152: Chapter 152 Spark of Light, Part 2? Let them guess!

About twenty minutes later.

A slightly more awake Jiang Yuan came to the kitchen and found the scene much as she had expected.

Lin Xi stood in front of the stove with her back to her, wearing a T-shirt with a cute penguin girl on it and loose shorts.

Her hair was loosely tied up, with a few stray strands poking out behind her ears, swaying with her movements as she tossed the pan.

Two plates sat on the counter; one held fried eggs with slightly charred edges but otherwise intact, and the other held slices of ham cut into uneven sizes.

Something was frying in the pan, the oil crackling and popping, while the air was filled with a rich aroma of butter, eggs, and ham.

Jiang Yuan leaned against the kitchen doorframe, arms crossed, and asked in a slightly raspy voice:

"Didn't I tell you to sleep in and not get up to make breakfast for me?"

Lin Xi was startled by the sudden voice, almost dropping her spatula.

She glanced back at Jiang Yuan before quickly turning back to the pan. The tips of her ears were slightly flushed—whether from the heat of the stove or something else—as she said softly:

"I couldn't sleep anyway, so I got up to keep busy. Besides, I'm practicing my cooking skills!"

A faint smile played on Jiang Yuan's lovely face as she said:

"You're using me for practice? I feel like I'm wasting away having to eat your 'dark cuisine' every day."

"What do you mean 'dark cuisine'? I've been watching recipes and tutorial videos every day. I'm actually quite skilled now, okay!"

Lin Xi said defensively, then tossed a fried egg into the air and tried to catch it with the spatula. Her movements were clearly not very practiced; the egg nearly slid off the edge, but she managed to save it in a frantic scramble.

Jiang Yuan's eyelid twitched at the sight. She didn't say anything else and simply turned to the bathroom to freshen up.

By the time she finished and came back out, two plates of breakfast were already set on the dining table.

Fried eggs, ham slices, soft toast toasted to a light golden brown, a cup of steaming milk, and a small plate of washed strawberries. Lin Xi sat across the table, chin in her hands, looking at her with a bright, radiant smile.

"Aren't you going to sleep?"

Jiang Yuan asked casually before picking up her fork and taking a small bite of the fried egg.

It was slightly overcooked with charred edges, but the salt was just right.

She tried a piece of ham; one slice was cut too thick and fried unevenly, but it still tasted quite good.

Seeing Jiang Yuan eating with gusto, Lin Xi finally relaxed and said with a smile:

"I'll go to sleep after you leave. I'm already up anyway, and I don't feel very sleepy right now."

As she spoke, she took a large bite of her own toast and said indistinctly:

"By the way, Xiao Yuan, if there's anything else you want to eat, remember to tell me in advance. I've learned so many different cuisines now, I can guarantee you won't have the same meal twice in a week!"

Jiang Yuan gave a soft grunt of affirmation and continued eating her portion.

To be fair, Lin Xi's cooking was still a long way from being "great," but ever since moving here, she had been enthusiastic about getting up every morning to make all sorts of breakfasts. Compared to when she first arrived, her skills had indeed improved significantly.

The good news: she really had improved a lot!

The bad news: all that improvement came at the expense of Jiang Yuan's stomach...

After finishing the last bite, Jiang Yuan picked up the remaining half-cup of warm milk and sipped it, asking casually:

"Are you streaming today?"

The reason she asked this seemingly obvious question...

...was naturally because she understood Lin Xi's slacker nature. She knew that after several days of high-intensity streaming, this girl was already struggling against her innate slacking genes.

According to her past habits, after a few days of intense streaming, she would definitely take a day or two off.

But this time, Lin Xi had already streamed for three days before the plants vs. zombies hybrid edition launched, and another three days of high intensity after the launch. All in all, she had already far exceeded her original streaming schedule.

Lin Xi was poking the egg on her plate with a fork. Hearing the question, she fell into deep thought, her left and right brain clearly battling it out.

After mashing the egg and spreading it on her toast, she took a big bite, her cheeks puffing out like a cute hamster hoarding food. She said hesitantly:

"I should... probably stream? The hype has been so high lately, and the concurrent viewer count went up again yesterday. It feels like a waste not to stream, but I really want to slack off for a day. Sigh, I'm so torn..."

Jiang Yuan didn't say a word. She finished the last of her milk, put down the cup, wiped the corners of her mouth with a napkin, and said nonchalantly as she stood up:

"Well, keep it up then! I'm still waiting for you to achieve financial freedom and buy out Spark Games!"

Stunned by these words, Lin Xi's pale and delicate face instantly flushed crimson. She shouted in a flushed rage:

"How long ago did I say that? How do you still remember? Fine, Jiang Xiao Yuan, you're holding a grudge, aren't you?"

She had indeed made such a joke.

But that could be traced back a long time ago, when her streaming career had just taken off and her monthly income first broke 100,000—maybe a year and a half or even two years ago?

Having this sentence suddenly dragged out of her memory by Jiang Yuan, and recalling her own high spirits and confidence back then, even someone as optimistic as Lin Xi felt her face burning intensely with embarrassment.

Amidst Lin Xi's embarrassed and annoyed shouting,

Jiang Yuan had already unhurriedly returned to her room, standing before her walk-in closet thinking about what to wear today.

She reached for a thin, dark blue sweater with a soft texture and a form-fitting cut that accentuated her delicate shoulder line and slender waist.

For the bottom, she paired it with black straight-leg trousers. The fabric was of excellent quality, clearly an expensive and high-end item.

Then, putting on a light gray trench coat over it, Jiang Yuan tilted her head left and right in front of the mirror. Deciding it was good enough, she walked out of the room with light steps, picked up her bag from the entryway, waved goodbye to Lin Xi, and closed the door as she left.

...

It was just past eight when she arrived at the company.

Just as she sat down in her office, Chu Qing entered right on time carrying a fragrant latte. On the desk, she had also pre-placed a plate of sliced fruit and some pastries.

Jiang Yuan took a sip of the coffee and said in a crisp voice:

"Tell me today's schedule."

"Certainly!"

Chu Qing replied in a sweet voice, then immediately opened her folder and said at a steady pace:

"At 10:00 AM, Director Zhou of Spark Studio has invited you to test the latest internal build of Resident Evil. He said all the changes you suggested last time have been implemented, and it should satisfy you this time."

"At 11:30 AM, Director Lin of Star Studio has scheduled an inspection for dave the diver. He mentioned they optimized the lighting effects for the deep-sea night zone and fixed some bugs yesterday."

"At 2:00 PM, Sister Wen Lan wants to go over the detailed process for next week's overseas media group interviews. Also, Mr. Qin said the complete data for the first three days of the hybrid edition has been compiled and he can report to you at any time."

Jiang Yuan listened silently. After Chu Qing finished her report, she thought for a moment and said calmly:

"Have Qin Gong come over right now. I'll look at the hybrid edition's statistics first."

Chu Qing gave an affirmative response and quietly withdrew, closing the door behind her.

Qin Gong arrived in less than five minutes.

He sat down across from Jiang Yuan, placed a printed and bound report on the desk, and said seriously:

"President Jiang, in the first three days of the hybrid edition's launch, the peak concurrent users on Steam broke records last night, hitting 1.16 million. The peak concurrent users on the Spark Platform also reached 780,000 yesterday!"

"Additionally, the sales of the PVZ base game on the Spark Platform grew by over 1.83 million copies in three days. New registered users from overseas on the Spark Platform increased by nearly 500,000 in three days, with North America and Europe accounting for about sixty percent of that."

He paused, flipped to the last page, turned the report toward Jiang Yuan, and said with a smile:

"Also, there's one data point I think you might find interesting. Over these three days, the proportion of users who downloaded the hybrid edition from our Spark Platform and then opened at least one other game on the platform is forty-one percent!"

Jiang Yuan had been slowly sipping her coffee, but hearing this, she blinked in surprise, put down her cup, and picked up the document to read.

Looking closely, the data on the page Qin Gong had opened was indeed forty-one percent.

This meant that nearly a million players, after downloading the hybrid edition for free, didn't treat the Spark Platform as a simple download tool but instead looked around and opened other games.

This data mattered more to Jiang Yuan than sales figures or concurrent user counts because it validated the logic she and Qin Gong had repeatedly theorized.

While a free DLC itself doesn't make money, it brings users through the door! And once they're inside, the other content on the platform will naturally retain them.

It's just that there aren't enough fun games on the Spark Platform right now; otherwise, the conversion effect would be even more startling.

After all,

the Spark Game Platform has the two most popular and mainstream games in the current gaming circle: one is Plants vs. Zombies, and the other is Minecraft.

Qin Gong watched Jiang Yuan as she focused intently on the data. After a moment of silence to ensure he wouldn't interrupt her reading, he continued:

"Also, Song Siming mentioned that over the last few days, people in the overseas player communities have been spontaneously organizing application guides for the Spark Light Project. Someone even made a comparison video between the development backgrounds of Jiuli and the hybrid edition, which got hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube in just a few days. Players in the community are already guessing what kind of new projects will be selected for the second phase of the Spark Light Project."

Hearing this, Jiang Yuan closed the report, leaned back in her chair, and said with a radiant smile:

"Then let them guess. It's free hype anyway, the more the better! Alright, go ahead and get back to your work."

Qin Gong gave a smiling response, stood up, and left.

The office became quiet once again.

Jiang Yuan flipped through Qin Gong's report from start to finish one more time, mentally noting a few key figures. Then she closed the report, opened her email, and began processing the work emails that had accumulated overnight.