6 PM, nightfall.
As soon as Tencent made their announcement, Jump Jump was launched on WeChat.
[Sponsored Task Complete – Reputation Points +3]
Since Jump Jump is a WeChat mini-program and doesn't require downloading, the stats it displays are for total active users and current online users.
Jump Jump
Current Online Users: 21,209,101
Total Active Users: 23,102,748
[Jump Jump hits over 1 million active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Jump Power +1]
[Jump Jump hits over 5 million active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Jump Power +1]
[Jump Jump hits over 10 million active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Jump Power +1]
Three milestone unlocks popped up one after another—and soon, a fourth one followed.
[Jump Jump hits over 50 million active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Jump Power +1]
This is insane. Totally insane.
William stared at the skyrocketing active user count of Jump Jump, eyes fixed on the screen. No one knew where the limit would be.
[Growth Path Unlocked — Global Online]
[Game active users exceed 50 million]Reputation Points +5
[Jump Jump hits over 100 million active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Jump Power +1, Bronze Chest ×1]
Total active users passed 100 million!
William's breathing grew heavier as the numbers on the screen kept rising. Unlike previous games, Jump Jump didn't seem to have a cap on its milestones. After the fifth milestone was unlocked, another one appeared, but this time with no details—just a "???".
200 million.
300 million.
400 million.
The jump in numbers happened in just a few minutes. The only downside was that mini-programs don't charge by traffic, so profits still depend on ad placements and in-app purchases. But judging from the current total active users, running an ad in Jump Jump might soon cost more than a prime-time slot on national TV.
When Jump Jump passed 500 million total active users, yet another milestone unlocked.
[Jump Jump hits over 500 million active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: Bronze Chest ×1]
No jump power this time. William hadn't tested it yet, but after all the previous jump power upgrades, his legs felt incredibly strong—like he could leap into the sky.
[Growth Path Unlocked — Global Online]
[Game active users exceed 100 million]Reputation Points +10
What a rewarding night. Earlier, William had been worried he wouldn't have enough reputation points, but now he casually downloaded cocos2dx, checking one more item off his list.
Extra reputation points could also be used to download art assets, novels, TV shows, and more from Earth—there were tons of options. But William didn't really need any of them right now, so he decided to just save them for later.
Apparently, the game engine itself could also be upgraded using reputation points.
The system seemed to read William's thoughts and gave him a reminder.
He opened the Cocos2dx engine, and sure enough, there was an upgrade option in the settings.
The upgrade service was a little different from what William had in mind.
The first upgrade required ten reputation points—already twice the value of Cocos2dx. After the upgrade, Cocos2dx would become a commercial version, meaning it could be shared for others to download and use, and William could earn a portion of the profits.
Turning Cocos2dx into a commercial product wasn't a bad thing. In fact, what investors needed most to enter the game industry was an entry ticket—a game engine. Without one, it's still possible to make a game, but it would end up like Snake—basic gameplay, simple visuals, and weak story.
What held them back the most was the lack of tools. Without convenient tools, developers would waste a lot of time and effort, and wouldn't be able to manage resources properly. Development time, device compatibility, and testing would all become big problems. That's one of the reasons the game industry never took off.
In other words, once Cocos2dx was released commercially, it could push Blue Star's game industry ahead by decades, bringing it straight to the early 21st century level on Earth.
There was no rush to do this. Once the company was founded, Cynthia could take care of it.
After watching for a while, the total number of active users for Jump Jump passed the one billion mark without any slowdown. At the same time, WeChat Games also announced Jump Jump's achievement. Tencent's first move into the gaming world was a huge success.
[Jump Jump Active Users Surpass One Billion! Milestone Unlocked!]
[Milestone Reward: 1 Bronze Chest]
After the total active users crossed one billion, the growth clearly entered a slower phase. It wasn't as explosive as before, but still growing by millions every few minutes. The next milestone would take some time, so William could finally relax. Any more excitement and he might've had a heart attack.
That was intense!
He slumped in his chair for a while before coming back to his senses and looking at the two bronze chests beside him.
Time to open them!
[You got [Writing (Beginner)]]
[Scriptwriting] Lv2 → Lv6
William's head was instantly filled with ideas, all related to the plot of Life Restart Simulator. He suddenly realized his previous scripts had a lot of room for improvement.
Resisting the urge to start editing, he opened the second chest.
[You got [Design Boost Card] ×1]
An item?
William checked the description: The Design Boost Card temporarily raises the user's design level for 24 hours, increasing it by 1 to 3 points.
For some reason, William wasn't disappointed at all. In fact, he felt like this was exactly the kind of thing a bronze chest should contain.
He opened the third chest. It was another boost card—yep, that seemed to be the norm for bronze chests.
When he left the personal space, his phone was flooded with WeChat messages.
Almost all of them were from Cynthia, along with a message from Aunt Lisa.
Aunt Lisa had been called over to her in-laws' house that evening, probably because of the argument the night before. William didn't know the details and didn't ask.
Cynthia was just as excited as William. She might not have William's cheat system, but she could still access Jump Jump's backend data through Tencent, and was messaging him every few minutes. By now, she had sent over 40 messages, all full of excitement that practically jumped off the screen.
"There's going to be even more from now on."
It's not that William was trying to act cool—he honestly didn't know what to say.
Cynthia replied right away with a bunch of exclamation marks. Her excitement was obvious.
In fact, there were already plenty of apps with over a billion users, but those were special cases—apps that couldn't really be replaced. Jump Jump was the first game ever to hit the one-billion-user mark. This was a major moment in gaming history and would definitely be remembered.
Aunt Lisa's message was much more direct. She told William to ask Earth Games for better terms and not to let them take advantage of him.
She said this mostly because of the Easter egg William had added to the game. Don't forget, the game's music came straight from Piano Tiles, and the person who created those tracks was William himself. He definitely deserved a bigger share—and truthfully, he would get it.
He replied to Aunt Lisa with a reassuring emoji. No one knew the situation better than he did.
While William was celebrating Jump Jump hitting one milestone after another and unlocking yet another skill book from the bronze chest, on the other side of Blue Star, a man named Marcus had just finished a 20+ hour challenge of playing "Flight of the Bumblebee."