OFR – Chapter 130 Huge Recharge.

Mu Bai paused his action of closing the chat page when he noticed the glowing lines of text that had just appeared in front of him.

He hadn’t expected the system to issue a side quest related to the gaming industry this time.

Mu Bai didn’t know much about the gaming industry.

Throughout his life, the only games he had played were classics like Snake, Solitaire, and Tetris—games so old-fashioned they were practically antiques.

But his lack of knowledge aside, with the system issuing a gaming investment side quest and the rewards being so tempting, he had no reason to refuse.

Moreover, Mu Bai was aware that gaming was one of the most lucrative industries on the internet, outshining even e-commerce in profitability.

Currently, leading large-scale internet companies such as the Penguin Empire and NetOne were primarily focused on the gaming business.

The so-called “national mobile game” Honor of Kings and the most lucrative Fantasy Westward Journey were products of the Penguin Empire and NetOne, respectively.

Together, these two games alone generated a combined annual profit of three to four billion yuan.

It was clear that the gaming industry was the most profitable segment of the internet at the moment.

Now that there was a side quest, coupled with the promising outlook of the gaming industry, Mu Bai decided to start learning about games.

It wasn’t that he was looking to make money through gaming—it was simply about completing the side quest. Besides, he was also considering using games to kill time.

“Let’s start with this official-rank simulation game.”

After some thought, Mu Bai decided to download the mobile game.

The game file was about 100MB.

Download, installation, and completion—everything was done in no time.

Once the installation was complete, Mu Bai glanced at the game, noticing that its name was “High Office and Power”.

“High Office and Power? So, it’s about ancient officialdom?”

Seeing these keywords on the game’s main page, Mu Bai felt a slight spark of interest.

He registered an account and password on the main page and clicked “log in.”

As the game loaded, a progress bar appeared. When the bar hit 100%, the page flashed, and Mu Bai entered the game.

He wasn’t sure if it was due to a lack of budget or the limited skills of the animation designers, but the in-game visuals seemed quite crude.

Still, since this was just about experiencing the game, Mu Bai didn’t nitpick and patiently continued playing.

After about 20 to 30 minutes of gameplay, Mu Bai found that although the visuals were crude, the storyline was engaging.

The game was set during the Ming Dynasty, and its levels were based on official ranks.

Players started as lowly Ninth-Grade Officials and worked their way up step by step to higher ranks.

During the journey, players could recruit capable subordinates, gather resources like food, silver, and soldiers, and strengthen their forces.

There were also entertaining side missions like punishing criminals, tutoring wives, and holding court trials, which added a lot of fun to the game.

These mini-games significantly enhanced the overall gameplay experience.

Before he realized it, Mu Bai found the game to be pretty decent. It was straightforward and easy to learn, making it accessible even for newcomers like him who weren’t well-versed in gaming.

Time flew, and soon it was noon.

By then, the game’s beta server had seen over two to three hundred players log in.

The game’s world chat channel had also become lively with various messages.

[VIP3] A Pear Blossom Pressing the Crabapple: “Haha, finally promoted from an eighth-grade official. This game’s pretty fun, much better than other official-rank simulation games.”

Gentleman: “Agreed! Especially the court trial mini-game, which has seven to eight random scenarios to choose from. Each choice offers different rewards—big kudos to the developers for the effort!”

Yunlong: “Yep, thumbs up to the devs! The visuals may not be great, but the storyline and gameplay are top-notch!”

Golden Light: “When it’s officially released, I’ll definitely play it and show my support!”

[VIP5] Spending Money Feels Great: “The game’s awesome, and spending money on it feels even better! I’ve already cleared the seventh rank and can now establish alliances.”

“Wow, VIP5? That’s 1,000 yuan! This is a beta test; that’s practically throwing money away!”

“Well, they’re rich! For the wealthy, having fun is what matters most!”

“Exactly! VIP5 players get high-growth subordinates and can even claim the developer’s voiced heroine as a lady to take home and flirt with!”

“LOL! Spending money makes you stronger, and spending money lets you tease the developers!”

…

Messages kept flooding the chat channel.

Time passed quickly in the gaming world, and it was soon 12 PM.

In an apartment near the Nantong Express Delivery branch in Nanjing, a beautiful woman in a red coat was reading the game’s chatroom feedback.

This woman was none other than Xu Jinhuan, the seller of the Golden Dragonfish on the forum a few days ago.

Xu Jinhuan was actually the owner of a small game company.

However, the gaming industry had long been dominated by giants like the Penguin Empire, NetOne, 360, and Xiaomi, leaving little room for smaller companies like hers.

Her company had been running for three to four years, but its annual net profit so far was only two to three million yuan.

After paying the salaries of her 11 or 12 employees, there wasn’t much left.

With no funds for promotion, the games her company developed remained relatively unknown.

“Sigh, let’s check the spending during this beta test to see how many players actually paid,” Xu Jinhuan muttered.

She knew there was a proportional relationship between beta test spending and official launch spending.

If players were willing to pay during a data-wiping beta, it indicated that more people would pay during the official release.

She turned her attention to the payment logs on her computer’s backend.

[Spending Money Feels Great]: 1,000 yuan.

[A Pear Blossom Pressing the Crabapple]: 200 yuan.

[Cold]: 10,000 yuan.

…

Seeing the payment list, Xu Jinhuan’s beautiful face lit up with a smile. This game’s spending performance was the best her company had seen in the past year.

Especially one player named Cold, who had already spent 10,000 yuan.

“I hope this game can bring a good start to 2019,” she said, her voice full of hope.

After all, official-rank simulation games were still trending in the gaming market.

Just as she expressed her wish, the system’s VIP notification suddenly chimed.

“Ahem.”

Xu Jinhuan knew this was the private customer service privilege she had set for VIP8 users who spent over 50,000 yuan.

Since it was just a beta, no private customer service had been assigned, so the messages were sent directly to her GM account.

Curious, she opened the message to see which big spender had reached VIP8 so quickly.

Meanwhile, players in the game were also stunned by the sudden appearance of this mysterious tycoon.