Rebirth 08: Can a mobile game company also build a tech empire?

Chapter 109 Returning Home

The plane slowly landed on the runway of Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

Outside the porthole lay the familiar land of China.

Lu Chen unbuckled his seatbelt.

Take your backpack off the luggage rack.

A twelve-hour flight is exhausting.

But more than anything, it's a sense of security and comfort coming home.

He turned on his phone and turned off airplane mode.

In an instant, the screen was flooded with countless unread messages and notifications.

More than 20 missed calls and 99+ text messages in my inbox.

"Mr. Lu, congratulations! We saw the IGN report!"

"Zhengtu Technology brings glory to the nation!"

"Hunger won an award! That's amazing!"

"Lu Chen, you guys really stole the show at E3 this time!"

Congratulatory messages came from all directions.

I received congratulatory messages from Lin Bing, Xu Yi, and others in the company.

There were also brief messages from partners and media friends.

There were even several local leaders from Hangzhou.

Lu Chen quickly browsed through the list and picked out a few important replies.

"Thank you. I just got off the plane. Let's talk in more detail later."

"Thank you for your support. We will continue to work hard."

"You flatter me, it's all thanks to the team."

He replied as he walked out of the covered bridge with the flow of people.

Susie and Jiang Chang followed behind.

Both of them looked exhausted from the long flight.

"Mr. Lu, so much news?"

Jiang Chang peeked at Lu Chen's phone screen.

He said in surprise.

"It's all about E3 awards."

Lu Chen put away his phone.

He looked up and said to Susie and Jiang Chang.

"You two go back and get some rest. You don't need to come to the company tomorrow; sleep in."

"But there are still many things to do tomorrow—"

Susie hesitated.

"Don't worry, Lin Bing and the others are here."

Lu Chen said firmly.

"You've been running around with me for the past two weeks, you've worked hard. Take a day off to recharge, because there are still tough battles to fight ahead."

Jiang Chang scratched his head.

"And what about you, Mr. Lu?"

'

"I'll rest too."

Lu Chen smiled.

See you at the company the day after tomorrow.

""

Monday, June 8th.

Lu Chen walked into the office of ZhengTu Technology at 8:30 a.m. sharp.

As soon as he entered, he sensed a different atmosphere.

The employees gathered in the central open space.

-

Upon his appearance, enthusiastic applause erupted instantly.

"President Lu is back!"

"Welcome back, Mr. Lu!"

"Conquer Online is awesome!"

Lin Bing stepped out from the crowd.

Welcome back!

Lu Chen stopped and looked at the familiar and excited faces.

A warm feeling welled up in my heart.

He cleared his throat and said.

"Thank you everyone, but this award doesn't belong to me alone. It belongs to everyone at Journey Technology. Without your support from behind, we couldn't have achieved such results."

The applause rang out again, even more enthusiastically.

"Alright, alright."

Lin Bing smiled and waved.

"The celebration ends here. Everyone, get back to work. President Lu just got back; let him catch his breath."

The crowd dispersed, but the atmosphere of excitement still lingered in the air.

Lu Chen returned to his office.

The coffee Susie had prepared and the neatly arranged documents were already laid out on the table.

The first thing he did after sitting down was to turn on his computer.

Review the company's data over the past two weeks.

At nine o'clock sharp, Lin Bing knocked on the door and came in.

"How was your rest?"

"not bad."

Lu Chen gestured for him to sit down.

"Tell me, how's the company doing while I was away?"

"all the best."

Lin Bing pushed up her glasses.

"The mass production of Journey 1 is progressing as planned, the ZUI system is being continuously optimized, the game team has completed all the development work for 'Famine', and the number of Z-Dimensional users has reached a new level."

"What are the specific figures?"

"I suggest we hold a meeting so that the heads of each department can report directly to you."

Lu Chen nodded.

"Okay, pass on the notice: a meeting at 10:00 AM, all department heads to attend."

At 10 a.m., the conference room was full of people.

Lin Bing, Hong Feng, Xu Yi, Jiang Chang, Chu Yu, Zheng Yong, Zhao Yongqiang, and others.

The core team of ZhengTu Technology gathered together.

Lu Chen sat in the main seat and got straight to the point.

"Thank you all for your hard work during my absence. The purpose of today's meeting is to understand the progress of each department and make final preparations for the release of Conquer Online 1 on June 10th. Lin Bing, you can go first."

Lin Bing opened the folder in front of her.

"In terms of production, it has been more than ten days since May 25th when the Journey 1 completed all debugging and officially entered mass production. At present, our inventory is 130,000 units, including 100,000 8GB versions and 30,000 16GB versions. The production lines of our partner OEM have been fully integrated, and the current daily output is stable at 8,000 units, with a yield rate of 98.7%, which is far higher than the industry average."

He paused, then continued.

"At this rate, we can guarantee at least 150,000 units in stock by June 10th, the day sales begin."

Lu Chen nodded slightly.

130,000 units in stock, 8,000 units produced daily.

This number may seem insignificant ten years from now.

But in 2009, for a company that had just entered the mobile phone industry...

That's already quite an astonishing production capacity.

Moreover, the yield rate is 98.7%.

This means that both supply chain management and production quality control have reached an excellent level.

Lin Bing certainly did not disappoint him.

This was one of the eight great warriors of Xiaomi in his previous life.

Capabilities in hardware manufacturing and supply chain management.

It has been fully revealed.

"Can production capacity keep up with expected sales?"

Lu Chen asked.

"We have prepared three contingency plans."

Lin Bing answered fluently.

"If the sales volume in the first month is less than 20 units, the existing production capacity is more than enough. If it reaches 30 units, we will need to add a night shift. If it exceeds 40 units, we will need to find other contract manufacturers. But based on the current pre-order enthusiasm, I think the sales volume in the first month is likely to be between 20 and 30 units."

What about distribution channels?

"Online sales are mainly through Taobao and JD.com, while also including the official online store; offline sales are also available..."

Lin Bing turned to another page.

"We have signed contracts with 70 core distributors, covering 15 major cities across the country. The first batch of supplies will prioritize these offline stores, with each store receiving around 500 units."

Lu Chen nodded in satisfaction.

Sales are conducted both online and offline.

The success of the Z1 has already proven this advantage.

After Lin Bing's incident, Hong Feng was already eager to try his luck.

"The ZUI system underwent final optimization before mass production. After you left, we released another minor update, mainly fixing more than a dozen user experience issues. Now the system's smoothness and stability have been optimized to their best. I dare say that, with the same hardware, ZUI's experience absolutely crushes all other customized Android systems!"

"What specific optimizations have been made?"

Lu Chen asked.

"The main improvements are in optimizing the user experience of some features."

Hong Feng recounted the details as if they were his own treasures.

"We have optimized some code to make multitasking switching smoother, and also optimized the arrangement of the settings menu."

This allows users to quickly find the settings switch for the corresponding function.

We've also added a super power-saving mode. When enabled, the phone will close all background processes and network access, as well as reduce screen brightness, retaining only call and SMS functions. In our tests, standby time can be extended by three times.

"That's a good idea."

Lu Chen praised.

"The user experience is always the top priority. After the initial release, has the system update plan been arranged?"

"It's all arranged."

Hong Feng nodded and continued.

"In the first month, we will push out small updates on a weekly basis, mainly to fix issues reported by users. After that, we will switch to monthly updates. We have planned a feature iteration roadmap for three major versions to ensure that Conquer Online 1 will continue to receive system upgrades for at least the next two years."