170: Chapter 170 has been downloaded 100,000 times.

"Understood, Boss Chen." Wang Yun said, taking notes in his notebook as he spoke.

Chen Fan looked at Technical Lead again: "Engineer Li, take a look and see if all of these can be implemented."

"Technically, there's no problem."

"Good. Go back and draft the technical plan, prioritize it, and determine which modules should be done first, which later, and which can be done in parallel."

"Alright." Technical Lead said.

"Engineer Wang." Chen Fan said, "You build the basic model for the numerical framework first. The formulas for basic attributes like attack power, defense, critical hit rate, hit rate, and evasion rate need to be ready by next week. Also, draft the basic plans for skill schemes and values."

"No problem, Boss Chen." Wang Yun nodded.

"Sister Gu." Chen Fan leaned back in his chair, his tone relaxing slightly. "For the art side, you first produce the initial equipment for the three classes—the Warrior's Bronze Set, the Mage's Leather Set, and the Archer's Wind Set. Also, concept drafts for wings from tiers one to six. Can you produce the first drafts within a week?"

Gu Ning thought for a moment and nodded: "No problem, Boss Chen."

"Alright, that's it for today. You all know your respective tasks. If you're short on people or need anything, just let me know. Meeting adjourned."

Following Chen Fan's instructions, the company's various plans were running in full swing.

On December 9th, "happy elimination" was successfully launched on iOS and all major android channels.

On the morning of the game's launch, Chen Fan walked into the office and turned on his computer. The backend data showed the download count starting from zero and ticking upwards; the numbers weren't huge, but they hadn't stopped.

He stared at the numbers for a while, and after seeing the growth rate increasing, Chen Fan finally felt relieved.

Although he already had the experience of launching "defend the carrot", he still felt a sliver of worry about whether "happy elimination" would be successful.

It wasn't a lack of confidence in the product, but a lack of certainty about the market. After all, he was launching this game several years ahead of time.

A good product doesn't necessarily become a hit, and an average product doesn't necessarily fail. He had seen too many examples of this.

He opened 17173.com, the largest domestic game portal website. On the top banner position of the homepage, an advertisement was rotating: "From the original team behind 'defend the carrot', the brand new elimination mobile game 'happy elimination' launches today."

Wang Jing had locked in this spot a week in advance, costing fifty thousand per day for three consecutive days. As the leading domestic gaming media, the top banner on the 17173 homepage was a must-have for every game launch, so naturally, Wang Jing wouldn't forget to advertise there.

Besides 17173.com, ads were also plastered across top-ranked domestic gaming forums. The top banner on the Duowan forum, pop-ups on Youjiu.com, and the right-side recommendation slot on Pacific Game Network all concentrated their efforts on the same day.

Little Zhou from the operations team had been camping on various forums since early morning, watching the post views jump from hundreds to thousands, and from thousands to tens of thousands.

Overseas, the gaming media that Wang Jing had contacted also released relevant posts.

Several famous gaming media outlets published review articles for "happy elimination" on the same day, all without exception hailing "happy elimination" as another casual mobile game masterpiece following "defend the carrot".

Whether overseas or domestic, the only benefit of these gaming media outlets was that as long as you paid enough money, you could hype up an ordinary game into a god-tier one.

When screening the list, Wang Jing specifically chose a few that were "cost-effective"—they didn't charge much, but they published quickly, weren't picky, and basically didn't change the drafts sent to them.

Chen Fan had looked at the list she compiled and asked if these media outlets were reliable. Wang Jing said, "They publish as long as you pay; they're easier to talk to than domestic ones." Chen Fan didn't ask again.

Under such promotional effects, coupled with the fact that the quality of "happy elimination" was indeed solid, the download numbers quickly went up.

Overseas players had a very good impression of "defend the carrot", so when they heard it was a new game made by the original team, they became interested and wanted to download it to try.

Although some people weren't interested in elimination games and uninstalled it after playing a few rounds, generally speaking, most players were quite interested in "happy elimination".

Therefore, since the game launched in the morning, the download counts across various channels were growing rapidly.

Compared to the slow growth when "defend the carrot" launched, it was simply incomparable.

"defend the carrot"'s first day of launch saw over three thousand iOS downloads and over three hundred dollars in item consumption, while the android platforms combined didn't even have as many as iOS.

Now, in the first hour of "happy elimination"'s launch, the download count had already exceeded that number.

Seeing the data growing rapidly, Chen Fan slowly relaxed. It seemed this game was likely a success.

He leaned back in his chair, picked up his water cup, and took another sip; the water was still warm.

His phone vibrated; it was a message from Wang Jing saying that they had already broken into the top twenty of the iOS free charts. He took a glance, put the phone on the table, and continued watching the data on the big screen.

At this moment, on the big screen next to Zhang Tao's team's office area, the various backend data points were constantly jumping.

It was a little past 3 PM in the office area.

Chen Fan stood next to the big screen, with Zhang Tao, Wang Jing, the operations team, and the technical team gathered in a circle, everyone's eyes fixed on the constantly changing screen.

The download numbers slowly ticked up, jumping from over ninety-nine thousand to ninety-nine thousand five hundred, then to ninety-nine thousand eight hundred, gradually approaching ninety-nine thousand seven hundred thirty-one.

The office was so quiet that only the ticking of the clock on the wall and the low hum of the projector fan remained.

Someone held their breath, someone clenched their fists, and someone had their water cup suspended in mid-air, having forgotten to put it down; the cup was tilted, and water was about to spill out, but they didn't even notice.

The numbers jumped to ninety-nine thousand eight hundred, ninety-nine thousand nine hundred, ninety-nine thousand nine hundred fifty.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on those last fifty downloads. One second, two seconds, three seconds—the moment the number on the screen jumped to six digits, someone shouted, "It's one hundred thousand!"

The voice wasn't loud, as if tentatively confirming they hadn't misread it. The voice carried a hint of uncertainty, a hint of trembling, and even more of uncontrollable excitement.

After confirming, he sprang up from his chair. The chair slid far away, hitting the cabinet behind him and making a dull thud.

This sound seemed to flip a switch, and the office area instantly erupted.

Even the usually composed Zhang Tao couldn't help but stand up and clench his fists. He didn't shout or yell, but his knuckles were white from gripping so hard, and he couldn't suppress the curve of his mouth.

Previously, project delays, employees slacking off, and a pile of other crap had left him unable to breathe. Now, the data explained everything; he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.