Chapter 77 - "Love" From the Fans
Chapter 77: Chapter 76: “Love” From the Fans
Of course Chen Mo didn’t know what happened within Emperor Dynasty Entertainment. Even if he knew, he wouldn’t pay too much attention to it, as he had bigger fish to try.
–In the experience store–
Chen Mo walked into the experience store wearing sunglasses and a mask, only relaxing after making sure there wasn’t anyone following.
Su Jinyu was disdained, “Manager, do you really have to do this?”
Chen Mo took off his sunglasses and mask, and grabbed a can of drink from the fridge, “Geez, what do you mean if I have to do this. I’m just worried about my safety.”
Wen Lingwei said while playing I Am MT, “Alright, you think you’re someone famous now?”
Chen Mo replied, “What do you mean I’m famous. I’m basically a public enemy.”
Chan Xiuya laughed, “Manager, stop being a drama queen. You’re a videogame designer, there can’t be that many people thinking about you every day.”
Chen Mo said, “I don’t want to hear that. I Am MT has nearly three million players, my Weibo now has more than two hundred thousand followers. I’m at least a little bit famous by any metric right?”
Wen Lingwei facepalmed, “You still think you’re famous?”
Chen Mo said, “What do you mean, think. I am famous. Just look at my Weibo, there are hundreds of people tagging me expressing their love towards me.”
Wen Lingwei had a “you’re kidding me” expression on her face, “Those are the ones asking for your address to send razor blades!”
Chen Mo said, “These players can’t help but send me gifts, if that isn’t love, what is it?”
Wen Lingwei was shocked, but three seconds later, she decided to ignore this shameless person and continued grinding in game.”
Su Jinyu said, “By the way, manager, some did send you a razor blade. I placed it at your bedside table.”
Chen Mo was shocked, “What! And you put it by my bed? Take it away, and give it to the garbage collectors.”
Su Jinyu said, “No kidding, if we gather up all these razor blades we could probably get a few ice-creams worth of money.”
Chen Mo said, “That’s why I’m taking extra precautions for my own safety. What if I get ganked by a bunch of my fans?”
Su Jinyu shocked, “Ganked? What’s that?”
Chen Mo was also shocked, and replied, “Oh that’s a word in my dialect. It has a similar meaning to ‘caught’.”
Jia Peng said, “But I Am MT is quite popular right now, I saw five other people playing when I was on the train yesterday.”
Chang Xiuya saidm “There are also many other students playing in school.”
Wen Lingwei said, “Just take a look at the Weibo and see how many others are flaming the manager to get a sense of how popular the game is.”
Jia Peng said, “That trending topic is quite funny, something along the lines of ‘Refund my hard-earned money Chen Mo'”
Chang Xiuya snicked, “Yeah, there aren’t many other video game designers who have a trending topic flaming them.”
Chen Mo let out another sigh, “I haven’t been on Weibo for a few days now. Everytime I log in I get greeted with so many messages, all of them tagging me or are comments on my Weibo, I can’t go through it at all.”
Jia Peng said, “And you’re not happy? There are so many video game designers who dream of having the popularity you have.”
Su Jinyu shook her head, “I think the manager doesn’t wish to be popular like this. If it were me, I hope that I’d be trending because of love from the fans. To be honest I still think the game is weird, although the manager did prove that it’s quite profitable.”
Chen Mo said, “You’re thinking too deep into it. I don’t care about all this attention, all that matters is making money. The best would be making money without any attention.”
“…We overestimated your morality!”
Su Jinyu asked, “By the way, what’s the next game going to be? I’m going to quit if you make another I Am MT.”
“Yeah, I think that the animation is worth pursuing, but you should probably avoid games like these,” added Jia Peng.
Wen Lingwei said, “Someone as unlucky as you doesn’t fair well with games like these after all.”
Jia Peng was speechless.
Chen Mo waved his hand, “The next game won’t be like this. I need some time to recover. I’ll die young if I keep making these types of games.”
Wen Lingwei said, “Huh? I couldn’t tell that you’d be superstitious?”
Chen Mo sighed, “I’m not superstitious. If I make another game like this and angered a few unlucky people, and they send someone after me, aren’t I going to die young?”
Wen Lingwei was speechless, “Of course you’d think that way!”
Su Jinyu asked, “So what are you planning?”
Chen Mo said, “Oh, I’m taking a week off.”
Everyone was shocked.
Chen Mo was surprised by the reaction, “What’s wrong. I just made a game that brings in twenty million RMB every month. Isn’t it normal and reasonable to take a week off?”
Wen Lingwei said, “You’re not working hard enough!”
Su Jinyu added, “No aspirations!”
Jia Peng also added, “Comfort will be the death of you!”
Chang Xiuya said, “Manager, what makes you any different from a lazy salted fish?”
Chen Mo thought for a moment. “Hmm. I’m richer than a salted fish?”
Everyone: “Get lost!”
Su Jinyu said, “Fine. Taking a week off isn’t really a big deal. But you have to give us some idea of what game we’re making afterward, Manager.”
Wen Lingwei nodded. “Exactly. Give us a hint. Are we still updating I Am MT?”
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” Chen Mo said. “We’ll update the I Am MT mobile game slowly from now on. Every month or two, we can release a new card or add a new stage. After that, I want to regroup a little and make two relatively simple games first.”
Su Jinyu was speechless. “What? Simple games again, Manager?”
Chen Mo nodded. “Yeah. Even simpler than I Am MT. I can basically finish one of them by myself. The other one can be something for you to practice on.”
Su Jinyu held her forehead. “Manager, I hate to say this, but you’ve got players and you’ve got money. Why are you getting less ambitious? Everyone else makes increasingly complex games. But ever since Plants vs. Zombies, yours have just kept getting simpler. What’s going on?”
“Exactly,” Wen Lingwei said. “You’re a salted fish with no dreams at all!”
“What’s wrong with that?” Chen Mo replied. “My motto is: if I can make money with a simple game, I won’t make a complicated one! Why carry when you can just lie back and win?”
Everyone: “…We have no idea what the hell you’re talking about.”
“All right. Anyway, everyone’s worked pretty hard lately, so take this week to rest,” Chen Mo said. “I need a good break too. Don’t worry. Once I’ve finished the next game, I’ll start preparing a major title. The kind we can live off for the rest of our lives.”
Su Jinyu pressed a hand to her forehead. “Oh no. The manager’s bragging again.”
Wen Lingwei said flatly, “I wouldn’t trust a single punctuation mark out of your mouth.”
Chang Xiuya: “Really? An actual, amazing blockbuster?”
Wen Lingwei was speechless. “Xiuya, you actually believe him? Are you a single-celled organism?!”