9: Shutdown maintenance

“Friends up there, you still think 50 points of potion is too little? If it were any other game company, this much stuff would probably sell for a hundred yuan!”

“At first I thought this was a trash game, but then I tried it and it was so fun, much better than those on the leaderboard!”

“That’s right, Dungeon & Fighter is not only fun to play but also doesn't burn through money. It’s simply a blessing for us common players!”

At this moment, the players who were battling Goblins with their wits were all attracted by the small notifications popping up at the top of the client.

Seeing the notice that they could claim free fatigue potions, everyone rushed forward.

They not only clicked into Xu Lian’s Weibo but also didn’t forget to leave comments.

“Sofa! Dungeon & Fighter will definitely be popular! I’m optimistic about its future!”

“Newbie asking for help, how do I claim that fatigue potion?”

“What? Is that all? 50 points of potion can only be played for about ten minutes, right? The Designer needs to give more!”

“What do you know, brother?

These 50 points are given for free. In other games, you’d have to pay for this much!”

“At first I thought this game was boring, but I didn’t expect it to be so addictive, much better than the games on the leaderboard!”

“Exactly, Dungeon & Fighter is not only fun but also doesn’t require Krypton Gold, it’s simply the best choice for us players!”

“Designer, keep up the good work! I look forward to you making the later parts even more exciting. I will always support you!”

By 3 AM, Xu Lian had finished his late-night snack outside and, after strolling around the streets, bought a few energy drinks before heading home.

He planned to update the store code when he got home to earn his first income.

For Xu Lian, who often stays up late, these few drinks were a powerful tool to refresh his mind.

The first thing he did after returning home was to open the Dungeon & Fighter background management interface as usual.

Looking at the data report in front of him, Xu Lian showed a knowing smile.

Now, nearly two million users have downloaded Dungeon & Fighter.

And more than a million people are actively playing online.

It’s important to remember that today is only Monday, and it’s already almost 4 AM.

This scale of online users indicates many things.

It’s clear that everyone loves this game very much.

As the only person with access to the game’s backend management interface, Xu Lian could set and adjust both the types of dropped items and the amount of money.

He could also track every user's activity in the game in real-time.

Since the game launched, Xu Lian noticed that most people were immersed in it and couldn't extricate themselves.

Taking a sip of a refreshing drink, Xu Lian opened his social media account to see how many followers he had now.

When he checked his account information, although he was a bit tired, his heart was full of energy.

Username: Aoyou Tianxia Official Page

Certified as: Game Enterprise Account

Current number of followers: 1.42 million

Just last night, his follower count surged by over a million.

Such an astonishing achievement was even more than what some celebrities gained by buying likes.

Since he had already accumulated a certain level of attention, Xu Lian quickly took this opportunity to release the latest event arrangements along with the system downtime notice.

At exactly 6 AM, all servers suddenly went offline, and the entire cyber space turned gray.

After completing all this work, Xu Lian chugged the rest of his drink, then sat back down at his computer and began coding.

........

At 6:30 AM, Yu Waner finally got out of bed, having slept for a day and a night.

The first thing she did after getting up was to turn on her computer, ready to log into Dungeon & Fighter.

“Today, I must complete the class advancement quest!” she excitedly mumbled to herself.

Yu Waner had already completed the first class advancement quest. Once the remaining three quests were done, her Ghost Swordsman could advance to the powerful “Soul Bender.”

However, as soon as she opened the game, Yu Waner was stunned: the game interface had turned gray, and the server selection showed the words “Under Maintenance.”

“Oh no!” She irritably slammed the armrest of her gaming chair, feeling very annoyed.

For this game, she had specifically adjusted her sleep schedule, just so she could go online at 6 AM sharp to grind fatigue.

But now the game was down for maintenance, which made Yu Waner very depressed.

What was the purpose of getting up so early?

“The Designer didn't run away, did he?” Her heart tightened, and she whispered.

This situation is quite common in many small games: Designers find that their games don't make money, or for various reasons, they stop updating or managing them, which happens frequently.

Thinking of this, Yu Waner started to panic.

She genuinely liked this game, and her Ghost Swordsman hadn't even completed the class advancement yet!

But the Designer not only didn't release any notice but also chose this time for a full-server maintenance.

Could the Designer really have run away?

Yu Waner quickly contacted Lin Shufen and initiated a voice call.

“Sister Yu? Why are you calling so early?” Lin Shufen’s voice came through.

She also woke up early these past few days to stream the game on time in the morning.

Today, she finally encountered game downtime for an update, and Lin Shufen was just about to sleep in when Yu Waner called.

“Shufen, do you know? Dungeon & Fighter is under full-server maintenance. Do you think the Designer might have run off?” Yu Waner asked anxiously.

“What? Haven’t you followed the official Weibo?” Lin Shufen asked back, puzzled.

“Official Weibo? What’s that? Does this game even have an official Weibo?” Yu Waner had slept for a day and a night yesterday and was completely unaware of these things.

“Go to Weibo and search for Aoyou Tianxia Game Company, and you’ll know.” Lin Shufen said, then hung up the phone.

“Aoyou Tianxia Game Company?” Yu Waner immediately searched on Weibo and quickly found the account.

“It turns out it was only registered yesterday, no wonder I didn't know.” Seeing that there was a Weibo account, she felt much more relieved.

“Oh my god, the followers are growing so fast, almost 2 million in one day.” Yu Waner exclaimed in surprise.

This game is indeed fun, making many picky experts addicted to it, so such follower data is not surprising.

She clicked on Aoyou Tianxia’s Weibo dynamic feed, which only had two posts.

“Damn it! They actually gave away 50 points of fatigue potion for free yesterday!” Seeing the first post, Yu Waner felt like she had missed out on several hundred million.

She quickly commented “Go for it” under this post, hoping to get the potion for free.

As for the reason for the downtime, it should be the content of the second post.

Yu Waner clicked on the second post, and the link expanded into several announcements about the downtime.

She read them one by one, her eyes filled with joy.