novelraw Chapter 97: Public Beta
Chapter 97: Public Beta
“One million!”“Holy sh*t! We hit a million!!”
Inside Avalon Studio, Kang Ming and Sun Gong shouted out in excitement.
All the staff stopped what they were doing and turned to look at them.
But very quickly—they all seemed to realize something and collectively turned to look at Tang Yao… who was standing behind Chu Yuxin, giving her some instructions. Suddenly being stared at by everyone made her body stiffen slightly.
She glanced around the room, then looked at Kang Ming and said with forced calm, “Keep monitoring it. Don’t make a big fuss…”
“……”
Several people looked surprised—some even a little disappointed.
Where was the jumping and cheering…
“One million, though!”Kang Ming was a bit stunned by Tang Yao’s composure and quickly added, “We barely promoted it on any channels. These are all core users! A million core users! Sure, it’s not on the same level as top-tier online games, but this is still a lot!”
For Avalon, a small studio, getting this kind of number on their first-ever game was honestly incredible. “Yeah, I know,”Tang Yao nodded. “But it’s only the second day, and a lot of people don’t even know about the pre-download yet… We’ll see a spike on launch day. Just stay calm.”
After all, in her past life she worked in mobile games—she knew the typical install base and monthly active users (MAUs) for anime-style mobile games.
In the early years of FGO’s launch in her previous life, the monthly active user count hovered around 1.4 to 1.6 million.
That was before the broader anime fandom had even hit its peak.
FGO was already a bit of an older title by then… As of 2018, its total installs were about 2.5 million.
And when a game launches, even accounting for uninstalls and inactive players… install figures usually double.
Of course, that success was built on years of Fate franchise accumulation and heavily boosted by Bilibili’s marketing in her old world.
But in this world, the domestic market was bigger… The population was larger, and so was the anime fanbase—especially since Tang Yao’s previous job was manga editor.
Not to mention—in her past life, FGO’s largest player base came from her own country, the Sakurazaka Prefecture equivalent here…
So a million pre-downloads? Totally normal. They weren’t even at the peak yet.
“……”
Kang Ming looked at Tang Yao, still trying to argue, but before he could say more, she shot him a glare and cut him off: “Stop staring at the pre-download count. The public beta is what really matters.”
“…Got it.”Kang Ming chuckled awkwardly, finally dropped the topic, and went back to watching backend data—still hyped.
Tang Yao looked around and saw that all the other staff were in the same state… She didn’t say more. After working for a while, she stepped out of the studio to go to the restroom.
Quietly closing the door behind her,
Tang Yao took a deep breath and stood there without heading off right away. Instead, she broke into a radiant smile, tiptoed slightly, bounced down lightly, and repeated this a few times before finally humming a tune and walking to the bathroom. And just like Tang Yao predicted—
That one million pre-downloads was far from the ceiling. In the next few days, as the hype spread, the number kept climbing!
Initially, even the staff from Mingyu Tech who had come to observe were able to keep their cool. But when the pre-downloads broke three million…
They couldn’t stay calm anymore.
Because… this had already doubled the install figures of Mingyu Tech’s own game!
And Mingyu had thrown investor money into a massive marketing campaign just to barely hit a million…
But Avalon Studio—let’s be real—without Tang Yao, they’d have disbanded already.
To save money, she took on way too many roles—so many that the others in the studio looked at her strangely.
Under those conditions, there was no extra cash for big promotional campaigns.
But precisely because they had no massive marketing and still hit these numbers, the entire studio was thrilled!
And amid that excitement…The day of the official open beta finally arrived.
At noon, sharp—countless fans simultaneously launched Fate/Grand Order… curious to find out what made this game, so different from traditional online games, tick.
Was it… actually good?
“Mobile game?”
On the day Fate/Grand Order officially launched,Wenxin Press.
Vice President Zhao Fangsheng heard Shang Tao’s words and slowly raised a questioning eyebrow.
Even though the topic had exploded recently, some people still hadn’t heard—especially busy execs like Zhao Fangsheng.
He had far too much on his plate every day.
So he had no idea that Fate/Zero had ended, or that a game had launched. Sure, he read the manga occasionally—but only when he had time… and recently, he hadn’t had any.
This was actually the first time he’d heard the news.
“Yeah…”Shang Tao nodded. “I glanced at it yesterday—half the anime community is buzzing about this online game… no, mobile game. It’s wild. I don’t usually play games myself, so I can’t say if it’s good or not. But the devs? Marketing geniuses. They capitalized on Fate/Zero’s finale to make this massive splash…”
“They’re basically milking the last drop of Fate/Zero’s popularity!”
Zhao Fangsheng shook his head, seeming to catch on, and passed the signed documents back to Shang Tao as he sighed, “Mobile games are never any good! They just cash in on hype and bounce! That third-rate artist doesn’t know a thing—got tricked. What a waste of such a great IP!”
“Yeah…”
Shang Tao didn’t argue—he’d only brought it up as a fun tidbit. “Heard the sequel to Fate/Zero is going to be serialized inside the game too. Pretty dumb.” “Hm?”Zhao Fangsheng raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t know the details… Anyway, I’ll get going now, Vice President.”
Shang Tao shook his head and left with the documents.
Left alone, Zhao Fangsheng thought for a moment… then woke up his screen and opened the old Fate/Zero serialization site.
Soon,he was staring at a completely revamped webpage.
And the announcement for the sequel, Fate/Stay Night.
He frowned deeply and cursed out loud, “It really is a sequel! Idiotic! With this much hype, why not just keep drawing manga!? Why bury the sequel in a cash-grab game? Unbelievable…”
At that moment,he genuinely didn’t know what to say. All he could think was—this third-rate artist must have lost his mind. Not only did he license the manga rights to some random game company, but he also shoved the sequel into the game?
Was there anyone more foolish?
The site looked fancy, sure—but what did polish matter?
Mobile game?
Are any of those actually good?
Even PC games are better than this garbage!
Zhao Fangsheng shook his head in bitter disappointment. He moved the cursor, ready to close the page—when he suddenly noticed the Download button in the site’s navigation bar.
He paused.
“……”
After hesitating a moment…he didn’t close the page.
He clicked Download—and fetched a cable to connect his phone.
He was going to see for himself what the hell this third-rate artist was thinking. Putting the manga inside a game? What was that even supposed to mean?
After all, he was technically a Fate/Zero reader—he had read it whenever he found time.
That’s why he found it such a waste.
Soon,the game finished installing.
Zhao Fangsheng stared at the icon on his screen and launched it.
The Avalon Studio logo appeared.
Zhao Fangsheng looked down at it, sneering, “A game designed to cash out and vanish… and yet it looks pretty legit…”
Four hours later.
Shang Tao returned to the VP’s office and knocked.
But to his surprise… there was no response.
Even though the lights inside were clearly on.
Shang Tao frowned slightly, grabbed the handle, and gently pushed the door open.
Inside—Zhao Fangsheng sat behind his desk, phone in hand, headphones on, completely focused on the screen.
The files on his desk were in exactly the same position as they had been at noon when Shang Tao left… unchanged—except for one thing: there was now a wallet and a few bank cards lying next to them…
“…?”
Shang Tao froze at the scene.
He had never seen Zhao Fangsheng this fixated on his phone before. So focused that he didn’t even notice someone entering. What the hell had happened?
Baffled, he stepped forward and said cautiously, “Vice President?”
“!”
Zhao Fangsheng snapped out of his trance at the sound of Shang Tao’s voice. He looked up in a daze, stared for a few seconds, then suddenly turned to glance at the computer’s clock.
…Four hours had passed.
Realizing this, he froze, utterly dumbfounded.
“What’s going on?”Shang Tao asked again, puzzled. Then pointed to the desk, “Also, why’d you throw your wallet over there?”
Zhao Fangsheng ignored him. Instead, he looked back down at his phone screen.
Shang Tao couldn’t contain his curiosity anymore. He leaned in to sneak a peek—
And when he saw the screen clearly, he was stunned.
It wasn’t some urgent document. It was a… game???
Wait.
A game!?
“Shang Tao…”
Just as Shang Tao’s eyes widened in shock,
Zhao Fangsheng finally looked up from the screen.
He raised his head and, with rare seriousness, said,“Right now… go find Editor Tang Yao. No matter the cost—get her to tell us the exact address of that third-rate artist!”
Shang Tao was stunned. “Didn’t you say we didn’t need to bother with him…”
“No!”Zhao Fangsheng shook his head and cut him off, “I was wrong before! Go now! Whatever it takes, track down that third-rate artist! I want to visit him personally!”
“…Why?”Shang Tao asked in disbelief, glancing again at the phone screen. “Wait—is it because of the game…?”
“Yes.”Zhao Fangsheng held up the phone solemnly and nodded with absolute certainty. “I have a feeling… this game is going to change the entire anime industry!”
Shang Tao: “?????”