Chapter 33: Yun Bo Becomes Famous

One week later, three games under YiNet updated simultaneously, accompanied by an announcement. YiNet was partnering with Yunzhou, and Yunbo, as the official social platform for the games, was launching. A series of upcoming events were promised, with players having the chance to win activation codes to participate in Yunbo’s beta test.

All the players were bewildered. Yunbo? What on earth was that?

Once Yunbo launched, the confusion only deepened. The top players from each server and some prominent fan artists proudly shared their official invitations.

The contents were thrilling:

“Dear Player, have you ever felt that email support is too slow?
Have you wished to speak directly with the developers?
Would you like more opportunities to join official events?
If so, Yunbo welcomes you.
Simply click the link to Yunbo’s homepage and enter your activation code to register with your YiNet account.
Here, you can submit suggestions directly to the developers; if enough people agree, the planners will notice more easily~
Here, you can converse with the official team without waiting endlessly for email replies~
Here, you’ll receive the latest announcements promptly, so you never miss an event~
Most importantly, you can share every detail of your gaming experience here!”

Kong Yue was a devoted player of “Dreamland,” often submitting fan art and participating in official design contests. The invitation she received left her at a loss—she’d never heard of Yunbo and had no idea what it actually did.

After some hesitation, she decided to click the link.

The link led to a simple webpage: video, trending, hot searches…

It was easy to find the registration area, and she chose to log in with her YiNet account. However, registration required an activation code; without it, she could only browse as a guest—viewing but not interacting.

Once successfully registered, she browsed the trending posts, most of which were from familiar top players, as well as official YiNet accounts: YiNet headquarters, “Dreamland” official, “Dreamland” planning team… and several brand ambassadors signed by YiNet, like Cheng Li, Feng Wan, Meng Lingxi, and others.

Each post featured options to share, comment, and like.

Kong Yue opened the latest post from “Dreamland” and tentatively commented: “Begging for an official reply.”

Within moments, the comments had surpassed a hundred, and she realized she could reply to and like others’ comments as well. Her eyes lit up, as if a new world had opened before her.

She was happily liking posts when a notification appeared in the upper right corner—the official team had replied: “Dear Xingyue, welcome to Yunbo, mua~”

Overwhelmed with excitement, she responded instantly: “Ahhhhhhh the official team replied to me!!!”

“Yes, Xiao Meng replied to you~ From now on, you can post your submissions directly on Yunbo and @ us~” The official account replied in seconds.

“Wow! Xiao Meng, you’re so cute! Are you a girl or a boy?” Kong Yue was exhilarated—she could really talk directly with the official team; it was far more convenient than email.

“Of course, Xiao Meng is a girl~” Indeed, the “Dreamland” official account was managed by a charming young woman from the publicity team.

This beta test had ten thousand activation codes. YiNet took half for internal distribution among project teams and studios, leaving four thousand. One thousand were sent out via invitations, with three thousand remaining, to be distributed through various events over three days.

Kong Yue felt she’d discovered a new joy. Delighted, she drew a comic strip and posted it; soon, her post had been shared, commented on, and liked by many.

Many others were just like Kong Yue. At first, they assumed Yunbo was merely a chat tool similar to Penguin, but upon using it, they realized it was not: content could be viewed and commented on even without being friends or following each other.

Meng Lingxi, the ambassador for YiNet’s “Dreamland” MMO, had agreed to open a Yunbo account only because her contract required her to support the promotion; she hadn’t taken Yunbo seriously.

That changed when her agent, looking perplexed, asked her to check the forums.

It turned out a junior moderator, who liked Meng Lingxi and played “Dreamland,” had received an invitation and registered Yunbo. She followed Meng Lingxi’s Yunbo account and got a reply to her comment under a new photo, so she excitedly bragged about it on the forum, and other fans soon learned about Yunbo.

But! They didn’t have activation codes—they could only view, not comment! Everyone started posting requests for activation codes!

They wanted to be noticed too!

Meng Lingxi was unaware of this; after posting, she handed her account to her assistant, who replied to fans.

Her agent quickly sensed Yunbo’s potential. He asked Meng Lingxi to request more activation codes from YiNet, intending to give them away as prizes via forum raffles.

YiNet had no extra codes, but eventually provided the contact for Yunzhou’s manager.

After lengthy negotiations with Manager Cheng, the agent secured one hundred activation codes, which were swiftly distributed through raffles.

But a hundred was far from enough!

With fans flooding the screen, the agent had no choice but to contact Yunzhou again.

In the end, bringing along two other artists, he managed to obtain a thousand activation codes.

This agent had not only Meng Lingxi, a rising star, but also Wu Meng and Lu Zhi, two award-winning actors. With the influence of their massive fan bases, Yunbo exploded in popularity.

Initially, he’d planned to approach internet celebrities for promotion, but demand was so fierce that people came to him instead.

Aside from Meng Lingxi’s group, other celebrities who saw Yunbo’s potential also reached out.

The activation codes originally prepared were insufficient; the programming department worked overtime to produce another ten thousand, barely meeting the demand.

The launch event proceeded smoothly, and the public test was scheduled for Lantern Festival.

For most people, launching on Lantern Festival was already fast, but for fans of celebrities, it was far too slow.

Without activation codes and with the launch delayed, countless opportunities for close interaction with their idols were slipping away.

Frustrated, they began emailing Yunzhou’s official website and spamming chat in the games Yunzhou operated.

Unexpectedly, the games benefited as well—once stagnant, they became lively, and existing players grew restless.

Why should outsiders and players of other companies’ games get activation codes, but not us?

Throughout the Spring Festival, Yunzhou’s staff were exhausted but happy.

Yunbo had caught fire, and next came advertising fees from major brands, trending topic purchases and removals... all translating to revenue!

With the company earning money, employees were the first to benefit; the leadership promised everyone’s salary would double this year.

Delighted.

Yu Qian emerged from her period of intense study, planning to visit the provincial capital to collect money from her parents, when she received a text from an unfamiliar number.

It was a Yunbo activation code, sent by Zhou Jingchen.

Yu Qian opened the link and instantly recognized it as WB. The mouthful of water she hadn’t swallowed sprayed everywhere.

“Goodness, how is WB not only out early but also renamed? Is this the butterfly effect of my rebirth?”

She felt anxious, worrying that her actions might have altered the original trajectory of Huaguo’s development. Would her past experience be useless now?

She hurriedly turned on her computer to search recent events, discovering that aside from Yunbo, everything else was largely the same as in her previous life.

She then researched Yunzhou Company, finding that its founder was surnamed Zhou, and after his death, all shares were inherited by his child, named Zhou Jingchen.

She drew a sharp breath, sensing she had stumbled upon something significant.