Reborn: Billionaire in College

In a seemingly unremarkable graduate student dormitory at the Minhang campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Luo Yuhao, Cai Haoyu, Jin Zhicheng, and Zhang Qinghua, these four people gathered together with sad faces.

"What are we going to do for our next game? Do you guys have any ideas?" Luo Yuhao asked, but his attention was more focused on Cai Haoyu, because Cai Haoyu was the technical expert of the team.

Cai Haoyu nodded: "I still don't have any idea. Besides, what to do depends on how much money you have. A good cook cannot cook without rice."

"Brother Dawei will be back soon. Let's see if he gets the money." Jin Zhicheng added.

Zhang Qinghua, the graphic designer who is employee No. 001, opened his mouth but hesitated to speak. He had already planned to submit another resume and look for another job.

The reason why several people were so worried was that the game "Fly Me 2 the Moon" they developed a few days ago performed dismal after it was launched on IOS.

At present, there is no krypton gold card drawing mode in the game, and the mainstream of the Apple Store is the buyout system. "FlyMe2theMoon" is available for 18 yuan.

After more than a month on the shelves, the game only sold more than 3000 copies in total. Not to mention how profitable the work is, it just almost lost its pants. Even the salary of the three founding members is only 3 per month, which is an early experience of the employment environment of fresh graduates 4000 years later.

In order to survive, Daweige had to go everywhere and participate intensively in various college student entrepreneurship competitions.

The concept of "FlyMe2theMoon" is taken from the EVA ending song "Fly Me to the Moon". It tells the story of "Magical Girl Kiana Flying to the Moon", so it is also nicknamed "Honkai Impact 0" by some players.

At this time, where is the survival space for games that have bought out the copyright?

Free games are all the rage.

The game sold 54000 copies, and the total profit was only 4000 yuan. Apple took a cut, and the profit was less than yuan. In addition, their monthly salary was yuan per person, and there was not much left.

Without money, there is no way to develop new games.

To be honest, these guys are also gods.

In 98, Cai Haoyu, who was only 11 years old, was elected as one of the first young academicians of the Chinese Academy of Children's Sciences.

Initially, they developed an open source literary community and won a prize in a competition, taking home a scholarship of 20 yuan.

For any college student, this is not a small amount of money. Most people might think of spending it on picking up girls, but here comes the big picture - they used the money to make a 2.5D game engine and named it after the EVA female character Katsuragi Misato.

At that time, Cai Haoyu was interning at a game company. He spent a lot of effort to convince his boss that he wanted to use this engine to make a game on his own. The boss was very moved and then expressed his refusal: When will it be your turn as an intern to have the final say in the company?
Therefore, Cai Haoyu, who was unwilling to give up, brought two friends and worked on his first game "Saha Story" for several months. He won the championship of the campus group and the Intel special award of 3 yuan in the "Mahjong Flash Game Development Competition" hosted by Shanda Company. He also got the opportunity to develop the expansion pack "Bubble Heroes" for "Bubble Hall".

After several competitions, the idea of ​​starting with games became clearer. In January this year, several people in the dormitory officially established "miHoYo Studio". During this period, they found Cici Zhang Qinghua, the head of art, and the team grew from 1 to 4 people.

Shanda learned that they had established a studio and wanted to invest in it, but was rejected. These people are quite averse to external capital, and would never seek investment if they were not really short of money. This is also the reason why miHoYo has only raised one million yuan in funding since its establishment.

Without any sponsorship, I had to work seven days a week and more than ten hours a day just to develop "Fly Me to the Moon", but it turned out to be a miserable failure.

But it wasn't just this game that failed miserably. The subsequent Honkai Impact 1rd also failed miserably.

In the early days, Honkai Academy was banned from the Apple Store because it violated the censorship rules. The game was eventually revised three times before it was barely available, but the results were still unsatisfactory. This time, the price of the game was reduced to 6 yuan, and in-app purchases of props were added. However, the number of players is small, and the desire to recharge is also weak.

Hearing the sound of the dormitory door being pushed open, several people looked over. "Brother Dawei is back."

"How is it?" Everyone gathered around immediately.

Liu Wei shook his head: "I didn't make the top three."

Everyone's faces were filled with disappointment when they heard this.

Luo Yuhao said helplessly: "Is it really going to be the end of me?"

Jin Zhicheng also asked: "Do you want to talk to Shanda?"

Cai Haoyu shook his head repeatedly: "No, they just want us to go there to work. If I want to work, where can I not work?"

Liu Wei said: "I'll think of another way. There will be an entrepreneurship competition in half a month. I will prepare and try to get a good result."

The group's hopes are now pinned on Brother Dawei. Only if he wins a certain entrepreneurial competition can the studio survive.

"I don't think we need to try again. We went to participate in the entrepreneurship competition, but people there didn't understand what the second dimension was. Obviously our ideas were better and more feasible, but we still couldn't win."

"What should I do?"

Cai Haoyu said in a deep voice: "The first solution is for us to take a gamble. In the next few months of developing the new game, no one will get paid. Several of us have shares, except Zhang Qinghua. Then we can give Qinghua more salary as a bonus."

After hearing this, the other shareholders did not react. Zhang Qinghua's face turned ugly. He was thinking about how to tender his resignation in a tactful way.

Several other shareholders do not need to receive salary because they do not have any shares, but Zhang Qinghua does not have a single penny of shares. If he does not receive salary, then if the game development fails, then the money may be gone.

Liu Wei was a man of meticulous mind. He glanced at Zhang Qinghua and noticed that he looked unhappy, so he quickly kicked Cai Haoyu.

"The first method doesn't work. Tell me about the second one."

"The second option is for us to go to see Mr. Chen Pingjiang, the chairman of Renren and Orange Technology. After much thought, I think he is the only one who best fits our fantasy investor positioning and is most likely to invest in us."

Jin Zhicheng's eyes widened: "How dare you imagine that. Who is Chen Pingjiang? He is thousands of miles away from us. Can we meet him? Even if we meet him, why would he invest in us?"

Liu Wei waved his hand towards Jin Zhicheng, "Don't say anything yet, listen to what Haoyu has to say."

Cai Haoyu explained: "I saw news about a company called DJI on the Internet. This company originally made helicopter flight control systems. They were short of money for a while last year, and then Mr. Chen invested a lot of money in them."

“This doesn’t mean anything. There is no necessary connection between investing in DJI and investing in us.”

"It is related. First, Mr. Chen is about the same age as us, even younger than some of us, so he can understand the ACG world. Just think about it, when we usually go to attract investment, as soon as we tell others about the ACG world and talk about otaku, others simply don't understand."

"Second, Renren.com is developing games internally. Both DNF and League of Legends are very successful, so they will not reject games."

"Third, Mr. Chen is not only rich, but also has a lot of resources. Think about it, if our new game can be listed on the Orange Mobile App Store, wouldn't it be much better? There is no iOS handling fee, and Orange mobile phones are now selling better in China than Apple. On the other hand, we can use WeChat, Renren, Weibo and other channels to help us promote the game."

A few people, you look at me, I look at you.

It’s no wonder that with Cai Haoyu’s words, Chen Pingjiang really fits the role of an investor in their minds.

He has money and resources, understands games, and understands the second dimension.

Liu Wei thought about it, "The problem is that we are not the only ones who think Mr. Chen is good. I think all domestic startups probably think he is good. How can we impress him? In addition, what if he wants to acquire our studio in full right away like Shanda did?"

"Yes, impressing him is a problem, and how to negotiate shares is another problem. If he throws 200 million to you right away and says he wants to acquire the company in full, then what do we want?"

Cai Haoyu continued to persuade: "It's not that we can't talk. We can talk. We just need enough money to make the next game. We don't need more money." After saying that, he glanced at his friends in the room with some anticipation and added: "Everyone, think about it carefully."

Zhang Qinghua was the first to raise his right hand to show his support: "I agree. It won't hurt to try anyway. We are at our wits' end now. We can't just watch the studio go bankrupt, can we? Besides, I've already graduated. If I don't have a salary, I can't keep asking my family for money."

Zhang Qinghua actually likes Cai Haoyu and his team. He thinks Mihoyo will definitely succeed, but it just lacks luck and money. It might be a good choice to get Chen Pingjiang to invest, and the most important thing is that his salary will also increase, and the equity has nothing to do with him anyway.

Liu Wei also nodded, "Let's give it a try. Can we just sit there and wait for death?"

Cai Haoyu turned his gaze to Luo Yuhao and Jin Zhicheng again. "What do you say?"

Jin Zhicheng said: "No problem."

Luo Yuhao said: "We made it clear in advance that we want 100 million, not a penny more. If Mr. Chen asks for 50% of the shares right away, I would rather die than do it."

"Row!"

"Then book the tickets and leave tomorrow." Early the next morning, the other four founders except Zhang Qinghua got up and went to Hongqiao Railway Station.

They will take the high-speed train G7002 from Hongqiao Railway Station to Dongjiang.

After getting in the car, several people were chattering about future game ideas.

Cai Haoyu was a little excited: "I almost didn't sleep last night. I thought about a lot of new game content and had some ideas in my mind. The style is still the two-dimensional. Simply put, the game is about beautiful girls fighting beautiful zombies. It is designed in a cute Q-version style."

"Haha, I also designed an identity for Brother Dawei and designed exclusive lines. Nicholas Dawei: Hey! Who are you? Let go! I, I am Nicholas Dawei, the ruler of the collapsed world! I, my Valkyrie will punish you."

The others, including Liu Wei, were all laughing, not caring at all about the puzzled looks from the people around them.

The whole team is full of youthful spirit. They are classmates and they also come together for the same hobby.

They are all ACG fans and are very interested in anime, comics and games.

I like Hatsune Miku and the ACG world. To some extent, this concept is also reflected in MiHoYo's mission, which is to save the world with technology geeks.

A few hours later, the four stood at the foot of the Twin Towers.

Looking at the spacious and bright Renren headquarters building and the white-collar workers coming and going around, the few of them lost all their previous composure and seemed a little restrained.

Jin Zhicheng swallowed his saliva and said, "Fuck, why are my calves shaking?"

Luo Yuhao also smiled bitterly: "I am almost the same. On the way here, I was still fantasizing that once we announced our home address, Mr. Chen would immediately look at us with surprise. Now it seems that I was overthinking. I don't know if our company will ever have such a grand headquarters building."

Liu Wei had seen a lot of the world. He patted a few people on the shoulders and comforted them: "If the negotiation works out, then we can talk. If it doesn't, there's no loss. Just think of it as a visit to Renren."

After entering the lobby on the first floor of Gemini Building A, Cai Haoyu approached the company's front desk and asked, "Hello, we are from miHoYo Studio. We have a project that we would like to discuss with Mr. Chen Pingjiang. Could you take us to meet him?"

The two receptionists at Renren.com looked over at the same time, curiously examining the group of four people. The four people looked like college students from their attire.

"Hello, do you have an appointment?"

Cai Haoyu was stunned and looked back at Liu Wei.

Liu Wei said: "I don't have an appointment. Can I make one now?"

"Sorry, you must make an appointment to see Mr. Chen, and Mr. Chen didn't come to the company today."

Jin Zhicheng's face suddenly turned ugly. They had taken the high-speed train for several hours and came here just to see Chen Pingjiang, but they couldn't even get in the door. "Beautiful lady, can you help us? We came here from other places and we do have a good project. We want to talk to Mr. Chen."

The company's receptionist spread his hands helplessly. "I understand you very well, but I also hope you can understand me. This is the company's meeting policy, and we must follow it. And Mr. Chen is very busy. If he could meet anyone he wanted, he might not even have time to eat or sleep in a day."

Liu Wei knew that others were not trying to embarrass him, and that they were telling the truth. He just smiled bitterly. Was he going to die before achieving his goal?

"How to do?"

"It's okay. We came so far, it's impossible for us to leave without seeing anyone."

"You can't just stand guard at the door and block it, right?"

While these people were talking, they heard the company's front desk respectfully call out to a middle-aged man, "Mr. Tian."

The middle-aged man named Mr. Tian just nodded lightly and walked towards the gate.

Liu Wei suddenly had an idea and quickly walked over to block Mr. Tian's way.

It happened so fast that the front desk clerk couldn't react. When he finally did, he was immediately shocked and quickly waved to the security guard at the door.

The security guards reacted quickly and within a few seconds two security guards surrounded them.

"Who are you?" Tian Hongrui asked curiously, and waved to the people around him, signaling them to go back.

The other three people who were watching breathed a sigh of relief. They were really scared when they saw Liu Wei rushing forward and the security guards arrived before they could react.

"Hello Mr. Tian, ​​I have seen your news online. Let me introduce myself. We are from miHoYo Studio. We mainly develop mobile games and have won first place in many competitions. The "fly me 2 the moon" currently on the iOS app store was developed by us."

Tian Hongrui looked at them and nodded: "Hello, uh, what do you want to see me for?"

Liu Wei said: "We want to come to see Mr. Chen, but we can't get up."

"Mr. Chen is not in the company these days. He went to Shanghai to attend the project groundbreaking ceremony."

Hearing this, the other people were stunned. If we had known that Chen Pingjiang had gone to Shanghai, why did we rush to Dongjiang?
Tian Hongrui added: "If you can't find him, it's the same if you tell me what's going on. I'll tell him when we meet."

"We still want to talk to him in person, mainly about financing."

"Oh, okay, I'll make a phone call for you and ask Mr. Chen what he means." Tian Hongrui thought for a moment and replied.

Although this matter is the same as Li Xi's, after all, Li Xi is now the CEO of Renren. But there is an unwritten rule within Renren that all matters related to the company's investment must be approved by the chairman.

Because only Chen Pingjiang's vision is accurate enough, no one else can.

"Thank you very much." Several people then breathed a sigh of relief.

After many twists and turns, fortunately things took a turn for the better.

…………

"What did you say their names were?" When Chen Pingjiang received the call, he didn't react for a long time. He reached out and pushed Cong Nini, who was nodding her head like a chicken licking rice.

Cong Nini then changed from sucking to licking, her movements gentle.

She arrived in Shanghai three days ago. She heard that Chen Pingjiang was bored, so she came over to keep him company.

"miHoYo!" Tian Hongrui's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Well, you must keep them here and don't let them go. I will rush back as soon as possible." After hanging up the phone, Chen Pingjiang patted Cong Nini's little face. "You stay here first. I will go back to Dongjiang to do some things and will be back tomorrow or the day after tomorrow."

"Oh, okay!" Cong Nini was particularly well-behaved.

After changing his clothes, Chen Pingjiang called Li Fu to prepare the car, and then walked out in two steps at a time.

I never thought that money would come to me while I was sitting at home.

Is there such a good thing?
If miHoYo hadn’t taken the initiative to approach him, Chen Pingjiang might have really forgotten about this awesome studio.

Chen Pingjiang felt a little excited when he thought about "Genshin Impact" doing great in the overseas market and making a lot of money in the future.

In the future, miHoYo will be a super unicorn with a market value of hundreds of billions, and it has fought its way out of the squeeze between the two giants, Tencent and NetEase.

In particular, "Genshin Impact" has long dominated the top three in the game rankings of various countries, and foreign game players have written a monument for it.

"Genshin Impact" alone can bring in $4 to 5 billion in revenue. Add "Clash of Clans" and the number is even more terrifying.

Li Fu moved quickly. By the time Chen Pingjiang came downstairs, the Maybach 57S had already parked at the entrance of the hotel.

"Let's go back to Dongjiang!" (End of this chapter)