After turning down Tiffany's dinner invite, William rushed home. About 30 minutes earlier, he'd gotten the notification—2048 had launched. Three milestone alerts followed. Now, he couldn't wait to check the stats.
2048 Downloads: 7,891,322 (Milestone: Stage 3)
User Rating: 4.1
Press Reviews: None
The score surprised him. Last time, players called his educational app categorization deceptive. This time? No backlash.
"2, 4, 8, 16, 32... I never thought basic elementary school math would drive me crazy!"
"This app takes me back to kindergarten, when we were learning simple addition and subtraction. The teacher would yell from the front, 'Who knows what one plus one is?' No one answered. I remember everyone sitting there with their heads down. That moment really stuck with me. I remember thinking, if I knew the answer, I'd shout it loud and proud—'It's two!' And now I've got one question: what the heck is 256 plus 256?!"
"Leaderboard? Leaderboard? Leaderboard?!"
"Hah, just another scam."
"I'm honestly ashamed of people who defend these developers. This still doesn't meet the standard of an educational app. Have you all developed Stockholm syndrome or something?"
While positive reviews didn't mention anything about the game's category, the negative ones kept circling back to the idea of "being tricked." Based on how much attention the game had gotten, the next release could probably be published under the "game" category.
After all, you can only fake it so many times before it backfires.
William logged into the developer account, gave a thumbs-up to the player who had completed the 2048 challenge, then replied to the users asking about the leaderboard: "It'll be up no later than the day after tomorrow."
With that done, he got back to working on his new game, "Welcome Gift."
It was a very simple game, both in mechanics and visuals, but William had spent extra effort adding a special Easter egg. Since he didn't have much experience using Au (likely a sound or design tool), it had taken some time and learning.
Evening.
William was starving when he left his workspace. Aunt Lisa's family had gone to Tiffany's for dinner and wouldn't be back until much later. Wendy's show was airing in less than three hours, and William still hadn't figured out how to deal with it.
The only real option was to clear things up in person, maybe with Earth Game making a public promise about a few things. But that wouldn't necessarily stop the company's reputation from taking a hit. The best outcome would be to stop the episode from airing at all—but William didn't have the kind of influence to make that happen.
Just as he was wondering what to eat, an unknown number called.
"Hello?"
"Hi, is this Earth Game?" a woman asked.
The voice sounded familiar, but William couldn't place it.
"Yeah."
"Well, our company is really interested in the music from your app. We actually have a show airing tonight that still needs a few tracks. Do you think you could give us permission to use them?"
"Authorization?" William thought about it. No player had passed the third song yet. Letting the music out early would ruin the sense of anticipation. And honestly, music rights didn't bring in much money. It just wasn't worth it.
"Yes."
"I'm sorry, we're not planning to license the music for commercial use at the moment."
"Oh, that's a shame."
"Yeah, sorry about that."
Even after hanging up, William still couldn't remember who the voice belonged to. But he didn't give it much more thought. Right now, food was the priority.
He had originally planned to just eat something simple at home, but after the call, he changed his mind. Having only one phone number wasn't enough anymore. He needed to keep his identity as William and the identity of Earth Game separate—business and personal, clearly divided.
After getting a new SIM card, he picked up three new phones: a mid-range Android, a high-end Android, and the most basic model of the latest iPhone.
Buying the phones used up almost all the money William had on him. But by the end of the night, his wallet would be full again, so he wasn't worried.
He spent his last bit of cash on a steak dinner, and just as he was finishing, a new notification popped up from the system.
["2048" downloads have surpassed 10 million! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Addition (Master)]
"2048" didn't have explosive growth, but it was climbing steadily. It could eventually beat the total downloads of "Piano Tiles."
Back when he was still working on the game, William had wondered what kind of rewards the milestone system might give. He'd hoped for a powerful math skill. In the end, he got something close—it was math-related, at least. It just gave him a better handle on addition.
For example, when ordering food, his mind would automatically add up the prices without any effort. The total would update instantly with each item, so he'd never go over budget.
William's verdict on this ability? Pretty much useless.
After dinner, he tested the three phones' performance, mainly checking how well the two games ran. As expected, there were no issues.
The comment sections already answered any questions about phone compatibility. If a game couldn't run on certain phones, people would definitely complain. William searched keywords like "won't run," "laggy," or "crashes," but found zero reports of the game failing to launch or having bugs due to hardware.
Having done all this, William had gotten enough fresh air and headed home.
Just as he pulled out his keys, the door swung open on its own. Aunt Lisa stood there in her yellow wool coat.
She really loved yellow.
"Where have you been?"
"Getting dinner." William stepped inside to change his shoes and saw Jenny pestering Uncle Zach on the couch, demanding he turn on the TV.
"Did you just get back?"
"Yeah." Aunt Lisa glanced inside. "Zach, take your daughter for her bath."
Uncle Zach immediately stood up, scooping Jenny into his arms despite her protests, and carried her to the bathroom.
"I need to talk to you." Aunt Lisa hung up her coat, revealing a white sweater underneath.
"Okay."
"Remember Wendy? That reporter who interviewed you."
"Yeah."
"She asked for your number, but I haven't given it to her yet."
"Why does she want my number?" William tensed up.
"Probably for another interview or something." Aunt Lisa could only guess. "I think you should give it to her. More exposure could help your future."
So far, Aunt Lisa still assumed he'd pursue music—she was already planning his career.
"I'll think about it."
"Don't take too long. She's asked me twice already."
"How about you give me her number instead? I'll call her once I decide."
"Fine." Aunt Lisa nodded. "But decide soon. Even if you say no, let me know so I can reply properly."
"Got it." William headed to his room.
Within seconds, he received the number from Aunt Lisa.
Huh. Looks familiar.
A quick check of his call history confirmed it—this was the same number that had called earlier about licensing for the TV segment.
Now William was completely lost.