Cynthia dipped a finger in the cream and put it in her mouth. "I always get fooled by your looks and forget that inside you're more like an uncle. Don't tell me you really are some uncle who crossed over into this body?"
William's heart skipped a beat. He knew she was joking, but he still felt uneasy, like his secret had been exposed.
"You've read too many novels. Maybe it's just like they say—kids from poor families grow up faster. That's why my heart doesn't match my appearance."
Cynthia didn't argue. She tapped the little figure with her finger and said, "Yet every song you play feels so dreamy."
William felt innocent in all this. After all, none of those songs were composed by him.
"Did you settle things?" Cynthia didn't push the other topic.
"Yeah, she agreed." William nodded. "I think the music division should still be independent. As for shares, half go to the company, the other half to Tiffany. All her expenses will be covered by headquarters."
"Got it."
After saying that, Cynthia was about to leave.
William said, "Wait. About today—I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make things so awkward, it's just…"
"No need to say more." Cynthia cut him off. "If you start explaining, it'll never end. If you really want to apologize, then just cover tonight's bill."
William gave a bitter smile. "Of course, I never planned to refuse. I was just thinking of what to say to join you guys, but somehow I made a mess of it."
"Next time just say it straight."
"Yeah, I will." William nodded. "One more thing—could you help me get two tickets to the live taping of Craftsman Wood?"
Cynthia stared at him quietly for two seconds. "For someone else?"
"Yeah, Tiffany wants to go."
"Got it."
"Thanks."
"No need. I'm only doing what you told me to."
With that, Cynthia went back upstairs.
"System."
[Here.]
"If one day I reach my biggest goal, after finishing all the tasks… what then?"
is being analyzed.
"Forget it, don't say any more."
William was afraid of getting a truth he couldn't handle. Even though he had been here for over a month, his heart still hadn't settled down.
00:00
Happy Match Mania: 382,300
Happy Mahjong: 500,320
Happy Landlord: 702,293
Because of the rush-to-a-hundred-million event, Happy Match Mania pulled in a lot of new players, and revenue also spiked. But the same problem remained: if the speed of adding new levels can't keep up with how fast most players clear them, the revenue will keep falling.
Only by fixing the random-generation algorithm can this problem be solved. Once that's done, adding hundreds of levels at once won't be hard anymore.
But that had to wait until the new staff arrived, since William left this task as a test for Claire.
Happy Mahjong's income passed 500,000 for the first time, which means total recharge reached $278.541. It was the first time for this game—a day worth remembering.
Actually, Happy Mahjong's revenue was being held down on purpose. Both the Mahjong Association and WeChat Games had been limiting how much players could recharge. After all, before the country issued any clear policy, games that carried a gambling flavor—even without real money trading—would still cause a negative impact.
If one day news broke out about some kid secretly spending a million with their parents' account, that would be a real disaster.
So, Happy Landlord was in a similar situation. The only reason it earned the most among the three games was because there was no association taking a cut.
That idea actually came from William. On Earth, there had been many cases of underage spending, so from the start he suggested setting recharge limits. Even though there hadn't been any refund cases on Blue Star yet, as more and more recharge-based games came out, the chance of such accidents happening would grow.
The associations and WeChat Games also thought about policy risks. All in all, they still had to tread carefully.
Once the games broke out of their circle, things might change. Foreign markets had very different rules compared to domestic ones. They didn't limit online entertainment. They even had paid streams that minors weren't allowed to watch. So it was likely online gambling wouldn't be restricted either.
Not only would Happy Mahjong get an international version, the next WeChat Game would be Happy Texas Hold'em, planned for release in the North American market, launching at the same time as Happy Mahjong's overseas version.
With one of the world's top unicorn companies backing them, resources were never in short supply.
For Earth Games to get a title released abroad was almost impossible. Even Jump Jump, which was wildly popular across the Chinese-speaking world, still hadn't made it overseas.
The brand that signed the Jump Jump ad must regret it deeply now. A game that gained over 3 billion cumulative active users in just days now had only about a million daily players. They might never see the ad money, since contract breach clauses aren't just for show.
Because of that, WeChat Games wasn't going to waste effort pushing Jump Jump overseas anymore.
William wanted to build his own platform to expand abroad, but for now, without fully securing a place in the Chinese-speaking markets, it wasn't realistic.
Even if some games were a perfect fit for foreign culture, the money and manpower required were far beyond what Earth Games could handle now.
The current goal was to wait until all the new staff joined and then finish developing Honor of Kings. After they had stable revenue, they could start planning long-term growth.
Time passed.
Before heading out in the morning, William got a call from the renovation company. They said all the soft decoration in the new office was finished. Once inspection was done, they could move in.
In recent days, Cynthia had been interviewing new hires. Sixteen had already been agreed on: three programmers, six artists, four animators, two modelers, and one writer.
While waiting to start, William gave them study materials, mainly about learning how to use the game engine. The rest they would get used to after officially joining.
In the morning, he went to check out the new place. The big office was divided into six sections, each for a different department.
The art department, including illustrators and modelers.
The programming department.
The testing department, which for now had only Marcus.
The planning department, which was still empty.
The last two areas were a meeting room and a dining space. William's office was placed in the planning department.
All the dividers inside were transparent glass, so the departments could be seen at a glance.
Of course, the cubicles had enough cover so people wouldn't be staring at their boss every time they looked up.
After checking the new place, he went to see the apartment building. The facilities were complete, ready to move in.
The next issue was moving the old employees. Having two groups split across two locations would hurt management, unless they officially made the new office a separate studio.
The problem was that there weren't enough managers. Claire wasn't ready to handle running a whole studio yet.
Over lunch, William brought up the new office again. Everyone at the table felt a little reluctant to leave the small studio where they had worked for more than twenty days.
It might have been small, but the atmosphere was great, and they often got to eat at William's house. The new office would be a very different experience.
Even though they were a little reluctant at first, once William offered to cover the broken lease or extra rent, said new staff would need their guidance, and promised a 10% raise on top of their current pay, they finally let go of their worries.
Among the group, only Angela and Zach didn't need an apartment. Angela already had a place in Riverdale and a kid to look after.
Zach's situation was about the same. Because of Jenny's kindergarten, he could only stay at his current place.
So William gave the two of them a transportation subsidy and allowed them to be fifteen minutes late for work.
With everything set up, after the weekend, on Monday everyone would start working at the new office with their new teammates.