Chapter 69: All In Vain!

Pei Qian’s eyes scanned through every single word in the second half of the report.

Once he finished reading, Pei Qian blinked rather slowly. He looked out of the window and then carefully read the report again from cover to cover.

According to the report, all of this was… Lin Wan’s fault!

It looked like Huang Sibo could not escape liability as well!

However, it was hard to say which one of them should be blamed.

Huang Sibo had no plans to market or publicize Ocean Stronghold. He only thought that since Ocean Stronghold was published, he had to quickly plan the next phase of researching and developing. That was why he got a few lab-rat gamers to test the game out; he wanted to gather their feedback.

In the end, because there were far too few gamers on Ocean Stronghold, Huang Sibo had no choice but to ask a member of the design team to help.

As for Lin Wan, she just happened to be put in charge of a few influential FPS gamers back when she worked for Sun Strike Studios!

Thus, Lin Wan introduced Ocean Stronghold to those people and asked them to give it a try. Due to its excellent gaming quality, Ocean Stronghold became extremely popular among these groups of people. Its story mode, in particular, garnered high praise!

Chen Sha and the others quickly came to appreciate what they found repulsive previously, too. For the 888-yuan Red Kilin, they began to introduce the game to others!

In the beginning, Chen Sha really could not be bothered by the Red Kilin. He thought that it was an unnecessary accessory that would only catch ballers’ eyes. He was an elite gamer who played full-time; he had no need for it at all.

However, once he got it, he realized what he had been missing the entire time! It was a unique weapon; this had nothing to do with stats and everything to do with pride! There were so many people in a single room. The moment he whipped his Red Kilin out, many people surrounded him and worshiped him!

What’s more, the Red Kilin could help the people around him gain experience. That was why people with Red Kilins were especially popular!

Once Chen Sha got hold of the Red Kilin, he basically became the center of attention no matter where he went. This feeling… really seemed to be growing on him!

What’s more, in order to obtain a Red Kilin for themselves, people continued to introduce the game to more people. Without planning for it, they caused a huge inflow of people to Ocean Stronghold. Very quickly, news of Ocean Stronghold spread across various FPS gaming groups, winning over its first batch of veteran gamers!

Later on, Ocean Stronghold’s numbers rose very quickly in a short period. This encouraged official games platforms to recommend it as well.

However, these alone could not have made Ocean Stronghold this popular.

Coincidentally, Bullet Hole was released at the same time!

Once it was released, Bullet Hole spent buckets of money on publicity. It used all kinds of marketing techniques, giving many video creators jobs. As a result, Bullet Hole barged into the lives of many ordinary gamers.

Ordinarily, after a batch tried out Bullet Hole, a portion would leave and a portion would stay. However, a good number of people who had already tried Ocean Stronghold found that Bullet Hole was as good as trash!

Why was the hand sensitivity so rubbish?!

Why was there no variety in PvP mode?!

Why was there no story mode?!

The fees Bullet Hole was charging was so much more than Ocean Stronghold! What’s more, even if they spent money in Bullet Hole, they could not get weapons as cool as the Red Kilin! Bullet Hole was very realistic. A few expensive weapons only served to modify the game very slightly. They were a far cry from the Red Kilin, which was an extremely special weapon.

Thus, many people purposely went to the comments section of Bullet Hole to leave their feedback:

“Rubbish game, absolutely beaten by Ocean Stronghold!”

“The glory of domestically-produced FPS games? I’m sorry, this title seems to belong to Ocean Stronghold!”

“This game has too many paywalls, and it looks so ugly. It should take a page out of Ocean Stronghold’s book.”

Comments like that filled the comments section of Bullet Hole. Some were genuine and from the heart, and others were merely trolls.

After all, this world was missing a lot of things but people who had nothing better to do.

At first, there were not many of such comments.

However, how could the Bullet Hole players take things lying down? Of course, they had to put up a fight! Both sides were diametrically opposed, confronting one another aggressively, quoting and citing sources, and cursing their hearts out…

In summary, the more people praised or insulted the game, the more commotion it created and the more people joined!

Many players had begun by merely observing the argument. However, on seeing that neither side was making a breakthrough, they could not stop themselves from joining in. As a result, everything spiraled out of control.

Many gamers who had been attracted by Bullet Hole’s advertisements also tried Ocean Stronghold out of curiosity. Immediately, they found that they could not turn back.

Both of these games were not even in the same league!

The plot was amazing, the hand sensitivity was amazing, and Ocean Stronghold was free-of-charge! It was so much better than Bullet Hole!

Thus, Bullet Hole became somewhat of a pit stop. Even the gamers whom they attracted through their publicity jumped over to Ocean Stronghold. After this series of events, the data for Ocean Stronghold went through the roof!

Not only were people who loved FPS games coming in waves, but even people who never played FPS games in their lives were trying it out!

Strictly speaking, Counter Strike was still going strong. There were still many veteran players remaining loyal to it. However, just the wave of new gamers alone made Ocean Stronghold a truckload of profit!

This was only the beginning.

Counter Strike was good, but at the end of the day, it was a standalone game. Friends could not play alongside each other.

Ocean Stronghold was an online game, and it was highly entertaining. In the long-term, it was bound to buy over even loyal gamers of Counter Strike!

Apart from the Red Kilin, Ocean Stronghold was practically free-of-charge. As Ocean Stronghold continued to win over gamers from the other games, its future success would be unimaginable!

…

Pei Qian felt paralyzed.

Is this a joke that destiny is playing on me?!

How could such a thing happen?!

He had never thought that Lin Wan—who looked every bit like a good-for-nothing—would be capable of something like that.

Of course, strictly speaking, this was not all to her credit. She had only become acquainted with a few owners of FPS gaming groups because of her previous job. These few owners just happened to be influential gamers in the FPS gaming community.

What’s more, all of these people only became acquainted because they were working on Bullet Hole together at Sun Strike Studios.

In the end, the spark caused by this same group of people to light the hay—that was Bullet Hole—on fire burned down the entire forest!

Pei Qian, who wanted to analyze the reasons behind this failure, suddenly felt confused.

Who was to blame?

Huang Sibo or Bao Xu?

They created this game just as I instructed them…

Lin Wan?

She was looking for a few lab rats to test out the game, just as Huang Sibo instructed her…

Sun Strike Studios and Bullet Hole, on the other hand, did help considerably. On one hand, they gathered so many leading FPS gamers together. On the other hand, their crazy marketing strategies indirectly publicized Ocean Stronghold, too.

However… it seemed to be my decision to allow Ocean Stronghold to be published at the same time as Bullet Hole…

Could it be… that I am to blame?

Something is wrong…

Pei Qian could not help but become deeply suspicious of himself.

He felt like the trophy had almost reached his hands, but it was snatched away at the last second.

His heart turned cold.

Three months, all in vain!

“Calm down! I have to save myself!”