Chapter 37: China's Science Fiction Vanguard

  The tragic story of the mutiny of subordinates came to a perfect end under Yang Yun's personal direction.

  He waited for Zhao Yongping's explanation and apology call, which was his greatest gain.

  On the patent rights of Tetris, and the real reason why Alexey left Atari, he owes Zhao Yongping an explanation. In any case, the two of them left Zhao Yongping for personal gain, not because of the so-called unstable Soviet political situation.

  To be honest, everyone is an adult and has the freedom to come and go as they please, no one has the right to obstruct others.

  After all, Alexei was a friend personally invited by Zhao Yongping from Beijing, and Yang Yun was also taken in by Zhao Yongping during his most difficult and desperate times. Zhao Yongping entrusted the two with important tasks, had high hopes for them, and gave them his full support without reservation. Even when Yang Yun proposed selling off the old machinery to buy a new production line, he unhesitatingly withstood the pressure from the parent company, endured the criticism of the workers who accused him of being a "factory traitor", personally took charge, pushed aside the numerous difficulties in front of him, and unhesitatingly made the deal happen.

  It's easy to imagine that once Zhao Yongping finds out, the relationship between the two will become even more subtle, and it's very likely that their most sincere friendship will immediately fall apart, and they may not even be able to remain friends.

  Yang Yun really cherished this friendship, he was unwilling to turn against Zhao Yongping, but instead wanted to win him over. After all, in his memory, there were few people who were good at managing the game industry, and it would be best to find someone with experience in the industry to help him out.

  Just then Zhao Yongping and Shen Jun came to visit, Yang Yun's inspiration flashed, and he thought of the best way to make Zhao Yongping owe him a favor. So he deliberately let Shen Jun mess around in the laboratory, and also deliberately let Jiang Shaoyun leak out the information of three employees, luring Shen Jun, this son of a bitch who has no shame, to come over and poach.

  Even if these three people didn't jump ship, and Shen Jun hadn't come over to gather intelligence, the Xiaobao Wang company would still have transitioned towards developing horizontal scrolling games, it's just that the specific timing of the transition would be different, as well as the means by which they acquired the technology.

  Yang Yun just pushed with her hand.

  Cosmo Cruiser is a patented product of Konami, and Yang Yun, as someone who strives to pursue the original version, wants to build a super game empire, how can he completely copy Cosmo Cruiser?

  Let Little Emperor get the game data of Cosmic Cruising Machine, it doesn't matter! You can develop it as you like, no big deal! The more exquisite your production is, the better the game sells, that's just adding bricks and tiles to the entire game console market, throwing firewood into the fire.

  Moreover, when throwing firewood, Xiaobawang played happily, but had to face alone the wrath of Coleco and its master Nintendo behind it, adding fuel to the flames. At that time, Xiaobawang would probably fall into the quagmire and be unable to extricate itself.

  Yang Yun's goal from start to finish was Saloman Snake, and the Cosmic Cruiser was just a cover!

  Who can make a side-scrolling shooter better than Contra? Probably only Konami, the original creator.

  In 1985, Konami released a series of flying shooting games called Gradius on arcade, which was ported to the Famicom in 1986 and released in North America and Europe in 1988. It wasn't until Nintendo's Famicom entered China that it became well-known to Chinese people.

  And the three major branches of Konami's horizontal shooters are Gradius (the Vic Viper series, set on the planet Gradius), Salamander (set on the planet Patis), and Parodius (a humorous shooter).

  Yang Yun was preparing to take advantage of this time difference, to be one step ahead of Konami's official release of Salamander, and he had to make this game, Dragon Entertainment Game Company absolutely could not miss out on this classic game!

  The Gradius series is supported by a virtual universe legend, and everything is built on the story setting. Therefore, Konami has produced Gradius to the fifth generation, constantly increasing the plot, making new versions, and developing it until 2008 when it was transplanted onto the Wii, earning a huge profit.

  Yang Yun highly agrees with this approach, taking Blizzard Entertainment as an example, World of Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, all have corresponding stories, only in this way can a classic game be developed continuously and forever young. He used to brush boring副本 every day, eagerly waiting for each expansion pack of World of Warcraft, don't know how much money he spent on Blizzard's point cards.

  Hand over the rough sketch drawn by himself to Matsumoto Yoshino and Xiang Tian, let the art team play freely, Yang Yun came to Tsinghua University again.

  These days, Yang Yun has been looking up materials in the school library, and is busy with the preliminary work of Salamander.

  It's the opening day of the new academic year, he mixed in various student welcoming clubs to join in the fun, fully experiencing the Tsinghua students' self-improvement, moral integrity, rigorous and practical, actions speak louder than words youthful vitality, and also became good friends with several students.

  Soon, Yang Yun met these new friends in the cafeteria because they often gathered together during meals to comment on current events or discuss ways to make the country strong and prosperous. In Yang Yun's words, they were just brainstorming together when there was nothing else to do.

  Fang Fang, a big and honest guy, is currently the president of the student union. He is in charge of the 1984 class of top students at the university and is an outstanding figure on campus. It's said that even before graduation, he has already been reserved by the headquarters of the People's Bank of China.

  Yang Hongzheng, a polite and knowledgeable Beijinger, Yang Yun's fellow villager, a sophomore in the computer science department, has an especially good relationship with Fang Bang, serving as his deputy in the student union. It is no surprise that he will likely be the next president of the student union.

  Clever Southerner Li Qing, a junior majoring in water conservancy, vice president of the Foreign Liaison Society and also a key member of the Student Union, with extremely quick thinking and high vision, is a super academic overachiever.

  Three people were eating in the cafeteria when they saw Yang Yun, Fang Fang hurriedly waved his hand to signal, and Yang Yun didn't hesitate, putting a big bag of fruit on the table and said: "You future national leaders, brainstorming is most damaging to the brain, eat more fruits and fish and other brain-boosting foods, or you'll end up like Li Qing with thinning hair..."

  "Haha!"

  Li Qing, a bookworm, was so focused on his studies that he overworked his brain, resulting in slightly thinning hair on the top of his head, which had been teased by his friends many times.

  Fang Fang flipped through the fruit without ceremony: "Yang Dage has let you spend money again. However, you are just entertaining us, how can we be considered national dignitaries?"

  Yang Yunke is not talking nonsense, anyway he knows that in the political circle, Gu Yue Chairman, and other premiers, these people have all been presidents of the Tsinghua University Student Union. In the business world, there are also well-known entrepreneurs such as Tsinghua Holdings and Zhongxing Microelectronics.

  What Yang Yun remembers most deeply is that the C language and Basic language he learned in his freshman year as a computer science undergraduate were written by Mr. Tan Haohao, one of the 10 most influential IT figures in China in the 20th century, who also served as the president of Tsinghua University's student union.

  It's a waste to be a hero if you don't learn from Tan Haoqiang in computer science! Calculating with fingers, Mr. Tan is already 55 years old. Yang Yun made up his mind that he would visit him properly if he had the chance.

  After laughing, Yang Yun explained his intention: "Fang Fang, does your student union manage school clubs? Can you introduce me to a few people?"

  Fang Fang asked: "Who do you want to get to know? Female classmates are out of the question! We don't even have enough for ourselves!"

  Yang Yun smiled: "Don't worry, I won't poach your employees. Help me find some top-notch sci-fi writers who have published famous works and have extremely rich imagination."

  "Science Fiction Association... " Fang Fang was in a dilemma.

  In 1983-1984, a Chinese characteristic word "qingwu" appeared in the society.

  This was a very serious matter, at a time when the country was materially impoverished and people couldn't even get enough to eat, yet there were those who kept talking about "mesons", "interstellar travel", "bioengineering" and "Star Wars". The excessively avant-garde science fiction collided violently with cruel reality, resulting in science fiction being administratively labeled as "spiritual pollution" and defined as "exceeding discussion of science, showing a bad tendency politically".

  This big hat came down, and for a time, no publishing institution in the country dared to publish science fiction literature. Those related newspapers and magazines that were on the edge stopped publication and rectified themselves. The wind was so strong that it was like a cold cicada, causing science fiction to be almost strangled to death.

  Although the matter was later intervened by national leaders, China's science fiction circle was severely damaged, and writers were in a state of panic, not even daring to speak openly, for fear of repeating the struggle eight years ago, being put on the blackboard for criticism, being pushed onto the streets for public humiliation, and reliving that unbearable period.

  It's not long ago, Fang Fang was in high school at that time, he certainly knew about these things. However, several months ago, university students in Beijing had just experienced that terrible thing, many clubs of Tsinghua University were warned and rectified, and the Science Fiction Association, which had been bitten by a snake five years ago, was immediately disbanded, no one dared to say they liked science fiction.

  After explaining in a low voice, Yang Yun was also at a loss.

  The country is unstable, the people are poor and hungry, they can't even eat their fill, spiritual pursuits must be based on material foundations, Yang Yun cannot have high expectations.

  If he really can't find anyone, he'll have to take matters into his own hands. As a gaming otaku and internet super fan, he's watched Dragon Rider, Skullgirls, and Starcraft countless times. It shouldn't be too hard for him to whip up some background art for Salamander by throwing together some random elements.

  Just as they were about to give up, Li Qing, who had been quiet all along, spoke up: "Yang, I think it's unlikely we'll find the Tsinghua student, but I know someone who writes great science fiction and he's not a university student."

  Yang Yun was about to take matters into his own hands and asked casually while biting an apple: "Who is it?"

  Li Qing said: "He is an engineer in our water conservancy and hydropower system, very powerful, just graduated from university for four years, has become famous in our water conservancy and hydropower system, I have seen a high-quality paper signed by him! He graduated from North China Water Conservancy and Hydropower University, and is now working as a computer engineer at a hydropower plant in Xishan Province, named Liu Cixing!"

  "Ah?" Yang Yun was stunned. He hadn't expected the person Li Qing introduced to be Liu Cixin, none other than one of China's three science fiction giants!

  His Three-Body Trilogy is considered a milestone in Chinese science fiction, and his famous works "The Whale Song" and "Bring Her Eyes" were astonishingly awarded the first prize of the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award as soon as they were published.

  "What's wrong with Liu Cixing?" Li Qing asked.

  Apart from Yang Yun, who else would know about Liu Cixin's future achievements?

  Yang Yun just needed someone with a bit of imagination to write a corresponding interstellar article for a horizontal scrolling shooter game that he thought was quite stupid, and if he really couldn't find anyone, his pure outsider could also come up with an article.

  At first, no one could be found anywhere, but then, suddenly, a figure emerged from the shadows, and it turned out to be a future leader in Chinese science fiction!

  It feels like asking Tan Haoqiang to write a HelloWorld program, which is really a waste of great talent on a small task...

  Yang Yun gradually calmed down and asked: "Li Qing, do you have Liu Cixing's contact information? I want to go to Xishan to his unit to talk to him."

  Li Qing smiled complacently and said, "No need to go through so much trouble. This year is the large-scale law-making construction year for our country's water conservancy department. Representatives from the water conservancy bureaus of all provinces across the nation have come to Beijing for a meeting. Liu Cixing has also arrived. I'll take you to see him!"