Becoming the richest man by playing games that help cure depression

Old Zhang pushed up his glasses, stared at the sales figures for "A Dance of Ice and Fire" on his computer, and chuckled sarcastically:

"You're so sarcastic, Hashirama. You've got the rhythm all figured out, making Zhiyou and that idiot Xiang Tianming run around in circles."

To be honest, I didn't expect Dean Song to be so assertive.

While texting his girlfriend, Lu Bian chimed in, "Hey, you can't blame him. He's just too soft-hearted and keeps thinking, 'They're all just kids.'"

If things were reversed, and we were the ones being suppressed by Xiang Tianming, he would probably have the same attitude.

Li Zhujian sat under the lamp, twirling a pen in his hand as he sketched out a draft of his new game, waving his hand dismissively:

"Hey, that old man isn't a bad person, he's just too indecisive, and in the end he ends up pleasing neither side."

"By the way, Third Brother," he suddenly looked up, his expression serious, "don't tell Fang Jin about me bribing that traitor Ming Ye."

Shen Yunshi, that little girl, should just focus on drawing; don't let her get involved in all this messy infighting.

He genuinely didn't want Shen Yunshi to get involved in such filthy things. He'd seen too much of this kind of sordid stuff in his previous life.

He originally wanted to play games peacefully at school, but he never expected that Xiang Tianming would use outside forces to create a blockade. He had no choice but to resort to some underhanded methods.

Lu Bian rolled his eyes at him and scoffed, "Stop pretending to be a nice guy, Hashirama."

If you really cared about Shen Yunshi, would she ask Fang Jin what the evil meaning of "chief designer" was?

Good grief, you two didn't get back to the dorm until eight o'clock. Come on, tell me honestly, what were you doing?

Li Zhujian was stunned on the spot, his eyes wide open, and he scratched his head with an innocent look on his face: "Huh?!"

Why does she tell everyone everything? Let me tell you, it's all a misunderstanding, do you believe me?

The three brothers immediately crowded around, their faces full of gossip, making Li Zhujian's scalp tingle and wishing he could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

The next day at noon, the school's intranet exploded, with the homepage prominently displaying "Notice on the Expulsion of Xiang Tianming, a Student Majoring in Game Design at Binhai College".

Zhang Zhiyuan stared at the computer screen and read aloud: "This student participated in the 'Smart Game Cup' Game Expo..."

"Favoritism, impersonation, and unfair competition have seriously damaged the reputation of the school and the expo..."

"Therefore, the organizing committee and the school have unanimously decided to expel Xiang Tianming from the school as a warning to others."

The second son finished reading aloud quickly, slammed his hand on the table, and exclaimed, "Wow, they really fired him!"

Lu Bian slurped his instant noodles and mumbled, "I reckon this time, Xiang Tianming and his dad are completely finished."

"Of course," the second brother scoffed. "I heard that Zhiyou is retaliating against Mingye by removing all their games from the platform and ordering them to make changes within a limited time."

"Holy crap, that's ruthless?" Lu Bian looked up in surprise. "They just took it down like that, without any regard for the contract?"

Old Zhang rolled his eyes: "Contracts are nothing. If Zhiyou wants to take down a company like Mingye, they'll find a reason to do it."

"Those people in the Ministry of Justice could easily find a couple of faults and have Mingye completely under their thumb."

The three brothers all knew that the reason they were able to bring down Xiang Tianming and his son was entirely due to Li Zhujian's "shady tactics".

From initially stirring up trouble, to bribing Mingye's people to turn against Xiang Dahai, and then confronting Song Heping to put pressure on him.

He proceeded calmly and methodically, without directly confronting Mingye, crushing them both with a pincer attack from both inside and outside.

Li Zhujian scratched his head, looking smug: "Hey, it's no big deal. Who told that kid to mess with me?"

If he had any sense, he should have known I wasn't someone to mess with after seeing how aggressive I was with him in the library last time.

After the turmoil, the "Smart Gaming Cup" has finally come to a bumpy end to its first edition. Announcement: Updates coming soon, stay tuned!

Of the 100 games exhibited, one was disqualified, leaving 99 for the final tally.

Unsurprisingly, Li Zhujian and his Platinum Studio won first place!

"A Dance of Ice and Fire" is nearing 100,000 copies sold, more than three times that of the second-place game.

It brought the studio nearly 1.8 million yuan in revenue, plus a 200,000 yuan bonus from the organizing committee, for a total of 2 million yuan!

The four brothers held a celebration party in their dorm room, raising their glasses in high spirits. A small team of four had managed to create a game that sold millions of copies.

The return on investment is ridiculously high; it's no exaggeration to call it a rising star in the Chinese gaming industry.

The news caused an uproar in the gaming community—Blackbox, Big Player Forum, and Zhiyou Platform were all affected.

The comments are all about A Dance of Ice and Fire and PlatinumGames.

"Holy crap! Hashirama's awesome!" "A new superstar has been born in the Chinese gaming world!"

"Buying while criticizing, huh? This should be a benchmark for testing masochistic tendencies!" "A game made by four people, amazing!"

"A 100x return rate is outrageously high!" "I heard a new game is already in development?"

"The little artist is awesome!" "Platinum Studio is awesome!" "Li Zhujian, that old scoundrel, is forever a bastard!"

At the celebration banquet, Lee Joo-geon, holding a can of cola and staring at the computer screen, suddenly exploded in anger:

"What the hell?! Why are you all praising others as gods, but I'm called a bastard?!"

This discrimination is just too much!

What's even more infuriating is that the comment that criticized him actually received over three thousand likes.

Seeing his angry and aggrieved expression, scratching his head and cheeks, the three brothers and Shen Yunshi, who had been invited, burst into laughter.

"A Dance of Ice and Fire" became an instant hit, and Lee Joo-ma and his PlatinumGames...

They have taken the first step into their "platinum era" with unstoppable momentum.

After "A Dance of Ice and Fire" became a huge hit, praise poured in, and a group of headhunters flocked to the scene.

They offered annual salaries ranging from 100,000 to 1 million, talking themselves hoarse, with only one goal in mind: to acquire Li Zhujian's Platinum Studio.

Everyone knows that Li Zhujian is incredibly cunning, with an almost superhuman ability to make money. His rhythm game, "Auto-Tuning System," is a prime example.

This completely stunned the entire gaming industry. To put it dramatically, poaching PlatinumGames right now, even if they didn't do anything...

Just by using his name, those companies can ride the wave of popularity and become famous. After all, in the gaming industry right now, the name "Hashirama the Old Thief" is incredibly popular.

Despite the offers from various manufacturers, Li Zhujian remained unmoved, too lazy to even exchange pleasantries, and directly slammed his fist on the table in refusal.

His friend next to him advised him to reconsider, but he slumped back in his chair, scratched the back of his head, and laughed: "What are you thinking about?"

We set up our studio to make the games we want to play, not to be someone else's employee!

If I had compromised back then, we wouldn't be where we are today. We brothers are the ones who call the shots; nobody can interfere!

Upon hearing this, the brothers all burst into laughter. That was typical of Li Zhujian—straightforward, outspoken, and stubborn.

Looking at his brothers, Li Zhujian felt a warmth in his heart. He had gathered these people to start the business precisely because he wanted them to be united.

Brothers working together is more effective than any large company's resources; he understands this better than anyone.

After declining all invitations, Li Zhujian squatted on the ground, fiddling with his tablet, scratching his head as he spoke:

"To be honest, guys, we only have two mini-games to keep things going right now, and we're just relying on the gameplay to get by."

The players are bragging a lot right now, but we need to be aware of the situation.

Gameplay aside, the graphics and storyline are so bad they resemble the doodles of kids at a ninja academy; it relies entirely on free assets to fill out the gaps—it's shameful!