Chapter 857 - 292: The Mastermind Revealed, Li Yuan Wins Big

As Li Yuan began organizing online trolls to strike back, there were a large number of critical responses below almost every negative news post.

In the "Games" section of the Qiandu Tieba,

The originally pinned post [The Terrible Consequences of Blind Idol Worship—Discussing the Harms of "Honor of Kings"]

was met with unanimous criticism and rebuttal.

Xia Hua’s Little Fangirl: "Which idiot posted this? Seriously, what a moron. What harm has our Xia Hua brought? Don’t blame others because you suck at the game..."

Game Enthusiast: "Haha, I don’t even have to guess, I know for sure it’s those competitors using dirty tricks. Can’t beat us in the game, so they’re trying to kill ’Honor of Kings’? Really low! If I find out which company did this, I swear I’ll never play their games for the rest of my life."

I’m Not the Great Sage Equalling Heaven: "It’s obvious; they’re just jealous of the explosive popularity of ’Honor of Kings’ and are trying to slander Xia Hua. Shameless. With my ten years of gaming experience, I can confidently say that ’Honor of Kings’ will definitely be a landmark game in the history of gaming in Huaxia, even globally. Its quality, background, design, and character modeling can all be rated S-class... Fellow netizens, don’t pass this game by, it’s worth playing..."

Yindang Young Master: "Haven’t you read the background story of ’Honor of Kings’? It’s written by Xia Hua, the guy who wrote ’Battle Starry Sky’. Even just this background story, if expanded, would be an epic masterpiece not inferior to ’Battle Starry Sky’ at all. In terms of concept and playability, it’s a hundred times better than those trash online games... All who slander ’Honor of Kings’, who slander Xia Hua, are just trash who can’t stand others doing well..."

Xia Hua’s Number One Fangirl: "Sisters, follow me, let’s crash these hateful guys. What right do they have to slander my Xia Hua?"

Xia Hua’s Little Girl (Daji Baby): "These people are so hateful, such a fun game and they have to slander it. I’ve never played games before, and even I’ve been drawn in..."

...

After Li Yuan made his move, he quickly stirred up a huge storm across major websites and platforms.

Following the trolls, what ensued was Li Yuan’s massive nationwide fanbase’s frenzied chase.

Especially those passionate female fans who rarely played games before, they began flooding into the game in droves after "Honor of Kings" went online, and were then deeply captivated by the beautiful female heroes, interesting dialogue, and extremely engaging game modes...

During the Spring Festival holiday, their influence was even more immense. When someone casually mentioned supporting Xia Hua with top-ups, a powerful wave of recharging quickly emerged...

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, January 28th, in just half a day’s time, the revenue of "Honor of Kings" exceeded 120 million, and as the online argument intensified, it continued to escalate...

In the company, Li Yuan looked at the backend sales data and the increasingly heated comments, a slight smile on his lips.

He guessed correctly that after arranging the trolls to drive the campaign, a large number of fans joined the fight, making "Honor of Kings" explosively popular, dominating headlines on all news websites...

Allegations of "historical nihilism," "sexual innuendo," "bloody violence," etc., faded into insignificance in the face of numerous fans’ rebuttals.

Just like the "Honor of Kings" in the original timeline, some competitors even invited university professors and experts to criticize it, claiming it distorted history, but Old Ma continued nonchalantly, not caring at all...

This is essentially just a game, and it can’t be taken to such a high level.

Moreover, Li Yuan wasn’t out of touch with the authorities. He knew from the immense popularity of "Honor of Kings" that just in a few days, the tax paid to the Modu municipal government was in the hundreds of millions.

Last night, he also prepared generous gifts to visit Ma Tengfei, the Executive Vice President of Daxia University.

After Li Yuan explained his intentions, Ma Tengfei just smiled and replied with a sentence.

"Leave it to me, you can go ahead and do it, just don’t commit political ideological issues."

With just that one sentence,

Li Yuan felt completely reassured,

Using historical figures as game heroes, in the eyes of a leader with real power like Ma Tengfei, this was truly not a problem...

Li Yuan looked at Tan Zhonghua, who had rushed over from his hometown in a hurry yesterday afternoon, and asked:

"Old Tan, have you found out who’s behind these negative news?"

Tan Zhonghua, with a tired expression on his face, had barely closed his eyes from yesterday afternoon to this morning, arranging personnel to investigate the sources of these negative news.

"Boss, the clues are not fully confirmed yet, but we have narrowed it down to a few game companies."

Li Yuan: "Oh, which ones?"

Tan Zhonghua: "Based on the information we’ve gathered, it might be Tengxun, Wangyi, Shengda, or Jinshan. As for which one specifically, we can’t determine yet."

Li Yuan nodded,

With "Honor of Kings" having such a massive presence and momentum in its development, these companies, which occupy half of the gaming industry’s market, are certainly the most likely to make a move.