“Why shouldn’t we chase after common trending topics on the internet?”

“Looking at it from a different angle, what’s wrong with the most popular topics online?”

“Hmm, thinking carefully, there are quite a few problems. For instance, the truth is often unclear and can easily flip, making early statements potentially harmful; the most trending topics are often superficial, completely contrary to the purpose of the Useful APP; these trending topics tend to come quickly and disappear just as fast, leaving nothing but a mess once the heat dies down…”

Yu Ping’an quickly identified a series of problems and hidden dangers.

The current internet world consists of numerous massive information cocoons, with most people only caring about the parts that interest them.

This leads to a problem: the hottest topics are inevitably those that can draw everyone out of their information cocoons to participate in discussions, and such topics are often limited to a very narrow range of aspects.

For example, topics about emotions and gender relations.

After all, a person might love games, movies, anime… each hobby corresponds to a small circle, and one can ignore circles they don’t like. But people are born either male or female, so there’s no way to avoid topics related to gender.

Similarly, entertainment industry topics will always rank higher than academic ones.

Because academia is something only a small portion of people can master or access, while ordinary people have watched some movies and variety shows during their leisure time and recognize a few celebrities.

The more broadly encompassing a topic is, the more likely it is to generate heat; but as discussions continue, they more easily devolve into people talking past each other and mutual attacks.

The characteristic of the internet world is precisely that no one can convince anyone else; it’s simply about who shouts louder. And the volume often depends on arguing skills—whoever has fewer moral boundaries in an argument is more likely to win.

Therefore, the biggest trending topics in a given period are often those in which ordinary people participate widely but which are extremely lacking in substance.

At first glance, these might seem like juicy gossip, but after consuming them, one looks back and feels like they’ve eaten nothing at all.

This clearly contradicts the purpose of the Useful APP completely.

The Useful APP aims to create a sanctuary free of garbage information on the internet, and the repetitive, excessive discussion of “conflict-inducing trending topics” is itself creating garbage information.

Realizing this, Yu Ping’an had an epiphany.

“So Mr. Pei is reminding me to be mindful of the degree.”

“Following trending topics is necessary because they reflect the collective demands of ordinary people to some extent. The Useful APP, as software, serves most ordinary people, so following trending topics is a process of understanding the collective demands of ordinary people.”

“But we can’t focus on those conflict-inducing, over-discussed, meaningless trending topics because they run completely counter to the purpose of the Useful APP.”

“Hmm, Mr. Pei’s teachings are very reasonable and thought-provoking. But… Mr. Pei still hasn’t said specifically how to choose trending topics.”

There are so many trending events on the internet now, but few are valuable and meaningful.

The highest trending topics are often broadly encompassing, lacking specific content, conflict-inducing, and provoking mutual attacks between different groups.

But are lower-trending topics any different?

Obviously not. Among lower-trending topics, such broadly encompassing, contentless, conflict-inducing garbage topics that provoke mutual attacks between different groups are equally common.

“Mr. Pei said to observe more.”

“But with so many trending topics, how do I choose? I don’t have that kind of powerful insight!”

“If Mr. Pei personally selected them, he would certainly choose the best direction.”

“But how could Mr. Pei possibly spend his valuable time selecting trending topics for the Useful APP…”

Yu Ping’an felt like he had reached a dead end: Mr. Pei had proposed a solution, but it was one only Mr. Pei himself could use.

“Wait a minute.”

“Who says Mr. Pei doesn’t have time to help select? Hasn’t he been selecting all along!”

Yu Ping’an suddenly realized he might have fallen into a misconception.

He thought Mr. Pei was too busy to help the Useful APP choose a general direction.

But the key question was: what was Mr. Pei busy with?

Wasn’t he determining the general direction for Tenda Group’s development!

As the helmsman of Tenda Group, Mr. Pei continuously led Tenda into various different fields. These industries seemed completely unrelated to each other and appeared doomed to fail when they first started, but they quickly developed close connections and proved to be the direction of future development!

Every time Mr. Pei entered a field, he could transform that field’s business model and cause quite a stir.

Wasn’t this also a meaningful trending topic?

With this realization, Yu Ping’an’s perspective suddenly broadened.

“What game is Tenda’s gaming department developing? Oh, ‘Eternal Cycle of Rebirth’… that doesn’t seem very applicable.”

“What about Shangyang Games?”

“‘Safe and Civilized Driving’! This seems to be a game related to cars, traffic, and urban planning.”

“The Useful APP can also start from this field, researching car-related areas. On one hand, it can ride the popularity when ‘Safe and Civilized Driving’ is released; on the other hand, it can provide some theoretical support for this game.”

Yu Ping’an suddenly understood the development direction for the Useful APP in the coming period.

First, systematically cooperate with universities to continue enriching various basic fields and quickly build the overall framework; second, work closely with industries Tenda plans to develop in the near future, both providing theoretical support and using the popularity of those industries to promote the Useful APP.

“This forms a complete closed loop! Perfect!”

Yu Ping’an was no longer confused, and his decision paralysis was completely cured.

After receiving Mr. Pei’s enlightenment, he stopped hesitating and immediately threw himself into work, preparing to find relevant professionals!

……

……

September 21st, Friday.

Meng Chang didn’t go to work today because he had already realized that he would most likely not receive any more commission this month, which meant his work was essentially over.

With no salary, who would still work?

But Meng Chang wasn’t dejected like he had been in previous instances. Although he stayed at home, he was still following the progress of “Eternal Cycle of Rebirth.”

He wanted to know the deeper meaning behind Mr. Pei’s disruption of his promotional plan, and he was waiting for the explanation in Qiao Laoshi’s video.

If the explanation didn’t satisfy him, Meng Chang would have to reconsider the Pei-style promotional method he had summarized, as this incident might indicate he had fallen into a very wrong misconception.

And if the explanation did satisfy him, it would mean that the Pei-style promotional method was generally correct, but there were errors in some details.

And Mr. Pei’s intervention in disrupting his promotional plan was to correct these errors.

In any case, Meng Chang needed to stay alert and pay close attention.

Since the combat system of “Eternal Cycle of Rebirth” was updated last Friday, players’ evaluations and feedback online had changed.

But this change wasn’t entirely what Meng Chang had estimated.

Originally, Meng Chang thought that updating the combat system early was equivalent to igniting the heat at the wrong time, which would prevent the heat from reaching its peak during ignition, but instead would spread steadily and continuously over the following period.

At first, the situation was indeed as he had predicted.

Players were very excited about the new combat system, and the previously criticized difficulty issues seemed to disappear. Everyone was seriously refining their parrying techniques, and various expert players posted their no-damage speed kill videos online.

It must be said that there were indeed many talented experts. Just a week after the combat system was updated, someone had already completed the achievement of killing the Black and White Impermanence at the beginning, after who knows how many attempts.

Of course, defeating the Black and White Impermanence wouldn’t have a decisive impact on the game’s progression; it would only allow players to obtain the weapons and items from them in advance.

In the storyline, the protagonist would no longer be locked up by the Black and White Impermanence and taken to the Yellow Springs Road, but would go to the Yellow Springs Road on their own using items from the Black and White Impermanence.

Additionally, in the original process, players would encounter the Black and White Impermanence again in the middle of the game, but if they had already killed these two bosses at the beginning, they wouldn’t need to fight them again at that point.

In short, it didn’t actually affect the game content; it just added an achievement.

But regardless, being able to defeat mid-game bosses with just a magic sword in the prologue was enough to demonstrate these players’ prowess.

Many players were discussing this combat system, believing that it combined action game gameplay with the rhythm of music games and the directional inputs of fighting games, representing another breakthrough in action games.

All of this aligned perfectly with what Meng Chang had anticipated.

But soon, a situation that Meng Chang found somewhat unexpected occurred: some players began naturally comparing “Eternal Cycle of Rebirth” with “Turn Back to Shore.”

And the result of the comparison was that although “Eternal Cycle of Rebirth” had made some innovations in its combat system, it was far inferior to “Turn Back to Shore”!

Meng Chang’s first reaction to this claim was also very confused and even puzzled.

So he found the source of this claim, a post by someone claiming to be a veteran player of “Turn Back to Shore.”

This player had also attached screenshots of all achievements in “Turn Back to Shore” and the achievement of killing the Black and White Impermanence in the prologue of “Eternal Cycle of Rebirth” to prove their deep understanding of both games, not just a superficial experience.

“To be honest, when ‘Eternal Cycle of Rebirth’ first updated its combat system, I was also very excited, but after experiencing it until now, I’m a bit disappointed.”

“I know many people will say that one-third of the game’s content hasn’t been updated yet, and this is just a DLC, so we shouldn’t judge it by the standards of a new game. After all, as a DLC that costs only a fraction of the base game, its current performance is already very much worth the price.”

“But I still want to briefly share my thoughts and why I feel ‘Eternal Cycle of Rebirth’ is inferior to ‘Turn Back to Shore.'”

“I won’t emphasize the issue of repetitive scenes and monsters that many people have mentioned before, as this is just a DLC with a low price. What I find somewhat regrettable is precisely the combat system of ‘Eternal Cycle of Rebirth.'”

“I think this combat system, though innovative, has two major problems: First, its operational difficulty is too high, making it impossible for most people to get enough enjoyment as they did in ‘Turn Back to Shore’; Second, it actually diverges from the spirit of ‘Turn Back to Shore’ to some extent, losing the ‘breaking the fourth wall’ effect that Qiao Laoshi mentioned, and the spiritual core of endless suffering in this world of despair has been weakened to some extent.”

“In ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ every player could personally feel that despair, but after suffering for a while, they could immerse themselves in it. Just as Qiao Laoshi said, the game broke the boundary with reality and would give players a spiritual baptism.”

“But after the major changes to the combat system in ‘Eternal Cycle of Rebirth,’ that feeling has been lost.”

“For players who cannot master the new combat system and find it difficult to adapt to the blocking operation, this journey has become pure suffering, and it’s hard to get that joy of growth after suffering. In other words, the entry barrier for combat is too high; for those players who have adapted to this combat style, although they can derive intense pleasure from it, they lose that feeling of struggling in the sea of suffering.”

“So, there’s nothing wrong with the game itself; it’s still consistently high quality, and the combat system is refreshingly new. But in terms of breaking the fourth wall and digging deep into spiritual gameplay, I think it has a significant gap compared to ‘Turn Back to Shore’—not only has it failed to carry on the legacy, but it’s gone in the opposite direction.”

“In my view, this is a very regrettable point.”