January 30th, a new week arrived.

At midnight on Monday, the rankings on the “Mobile Games Hub” updated once again. Fang Jiming opened the rankings out of habit to take a look—

The number one spot on the Top Grossing chart was Wilderness Crisis. This classic mobile game had been in public beta for five years and was operated by their old rival, “Cool Play Entertainment.” Last week happened to be its anniversary, and with its large player base, it was understandable that its revenue skyrocketed to number one.

In second place was Age of Discovery, produced by a foreign game company. It was a well-received team exploration MMO. Last week, it updated its main storyline and opened a new sailing map, leading to massive microtransactions from players. This game was also operated by “Cool Play Entertainment” as the agent for the Hua Country region.

The top two spots were both Cool Play games, which made Fang Jiming very unhappy. Back in the day, he had gone abroad to negotiate the agency rights for Age of Discovery but failed to reach an agreement, allowing his rival to swoop in and grab it. Now, watching the game’s revenue grow day by day, he was truly envious!

Dream Wings’ Elf Kingdom had dropped to third.

Last week, they launched the “Whispers of the Elves” event series, but the results weren’t as good as expected. In fact, the boring dungeon content ended up driving away a large number of paying players.

The player retention rate recorded in the backend plummeted to 30%. In other words, just half a month after launch, 70% of players had abandoned the game. For a long-term live-service MMO, this was not a good sign.

As Fang Jiming scrolled down, pondering how to run an event to boost revenue… his pupils suddenly shrank, his gaze locking onto the seventh place on the Top Grossing chart.

Underworld Maze.

The icon with a black background and red text, sandwiched among a bunch of well-known games, had an exceptionally distinct art style.

Fang Jiming couldn’t believe it and rubbed his eyes hard.

Did I see that right?? Underworld Maze?!

Isn’t this the obscure little game that was ranked past 100 last week, completely unknown and flopping without a trace?

Fang Jiming thought it was a bug on the Mobile Games Hub and hurriedly refreshed the page…

The ranking remained the same.

Underworld Maze, 7th on the Top Grossing chart!

Every week, the top ten of the Top Grossing chart were displayed on the homepage of the “Mobile Games Hub.” Any game that made it into the top ten had a weekly revenue starting at ten million RMB, and the top three had no upper limit.

How could a single-player mini-game developed by an unknown newcomer studio generate over ten million in revenue and crack the top ten within a week? This defied logic!

Recalling the “2 million buyout price” he had offered Sailboat Studio, Fang Jiming felt a pang of heartache. The head of that studio was probably mocking his lack of vision right now.

With a dark face, Fang Jiming called his subordinate: “Little Zhu, why did the revenue for Underworld Maze suddenly skyrocket last week? Do you know how it was marketed?”

Little Zhu, who was in charge of market research for Team C, was just about to go to sleep when he was woken by his boss’s call. While mentally complaining, “Are you sick, calling in the middle of the night?” he replied, “Underworld Maze? Never heard of it.”

Fang Jiming roared, “Never heard of it? You’re way too insensitive! They’ve already broken into the top ten of the Top Grossing chart, and you haven’t even studied their marketing model?!”

Startled, Little Zhu hurriedly said, “I’ll research it immediately and report to you tomorrow!”

The suffering corporate slave has to pull an all-nighter again. This kind of high-intensity work style, being on-call 24 hours a day, was driving him crazy.

Little Zhu crawled out of bed, helplessly opened his computer, and typed into the search bar: Underworld Maze.

---

Monday morning, a young man with heavy dark circles knocked on the Director’s office door.

Fang Jiming asked, “Do you have a conclusion?”

Little Zhu said, “Director Fang, I’ve checked. Underworld Maze did not partner with a professional operations company; they are operating it themselves.”

Fang Jiming didn’t understand. “Operating it themselves? That’s impossible, isn’t it?”

Small games like this facing the fierce bloodbath of the winter break release window were almost always destined to be cannon fodder. Without an experienced operations company, how could they possibly break through the siege by handling their own promotion?

Little Zhu handed the compiled data to Director Fang: “It first became popular in the streamer circle, and then bathed A-Site in blood. A ‘Streamer Creative Deaths Compilation’ video has over three million likes, and there are several others with over a million likes. Recently, a massive number of gaming streamers have been playing this game, uploaders are churning out videos like it’s a team-building exercise, and Weibo bloggers are giving it tons of organic recommendations. That’s why it suddenly broke out.”

Fang Jiming: “…”

No buying trending searches, no ad placements, no celebrity endorsements, and none of the common mass promotions like email, SMS, or pop-ups… and it actually broke out through gaming streamers and video edits?!

This was forging a new path and overtaking on a curve!

Thinking of the tens of millions he had thrown into the promotional budget for Elf Kingdom, Fang Jiming suddenly felt a tightness in his chest.

He remained silent for a moment before muttering, “A paid buyout game, 15 RMB to download, 1 million downloads in a week, revenue breaking 15 million. It just inexplicably climbed onto the Top Grossing chart like this?”

Little Zhu nodded. “Yes, this game is now 7th on the Top Grossing chart and is featured on the Mobile Games Hub homepage. The momentum is already there; if they can maintain it, next week’s revenue could be even higher.”

He paused, then looked at his boss apprehensively. “Director Fang, are you paying attention to this game because you want to negotiate an operations partnership with Sailboat Studio?”

Fang Jiming: “…”

I already negotiated with them, but unfortunately, it fell apart!

It’s so infuriating!

If he had known this game would be a hit, he should have agreed to their “40-60 split” proposal. By finding gaming streamers and uploaders to promote it, he could have gained maximum profit with minimum promotional costs.

Now, going back to renegotiate shamelessly was definitely a lost cause; he couldn’t swallow his pride anyway.

Fang Jiming opened the rating chart on the “Mobile Games Hub.”

Fortunately, the current number one in maze game ratings was still Tower of Dreams, which he had managed back in the day. It had over 2 million ratings and an average score of 9.2—a very impressive number.

The Top Grossing and Trending charts changed every week, but the “Rating Chart,” built point by point by real-name users, was the most authoritative list on the Mobile Games Hub, and it would remain permanently for users to reference.

This chart also best reflected a game’s reputation.

A horror-style game like Underworld Maze could never surpass the relaxing and cute Tower of Dreams in ratings. This kind of game merely relied on its bizarre style to attract temporary popularity; after a few months, no one would remember it.

When it came to maze games, the king was still Tower of Dreams.

Thinking of this, Fang Jiming felt slightly comforted. He waved his hand at Little Zhu and said, “Go back to work. Keep an eye on the rating chart, and remember to remind me when Underworld Maze gets its score.”

---

After waking up, Xie Yunfan opened the Mobile Games Hub to take a look.

Underworld Maze had broken into the top ten of both the Top Grossing and Trending charts, occupying a prominent position on the homepage—a very stellar achievement.

He was very satisfied with this result.

He casually checked the rating chart; the game hadn’t received a score yet.

The rating rules of the Mobile Games Hub were that a game had to be on the market for a month, and any obvious “bot rating phenomena” had to be cleared out before the average score was published. The score would also continuously change as the number of ratings increased.

Currently, only around 50,000 people had rated Underworld Maze.

The game had just broken out, and most players were too addicted to navigating the maze to have time to rate it. The average score would come out next month.

Xie Yunfan believed that the game he had poured his heart into wouldn’t have a terrible score.

The traffic on the Mobile Games Hub homepage was massive. Being on the homepage charts for a week was an excellent promotional opportunity. He had to hurry and finish writing the NPCs’ lore.

Xie Yunfan opened his graphics software. Just as he was about to start writing the lore, his phone suddenly rang. He glanced at the caller ID, answered the call, and asked, “Hello, who am I speaking with?”

“Hello. I am Ye Teng, the Director of the Game Copyright Department at Dream Wings. Am I speaking with the person in charge of Sailboat Studio?”

Dream Wings?

The previous collaboration talks fell through, so they want to try again?

Xie Yunfan said, “That’s right, I’m the boss of Sailboat Studio. How can I help you?”

Ye Teng said, “Our Copyright Team A is responsible for VR game copyright development. I’m calling to discuss the production of a VR version of Underworld Maze. Have you considered turning it into a VR game?”

A VR version of Underworld Maze?

Xie Yunfan’s original world didn’t have VR games, and he had never played one himself.

No matter how scary a mobile game was, it could never offer the “immersive” experience of a VR game. If Underworld Maze were truly developed into a “VR game,” wouldn’t the players in this alternate world be able to personally take a stroll through the “Underworld” via a VR gaming pod?

That… would be too terrifying, wouldn’t it?

But it would also be incredibly thrilling!

Even he himself really wanted to try out what a VR version of the Underworld would be like…

Xie Yunfan didn’t have a good impression of Dream Wings as a company. However, he hadn’t interacted with Director Ye of the Copyright Team; perhaps the terms he offered would be acceptable.

Thinking of this, Xie Yunfan said, “I’m interested in VR games. What are the specific terms of collaboration?”

Ye Teng said enthusiastically, “The process of developing a mobile game into a VR game is quite complex and hard to explain over the phone. What city are you in? I’d like to come over and talk to you in person.”

In person? It seemed the other party was quite sincere.

Xie Yunfan said, “I’m in Rongcheng.”

Ye Teng let out a hearty laugh. “Rongcheng, what a coincidence! I happen to be on a business trip in Rongcheng recently. Which day is convenient for you? Let me treat all the members of your studio to a meal.”

I’m the only member.

Xie Yunfan scratched his head and said, “You decide the time.”

“Then how about the afternoon of February 2nd, Thursday?”

“No problem.”

After agreeing on a meeting time, Xie Yunfan put away his phone, feeling somewhat excited.

The popularization of VR games in this alternate world was still insufficient. The domestic ownership of VR gaming pods was only around 20 million, putting it in its nascent stage.

However, because VR games were highly profitable, the current market was relatively chaotic, and there would be more development opportunities in the VR gaming sector.

Xie Yunfan could write the code for a single-player mobile game, but he couldn’t handle a VR game alone. He absolutely needed to collaborate with a powerful team for Underworld Maze to realize a “VR adaptation.”

Since Dream Wings approached him proactively, he might as well hear them out first.

Oh right, didn’t Dream Wings also say they wanted to acquire the copyright to my brother’s ‘Fighting Master’? Thinking of this, Xie Yunfan sent his brother a message: “Brother, I’m coming home tonight. Are you home?”

Xie Xinghe quickly replied: “Fuck, your message came at exactly the right time!”

Xie Yunfan was puzzled: “What are you doing? Did I interrupt you?”

Xie Xinghe sent three consecutive messages: “Playing a game. That really popular Underworld Maze recently.”

“I’m so mad! I finally made it to the 8th floor, and it actually forced a rollback??”

“This dog of a designer, I wish I could kill him!”

Xie Yunfan: “…”

That dog of a designer is your younger brother. Can you not kill him?

He never expected his eldest brother to actually know about this game and even get addicted to it?

It seemed his little Underworld had truly broken out of its niche!