[Loyal Fan]
[Task: Give a reward to your loyal fan.]
[Reward: 1 Bronze Chest]
When William received the task, he was totally confused—until he heard the system prompt and checked the Piano Tiles backend. That's when he found out that a player named "Marcus" had completed all the music endurance challenges.
He remembered that name—Marcus had been the first player to beat "Moonlight Sonata." William had even replied to one of his comments back then. Now, just two days later, he had somehow cleared the ridiculously hard "Flight of the Bumblebee."
To honor that, William logged into the Earth Games account and posted a message on Weibo:
"Congratulations to player 'Marcus' for becoming the first to complete the endurance challenges for 'Für Elise,' 'Moonlight Sonata,' and 'Flight of the Bumblebee' in Piano Tiles! Our company will be gifting him a permanent personal-use license for all three tracks, composed by pianist William. From now on, any player who completes these challenges will receive a one-year personal-use license. Let's all give a big hand to Little Pony!"
After sending the message, William also used the backend to send Little Pony the download links for all three songs. He would receive them as soon as he logged into the game.
[Loyal Fan task completed. You received 1 Bronze Chest.]
Another bronze chest. William didn't even hesitate—he opened it right away.
[You received [Laser Focus] ×1]
Item: [Laser Focus] – When used on a target, that person will stay fully focused for 12 hours straight, with no drop in productivity.
"Used on a target?" William's eyes lit up. "Wait… I can use this on anyone?"
Yes.
This was great. A tool that could keep employees sharp and productive for 12 hours straight—it was every boss's dream.
Thinking back, William had always felt clear-headed and focused whenever he was in the private space. He never hit creative blocks, always had new ideas, and only needed to rest when his body gave out. Otherwise, he was in peak working condition all the time.
He asked the system about it, and the answer matched his guess.
The private space keeps your mental state at an active, focused level.
So basically, he was the first one being overworked.
He reopened the Life Restart Simulator script. Thanks to the boost from [Writing (Beginner)], he was ready to throw out everything he had written before and start from scratch.
As he wrote, he kept checking Jump Jump's data every few minutes. The number of active users kept climbing. At this rate, it would break 2 billion in just a few more hours.
Games like Piano Tiles also got a boost in downloads thanks to that Weibo post. Piano Tiles alone had already passed 40 million downloads and brought in nearly a million in revenue.
But the scariest one was still the officially promoted Classical Poetry Crossword. Last time he checked, it had only 20 million downloads. Now, it had crossed 50 million. And yet, it still hadn't unlocked the fifth milestone. Judging by this, the fifth milestone probably required 100 million downloads.
If it were yesterday, William might still feel like a hundred million was out of reach. But after seeing Jump Jump grow by that much in just minutes, it suddenly didn't feel so impossible—it was just a matter of time.
As for the milestone rewards from Classical Poetry Crossword, just like 2048, they didn't really make much difference. They slightly enhanced his classical poetry skills, which didn't help much, though they did give Life Restart Simulator a bit of an old-school charm, so it wasn't completely useless.
All that was left was to wait for the midnight payout. William felt like just lying down and doing nothing.
But thinking is one thing—he couldn't let short-term gains distract him from his bigger goals.
While he was working hard, Marcus was going wild.
"I'm in a good mood today, time to listen to some music."
Attached was a screenshot of a music player with only three songs: Für Elise, Moonlight Sonata, and Flight of the Bumblebee.
He posted this update on Weibo, his Moments, short video platforms, and in the comment section of Piano Tiles on every app store.
Because of this, his cousin rushed over that night, asking to hear the songs—and even wanted to copy them. Even though she promised not to share them, Marcus refused, just to be safe.
Blue Star had very strict copyright laws. Take the three songs William gave Marcus, for example—if Marcus was found sharing them or using them outside of personal permission, William had the right to revoke the license and demand compensation.
That's why, even though Piano Tiles had been out for several days, no one had uploaded full versions of the songs online, and people were still desperately asking for the full tracks under the short clips Marcus posted.
While Marcus didn't let his cousin make copies, he did let her listen as much as she wanted. This kind of secondary license couldn't be re-shared, so she could replay them all she liked, but couldn't pass it on.
His classmates, close friends, buddies, and relatives all got access too. In fact, the moment Marcus got the license to those three songs, he immediately sent a mass message to every WeChat friend and group, sharing one-time access to listen to them. But if they didn't tap it within a minute, the link expired.
Because of that, a lot of people who missed out or didn't get enough of it messaged him privately, hoping to get more plays.
This led to some interesting exchanges.
Things like buying him dinner, going on a date, inviting him to game, sending him gifts—there were all kinds of offers.
It was the first time Marcus had ever been this popular. And all because he was good at Piano Tiles.
"So I am amazing after all!"
Looking at the 99+ unread messages on WeChat, Marcus didn't reply—he just grinned at his phone like a fool. At that moment, he made a decision: he would forever support Earth Games. Whatever new game they made, he'd play it. If someone talked trash about Earth Games, he'd argue back. If someone praised Earth Games, he'd join in. Wherever Earth Games went, Marcus would follow.
From now on, Earth Games was like his second set of parents.
23:58
In the final two minutes of the day, Jump Jump reached 2 billion total active users! Over 500 million users were online at the same time!
[Jump Jump hits 2 billion active users! Milestone unlocked!]
[Milestone reward: 1x Silver Chest]
[Unlocks Growth Path — Global Online]
[Game passes 500 million concurrent users] +15 reputation points
The first silver chest!
As he looked at the gleaming silver chest, William's palms were starting to sweat.