Chapter 0852: Keeping Pace with the Times

When Zhao Fusheng left Future Advertising, he didn't call Zheng Yao, because there was no need. His purpose today wasn't with Zheng Yao, but with Zhou Jing.

No one knew better than Zhao Fusheng how much space the internet would occupy in people's lives in the future. In his view, if Future Advertising could seize the lead in internet advertising, then at least for the next twenty years, it wouldn't have to worry about being overtaken.

And all of that depended on whether Zhou Jing could see the light.

Of course, Zhao Fusheng had to admit that Zhou Jing's thought process was indeed bizarre at times—coming up with the idea of buying the my123 navigation page. In fact, if not for the fact that the owner of that navigation page was himself, Zhou Jing might have actually succeeded.

But now, the road ahead for him was still long.

Just as he was about to head home, his phone rang. Zhao Fusheng glanced at the number, frowned, and pressed the answer button.

"Hello, this is Zhao Fusheng."

"Fusheng, something's happened!"

Dong Guoxiang said anxiously on the other end: "Do you have time? Come over to the studio."

Zhao Fusheng didn't act surprised: "What's going on? Why the panic?"

"It's like this: recently, a lot of cheats have appeared on the market, with functions similar to ours and lower prices..." Dong Guoxiang said bitterly: "The studio is in a bit of chaos now."

"Chaos? Don't tell me they thought only they could make this stuff?" Zhao Fusheng retorted with a cold laugh: "I'm at home. You come over."

With that, he hung up the phone and shook his head with a wry smile.

To be honest, if he really had no one else, he wouldn't want Dong Guoxiang to take charge alone.

People have lower limits and upper limits.

The lower limit simply means one's principles in life. For example, even if Zhao Fusheng were starving to death, he wouldn't commit murder or arson, because he feared he wouldn't have the face to see his parents, and feared his parents would be shamed because of him.

As for the upper limit, it represents a person's achievements.

In other words, everyone's abilities are limited. Just as people can't bring the dead back to life, Zhao Fusheng couldn't guarantee that everything in his hands would be perfectly resolved.

And Dong Guoxiang was undoubtedly someone with a relatively low upper limit.

In Zhao Fusheng's view, he wasn't really suited to be a website manager; he was just a programmer with a relatively strong tendency to stay indoors.

He could manage a website, but leading a studio was clearly asking too much of Dong Guoxiang. So whenever he encountered a problem, his first reaction wasn't to solve it himself, but to call Zhao Fusheng immediately.

If it were Qian Dongliu in Ninghai, he would definitely try to solve the problem first, not bother the boss.

If you run to the boss with every problem, what use is the boss to you?

Driving home, Zhao Fusheng had just entered when Dong Guoxiang hurried in.

"What exactly happened?"

Zhao Fusheng glanced at Dong Guoxiang and asked somewhat helplessly.

Seeing his state, Zhao Fusheng knew that the guy must have rushed over right after hanging up.

Dong Guoxiang panted heavily and explained the situation in fragments.

Actually, it was nothing major, and Zhao Fusheng had already anticipated it. After Legend began charging during open beta, more and more players flooded in. A few days earlier, there were even rumors of millions of concurrent players online, making the game the hottest online game in the country.

Naturally, all kinds of cheats followed, some even better than what Zhao Fusheng's studio had made.

"Many of our previous customers are now using other people's cheats," Dong Guoxiang said bitterly, clearly pained by the lost revenue.

Zhao Fusheng silently cursed the domestic piracy industry in his mind, then looked at Dong Guoxiang: "Has revenue dropped a lot?"

"Down by about thirty percent," Dong Guoxiang replied.

Zhao Fusheng nodded. Thirty percent meant a loss of nearly sixty thousand yuan a month, no wonder Dong Guoxiang was so distressed.

Currently, the Legend cheats brought Zhao Fusheng nearly a hundred thousand yuan in profit each month. A sudden drop was uncomfortable for him too.

But he also knew this was a situation no one could change—not even the state, let alone himself.

With that in mind, Zhao Fusheng looked at Dong Guoxiang: "What do you think?"

Dong Guoxiang was taken aback: "Me?"

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Of course you. You're the studio head. Who else would I ask?"

Scratching his head, Dong Guoxiang thought for a long time, then said: "How about we lower the price?"

In his view, since there were competitors, they might as well cut the price of the cheats and see how the others responded. If they could, they'd follow suit.

He paused, and seeing Zhao Fusheng silent, quickly added: "Don't worry, your profit stays the same. I'll cover the difference from my share and the studio's."

Zhao Fusheng burst out laughing—not from joy, but from exasperation.

This guy actually thought he was worried about the price cut affecting cheat profits!

It had to be said that subordinates like Dong Guoxiang could sometimes drive you crazy. He wasn't entirely useless; in fact, aside from being a bit lacking in ability, his loyalty to Zhao Fusheng surpassed that of many at Future Advertising.

But the problem was that, apart from loyalty, this guy really had no outstanding qualities.

"Forget it, forget it. I'll figure something out," Zhao Fusheng said, waving his hand in resignation, and gave instructions to Dong Guoxiang.

"Great, great, great. I knew you'd have a way," Dong Guoxiang said with a simple smile.

Zhao Fusheng was too tired to complain. He sat down and began to think.

As someone with foresight more than a decade ahead of this era, Zhao Fusheng firmly believed that in the development of the internet, game cheats were inevitable.

In that case...

"Besides Legend, are there any other games now?" Zhao Fusheng suddenly asked Dong Guoxiang.

Dong Guoxiang thought for a moment: "There are, like Stone Age and such. Some people play them, but they're not as popular as Legend."

Zhao Fusheng smiled: "In that case, tell our people to keep making cheats for Legend and set the price the same as other cheats. But they should also take time to study Stone Age and develop cheats for that game."

"Uh, you mean shift the battlefield?" Dong Guoxiang wasn't stupid. Zhao Fusheng's words were clear enough; if he still didn't get it, he'd really drive Zhao Fusheng mad.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Exactly. While no one else is doing it, we'll start first."

The cheat business couldn't be monopolized, and Zhao Fusheng didn't expect to monopolize it. He just wanted to use the talent and foresight he had to make some money.

Just as everyone's expectations for movies differ, Zhao Fusheng always hoped that after watching a movie, it would leave a mark on his heart. People live by emotions, not by flashy visuals and surround sound—those are just icing on the cake.

To put it more artistically, he sought spiritual resonance.

Others, on the other hand, simply wanted to laugh out loud in the cinema.

Different goals naturally lead to different starting points.

So Zhao Fusheng felt that others certainly didn't think as clearly as he did.

"Alright, I'll go back and arrange it," Dong Guoxiang nodded. He had no doubts about Zhao Fusheng's words. In his view, although Zhao Fusheng might not know much about programming, his understanding of the internet was definitely superior to most professionals.

At the very least, Dong Guoxiang himself would never have thought of using cheats to make money.

If Zhao Fusheng knew what was on his mind, he would have slapped him a few times before talking—this guy was practically insulting his intelligence.

But unfortunately, Zhao Fusheng didn't know, so he calmly saw Dong Guoxiang to the door.