Only After I Was Reborn Did I Realize That I Had Childhood Sweethearts Chapter 435: And You Still Say Youre Not Lucky!

The ti ca to June of 2015. The flagship mobile ga Fate/Grand Order, painstakingly crafted by Yuanxi Studio, finally debuted on the national server stage.

Prior to the launch of the open beta, this title had once been subjected to much criticism.

Because it had already been released on the Japanese server, so veteran players and industry insiders had already experienced the ga content and delivered scathing reviews—

“Just a gacha ga riding the coattails of the Fate IP to squeeze money.”

“What a sha, Yuanxi Studio is no longer the Ximilu Gas of old.”

“The Journey of Clouds may end up being their swan song—‘Child of Light’ i Fang and his hundred-billion comrcial empire.”

A flood of dissatisfaction surged across many online platforms, even appearing in the bullet comnts of promotional videos on i Fang’s old stronghold, C Station. i Fang expressed understanding about this, but had no intention of making changes.

It’s not like they were shooting a sci-fi movie—if they didn’t rely on these IP works whose money-making abilities had already been proven in a past life, how were they supposed to chase their dreams?

Making gas required considering practical matters, like making money—like the wages of hundreds of employees, their five insurances and two funds, team-building expenses, weekly Thursday afternoon tea breaks, commuting subsidies, housing subsidies, onboarding annuities, birthday gifts, group al budgets, and so on and so forth…

Besides, FGO wasn’t even a bad ga! He himself drew cards, built lineups, and equipped Craft Essences, and had a great ti doing it!

i Fang was rubbing the screen in his CEO office when Xia Yuan leaned over to look at him and then disdainfully nudged his head from behind:

“Ah Fang, the server is about to go live. Why are you still playing the internal testing version? Hurry and get ready to play the public beta server.”

“I’m just missing one last Dumb Egg, then I’ll have collected them all. Almost there.”

“Which Servant is Dumb Egg?”

“This one—Sakata Kintoki.”

“You actually like this kind of ugly, non-mainstream character?”

“Full achievent is a kind of faith. Don’t you get it? Just like those platinum trophies we hunt for on console gas.”

“You talk like that…” Xia Yuan rested her chin on i Fang’s shoulder and mocked, “Didn’t Youxi help you grind out most of those platinum trophies?”

“If my wife grinds them, that’s no different from doing it.”

“Youxi’s not even your wife yet. She’s my wife right now.”

After a bit of playful bickering between Xia Yuan and i Fang, i Fang dragged her into the ultra-cool space capsule gaming recliner he’d recently purchased out of his own pocket.

This custom-made space capsule featured an impressive three-seat, six-screen setup. The middle armrest could also be folded away. At this mont, Lin Youxi was napping to the side with an eye mask on. Hearing the ruckus, she stirred slightly, causing the two to freeze in fear, not even daring to breathe too loudly.

Even though FGO’s server maintenance wasn’t technically part of Lin Youxi’s responsibilities, the server load was imnse. As the Chief Technology Officer, she still had to keep a close eye on it.

Lin Youxi had been staying up with her tech team overnight fixing bugs, not getting any rest.

Xia Yuan and i Fang had also stayed late to keep her company. After Xia Yuan finished the Yuanbao livestream, she took a nap in i Fang’s office. i Fang held on until late into the night but was eventually sent by Lin Youxi to accompany Xia Yuan.

By the ti the two woke up, Lin Youxi hadn’t yet slept. It wasn’t until they repeatedly urged her that she finally agreed to get so rest.

“…We didn’t wake Youxi up, did we?”

“Nope.”

As they carefully observed Lin Youxi’s reactions, i Fang habitually began to rub YuanYuan’s soft belly:

“YuanYuan, speaking of which, when you were pressing down on just now… I felt it… Have you gotten puffier again lately?”

“I think it’s because you keep rubbing every day…”

Annoyed, Xia Yuan pinched i Fang’s cheeks: “Didn’t they say in so ani that so female leads gain volu that way?”

“You said it yourself—it’s ani. Who’d believe that…”

“Anyway, stop getting carried away and always wanting to rub. You have to show so restraint.”

Xia Yuan scolded i Fang: “It’s fine during dodo ti, but don’t make it a habit when we’re just kissing. Even when we’re just holding each other like this—it’s not okay…”

“Okay, then I won’t move anymore.”

i Fang decisively withdrew his hands, which made Xia Yuan a little surprised:

“This ti… why are you being so obedient? Didn’t you used to whine and beg for a long ti?”

i Fang nodded and assud a serious pose: “Because I think you’re right. This is already good enough. YuanYuan, you can’t get puffier anymore.”

“Hmph…”

Xia Yuan glared at i Fang in irritation, then snatched his phone and started playing on his internal test account.

“Hey, Ah Fang, why not just ask the ops team to adjust the data for you? Why are you using Saint Quartz to draw?”

“I have to draw it myself, of course! I’m doing a livestream tonight to promote the ga. Gotta warm up my luck.”

“How’s your luck when drawing cards?”

“I usually get the goods in 80 to 90 draws…”

“That’s almost the hard pity limit, isn’t it? Didn’t you say our FGO has a 100-draw hard pity system for five-stars…”

“Well, nothing I can do about that. Maybe I used up all my life’s luck when I t you and Youxi. So my gacha luck is pretty bad.”

“Your football lottery win doesn’t count as good luck? You cheeky brat.”

Xia Yuan cursed i Fang with her mouth, but she was clearly delighted in her heart. As she spoke, she leaned in and gave him a kiss. “Say, Ah Fang, why don’t we just tell players directly about the 100-draw pity system? That way they’ll feel more assured, right? Why not go full RNG without a pity?”

“Gacha is inherently a superstitious kind of thing. If we go pure math with it, soone out there could draw a thousand or even ten thousand tis without hitting a five-star.”

“If soone’s really that unlucky, then tough luck…”

“How could that be okay? Players are here to spend money and have fun, not to beco clowns. These thousand-draw, ten-thousand-draw folks are our big whales. If they didn’t like our ga, they wouldn’t spend that much money.”

“If they draw that much and still don’t get a dopamine hit, then it’s our problem as ga designers. We failed to serve them properly. Of course, I’m talking about typical gacha gas. Our philosophy is different when we’re doing indie single-player titles.”

“So we need this pity system… But also we can’t let them know they triggered the secret pity? Is it to protect their pride? So they don’t realize they’re super unlucky?”

“You could say that… But our dostic players are really smart. They usually figure these chanisms out pretty quickly.”

“Then aren’t our efforts wasted?”

“Not necessarily. As long as the official side doesn’t acknowledge it, then the chanism doesn’t ‘exist.’”

Xia Yuan suddenly understood: “Ohhh! I get it now. As long as we don’t tell players, then we can freely tweak things behind the scenes, right—?”

As Xia Yuan was speaking, Lin Youxi turned over and reached out, seemingly feeling around. i Fang imdiately extended his hand to hold hers, calming her down so she could rest more peacefully—at the sa ti, he used his other hand to cover Xia Yuan’s mouth. Once Lin Youxi settled again, he slowly let go.

“You could say it’s about tweaking things behind the scenes, but that’s more common in general gas. Our company’s not that shaless. We’d never go that far. See, 100-draw hard pity is a number that’s easy to calculate. So we try to control the pity trigger using RNG, or it’d lack suspense.”

If the secret pity system is randomized within a certain range, then the player won’t know if they hit the five-star due to pity or through sheer luck. The hidden pity chanism becos harder to observe, which can also reduce a player’s sense of despair over being “unlucky.”

“Random number… So it doesn’t have to be 100 draws? It could be like, 101?”

“Absolutely not 101. Only 99.”

i Fang explained to Xia Yuan: “Never let a player’s gacha result fall below their expectations or what they’ve learned from the community. Otherwise they’ll think we secretly nerfed the rates today, then again tomorrow, and they’ll be flaming us on the forums every day.”

“That… does sound annoying…”

Xia Yuan sighed. “Sigh, these player lords are really hard to please.”

“You’re trying to earn their money. If you don’t serve them well, how will that work?”

i Fang stroked Xia Yuan’s head. “We’re making money, yeah—but let’s not look too greedy doing it. If we get a bad reputation, it’ll be hard to do business later.”

“That’s true. Especially since a lot of FGO players are students. We should stay ethical…”

“YuanYuan’s so righteous! Let check that kind heart again!”

“Didn’t we just say no random rubbing!”

“I’m just touching it for luck. I have to draw on stream later. YuanYuan, YuanYuan, my dear YuanYuan, you don’t want to pull a sky full of blue cards and get roasted by the audience, right?”

“Ugh, fine… If it’s for the company…”

On the day FGO launched its open beta, i Fang demonstrated the drop rates live on stream. His first ten-pull produced three golden cards—Gilgash, Artoria Pendragon, and Jeanne d’Arc—all five-stars, and the screen was flooded with the bullet comnt:

【And you still say you’re not a luck shill?!】

Countless players went wild.

Imdiately after, i Fang generously handed out 30 free Saint Quartz pulls and one additional selectable four-star Servant as compensation, and the online masses instantly acted as if nothing had happened.

FGO’s servers experienced a brief slowdown within the first 10 minutes of launch but remained stable afterward. Thanks to the tireless efforts of all involved, the ga raked in an astonishing 50 million yuan in revenue on its first day, soaring straight to No.1 on the iOS top-grossing charts.