Two days later.
With his savings almost depleted, Chen Ba tried sending out a few resumes, hoping to find some temporary work.
Unfortunately, his career seemed bleak; the resumes received as much attention as the love letters he sent out in high school—absolutely none.
"It's hard to make money, and even harder to eat crap!"
Biting into a big, white bun, finding it tasteless, Chen Ba added some Grandma's spicy sauce.
This was his lunch.
Self-proclaimed independent game developer, he was practically half-unemployed, currently suffering from a severe lack of income. If he didn't save, he might not even afford the rent.
Yesterday, Wang Kun told him that the gaming channel influencer had agreed to make a video for the "Cold Window Study Simulator."
"Bro, you're gonna go viral!"
Wang Kun was excited, thinking that with the promotion by such an influencer, Chen Ba's game would quickly gain popularity.
But Chen Ba wasn't as optimistic.
Just a game video blogger with 170,000 followers, even if the video gained some traction, it would likely not convert into game sales.
Especially for a game like "Cold Window Study Simulator," where it's dull to play after watching someone else play through it once.
"If I can sell a hundred copies, I'll be grateful! I don't have high hopes; if total sales reach a thousand, I'll treat you to a big meal..."
Chen Ba, who checked the game sales daily, knew very well that the game's sales only numbered seven to date.
No kidding!
Over the past two days, there had been only two additional "real" players.
There were, however, a few more comments.
The previously empty comment section suddenly had two positive reviews. Looking at the game time, both were hardcore players with over 10 hours of playtime.
One user named "Singing and Dancing Rap"—Chen Ba guessed it was Wang Kun, rendering the positive review quite meaningless.
The other player who gave a full-star glowing review was nicknamed "Qian Duoduo," which coincidentally was the same name as the gaming channel influencer Wang Kun mentioned.
Chen Ba had been monitoring him closely.
Since Wang Kun had recommended "Cold Window Study Simulator" to this influencer, Chen Ba had been checking the influencer's latest updates daily.
After two days of waiting, there hadn't been any activity.
"Hope he didn't bail on me…"
Chen Ba muttered to himself. Wasn't he supposed to make a video on "Cold Window Study Simulator"? How come it's two days now and still nothing?
As he began to suspect that the influencer might have played the game and found it not worth the video's effort, his phone's notification bar suddenly popped up a message.
"Your subscribed influencer @Qian Duoduo has posted a new video. Come check it out on Thunderbolt!"
Oh?
Speak of the devil!
He quickly gulped down the soda, finished the bun, and opened Thunderbolt on his phone to find out if the video was the one he was hoping for.
"After three years of herding, I finally got into my dream high school. Dad, I've made it!"
Wow?
Quite the catchy title, huh?
When he saw this title, Chen Ba didn't realize the gravity of the situation. He just thought this influencer was quite funny to come up with such a "captivating" video title.
As they say, a good title ensures more views.
Just judging by this video title, Chen Ba felt it wouldn't get less than 200,000 views. If the thumbnail were slightly more eye-catching, 500,000 or even a million wasn't impossible.
It's like it was tailored perfectly for the audience!
...
"Hello everyone, it's Qian Duoduo here! Today, we're playing an ultra-realistic pixel-style simulation game—Cold Window Study Simulator!"
At the start of the video, Qian Duoduo's distinctive voice came through the speakers.
He skillfully named the character "Qian Duoduo," then entered the game, explaining the game content as he played.
"Now, don't be fooled by its abstract and rough visuals, this game's core is actually quite positive. It's more of a motivational learning game."
"At the start of the game, we play as a new seventh-grade student from a poor family, frequently sick..."
As the gameplay was edited to move quickly, Chen Ba knew that some irrelevant content had been cut by the influencer.
But that's normal.
Without editing, given the game's full run length, this video would span hours!
"... Okay, first semester ends, and we enter winter break with the fourth rank in the whole grade."
"To improve our grades as much as possible, we need to catch up on our lagging English subject experience over the break."
"I recommend arranging it like I did: first collect pig grass to accumulate learning motivation, then do side quests for buff bonuses..."
As the video progressed, many game plots unfolded before the audience, including classics like reading under the moon and father-son chats.
Since the video was recently uploaded, there weren't many comments yet.
But among the few comments were many viewers, like Qian Xin, who were captivated by the protagonist's tenacious and great character.
"Go, cowboy brother!"
"Truly a harsh study journey, clinging to a book no matter the weather. I see my past self in this."
"The villagers are so vicious..."
"Vicious might be too much, but gossip and snide remarks are true. I went through this myself."
The video continued playing.
With Qian Duoduo's commentary, viewers saw a protagonist who remained optimistic regardless of the troubles encountered.
This greatly moved everyone.
Knowledge changes destiny!
Seeing the game's protagonist work so hard to get into their desired high school deepened the understanding of this phrase for the viewers.
"732 points, third in the city!"
With a stream of "We are the champions" comments and flower emojis floating by, the video seemed to be wrapping up.
Chen Ba thought so too.
A 25-minute video almost covered the game's critical storyline events and the core gameplay thoroughly.
Unsuspectingly, this should be the end of it.
But then Chen Ba noticed the video progress bar still had a long way to go. Did he guess wrong, and there was more undiscovered game content?
"... Seeing Qian Duoduo getting into his desired high school, I think you all feel happy and proud of his achievements as I do."
"The term 'Cold Window Study' sounds simple, but without personal experience, its hardship remains a mystery."
"I think Qian Duoduo deserves a better ending! So, I choose to delete this save file and start anew..."
Ah?
Not satisfied with being third place in the city?
Seeing Qian Duoduo delete the save file and start fresh, Chen Ba was stunned.
What is this?
Being third place in the city is already one of the excellent outcomes offered by the game.
As for being first in the city...
It's not impossible, but it's extremely difficult!
You need to grasp every in-game event buff without making mistakes to potentially achieve first place in the city.
Is it necessary?
As the game's developer, Chen Ba knew better than anyone how hard it was to achieve the perfect ending. The perfect ending's mere purpose was to challenge players craving game achievements.
It's just one video, and it doesn't seem necessary to spend so much time grinding for a perfect ending, does it?
"With my keen observation, I discovered a game Bug where the herding event conflicts with the school event."
"In other words, during school hours, if you're busy herding, it triggers a Bug, skipping the intended school event, leading to an infinite herding event loop."
"And most importantly, learning motivation can stack indefinitely! Since learning motivation boosts subject experience efficiency, here's the question..."
"If I herd for three consecutive years and start studying just the day before the exams, what would happen?"
What?!
This time, Chen Ba was truly shocked.
Watching Qian Duoduo exploit the Bug in the video, endlessly using the herding Bug to herd for three entire years, doing nothing but herding and sleeping until energy was drained...
What does herding for three years mean?
It means that the stacked "learning motivation" reached a frightening seven-digit number.
A seven-digit learning motivation created a miracle.
The game's protagonist, Qian Duoduo, herded for three years without attending school, crammed the day before exams, and scored 748 points, ranking first in the city.
"???"
"Give me back my emotions!"
"LOL, how could such an absurd Bug exist..."
"More than the absurdity of this Bug, I think the influencer is even more amazing; he actually triggered this Bug!"
"Is he truly a genius?"
In the comments section, viewers were as bewildered as Chen Ba by this outlandish Bug, let alone the audience in front of their screens.
This... this really works?