OGP CH71
On Monday morning, the market manager Song Qian brought the first batch of merchandise designs to Xie Yunfan’s office for review.
The game his former company had worked on was not successful, and its merchandise sales were very poor. But Xie Yunfan had carefully investigated him and found that the merchandise Song Qian had made was very well received by players, with designs that were fresh and distinctive.
The reason Xie Yunfan had hired Song Qian at a high salary was precisely because he valued his market sense and merchandise development ability.
As it turned out, his judgment was right — Song Qian did not disappoint him.
The game was still in its serialization period, with several months left to go, making this the best time to release merchandise and expand influence.
After looking over the designs, Xie Yunfan praised them: “These designs are good. We can send them to a factory for samples.”
When Song Qian came into the office, he was very nervous. In the past, his proposals were often rejected by bosses, and he was used to revising them repeatedly. He had not expected Xie Yunfan to be so decisive and approve them immediately.
Trying to hide his excitement, Song Qian asked, “Boss, no revisions at all?”
Xie Yunfan said, “No need. I think they’re good.”
The first batch of merchandise included frosted card sleeves and hollow metal bookmarks.
The frosted card sleeves were practical — for student IDs, transit cards, national IDs, and other cards. The series included individual illustrations of Sun Wukong, Tang Seng, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Seng, plus a group illustration of the whole pilgrimage team, for a total of five designs.
The characters on the card sleeves all used the game’s original art, with unique backgrounds added: Sun Wukong in Flower-Fruit Mountain, Bajie in Gao Village, Sha Seng in the Flowing Sand River, Tang Seng in Chang’an City, and the group illustration placing the pilgrimage team in the center of the Wuzhuang Temple formation. The designs were very refined.
The hollow metal bookmarks came in a set of four, made of matte metal, giving them a premium feel.
Song Qian said, “I’ll contact the factory right away to make samples, and if they pass, we’ll start mass production.”
Xie Yunfan nodded and asked, “How is the stationery collaboration going?”
Song Qian replied, “We first contacted Xinxin Stationery. It’s one of the biggest stationery manufacturers in the country, but they only offered 500,000 yuan for the licensing fee and wanted 70% of the profits. We couldn’t reach an agreement.”
Xie Yunfan asked, “Is it because domestic stationery makers have never done game IP collaborations before, so they don’t have much confidence in the market?”
Song Qian said, “Yes. They think stationery based on a game collaboration might not sell.”
There really were not many domestic games doing collaboration merchandise.
Big hits like Wilderness Survival and Monster Paradise made their own gun models and animal plushies to sell in official stores.
The advantage of collaborations was, first, offline promotion through physical stores, which could expand the user base. Second, Yafan Studio would not have to handle production itself — the specialized work could be left to specialized manufacturers, saving time and effort.
Xie Yunfan said, “If Xinxin Stationery won’t agree, then find another manufacturer. I don’t believe all domestic stationery companies are that short-sighted and unwilling to do game IP collaborations.”
The factories might have thought it was too much trouble. Printing a Sun Wukong portrait on a plastic ruler meant opening a new mold, and if it didn’t sell, it would be a hassle and not worth the risk.
Those factories usually didn’t play games and had never worked with a game planning team, so they had no real understanding of Journey to the West’s popularity. Naturally, they weren’t willing to be the first to “test the waters.”
Xie Xinghe said decisively, “If Xinxin Stationery won’t work, I’ll look elsewhere. There are only a few major stationery manufacturers in the country, and I’ll definitely find one willing to cooperate.”
Xie Yunfan looked at his brother. “Then I’ll leave it to you. It would be best to have results by early September.”
Xie Xinghe said, “Don’t worry!”
After the two left the office, network manager Yu Baichuan also knocked and came in.
“Boss, the final internal test version of the official store is done. Do you want to take a look?”
He opened an internal website on his laptop in front of Xie Yunfan.
The merchandise store interface was clean and simple. A prominent banner sat at the top, and any new merchandise could be displayed there with promotional posters.
Below that was the product list, with filtering options such as “sort by sales” and “sort by release date.” In the upper-right corner were search functions by category and by game, making it very comprehensive.
Xie Yunfan said, “Add a direct customer-service button under each item, and also add a message board on the homepage. Let players leave suggestions for the kinds of merchandise they want.”
Yu Baichuan replied, “Got it. I’ll finish the revisions in three days.”
Everything was moving in an orderly manner.
Xie Yunfan called HR manager Liu Muyao and asked her to quickly hire some experienced customer-service staff.
Since they planned to run their own merchandise store, the official customer service had to be responsive. If replies were too slow or the staff spoke improperly and offended customers, it would hurt the merchandise’s reputation too.
Liu Muyao worked efficiently and quickly hired a few customer-service employees, forming a team that temporarily shared office space with the marketing department.
Xie Xinghe took Song Qian to the capital and contacted a well-known local stationery manufacturer, but the profit split could not be agreed upon. The next day, they went to Shanghai to talk to another factory.
Liu Guang Stationery was much smaller in market share than the first two, but its quality was very good, especially its signature pens and ballpoint pens, which were stylish and colorful and very popular with students.
The boss, Liu, was in his thirties and had never done an IP collaboration before. When Xie Xinghe came to him, he was quite surprised.
But after detailed discussion, Liu felt it was worth trying.
He was willing to take the first step and become the first to “eat the crab.”
If a game IP collaboration sold well, it could boost his stationery brand. If it didn’t, it would just be an unsuccessful attempt. Since they would start small, they wouldn’t lose much inventory.
The licensing fee was 1 million yuan, and the stationery company would take 60% of sales profit, since they had to handle production, shipping, and offline promotion, all of which cost money. The license term was three years.
Xie Xinghe thought the terms were acceptable and signed the contract on the spot.
Song Qian handed over the materials he had brought, asking them to quickly draft the designs.
A week later, the factory’s design drafts were ready.
The first batch of stationery included ruler sets, diary notebooks, and the most widely used gel pens, with many colors and styles.
Song Qian repeatedly confirmed the plans with them and selected the best-looking ones for sampling.
After the samples came out, even Xie Yunfan thought they were very good.
In mid-September, the merchandise preparations were complete, and the game was ready for its next update.
On another Friday, Yafan Studio posted an official Weibo update:
“Dear players, thank you for waiting!
The sixth chapter of the mobile game Journey to the West will officially open for download at 7:00 p.m. on September 15.
This chapter’s story is very exciting, and the gameplay is also very rich. We hope everyone enjoys it~”
On September 15, Chapter Six updated on schedule.
Countless players who had been waiting rushed into Mobile Game House to download it immediately.
Over these past months, Journey to the West’s reputation had only improved, and players were already used to “following the story” inside the game.
Some even said, “Luckily Yafan Studio’s Journey to the West has been serializing all this time. Every two weeks we get something new to play, or else we’d be bored to death.”
Other companies’ games were too monotonous, just full of idle grinding and boring daily tasks. Yafan Studio’s game was full of creativity, and every update brought surprises.
Mengtu was already sitting in front of her camera when the update went live. She downloaded it first thing and excitedly said, “Family, Journey to the West has updated! Tonight we’re grinding late. What kind of bosses will we encounter this time? Guess how long it’ll take me to clear the first boss!”
The chat immediately got involved.
【I guess 1 hour.】
【I think 2 hours is more realistic for Mengtu’s skill.】
【You’re underestimating her — I bet half an hour.】
Mengtu directly started a guessing giveaway and said, “Let’s do a giveaway. Whoever guesses correctly will split 666 yuan in cash!”
There were four options: half an hour, one hour, two hours, or not cleared tonight.
Based on the votes, the most people thought she’d clear the boss in one hour. After all, in previous stages, even difficult bosses often took around an hour to open up properly.
Mengtu rubbed her hands together and started playing.
The sixth chapter opened with the master and disciples arriving at a high mountain, where they encountered some bandits robbing travelers.
Mengtu entered battle and had Bajie pull aggro. Sun Wukong took only two or three strikes to kill the bandit leader, and the rest of the bandits immediately scattered.
Mengtu smiled. “Monkey cleans up the small mobs really fast. Let’s keep going.”
Because Sun Wukong had killed the bandit leader, Tang Seng lectured him again, saying that he shouldn’t kill people and should just drive them off. Only after Wukong admitted fault did Tang Seng stop.
The master and disciples then arrived at the home of a man named Yang to stay the night. Coincidentally, Yang’s son was one of the bandits and recognized Sun Wukong, so he imprisoned the whole group.
That night, Old Yang secretly released them. Halfway down the road, they were caught by the son and his men, and Sun Wukong killed the son in anger too.
Tang Seng exploded. “You wicked monkey, you have no mercy at all! You already killed some bandits earlier. The Yang family let us stay, gave us food, and even let us go. Now you killed their son — who will support them in their old age?”
Sun Wukong argued back, “That unfilial brat robbed people everywhere and even beat his parents. If I don’t kill him, he’ll kill you!”
Tang Seng started chanting the Tightening Spell again.
The players were speechless.
【Here we go again!】
【This master is helpless when dealing with bandits. He only knows how to bully Wukong】
【Sigh, he kicked my Monkey out again】
Mengtu was getting irritated watching the story.
Luckily, this time Tang Seng didn’t chant for too long. Sun Wukong directly went on strike and ran to South Lake to complain to Guanyin.
A moment later, the scene shifted. Tang Seng, along with Bajie and Sha Seng, continued onward.
Bajie and Sha Seng went to fetch water for him. Suddenly, Sun Wukong jumped out and said with a smile, “Master, thirsty? Without old Sun, you can’t even drink a sip of water, let alone seek the scriptures.”
Tang Seng turned around coldly and said, “Whether I can seek the scriptures or not has nothing to do with you.”
Sun Wukong’s expression changed. He raised his staff and smashed Tang Seng on the back of the head: “You nagging bald monk, you only know how to bully old Sun!”
The players were all stunned.
【…】
【What the heck?】
【Monkey just knocked out the master with one blow?】
【That’s not like Monkey’s personality at all — did they write him out of character?】
Mengtu was so shocked that the banana she was eating snapped and fell to the floor.
She looked confused and said, “Even though Tang Seng is annoying, my Monkey wouldn’t hit the master, right? If he were this violent, Tang Seng would have been killed in the White Bone Demon stage already!”
A lot of players were confused.
Had the writing gone wrong?
Mengtu kept watching. After Bajie and Sha Seng came back, they found the master lying on the ground, their luggage gone. When they woke Tang Seng up and asked what happened, he cried and said it was Wukong who hit him.
Bajie and Sha Seng looked at each other.
Sha Seng was angry and went to Flower-Fruit Mountain to find Sun Wukong, only to get beaten badly. He had no choice but to seek help from Guanyin in the South Sea, and there he unexpectedly saw Sun Wukong again.
Sun Wukong greeted him cheerfully. “Sha junior brother!”
Sha Seng’s face darkened. “You rebellious criminal, you hurt the master and still have the nerve to greet me?”
Sun Wukong looked blank. “What? I’ve been here with Guanyin all along.”
Guanyin also came out to testify that after Tang Seng drove him away, Wukong had come here to complain and had never left.
Sha Seng asked suspiciously, “Then who was the Sun Wukong at Flower-Fruit Mountain?”
Sun Wukong flew into a rage. “Which demon dared impersonate old Sun?!”
The players finally understood.
【Phew, Monkey’s character isn’t broken】
【So that was a fake Monkey?】
【So this is the Tricky Monkey King storyline?】
Mengtu breathed a sigh of relief. “Good, good. This game is so fun — it’d be a shame if the story got ruined. Let’s go back to Flower-Fruit Mountain and see the fake Wukong!”
After returning to Flower-Fruit Mountain, they really did find another monkey that looked exactly like Sun Wukong, sitting there as Monkey King.
The little monkeys were all confused.
The fake king jumped over to Sun Wukong and falsely accused him: “Bold demon, how dare you pretend to be your grandpa Sun!”
Sun Wukong was furious. “You demon, take my staff!”
The two monkeys started fighting.
Mengtu got excited. “Damn, this is awesome. The first boss of this stage is the fake Monkey King! Our Monkey has to solo him.”
There had already been plenty of solo stages with Sun Wukong along the way.
Mengtu looked through her backpack, saw that she had 100 coral-grass healing items, and said proudly, “Good thing I prepared. I’ll use all this healing. So, 60% of you guessed one hour? I’ll try to clear it within an hour!”
She controlled Sun Wukong and went in with a staff strike.
But the next moment, the boss struck back with exactly the same move.
The real Monkey took off 20,000 HP from the fake Monkey, and the fake Monkey also took off 20,000 HP from the real Monkey.
Their HP and attack values were identical.
Mengtu: “???”
She tried a group attack skill next.
The Ruyi Jingu Staff’s group mode dealt less damage, with an area strike of 10,000 HP.
But as soon as Mengtu used it, the boss instantly used the same attack.
Mengtu: “…Is he copying me?”
To test it, she said, “I’ll use Seventy-Two Transformations and become a fish to go into the water!”
She controlled Wukong to transform into a fish and jump into the water. The boss also copied it and became a fish.
Mengtu turned into a bird and flew out. The boss immediately flew out too.
The viewers were stunned by this boss’s intelligence.
【666! A mimic-type boss】
【This AI basically copies the player’s actions directly】
【Damn, so this is an AI version of the fake Monkey King】
【You hit him once and he hits you once. That’s hard to beat】
Mengtu guessed, “If we don’t attack him, maybe he won’t attack us either? That would actually be fine — if both sides are low HP, we could just strike once and kill him before he can hit back, right?”
She was wrong.
If the player didn’t attack the boss, the boss wouldn’t just sit still — it would attack first.
In other words, if you attacked him, he immediately copied the skill and hit you back.
If you didn’t attack him, he still attacked you.
And on top of that, the thing copied Sun Wukong’s stats.
Its attack speed was insane, and its damage was huge.
Mengtu got one-shot in less than half a minute.
She clambered back up and tried again. This time she still couldn’t last a minute before getting comboed to death.
She exclaimed, “My god, this boss replicated the Great Sage’s stats and skills — is this the Great Sage’s real damage? Combo plus crit, that’s ridiculous!”
“The Monkey I usually play is way too weak.”
“This AI not only has huge damage, but it’s super smart too…”
“Yeah, I think I might not clear it in one hour.”
Besides Mengtu, Liu-ge in the neighboring stream was also killed three times by the fake Great Sage and collapsed onto the ground helplessly.
The bullet chat was flooded with white text.
【How is this even beatable?】
【Player-controlled Monkey King versus system-AI Monkey King — is there even a chance?】
【This is the first time I’ve really felt how terrifying the Great Sage is】
【I’ve never dealt this kind of damage myself】
【This is the Great Sage’s true damage】
【No wonder it’s hard — humans just can’t match the system’s reaction speed】
Countless streamers were stuck on this stage.
If they attacked him, he attacked them; if they didn’t attack him, he still attacked them.
If they used healing items, he used healing items too.
This kind of intelligent boss was pure cheating.
At 2 a.m., after being killed by the Great Sage again, Mengtu bitterly said, “Family, I admit defeat. I can’t clear it. The people who chose the last option in the giveaway can be entered into the prize draw — I’ll try again tomorrow.”
Liu-ge next door said, “I’ll try a few more times. If I still can’t beat it by 3 a.m., I’m sleeping first…”
And at that moment, discussions about the fake Monkey King once again rose to the top of Weibo’s trending list.
As soon as the update went live, countless streamers and players had spent several hours opening the stage, but no one had cleared challenge mode. Some people were so frustrated that they lowered the difficulty and switched to Normal Mode just to watch the story.
The next morning, a strategy guide suddenly appeared in the topic area.
“The fake Monkey King copies everything the player does. To beat this boss, you need a bit of strategy and make good use of Seventy-Two Transformations.
The cooldown on Seventy-Two Transformations in this stage is very short. Transform first, let him follow you, and then once the skill cooldown ends, revert back to Monkey for a quick strike. Immediately transform again.
At that instant, when he wants to copy your move, it will be too late for him to hit you — he can only follow your transformation.
Your timing has to be extremely fast. You need to catch that 0.5-second AI reaction delay and ambush him. You also need to dodge carefully when he attacks normally.
Only then is it possible to clear the Tricky Monkey King trial.”
Players: “……..”
The person who posted the guide was the Weibo account Purple Cauliflower, with a million followers.
Post time: 7 a.m.
【Didn’t Purple Cauliflower stay up all night?】
【A strategy guide this early in the morning — did he study all night?】
【He cleared it overnight? Amazing】
【If you have bad hands, just go play Easy Mode and watch the story. The fake Monkey King story is great】
Purple Cauliflower rubbed his aching temples.
Pulling an all-nighter to beat a boss? That was something he used to do when he was in college. He hadn’t gone that crazy in a long time. Journey to the West had some strange kind of magic.
He replied in the comments:
“This boss design is really interesting. It 100% copies the player’s actions, and the AI is very intelligent. It’s also, in my opinion, the hardest boss so far.”
He then added another comment:
“But I think there will be even harder bosses later. I trust Little Sailboat’s innovation ability.”
He was right.
Chapter Six’s difficulty stepped up dramatically.
Not only was the fake Monkey King, played by the Six-Eared Macaque, extremely hard, but Bull Demon King and Iron Fan Princess in Fire Mountain were also very difficult. And the final boss, Nine-Headed Insect, was terrifying. Sun Wukong couldn’t handle it, so he went to Heaven again for reinforcements and even brought in Yang Jian, the Erlang God.
Assist Mode was unlocked again.
Players had previously controlled Nezha, and now they could actually control Yang Jian. The battle where Sun Wukong and Yang Jian fought together was extremely satisfying.
Discussion about boss fights kept appearing on the trending boards, and strategy threads on the forums kept coming out.
Players who liked the story also began analyzing it. After the fake Monkey King stage, Tang Seng’s attitude toward Sun Wukong had clearly improved. After the Nine-Headed Insect battle, Sun Wukong and Yang Jian’s relationship had also improved.
When Sun Wukong caused havoc in Heaven, he had fought Nezha and been captured by Yang Jian. But as the pilgrimage continued, everyone in Heaven ended up helping Sun Wukong?
People always say the demons have powerful backers — but our Great Sage’s backing was truly something else.
The happy weekend ended, and players reluctantly closed the game.
On Sunday night, Yafan Studio’s official Weibo posted an announcement:
“Hello everyone. Since Journey to the West has been serializing for several months, we’ve seen many players discussing the story and gameplay very enthusiastically. Thank you very much for your support.
After a period of careful preparation, Yafan Studio has designed a few merchandise products. Our merchandise store will officially launch at 12 noon on Wednesday, September 20. Link below.
The first official merchandise items include the pilgrimage squad’s frosted card sleeves and hollow metal collector bookmarks.
At the same time, Yafan Studio and Liu Guang Stationery’s Journey to the West collaboration stationery series will also go on sale next Wednesday in stationery stores nationwide and on the official Liu Guang Stationery Tmall store.
Please buy according to your needs~”
The Weibo post also included several promotional posters, with sample photos of the card sleeves, bookmarks, and stationery, all beautifully designed.
When players saw the news, they got very excited.
【Wow, our Great Sage has merchandise now?】
【This set of metal bookmarks looks really exquisite】
【I hope it’s not just photo editing. If the quality is good when it arrives, I’ll buy several sets for friends】
【Looks pretty nice. I’m going all in first!】
Looking at the comments under the official post, Song Qian felt very nervous.
He had put a lot of thought into this merchandise design and had revised and sampled it repeatedly. He hoped players would not be disappointed when they got it.
He just hoped sales would be good… at least enough not to waste the boss’s trust in him.
On Wednesday, during the noon school dismissal hour, lines suddenly formed outside stationery stores across the country.
Many store owners were shocked.
A huge crowd of students stood at the door shouting, “I want the Great Sage notebook.”
“Give me a set of Journey to the West collaboration rulers.”
“Give me four pens from the pilgrimage squad — one black, one red, one blue, and one green.”
“Boss, give me ten Great Sage notebooks. I’m buying for my classmates.”
The boss said, “Ten? Sorry, we’re out of stock already. I’ll go restock right away!”
The dramatic scene of elementary and middle school students lining up outside stationery stores was photographed and posted online.
Many passersby were stunned.
“What’s going on? Do elementary school kids have to queue just to buy stationery now?”
“I saw some high school students lining up too.”
“I heard a game released collaboration stationery. I think it was called Journey to the West.”
“Collaboration stationery is that popular?”
The passersby couldn’t understand it.
Students were fighting over the Great Sage notebooks. Those who got them were proudly showing them off, while those who didn’t hurried to place pre-orders and asked the store to restock.
Some college students were too embarrassed to line up at stationery stores, so they chose to order online instead.
But the official Liu Guang Stationery store replied:
“Sorry, the online warehouse is out of stock too.”
How could everything be out of stock everywhere?
Yafan Studio’s own official store was also booming.
Song Qian had the foresight to use the strategy of “release stock when available, open preorders when not.”
The first batch of 10,000 units sold out instantly!
Almost as soon as the official store opened at noon, the product status changed to Sold Out within seconds.
Song Qian thought the website had bugged out and ran to ask the network team.
Yu Baichuan said, “No bug. The backend shows over 8,000 orders already — some players bought five or six sets at once. It’s sold out. Hey, Lao Song, didn’t your marketing team prepare too few units?”
Song Qian: “…”
Oh my god. At his previous company, 2,000 pieces of merchandise had taken a whole month and still hadn’t sold out.
He hadn’t expected 10,000 units this time to sell out instantly.
Fortunately, the second batch of preorders was already arranged with the factory, and production capacity could keep up at any time.
Song Qian stared excitedly at the official store, constantly refreshing the page.
By Wednesday night, Yafan Studio’s official merchandise had sold 200,000 sets, with sales exceeding 10 million yuan, and the number kept rising. Customer service was almost overwhelmed.
The stationery sold very well too.
Xie Xinghe got a call from the stationery factory boss Liu, whose voice was trembling with excitement.
“Mr. Xie, I’ve received restocking requests from stationery distributors across the country. Even in small counties, the Journey to the West collaboration stationery has been snapped up by students! I never expected a collaboration to sell this well. The first batch of over 100,000 sets sold out instantly!”
Xie Xinghe said proudly, “That’s right. The popularity of this game exceeded our expectations too.”
Who told him his younger brother was so powerful? Every game he made became a hit.
Merchandise sales had already broken ten million, which was even higher than many games’ monthly revenue.
Xie Xinghe told the good news to his younger brother.
Xie Yunfan smiled and said, “Brother, don’t rush. The merchandise market has only just opened. When the game finishes and the Great Sage figure comes out, it might break domestic figure sales records.”
Xie Xinghe: “…”
Looks like Yafan Studio’s marketing department was about to take off too.