After the abstract interview of [Dream Building Super Factory] ended, the director switched the scene again.
But this time, the scene didn't return to the studio, but seamlessly connected to another video—
A reporter wearing thick winter clothes, a hat, and a scarf was sitting at a small table in an outdoor cafe, with steam slowly rising from the coffee in her hand.
A perfect image of an urban beauty.
At first, the audience sitting in front of the TV didn't react.
—Even many veteran players didn't react.
Because the photographer carefully used a medium shot, distancing the reporter's facial details.
The reporter also intentionally held the coffee in front of her face.
This prevented the audience from noticing her exquisitely unreal face at first glance.
—That was the face of a virtual character.
Plus, the clock in Sprout City had just struck dusk.
Snow still covered the streets, and some leftover colorful paper from exploded firecrackers was scattered on the ground behind the reporter, adding more life to the scene.
This successfully fooled the audience.
So much so that everyone subconsciously thought it was a real city.
It wasn't until the reporter stood up and the scene revealed more of the environment and passersby that the "flaw" finally appeared—
A flamingo strolled leisurely past the reporter.
Many players in front of the TV almost jumped up from the sofa instantly!
"Flamingo? Sprout City?!" Yan Bo—also known as Heroic Sniper—said excitedly, pointing at the TV to his parents.
His parents also stopped eating sunflower seeds and became serious: "Is this the place you said would turn you from earning 1,000 yuan a month to earning 100,000 yuan a month?"
"…" Heroic Sniper was choked for a moment, wanting to say that it wasn't like that.
The money he could earn was not fixed; sometimes it was less, sometimes more.
Dream Building's help to him was not just Sprout City, nor just money.
But explaining it in detail was too complicated, so he simply closed his eyes and stubbornly said: "That's right! This is it!"
"In the future, I can earn 1 million! 2 million! To buy you a big house!!"
His parents immediately beamed, picked up the remote control, and turned up the TV volume.
"Then we must listen carefully to this news."
Heroic Sniper was extremely excited, and so were many other players.
This wasn't talking about distant things like technology and industry!
What was now appearing on the screen was the place they logged into every day, a place they were extremely familiar with!
Seeing a familiar place unexpectedly appearing on the most important national news…
This feeling made many players watching the news so excited that their scalps tingled!
The reporter walked around while speaking:
"In the past year, a major event has occurred in the internet field."
"A truly meaningful virtual city has been built by Dream Building Game Company, and in just two months, it has welcomed more than 200 million netizens from all over the world to visit."
"Now, this city called [Sprout City] still has more than 10 million netizens logging in every day."
"Real-world brands have already, or are in the process of, setting up virtual storefronts in this city."
…
The reporter had obviously prepared a draft in advance, spitting out keywords such as "industrial transformation," "new economy," "technological development," "Internet +," "cultural communication," and "global influence" one after another.
The players in front of the TV felt a headache listening to it.
Normally, young netizens would have changed the channel long ago upon hearing these clichés.
But now, everyone not only endured it but even listened with great interest as the official mouthpiece praised Dream Building!
Until a blonde player in thick winter clothes swaggered into the scene behind the reporter, put a broken bowl on the ground, took off his coat, lay down on the spot, and started begging!
A trace of astonishment appeared on the reporter's face, as if the photographer had reminded her of something.
So the female reporter changed her direction of travel.
The photographer also took the opportunity to move the camera, moving the begging player out of the shot.
This funny scene immediately made countless players burst into laughter.
The camera continued to move, and more street scenes of Sprout City were included in the picture.
Flocks of flamingos, lush ornamental plants, busy sky rails and floating cars, robots passing by in the streets, and cybernetically modified people in strange costumes, cylindrical sanitation robots hurriedly followed behind, picking up empty beverage bottles that had just been thrown away…
All kinds of strange elements were mixed together, which was really eye-catching.
—This reporter was actually quite helpless.
Originally, the producer's idea was to have her interview Xu Meng.
Then, in a conversation with Xu Meng, she would tell the audience the important significance of this city, especially its major advantages in the future global online public opinion competition.
Instead of letting her recite a draft dryly like now.
The problem was that Xu Meng refused on the spot when he saw the draft.
They couldn't afford to offend Xu Meng.
So they adjusted it a bit, letting her finish talking about these contents first, and then go to interview Xu Meng.
—This part of the content was a mandatory task and had to be talked about.
Fortunately, this part of the content was not long. After the reporter finished speaking and was about to turn the topic to Xu Meng, another accident appeared in the scene—
On the elevated skyway 20 meters high, a bright yellow floating taxi suddenly lost control and crashed into another flying car on the side.
That car also rolled out of control and crashed into more cars.
The passengers were thrown out of the car doors, screaming in fear while desperately grabbing the broken seat belts to avoid falling from the sky.
The reporter and the camera subconsciously looked in that direction.
Especially the camera, before his brain had time to think, his hand had already turned the camera over.
So he just happened to capture an amazing aerial rescue scene—
A driver opened the car door and jumped onto the top of another car 20 meters above the ground!
Then, using the car under his feet as leverage, he jumped towards another car.
At this time, the woman who had been thrown out of the car finally ran out of strength and was thrown out.
At the critical moment, the driver jumped forward, hugged the woman who was thrown out, and slammed heavily on the windshield of a moving vehicle.
The glass shattered on the spot, and broken glass fell from the sky, hitting the cars on the ground, making crackling sounds.
The out-of-control vehicle finally lost power and fell from the sky…
Before the explosion occurred, the cameraman woke up as if from a dream.
He hurriedly pulled the camera back and refocused on the reporter.
So the audience only heard a loud "bang" and dense honking sounds from behind the camera, guessing that the flying car had crashed to the ground and hit the cars on the ground.
The reporter quickly said the transition words: "Sprout City has very rich random events and a unique civic culture, and this is one of the secrets of the city's success."
"Next, let us interview the creator of all this, the founder of Dream Building Games—Mr. Xu Meng."
While the reporter was speaking, she and her camera did not notice:
Just a few dozen meters behind her, a dozen people carrying knives, guns, sticks, and clubs intercepted an armored car.
A conflict was about to break out!
Heroic Sniper's parents were still discussing the brave man who jumped to save people, completely unaware of the armored car robbery that was about to happen in the background.
Heroic Sniper had already taken out his phone and ran to the fan group to complain:
"Did you guys see that? In the reporter's background, someone is trying to rob an armored truck with a cold weapon! Are they crazy?!"
One user immediately replied:
"Clearly someone is using a chainsaw, how can that be a cold weapon?"
"Stop arguing over semantics, I know too well how difficult it is to rob an armored truck. You can't pull it off without heavy firepower!"
"Old bro has a story to tell?!"
"As expected of [Unique City Culture]! Hahaha, I'm dying of laughter."
"Speaking of which, was that guy who saved people an NPC? So fierce! Is he also a special NPC? Can we go learn from him?!"
......
The group members became very excited, chatting enthusiastically while watching the news.
Some people even hurriedly went online, wanting to find that NPC who saved people to become disciples.
— The miracle night of Dragon City Flying General's 50-floor streak wasn't long ago, and many people still longed to emulate his deeds, constantly searching for special NPCs with "superpowers."
It's just that there hasn't been much progress.
The only progress is: Some people in Sprawling City heard about the [Hunter Examination].
But this examination will take a long time to start.
The players assumed that this was also a publicity stunt for "Monster Hunter", and after chatting about it for a few days, they put it behind them and didn't think about it anymore.
In the studio far away in Xia Jing, the director noticed the armored truck robbery that was happening and quickly issued instructions in his headset:
"Change the angle! Change the angle! There's a robbery happening behind you!!"
But before the reporter and photographer in the virtual city could react, a hand patted the photographer's shoulder.
The newest novels are first published on 6_9_shu_ba!
"Am I not too late?"
The photographer heard this voice and subconsciously turned around.
So the viewers in front of the television, along with him, saw Xu Meng who suddenly appeared.
And the car behind Xu Meng with the windshield shattered into pieces, and the bright yellow taxi that had been smashed into wreckage.
"...Ah?"
The photographer couldn't help but open his mouth wide, almost blurting out "You were the one who saved people just now."
Fortunately, his professionalism saved him.
— Just one "Ah" won't deduct much money.
But if he had asked that whole sentence, then a lot would be deducted!
But the next second, the reporter asked the question for him: "Were you the one who was saving people just now?"
"Ah, I'd love to say it was me." Xu Meng shook his head with a smile, "But it wasn't, that kind of physical coordination and nerve reaction speed, there's no way I could do that."
"Then it was?" The reporter couldn't help but guess, "An NPC?"
"No." Xu Meng shook his head, "It's the global champion of the [Challenge Tower Grand Prix]."
"Truly amazing." The reporter gave a simple compliment, then quickly got to the point under the director's urging, "Then shall we start the interview?"
"Yes, let's change locations." Xu Meng nodded.
So the scene quickly changed, arriving at a small rooftop garden in the East District.
Although Sprawling City had heavy snow, it seemed as warm as spring here, and flowers of various colors were still in full bloom.
Looking east, you could also see the azure sea.
In this quiet small garden, the interview with Xu Meng began.
......
......
The content of the interview was a bit bland for Xu Meng.
After all, on a social level, both the commercial success achieved by Zh Meng and the breakthroughs he had made in the field of scientific research were far more important than games.
Even Sprawling City, in the grand narratives that many people liked, had little connection with games.
Instead, it became a carrier for certain cultural and economic battles.
But Xu Meng wasn't very interested in this kind of thing.
— When the number of 0s on the bank account grew to the point where it took several counts to count them clearly, Xu Meng completely lost interest in business and money.
He began to devote his energy to things he was truly interested in.
This time, accepting the interview was partly due to Wu Shuang's request, and partly to eliminate the barriers of old-fashioned ideas, paving the way for further expansion of virtual world users.
After chatting about some empty pleasantries in Xu Meng's opinion, the reporter finally got to a more relaxed topic:
"Now many people are guessing, how much money did you give out to users in the red envelopes last week? Can you reveal that?"
"About 10% of Zh Meng's total game business profit last year." Xu Meng said easily.
"What drove you to make this decision?" The reporter asked curiously.
Xu Meng became a little more serious: "Zh Meng's profits are inseparable from the support of all players, so this is Zh Meng's year-end bonus to everyone."
"Mr. Xu is truly a generous person." The reporter said with great admiration.
Xu Meng shook his head: "Actually, it doesn't have much to do with being generous or not."
"Once personal assets exceed 1 billion, money is already just a string of numbers, and more only spreads the burden — you also have to rack your brains to think about how to spend it."
"It's better to simply distribute it to everyone."
"Of Zh Meng's game business profits, 10% is given to players, 20% is given to employees, and the rest is all invested in reproduction."
"Whether it's used to expand the development team, create new games, expand the virtual world, or strengthen the research and development team to continue upgrading hardware, it's better than lying on a bank account as a string of numbers."
The reporter felt the pressure from a top-level rich man.
She felt that she was not qualified to evaluate Xu Meng's approach.
So she just nodded and continued with the last question:
"Here is the last question for today: In the new year, will your work focus be on scientific research or games?"
"Games." Xu Meng didn't hesitate for even a second.
A surprised expression appeared on the female reporter's face.
Obviously, she thought Xu Meng would at least pretend a little.
But Xu Meng didn't play any false pretenses at all, and directly started talking about the arrangements: "Tonight I will start work, distributing a small number of internal testing invitation letters for the new game, and starting the internal testing the day after tomorrow."
"A week later, the fourth batch of holographic devices will be available, and this time we will also prepare a batch of goods for overseas users."
"Mr. Xu is truly diligent." The female reporter quickly interjected.
The director was already urging her for time in her ear.
She stood up and said the closing remarks: "Then we won't disturb you any further, thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to accept our interview."
"You're welcome."
Xu Meng also stood up, shook hands with her, and said goodbye.
......
"Money is just a string of numbers", "more spreads the burden", "you also have to rack your brains to think about how to spend it"...
In the eyes of netizens, this series of keywords is simply a crazy explosion of classic quotes.
If Xu Meng hadn't really given out several hundred million, or even more than a billion, in cash in a week, these few sentences alone would have been enough for him to trend on social media.
Even now, these words have been paired with his headshot to become a very popular set of emoticons.
In comparison, the keywords that players heard were slightly different:
Internal testing invitation letters will be sent out tonight!
"Monster Hunter" internal testing will start the day after tomorrow!
Holographic devices will be available in a week!
This is the big news in the gaming circle!
Excited players ran to Mengjin, Weiguang, and P station to post:
"@Boss Xu, internal testing invitation letter, pick me!"
"Boss Xu, pick me! I'm super cooperative!"
"Pick me, pick me!! I love internal testing!"
......
Overseas players also became excited:
"Holographic devices, will we finally get our share?!"
Unfortunately, overseas players would soon realize —
That they were happy too early once again.
