The activities of interstellar conquest had led to a significant increase in the online player count for the game. However, as soon as Cosmic Heroes launched, the player count for interstellar conquest plummeted.
Initially, Ou Minghan had hoped that after playing Cosmic Heroes, players would find it inferior and unsuitable, and would return to interstellar conquest. But unexpectedly, the online player count, after dropping, never recovered.
He visited the game forum for interstellar conquest and browsed through player posts, becoming even more enraged.
This was because many players on the forum were praising Cosmic Heroes and encouraging their friends to play it!
This greatly angered Ou Minghan. He made a phone call to the forum administrator, instructing them to set "Taoxun," "Cosmic Heroes," and other related terms as sensitive words. Any post containing these words would be blocked.
However, it wasn't long before players discovered these two sensitive words. How could rebellious players possibly yield to such inexplicable censorship?
They directly replaced them with "that company" and "that game," clearly defying the forum management, which further infuriated Ou Minghan.
In the evening, Ou Minghan, agitated, called Feng Jie.
"...This is too much! Ye Zhi is truly insidious! She's using interstellar conquest as a stepping stone to build momentum and grab attention for her game..."
Feng Jie rolled his eyes speechlessly. Was Ye Zhi intentionally using interstellar conquest as a stepping stone?
This was clearly Ou Minghan deliberately bending down and forcing interstellar conquest under Ye Zhi's feet; Ye Zhi had no choice but to step on it!
"Feng Jie, what do you think we should do now?" Ou Minghan asked in a deep voice.
"Mr. Ou, public opinion is currently entirely in favor of Taoxun, and players are attracted by Taoxun's promotional benefits. If you want to compete for attention with Ms. Ye, you must be more generous with your offers," Feng Jie replied.
"Are you saying I should set the championship prize money to five million as well?!" Ou Minghan was very upset. How could that be?
Of the three million from yd, two million came from him. If the championship prize money were also set at five million, wouldn't that mean he would have to pay another two million US dollars?
"Not five million," Feng Jie corrected, "but all twenty teams participating in the world series will receive prize money, totaling ten million US dollars."
Ou Minghan fell silent. He didn't even want to pay two million, so how could he be willing to subsidize yd with so much money?
"Besides spending money, is there no other way?" Ou Minghan asked displeasedly.
"Mr. Ou, I've looked at the schedules for both world series. They are both approximately three months away, with only a three-day difference. This means," Feng Jie continued, "professional teams wishing to participate in the world series can only choose one of the two games. Because during these three months, they need to undergo intensive training and cannot possibly participate in training for both games simultaneously. If the prize money isn't high enough, how can we attract professional teams? Without professional teams, the matches won't be exciting."
Ou Minghan fell silent again. He felt like he was being put on the spot, stuck between a rock and a hard place, unable to spend money or not spend money.
In fact, if it were his own game and he were hosting the world series, he wouldn't hesitate to spend money.
But now, yd was the organizer of the interstellar conquest world series. If he spent money, wouldn't he be helping yd gain a good reputation while he himself became the fool?
He had put in a lot of effort to have Cen Ya persuade Ni Na to get the previous two million US dollars. If he continued to bleed money for yd without compensation, Ni Na would definitely not agree!
"I'll think about it," Ou Minghan said irritably.
After hanging up the phone, Ou Minghan first contacted the champion team from the previous world series to gauge their intentions.
Ou Minghan contacted the boss of the champion team. After some pleasantries, he cautiously said, "Team Zhang, your team performed very well last year, putting on a brilliant show against foreign teams. Every match was a classic! In the end, you won the world championship and brought glory to the country. This year's competition, I presume your players will be able to deliver even more spectacular performances and reclaim the crown?"
"Heh, Mr. Ou is too kind," Team Zhang smiled. "We have all new players this year. I hope they don't freeze up at the time..."
Ou Minghan's heart skipped a beat. He blurted out, "New players? What about the old players? Are they going to play in the Cosmic Heroes professional league? Team Zhang, that's not right! For a little bit of money, you're going to betray a game you've played for so many years?!"
Team Zhang was stunned for a moment. He clearly hadn't expected Ou Minghan to be so direct.
To say that, weren't they playing professionally for the prize money? Of course, they would play whichever game offered higher prize money! Did they have to be responsible for a game for life just because they played it?
He chuckled, "Mr. Ou, please understand. The public opinion regarding interstellar conquest in the country is not good right now. There's even a popular slogan that playing interstellar conquest is unpatriotic. We can't have the main team participating under these circumstances! Allowing the second team to participate is already our limit."
Now, he didn't even want the second team to participate. How great would it be if the second team also practiced Cosmic Heroes? Ms. Ye, on the other hand, was different; she was generous and caused little trouble. Team Zhang thought to himself.
Ou Minghan was naturally unwilling, but Team Zhang didn't want to say anything more to him and directly hung up the phone.
After that, Ou Minghan contacted several other professional teams, and the situation was similar. Those teams either planned to send their second teams to participate or had directly switched to Cosmic Heroes.
Ou Minghan was helpless. If this continued, he would have to spend money along with Ye Zhi.
However, it was unlikely he could get money from the Cen family. He decided to try to get sponsorships.
He had noted down the contact information of many people during the last internet conference.
Ou Minghan opened his contact list and after much deliberation, finally selected a few contacts who were more likely to spend money.
The first contact he chose was Mr. Li, the boss of the best-selling keyboard manufacturer in the country. Ye Zhi had been giving away his keyboards as prizes.
After the call connected, Ou Minghan exchanged pleasantries for a long time before finally getting to the point. He wanted to ask Mr. Li to sponsor the interstellar conquest world series.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ou, you're too late," Mr. Li said regretfully. "I've already agreed to sponsor the Cosmic Heroes world series."
"What?!" Ou Minghan's head buzzed. Ye Zhi had once again taken the lead! She had even snatched the sponsors he had chosen!
"Mr. Li, please reconsider! Cosmic Heroes is a newly released game, how can it compare to the popularity of interstellar conquest! Moreover, the interstellar conquest world series will be held abroad, and your brand will become world-famous then!"