Gulp.
William stood nervously in front of the silver chest. What if something really insane came out? What if it was so good he didn't want to work anymore? That would be like winning the lottery and ruining your whole life.
But really, it was just a silver chest. There were still gold, diamond, and crystal ones ahead. He needed to think bigger, not get stuck on this.
After giving himself a little pep talk, William finally calmed down and opened the chest.
The moment it opened, a blinding silver light poured out and merged with his private space. The entire area was flooded with the silver glow, then gathered into a beam of light and shot into his computer.
[You've received: Server Technology (Beginner)]
Seriously?
Beginner-level skills could show up in bronze chests. Shouldn't a silver chest be a little better? William immediately felt like he got ripped off.
But as he absorbed the new knowledge, he started to understand why this belonged in a silver chest and not a bronze one.
For online games, the most important thing is the server. A good server means smooth gameplay without lag, disconnects, or dropped data. A bad one drives players away. "Server Technology (Beginner)" taught him how to build a stable online service. It wasn't advanced enough for zero delay across long distances, but it could already guarantee no lag or data loss.
Now, William no longer needed Tencent's support team to maintain his servers—he could do it better himself. After all, no one understood game servers like he did.
But at the moment, Earth Games only had one network service—the leaderboard. Even if you dressed it up, it wasn't anything exciting. Might as well let Tencent handle it. The more they got involved, the more people might be interested in working in the game industry later.
00:00
"A deposit of 759.632 dollar has been made to your account ending in (xxxx)."
From the surprise on day one, to the shock on day two, to the excitement on day three, and finally to calm acceptance on day four—it had taken William just four days to become a millionaire. If it weren't for the system, he might've already given up and lived a lazy life. But fate had other plans for him. He believed he had a greater mission than enjoying a rich life: to build an empire of the ninth art—gaming.
The system never said this out loud or gave him a clear goal, but William just knew.
After seeing the bank deposit, he could finally go to sleep in peace. Not sure if that had become a good habit or a bad one.
That night, he slept without any dreams.
When William got up the next morning and stepped out of his room, he remembered that Aunt Lisa and the others had stayed the night at Uncle Zach's place. They probably wouldn't be back until the evening, which meant no breakfast or lunch today—and dinner would depend on what time they got back.
Cynthia had booked a flight for tomorrow morning and asked William to go apartment hunting with her in the afternoon. That worked out, since William also needed a place to live. He had only looked at spaces for the studio before.
He first took a cab to the studio. The computer store owner had said all five computers were set up last night. William didn't bother to check—if anything was wrong, he'd just return them or get someone else to do it.
The studio was in a new office building called New Fortune Tower, developed by the New Fortune Group. It had 39 floors, and their studio was in unit 1208.
Next to the shiny new tower was an old residential neighborhood. The outdated buildings were surrounded by modern high-rises. On one side was daily life, on the other was the workplace. Two very different worlds clashing together made for an oddly striking scene.
Some older men were still wearing tank tops, eating breakfast at roadside stalls. Meanwhile, young office workers in suits were walking into the building, waiting for the elevator.
The retired guy might be getting 200 dollar a month, and the office worker might be earning 2000 dollar. Both had a promising future.
But in reality, the young guy might only be making 500 dollar, while the old man could be sitting on an entire apartment building collecting rent.
William bought a bag of fresh soy milk and two tea eggs from a street vendor, then walked into New Fortune Tower in his thin cotton jacket, completely out of place with the people around him.
As expected, Charlie from the computer store did a solid job. All five computers were set up with desks—three in the main work area, and one each in the two private offices. All the cables were plugged in, even the network cables were ready. Now they just had to wait for the telecom guy to hook up the internet and install the fiber modem.
They were supposed to come at 8 a.m. It was already ten minutes past.
Waited another 7 or 8 minutes, and finally got a call from Telecom.
From installing the modem to setting up the network, it took just twenty minutes to get everything done.
After seeing the technician off, William walked over to the front desk of the studio. There was still no company nameplate, and in fact, the company's logo hadn't even been decided yet.
He picked a nearby computer, ready to design the studio's logo. But just as he got started, he suddenly felt the environment around him change.
A familiar desk.
"Why did you pull me back into the private space?"
'You didn't go back to the private space. The private space came to the real world.'
The system's explanation left William a bit confused, but when he looked around carefully, the blank white surroundings were gone—he was still in the studio.
"What's the point of this?"
He didn't get why he had to use the private space's computer when he already had access to a regular one.
'The books you've gained only work automatically inside the private space. If you use a regular computer, you'll have to memorize the content yourself.'
"Seriously?"
Just as William said that, the system removed the private space. Looking at the computer, he felt like something was missing. Then the system projected the private space again, and that feeling instantly went away.
Alright then.
"Other people can't see it, right?"
'They can't.'
"So can other people see what I'm doing on the computer?"
'System-related stuff will be hidden automatically, like the data after the game is released.'
In other words, everything else can be seen normally.
As for the Earth Games logo, William had already had a rough idea when he first came up with the name. He wanted to use an image of a sunrise taken from a space station and make it into a flat design.
He spent one reputation point to download an ultra-high-res image from NASA, then edited it in Photoshop. The background image for the logo was done easily. Next was designing the "Earth Games" part.
In the original image, Earth was pitch black because it was backlit. William pulled light patterns from other satellite photos and used a program to generate the words "Earth Games," adding them into the darkened Earth like city lights. And with that, the full logo was finished.
He sent the file to Cynthia, asking her to find a patent firm to register the trademark, and then contact an ad agency to make a printed version to put on the wall at the studio's front desk.
If nothing goes wrong, the approval for the company registration should be done by Monday—tomorrow. At that point, Earth Games will officially go from a sole proprietorship to a legally recognized limited company.
Tencent's WeChat Games had made a strong debut thanks to Earth Games. Now, the official debut of Earth Games itself couldn't be any weaker. William didn't expect to beat Jump Jump in sales—after all, WeChat's platform is one of a kind—but if he could release a game that convinced the hesitant ones that the gaming industry was worth it, and that success was truly possible, then Earth Games could secure a solid place in the industry—and even surpass WeChat Games in reputation.
So the real question is: what kind of game should he make?