Chapter 220
Half a month later.
Shenzhen, Penguin Headquarters.
The atmosphere was so stifling that it was hard to breathe.
Liang Dong stood in the center of the conference room, his eyes sunken, his usually refined face written all over with exhaustion.
He had not had a good night's sleep in a week.
On the large screen, the interfaces of two apps stood side by side.
On the left was the WeChat V1.0 that their team had spent countless hours painstakingly recreating pixel by pixel.
On the right was the latest V1.2 version of WeChat.
Just three days ago, WeChat had undergone a major version update.
Besides a complete optimization of the UI, they had also launched two brand-new features.
People Nearby and Message in a Bottle.
These two features ruthlessly hit the restless hormones of young users.
...According to our data, WeChat's registered users have surpassed five million in the past half month. Daily active users are stable at over three million.
Liang Dong's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper rubbing together.
They used the most simple and brutal cash-burning method to almost monopolize the social market of all key universities nationwide in an extremely short period.
Although our WeChat is almost identical in function to their V1.0 version, we... we have missed the best time to enter the market.
At the conference table, the executives were dead silent.
Looking at the comparison chart, a sense of powerlessness washed over them.
They had finally finished copying the homework.
Only to find out that the other guy had already finished the next set of exam papers.
This feeling was too frustrating.
In the main seat, Pony Ma's face was grim.
He stared dead at the two new features of WeChat on the screen without saying a word.
People Nearby... Message in a Bottle...
What lay behind these two seemingly simple features was a profound insight into human nature and social needs.
Just what was the background of that young man named Gu Ran?
Pony Ma...
Tony Zhang spoke cautiously.
What... what do we do now? Should WeChat still go online as planned?
Launch it!
Pony Ma slammed his hand on the table, his voice carrying an uncontrollable fury.
Not only launch it, but push it with every means possible!
QQ pop-ups, bundled installations, forced upgrades! I do not care what methods you use, within a week, I want WeChat's installation numbers to surpass WeChat's!
I refuse to believe that with eight hundred million users, I cannot beat a team of students!
Pony Ma's eyes were bloodshot.
It had been a long time since he lost his composure like this.
Since founding Penguin, he had always been the industry leader, the rule-maker.
He was used to looking down on everyone, used to using his own sheer size to crush all opponents.
But this time, he actually felt fear from a nameless young man.
...
WeChat officially launched.
Overwhelming promotion, accompanied by QQ's almost thuggish forced traffic diversion, swept across the entire internet.
Countless users, upon logging into QQ, would be greeted with an unignorable pop-up.
Congratulations on obtaining the WeChat closed beta qualification.
Whether they clicked it or not, the green icon would appear in the bottom right corner of their computer, forcibly taking up residence.
This overbearing and unreasonable promotion method.
Allowed WeChat's installations to break ten million in just three short days.
When the data was reported to Penguin Headquarters, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
I told you so, in the face of absolute traffic, all tricks are just flashy gimmicks.
That WeChat is probably crying in the bathroom right now, right?
Heh, he is still too green to fight us.
However, just when everyone thought the war was over.
A new data report extinguished everyone's passion.
[One week after WeChat's launch, the active user retention rate is less than five percent.]
[Over ninety percent of users, after experiencing WeChat, chose to uninstall it or never opened it again.]
In the conference room.
Pony Ma looked at the report, his hands trembling slightly.
Why?
He looked up, his gaze sweeping over everyone present.
Who can tell me, why on earth is this?!
Liang Dong stood up, his face paler than last time.
Pony Ma, I did some user research.
Most users' feedback is—my friends, classmates, and teachers are all using WeChat. Why should I use a WeChat that has the exact same functions but where I do not know a single person?
The core of a social app is not its functions, but... the relationship chain.
They lost.
Lost completely and utterly.
The so-called traffic advantage.
Was vulnerable and weak in front of the solid social barrier that WeChat had already built.
They could force users to install WeChat.
But they could not force the users' friends to migrate with them.
That young man named Gu Ran, he used half a month.
To dig an insurmountable moat that the Penguin Empire could not cross.
Good... well played, Gu Ran...
Pony Ma slumped back in his chair, his eyes losing focus.
...
Qinglin, GR Games Company.
The boss is awesome! We won!
Hahaha, I knew it! If we follow the boss, we will feast!
Penguin is nothing! In front of our boss, they are just little kids!
A group of tech nerds held up their sodas, cheering and jumping for joy.
Gu Ran stood by the window, quietly looking at his phone.
On the screen was a Moments post that Ye Zhenzhen had just updated.
[Dr. Ye: The weather is great today, the sunshine is great, and you... are also great. [Picture]]
The picture was a selfie of the young girl.
She was wearing a sky-blue shirt and white jeans.
Standing in the sunlight, smiling with her eyes curving into crescents.
Gu Ran looked at that smiling face, his eyes unconsciously softening.
He tapped on the comments and replied.
[Silly Bear: How great?]
Ding dong.
The phone quickly received a reply.
[Dr. Ye: So great that... I want you to stay by my side forever.]
Gu Ran's heart skipped a beat.
He put away his phone, turned around, and said to the crowd still celebrating.
Everyone.
Everyone quieted down and looked at him.
Defeating WeChat is only the first step of our Long March.
Our journey is the sea of stars.
He raised the soda in his hand and spoke loudly.
To our opponents.
And to... this great era.
Outside the window, a bright moon hung high in the night sky.
A new legend had only just begun.
......
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
