Chapter 48

Translated by Coldtaco

Edited by Aelryinth

Chen Mo had already shortlisted a few games for his next release, but he hadn’t decided on which one.

There were plenty of games that could be considered classics from the previous world, but not all of them would do well in this world.

Chen Mo could continue down the path of high quality indie games as the speculators were predicting, but Chen Mo knew that it wasn’t the best path.

The reason was simple: how many Plants vs Zombies were there in the previous world?

The video game designers in this world thought that Plants vs Zombies would bring a new wave of casual games, but Chen Mo knew that the success of Plants vs Zombies could not be replicated, and games like that could not be produced in large quantities.

Moreover, Chen Mo had gained plenty in both fame and money, and will now be able to test the limits of the players in this world!

If Chen Mo only relied on the high quality games from his previous world, it would be highly unlikely that he could ever hope to reach the same level of titans like Emperor Dynasty Entertainment or Zen Entertainment.

Right now, Chen Mo only had one goal in mind: make money and top-up!

A new wave of players were brought into Plants vs Zombies after the new update was released, reaching nine hundred thousand downloads. It was only a matter of time before he reached one million.

The income from the app store came monthly, therefore Chen Mo had only received the money for five hundred thousand copies. After the market’s cut and tax, he had about 2.8 million RMB.

Normally people would be spending that money on cars and houses, and perhaps rubbing it in the faces of the people born with silver spoons who looked down on others.

However, Chen Mo didn’t have that in mind at all.

Buying properties? The experience store was quite cozy.

Buying cars? Oh, Chen Mo didn’t even have his license. Moreover, you’d need to register your license plate if you bought a car. And to register the license plate, you’d need an account…

Whatever, don’t think about things like this.

After giving it some thought Chen Mo decided to top-up 2.7 million RMB into his bracelet as it was close to the end of the month, meaning that the money from the app store would be transferred soon. This left a hundred thousand and change to spare.

If nothing went wrong for the next month, 2.5 million RMB would be transferred into his account. However he wouldn’t be able to spend that money on spins, but would save it for something else.

“Alright, make me stronger by topping up!”

Chen Mo did his before-spin ritual, washing his face and hands. He then used the Lucky Capsule he received from his last draw.

Lucky Capsule: Drastically increase luck. Lasts for ten minutes.

Chen Mo didn’t feel any different, but he might’ve imagined a “my luck just got better” kind of feeling.

Without further delay, Chen Mo started drawing, as the effect only lasts for ten minutes.

Chen Mo felt like a tycoon when looking at his twenty-seven-million points.

“How can I keep the wonderful feeling of topping up and drawing prizes to myself? I must let the others experience this in my next game.”

With such a “noble” idea in mind, Chen Mo tapped on the Spin Ten button repeatedly.

Twenty-seven-million points was enough for twenty-seven Spin Tens. He didn’t show any hesitation, as he had to finish drawing in the next ten minutes. Suppressing his curiosity for the prizes he drew, he focused on spending all his points on spinning.

Clack, clack…

As the wheel spun, new equipment was being drawn. Chen Mo didn’t care, and continued tapping with his eyes closed.

However long the wheel spun didn’t matter, but Chen Mo finally opened his eyes when the wheel stopped spinning.

He took a look at the time. -Wow, this whole process took five minutes.-

Chen Mo felt that a teenage girl at a mall with no concept of money, filled with hurt and happiness.

“Let’s see what we drew…” Chen Mo nervously looked at the equipment menu on the virtual screen.

Designer Skill Books: 135

Special Skill Books: 81

Special Equipment: 54

After consuming a few coding books, Chen Mo’s coding skills were now alright and his sense for code was now sharper.

He noticed something when looking at the number of skill books. “Hmm? This number…”

Without using the Lucky Capsule, the Designer Skill Books, Special Skill Books, and Special Equipment were approximately in the ratio of 7: 2: 1. That was what he had gathered from the previous ten Spins.

Of course, this time luck was on his side. If it wasn’t, it wouldn’t be surprising if he got 9: 0: 1.

After he used the Lucky Capsule, they showed up in a ratio of 5: 3: 2. The rewards he got from draws during the effect of the Lucky Capsule were much better!

Of course, the Lucky Capsule didn’t infinitely increase his luck and present him with Special Equipment every single draw. It seemed 5: 3: 2 was the best ratio he could get.

Moreover, when the Lucky Capsule was in effect, you could even draw another Lucky Capsule. Clearly it was something that the system had in mind.

“Not bad, this Lucky Capsule was pretty worth it!”

Chen Mo was quite satisfied. If he drew anything less than what he did this time, it would’ve been quite wasteful of the Lucky Capsule!

—

Next was checking the description of the Equipment.

Designer Skill Books, 135 in total. Of those, forty-seven were coding books, thirty-nine were level design books, and twenty-two were system books.

Special Skill Books, 81 in total.

Original Art Books, 34; every book gave +1.

3D Art, 33; every book gave +1.

Music and Audio Effects, 10; every book gave +1.

Storyboard Skill Book, 4. The first book gave +10, every subsequent book gave +1.

Special Equipment, 54 in total. 47 were Memory Playback Potions, 1 Anger Interferer, 6 Super Accelerators.

“Hmm?” Chen Mo rubbed his eyes, thinking he misread.

There was something out of place among the Special Skill Books: the Storyboarding[2] Skill Book.

-What is this even?-

Chen Mo had a vague idea of what a storyboard was. It referred to drawings that would represent the structure of a movie or animation, before it was shot or drawn. It would detail each shot, specifying the cinematic techniques, duration, dialogue, etc.

Chen Mo was surprised, as he didn’t expect to draw something like that.

However he thought it through quite quickly. As it was categorized with the Special Skill Books, he wouldn’t be surprised if he drew a book on martial arts!

“Mm, it’s actually quite useful. I should be able to use it when making CG![1]” Chen Mo said, comforting himself.

Chen Mo had also noticed that every Special Skill Book, such as Original Art or Music, if they were abilities that had not been unlocked yet, the first book always gave +10, with any subsequent ones giving +1.

There was also the Special Equipment. Chen Mo drew two new ones this time: Anger Interferencer, and Super Accelerator!

=========================

TL Note:

[1] Computer graphics

[2] I’ve used storyboarding before to refer to plot writing, but this time they decided to add a proper storyboarding skill (like the actual act of drawing storyboards), I’ll refer to the former as plot writing in the future.