Tianji Company's office building. Huang Zhen was clicking through the performance reports since the official launch of the game.
Huang Zhen frowned and said to the marketing director standing in front of him, "The revenue is not good at all. Why did 3.26 billion people enter the game, but the point card revenue was less than 300 billion? We charge one yuan per hour, so it means that in the past half month, each player spent on average less than seven hours in our game every day?"
The marketing director muttered to himself under his breath: "This guy is really greedy. 80% of the players are amateur players. In other games, being able to play for seven hours a week is already a good thing. Seven hours a day is still not enough for them!"
Of course, he couldn't say this out loud. He just said, "Well, I think the revenue will increase in the future. Our promotion is now underway in underdeveloped regions such as Africa and South Asia, and many of the education departments of various countries have also been persuaded by us and are drafting some plans to encourage students to play the game."
"However, ordinary players, due to limitations in their work and study time, cannot have much online time. The current average online time of seven hours per day actually indicates that the proportion of professional and semi-professional players in the game is very high. This is not a good thing."
Huang Zhen continued, "Then what about the game currency and cash exchange business? The profit is only 2.2 billion. How can this continue? It would be better to cancel this risky business."
The marketing director said, "This is another proof of the high proportion of professional players. A lot of people are exchanging game currency for cash. Most of the things created by those top-level life players are sold to our NPCs, and they exchange the game currency for RMB. This is very abnormal. In the game before, these good equipment should have been sold to other players, and the profit would have been much higher."
Huang Zhen snorted coldly, "I know, this is what our competitors are doing. If they auction off the good things, wealthy people will invest a lot of RMB into the game. They just don't want us to make money. Hmph! This is really a childish idea. When there are more advanced professional players, this trick will have no effect."
Huang Zhen suddenly laughed loudly, "These guys from those companies are really stupid. I calculated that if each company sent ten intelligent programs in, all specializing in making money from the life profession, the income they would get would probably be able to match their current company's total income. Ha ha!"
The marketing director smiled, "That's true. However, a good intelligent program is not something that can be written by just one person. And experiments have shown that it is even impossible to replicate. It requires a long period of evolution. With their strength, they probably can only send one."
Huang Zhen thought for a moment, "Go out, let the program director from outside come in. By the way, there's one more thing. Starting from next month, we will cancel the free accounts we sent out. If they want to play, they will have to recharge themselves."
Program Director Liang Bo was a thin young man. When he came in, he had an anxious expression on his face. Huang Zhen was stunned: "What's the problem?"
Liang Bo bit his lip, "The Kazakh man we hired just died due to brain failure after unsuccessful rescue."
Huang Zhen nodded, not too surprised: "We had some people die during the game test, didn't you say all the problems had been solved? Why did it happen again?"
Liang Bo said, "It was a problem that didn't arise during the test. 'Hai Lan' accepted too much information about abilities, so she believed in the soul theory. In the game, this was also set: When a deceased NPC or player is very reluctant and this resentment reaches a certain limit, there is a possibility of 'resurrection'. However, this state is very exhausting for the person. That man died and then resurrected in the game. He was old and couldn't withstand such exhaustion, so..."
Huang Zhong hummed: "This 'Hai Lan' has many secrets that we haven't discovered yet. Let's just leave it. You communicate with it and see if you can cancel this setting. Besides, we have brought in other people with poor physical conditions. Clear their memories and let them go."
Liang Bo nodded and then said: "You mentioned last time that the two young princes of the 'Walter' Group and the 'Gaobos' Group wanted to buy hidden accounts. I have already handled it. However, the seven group young princes who wanted to modify their own attributes and equip items did not agree with 'Hai Lan'. Do you think we should tell them about some special level-up points and hidden tasks? The effect would be similar."
Huang Zhong nodded and felt a little better: "However, these young princes have a large team to protect their level-up. They are still not able to enter the top twenty in the rankings. They are very angry and keep saying that we have problems. What do you think we should do? Should we ask 'Hai Lan' to strike at those intelligent programs?"
Liang Bo said sorrowfully: "'Hai Lan' doesn't agree to do this. However, now these intelligent programs have calmed down a lot, and there are more and more advanced players in the group who use group spells. It is estimated that in a few days, those young princes' levels will catch up."
Huang Zhong nodded: "There are still many people complaining online, believing that those at the top of the life skills category cheat. It is impossible to become a master-level in normal life skill training so quickly. What do you think we should do?"
Liang Bo said, "'Hai Lan' knows the methods those people and the intelligent programs used to quickly improve their skills. They have made modifications to reduce the difficulty of the beginner, intermediate, and advanced training levels, and increase the difficulty for those at the super-advanced level. After some time, a balance will be achieved."
Huang Zhen thought for a moment, "There's another issue. The small amount of medication added to the game helmet material is obviously not very effective. Currently, there aren't many addicted players. As I mentioned to you last time, with the program to implement 'addiction' functionality, can 'Hai Lan' do it?"
Liang Bo's body trembled slightly. "In fact... 'Hai Lan' can do anything. However, if we really add subroutines that affect the nerves to the program, I'm afraid..."
Huang Zhen interrupted him, "It's fine as long as it can be done. You should immediately ask 'Hai Lan' to develop this program. Just make it not too strong, there won't be any problem. Also, have it create another subroutine to reduce the physical consumption of players, increase the daily game time limit for each player by two hours, and not affect their daily life and study energy."
Liang Bo hesitated, "Doing this will have a significant impact on the health and lifespan of the players."
Huang Zhen became impatient. "That's it. I'll make the decision, and 'Hai Lan' will implement it. You just need to convey it." Go ahead and do it!"
Liang Bo slowly walked out of the office. In his mind, he saw tens of thousands of NPC players playing the game in the basement. They were all the poorest people in this society, some were street vagrants and beggars, some were lonely elderly people. And there were some who had been playing the game for decades, exhausting their family assets, and being single old players.
These people had no relatives they could contact at all. They were lured by the company with a little money and came here. Even if they died due to game accidents, no one would know.
However, Liang Bo understood that doing this was fundamentally a crime! Unfortunately, for the unparalleled computer 'Hai Lan' that he had developed, himself and all the colleagues in the program department had become too deeply involved and lacked the courage to report it.
Liang Bo suddenly remembered that he seemed to have forgotten to report to the boss that intelligent programs had already entered the game in the global computer management center.
Liang Bo didn't know if he did this intentionally. Perhaps, deep down in his heart, he was hoping that someone would discover the dark side of this game...
In the secret passage of the basement of the Tian Ji Company building, several black-clad men carried a black plastic bag and hurriedly came to a huge incinerator, throwing the bag into the incinerator.
Closing the door, one of the black-clad men said calmly, "By the way, I talked to this old man and heard that he is a Muslim. After death, he cannot be cremated?" The other black-clad man coldly said, "Forget what he said. Here, he is nothing..."