Chapter 15: The Power of Family and Fandom
"This should be done by Dad and Brother."
Ignoring the tumult of comments cursing him in the section of his WebNet account, John Harper thought of Adam's stoic demeanor and Michael's always-majestic appearance. His heart warmed. He didn't expect them to be capable of this kind of operation.
This was decisively helping him through the back door!
They also knew that even if Pokémon became popular, it would be counted as the achievement of "Second World" at the time, and the attention it drew to John as the designer would be his benefit.
In fact, John had thought about this method before, but he believed they were all involved in government agencies.
John was worried that asking them to help would have a negative impact on them, so he resorted to buying followers to create buzz. But he didn't expect them to take the initiative.
"It's easy to get things done with someone at home."
John smiled softly, appreciating their support. After finding the comment option in the settings, he decided to change it so that only followers could comment. Well, if you want to criticize me, you have to follow me first.
After following me, I have a hundred ways to make it impossible for you to unfollow!
These Pokémon data are just the first step.
Because John played it smart, the information he submitted to the officials was actually a limited version, which did not clearly indicate the base stats of the Pokémon. Players could only rely on their own tests to get a rough idea.
Just like comparing cats, dogs, and lions, everyone knows that lions have much higher physical attack attributes than cats and dogs.
Although the data he released lacked detailed stats, he shared his views on the development direction of some Pokémon in his capacity as the designer.
With his identity as the Pokémon designer, the information he released would naturally be more convincing than the official announcements.
And he didn't release all the Pokémon information at once. Instead, he treated it like bait, always keeping players curious.
After John set up the comments, the frenzied flood of comments on his WebNet decreased by 99%, leaving only genuine questions that were previously drowned out by troll comments.
As a publisher, John could see from the dashboard how many people had viewed the information he released.
Now, aside from the wave of trolls he initially bought, most of the people following him were drawn by the video or directed by the "Second World" officials.
The official promotion dwarfed the followers bought by John.
The number of clicks on the information displayed in the dashboard increased in tandem with the number of John's followers, indicating that most of these new followers were attracted by the Pokémon information he released.
"You are John Harper? What did you design? Even those things can be called pets?"
"A bunch of odd creatures—snakes, mice, and caterpillars—are you out of your mind?"
"Reported, the hack who went through the back door!"
"..."
Soon, there were many critical comments again in the comment area. The content was predictable. Just as John could buy followers, so could others.
Naturally, John didn't bother to care about these people, nor did he care about who was behind the scenes. He directly closed the WebNet interface, relaxed in his chair, set up a massage mode, and enjoyed it comfortably.
The Pokémon had been online for a few hours, and system prompts had already started to sound in John's mind.
The first batch of players who received Pokémon had moved past the initial curiosity phase, especially after watching the video of Lily commanding Dratini to battle Scyther, which ignited many people's enthusiasm for Pokémon.
At the same time, the official information and the data released by John also began to play a role.
"It's over 3,000 followers so quickly! It's definitely easier with a boost."
For John, the happiest thing in life was watching his points increase bit by bit on the system panel.
The points were slowly increasing, and John had a relaxed smile on his face while he planned his next moves.
With the launch of Pokémon, it meant that John finally had a steady channel to earn points, and those imaginary virtual worlds would one day be born in his hands.
John could even exchange those things into reality.
"Huh~ There is a long way to go. I can't relax."
After lying down for a while, John smiled helplessly and sat up.
As John reviewed the system's features, he discovered something even more exciting. Not only could he earn points and create virtual worlds, but he could also bring items from these games into reality.
The realization hit him like a lightning bolt. The potential was limitless. He could bring Pokémon, game items, and even special abilities into the real world. The thought of such possibilities filled him with exhilaration.
"This changes everything," John whispered to himself, his eyes gleaming with newfound determination. "I need to strategize carefully. The real and virtual worlds are about to intertwine like never before."
In fact, after he designed the Pokémon, they could already be exchanged in the exchange store.
As expected, even Pokémon like Rattata and Caterpie were exchanged in units of 10,000 points. More rare Pokémon reached 100,000 or millions.
Not to mention the cultivation props that John had been looking forward to.
He sat up again and murmured, "The popularity of Pokémon hasn't reached its limit. I can take this opportunity to launch the next game and squeeze out the last bit of value from this wave of popularity! Hmm... what should I use for the next hype?"
Looking at the more than 3,000 points on the system panel, John opened the exchange store, scanning the game data one by one.
First of all, he skipped the anime and martial arts. Although there were materials in them, he could afford them, but he couldn't manage them yet.
Ninety-nine percent of those games required John to create virtual worlds by himself, so there was no chance of cutting corners. However, with John's current entry-level virtual game design ability, it was still too early to create full virtual worlds. He needed a simple game to get started.
For example... Happy Farm!
John suddenly remembered a comment he noticed when browsing through the sarcastic netizens' posts. The latest update in Seaside City included adding a few experimental plots, which seemed very attractive to people in this world.
In this highly technological society, even daily life was assisted by various robots, and everyone lived surrounded by reinforced concrete. It was hard to experience the most primitive joy of rural life.
Happy Farm was a perfect fit!
With this in mind, John found the game data for Happy Farm, which only needed 100 points, very cheap.
Because the original value of these materials wasn't high, John could find them even if he looked for them himself, but it would waste a lot of time.
John didn't want to waste the best chance to gain popularity by saving the 100 points, so he immediately redeemed one.
"Let the trend of farming take over this world!"
A/N: Sorry for not uploading for so long, guys; I have been busy with my finals and have one more week for this semester to end. So i will try to remain consistent in the update. Stay tuned and enjoy.
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