Chapter 74

Chapter 21: The Piracy Scandal

The next noon, Lin Feng received a call from Meng Dong. In the call, Meng Dong told Lin Feng that the municipal government had held a standing committee meeting that morning, focusing on the report about the Daya Chemical injury incident in yesterday's "Chu Tian Style." A special investigation team was established, involving the Public Security Bureau, Environmental Protection Bureau, and other relevant departments, to jointly investigate Daya Chemical.

Lin Feng naturally had no complaints about this. However, Meng Dong tactfully mentioned at the end that the live broadcast of the interview Lin Feng had proposed would not be adopted for the time being. He kindly requested Lin Feng to continue the interview in a recorded format. This was because Meng Dong was afraid that Lin Feng might use the live broadcast to confront Hu Xiaoli, so for safety, a recorded broadcast was more appropriate.

Lin Feng did not express much dissatisfaction with this. After all, the main goal was to use the opportunity to boost the company's reputation.

After three consecutive days of reports on Lin Feng's exclusive interviews, Lin Feng instantly became a celebrity in Chu City. After all, he was young and accomplished, and he was the first publicly known millionaire in Chu City—still in US dollars.

This point particularly troubled Lin Feng. Jiang Dan also reported on his signing with Tencent and invited economic experts to analyze the 5% of Tencent shares and 89.5% of DingDang Network shares that Lin Feng held. The economic experts initially estimated the total value at about 15 million US dollars.

Once this report was broadcast, Lin Feng's troubles multiplied several times over. Not only did relatives and friends come to him, but various welfare organizations also came knocking, pleading for Lin Feng to sponsor their welfare programs. This left Lin Feng in a state of bewilderment. Although the economists estimated that he indeed had 15 million US dollars in assets, this was just an estimate. Before the stocks were listed, he was still a penniless man and had no money to donate.

What made Lin Feng even more depressed was that when he said he had no money to donate, no one believed him. Instead, they accused him of being uncharitable and arrogant, which made Lin Feng very angry but also helpless. In the end, to avoid these people, Lin Feng simply stopped going to the company and went directly to the CD factory.

After three days and nights of hard work, 20,000 CDs were initially printed. To ensure that the game was not immediately pirated, Lin Feng carefully selected buyers from orders in places like Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin, excluding buyers from coastal areas like Shenzhen and Guangzhou, which were known for piracy. Lin Feng did not want the CDs to be pirated as soon as they were sent out.

After the game CDs were mailed, another two days passed, and when these players received the game to try, more personal gameplay videos were posted online. All related game forums were filled with praise for "Counter-Strike" (Counter-Strike), which made players who did not get the game even more eager to call the company to urge the release, and more orders flooded in.

By the time Lin Feng's second batch of 50,000 CDs was printed, the number of orders had increased by another 50,000, making Lin Feng and everyone in the company extremely happy.

However, a problem also emerged. Since this game was an online multiplayer game, many players who received the CDs could only familiarize themselves with the game but could not play against others. To truly experience the game's fun, they had to take the CDs to internet cafes, and only a few players who were connected to a local network with neighbors could truly enjoy the game. Even so, it was not convenient, as everyone's free time was not synchronized.

Although many internet cafe owners also bought "Counter-Strike" (Counter-Strike) CDs and installed them to provide local network play, the environment in internet cafes could not compare to that at home for individual players who owned computers.

In response to this situation, Lin Feng immediately contacted the Valve development team and proposed the idea of "bots." CS's father, Minh Le, thought this was a great idea and immediately ordered the Valve development team to develop this program. In less than a day, the bot program was successfully created and made available for free download online.

Lin Feng then placed it on DingDang Network, providing free downloads for players who bought the CDs. With this program, sales increased significantly, and before the first pirated CD appeared, Lin Feng sold a total of 200,000 copies. Although this was not comparable to the millions of copies sold by games like "Chinese Paladin," it was the largest single income for Lin Feng and the entire company since its establishment.

200,000 copies, at 20 yuan each, amounted to 4 million yuan in gross revenue. After deducting the cost of 3 yuan per CD, 1 yuan for the Luo Tao localization team, and 40% of the profits for the Valve development team, Lin Feng made a net profit of 19.2 million yuan, all in cash. This greatly alleviated the financial crisis of the company, which was short of funds.

What made Lin Feng even happier was that the sales boom of "Counter-Strike" (Counter-Strike) and the cooperation with Tencent brought 100,000 registered sellers and 1 million registered buyers to DingDang Network, with nearly 10 million daily clicks. DingDang Network was beginning to rival YiX Network.

However, as the saying goes, "Fortune and misfortune are interdependent." While Lin Feng was receiving good news, bad news also emerged.

"Hey, Lin, congratulations! Your DingDang Network's sale of 'Counter-Strike' (Counter-Strike) is a huge hit, making you a lot of money, right?" Ma Huateng suddenly called, first congratulating him, then changing his tone.

"But, Lin, is this game not a pirated version?" Ma Huateng's tone was filled with anxiety.

"What do you mean?" Lin Feng was slightly taken aback.

"Today, someone posted online that this game is actually a game developed by a foreign development team called Valve, which provides free downloads globally and makes money by selling CD-keys for global online play. Your game does not provide any CD-key, and they say you are a pirate. They also imply that Tencent is a pirate distributor." Ma Huateng sent Lin Feng a URL.

Lin Feng opened it and saw that it was indeed a critical report about his game sales. The report directly accused Lin Feng of being a pirate and called on all buyers to demand refunds, or they would be sued by foreign companies.

This incident was jokingly referred to as the "Piracy Scandal" by many netizens. However, the players who bought the CDs were not concerned, just watching the situation unfold. In China, who hasn't used pirated products? Besides, a 20-yuan game with such high quality—could it be the original?

"Lin, is it really like that?" Ma Huateng could not help but be anxious. Tencent was developing rapidly, and if the "Piracy Scandal" affected the company's development, it would be a great injustice for Ma Huateng. Their cooperation with Lin Feng would be a complete failure, and the entire Tencent might suffer a significant setback.

Lin Feng naturally understood Ma Huateng's concerns.

"Alright, Mr. Ma, don't worry. I'll send you a file, and you'll understand. But make sure to delete it after reading." Lin Feng smiled and emailed the agreement he signed with CS's father, Minh Le, to Ma Huateng.

"Lin Feng, you really have a way with things, making me worry for nothing!" Ma Huateng was relieved after reading it. Although the agreement could not be made public, at least Lin Feng would not have any trouble as long as Valve did not sue him, and Tencent would not be implicated.

"Alright, I'll have someone write an article to refute that post." Ma Huateng calmed down and his thoughts became clearer. "I think this 'Piracy Scandal' is an action by your competitors to target you. I just had my staff check, and the IP address of the first post seems to come from inside YiX Network. Hmph, they want to ruin your reputation and attack your DingDang Network."

Lin Feng was furious upon hearing this. Although business is like war, for a large company like YiX Network to use such despicable means was truly shameful. But then again, YiX Network had done things like helping sellers boost their credit, so this was not surprising.

"Don't worry, Mr. Ma. If I get the chance, I'll give them a proper 'gift' in return." Lin Feng smiled sinisterly.

"Haha, don't forget to let me know. I have over 30 million registered members on Tencent, and they actually want to mess with my Tencent. Hmph!" Ma Huateng snorted.

"By the way, Mr. Ma, I have another idea I'd like to discuss with you." A new idea suddenly came to Lin Feng's mind.

"Oh, tell me about it!" Ma Huateng was deeply impressed by Lin Feng's series of actions and was curious about what new idea he had and how much profit it would bring to Tencent.