After the first week ended, the sect master's goal had been reached: over 50,000 people had bought his game.
The Battlefield of Heroes became a hot topic of discussion within Riverside City and its influence, but it didn't stop there.
Leaving the negotiations to those more capable than himself, the sect master called him for a meeting, during which they discussed the next platforms on which the Secret Realm would be released.
Since it wasn't only a matter of making more spirit stones but also being able to connect these platforms for online gameplay, she had to carefully pick their first partners in order to stabilize the Secret Realm's foundation before expanding into the broader market.
At the same time, his promotion to Outer Elder and Tier 1 Programmer was also confirmed, and his salary was increased to 10,000 spirit stones starting next month.
On May 11th, the true 1v1 online gameplay began, allowing cultivators and regular folk alike to compete against each other.
Most games were... painful to watch, but everyone was having fun.
The sales numbers also increased considerably after the sect master's arrangements, finally reaching 100,000 copies sold.
This benchmark was also met with a surprise event, but we'll leave that for later.
-----Scene Break-----
"How is it, Mildred?"
[The servers are acting normally, sir. As you expected, more than 80% of the player base chose to enter the matchmaking queue, putting a strain on all platforms we released the Secret Realm on. Fortunately, after giving them advance notice, they had already prepared, and no accidents happened.](Mildred)
"Excellent! What about the rank calibration mechanism?"
[The news outlets we informed are already reporting it, and The Battlefield of Heroes' official website just posted the full article pertaining to the calibration process.](Mildred)
"Any reactions from the community?"
[Mostly positive, sir. After all, they only need to participate in ten consecutive games against an A.I.-controlled enemy set on Hard difficulty for their rank to be calibrated.](Mildred)
"What about the Insane difficulty?"
[The general consensus is that Golden Core and Nascent Soul realm cultivators might try this route for a better ranking, but everyone else will stick with the Hard difficulty.](Mildred)
Michael calmly accepted this conclusion. After all, in the past month, all sorts of geniuses who bought his game stood and announced how they'd defeat the enemies on the highest difficulty.
The result... including some overconfident Nascent Soul cultivators, were badly trounced, some even while live streaming the process.
However, these people were outliers.
Overall, Mildred collected enough data to conclude that Golden Core cultivators at the middle levels or above could fight evenly with the Insane difficulty A.I., while Nascent Soul realms could usually overpower their foes within the early game.
If they weren't able to clinch victory fast enough, the A.I. would match them in mid-game and, seven out of ten times, trounce them in the late game.
The sect master Helena, for example, was an absolute irregularity in the data Mildred collected.
Using her early Nascent Soul cultivation experience, she was able to beat the Insane-difficulty A.I. every time they fought.
Her matches were close in the beginning, but after a month of experience, even the most complex heroes had a hard time against her.
"What about the scanning process? Did we get permission from the World Cultivators Alliance?"
[Yes, sir. It will be strictly monitored to ensure we won't use the data for nefarious purposes, but we can begin the next phase.](Mildred)
"Excellent! Please start the update. In a week, I want to announce this option to our players and let them compete with their true appearances if they choose to."
While becoming someone else might feel novel, not using one's true appearance in a fight might affect the cultivator's prowess in real life.
After all, using skills is fine and all, but getting used to having four legs or fighting while floating for a long period of time might create bad habits.
Therefore, he planned to modify the rank mode to allow players to participate only using their natural appearance.
Of course, for those who were lacking in the beauty department, he decided to be merciful and allow them to slightly modify their faces, similar to adding a beauty filter, while for those lacking limbs, the system would automatically restore it if they choose to.
The scanning process needed to be done at a medical institution in order to prevent any mishaps.
Here, Michael decided to shoulder the costs, but both the Bright Moon sect and their partners decided to take this matter into their own hands since it would bolster their reputation.
In this manner, on August 11th, an extensive update was announced for the incredibly popular Secret Realm.
The Battlefield of Heroes now allowed the two players to compete in a special 5v5 mode, in which each participant had four A.I. allies.
The top and bottom lanes were also unlocked, giving the players the option to explore the full map and even contest against the neutral creeps and Shenlong.
All current strategies had to be scrapped, and more than 70% of the player base immediately switched to this new mode, aware of the future 5v5 player-only version of the game.
At the same time, the bombshell regarding the new restriction placed on the ranking mode was announced, and players reacted differently.
Over 60% of the users were happy about it, especially since the sects would cover the money for the scan and conduct a complete physical examination.
Of the remaining 40%, half didn't care much, as they were the older generation and couldn't be bothered to be that competitive. Even if they were, it was only a paid full-body examination.
Unlike those paranoid children, for those who fought on the frontlines, it took more than this to scare them.
The remaining half had mixed opinions about the true purpose of this restriction but were quickly quieted down after being called out as too ugly to show their real faces.
In a very overbearing manner, Michael's Secret Realm sold out over 280,000 total copies, making him rich enough.
In preparation for the large 5v5 update, he decisively bought Mildred a quantum server the size of an industrial warehouse, costing him 130,000 spirit stones—and that after the sect master succeeded in getting him a large discount.
Checking his status page, he grinned happily.
[ Host: Michael Lewis
Age: 19
Lifespan: 120.9 years (92.3 original lifespan + 28.6 added lifespan through cultivation)
Cultivation: 4th Level of Qi Gathering (84%)
Spiritual Roots: Normal
Assets: 1 Spiritual Pouch (1 cubic meter), 145,350 spirit stones, 13 sets of Qi Gathering pills, and 6 bottles of Qi Recovery Powder. ]
Barely containing his laughter, Michael remembered the day his sales reached 100,000 units.
The stupid system actually woke up for once, congratulating him for his hard work.
[ Congratulations, host!
For the achievement of your first Secret Realm reaching 100,000 sold copies a reward will be generated.
Please choose between the following two options:
1. +5 levels of the host's current cultivation realm
2. +1 level to host's spiritual roots. ]
Considering the five levels only short-term gratification, Michael picked the second option without considering it for too long.
His cultivation talent was poor, as it was. Why not take the chance to improve it?
Suffice it to say that the retarded system directly began refining his spiritual roots, the process being so painful he couldn't even pass out.
After an hour of continuous torture, he weakly ran into the bathroom after sealing his T-shirt in a bag and disposing of it in the trash can.
There wasn't a detergent strong enough in this cultivation world capable of convincing him this fabric was worth wearing ever again!
After showering and going to sleep that night, he quickly found out in the following days just how much his cultivation speed had increased.
From the previous 12% monthly increase, it ramped up all the way to 20%!
Now, in less than a month, he would finally be promoted to the 5th level of Qi Gathering.
-------Scene Break-------
[Oh, it's the bigshot! Thank you for honoring us with your presence!](Nolan)
"Scram!"
Seeing his two friends playfully bowing their heads to show 'respect,' Michael laughed as he sat beside them.
They were currently preparing to enjoy the dishes offered by a Tier 3 Spiritual Chef, something he decided on as a celebration of the success his Secret Realm showed.
However, both Nolan and Selina knew it was more a celebration for them than it was for Michael.
Just two weeks ago, these two's Secret Realms hit the market and became incredibly popular.
Probably because Michael's project stirred the public's interest in new types of Secret Realms, these two did incredibly well.
Nolan's Secret Realm focused on a more tactical approach. The players could command a squad of 5 to 20 A.I.-controlled cultivators tasked with sabotaging the demons' main invading forces.
This fresh perspective was well-received by the public, adding on top of its affordable cost of only ten spirit stones.
With only two weeks passing, Nolan's project sold a bit over 10,000 copies, more than twice his initial predictions.
Selina did even better. Her Secret Realm has sold 25,000 copies so far, and the trend doesn't seem to be slowing down.
Her project offered three options to select between before the player could dive in.
The first was the 10-men squad (1 player and 9 NPCs), the second was the 5-men squad (1 player and 4 NPCs), and finally, the solo version.
Irrelevant to the option one selected, the goal was to impede the advancing demonic legion by only using a set number of resources.
True to Michael's initial assessment of her idea as a tower-defense-like game, she would allow the player to choose a certain number of traps, war machines, and formations at the beginning of their run.
Then, the players had to use their resources, terrain, and cunning to deter the demonic forces from advancing on their preselected path.
In the initial week of the Secret Realm's release, the sales were similar to those of Nolan's. However, during the live stream of a regular person, not only did the daredevil choose the solo mode, but he also annihilated the demonic forces using minimal resources.
Mind you, the word 'annihilate' is not used lightly in any context related to war, as it usually meant a massacre where the enemy forces were destroyed in proportion of 90% or more.
Yet, a person without cultivation had actually done it!
Watching the video, Michael immediately understood how her Secret Realm's popularity sky-rocketed soon after.
The young man, probably in his early 20s, made use of a combination of explosives, poisonous gas, and his actual body acting as bait to draw the demonic forces from their preset path.
Initially using some arrays and war machines to enrage the demons, he then sacrificed himself to draw the enemy into a much narrower canyon, where he used the explosives to create an enclosed space.
Then, by releasing the poisonous gas into this enclosed space, except for some of the commanders of the advance troops, every other demon died.
His success was astounding, earning him the top place on the leaderboards - something Selina copied from Michael's ranked system.
She even rewarded the man with 1,000 spirit stones for his impressive achievement, but Michael knew it was mostly P.R., as she was trying to draw more buyers.
And it worked! Splendidly so!
Therefore, today was a day of celebration for all three of them.
"What do you plan to do now? Already focusing on a new project?"
[Not yet. I feel that my current Secret Realm can be further improved. I plan to add more scenarios the users, or rather, players, can select. I think an even better idea is to link these scenarios to give the players the feeling of being on the frontlines, but I have yet to find a proper story.](Nolan)
'A campaign, huh?'
"That's a really great idea! Hmm... why not find one of the more popular novel writers and contract them to help you cook the story? I guess the A.I.-generated ones felt too scripted."
[I've been thinking the same thing, and my dad is using his connection to find someone decent enough.](Nolan)
"Let me know how it goes. What about you, Selina?"
[More or less the same. I plan to add more scenarios and increase the number of routes the demon army can take. Furthermore, I plan to add the multiplayer version as well, allowing up to five users to work together in defending multiple paths simultaneously.
My mother also suggested increasing the number of resources the players get, as well as their diversity. I think it's a good idea since the users keep coming up with ridiculous ways to clear the enemy forces.](Selina)
"Did the Bright Moon contact you about your project?"
[Huh? Yeah, they did two days ago. How did you know?](Selina)
"I would be disappointed if they didn't. Even if they don't 'hire' your top players to devise strategies against the demonic hordes in future invasions, they should still buy your game's recordings for a competent A.I. to compile, analyze, and formulate even better strategies based on."
Seeing her remain silent, Michael concluded she probably signed an N.D.A., so he didn't inquire further.
Nolan also seemed to have an Eureka moment, as he immediately asked for ways he could also implement the multiplayer version in his Secret Realm.
Overall, it was an extremely pleasant and relaxing meeting between friends.