Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In Tianfu City, Central CBD zone, in office building F, on the 38th floor, Liu Xiao Ping was standing by the French windows, relishing in the beauty of the city. He gasped out of emotion. It almost felt like he was dreaming. He brushed across his ten-thousand-dollar custom-tailored tuxedo with his hands. He was sighing about that money-squandering dame he had at home, but never had he thought that a good-for-nothing like him would one day transcend into the realm of glory.
Within two short years, he had more than ten million dollars of savings in his bank account. Houses, cars, he bought them all. He tied the knot with the dame, completely shedding away his single status. In a cut scene, he was seeing his dame negotiating with a customer while carrying a bulge in her tummy. He basically accomplished all his three wishes in life.
Classy. Very classy.
Liu Xiao Ping once mocked himself, the others all dreamt of influencing and changing the world, but his dream, on the other hand, was to make money, get a wife, and have a kid. He only wanted a simple life and had no noble pursuits. He was just an ordinary man. Ordinary IQ, ordinary EQ, and ordinary looks, nothing about him stood out from the crowd. He was so ordinary to the extent that he felt self-abased. In this world full of material desires, he thought that being successful was to be able to make some money, afford a house and a car, and establish a family of his own. He dared not expect for more.
But luck favored this ordinary man. The business of “Ningshuang Studio” was getting better day by day, acquiring three to four customer orders every week. The studio expanded and currently had 12 employees. Besides, the studio also came up with their own product. Aside from the “Tree of Baby’s Highlights” app that had more than three million downloads, they came up with two additional mobile games that had more than a million downloads, and a few apps that were less successful.
Some time ago, “Ningshuang Studio” acquired a high-spec “Xing Hai Second Generation computer.” Liu Xiao Ping brought along a few core technical personnel himself to learn the ‘Yanhuang language’ and to attempt application development based on the Xuan Yuan operating system. Aside from doing regular office and entertainment software, they also gained access to the Starry Sky Game Engine and intended to make a few games out of it.
Not only that, the game studio that Liu Xiao Ping got invited into previously was now on the verge of dissolution due to insufficient funding. Liu Xiao Ping intended to acquire this studio of his friend with a couple of million dollars, including the online game “Nine Realms of Heaven,” which was 70% complete.
Liu Xiao Ping tried the game. He felt that the game’s settings were very creative. The game had a large map and it took on a unique perspective towards the world… it had a lot of potential.
“Their ambition is too big,” his dame said while cuddling his arm. “For games such as this, its development would require at least three years and a cost of not less than ten million dollars. Advertising expenses later on would be even higher. Their team of merely seven people can never take on such a massive project. It is inevitable that their funding channels will be broken. Everyone knows that doing games will earn them lots of cash, but some forget that making them costs more! Coming into this field without enough capital will result in a high chance of failure!”
“Yeah.” Liu Xiao Ping nodded in agreement. In software development nowadays, only two types of software had the highest profitability; one would be shopping apps, and another would be games. In Ningshuang Studio’s “Tree of Baby’s Highlights” app, there was an exclusive area dedicated to selling infant products. Its daily trading volume was quite impressive and generated a significant amount of income for Ningshuang Studio.
In games, they only did two simple minigames to test out the water, but they also achieved rather exceptional results. Both games had monthly downloads of over 500 thousand instances, totaling at a million for both minigames. Certainly, when compared to the more successful games, a million downloads per month was inferior to that of a day for the others. But Ningshuang studio was advancing one step at a time, not forgoing any tiny piece of meat. They were accumulating small successes, and never once thought of plumping up with a single bite.
Liu Xiao Ping recognized this steady development style. Thinking, he said, “Ningshuang, my friend’s studio was in an extremely dire situation. They are penniless and would almost be begging on the streets. I personally think that the game ‘Nine Realms of Heaven’ is not bad at all. It has quite some potential. Why don’t we take out 5 million dollars and acquire my friend’s studio?”
“5 million?” Xu Ningshuang rolled her eyes at him. “Do you really think that a gale blew all our money to us? Are they worth so much money?”
Liu Xiao Ping was surprised. Why had the woman that only knew how to spend money become so thrifty? He had no choice but to add on, “Ningshuang, I think that their game is worth 5 million dollars. If it were to be launched on the market, the money we would earn will not be less than 5 million.”
“When I say they’re not worth that much, they’re not worth that much! I’ll go talk to your friend tomorrow and you better zip your mouth up!” Xu Ningshuang had tight control over the company’s cash flow. She was responsible for most of the studio’s business affairs. Liu Xiao Ping did not have any say about how money should be spent. Even his own salary was managed by Xu Ningshuang after they got married. He would only have a meager amount of pocket money usually… all of this made Liu Xiao Ping wonder if he had fallen into a trap and was now locked up.
The following day, inside a classy café, a scene that left Liu Xiao Ping jaw-dropped took place: a b***h with a huge bulge going against seven brawny men of his friend’s studio all alone. With her lip gun alone, all seven tough men were bested, terribly. They were all rendered speechless by the b***h’s rebuttals and were left utterly crestfallen. The combined struggles of seven men ended in a fiasco. In the end, Ningshuang Studio acquired his pal’s studio at a low price of 3 million dollars as well as the seven generals… gulping in Xu Ningshuang’s ecstasy hodgepodge, those few disheartened programmers that were determined to leave agreed to stay and finish “Nine Realms of Heaven.”
Impressive. Liu Xiao Ping was thoroughly impressed. At the same time, he gave up struggling. He decided not to think so much anymore and focus solely on knocking out his codes. “Even seven programmers together got murdered so badly, how could I even escape from her palm? My dame, what great figure were you during your past life?” Liu Xiao Ping shook his head. Looking at the face of his dame, which was nothing out of the ordinary, he was thinking, is the soul of a powerful being sealed within her?
On the spur of moment, he saw a confident smile radiating from her ordinary face. The bottom of his heart quivered. All of a sudden, he felt that, in the face of such an alluring smile, the exquisite looks of Ren Jiaojiao who had already left the studio, suddenly became bland, incomparable to even a millionth of this smile. In short, he felt that he was lucky to have acquired such a treasure.
Of course, he would also need to thank Xing Hai Technologies. If it weren’t for the opportunity and platform provided by this company, how would an ordinary programmer like him get a chance to make his own name? Even for a simple dream as his, he wouldn’t have accomplished it that quickly. He was very grateful for this.
On the 28th of November, inside the studio, Xu Ningshuang began screaming all of a sudden. “An invitation letter! An invitation letter from Xing Hai Technologies! We are qualified to partake in the first-ever Star Cloud Developer Convention on the 5th of December! Xing Hai Technologies will be reimbursing all travel and accommodation expenditures, and we can even go tour around the Xing Hai Headquarters! It’s even mentioned in the invitation that we have won a prize and we must make sure that we send someone over to claim it. Haha, that’s great, marvelous!” It was impossible for Xu Ningshuang not to feel elated. The first Star Cloud Developer Convention would be held in the famous Xing Hai Headquarters. However, there were only 5,000 places available for participants while there were more than 500 thousand applicants. They struck the jackpot on a one percent possibility and were told that they had a prize to claim.
“We’re going for certain!” Liu Xiao Ping became excited as well. He had long wanted to visit Xing Hai Technologies, the most famous and noble tech company in the Z nation.
