An Expert Is actually By My Side

Chapter 39: Two-million-yuan Megaproject

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Of course, at this very moment, Cloud Hao had no idea that his trusted advisor had already figured out how to waste this huge sum of two million yuan for him, even before it was paid to the company.
If he knew about it, he might even withdraw the money from the company’s account overnight.
That was a considerable sum of two million!
In River Town, that was enough to buy an apartment in the vicinity of the second ring road!
As for whether this price was too low, Cloud Hao didn’t think about it at all.
For a game to go viral, it involved many coincidental factors, including not only the right time and right place but also the current market trend.
Maybe people had just gotten bored of a 3A masterpiece with awesome graphics and wanted to have a change in flavor. They were going for something more plain like vegetables.
However, it was still a bit difficult to expect players to gobble down a flavorless plate of spinach all the time.
No matter what achievements this game had accomplished in his original world, the 2048 sales volume of one million copies on the E-fun platform had reached a plateau.
One reason was that the paying market on the PC was only that big, and the other reason was that mini-games were mini-games after all. No matter how cheap they were, the gameplay was a tad bit too simple.
It was already quite remarkable in itself to hit the one-million mark, with only 2,000 yuan invested in the publicity.
Now, someone was willing to spend two million to buy his mobile game development rights. On top of that, there were supposedly plans to bundle it with that newly-launched app market to be promoted together. As far as he was concerned, such terms were already so fantastic that it was impossible to reject.
Cloud Hao knew better than anyone else that if he waited a while more and the novelty of the game wore off in the players’ hearts, it would be challenging to sell it at this price at that time…
As he pondered on the offer, he still couldn’t help but fantasize a little in his mind, grumbling to the system that had no intention of bothering with him.
“It’ll be great if I could draw a 3A masterpiece.”
Best is that it’ll have its own esports attributes and would be a more popular spectator sport.
But it seems that this world has yet to come up with the concept of esports?
Although he had heard that everyone’s favorite online game, “The Oracle”, often hosted various competitions, in his opinion, that outdated stuff was at most an upgraded version of the Imperial City pk…
Lin Mengmeng seated across Cloud Hao. She carefully picked out the peppers in her bowl with her chopsticks, then stared at him for a long time. She then asked out of curiosity, “Why do you look so troubled?”
They had run into each other in the cafeteria earlier. Since neither of them was eating with their roommates, they sat together at the same table.
“It’s nothing…” Cloud Hao sighed and said with a melancholic expression on his face, “It’s just that I sometimes feel that it would be good if I had better luck.”
“People can’t be too greedy. I think you’re lucky enough.”
While she was talking, her eyes suddenly lit up, as if she had remembered something good. Her left hand, which was free of chopsticks, tapped on the table twice.
“By the way! Let me share a piece of good news with you!”
“What news?”
“Hehe.” Lin Mengmeng said happily, “Your senior, I, am going to be a superstar soon!”
Cloud Hao was utterly bewildered. This jump between the topics was a little big, such that he couldn’t react for a while.
Is being a superstar an occupation?
The kind that you can be in just because you want to?
Seeing his lack of reaction, Lin Mengmeng pouted in dissatisfaction.
“Why don’t you have any reaction at all?”
“…Maybe because I was too surprised?”
Or perhaps, because there were so many roasting points that he had yet to figure out where to start.
“Well, it’s normal for you to be surprised. To be honest, I was the same in the beginning.” After picking out the peppers in her bowl, Lin Mengmeng poked the rice with her chopsticks. There was the happiness with a hint of the shyness of a young girl on her face. “The day before yesterday, I was shopping with my roommate during the weekend when I encountered a scout on the road. She said that it was obvious from just one glance that I was superstar material, and she asked me if I was interested in singing—”
Cloud Hao looked at her in stupefaction and said, “And then you just signed the contract?”
“Yeah, her thoughts are exactly the same as mine.” Lin Mengmeng nodded as if it were only to be expected. Her tone gradually turned to one of excitement. “Besides, it’s hard to find someone who understands me! She even promised me that she would get Somewhere Deep in the Clouds to write a song for me! It was only after hearing from her that I found out that Master Somewhere Deep in the Clouds had already signed a contract with a media company…
“Later on, I checked on the Yinke website and confirmed that a sentence like that had indeed been added to the producer information!”
Pfft!
Hearing that his online persona had been used as a cheque, Cloud Hao nearly spurted out his unchewed rice.
Lin Mengmeng looked at Cloud Hao, who was suddenly choking, in concern. She then pulled out a pack of tissue paper from her bag and handed it to him.
“Slow down. Why do you eat so quickly every time? No one is rushing you.”
“…Thank you.” Cloud Hao took out a piece of tissue and wiped his mouth. Then, he coughed dryly and continued what he was saying after his breathing returned to normal, “What’s the name of the talent manager you signed the contract with?”
“It’s Sun Xiaoteng! I think her nickname is Tengteng. She’s quite a cute girl!”
It’s really that girl!
“Do you really plan to pursue singing? You’re not going to consider acting? For example, being a movie star…”
“What nonsense are you spouting? Why would I make a movie?” Lin Mengmeng rolled her eyes at him. “I don’t like acting at all, okay? What’s so good about standing in front of the camera like a fool.”
Cloud Hao couldn’t help asking, “Then… You didn’t go to their company to take a look?”
Lin Mengmeng was stunned and said, “Ah? There’s no need for that, right? She said that it’s the Internet Age now… Their company works online, so we can just communicate via WeChat normally.”
What’s wrong with this girl?
Why is she so easy to dupe?!
When he saw her expression of absolute certainty, Cloud Hao was dumbstruck.
If she f*cking ran into a human trafficker, she’ll probably sell herself and still help the other party to count the money.
“She also helped me sign up for the “Stairway to Stardom” contest! It’s known as the best singing talent show of the year. Many popular singers made their debut there!”
Lin Mengmeng propped her cheeks in her hands and said with a yearning expression, “The most important thing is that my idol is going to write a song for me!”
Looking at this person who had begun building castles in the air, Cloud Hao felt sorry for her. At the same time, he couldn’t help but bury his face in his hands.
He really couldn’t bear to think about those bright eyes turning to disappointment in the future.
Sure enough, he shouldn’t have set up that side account back then.
This must be karmic retribution…
…
In the office building in the Entrepreneur Park in the south of the city, in an office with an area of less than 50 square meters…
Looking at the three simple partitions in front of him, Xu Qianshi’s face was filled with surprise.
It was hard to imagine that 2048, which had shot to the top of the E-fun platform sales chart with a fixed price of only one yuan, was born in such a shabby place.
When he thought about how the game production team bought by the Dami Corporation couldn’t even produce two pieces of crap in a year even after eating and drinking well every day, he couldn’t help but feel rueful.
True enough, outstanding people are often born in the marshes!
It really isn’t easy!
As he scanned the office, the secretary standing at the side introduced him to the other party.
“This is President Xu, the CEO of Dami Entertainment.”
“Nice to meet you!” Cloud Hao didn’t expect the CEO of the other party to personally come over. He smiled and extended his right hand. “I’m Cloud Hao, the chairman of Cloud Dream Corporation.”
“Nice to meet you! President Hao is really young and promising. But speaking of your company…” Taking a look at the surrounding layout, Xu Qianshi smiled and said, “The decoration style is a tad bit simple.”
When he heard this, Cloud Hao explained with a smile, “It’s a startup after all… Simplicity is preferred.”
Of course, he wouldn’t tell his future collaborator that when he started this company, he never even thought about how long it could stay in business. Naturally, he didn’t choose a bigger place.
“Being frugal is good.”
Maybe he didn’t think too much about it or didn’t care, but Xu Qianshi nodded. He then suddenly changed the topic.
“However, given your company’s potential, I feel that there’s no need to be too hard on yourselves. Are you interested in coming to Shanghai? Dami Corporation happens to have an entrepreneur park there. The rent is not that high, and the interior decoration has already been done up. In addition, we also have a professional team that provides free data services for companies like yours that have ambition.”
To be honest, this was a very enticing proposal. However, Cloud Hao only thought about it for a moment before shaking his head and tactfully turning him down.
“That won’t be necessary for the time being. It’s too troublesome to move over there.”
Relocating would mean that he would have to recruit people again and adapt to the local environment, not to mention that he was still attending school in River Town. It was too troublesome to shuttle between both places.
Seemingly not expecting Cloud Hao to turn down this generous offer, Xu Qianshi was stunned for a moment. Afterward, he said with a smile, “It’s okay, I was just mentioning it in passing… Speaking of which, where is the 2048 developer? I’m very curious to meet the genius who developed such an interesting game.”
Cloud Hao had just opened his mouth, but before he had time to say something, Lin Jun, who was standing next to him, smiled proudly and answered first, “Needless to say, the person who developed it is our boss! From the gameplay down to the programming, it was all designed by him alone!”
“You developed it?”
The expression on Xu Qianshi’s face was one of utter astonishment this time, and he looked at Cloud Hao with shock in his eyes. He was clearly in disbelief.
Cloud Hao was also a little embarrassed to be stared at like that. He coughed lightly and said, “I don’t have much talent and I’m not that learned… It was just a product to test waters. It’s pure luck that it became a hit. Don’t mind it too much.”
“I don’t think it’s luck.” Xu Qianshi, who had concealed the surprise in his eyes, returned to his normal self and smiled faintly. He looked at Cloud Hao and continued, “2048’s popularity may be partly due to coincidence, but I think more than that, it’s because the quality of the game itself is good enough.
“Therefore, we’re interested in investing resources on it to see if we can replicate the success that it has already achieved on the PC to the mobile phone.”
With that, he motioned for his secretary to put away the contract. Then, he stood up from the sofa and looked at Cloud Hao with a faint smile.
“I didn’t expect President Hao to accomplish so much at such a young age. Looks like I didn’t make a wasted trip with today’s meeting that’s outside of my schedule.
“My intuition tells me that it won’t be long before we meet again on a larger stage.”
Cloud Hao also got up and said with a smile, “Thank you, I hope so!”
“I don’t have much time left. I still have a flight back to Shanghai in a bit, so I won’t stay on any longer.” As he said this, Xu Qianshi extended his right hand. “Hope to see you again! Looking forward to working with you!”
Holding his right hand and shaking it, Cloud Hao smiled calmly and nodded.
“Looking forward to working with you!”

Chapter 40: A Talent!