"Looks like the boss didn't go home and stayed at the office alone."
Time was up. Marcus put down his phone and suddenly started talking about William.
His cousin asked, "Doesn't he have family?"
She was really happy that her cousin got into Earth Games,
especially when he let her try out new content only staff could play.
She felt like he had truly made it in life.
Marcus shook his head. "No idea. I just know he's not from Riverdale — at least his accent doesn't sound like it."
"So where does he sound like he's from?"
"I can't tell. He has no accent at all."
His cousin said, "People from Riverdale always have an accent."
"Well, that's something they're proud of," Marcus agreed.
Late at night.
William, still half-asleep, finally got up.
He looked at the messages on his phone.
Besides people congratulating him on another success, Merry had asked him several times if he wanted to extend the test.
A lot of people online were hoping the test would be extended — ideally, they'd pick another 100 people.
Because of copyright rules, video sites didn't allow users to upload any gameplay unless they were licensed or official creators.
Even though Earth Games had released a few titles, there wasn't a single video online.
Only some screenshots were floating around.
And for this demo test, there wasn't even an official agreement —
but still, none of the players posted any images.
They only discussed it in text.
This just made the ones who didn't get picked even more curious.
Everyone online was begging for even a short video clip or screenshot.
William didn't agree to extend the test,
but he did allow players to upload videos of Journey of the Wind.
Surely, at least one or two of the hundred testers would record their playthrough.
And if no one did, well, it wasn't a big deal.
He could just record it himself and upload it with an alt account.
But once the hype starts, it means the game has to be finished as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if the buzz dies down before the game is released, no one will care about it anymore.
Right after the official announcement came out, a bunch of players who had gotten into the test phase started flooding the forums. They said they were already uploading videos, and they were so fast that people started wondering if they had made a deal with the devs. Some even suspected Merry was behind it all.
Jayden was one of them, and his videos were some of the best. He had already been doing game reviews and write-ups for Earth Games for a while, so he had built up a lot of experience. This DEMO felt like a big opportunity to him, so he started recording from the very moment he began playing.
Before long, those videos were being shared like crazy across major media platforms. Players were reposting, liking, and commenting, pushing the videos into trending topics. Among all the posts about the Spring Festival Gala, these game videos stood out like a sore thumb.
It was already past 1 a.m., and the Gala had just ended not long ago—people were still discussing it like crazy. For any other topic to break into the trending list at this time, it had to be something major. News about a game getting in? That was a first, and it definitely made an impression.
William didn't stay up too late. After browsing through the comments on forums and checking the game's numbers—none of which were close to the next milestone—he went back to sleep. He needed to fix his sleep schedule.
At 5 a.m., he got up early.
Since he didn't eat properly yesterday, William decided to follow the recipe Aunt Oliver left him and make two meals for himself today.
Breakfast and lunch, packed together.
The reason he wasn't waiting until noon to cook was that by then, he probably wouldn't feel like doing it anymore. Better to do it now and save himself the trouble later.
Breakfast was scrambled eggs with porridge, which reminded William of the time he spent at Aunt Lisa's. For lunch, he made tomato and scrambled eggs with minced pork and eggplant. Once it was done, he packed it into a lunch box and put it in the fridge, ready to heat up at noon.
After eating breakfast, William watched some "morning news."
You have to admit, people on Blue Star talk about the Spring Festival Gala with insane passion. The trending tag about Journey had long been pushed out, and now the trending list was completely taken over by Gala-related topics. People had been talking non-stop all night—it was wild.
Since the Gala was meant for everyone in the Chinese cultural circle, it was completely free to watch online and could be used in any kind of video content. So William looked for a speed-run version and watched it, and he was blown away.
It felt like watching a Spring Gala from the early 2000s back on Earth. Every performance felt fresh and exciting—no overused phrases, no internet buzzwords. Just pure confidence that came from deep cultural roots.
Cultural confidence is a terrifyingly powerful force. It can even go beyond religion. Religion is about worshipping something that doesn't exist. Culture, on the other hand, is built into your DNA, flowing through your blood. They're not even in the same league.
Strictly speaking, William was also part of the Chinese cultural circle. After all, this was Earth's Chinese civilization. It's just that his own circle was bigger, and his background even richer.
So when he watched the Gala, he was really moved. It even sparked the idea of making a game about it.
Honor of Kings was one example. He had originally planned to use mythological figures from foreign cultures, but now he wanted to go back to the original idea—to bring characters from Chinese civilization onto the game stage.
The only tricky part was how to design the game in a way that wouldn't get it banned by the authorities. He didn't want something like "Assassin Li Bai" to cause trouble.
There was still a lot of work to do, and now wasn't the right time.
He needed to keep working on Journey and Happy Match Mania.
William started sketching the animation for *Journey of the Wind* himself and left the rest of the production to the team.
"We need to hire another animator."
That was something William had overlooked. Back when they made other games, they didn't need much animation. He had been too focused on skill effects and totally forgot how important animations were to the game.
"Got it."
Of course, this kind of task was handed to Cynthia.
The New Year was probably the best time to hire people, so it shouldn't slow down development.
The tricky part about Happy Match Mania was the algorithm. Since it's a game without a "final level," it needed to have endless variations.
The current plan was to build 1000 levels. Every five levels would get harder. Every ten levels would introduce a new mechanic. Every fifty levels would be a major upgrade. To make that happen, they'd need a powerful AI algorithm that could generate levels automatically.
William didn't know much about this kind of thing, which meant he'd have to spend time learning from scratch.
Three days flew by in a flash.
"We're about to hit 100 million downloads on our second game!" Cynthia messaged him right away.
Her internal tools must have kicked in, giving her the same early insights as William.
"Oh?"
"You're not gonna believe which one."
"Is that so?"
William smiled at the screen. Honestly, who would've guessed that their second game to break 100 million downloads would be that one?
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