Chapter 6: Pirated Goods Everywhere

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

The sky… gradually darkened.

The day passed by slowly… in Lu Ming’s shop.

Although the illusion did not allow the customers to use their energy, people who had been through cultivation, they exceeded one hundred seconds and began to set a new record.

Fruit Ninja was meant for these people.

One could improve on one’s reaction time through effort and cultivation. This was all the more thrilling for those who did not pass the mark. They would devote all their time to practice.

The business was especially hot!

Lu Ming had created a ten day supply of the cards. But they had all been used up. There was nothing left!

While many people were felt unconvinced, Lu Ming announced that the shop would be closed for the day.

“Boss, we will be back tomorrow.”

“Boss, prepare some more cards tomorrow.”

The crowd began to disperse.

“Okay.”

Lu Ming said with a smile.

When everyone left, he began to count the day’s income.

Since many customers only lasted for a few seconds or even ten seconds for their first try, a card was used for many times. The total number of tries was one thousand four hundred times!

Three hundred cards!

He had earned one hundred and forty thousand yuan!

Aside from the capital of twenty thousand yuan, the net profit was as high as one hundred and twenty thousand yuan!

One hundred and twenty thousand yuan?

It was beyond imagination.

After paying off his debts, he would have twenty thousand yuan left!

Of course, he could not touch the twenty thousand yuan. He had to set aside some money to create cards as well as for the special prize of ten thousand yuan that he promised as part of his marketing campaign.

However, at least he would no longer owe anything.

“Little kid… I can help you pay off the debts that you owe.”

Lu Ming spoke to Little Lu Ming secretly in his head.

Whoosh——

A breeze blew past.

It was somewhat cold.

Lu Ming peered outside. It was getting late.

Most of the shops had closed for the day. There were not many pedestrians. He could not help but feel a sense of desolation and bleakness. However, Lu Ming knew that some things had just begun.

Was Fruit Ninja popular?

Of course! Especially now.

After those people went back home, through word of mouth Fruit Ninja would be even more popular tomorrow!

The crowd would be so much bigger than today!

His profit might amount to thousands upon thousands or even hundreds of millions!

Nobody would give up.

Especially the smart ones on the streets and in the district.

“Would people come?”

Lu Ming was hopeful.

There was a round figure outside the door who made his way into the shop.

It was Zhang Xiaopang!

“Brother Lu, I am here.”

Zhang Xiaopang looked joyous.

“Why are you here?” Lu Ming did not look happy.

“Why can’t it be me?”

Zhang Xiaopang widened his eyes. “Let me tell you, Brother Lu, someone came looking for me today! One hundred thousand yuan! The person offered one hundred thousand yuan to buy the method to build the illusion for Fruit Ninja!”

“Someone went to look for you?”

Lu Ming’s heart skipped a beat.

If those people went to look for Xiaopang, it meant that they would not look for him.

“Of course.”

Zhang Xiaopang looked proud of himself. “I have many years of experience in this field. I have finally made my name. But I am not that kind of person. One hundred thousand yuan? There is no room for negotiation! No matter how desperate I need the money, I won’t betray my friends!”

He noticed that Lu Ming was looking at him as if he were a fool.

“What’s up?”

Zhang Xiaopang was puzzled.

“Are you a fool?”

Lu Ming felt pained at the loss. “If he wanted to buy it, you should have sold it to him!”

“Huh?”

Zhang Xiaopang was dumbfounded. “This… isn’t this your secret design?”

“It is indeed.”

Lu Ming spread out his hands. “But the structure for the Fruit Ninja is so simple. How long do you think those who played Fruit Ninja will need to recreate it?”

Zhang Xiaopang was stunned momentarily.

How long could it be?

Three hours?

Four hours?

He was perplexed.

Even if they could not get the design right, they could get a few more people together to figure out the structure.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

Zhang Xiaopang wailed.

One hundred thousand yuan!

That was one hundred thousand yuan!

It was enough for him to visit brothels for a couple of times!

It was such a pity.

“I didn’t expect you to be so stupid…”

Lu Ming noticed that there was resentment in Zhang Xiaopang’s eyes and he coughed to cover up before he hastily changed his attitude. “I didn’t expect you to be so loyal!”

“I think that it is nothing.”

“Look, although we have lost one hundred thousand yuan, I realized that you are very loyal. In the future, I will ask you to create more and better cards for me. I have gained a lot from this.”

Lu Ming patted him on the shoulder.

He really thought so.

Initially, he just treated Zhang Xiaopang as a normal friend. He did not expect that he would be so loyal. Although it cost him one hundred thousand yuan, he felt that it was worth it!

“I still feel very upset.”

Zhang Xiaopang sighed.

“It was my mistake.”

Lu Ming thought for a while. “I thought they would come to me.”

“To look for you?”

Zhang Xiaopang did not understand.

“After all, I am the creator of the Fruit Ninja.”

Lu Ming felt perplexed. “Logically speaking, the owners of Ye Zi Chain Store, Zhang Chun and other stores should come to look for me to discuss buying the illusion from me. I will definitely sell it for one hundred thousand yuan!”

That was a lot of money!

“You’re right.”

Zhang Xiaopang felt strange as well.

Logically speaking, they were willing to contact him and to buy the design from him for one hundred thousand yuan. Why did they not contact Lu Ming?

“I guess I probably know why.”

Lu Ming suddenly thought of one thing.

What was his net profit today?

One hundred and twenty thousand yuan!

What did this mean?

Fruit Ninja Card was a chicken that laid golden eggs!

If Lu Ming could make a net net profit of one hundred and twenty thousand yuan everyday in his small and ordinary shop, if it was in bigger shops, what would the net profit be? Apparently it would be an astronomical figure!

In that case, how much did it cost to buy this card?

One hundred thousand yuan?

How could that be possible?!

They could earn back the money in one day!

That…

One million yuan?

It was unlikely. The craze would at most last for eight to nine days.

Therefore, they would need ten million or even more to buy this card! But what if they designed another similar card?

They did not need to spend that much money!

One hundred thousand yuan would do!

Under these circumstances, who would look for Lu Ming?

“I never expected it to turn out this way.”

Zhang Xiaopang was dumbfounded after listening to his explanation.

They looked at each other, with an anguished look on their faces. It was money!

“It’s alright. Anyway, you will create other cards in the future.”

Zhang Xiaopang comforted him.

“I could only look at it this way.”

Lu Ming sighed but if he looked at it carefully, he still felt upset.

He had already expected that there would be many pirated versions of the Fruit Ninja. He was prepared for it. That was why he only created three hundred cards in ten days so that he could sell everything in one go!

But he felt upset that he could not get any royalties from those people.

“No. I still feel indignant.”

Lu Ming flipped through the contacts to look for Ye Zi Chain Store’s contact number and gave them a call. “I am the creator of Fruit Ninja. I am looking for your boss.”

“Uh.”

The other party paused momentarily. “Wait a minute.”

He waited for a long while.

A middle-aged man spoke on the other end of the phone. His voice was calm. “Hello, what do you want?”

“Hello, Mr. Qian.”

Lu Ming took a deep breath. “I want to sell the design plan and concept as well as the creative ideas of the Fruit Ninja Card to you.”

“We don’t need it.”

Qian Shengcai was very direct.

“Why?” Lu Ming asked.

“Because we’ve just created it.”

Qian Shengcai smiled. “You are indeed creative to create this kind of stuff. But it will have no value after one look at it.”

Lu Ming remained silent. “Well, what about copyright? Although there are many pirated versions, you could say that it is the founder’s legal right! Moreover, I have some better ideas. I can improve the card to provide a better experience.”

“Nobody cares.”

Qian Shengcai rejected him.

“Alright.”

Lu Ming appeared to be regretful. “It seems that there is no chance of cooperation. Since you have created it, can I be presumptuous enough to ask how much money you spent to create it?”

“Half a million yuan!”

Qian Shengcai felt smug about the deal.

He must be thinking of selling to them at an exorbitant price.

No way.

It was acceptable if it was a high-level card that contained advanced skills. This was just a low-level ordinary card. There was no encryption and the content was so simple. How could it fetch a high price?

He spent half a million yuan on it so that he could be the first person to have it!

He had to make sure that he could create the Fruit Ninja faster than anyone! That was why he was willing to spend a large sum of money to buy the related information from several people, and to hire a Card Creator and Illusionist at a high price to recreate it.

“But…”

Lu Ming paused. “I am only selling it at fifty thousand yuan.”

“Huh?”

Qian Shengcai was dumbstruck.

Fifty…

Fifty thousand yuan?!

His mind went blank.

He hung up the phone, and it took him a long time to come back to senses. Fifty thousand yuan? Why would he sell the card that would bring a net profit of more than one hundred thousand yuan a day for fifty thousand yuan?

Was he sick?!

Was he out of his mind?

If he had known this, he would have bought it directly from him. Why did he go to all this trouble?

Ah?

He quoted Zhang Xiaopang more than one hundred thousand yuan and he did not agree!

This was crap!

Qian Shengcai felt upset. Although he had sent the application to the head office, he was too anxious and the process took so long that he forked out half a million himself!

It was too bad!

At this very moment, in Lu Ming’s shop…

“Cool!”

Lu Ming hung up the phone, looking delighted.

He not only gave Qian Shengcai a phone call, he also gave Zhang Chun as well as the shop owners of the nearby large shops a call. He told them that he would sell it at tens of thousands of yuan!

However…

Those who spent a lot of money to create the pirated versions would not waste the money to buy it.

Therefore, Lu Ming had gotten back at them. He told every shop owner that he was willing to sell it at ten or twenty thousand yuan.

“Are you trying to upset them?”

Zhang Xiaopang was speechless.

Since other people had already created it, obviously they would not buy it. He suggested a very low price purely to agitate the bosses.

“Hehe.”

Lu Ming smiled. “You must know, under normal circumstances, our happiness is based on the pain of others, especially those who have conflicting interests with us. If they are unhappy, we will naturally be happy.”

Zhang Xiaopang was speechless.

He suddenly felt that it was better to not provoke Lu Ming.

He did not have the correct moral values!

“It seems that there will be a lot of pirated versions tomorrow.”

Zhang Xiaopang sighed.

Since these shops have a pirated version of Fruit Ninja, they will be rushing to mass create it. By tomorrow morning, the shops nearby will have Fruit Ninja.

The Fruit Ninja craze might be really over the top!

Furthermore…

Zhang Xiaopang knew very well where he ranked among the others. His skills were too low-level and shoddy. Any other Illusionist would be able to create better illusions than his and the Card Creator that they selected would be just as outstanding. The cost of creating the cards would be even lower!

They could not compete with them!

They did not even have the right to participate in this ‘fruit war’ tomorrow!

“There is no hurry.”

On the contrary, Lu Ming was very calm.

As a programmer who worked like a dog, he knew very well that many of the companies in his previous life closed down because their creative ideas and their products had been plagiarized…

Such a scene was very familiar!

“We shall monitor the situation tomorrow. If you prevent me from making money, then don’t blame me for going overboard,” Lu Ming said calmly.

Zhang Xiaopang was on tenterhooks.

This guy…

What was he trying to do now?

PS: It’s a new book period, so I’m looking for votes and all kinds of support! Ahhh…

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