108: What game is Lady Gaga playing in Chapter 108?

On game media websites, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of such game advertorials.

So this advertorial didn't create much of a splash; like a pebble thrown into a lake, it caused a ripple and then vanished.

Most people saw the headline, glanced at it, and scrolled past without any interest in clicking.

After all, with so many new games launching every day, why would anyone care about an obscure tower defense game from China?

But some people were interested after all.

Then they downloaded the game to try it out.

Among these people, some deleted it after two levels, some played for an entire afternoon, and some even went to the App Store to leave a five-star review after finishing the game.

Besides the media advertorials, Wang Jing also contacted some individual bloggers to make review videos.

Due to budget constraints, they targeted mid-tier bloggers with fifty to two hundred thousand followers.

These bloggers' videos generally get between thirty to fifty thousand and one hundred thousand views, offering a certain level of influence and high cost-effectiveness.

Domestically, the style was completely different from abroad.

Chen Fan specifically had Wang Jing find some internet trolls to post online.

The content of the posts was "Shocking! Night Falls, a Man and a Woman Actually Do Such a Thing."

In the year 2010, the "shock style" hadn't appeared yet.

So this kind of headline could easily attract people.

Many people saw these posts and thought it was the kind of content they wanted to see before clicking.

As a result, after clicking, they found the content was about two people fighting over a phone to play a game called "defend the carrot," eventually getting into a scuffle.

After realizing they'd been tricked, most people cursed directly—"Clickbaiters deserve to die," "Another ad," "Reported."

But some were curious about what kind of game could be so addictive and wanted to download it to see.

Among those interested, those without smartphones could only sigh in frustration, while those with smartphones clicked the download link with a "let's try it" attitude.

Hundreds of such posts were made on Tieba and forums.

The headlines varied in style—

"Shocking! A woman screams late at night, the reason is..."

"Shocking! At 3 AM, strange sounds come from my female roommate's room. I pushed the door open and found..."

...

Clicking in revealed they were all soft ads for "defend the carrot." Many cursed, but many downloaded it too.

Chen Fan still remembered Wang Jing's expression when he told her this method—she froze for a moment, then her lip twitched, seemingly not expecting her boss to come up with such a devious promotional tactic.

Thus, through various promotional means, the download count for "defend the carrot" saw a significant increase.

By September 29th, iOS downloads had reached over 31,000, with in-app purchases around 6,800 USD.

The android platform's downloads were even higher, totaling over 53,000, with in-app purchases of 32,000 RMB. Although it didn't become an instant hit, the situation looked promising.

Chen Fan wasn't in a hurry now. As long as downloads were rising and word of mouth was spreading, he could leave the rest to time.

An excellent mobile game like "defend the carrot" would eventually be discovered by more players.

...

Another day passed.

Around nine in the morning, while Chen Fan was in class, his phone suddenly vibrated.

He picked up his phone and saw it was actually Zhang Tao calling.

He frowned; when he wasn't at the company, Zhang Tao usually wouldn't call unless it was something particularly important, mostly communicating via messages.

Calling now, could something have happened at the company?

Chen Fan's expression shifted. He glanced at the teacher lecturing on stage, then stood up and headed toward the back door, slipping out of the classroom.

After leaving the classroom, he answered the call. Before he could speak, Zhang Tao's excited voice came from the other end: "It's exploded, President Chen, it's exploded!"

"What's exploded?" Chen Fan was completely confused.

"The game exploded! 'defend the carrot' had 330,000+ downloads on iOS yesterday, and the android platform broke 480,000+!"

"What?" Chen Fan's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"It's true, Boss. You can check the backend."

"Okay, I'm coming over right now."

After hanging up, a trace of disbelief remained on Chen Fan's face.

Although he believed "defend the carrot" was a good game and would certainly achieve great results, he didn't expect a game that was only slightly picking up a few days ago to gain hundreds of thousands of downloads in a single day.

Chen Fan desperately wanted to know the reason. He glanced at the classroom, steeled himself, and left directly without even asking for leave.

Half an hour later, in the company meeting room, everyone was gathered.

Chen Fan sat in the main seat and looked at Zhang Tao: "Engineer Zhang, what's the situation? Why did our game suddenly explode?"

"According to news from overseas, it's likely because of a female celebrity named Lady Gaga."

Hearing Zhang Tao's words, a question mark seemed to appear over Chen Fan's head.

He knew Lady Gaga; she was a very famous singer in America, but he couldn't understand how this female star got involved with his company's game.

"What's the situation exactly?"

Just then, Wang Jing, who was in charge of operations, suddenly spoke: "Let me explain, President Chen."

She operated her laptop for a bit, and an image appeared on the projection screen.

"President Chen, look at this."

Chen Fan's gaze turned to the screen. It was a Twitter page with an exaggerated shiny symbol as the profile picture, and the post time showed ten o'clock last night.

The attached image was a slightly blurry photo—in an airport waiting lounge, a blonde woman wearing exaggerated sunglasses leaned back in a chair, dressed in a signature studded leather jacket, holding an iPhone 4 in both hands and playing a game.

The photo was clearly a candid shot, taken from a slight angle, but the "defend the carrot" interface was faintly visible on the phone screen.

The caption read: "OMG sitting next to Lady Gaga at LAX and she‘s playing some cute game with a carrot？？？ Anyone know what this is？？？"

(Oh my God, I'm sitting next to Lady Gaga at LAX, and she's playing a cute game with a carrot!!! Does anyone know what game this is???)

"Is this... our game?" Chen Fan was a bit unsure.

"Yes." Wang Jing clicked through several pages. "This tweet has gone viral. Everyone on Twitter and Facebook is asking 'what game is this.' Then someone recognized it as 'defend the carrot.' Since last night, downloads have exploded."

Hearing this, Chen Fan almost jumped out of his chair in excitement.

He hadn't expected that an obscure little game from China would suddenly go viral because of an international superstar's accidental "endorsement."

Even more so, he hadn't expected such a stroke of dumb luck to actually happen to him.

He took a deep breath, trying to keep himself from looking too out of sorts, but the corners of his mouth still couldn't help but curl upward.