Two hours later, Qiao Liang exited “Sea Fortress” with a blank expression.
All that effort for nothing!
He had first gone through all the famous scenes in “Looking Back is the Shore,” then created a new account to slaughter his way through the newbie village, and finally switched to “Sea Fortress,” quickly playing through several levels of story mode.
However, he found nothing.
Qiao Liang wasn’t one to easily give up. The reason he quit was because he felt he might have been heading in the wrong direction.
Maybe the clue wasn’t in these two games at all?
Glancing at his fan group, many people had thought of this too and were checking games they were familiar with, but after two hours, no one had found any useful clues.
Qiao Liang scrolled through the chat history, reviewing the games his fans had checked.
Ghost General, Game Producer, Sea Fortress…
Suddenly, Qiao Liang had a flash of insight.
“The Lonely Desert Highway”!
If it was “lost in the journey of the past,” then this game fit the description better!
Plus, most people had already overlooked this game.
Initially, this disappointing game had a small burst of popularity, but the hype quickly died down, and its fame was far less than Tenda’s later games.
Moreover, the game itself was especially boring. Most people who bought it probably never actually completed it, and even if they did, they would have abandoned it in their game library long ago, not keeping it until now.
If you wanted to play hide-and-seek, wouldn’t using this game be more stylish?
Qiao Liang immediately became excited, opening “The Lonely Desert Highway,” ready to drive.
He had previously driven for a full eight hours in this game and knew it would be an exceptionally long journey. So he first ate some snacks, placed water within easy reach on the table, and finally went to the bathroom before officially starting.
An hour later, Qiao Liang was already getting drowsy, but just then, he saw what appeared to be a letter floating by on the roadside.
The car was moving fast, and the letter seemed to remain in Qiao Liang’s field of vision for less than half a second before disappearing.
“Damn!”
Qiao Liang hadn’t seen it. He vaguely recalled it looked like a curved letter, but couldn’t remember whether it was a C or a G.
He was certain that similar letters hadn’t appeared in the game before, so he silently restarted the game and opened his screen recording software.
After driving for another full three hours, Qiao Liang finally quit the game and took a trip to the bathroom.
Returning to his seat, Qiao Liang opened the recording software, directly dragged to the one-hour mark, and checked the letter he had seen.
Indeed, it was a G!
After that, a letter would float by every 5 minutes, sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right, for a total of 20 letters, spanning more than an hour.
No more letters appeared afterward, but just to be safe, Qiao Liang continued driving for nearly half an hour more before quitting the game.
Referencing the video, Qiao Liang carefully copied down all the letters.
GAICCCCCCACBIADBHCEA
It seemed to be a string of code.
This meant other players didn’t need to play “The Lonely Desert Highway” to know this code string.
But knowing this code string was just the beginning of solving the puzzle.
…
Shangyang Games.
Lin Wan, Ye Zhizhou, Wang Xiaobin, and others were also monitoring reactions from various forums, Weibo, and player groups.
There were more dissatisfied players than expected.
Comments like “What’s wrong with not being able to buy a game after paying?” and “Playing high and mighty? I’m not playing along!” were numerous.
However, more players were interested in the puzzle.
The game had been on sale for several hours, and players had already found the code Pei Qian had left in “The Lonely Desert Highway,” but this string of code needed further deciphering to obtain truly useful information.
Ye Zhizhou was also studying this code. The notebook in his hand was already filled with many characters, and he was searching on his computer screen, but couldn’t find any useful information.
“I wonder how Mr. Pei came up with this promotional method. He’s simply a genius!”
“But… wouldn’t it have been better to do this kind of warm-up a month before the game’s release?”
“Now that the game is already on the shelf but can’t be purchased, some players will be angry.”
“I wonder if there’s some deeper meaning to this move.”
Wang Xiaobin thought for a moment. “Isn’t Mr. Pei always this willful? In ‘Looking Back is the Shore,’ he repeatedly discouraged players. Maybe this is some special marketing technique?”
“Deliberately provoking players’ reverse psychology, making them more urgently participate in solving the puzzle?”
Lin Wan nodded. “Yes, I think that’s very likely!”
“Many players have gone to play Tenda’s old games to find clues. I expect sales of old games like ‘Looking Back is the Shore’ and ‘Game Producer’ have increased.”
“It’s a pity the time is a bit short. With experts like Qiao Laoshi, who understand Mr. Pei in the game, clues were found in just a few hours.”
“If they were hidden deeper, wouldn’t the sales of other games have skyrocketed?”
Ye Zhizhou rubbed his temples. “I think Mr. Pei didn’t seem to want to hide it that deep.”
“The word ‘journey’ was already hinting at ‘The Lonely Desert Highway.’ You just had to drive honestly for three hours to find this clue.”
“It seems Mr. Pei didn’t want to give players too much trouble here…”
“Could it be he was afraid that if it was hidden too deep, players wouldn’t find it and would start buying Tenda’s previous games frantically?”
“Haha, how could that be possible? I think I’m overthinking.”
Ye Zhizhou laughed somewhat self-deprecatingly.
Lin Wan looked at the string of English on the screen. “No one has decoded this string of code yet. Maybe finding this code means the game has truly just begun?”
“It might also be related to not having enough participants yet.”
During “BE QUIET’s” development period, Shangyang Games hadn’t actually revealed much information about the game.
Mainly because they previously felt the game’s completion level wasn’t high and were afraid of creating excessively high expectations among players, and Mr. Pei had never mentioned promotion.
So, up until now, not many players were following this puzzle-solving, and even fewer were frantically thinking about how to crack the code.
With an insufficient base, the puzzle-solving speed naturally couldn’t keep up.
Quite a few players who just wanted to play a horror game were kept out, and the game’s sales were still at 0, which was very realistic.
Wang Xiaobin was a bit worried. “I’m wondering, what if players can’t crack this code? We worked hard to make the game, but if players can’t play it, wouldn’t that be…”
Lin Wan smiled. “You’re overthinking. There are too many talented people among the players; cracking this code is just a matter of time.”
“Besides, the harder the puzzle, the more people participate, wouldn’t that make the promotional effect better?”
…
OTTO Technology.
Chang You was worrying about the PowerPoint.
Although he had received clear instructions from Mr. Pei, he still had no idea how to implement them.
The key was that Mr. Pei’s requirements completely overturned his conventional thinking about press conferences…
Not to mention anything else, the requirement to use one image and five minutes to cover all the phone’s advantages was somewhat ridiculous.
Chang You had already had people list all the phone’s advantages, and fitting them into one image wasn’t a problem, but covering them in five minutes was simply impossible!
The currently known advantages of OTTO E1 included: high refresh rate screen, 5800mAh large battery, flagship chip, custom cooling system, horizontal linear motor, high-pixel dual camera, fast charging, custom system, Tenda exclusive benefits, and more.
And if the Tenda exclusive benefits were expanded, there would be fifteen or sixteen points across gaming, entertainment, lifestyle, and other categories.
Additionally, features like NFC, infrared, headphone jack, HIFI, dual speakers—which other phone manufacturers would mention when releasing phones—seemed impossible to fit in for OTTO E1.
Chang You looked at this image and felt his brain aching.
“How can I fit so much content into five minutes? I’m not a host who makes a living with my tongue…”
“But Mr. Pei gave a strict order, and I must complete it.”
“If I can’t complete it, wouldn’t I lose face at the press conference?”
“Huh? Wait, host?”
“Could it be that Mr. Pei was hinting that I should compile all these advantages into a script and say them all within five minutes?”
“Otherwise, why would he specifically limit it to ‘five minutes’?”
Chang You suddenly realized something and hurriedly created a new document, stringing all these advantages together into a small paragraph.
Counting the characters, it was about 1,000 words.
The normal speaking speed for humans, like announcers who articulate each word clearly to ensure every word is heard, is about 80-120 words per minute.
And the maximum speed at which humans can still understand is 2.5 times the normal speed, which is 300 words per minute.
If it’s faster, like a certain host who can do 350 words in 47 seconds, for many viewers, this speed is already too fast to accurately grasp the information.
Moreover, Chang You had to say nearly 1,000 words, not just 300, and he needed to breathe in between. Speaking too fast could make him pass out.
So he calculated that saying 1,000 words in five minutes would average 200 words per minute, already nearly double the normal speaking rate!
And these 1,000 words seemed just enough to introduce all the advantages of OTTO E1…
Chang You was somewhat shocked. “Could this be Mr. Pei’s deeper intention?”
“Is he asking me to use this method to attract the attention of all on-site and live broadcast viewers, creating a show effect?”
“Did he even consider the five-minute timeframe in advance?”
“Yes, it must be this way! This seems to be the only explanation.”
“Looks like my old bones are going to be busy…”
Chang You still felt a lot of pressure, but at least now, he had a direction to strive for.
Completely memorizing this script before the press conference and being able to recite it without a single error in five minutes was not a simple challenge for him.
But for the sake of better promoting the phone and not disappointing Mr. Pei’s trust, Chang You decided to accept this challenge!
He was determined to show Mr. Pei his efforts at the press conference!