Am I the Kind of Person Who Would Owe Money?

Chen Wenchao, who was holding the USB flash drive, left the computer room while mumbling in despair.

Looking at his swaying back view, Cloud Hao couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Is this what it feels like to be a top student?

I love it…

However, although this feeling was rather intoxicating, Cloud Hao was well aware that there were only less than ten hours left till the expiration of the enlightenment gem.

Without wasting time on savoring this intoxicating pleasure, Cloud Hao skilfully opened the search engine and typed the four digits, 2048.

As he expected, this game did not exist in this world, neither did similar rival products.

In fact, Earth in this parallel world was different from the Earth in his previous life.

The material aspect in this world was clearly more prosperous, especially in Country Xia, the winner of the "Competitive Era" and the People's Alliance leader. Even the computers in the school's computer room were equipped with discrete graphics, quad-core processors. Everything from the computer chip to the system was locally produced.

It was just in comparison, because until the first year of the New Calendar, the worldwide situation was quite tense. It was only after the first year of the New Calendar that the entertainment industry began to bud and sprout.

It was also only after the first year of the New Calendar that emerging industries such as video games flew into ordinary folks' homes together with smart devices such as computers and mobile phones, following the transformation of military production lines and evolution of the electronics industry for civilian use.

According to his father, game consoles were still a rarity in the two years after he was born. Most of the popular songs sang the praises of the stability and prosperity of society, as well as the unity and great victory of the People's Alliance. Things remained that way until he was ten, when the global entertainment industry truly bloomed.

As a result, video games in this era were still in a rather chaotic phase.

First of all, it was due to the strict protection by copyright law. The development of both online games and stand-alone markets in Country Xia, and even worldwide, was relatively balanced compared to his previous life where mobile games dominated the market.

Furthermore, one of the strongest weapons in this new age culture was that some high-quality niche games could also likewise be supported by the relevant departments, just like music, animation, and movies, rather than treating them as menacing monsters.

However, the lack of time might have resulted in some creative gameplays and out-of-the-box ideas being overlooked during that era.

At least from the perspective of Cloud Hao, a game designer and a hardcore player, the most popular and large-scale MMORPG, "The Oracle", was quite dull in gameplay and storyline.

The graphics might be a highlight.

After all, in the 18th year of the New Calendar, the strength of Country Xia's electronics industry was extremely strong…

Game developers also had the confidence to make the graphics and special effects bigger and better.

"Country Xia's largest domestic game platform is the E-fun platform under E-fun Technologies. The basic contract share allotment for independent game producers is 50% before tax… At present, it should be the platform with the highest shares allotment and the most liberal game launching policy in the industry.

"That's the one!"

Cloud Hao's eyes lit up. He downloaded the free development tools from the cooperation page on the official website.

Although the workload of creating a game was not light, it also depended on what kind of game it was.

For mini-games like 2048, whose graphics could even be created with the free Powerpoint tools, he needed at most one afternoon to get it done.

No, it might not even take that long.

There were only two basic modules that needed to be developed—one was the game itself, and the other was the ranking system.

There were ready-made templates available that could be used for the latter, while the former was not that complicated. After all, the rules of the game were simple.

The rule was to add two identical numbers together by moving up and down or left and right, whereas two different numbers would not be able to merge together. When all the grids were full and could be moved further, it would be considered a loss. When a 2048 tile was formed amongst all the numbers, it was considered a win. All these operations could more or less be realized with the help of arrays and functions.

After winning the game, one could choose to continue and form a tile with the largest number to be calculated as the number of points scored, which was then computed into the ranking table.

As the free development tools provided on the official website were excellent, Cloud Hao felt that even people with no programming experience could restore the game using the functions in the development tools.

The only difference probably lay in the quality of the programming.

However, Cloud Hao was still very skeptical. For such a mini-game, is there really a difference in quality?

He busied himself until 5 pm and finished developing it. Cloud Hao then casually played two games to test it out.

After verifying that there were no bugs, he packaged all the programs according to the format requirements on the E-fun official website and dragged them into the folder to be uploaded.

"If it can reach 100,000 downloads, the system's mission will be completed."

Cloud Hao, about to accomplish his goal, smiled and contentedly leaned back in his chair.

"If it's launched at the minimum price of one yuan, the pre-tax income will be 50,000 yuan… I wonder if independent game producers without any registered company can apply for tax incentives."

50,000 yuan!

Not only can I compensate that girl for her screen, but I can also afford to give her a brand new mobile phone.

If all goes well, I might not even need to trouble my family to fork out money to pay for my tuition fees next year.

However, to be perfectly honest, Cloud Hao wasn't very confident about the content of what he had come up with.

After all, the space this game occupied might not even be as much as a high-definition full-sized image. Yet, what was prevalent in this world were large-scale online games that were rich in social components and had impressive, explosive graphics.

A mini-game?

It was hard to determine whether there was even soil for it to grow on.

However…

He didn't have any better choice.

He clicked on the upload button with the mouse. Cloud Hao was just about to stretch himself and turn off the computer when a dialog box popped up on the screen and stunned him.

[Please select your payment method]

Payment method?

What the heck is that?

Cloud Hao, vaguely sensing that something was amiss, swiftly opened the explanatory notes on the E-fun official website about launching a game. Only after reading the last line did he realize that…

It's not free to launch a game. The registration fee is 2,000 yuan!

F*ck!

I haven't even made any money yet, but you want me to fork out money first?

Isn't this unscrupulous firm scamming people?!

Seeing this not-too-high threshold, which was just sufficient to stop him, Cloud Hao fell silent.

The money in his pocket didn't even add up to 800 yuan, much less 2000. If he didn't find a part-time job, he might not be able to save this 2000 yuan even if he scrimped and saved until the end of the year.

Borrow from my family?

Using what reason?

Although the Country Xia in this lifetime did not regard video games as menacing monsters, the parents born during the times of the old calendar might not think the same.

Cloud Hao felt that if he were to ask for money and so much as to mention the word 'game', the conversation with his dad would not be able to continue.

How about…

I look for a platform where I can publish games for free?

But most of the website traffic on such platforms is very low…

With this lousy game, it might not garner 100,000 players even if it was free, let alone selling it for one yuan.

At that moment, Cloud Hao was caught in a dilemma.

However, just as he was struggling, the mobile phone with prepaid value suddenly vibrated.

After two seconds, a line of words then popped up.

He glanced at the sender ID, which said 'Creditor'.

With a resigned look on his face, Cloud Hao picked up the phone and unlocked the screen.

[Hey, it's been a few days. When are you going to pay me back? *Small knife emoji*]

[It's only 3,000 yuan. You're a man. What's taking you so long? (`д́)]

[Let me warn you, if you dare to run away from your debt, I'll not let you off! I'm super serious! (`~ ́)]

The murderous aura for the debt payment was practically boring a hole in the screen. Cloud Hao involuntarily moved the phone half an inch further away.

Why are you chasing me? Don't you find it annoying pressing me every few hours? Am I the kind of person who will run away from my debt?

Isn't it just three thousand yuan?

Don't look down on me!

"Can you lend me another two thousand? I'll pay everything together before the end of the month."

Afraid that she wouldn't lend him the money, Cloud Hao hesitated for a moment before pressing down on the mic button and added, "Need it urgently!"