
No microtransactions?
Hadn’t they just said they were short on funds?
They wouldn’t even harvest the leeks right in front of them. Was this company serious?
It had taken so much effort for a game that could cure insomnia to appear. Please, whatever happened, don’t go bankrupt.
Seeing that the group had finally quieted down, Chen Jiajun closed the group chat window.
He glanced at the time and was just wondering whether to call Shen Yingying when his phone rang first.
He focused his eyes on it.
Heh! Speak of Cao Cao, and Cao Cao arrives.
“Open the door. I’m at the entrance to your studio.”
After entering, Shen Yingying placed breakfast on the table.
Piping-hot soy milk and fried dough sticks, their fragrance filling the air.
She had originally planned to wait until Chen Jiajun finished eating before discussing serious matters, but unexpectedly, with a fried dough stick in his mouth, Chen Jiajun had already begun mumbling about his plan to charge fees for the open beta.
After hearing Chen Jiajun’s plan, Shen Yingying’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“You’re finally opening for business!”
She was extremely excited. Then her tone shifted, and she asked:
“Is the patent for the virtual helmet in your hands? Which OEM factory did you find? How did you negotiate the cooperation?”
She leaned forward slightly.
“If it hasn’t been settled yet, I have acquaintances with factories on my side. The price can be discussed, and if cash flow is tight for the moment, they can give you some leeway too.”
She had waited far too long for this day.
Her investment was finally about to see returns!?
She just didn’t know how long it would take to earn back the twelve million she had put in.
And how much profit there would ultimately be.
“Uh…”
Chen Jiajun forced himself to swallow the food in his mouth, not knowing how to answer.
The virtual helmet was exchanged with reputation points. There was no need to find any factory at all.
As long as he had enough reputation points, he just needed to shout, “Helmet, come!” and that would be that!
But since the conversation had reached this point, Chen Jiajun could only bring out “commercial secrets” once again and gloss it over.
He merely said that the core technology patent was in his hands, and that the production side was already being handled by a cooperating manufacturer, telling her not to worry.
After hearing this, the corners of Shen Yingying’s lips lifted slightly. She saw right through him at a glance, but did not expose him. Instead, she asked:
“How much do you plan to price the virtual helmet at?”