CSGO Unboxing Streamer: A Charity-Driven Tycoon

Chapter 133 The Difficulties of the Comic Book Industry
Back at the coffee shop.

Lu Yiming received a call from Zheng Huacai.

Inform him that the remaining payment in Jiangcheng has been fully settled.

Lu Yiming had always assumed that the spending score for the "Super Rich Card" was based on the overall spending process.

Come to the parking lot.

After getting into the car.

Lu Yiming opened the data panel again and murmured, "So each transaction is scored independently after settlement, right?"

You can see it now.

The system categorized his spending behavior into three segments in the data panel.

消费评分：高奢招待粉丝评分A（四千一百四十七万）高奢腕表*2评分A（九十九万）顶奢婚服预付款评分S（两百万）（D%10、C%25、B%50、A%80、S%100）/五百五十四万
Three purchases: two high-end luxury items and one top-tier luxury item.

The rating for high-end luxury is A.

The top luxury brand received an S rating.

This shows what type of consumption the system prefers him to make.

Lu Yiming hadn't expected that the way the fans were entertained would be described as high-end and luxurious.

But considering that it cost over 10,000 yuan per person for four days and three nights.

This doesn't really seem to qualify as top-tier luxury consumption.

But this watch only received a rating of A.

Lost in thought, Lu Yiming murmured, "Is it because the value isn't enough?"

They can accept him paying for his fans' purchases.

This means it's definitely not because he wanted to give one of the watches to Fu Xiaoli.

The only reason is that it's not valuable enough.

A watch worth 600,000 is considered high-end luxury in the system's eyes. Lu Yiming couldn't help but exclaim, "Is this forcing me to learn how to spend money? You're really something, System!"

I spent 299 million today.

This had a significant impact on Lu Yiming's consumption habits.

He needs to slow down a bit.

Then, we bought milk tea and some pastries and snacks per person.

Lu Yiming rushed to his comic studio.

Lu Yiming completely handed over the management of the studio to Fu Xiaoli, so he only came once, on the very first day it officially started operating.

The space is a rented room used for both commercial and residential purposes.

It's actually just a three-bedroom, one-living-room house converted into an office space.

Fu Xiaoli opened the door to greet Lu Yiming.

Upon seeing what he was carrying, he immediately turned around and beckoned the people inside to come out and receive it.

"Hehe! It's milk tea! Thank you, boss!"

Wow! They even have pastries! Long live the boss!

"thank you boss!"

The entire comic studio, including Fu Xiaoli, has only nine people, all working around the lead artist Su Xiaoqing. The average age of the nine people is less than twenty-four, making it a very young studio.

The group took the items from Lu Yiming one after another and thanked him.

After Fu Xiaoli finally accepted her copy.

Looking at Lu Yiming, she smiled sweetly and said, "Why did you decide to come here!"

Fu Xiaoli's role in the studio is as the producer and assistant to the line drawing assistant.

The producer goes without saying.

The completed work must pass her approval to be considered acceptable.

The assistant in charge of the lining task became involved based on her hobby.

Upon hearing this, Lu Yiming smiled and said, "I came to take a look! I was just planning to release my work online soon, so I came to ask for your opinions."

At the beginning of last month.

Lu Yiming demanded that the studio produce two updates per week.

Five weeks have passed since then.

In addition to the first episode he saw at the beginning.

The Battle Through the Heavens manga has already reached eleven chapters.

We can now start arranging for its launch.

Upon hearing this, Fu Xiaoli called over the lead artist, Su Xiaoqing. After Lu Yiming inquired about which platform would be most suitable for publishing the current comic,

Su Xiaoqing looked at Lu Yiming with a strange expression and said, "Boss~ you didn't just start making it into a comic book without any preparation, did you?"

Hearing this, Lu Yiming nodded.

Su Xiaoqing immediately facepalmed and said, "Okay! I thought you had already reached a cooperation agreement with some platform, boss!"

It's no wonder she reacted that way.

The studio currently requires a significant investment; just paying their salaries each month costs over 100,000 yuan. In her opinion, the boss would never do this if there were no way to monetize the business.

Currently, operating a comic book franchise in China without the support of its own intellectual property (IP) is a dead end.

Just like her, she also took two years of detours.

Only then did they choose to give up their identity as independent cartoonists and find a studio or switch to joining an animation or game company to make a living.

The domestic internet industry has achieved a leapfrog development, but it has also devastated the physical book industry. In addition, the overly optimistic introduction of color comics has greatly increased costs, making the comics business increasingly difficult.

Currently, the biggest support for comics comes from funding generated by novel adaptations.

She knew that Lu Yiming was a live streamer.

I initially thought he had acquired some masterpiece and was preparing to jointly develop the IP.

But now it seems.

This boss is just like she was back then.

He entered the comic book industry with some kind of fantasy in mind.

Lu Yiming was very curious about why the chief writer's expression kept changing.

He then asked softly, "What's wrong?"

These words interrupted the lead writer Su Xiaoqing's endless stream of train of thought.

Then he began to introduce the current state of the domestic comics industry to Lu Yiming.

Say something.

Lu Yiming never imagined the comic book industry would be so miserable.

That's right!

It's terrible!

According to Su Xiaoqing, for an individual in China to want to create comics, at least two conditions must be met.

The first to be mentioned were the Romans.

The so-called Romans refer to those who are born with semi-free wealth and have a stable economic support from their families.

Secondly, don't care about material possessions.

The external thing here refers to the copyright of the work. Once you publish it on any platform, you no longer own the copyright.

In short, it can be summed up in one sentence.

Freedom is limited, pluralism is nonexistent, and copyright cannot be protected.

At this moment, Lu Yiming exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't this an exaggeration?"

Hearing this, Su Xiaoqing smiled bitterly and said, "Let me put it this way! We independent comic book authors don't even have as many human rights as food delivery riders!"

Lu Yiming looked at her, her face full of seriousness.

Actually, he believed what she said.

It was just surprise.

But no matter what.

He still planned to publish the Doupo comic. At first, he thought that not signing a contract would only mean not receiving royalties, but then Su Xiaoqing revealed some industry secrets.

Lu Yiming realized that his initial idea was not going to work.

At this point, Su Xiaoqing continued, "As for the initial release platform, I personally suggest that Mr. Lu consider Tencent or Bilibili. Currently, these are the only two platforms with significant traffic. Other platforms are either unfriendly or have uncontrollable piracy. Although these two platforms also cannot control piracy, that's just the situation in the comic book industry! You can only hope that high traffic will attract more paying users and increase revenue!"

Upon hearing this, Lu Yiming shook his head and said, "No need! Since all platforms are the same, I won't take the initiative to look for one."

It's clear that Su Xiaoqing seems to be worried about something.

Lu Yiming stood up and said softly, "Focus on drawing! I haven't given up on adapting Battle Through the Heavens into a comic!"

These words immediately put Su Xiaoqing at ease.

She had just found a job that she felt was pretty good, and she didn't want to have to close down her studio because her boss couldn't see any future in it.

garage.

Fu Xiaoli got into the passenger seat. She had been listening to their conversation and couldn't help but ask, "Are we really going to continue?"

The monthly expenses are over 100,000 yuan.

That adds up to over a million a year.

She worried that her studio would become a burden for Lu Yiming.

Hearing the sound, Lu Yiming turned his head.

Looking at Fu Xiaoli's worried face, Lu Yiming smiled and said, "No problem! I can't change the comic book market environment, but I can get these platforms to come to me for cooperation!"

Hearing this, Fu Xiaoli didn't understand what these words meant.

But he still smiled and nodded.

She just needs to do her best in her assigned tasks.

Naturally, we shouldn't add any more pressure to Lu Yiming.

As long as Lu Yiming thinks it's okay, then it's fine!

At this time.

Lu Yiming took out a gift box and handed it to Fu Xiaoli, saying, "I saw this while shopping! See if you like it!"

I like it, of course I do, as long as it's a gift from Lu Yiming.

She looked at the watch in the gift box with great surprise. Having little knowledge of watches herself, she lightly kissed Lu Yiming's cheek to show her delight and then asked, "This watch must cost several thousand yuan, right?"

Several thousand dollars?
More than 300,000!
Lu Yiming didn't say this aloud, but simply nodded with a slight smile.

Go home.

Fu Xiaoli went to prepare dinner.

Lu Yiming sat down in front of the computer.

Based on what he had just learned from Su Xiaoqing, he knew that it was impossible for him to publish his work on a comic platform.

This is a platform where the copyright is no longer in their hands once the content is published.

Who can withstand this?!
This could be said to have ruined the future of the comics industry.

Only those studios that produce mass-produced works can make a living.

As for wanting to create high-quality products...

Just look at Lu Yiming's studio and you'll know.

With monthly expenses exceeding 100,000 yuan, only the Romans could manage without a mature monetization channel.

However, Lu Yiming wasn't worried.

He didn't really intend to make money from comics; he just wanted them to attract more users.

He glanced at the time.

Lu Yiming dialed Zheng Huacai's number.

The next morning arrived.

Lu Yiming drove back to the company.

Upon seeing Lu Yiming arrive, Zheng Hua quickly stepped forward and said, "President Lu! It's been done according to your requirements. Here's the finished product, take a look!"

Zheng Huacai received a call from Lu Yiming as soon as his plane landed yesterday.

Then they assigned him a new job.

I helped him finish it by working through the night.

Seeing Zheng Huacai looking quite tired, Lu Yiming said apologetically, "You've worked hard!"

He didn't say that he wasn't actually in a hurry.

This will dampen Zheng Huacai's enthusiasm.

If an employee does a good job and does it quickly, just give a positive response to prove it; there's no need to say anything negative.

Lu Yiming's request was to turn the original comic manuscript he sent into a video.

I plan to post it directly to Douyin (TikTok).

We'll use this opportunity to generate traffic for his new book launch.

This novel recommendation method only became popular two years later, but more often it was IA comic book-style recommendation. His high-quality comic book-style recommendation was the first of its kind.

The video is from the first chapter of the Battle Through the Heavens manga.

The voiceover was done by IA.

This made Lu Yiming feel very distracted.

He immediately looked at Zheng Huacai and asked, "If we hire some professional voice actors and combine them with this comic, do you think it would be a good idea?"

Yesterday, Lu Yiming had already revealed all his thoughts.

Zheng Huacai thought for a moment and shook his head, saying, "I don't know! I did some research last night, and there's no successful template for this model right now. But if we can manage to update twice a week, it should attract a large number of users, since it's free!"

It's normal that Zheng Huacai didn't know.

After all, he was the one who was reborn.

The studio has already invested a lot.

In addition, there are voice actors.

Lu Yiming has already invested hundreds of thousands of yuan in this unpublished novel.

Whether there will be any profit is unknown.

But it should at least increase the number of novel subscriptions.

He then said, "Don't overwork yourself. Prepare some staff to manage this project on your own. Try to find voice actors who can sign long-term contracts. I don't want to have to change voice actors for a character halfway through. As for the voice actor selection, once you've arranged it, just contact the comic studio directly!"

They said they didn't want him to get tired.

However, Zheng Huacai still needs to devote a lot of energy to the preliminary work.

Fortunately, the company's operations have gotten back on track.

His job didn't bring him too much burden.

The two then discussed the details for a while.

Lu Yiming then left.

However, they didn't leave immediately.

There are three of his companies located in the park.

Funan Star Technology Co., Ltd.

It was the company that Jiang Yuanming was in charge of for Lu Yiming.

The location is above the Fanxing Live Company. Lu Yiming rented the entire floor and divided it into Fanxing Technology Co., Ltd., Pangu Intelligent Technology, and Fanxing E-commerce Co., Ltd.

Originally, I was just checking on the platform's progress, but I didn't expect Liu Zhenyun to be there too.

"Mr. Lu! You're here! I was just discussing with Manager Liu whether we should contact you today!"

Jiang Yuanming was quite excited.

Lu Yiming laughed and said, "What? The platform is ready to go live?"

After acquiring the skill "Heavenly Favor".

Lu Yiming always tries to think positively about any unexpected event.

However, there was good news for Jiang Yuanming.

Only the platform project remains.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuanming scratched his head and laughed, "It's not too far off. As for the platform, we can already start trying large-scale internal testing. However, I plan to refine the details a bit more. The good news is from Manager Liu's side: Diting has already made special developments for the two games currently on the market."

Upon hearing this, Lu Yiming's eyes lit up.

He immediately looked at Liu Zhenyun, who was standing to the side.

Compared to Jiang Yuanming.

Liu Zhenyun wasn't as eloquent, and instead directly invited Lu Yiming to his place to watch him give a live demonstration.

DNF has consistently ranked among the top ten most popular games.

Direct testing requires authorization from Tencent, which is not only troublesome but also exposes the existence of Diting prematurely.

However, it's not entirely impossible to conduct tests, which brings us to some historical issues.

Simply put, it's about setting up a private server for testing.

Moreover, the fact that the body of the private server is full of loopholes only makes the power of the Listener more apparent.

The entire test lasted three hours.

Three hacker teams were invited to provide paid assistance, but unfortunately they only received a portion of the payment and failed to win the large prize.

There has been no progress for more than two hours.

This already speaks volumes.

Especially when you know in advance that it's a private server.

Upon hearing this, Lu Yiming grinned and said, "Okay! But let's suspend further development of the 'poisonous milk powder' aspect from now on. This game doesn't need our anti-cheat device at all."

(End of this chapter)