I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!

Chapter 39: Chapter 19: When Configurations Aren’t Enough, Bring in Reinforcements!_1 Chapter 39: Chapter 19: When Configurations Aren’t Enough, Bring in Reinforcements!_1 Good news, despite it being the middle of the night, Mr. Ke had still answered the phone.

Bad news, just as I had reported our impressive performance, the other side suddenly let out a loud ‘awoo’ and then went silent.

I also heard the sound of a phone being heavily smashed against the floor.

“Manager… Did Mr. Ke pass out from happiness?” This incident completely baffled the subordinate who hadn’t seen much of the world.

Huang Chun, who hadn’t seen much more himself, stroked his chin and pondered for a while before he said.

“No worries, young man, just sleep on it.”

————

The next day, for the entire morning.

Ke Jin was in his room going ‘thwack thwack thwack.’

He had printed the work photos of the general managers from WWgame and Cloudgame, piled them up, and pinned them onto the dartboard hanging on the wall inside the room.

So you’re the motherfucker named Liu Tianding, right!

I bet you’ve never seen Feishehui before!

Thwack! A dart zipped through the air, carrying the thrower’s rage, and plunged deeply into the dartboard.

So you’re the motherfucker named Huang Chun, right!

Thwack!

Another dart flew across.

You pair of young prodigies, I damn well thank you a lot!

Thwack!

With your understanding, you could start as a department head just by taking the public exams, slumming it in the gaming industry is truly beneath you.

Thwack!

After firing seven or eight darts in one go, Ke Jin took a careful look.

Fuck, still can’t hit the bullseye!

His aim was just a bit off, the two photos were plastered on the 10-ring bullseye, but his darts were evenly distributed within the second and third rings, encircling the photos like stars around the moon.

Looking at his bank account, which had just gained an additional sum of nearly 200,000 yuan.

Ke Jin didn’t know whether to cry or laugh.

A limit of 50,000, and in less than two days’ time, he had played his way to four times the leverage!

The ultimate task, of course, failed.

Only when he received the call from Cloudgame did Ke Jin learn what had happened.

Dammit, they’re all so considerate of me, I’m utterly disgusted!

What he thought was a perfect, foolproof plan had been upended by external forces.

Ke Jin even suspected that maybe he just wasn’t cut out to be the lead decision-maker.

Three games, three whole games!

The first one still had some old Earth-era notions, thinking that as long as the fee was outrageous, no one would buy in. Then he was harshly educated by the Blue Star players with their actions.

By the second one, he employed a tiered system to reduce rewards psychologically, yet it still got cracked.

The third one was dropped to the lowest possible spending limit.

Yet with this measly one yuan minimum spending, players somehow managed to charge 280,000 yuan…

Absolutely outrageous!

You guys have eaten me alive!

“I think, is there a possibility… that it’s not a problem with the decisions, but with me?” Once calm again, Ke Jin started to carefully contemplate his next move.

Perhaps it was just that he wasn’t suited for the position of game planning.

Would things have been different if someone else had been in charge of designing the in-game spending and charging structure?

“But then… who should I look for?” Ke Jin pondered in his heart.

Look for my little sister?

No, that won’t work, although she seems like a simpleton.

But that’s only because of how I’ve interacted with her every single day for over a decade.

I’m used to her lifestyle, aware of her weaknesses and loopholes.

So I often attack her from her weak points, easily grasping her vulnerabilities.

Which is why she seems to be a simpleton, becoming my plaything.

But in the eyes of outsiders, Ke Yu is seen as a talented, sweet, and charming young beauty with impeccable manners. During her school days, the line of male students chasing after her could stretch from the classroom to the school gate, some of whom were tall, handsome, and talented, yet she didn’t spare any of them a glance.

It’s safe to say she’s definitely not stupid.

If she were to take up the role of planner for my upcoming game company.

It might very well cause the company to soar to new heights.

pass

Then… Wen Zhiyin?

Even though he only met that older sister once, Ke Jin had quite a good impression of her gentle demeanor during her professional lesson.

Despite the dark side that people don’t know about.

But who doesn’t have some peculiar quirks?

It wouldn’t be right to deny all her abilities just because of that.

However, upon rational analysis.

Wen Zhiyin was more suited to be a game consultant, capable of helping the company analyze future development directions from the perspective of an outsider or a player.

It wasn’t fitting for her to be a planner, either.

Then, that left only his “godsons” from college, who had lived under the same roof as him.

But after some thought, Ke Jin shook his head.

Due to dormitory allocation issues in school, among the four people in their dorm, only Ke Jin was majoring in game design; the majors of the other three weren’t relevant at all.

Plus, those three little rascals were too clever by half, and Ke Jin wasn’t too comfortable letting them helm his game.

He was afraid they would make it too big and too strong.

“Looks like I can only rely on the system to recommend someone for me,” Ke Jin remembered the new ability he had gained just last week.

Assistant recruitment guide.

It allowed him to search for suitable assistants within a certain range to help him make games.

Of course, the word “suitable” was in single quotes in the system.

Last week, he didn’t know how to use it and, after a misguided attempt, he ended up recruiting Ke Yu, wasting one opportunity in the process.

But now a week had passed, and the search ability had refreshed.

“Might as well try it out in a crowded place,” Ke Jin had just made up his mind when suddenly,

his phone began to ring.

He pulled it out to see that it was an unfamiliar number.

“Hello?”

“Good day, may I speak with Designer Ke?”

“Uh, who is this?”

“Oh, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Xu Kun, the general manager of Tiansheng Game Technology Limited Company. I’ve seen Designer Ke’s fame on the internet these past few days and am very interested in the games you’ve designed. May I ask if Designer Ke is currently creating games independently? Would you have any interest in joining a mature and systematic gaming company to open up a new avenue in the game industry? Here’s what, Mr. Ke, don’t be in a rush to decline. I cordially invite you to visit our office location. Our company currently boasts a very comfortable working environment, and I can assure you that our salary and benefits are top-notch in the industry.”

The other party’s intention to invite him was clear, and Ke Jin knew that Tiansheng Game Company was,

according to his understanding, a subsidiary of one of the domestic gaming giants, Tengjing Game.

Currently, of the top 100 popular games in the country, they owned five.

Their flagship title “Crossing the Century” combined audio-novels, card drawing, and light action gameplay. Currently, it ranked 68th on the national hot games list with a staggering daily turnover around 50 million. (Note: To prevent readers from skipping over and criticizing, let’s clarify that the consumption mindset in this world is different; players are more willing to spend money on games. As a real-world reference, “Honor of Kings” has weekly revenues of roughly 1 billion, and it’s the highest-grossing game in the country. So, try not to apply real-world gaming spending habits to this book.)

With Ke Jin’s recent popularity in the gaming industry, it was natural for companies to extend olive branches.

It would be strange if no one reached out.

If it had been any other independent game designer, they would probably be flustered and nod in agreement when the general manager of a subsidiary of a gaming giant personally called to invite them respectfully to visit the company.

But as for Ke Jin,

he agreed to it.

Of course, Ke Jin wasn’t planning to join them for employment or collaboration.

Kidding, with so many classic IPs from his previous life, how could he possibly let such a juicy piece of cake go to someone else? He had to grow it big and strong himself!

The reason he agreed was.

What was Tiansheng Game Company?

A place teeming with gaming talent!

So, among all those talents, aside from the diligent ones, there must be some clumsy idiots mooching around, right?

Yes, this time Ke Jin was going specifically to find those idiots!

Ke Jin had realized that,

thinking too much of the players when designing the recharge interface could backfire and unexpectedly lead to being backstabbed.

Players needed to be faced with certain challenges; it was best to dig up the kind of planners who were cursed every day.

In his previous life, Ke Jin had also been a hardcore gamer, but he was baffled to find that nearly all game planners seemed brainless.

The games were immensely popular, yet the events created by those planners were trashy, or the released gift packages had everything but a good cost-performance ratio.

Furthermore, they stubbornly refused to improve the game optimization despite harsh criticism, while the in-game shop constantly came up with new items.

Beyond that, the planners in the national servers had another defining trait.

They liked to be passive-aggressively snide toward players, whether through in-game item descriptions or by posting cryptic messages on social platforms.

In short, they personified the attitude of “Play if you want, leave if you don’t, there are plenty more players.”

Ke Jin was thoroughly disgusted by this in his last life.

However, in this life, he found himself in dire need of such planners.

Sigh, history truly is a circle.

Scolding terrible planners, understanding terrible planners, becoming a terrible planner.

Of course, this was certainly not a long-term strategy.

Repulsing players was never Ke Jin’s aim; having been reborn on Blue Star, he had only one ultimate goal.

To let all the players on Blue Star feel the shining charm of the real Ninth Art!

Ke Jin had his escape plan ready, too.

As soon as the next game completed the ultimate mission, he would immediately fire the terrible planner and take over himself!

With so many supremely powerful game IPs, how could he not turn the entire Blue Star into a gaming Eden?

At this thought, the troubles weighing on Ke Jin’s mind vanished, and an excited smile emerged on his face.

Dear players, I indeed can’t stop you from recharging.

But if I put a trash planner here, how will you deal with it?