Chapter 106. Pokémon Release!
With the trailer released, in order to let everyone better understand Pokémon, besides the official accounts occasionally posting introductions to some Pokémon and to the world setting, the Pokémon anime that had been in production since the start of the year also began airing.
Players originally thought they would open the anime just to take the edge off, but after watching it they only grew more anxious.
Those adorable Pokémon were so enticing that people didn't want to wait even one more second.
In the three months leading up to the AR glasses' release, information about Pokémon was appearing on the trending lists almost every day with three or four entries.
On the day the Duel Arena was completed, the heat directly swept the entire rankings.
Under Anti-Entropy's behind-the-scenes push, their AR glasses and Pokémon practically pressed the other two companies' popularity flat until nothing was left.
What made Schicksal and Shencheng Technology feel even worse was that Anti-Entropy's glasses had the same price as theirs—just the price of an ordinary smartphone, the kind most people could afford.
In just a few days, the number of pre-orders on Anti-Entropy's official site had already exceeded twice the combined total of the other two.
This sight naturally made the relevant personnel at Schicksal and Shencheng clutch their aching heads.
"Can't we all just share the market peacefully? Why did you suddenly pull a stunt like this?"
Regarding Pokémon's design, on the very day the trailer dropped, Schicksal's and Shencheng's R&D teams pulled all-nighters.
They finally reached a unanimous conclusion: "There's no time. It's hopeless. Just wait for death."
This absurd level of completeness simply could not be reproduced in a short period of time.
Even if they cloned something similar right now, it would become an online laughingstock, and the quality would still get trounced.
Can't win—what then?
Naturally, seek cooperation.
Schicksal and Shencheng both offered generous terms, just to get Pokémon ported simultaneously onto their own AR glasses.
But as long as Anti-Entropy's people weren't fools, they would never agree.
We're all competitors here.
With a tailwind and a big advantage, how could they possibly hand that advantage over?
When talks with Anti-Entropy HQ went nowhere, they tried to contact the game's designer.
Annoyed over those few days, Xander simply kept his phone off, which made Miss Fairy—who wanted to chat with him but couldn't reach him at all—grit her teeth in anger.
In the end, after Xander promised to mail her two AR glasses with all bonuses included, Miss Fairy finally cooled down, and thoughtfully sent him some rather refreshing selfies.
At last, the time came: late night on December 31.
Countless users had already opened Anti-Entropy's official site early.
Even though the North America region's launch allocation alone was a full twenty million units, no one dared relax.
They clenched their palms around their mice, eyes locked on the time in the lower-right corner.
Physical stores were even crazier.
Many people had started lining up at Anti-Entropy shops a day in advance.
Outside every Anti-Entropy electronics specialty store, the queues stretched beyond what the eye could see.
It scared most of the police into deploying—partly to maintain order, partly to prevent "zero-dollar purchases" (looting).
Of course, some officers also wanted to line up on the side and buy one for themselves.
Anti-Entropy is a major tycoon in this country, after all.
Their salaries rely on these capitalist lords.
When the hour hand, minute hand, and second hand all pointed to zero, the AR glasses went on sale right on time.
Bzzz!!!
In just a few seconds, Anti-Entropy Group's servers let out a wail with all their might, like a lady knight who had fallen into a goblin lair.
Over a hundred million purchase requests nearly blew the servers apart.
Through several layers of offices, Xander could almost hear the responsible manager's frenzied roar.
No need to imagine the programmers' flustered state either.
If they dropped the ball at this moment, never mind a generous bonus—the year-end bonus that hadn't been paid yet this year would probably go straight to zero!
Finally, the servers' injected howls began to diminish.
The manager and the programmers all exhaled in relief.
The manager's position was safe, and the programmers' year-end bonuses were safe.
Not only that—they could already foresee a rather handsome bonus waving at them.
Naturally, Xander and his group didn't go home tonight either.
The four of them gathered in the office, squeezed together on one sofa, nervously and expectantly waiting for news.
"Brother, how long will it take for twenty million units to sell out?"
To ease her nerves, Seele clutched her brother's hand tightly and asked in a soft voice.
"I don't know.
It probably won't take an hour..."
Before his words landed, they suddenly heard a burst of fervent cheering from who-knows-where.
Just as they were a little dazed, a call came in from Cocolia.
Xander hurried to answer and turned on speaker.
The four heads closed in together, and they heard Cocolia's voice tinged with excitement, her tone trembling a little: "Ten seconds.
Sold out in ten seconds!!!!"
"Sss~"
Four sharp intakes of breath made an outstanding contribution to global warming.
Five million Special Editions.
Fifteen million Standard Editions.
All gone in ten seconds?
"So fast?!!"
"That fast.
According to the backend data, purchase IPs from North America alone are close to a hundred million."
"What do we do?"
"We can only have the OEMs put in more overtime.
As long as the money's enough, none of this is a problem."
After a few brief words, Cocolia hurriedly hung up.
She had already set her expectations for Pokémon quite high in her heart, but she hadn't expected it to deliver such unimaginable delight.
Some things that originally weren't very doable—looks like it's time to get started on them now.
Looking down through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the city's brilliant neon lights, the corners of Cocolia's mouth curled into a smile.
Beep.
The call ended, and the four looked at each other.
The next moment, the three girls threw themselves at Xander at the same time and cheered with excitement.
Barely done celebrating, they hurriedly pulled Xander home.
When Seele, Duck, and Kaguya dragged him into the same bedroom, locked the door in passing, and pinned him to the bed, the slightly high-on-excitement Xander finally reacted.
Looking at those three pairs of burning eyes in front of him, Xander's throat moved, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.
It's over.
So he thought in his heart.
It wasn't just them.
Out in the office, everyone quickly received the news and burst into jubilant shouts.
Ling's voice was the loudest of all, and who knows why she was grinning so foolishly when she wasn't even an Anti-Entropy employee.
That night, the entire company plunged into a sea of joy.
Even the elderly gate guard received a thick red envelope and, swept up by the atmosphere, excitedly did a Thomas flare on the spot.
On the other side, in the Far East, it was now 2 p.m.
During the holidays this should have been Sirin's game streaming time, but today the stream layout had changed.
"Outdoor stream: Pokémon hands-on!!"
Just a few words in the title filled the screen with question marks.
[Hold up, it's supposed to go on sale at 2:00 p.m. Far East time.
Pufferfish, you're playing at 2:01?
Do you own Anti-Entropy or what?]
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