Ma Yang was frowning with worry.

“Qian Ge… is our game so terrible that nobody cares about it?”

“I see other new game releases getting tens of thousands of downloads on their first day, but we only have a dozen or so…”

Ma Yang was utterly discouraged.

After the game was released, Ma Yang checked the “Ghost General” data on the official game platform almost every few minutes, looking at the download count and player reviews.

But after one hour, three hours, five hours…

The data barely changed!

Because “Ghost General” was temporarily placed in just a small recommendation spot in an obscure corner, and the name itself wasn’t particularly striking, and there weren’t any beautiful promotional images, who would notice it?

“The Lonely Desert Highway” was discovered by Qiao Laoshi because he was a content creator who specifically made videos critiquing single-player games and regularly searched for new games in the single-player game section.

This was an exception among exceptions.

Ordinary mobile game players don’t regularly look for new mobile games unless they’re particularly hot games with lots of pre-registrations.

For new mobile games like “Ghost General,” without good promotional measures, they would be 100% buried in the early stages.

“It’s fine, all new games are like this. Just wait patiently,” Pei Qian comforted.

Just wait patiently?

Yeah, right!

On the surface, Pei Qian pretended to be as anxious as Ma Yang, but in reality, he was secretly delighted.

The lack of downloads was very normal. This game had no exposure channels at all, so where would the downloads come from?

Not just in a day or two—even after a week or a month, this game would still end up being ignored by everyone!

Pei Qian was just waiting for the week to pass quickly. By then, “Ghost General” would have been removed from its obscure recommendation spot on the game platform, its popularity would have completely cooled down, and when the system calculated, the 300,000 system funds would all be converted to personal property.

How wonderful!

Pei Qian’s comfort didn’t have much effect. Ma Yang still wore an expression of gloom and despair.

“Sigh, let me check the data again. I wonder if there’s been any change after three hours,” Ma Yang said, once again opening the ESRO official game platform and searching for “Ghost General.”

After reaching the game details page, Ma Yang was stunned.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking he might have seen wrong.

He had looked several times before, and the download count was always around a dozen, but this time, when he looked again, the download count had somehow become over two thousand?!

Ma Yang thought he had misread, but after looking at the game rating and player comments, he confirmed he wasn’t mistaken.

Indeed, a batch of players had discovered this game!

The first thing Ma Yang saw was the game’s rating, which had reached an impressive 9.7!

Originally, “Ghost General’s” comment section was deserted without a single comment, but now there were over a hundred comments!

“Why does this game cost 10 yuan? How is it more expensive than ‘Cute Three Kingdoms’?”

“The person above hasn’t entered the game, right? You think 10 yuan is expensive? It’s too cheap, too conscientious!”

“After playing it seriously, this is a card mobile game full of sincerity! The key is that the game only sells one lifetime card. All consumption in the game added together is just 40 yuan!”

“40 yuan for unlimited play, everyone is equal, absolutely no recharge or consumption traps. I’m simply amazed. Is this still a card mobile game?”

“The quality of this game is very good. As a loyal player of card mobile games, I’ve finally found another card mobile game with distinctive features!”

“What impressed me was the characters in this game! I never thought Three Kingdoms characters could be portrayed in such a peculiar way. These character designs are like unbridled imagination—although full of absurdity, they feel refreshingly new!”

“The concept art is amazing. Just for this concept art, I’ll spend money on this game! What? Can’t spend money? Then I can only give it a five-star review!”

Ma Yang’s hands were trembling with excitement. He flipped through the player comments page by page and couldn’t even find a single negative review!

The absence of negative reviews wasn’t entirely because the game had beautiful concept art and conscientious pricing. There was another important reason: the first batch of players had all come for the concept art!

After Chen Qi and his group of artists posted these concept art pieces on Weibo, they immediately received a large number of likes, and many people came searching based on the game name.

Although many people were somewhat disappointed to find that “Ghost General” was a card mobile game rather than a single-player game or a large-scale online game, after playing it a bit, they couldn’t bring themselves to give it a low score.

Because this game seemed too conscientious!

The game’s quality was good. Whether it was art resources or music resources, Pei Qian had spared no expense, giving a good first impression.

And the game’s complete lack of monetization features won the goodwill of many casual players.

So after this first batch of players poured in, “Ghost General’s” reputation exploded, all with positive reviews!

Ma Yang excitedly leaned down from the upper bunk to tell Pei Qian, “Qian Ge! It’s happening! Our game’s download count has gone up! And there are a lot of reviews too, all five-star ratings!”

Pei Qian was drinking water and spat it out with a “puff,” then coughed for over a minute from choking.

“What did you just say?” Pei Qian almost thought he had misheard.

Ma Yang excitedly repeated: “The download count has soared to over two thousand! And everyone’s evaluation of the game is very good. Someone even specifically praised the character designs I made!”

Pei Qian was dumbfounded.

The download count soared by several thousand?

How was that possible? Where did these players get this information?

And all five-star reviews?

It didn’t make sense. This game was just a generic card mobile game template with nothing innovative about its gameplay. How did it deserve five-star reviews?

If it were someone else’s game, Pei Qian’s first reaction would be that the game publisher had bought fake reviews to boost the rating!

But this was Pei Qian’s own game.

Whether or not fake reviews had been purchased—wouldn’t Pei Qian know?

With just this much money, all of which had already been spent, where would the funds to buy fake reviews come from?

Moreover, even if there was money, Pei Qian would never use it to buy fake reviews or boost ratings. He wanted the game to fade away quietly as soon as possible. How could he possibly do something to generate buzz?

Could another company have accidentally bought fake reviews for the wrong game?

That couldn’t be right either. What kind of fake review service would be so incompetent as to boost the wrong game’s ratings?

Could it be… that the same coincidence that happened with the previous game was happening again?!

Pei Qian hurriedly logged into the ESRO resource site and looked at the game data.

Ma Yang wasn’t lying to him. The game data had indeed surged!

And the players’ evaluations were all like they had been written by paid reviewers, all praising how conscientious “Ghost General” was!

The number of players who had downloaded the game was continuously growing.

The number of people who had purchased the lifetime card in the game was also continuously growing!

Looking at these two constantly increasing numbers, Pei Qian fell into a state of stupefaction.

What was wrong with this world?!

Where exactly had things gone wrong?!

Pei Qian’s vision went black, and he collapsed onto the bed.