OGP CH62

Sunday evening, Xie Yunfan suddenly received a private message from a user with the ID “Black Bird.”

Xie Yunfan searched his memory for a moment and quickly recalled who this was—

A content creator from ACFun. Back when promoting Underworld Maze, he had asked him to help edit video clips, which was how they added each other as friends.

Thanks to the viral breakthrough of the “Streamer Death Compilation” video, Black Bird had ridden that wave of momentum to amass a massive following. Currently, Black Bird ranked among the top ten most popular creators in ACFun’s gaming section.

Black Bird asked, “Boss, excuse me, would it be alright if I cut together the story animations from Journey to the West and posted them on ACFun as a standalone compilation?”

As the country’s largest video-editing and sharing platform, ACFun saw an endless stream of fan edits, supercuts, and reviews covering television dramas, films, animations, and video games, ranging from passionate recommendations to scathing critiques. There was also a substantial demographic of gamers who relied on watching compilations and reviews to decide whether a game was worth playing.

Xie Yunfan replied: “Chapter One is free, so you’re welcome to cut the story animations into a standalone compilation. However, starting from Chapter Two, the content will be paid DLC, so those animations cannot be leaked ahead of time. I hope you understand.”

Black Bird hurriedly replied, “Understood! Then I’ll edit the free content first, and once Chapter Two is officially released, I’ll make some gameplay highlights and recommendations.”

Xie Yunfan said, “Sounds good. Thanks for spreading the word~”

Black Bird vented, “You’re too kind, boss! The truth is, I just couldn’t fall asleep after finishing the game, so I had to find something to do. That cliffhanger of yours is agonizing! My Great Sage, just pinned down like that?!”

Xie Yunfan: “…”

This creator had played the game too, and suffering from insomnia after finishing Chapter One, had decided to edit the animations together. The vast audience of casual viewers on ACFun who enjoyed watching video edits might very well be captivated by the story and rush to download the game.

Having obtained the boss’s permission, Black Bird immediately booted up his screen-recording software. Navigating to the “Path to the West” cutscene replay interface within the game, he recorded all the story footage from Stages 1 through 7.

When playing the game, he hadn’t kept close track of time; now, compiling the story segments alone, he realized that the cutscenes from Chapter One added up to two full hours.

With a runtime like that, it was practically on par with an animated feature film, wasn’t it?

Offering this much premium content for free download proved the boss truly had a golden conscience. The only problem was that the cliffhanger was driving people crazy; he wished he could personally shake the developers to demand updates so he could see the next chapter immediately.

Black Bird merged the animated story according to the stages, ultimately editing it into a seven-episode series and publishing it on his channel with the title: Journey to the West — Chapter One: Animation Compilation.

Because he tagged the upload with both #Gaming and #Animation, the video compilation also appeared in ACFun’s “Anime & Cartoons” section.

ACFun was inherently one of the major platforms for serialized anime and animation, boasting a massive user base that loved binge-watching shows. The new upload appearing in the “Anime” section quickly drew in swarms of animation enthusiasts.

Seven episodes? Is this some new animated series?

Many casual passersby left comments asking questions:

[Which studio made this animation? The production quality looks incredible!]

[Where is this being serialized? It’s surprisingly good!]

[Is the protagonist a monkey? Haha, the art style is built different.]

[The animation is called Journey to the West? I searched all the major video streaming platforms and couldn’t find it anywhere!]

The animation fans who clicked in began watching episode after episode with curiosity, finding themselves increasingly hooked—this monkey protagonist was so ridiculously badass, watching him was pure satisfaction!

Meanwhile, viewers from the gaming section took to the comment section to vent their grief:

[Just beat Stage 7 and came to ACFun to watch something cheerful, only to get stabbed in the heart again, sob sob sob.]

[The damn devs are sadistic monsters, leaving a cliffhanger right here!]

[Those Heavenly Court morons only know how to gang up on my Monkey Bro!]

Seeing the comments piling up rapidly, Black Bird promptly pinned an announcement:

“This is an animated compilation of Chapter One from the mobile game Journey to the West, published with official authorization from Yangfan Studio. The game can be downloaded for free on Mobile Home or Yangfan Studio’s official website. Anyone interested is welcome to download and play!”

Seeing the creator’s pinned note, the casual viewers from the animation section who had come to “binge-watch” finally understood—turns out this was in-game animation all along.

[A game’s cutscenes?! The character models are so detailed, they must have poured a fortune into this!]

[Making animations with heart, making gameplay with their feet?]

[Can someone who played it tell me, is this game actually fun?]

[Casual bystander here: it is ridiculously fun! The level designs are super inventive!]

[Judging by the animation, it looks pretty solid. I’ll go test the waters, hope it doesn’t disappoint~]

Many people who normally didn’t play video games were drawn in by the animation. Finding the production value exquisite, they downloaded the game out of sheer curiosity.

As for regular gamers who didn’t browse Weibo and had missed the trending topics, they had no idea Yangfan Studio had released a new title; now seeing the creator’s recommendation, they hurried to download it as well.

Seven animated episodes, each around twenty minutes long.

Because they were compiled straight from the game, there were no opening intros, ending themes, or recaps—just twenty minutes of pure, unadulterated narrative per episode, devoid of any filler, making for an extraordinarily seamless and thrilling watch.

Black Bird had published the videos at 11:00 PM.

Those who tuned in to binge-watch finished all seven episodes by past 1:00 AM.

It was over—there was no way they were sleeping now!

How could the story possibly cut off at this exact moment?!

[Holy crap, binge-watching animation in the dead of night until I got insomnia!]

[What kind of garbage ending is this?! Where is my god-tier Great Sage?!]

[Cliffhangers deserve the death penalty!]

[Can they please unlock fast-track VIP access for the rest of the episodes right this second?!]

[Serializing an animation inside a video game—I’m officially on my knees.]

Following the game streamers and their viewers, the anime community on ACFun suffered the exact same fate: a collective bout of insomnia fueled by pure rage. Some even went out of their way to download Weibo just to follow Yangfan Studio.

Standard serialized animations were released weekly, but this was the first time anyone had ever chased a serialized animation through a video game. People felt uneasy, unsure if the updates would arrive on time.

Countless users left comments demanding: “Yangfan Studio, since you dare to leave us on a cliffhanger inside a game, can you at least release weekly updates like normal animated shows?”

“Word of advice: know what’s good for you! Don’t you dare update once a season or once a year like certain studios, or worse, abandon the project!”

“If you dare drop this animation, see if I don’t storm your studio and stab you!”

“If you’re short on cash, let’s crowdfund this together to finish the animation first!”

…

The next morning, when Xie Yunfan woke up, the hashtag #DamnProducerGiveMeBackMyGreatSage# was still sitting comfortably at the very top of Weibo’s hot search list.

ACFun users had officially joined the update-demanding army, swelling the comments begging for new chapters under the studio’s official account into the hundreds of thousands.

The endorsement from prominent content creator Black Bird had ushered in a massive crowd of animation enthusiasts. These folks hadn’t even touched the game, having only watched the animated story; yet because they loved the Great Sage so much, they rushed directly to Weibo to demand the next installment.

Senior executives at competing game publishers like Wings of Dream and Cool Play were completely bewildered.

Upon initially seeing the hashtag, they had assumed players were slamming Yangfan Studio, eagerly preparing to pour fuel on the fire and coordinating with media outlets to circulate negative press releases.

Yet when they clicked into the topic… why was it entirely people demanding updates?

Countless players were begging for the continuation, not a single one claiming “the game isn’t fun”; instead, they were universally praising the animation’s exquisite production and burning with anticipation for what came next.

This trend looked grim! How could a game’s story possibly hold this much magnetic pull? Weren’t in-game cutscenes supposed to be skipped instantly by most gamers?

Demanding story cutscenes all the way to the top of the trending charts—Xie Yunfan, are you making a video game or producing a cartoon series?

Rival studios couldn’t comprehend this bizarre turn of events.

The game had effectively left competitor smear campaigns with nowhere to strike.

Meanwhile, at the headquarters of Mobile Home.

The head of data entered Qin Fang’s office and reported: “President Qin, regarding the game Journey to the West you asked me to monitor—from its launch on Saturday noon until now, the homepage traffic has been surging exponentially.”

Exponential growth? Holy crap, this game was going to explode!

Reviewing the metrics, Qin Fang was utterly astonished. A shadow-dropped title with zero prior marketing had undergone an explosive surge in data in just two short days? Competitors would be bewildered to hear of this.

Most games burned millions or even tens of millions in marketing costs upfront, yet Xie Yunfan had pulled off a zero-promotion shadow drop with results this miraculous. How could rivals not turn green with envy?

Qin Fang congratulated himself on his foresight in agreeing to Xie Yunfan’s demand for a 5% revenue cut. As long as this game blew up, he would be able to sit back and count his cash down the line.

Qin Fang decisively ordered: “Host the installation package for Journey to the West on our newest servers, expand the bandwidth, and double the download speeds for me.”

…

Monday morning, during school recess.

Returning to campus, elementary and middle school students naturally chatted about what they did over the weekend—such as whether there were any good movies or fun games lately.

On this particular Monday, discussions across virtually every school revolved around the “Great Sage Equal to Heaven.”

“I played Journey to the West over the weekend and just cleared Easy mode.”

“I played it too, my dad and I played together!”

“The Great Sage is so powerful, but what a shame he got tricked by Heaven.”

“I love the Great Sage so much too, he’s the coolest protagonist I’ve ever seen!”

Seeing their classmates chatting with such fervid enthusiasm, students who hadn’t played the game couldn’t join the conversation at all, feeling completely out of the loop. Consequently, the moment they returned home, they begged their parents to download the game for them.

Monday evening, game downloads experienced yet another explosive spike.

The data department manager at Mobile Home hurriedly called Qin Fang: “President Qin, Journey to the West‘s downloads on Monday were actually higher than on Sunday! I’ve never seen a data trajectory like this!”

For most games, weekends were peak traffic periods, followed by a natural decline on Monday. Journey to the West was defying all norms—how could Monday’s download figures surpass Sunday’s?

The data director’s voice trembled with excitement: “Downloads on our platform alone have breached eight million! Adding the numbers from Yangfan Studio’s official website, it’s definitely crossed ten million!”

Over ten million in three days… this was unmistakably the trajectory of a mega-blockbuster!

Qin Fang analyzed: “Could it be that returning to school caused it to ferment and spread through the student demographic? Coupled with the high-ranking trending topics that held strong all last night, it must have pulled in a massive wave of casual gamers.”

Student groups were highly prone to the “clustering effect.”

In a class of dozens of kids, if a handful played Journey to the West over the weekend while the rest hadn’t, hearing their peers buzz about it enthusiastically at school would drive them to go home and download it out of sheer curiosity.

This kind of organic word-of-mouth was infinitely more potent than any paid advertisement.

Mobile Home had hosted student-friendly games before—such as Tower of Dreams and Pet Paradise—yet none had ever displayed such terrifying data growth.

Reflecting carefully, Qin Fang concluded: “Xie Yunfan’s cliffhanger placement is simply ingenious!”

Launching on Saturday, most players would reach Stage 7 over the course of two days.

The gameplay across the first seven stages was varied and engaging, and the story was thrilling and vivid. From the information Qin Fang gathered, the conclusion of Stage 7 cut off precisely at the pivotal climax where the protagonist, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, was pinned beneath the Five Elements Mountain.

How could players possibly let that go?!

Heading back to school or work the next day, they would naturally proselytize it to their classmates and colleagues.

One person’s recommendation might be modest, but when every single player was recommending it to everyone in their orbit, it formed an unstoppable avalanche of organic word-of-mouth.

A sincere recommendation from someone close was more effective than buying a hundred trending hashtags.

No wonder Xie Yunfan dared to pull off such a bold shadow drop!

This game had zero fear of lacking marketing—every single player served as the finest organic promotional ambassador.

Qin Fang marveled, “That guy Xie Yunfan is an absolute genius! The breakout success of Underworld Maze was no fluke; he truly knows how to seize players’ emotions.”

Underworld Maze broke out by torturing streamers, prompting players who didn’t want to suffer alone to aggressively push it to their friends.

Journey to the West, on the other hand, relied on players’ genuine adoration for the Great Sage and their burning anticipation for the plot—binge-watching a story alone was boring, so why not drag everyone in to binge it together?

As long as players had high expectations, the upcoming chapters would never lack hype.

Qin Fang immediately sent a message to Xie Yunfan: “LittleSailboat, your new game broke ten million downloads in just three days, and the word-of-mouth is stellar. You’re heading for another massive hit! Can your production capacity keep up for subsequent chapters?”

He worried that if Yangfan Studio developed games too slowly and the hiatus lasted too long, players’ enthusiasm would wane, causing this serialized storytelling approach to backfire.

Xie Yunfan replied: “Rest assured, President Qin. Chapter Two is currently in closed beta testing. Barring any surprises, it will go live in early July.”

Reassured, Qin Fang sent back a thumbs-up emoji.

A chief producer needed to maintain strict control over development pacing, and Xie Yunfan had managed the tempo masterfully. Just as Chapter One released, Chapter Two was already finished. It seemed he had prepared well in advance!

…

Monday evening, Yangfan Studio posted an announcement.

This notice was simultaneously synchronized to Mobile Home and the download portal on the official website:

“Thank you to all players for supporting Journey to the West. Chapter Two is currently in urgent production by the studio and will launch in early July. Please stay tuned ^^”

Early July? That meant waiting about ten more days…

What an agonizing wait!