March 4th, Friday.
Pei Qian arrived at the company early and checked the backend.
The purchase data for “BE QUIET” was still zero!
Clearly, in the short span of one day, players hadn’t made any breakthrough progress.
Of course, this was all part of Mr. Pei’s plan!
This string of code was hidden in “The Lonely Desert Highway,” findable after three hours of driving, and once one person found it, everyone could participate in solving the puzzle.
If the goal was simply to discourage players, requiring all players to complete the eight-hour or even sixteen-hour journey of “The Lonely Desert Highway” would be a more effective method, but the system obviously wouldn’t allow that.
So, Pei Qian had to be careful about the difficulty level when setting these puzzles.
If the difficulty was too high and unreasonable, making it impossible for players to obtain purchase conditions, the system wouldn’t allow it.
If the difficulty was too low and failed to form a barrier, players would quickly be able to purchase, and Pei Qian’s efforts would be wasted.
Pei Qian’s main goal in setting up this screening was to reduce the number of players who obtained purchase qualifications before the end of this settlement cycle—that is, in less than a month—thereby reducing game sales.
As for what to do in the next cycle, that would be addressed later.
Pei Qian’s ideal scenario was for this puzzle to keep players occupied for a month, ensuring no sales this month.
The game was already online, and players couldn’t buy it because they hadn’t solved the puzzle, not because Mr. Pei’s game wasn’t complete. So it wouldn’t count as an incomplete project and wouldn’t cause delayed settlement.
Even if it couldn’t hold players off for a month, delaying for two or three weeks was still much better than letting players purchase freely from the start!
On the forums, players had already come up with many solutions for this string of code, and a batch of experts had emerged.
Solution methods included grouping, converting English to numbers, converting numbers to a nine-square grid, reversing, crossing, sequencing, ASCII, hexadecimal, and so on—it was dizzying.
In reality, Pei Qian was just an ordinary person. He hadn’t studied those very complex encryption methods, and the solution approach he used was completely based on commonly seen, relatively simple puzzle-solving methods from daily life.
It just had a few more steps.
The correct approach had indeed appeared among the players’ solutions, but because the decryption method for the final step was relatively obscure and magical, some players who had reached this step mistakenly believed it was a dead end and didn’t investigate further.
As a result, this correct solution path didn’t receive much attention.
GAICCCCCCACBIADBHCEA
After observation, it was clear that ABC appeared with high frequency, and the letter that ranked furthest back was I. According to the alphabet where A=1, B=2, and so on, I equals 9, indicating that this English string was originally a string of numbers that had been converted.
71933333313291428351
Continuing to observe this string of numbers, there was a pattern in every other digit.
71/93/33/33/31/32/91/42/83/51
None of the second digits exceeded 4, which is very common in mobile phone keypads.
71 represents the first letter of the 7 key on a mobile phone keypad, which is P. Similarly, all subsequent letters could also be found on the mobile phone keypad.
PYFFDEWHVJ
But at this step, there seemed to be no pattern, so the players who had previously found this path couldn’t continue to deduce further. From the replies and comments of other players, many hadn’t realized this was the correct solution.
This step wasn’t a complex code; its category is very common in real life, but this particular branch is extremely rare, so too few people know and understand it.
Pei Qian had only learned a bit about it out of interest, and on impulse, he used it in the code. Unexpectedly, the effect was surprisingly good.
Moreover, even if this code was deciphered, the puzzle-solving process was only one-third complete.
“Keep up the good work, everyone. If you can’t solve it, I’ll be at a loss in this settlement cycle!” Pei Qian couldn’t help but feel a bit smug.
This weekend, the OTTO phone press conference would be held, and Pei Qian had to take a look to ensure everything went according to plan.
But before that, Pei Qian sent a message to the programmer responsible for this puzzle.
“The clue in ‘The Lonely Desert Highway’ has already been found. You can change the time needed to find the clue from three hours to 15 minutes.”
…
…
March 6th, Sunday.
Oasis Four Seasons Hotel, the largest five-star hotel in Jingzhou City.
Many of Tenda’s previous activities, including high-level business receptions, recruitment entrance exams, annual meetings, and so on, had been held in cooperation with this hotel.
This press conference was also being held in the hotel’s banquet hall. Many technology media outlets had been invited in advance, with rooms reserved for them, including meals, accommodation, and round-trip transportation expenses for the day.
As for others, tickets were given away to customers of businesses like Slackin’ Internet Café and Headwind Logistics.
In any case, filling the entire venue was no problem.
The press conference was scheduled to officially begin at 3 PM. Pei Qian quietly strolled into the hotel venue around 2 PM and found a seat in a corner.
If he wanted, he could have sat in the front row, but cameras were set up to livestream the entire press conference. If Pei Qian sat in the front row, he would be on camera, which would expose him.
So, Pei Qian told Chang You he would come, but didn’t tell him exactly where he would be sitting.
With so many people present, finding Mr. Pei would be nearly impossible.
This way, Mr. Pei wouldn’t expose himself but still achieved the effect of supervising from the front lines—killing two birds with one stone.
Soothing, gentle music played at the venue, which was bustling with people filing in.
Perhaps because he had arrived a bit early, the big screen was still dark.
If this were a press conference for another phone brand, the big screen would probably be playing some short films to warm up the atmosphere, followed by promotional images of spokespersons and the like.
But Pei Qian thought, does the OTTO phone have these things?
Previously, Chang You had come to ask about a spokesperson, but at that time, Pei Qian hadn’t decided, so he hadn’t given Chang You a definitive answer.
Presumably, Chang You had forgotten about this?
If there wasn’t even a spokesperson, then there probably wouldn’t be any warm-up films either.
Well, that was fine too. Just start with the dry presentation, talk about the phone’s shortcomings for an hour, then wrap up at top speed—perfectly aligned with Mr. Pei’s wishes.
As Pei Qian was thinking happily about this, the lights in the venue suddenly dimmed.
The big screen lit up!
A futuristic logo slowly appeared on the big screen, like the rising sun dispersing darkness, instantly attracting everyone’s attention.
The camera gradually pulled away, making the logo smaller. A silhouette appeared in front of the camera, perfectly blocking the bright light, outlining a handsome profile.
Then, he extended his right hand and grasped that ball of light.
A ray of light instantly burst from his hand, and the shrunken logo was engraved on the back of the phone, emitting a soft breathing light effect!
The silhouette now turned to face the audience—Lu Zhiyao, looking breathtakingly handsome, gazed toward the venue through the screen, holding a very impressive-looking phone in his hand, with the logo flashing behind him, full of technological appeal.
That wasn’t all; there were two more advertisements after that, including the “drone delivery” advertisement.
Finally, the screen froze on the promotional image: Lu Zhiyao holding the OTTO phone, his lips curling into a faint smile.
Pei Qian sat frozen in his seat, forgetting to drink from the mineral water bottle he had just opened.
“What the hell…”
“Isn’t this the advertisement from ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’???”
Pei Qian couldn’t help but recall the scene when he had watched “Beautiful Tomorrow” in the cinema.
At this moment, it was just like that moment.
The same unexpected shock, the same bewilderment!
Earlier, when Pei Qian was watching the movie, he had indeed seen this phone advertisement and logo, but it was different from the OTTO Technology logo in his memory, so he hadn’t paid much attention.
As a result, how did the OTTO phone start copying from the movie?
Riding the popularity wave?
How shameless!
And when did Lu Zhiyao become the spokesperson?
Lu Zhiyao was currently at the peak of his fame. After “Beautiful Tomorrow” was released, his identity as “box office poison” was instantly cleared, and with his breakthrough acting skills and his already decent fame, he forcefully re-entered the ranks of China’s top young actors.
If he won an award, it would be even more remarkable.
Considering what “Beautiful Tomorrow” had done for Lu Zhiyao, it seemed reasonable for him to reciprocate by becoming a spokesperson for the OTTO phone…
For Pei Qian, this should have been a pleasant surprise.
However, Pei Qian felt no joy at all, only shock!
This opening was much better than ordinary warm-up videos because “Beautiful Tomorrow” was still in theaters and quite popular, and many people present had already seen it.
These advertisements had all appeared in “Beautiful Tomorrow,” filmed with care and distinctive style, clearly different from most current phone advertisements. Seeing this advertisement, the audience naturally associated it with the futuristic phone brand from “Beautiful Tomorrow.”
Chang You hadn’t revealed this in the promotional materials before, so the audience was pleasantly surprised!
The venue, which had been somewhat lifeless, suddenly came alive!
The technology media reporters sitting in the front row were all whispering to each other, obviously excited by just the advertisement and Lu Zhiyao’s endorsement.
Meanwhile, Pei Qian sat on pins and needles, extremely anxious.
The opening of the press conference was far from what he had imagined, which didn’t seem to be a good sign…
He opened the bottle cap and took another sip of mineral water to calm himself.
“Stay calm, stay calm.”
“The situation probably isn’t as bad as I imagine.”
“A good opening doesn’t necessarily mean it will be effective; it might create a first-suppression-then-elevation effect.”
“As long as Chang You follows my requirements for the PowerPoint and does everything opposite to other phone manufacturers, the criticism will grow louder as we go on.”
“In that case, having such a cool opening will become a negative point.”
“So, there’s no need to worry too much now. Everything will be fine!”