That evening.
Lin Feng and Li Jun sat together, staring at the screen.
The analytics dashboard displayed the final numbers for the day.
600 sales.
As expected, it hadn't gotten much better after the morning.
Li Jun leaned back in his chair.
"Is this considered a flop?"
Lin Feng smiled as he got up from his seat.
"Well, not necessarily. This is just day one."
He stretched his arms.
"A lot can happen from tomorrow onwards."
He walked over to his bed and sat down.
"Besides, even if it's a flop, we can use this as a learning experience."
He laid back, pulling the covers over himself.
"Goodnight."
Li Jun remained glued to his screen.
They had worked so hard for this.
Specifically Lin Feng.
With all the detailed planning he had done. All the care he had put into it. There was no way he wouldn't care about it.
Yet he just went to sleep like nothing was wrong.
Li Jun raised his phone.
Maybe I should make some calls.
His finger hovered over the contacts.
Then he paused.
No.
He didn't want that.
He was proud of the game he had made. Just as much as Lin Feng was. He wanted to make it succeed as himself.
He lowered the phone.
Then his expression suddenly brightened.
Ah, those guys.
Maybe they could help.
He had a group for gaming. Over ten thousand members. If he posted the link to the game there, maybe it might get some sales.
It just needed enough to generate some organic traffic.
Some of those guys were streamers too. If they got interested enough to play it on stream, that would be great.
To be honest, the day's sales weren't bad.
With their pricing of 70 yuan - about ten dollars for those in the West - if they could maintain that level of daily traffic just for the remaining days of the month alone, they should be able to make a decent amount.
Even considering the 30% platform cut.
He made his decision.
His fingers moved across the screen, typing out a message. He attached the game link, added a brief description, and hit send.
He watched as the message appeared in the group chat.
Then he closed his phone and leaned back.
Let's see what happens.
…
Tuesday, November 17th.
Lin Feng sat across from Mengqi in Su Yue's apartment.
"The MV is doing quite well," Mengqi said, scrolling through her phone. "It just released yesterday and it's already surpassed twenty million views."
She looked up.
"At this rate, it's on track to overtake the original audio release. That one has just over thirty million."
Lin Feng nodded.
"Good."
With the remaining days of the month, the streaming revenue should be enough for the company to cover its own expenses next month.
Maybe with a little help from the physical album sales too.
"Speaking of, how are the digital album sales going?"
Before Mengqi could answer, a knock came from the door.
Su Yue's eyes lit up.
"It's here!"
She jumped up from her seat, but Yanzi was already moving.
"I'll get it," the bodyguard said, making her way to the door.
Lin Feng watched as Yanzi opened it and spoke briefly with whoever was outside.
"Did you order something?" he asked Su Yue.
"That's right."
A moment later, Yanzi returned carrying several boxes stacked in her arms.
Lin Feng raised an eyebrow.
"What's this?"
"PC parts," Su Yue said, practically bouncing on her heels. "I've been a little bored lately, so I thought I'd get into gaming during my free time."
She scratched her cheek.
"You told me about your game, but when I went to play it, I realized I didn't have a computer to play it on."
Lin Feng nodded slowly.
"You shouldn't have bothered. I would've bought you one anyway on the business's expense."
He leaned back.
"After all, during your upcoming stream, you can't just sit there selling albums. There would be a lot of dead air - and I don't really want you acting like those sales streamers."
He gestured vaguely.
"Well you could just sing, but I was thinking we could switch it up a little. Have you do something on the computer to entertain the chat."
Su Yue paused.
"Do something on the computer?"
Her expression shifted as something clicked.
"I got it!"
Lin Feng tilted his head.
"You got it?"
"Ah, it's nothing." She waved her hand dismissively. "Don't worry about it."
She turned back to the boxes Yanzi had set down.
"Anyway, I've always wanted to have my own PC. And I have my own money now, so there's no need for the company to buy it for me."
Lin Feng studied her for a moment, then nodded.
"I understand."
He held up a finger.
"But next time, if it's something relating to the job, there's no need to buy it yourself. You can just have the company cover it."
He paused.
"Within reason, of course."
Su Yue smiled.
"Okay."
…
Later that day, after finishing his teaching job, Lin Feng checked the game statistics.
He didn't have much hope. He wondered how far the numbers had dropped.
But when he opened the page, he was surprised.
Sales that day had exceeded a thousand - even better than release day.
Had something happened?
He wondered if some streamers had picked it up. But after checking, nothing much seemed to have changed on that front.
It seemed he could only wait for Su Yue to do her thing.
He wondered if he had given her enough of a hint with that comment about stream dead air.
He sighed.
If she can't figure it out, I'll just save up half a million yuan and sponsor her myself legitimately.
Even if the game doesn't end up making that much, it doesn't matter. I just need new money to enter the system balance.
…
Wednesday, November 18th.
Wednesday wasn't much different.
Lin Feng and Li Jun worked on a few things for the game, but it was mostly in its complete stage without much left to do. Lin Feng left the maintenance role to Li Jun and began working on a plan for their game engine project.
This required a lot of research, so he stayed quite busy.
Nothing much had changed on Su Yue's end. She was still training, releasing content, and promoting her second stream on Saturday.
As for the MV, its growth continued - it now had over thirty million views, quickly catching up with the original audio release in just its third day.
On the game's side, things weren't looking great. They had about 900 sales that day.
Looking at it, Lin Feng felt maybe it wasn't that bad.
As long as sales kept steady like this, it could actually benefit the stream - in case Su Yue fell for his trap. If her fanbase came to play the game because of her influence, it might be hard for them to stick around if the whole place was barren.
But if they could form a community, even a small one, before then, they should be able to hold onto the incoming fans. That would create an even greater community and help build hype for the game to be seen by even more people.