Chapter 252: Everything Was Going Exactly As He Had Expected
These past few days, Pei Qian has been quite busy.
He'd spent the entire summer vacation dealing with company affairs, and now that the new school term was approaching, he finally took some time off to go home and rest for a couple of days.
Of course, that rest came with some interrogation. For instance, his mother asked why he didn't appear in a new role in Feihuang Studio's latest show, A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor.
His answer was that he had moved to the behind the scenes.
This time, he didn't buy his family any new gifts either—they already had all the furniture and appliances they could possibly need. The next step would probably be upgrading to a bigger place.
Unfortunately, Pei Qian's personal funds weren't quite enough for that yet—he'd have to wait until the current "loss plan" was completed.
So after two days at home, Pei Qian hurried back to work, throwing himself into his job with renewed "enthusiasm."
When he returned to the office, he found that Li Yada's efficiency was, as always, impressive.
Turn Back Before It's Too Late had already been updated—fixing bugs where certain weapons made clearing the game too easy.
Pei Qian, however, was completely unaffected—his favorite weapon, Pudu (Salvation), hadn't been nerfed.
And since his route skipped straight from the Yellow Springs Road to the Six Paths of Reincarnation, the newly buffed areas like Forgetting River and Stone of Three Lifetimes didn't concern him at all.
After enduring a few more sessions of digital suffering, Pei Qian decided to take a break by watching some videos online.
He clicked open a video site—and immediately saw a familiar face.
Pei Qian froze. "Oh? Isn't that Zhang Zuting?"
Then he checked the date—right, today was the launch day for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition!
The ads were released in sync with the game, meaning they were already flooding the internet.
Pei Qian, who had been feeling drowsy a moment ago, instantly perked up. The drama he'd been planning to watch was forgotten—he quickly started checking how Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition was doing.
Now that Mingyun Private Kitchen had flopped, this game was his last hope for some peace of mind!
He opened several major websites—video platforms, gaming portals, and more—and sure enough, Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition ads were everywhere.
On video platforms, many game-related videos began with Zhang Zuting's unforgettable tagline looping endlessly:
"I'm Fried Pig Trotter! If you're my brother, come and gnaw on me!"
Under this overwhelming ad blitz, it was impossible for netizens not to notice.
Pei Qian quickly went to Aili Island, searched for the keyword "Zhang Zuting," and found a compilation of all those ads. He opened it and started reading the comments and bullet screens.
The video was titled:
"Fallen from Grace? Zhang Zuting's Browser Game Ad Compilation: 'I'm Fried Pig Trotter!'"
The comments perfectly captured the reactions of the average onlooker:
"As a fan of Teacher Zhang, I'm shattered… how broke is he to take this kind of ad gig?"
"Ugh, not another one of these polluting web game ads!"
"Honestly, it's not that bad. At least this one doesn't use sleazy or scammy bait like the usual street-corner garbage or 'desperate rich lady' lines. In the world of web game ads, this one's practically pure. Still, though—why ruin Zhang Zuting's reputation like this?!"
"Pfft—so that's what Zhang Zuting sounds like speaking Mandarin? I've only ever heard his dubbed lines in movies. Didn't expect his real accent to be so magical."
"Did they steal the art assets again?"
"Nah, Zhang Zuting confirmed on Weibo that he's been working with a game company lately. So yeah, it's definitely this ad."
"Come on, look on the bright side! Most web game ads are total scams—the footage has nothing to do with the actual game. But this one? They actually hired a real celebrity, used costumes and props that match in-game scenes, and the tagline even fits the gameplay! This might literally be the most honest web game ad of the year!"
The reactions from the onlookers weren't particularly intense.
After all, these internet veterans had seen everything.
Right now, browser games are at a critical turning point—the final period of glory for the industry, and also the most profitable one for the major companies.
And naturally, their advertising was beginning to "evolve" with the times.
During the wild west days of browser games, developers would shamelessly steal assets, not caring one bit about copyright infringement. Their marketing was just as crude—endless pop-ups and spammy "plaster ads" covering every inch of the internet.
But as the industry became more consolidated and standardized, the big players started hiring celebrities as spokespeople.
So, from the average viewer's perspective, the ad for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition did seem a little classier than those bottom-of-the-barrel browser game commercials.
If anyone was unhappy, it was Zhang Zuting's fans. They felt this kind of browser game ad dragged down his artistic reputation—as if their idol had been insulted.
Pei Qian opened Zhang Zuting's Weibo page.
The actor's last post, from a few days ago, was a simple retweet about environmental protection:
"#ProtectTheEnvironment# It's a shared challenge for all of us. Let's do our part—stay strong together!"
The comments below that post had originally been normal—likes, emojis, messages like "You're awesome, idol!"
But the new comments?
The tone had completely changed.
"Brother Zuting, why did you film a browser game ad?! My worldview is shattered!"
"Go check it out—people are making fun of you everywhere, calling you 'Fried Pig Trotter!'"
"I'm so disappointed. The always-elegant Zuting actually stooped to working with those money-grubbing web game companies? Unfollowing."
"So this was the game partnership you mentioned before… with a browser game? I can't believe this."
The situation on Zhang Zuting's Weibo looked pretty grim.
A lot of his fans already had strong prejudice against browser games and their ads—in their minds, endorsing one meant selling out. They had no intention of actually trying the game. Their first instinct was to storm his comments section in protest.
So far, Zhang Zuting hadn't replied to anyone—nor dared to post anything new.
Pei Qian knew Zhang Zuting was the kind of celebrity who liked to interact with his fans; he was definitely active on Weibo. There was no way he hadn't seen those comments.
He'd seen them all, of course—he just didn't know how to respond.
On one side were his fans; on the other, the paying sponsor. He couldn't afford to offend either.
And besides, President Pei had even treated him to dinner.
As the saying goes: "You can't badmouth someone after eating their food or taking their money."
He'd lost a few followers—but that wasn't reason enough to turn on Pei Qian.
Zhang Zuting could only swallow his frustration and keep his head down for now.
Pei Qian glanced through all the feedback about the ad and nodded to himself—things were more or less going exactly as he'd expected.
Though, Pei Qian felt a little disappointed—the backlash didn't seem as strong as he had imagined.
Still, that might just be because the ad had only been out for a short while. The hate hadn't had enough time to build up yet.
At the moment, the meme-makers hadn't really shown up, and the ad hadn't yet reached that brainwashing level of repetition. So, the fact that people weren't reacting too negatively for now was understandable.
The real key was the game's data.
Pei Qian opened Shangyang Games' backend analytics and took a look at the numbers for "Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition." He checked the registration count, retention rate, and average player spending.
He had to admit—the ad was working pretty well. It had pulled in a good number of browser game players.
While the ad might seem utterly idiotic and unappealing to ordinary people, for browser game veterans, it had massive appeal.
The process of converting ad viewers into players in the browser game market was a highly measurable chain, with data at every step:
How many people clicked the ad after it popped up; How many downloaded the mini client afterward; How many registered accounts and actually entered the game; How many stayed for over an hour; Of those who played yesterday, how many returned the next day; How much players spent on average, and what the highest single recharge was.
All of this was accurately tracked and could reveal a lot.
As the saying goes: "Data doesn't lie." When people's expectations don't align with what the numbers say—as long as the data's correct—it's the people's assumptions that are wrong.
Pei Qian swept his eyes across the report, and the corners of his mouth curled up involuntarily.
Everything was going exactly as he had expected!
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