934: Jingke and Bai Qiao

Jingke and Bai Qiao

Gifts for establishing diplomatic ties were very important. The heads of state didn't straightaway decide what their gifts would be during the live broadcast of the meeting this time. A cosmic gem was deeply significant, and it wouldn't be easy for them to offer a gift of the same value… Thus, those at the meeting who proposed to offer their local specialties as gifts were immediately vetoed.2

Even if they did offer a gift pack containing the local specialties of the various countries, this would only be one item on the list. Specialty snacks could only be regarded as extras and in no way the main gift; otherwise, the people of Divine Dao Star would definitely laugh at mankind.

In terms of the vast array of local specialties in Huaxiu alone, they could create a huge snack pack.

That same day, the Academy of Science received a task: They had to use their huge amount of data to choose the 100 most popular precious specialties and snacks…

The instruments at the Academy of Science were very efficient, and that night, they came up with a list of items based on the volume of online market orders.

Latiao, bubblegum, figs, AD calcium milk, five-spice beans, hot and sour fish, sweet melon seeds, Pop Rocks… A number of nostalgic snacks were on the list.

After the Magic Artifact Research Institute released the list, Wang Ming immediately shared a copy with Wang Ling.

Wang Ling gave the list a look.

Mm…

Crispy noodle snacks weren't on the list.

Wang Ming sent a text message to explain: "Relax. Actually, crispy noodle snacks ranked pretty high, but I tampered with the list and deleted it. How can such a good snack be given to aliens to eat!"

Reading this message, which looked like it was waiting for praise, Wang Ling was blank at first.

After a long time, he replied to Wang Ming, "You have received +1 favor from Wang Ling…"

"Why is it only +1? Shouldn't it be +999?" Wang Ming frowned.

Staring at the screen, Wang Ling laughed gently.

He knew his idiot older brother's personality too well – this guy couldn't be praised casually, or he would definitely be walking on air!

However, Wang Ming was still so incredibly happy that he didn't sleep a wink that night.

...

It was September 3rd, the twenty-first day of the summer vacation.

The number of online users playing Bai Qiao's game Cultivation Emulator had officially broken fifty million, which was an unprecedented number in the history of online gaming. The new game Apex Hero which was ranked second only had a few million online users.

The main thing was that this was only the number of players for the second round of beta testing. For the second round, Wang Ming had deliberately relaxed the limit on the number of account applications and had given out tens of millions of beta accounts; in the end, they were still all snapped up in a matter of seconds.

Even Bai Qiao herself never expected the game she had created to actually be so popular.

If this trend continued, it might become the first online game with more than 100 million users once the official version was released.

But there were two sides to every coin. Some people liked the game, and naturally there would be some who hated it.

Bai Qiao scrolled through the ratings for the game. The average rating for Cultivation Emulator on the various major game review websites was 8.3, which was quite a good score. However, her complexion turned a little ugly after she clicked open the assessment page, because there were actually a lot of one-star negative comments in the comments section.

At the front desk of the Office of Strategic Deception's Internet cafe, Bai Qiao skimmed through these bizarre negative comments.

Some even gave odd reasons.

Negative comment 1: ★☆☆☆☆

Comment: I've never played this game, but the name doesn't sound nice. I don't like it.

Negative comment 2: ★☆☆☆☆

Comment: It's unusual to have too high a score, so I deliberately gave a one-star rating to bring down this abnormally high score. To be honest, it's disappointing that our country's games have developed to this worrying extent. Mixiu has already released so many games with a similar theme; this game just added the cultivation element. I haven't played it, but I think it's nothing new. Even in terms of game design and special effects, it can't compare with Mixiu's games. I don't know why there are so many five-star comments. Disappointing!

Negative comment 3: ★★☆☆☆

Comment: There was a commemorative CD for the game's beta test, and I initially wanted to give it to my boyfriend to cheer him up. In the end, the express delivery went missing. When my boyfriend contacted the courier who specializes in delivering games, the courier had a bad attitude, asking if he was a small bitch or a big bitch. Not only did the courier lose the delivery, he even cursed other people and called them bitches. How can we be relieved playing such a game?

Additional Comment: Sorry. I asked my boyfriend again, and he said that the courier didn't scold him, but was asking if it was a small delivery or a large delivery[1]… My boyfriend got it wrong. May I ask if the rating can be modified? I realize that I can't change it, how embarrassing.

Negative comment 4: ★☆☆☆☆

Comment: Sorry, it's me again, I was the one who wrote the last comment. After my boyfriend played this game, he found it boring. I initially registered for this alternate account to give five stars, but my boyfriend said it wasn't a fun game, sorry…

Skimming through these comments, the ahoge on top of Bai Qiao's head was about to explode in anger. "This group of trolls! What are they squawking about online?! How can they simply evaluate the game without ever playing it?"

"Mrs Boss, don't be mad. These are all cloud players, it's very normal. Besides cloud players, there are also cloud readers and cloud spectators[2]. Whether something is truly good or bad, they'll only go with the flow and think that what they believe is right." Next to Bai Qiao, Su Xing smiled.

After the Office of Strategic Deception's Internet cafe resumed operation, there had been a lot of new customer registrations these days, and many sect heads had bought annual cards for the Internet cafe.

From what Su Xing could see, Bai Qiao was quite financially savvy, and wasn't just an ordinary female otaku.

Cultivation Emulator was now trending at home and abroad, and Bai Qiao promoted it online. As long as you played the game at the Office of Strategic Deception's Internet cafe, your game data would be saved on the Internet cafe's terminals.

This drew a lot of tourists to visit them.

At the same time, this drove of tourists also spurred the Office of Strategic Deception's other industries: the sect's internal spa center, the music center, the video game center, the immortal sword IMAX movie theater… all of them felt the impact of the Internet cafe as large numbers of rich tourists visited them.

"Anything that becomes a hit will definitely attract trolls. Mrs Boss, you just have to accept it," Su Xing placated her on the side.

Listening to him, Bai Qiao felt something wasn't right. "Wait, who are you calling Mrs Boss???"

"Lord Jingke is the boss, so aren't you the boss's wife…" Su Xing said.

Bai Qiao's entire face turned red. "Nonsense! I – I'm not the boss's wife! He's just a little brat! Besides, we've only joined together once! And it was only for ten minutes, he couldn't continue after that!"

Su Xing: "…Wasn't it because it was your first joining, so you couldn't keep it up for long…"

Hands on her hips, Bai Qiao lectured him. "In short, you're not allowed to call me that! I'm not the boss's wife!"

"Okay, Mrs Boss."

"Oh, right, go look for Jingke! I need to talk to him."

"No problem, Mrs Boss."

"…"

[1] 贱 in 贱货 'bitch' and 件 in 大件货 'large delivery' are homophones ('jian') in Chinese.

[2] Describing people as "clouds" refer to those who don't engage directly with the media itself.

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