4: Chapter 004 Hot Search List
After a busy day, Zhou Yang finished working on a portion of the game's content.
He had just taken off his virtual reality headset.
Picking up his phone, he discovered several missed calls.
Looking closer, he saw they were all from Yang Ruoxue.
Seeing this, he hurriedly called her back.
A moment later, the call was answered.
"Hello, Sister Yang, is something the matter?"
Zhou Yang was a bit puzzled; he didn't know why Yang Ruoxue had called him so many times.
He hoped she wasn't calling to talk about withdrawing investment.
Otherwise, he would be completely screwed.
"Zhou Yang, it's a hit, a total hit!" Yang Ruoxue's voice was loud, filled with undisguised excitement.
Zhou Yang was confused. What was a hit?
"What? Sister Yang, what do you mean?"
"The game CG is a hit, that new game CG of yours is a hit!" Yang Ruoxue said hurriedly, suppressing the excitement in her heart.
"It's a hit already?" Zhou Yang was very surprised.
He had only released that game CG yesterday, and today it was already a hit.
"Yes, a huge hit, it's even on the official trending list." As she spoke, Yang Ruoxue shared a link with him.
Zhou Yang picked up his phone and clicked the link. Sure enough, there was a trending topic on the list called eastern meat grinder.
Seeing this trending topic, Zhou Yang suddenly felt excited.
This trending list was officially prepared specifically for contestants in the Anti-War Competition.
Countless people followed this trending list every day.
Now that it was on the game trending list, people across the country could see it.
This meant it was a complete and utter hit.
"Zhou Yang, you have to seize this opportunity! What is the current progress of your game?" Yang Ruoxue shouted excitedly.
Originally, she hadn't held any hope for Zhou Yang.
She hadn't expected him to give her such a big surprise today.
As long as Zhou Yang could finish the game now, with such high levels of attention, at the very least he would be able to recoup his costs.
After all, players didn't play these games for free; they had to pay.
With over two billion people in all of China, even if only one in a thousand played it, she would still be able to make her money back.
"Progress is fast, I can strive to finish it before the competition and conduct internal testing. Sister Yang, you can rest assured." Zhou Yang gave his guarantee once again.
Upon hearing this, Yang Ruoxue no longer held her previous attitude. Instead, she was full of confidence in Zhou Yang.
"Good, with those words from you, I can rest easy."
"I won't disturb you anymore, hurry up and keep working."
After saying this, Yang Ruoxue hung up the phone.
Zhou Yang put down his phone. He went to the kitchen and quickly prepared a bowl of instant noodles. After eating, he went back to work.
...
Yiteng Group.
As the leading corporation in China's gaming industry, the head of the game department, Zhang Yida, was the first to discover the eastern meat grinder CG.
Regarding this new trending topic, everyone in their game department took it very seriously. Because every trending topic represented a threat.
Facing this threat, the simplest method was to copy it directly.
Ever since the Anti-War Competition began, they had sent people to watch the trending list every day.
Once they discovered a game that hit the trending list, regardless of anything else, they would copy it exactly.
Anyway, Yiteng Group was a massive corporation; they had plenty of money and plenty of people.
As long as they copied it, when the competition started, they might even be able to take all of the top ten spots.
Faced with such disgusting tactics from Yiteng Group, the companies and individuals participating in the Anti-War Competition were all filled with righteous indignation.
However, according to Chinese law, it didn't constitute infringement; after all, if they dared to copy, they were certainly prepared.
At least legally, it didn't constitute infringement, so there was nothing anyone could do about them.
Moreover, many of them just copied the creative concept, directly lifting game mechanics from other games.
Before others had even finished making their games, they had already released theirs.
Sitting on a base of over a billion players, Yiteng Group wasn't afraid that no one would play their games.
The player ecosystem they had cultivated for many years was not something others could easily shake.
This time, seeing the eastern meat grinder trending topic, after watching the CG, Zhang Yida was also shocked by the creator's creativity and imagination.
They really dared to dream big. Indeed, there are masters among the common folk.
This creative concept was very good, so Yiteng Group would take it.
He immediately sent people to analyze the game CG.
According to the content of the game CG, this was about a war. A war known as the eastern meat grinder.
A massive number of people died in the war. Zhang Yida guessed that the author wanted to use the massive death toll to describe the cruelty of war.
This was also something many people could think of. As for why the CG became a massive hit, it was likely that the bold visuals attracted many people's curiosity.
No one dared to create such bloody visuals. If it were labeled as bloody and violent, they would be roasted to death.
Besides that, the story told in this CG was also quite compelling. It was just a pity that the CG didn't reveal much content, otherwise, they could have copied it in greater detail.
Zhang Yida was actually quite interested in the story told within the CG. But this was enough. As long as they copied the general idea, put a skin on it, and released the game first, that would be fine.
The content of the game CG was quickly parsed. Zhang Yida gave the order to the game department: finish the game within one week, then start internal testing.
Faced with such a tight deadline, the studio head assigned to the task could only grit their teeth and accept it. There was no choice; the orders from above were paramount.
Even if it was just a sloppy adaptation, they had to get the game made. Thinking of this, they immediately began to heavily modify the game CG.
The modern Battle of Shanghai in the CG was changed to a battle in the Ming Dynasty. Instead of 300,000 deaths out of 1 million, they directly changed it to 600,000 deaths out of 2 million.
Isn't it just about having more dead people? Who couldn't do that? As for the various reinforcements assembling, just change the names, change the timeline, and it could still be used.
With such a tight schedule, could anyone expect much innovation from them? Moreover, since it was a copy job to begin with, they didn't need innovation at all.
As for the game title, since it was called wwii: eastern meat grinder on the trending list, they would call theirs the ming dynasty meat grinder.
Just like that, Yiteng Group's new game CG was released the very next day. As soon as it was released, it hit the trending list, sparking discussion among many Netizens.
Anyone with eyes could see it was plagiarism. But they couldn't help it; some people were still curious and wanted to play it. After all, plagiarism aside, Yiteng Group was truly fast at releasing games.
At this moment, in a luxurious villa, an exquisite and beautiful woman with long hair sat on a sofa, looking at her phone. Suddenly, she slammed the phone down in a fit of rage, an angry expression appearing on her face.
"Shameless Yiteng Group, you really know how to copy. It just hit the trending list yesterday, and you've already copied it today."
Yang Ruoxue was practically exploding with anger. She had finally been given some hope, and yet it had been copied away the very next day.
She had been too excited yesterday and had forgotten about this possibility. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. She immediately picked up her phone and dialed a number.
"Hello, is this Grandpa Li? Yes, it's me, Xiaoxue. I would like to ask you to do something for me..."
After finishing the call, the anger in her heart subsided quite a bit. Daring to copy the game she invested in—she would definitely make Yiteng Group pay.