Chapter 161: Chapter 161

“This is our backend data.” Xia Shiyu leaned down to press a few buttons on the laptop, then she turned the screen towards Jiang Chen with a rare prideful look displayed on her face.

It was the server management system designed by Yao Yao from which server activities were monitored.

25.27 million registered users.

The number wasn’t overly high, considering Future 1.0 was a one-person-one-account registration system. Therefore, <New Era> was linked to Little White, which didn’t allow fake accounts.

This made it so that the number reflected the number of people actually playing the game, unless they had multiple phones.

The reason behind eliminating smurfs was simple—to avoid having people open multiple accounts with the intent to disturb the economy within the game and use up server resources. <New Era> operated on one server in the entire country and used cloud computing to transfer calculation data from the client to the server. Even with Yao Yao’s magically modified server, there was an inordinate amount of stress placed on it.

“The peak concurrent users have hit 15.03 million and the average concurrent user number is 8.14 million. It’s nothing short of a miracle.” Xia Shiyu couldn’t seem to stop talking.

“What about the profit?” Jiang Chen immediately asked.

He was concerned about their new revenue model. Would such an innovation fit the market? He knew the game was online for just two days which was too early to tell, but he still couldn’t help but ask.

Xia Shiyu smiled and clicked the screen.

“This is the current total auction amount, already exceeding 14 million. With a five percent commission fee, revenue has reached 700 thousand within the first twenty-four hours of operation.”

“So much?” Jiang Chen was shocked.

He wasn’t surprised by the revenue within the last twenty-four hours but rather by the auction amount of 14 million. It reflected the people’s interest in game-spending.

“And it’ll only increase.” Xia Shiyu’s voice was emotional, her voice trembling. “The player’s current method of obtaining gold in the game is still slow, making a huge gap in demand. The current ratio of gold to RMB has even risen to a high price of 1 to 5.6.”

Jiang Chen’s initial reaction to Xia Shiyu’s words was to pause. He didn’t allow joy to overwhelm his thoughts; rather, he became more cautious.

“Do you think someone is manipulating the auction house price? Just like with stocks—prop it up high, get players to accumulate gold, and then massively over-flood the market?”

Hearing Jiang Chen raise his concern, Xia Shiyu’s eyebrows also tensed.

“I’ve already considered this possibility, but for now, the operations department has yet to come up with a workable plan. Some suggested that we follow the rules from the Han stock market and establish a circuit breaker in gold exchange prices to prevent market manipulation. Some proposed establishing a bank organization within the game internally so that once the gold rises above a tolerable range, they would sell or purchase back the gold. But both of these solutions have their own pros and cons and are still under debate.”

Hearing this, Jiang Chen almost burst out laughing.

“Are you planning on changing the epic magical genre into a financial one?”

Xia Shiyu seemed lost.

“Ahem, just joking around. Let’s get to the main point. We can look at the broader economic balance in the game. Since the auction house is similar to securities, how could a bunch of game operators come up with a solution? We can follow what Valve did with DOTA 2—hire someone studying finance to monitor the auction house.”

Hearing his suggestion, Xia Shiyu’s eyes lit up. The problem that hounded her was solved with a simple sentence, making her consider him a few more times.

“Why are you looking at me?” Feeling slightly shy from her gaze, Jiang Chen scratched his nose.

“I just realized that you’re actually quite smart.” She smiled, and it was like a beautiful flower blossoming on her gorgeous face.

Dazzled by this brief glimpse, Jiang Chen jokingly replied, “I also just realized that you’re quite beautiful when you smile.”

Xia Shiyu blushed and coughed before hastily changing the topic.

“Mhmm…. On the other hand, based on the current skins available in the store, there has only been 150 thousand in revenue, but this number is expected to steadily increase. Also, after the one-time warehouse expansion, just on the first day of operation alone, it managed to rake in an impressive 4.21 million. However, this number is expected to drop as the number of new users decreases. These are the operational results from the past two days.”

As she spoke, Xia Shiyu opened another window to show to Jiang Chen.

The revenue from the first two days was 10.41 million. Seeing this number, Jiang Chen couldn’t help but gasp. From this result, <New Era> easily destroyed the majority of mobile games that made that much in a month. If they maintained this upward trend in profit and user base, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say <New Era> would break a monthly revenue of 200 million.

Subtracting costs and tax expenses, this revenue combined with Future 1.0’s made Future Technology a mega-corporation with a 50 million monthly profit.

Jiang Chen was so ecstatic when he heard the news that he immediately declared a bonus of ten thousand to everyone in the operating team.

“With a boss like you who gives out bonuses so frequently, the project team can just depend on those bonuses.” Xia Shiyu smiled at Jiang Chen’s ecstatic expression.

Jiang Chen laughed. “Then the employees would want me to check up on them every day.”

Just as Xia Shiyu was about to mock him by saying, “Then why don’t you come by every day,” the laptop on the table flashed a red alert symbol.

Jiang Chen was confused, but Xia Shiyu sighed as if it wasn’t a big deal.

“This already the twelfth time today. They were heavily grouped around the morning hours, but then here we go again.

“Network being infiltrated?” Jiang Chen frowned.

“That’s right. It was more frequent yesterday.” Xia Shiyu continued, “In the beginning, our programmers were highly focused on dealing with the attacks, but when we found that they couldn’t even break past the server firewall, we began to ignore it. Speaking of which, how can we get rid of this alert? It always forcefully increases the volume and stays in the middle of the screen.”

[It would be funny if they managed to infiltrate the firewall], Jiang Chen muttered in his mind.

“Ahem, I’ll get the overseas team to make some adjustments.” He only had to have Yao Yao tweak it, very simple.

As Jiang Chen and Xia Shiyu ignored the hacking alert on the laptop, in an apartment 100 kilometers away was a man in a black tracksuit. He resembled a zombie with his deep eye sockets as he typed furiously on the keyboard.

The veins on his arms were abnormally prominent, and his bloodshot eyes seemed as though they would pop out at any time. A pallid face showed from beneath his hoodie and with his small figure, he looked underage from all perspectives. The typing speed he demonstrated, however, would embarrass any professional writer.

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Of course, he was not a professional writer but rather a hacker.

“How can this be possible, how can this be possible!”

Lines of code—or at least, lines of error codes—were reflected on his pupils.

The typing stopped when the screen flashed multiple red crosses.

No matter how many times he tried, it was the same result. They had to have a security team of at least ten professionals.

As soon as his hands left the keyboard, the room quieted down, and all that could be heard was the humming of the computer fans.

“Ahhh, can’t beat it.” Xie Lei raised his head, and he sank into the chair feeling defeated. He stared blankly at the ceiling as he mumbled, “It’s only fair. If they could do something as insane as artificial intelligence, there’s no way their security would be terrible.”

Bored, he took out his phone and poked Little White’s stomach. Seeing him giggle adorably, Xie Lei genuinely laughed.

Honestly, he didn’t hold any animosity towards Future Technology.

[To be able to develop such a fun software….]

At that moment, the phone suddenly rang. When he saw who the caller was, his smile cooled considerably.

<Caller: Black Dragon>

“Hello?” Xie Lei said grimly upon picking up.

“How’s the job you’re working on?” Black Dragon laughed.

Black Dragon was obviously not his name, but if a hacker exposed his identity, it would be the same as stripping naked and running out onto the street. Which of them didn’t do anything illegal before? Exposure meant “death.”

“. . .”

With the knowledge that they controlled “evidence,” Xie Lei’s face twisted for a moment before he took a deep breath. “Future Technology’s security is too strong. No matter how hard I try, I can’t go around the firewall. You’re also in the business. You should know how difficult—”

“Can’t do it?” Black Dragon interrupted. “My suggestion is for you to take it more seriously. This is for an important person. Based on our longstanding relationship, I’ll give you twenty thousand allowances after this is finished,” he said slowly.

“Twenty thousand? Since when are you so generous?” Xie Lei mocked.

Black Dragon, who was usually too cheap to give a few thousand, was now offering twenty thousand? The client this time must have offered more than a million.

“Don’t bullsh*t me. If you don’t want it, fine, I was only pitying you and you mock me? Let me tell you, Green Bird, or Xie Lei, if you don’t do a good job, just wait for the cops to show up at your door.”

After finishing, Black Dragon hung up.

Taking a deep breath, Xie Lei flung the phone to the side and buried his head between his knees. Green Bird was a renowned name among hackers, but it was useless. The Xie Lei in front of the computer screen was only an ordinary teenager.

“Dammit!”

His smashed his fist onto the table.

On the phone screen, Little White curled back anxiously. He couldn’t see Xie Lei’s expression since the camera was covered, but he could detect agony from the sound waves.

Just as Xie Lei was despairing, a tiny hand patted his head.

“Brother?” a young girl stood behind him and whispered.

Her face was similarly pallid, but it looked graceful in a way that healed when seen. The only unfortunate part was that she had no color in her pupils.

She couldn’t see.

Xie Lin, his sister.

Xie Lei placed his hand on hers and tightly held onto it with a forced smile.

“Don’t worry, Brother is here.”

Even though he knew she couldn’t see, he struggled to smile.

The girl continued to smile gently.

“Don’t tire yourself out.”

Seeing the bright smile on his sister’s face, there was only remorse in his heart.

“Listen to Brother. I got another deal. The boss is generous and offered twenty thousand in compensation.”

“Woah, Brother is so impressive.” Her hands clasped together in front of her chest as she slightly opened her mouth in surprise.

“Mhmm, your brother is really impressive…. Therefore, I will heal your eyes.” Xie Lei desperately kept his tone normal while his fingers tightly clenched onto the armrests.

He was not afraid of going to jail. He was done with Black Dragon’s manipulation.

But what stopped him from going was his sister Xie Lin. If he went to jail, his only source of income would disappear. Not only would he be unable to treat her eyes, it would also be difficult to live….

He took a deep breath, his mind already made.

Although the hope was slim, he had to take a gamble.