Jiang Juyou was responsible for marketing and planning for the female trainees, while also preparing for the boy group's first comeback. Since she was in charge of Timetrain, her focus was naturally there.
Recently, she had been spending all her mental energy on game development, which meant she'd been bothering Cong Lixia more frequently than usual.
"The target audience is females between 14 and 30 years old. What do you think this age group needs most?" Jiang Juyou sat in her office, staring at an art piece in the distance while directing her question to Cong Lixia.
Jiang Juyou twirled her pen anxiously. The white paper on her desk was covered with keywords that she had repeatedly crossed out and rewritten.
Cong Lixia was an excellent listener. Instead of giving direct advice to Jiang Juyou, he would bounce questions back to her, encouraging her to think from different perspectives.
"Perhaps you could imagine what you want - you're in that age group too, after all."
Jiang Juyou paused, her gaze returning to the chat window as her eyes lit up. This was an angle she hadn't considered.
"Hmm... me?" Jiang Juyou tilted her head. "...I want to rest. I want a longer vacation, to travel to unfamiliar countries, or even live there for a while."
"Without worrying about running out of money or basic necessities... just purely experiencing the passage of time."
After speaking, she wrote a few words on the white paper.
"Foreign Lands"
-
"@Timetrain: Early summer is perfect for a vacation. Hope we can meet by chance in [foreign lands]..."
A month after Timetrain's activities ended, their official Weibo account, which had been quiet for a month, suddenly came alive with an announcement post - the prelude to their long-awaited album promotion.
The nine-grid images showed game screenshots with a beautifully realistic, healing art style that made it look like entering an alternate dimension city.
The center image contained the game's premise: "When work becomes so overwhelming that you can barely breathe, you just want to escape to a country where no one knows you and rest for a while. Instead of just dreaming about it, why not actually go..."
This was a highly free-form exploration game without fixed storylines or mandatory missions - just pure relaxation.
The game was released on all major platforms simultaneously with the announcement.
Jiang Liuxing acted quickly, immediately leaving the Weibo post to download the game.
The game icon showed a downward view of stairs leading to a road, with an endless ocean visible across the street.
It was the kind of scenery you'd commonly see while traveling in coastal cities.
While the official announcement only included images, leading people to expect a simple picture-dialogue game with album concept teasers, everything changed once they downloaded and opened it--
A train rushed past the platform rapidly, with loading text displayed below. Then came another train, rust-red in color, moving much slower before gradually coming to a stop at the platform.
This entire realistic and fluid scene shocked all the fans who had no expectations.
The show had previously mentioned pixel art and a platformer game, but the final product was completely different from what was described.
Moreover, the art style was incredibly refined, nothing like something that could be prepared in just a few months.
The train stopped, and passengers actually got off carrying luggage, giving Jiang Liuxing goosebumps.
The game prompted her to click on the train car door. When she did, a map appeared on her phone showing twenty-one cities in this country, asking her to choose one.
Each city on the map had its own description. While amazed by the game's quality, Jiang Liuxing wavered between several coastal cities before finally choosing a small southern city known for its abundant sunshine and beautiful coastal highway.
After selecting the city, she needed to name her character. Jiang Liuxing casually typed: [Shooting Star is the Star of Purple Splendor]
After confirming, her phone vibrated and displayed: [That's an unusual name. Nobody would be called that. How about Li Weixing?]
Jiang Liuxing, who hadn't played many games before, was shocked again. "Are games this intelligent now?"
She understood the message's meaning - it wanted a proper person's name. This time when she entered her own name, there was no vibration, and it moved to the next step.
While character customization was common, text-based customization was new. She was asked to input a physical description, and when she missed some details, the game assistant reminded her.
[Butler: You haven't specified hair color and style. Perhaps you'd like light chestnut-colored, long curly hair?]
Though she hadn't properly started the game yet, Jiang Liuxing was already in love with it.
After the text-based character creation came packing luggage. The butler informed her that her luggage allowance wasn't enough for all items, so she needed to select carefully. Jiang Liuxing removed several pieces of clothing from the suitcase and weighed it before finally passing this stage.
Once all the preparations were complete, Jiang Liuxing boarded the train with her luggage, and the entire boarding process amazed her once again.
In her experience, game scene transitions usually involved clicking, followed by a black screen before loading the next scene. But this required manual control - following the prompts, she swiped the screen and watched her in-game character pull her luggage onto the train, the visual experience exactly matching real-life train boarding.
"Ahhhhh!" The inexperienced Jiang Liuxing screamed, wanting to rush out to find her sister, but then remembered she was home alone today.
She jumped back onto her bed like a monkey and knelt there to continue operating the game character.
Focusing back on the game, Jiang Liuxing finally noticed what made this game different from others she'd seen. Previous games had cluttered screens with notification bars, game mode options on the left, and circles of options below. This game's interface was incredibly clean, with only a subtle phone icon in the upper right corner that blended seamlessly with the game scene, almost invisible unless you looked carefully.
Clicking it revealed all the options - everything a real phone would have. You could search the internet, add friends, and take photos.
Jiang Liuxing closed the [phone] and continued walking with her suitcase. The game maintained a first-person perspective - she couldn't see herself, only her train ticket, suitcase, and walking legs.
She thought boarding was all there was to it, but she actually had to find her seat according to the ticket, and could even ask train attendants for help. Jiang Liuxing had a high-class sleeper ticket, and fortunately, she had the compartment to herself.
The following scenes felt incredibly real - using the left controls to look around, Jiang Liuxing turned "her" head to look out the window, seeing people carrying luggage boarding the train. Once moving, the street scenes and landscapes changed continuously. The butler informed her she would arrive after a nap, and indeed, what should have been an eight-hour journey was completed after one sleep cycle.
[Butler: You have arrived in a foreign land. Have a pleasant journey.]
Reading this message, Jiang Liuxing exclaimed again, "Oh my god-- Random Entertainment, you've been hiding your capabilities so well!"
She wasn't alone in her reaction - countless others were equally amazed by this completely new style of game. The news was spreading on Weibo, forums were overwhelmed, and Douyin was about to be conquered--
"Title: Game Recommendation/Review - Random Entertainment, What Are You Doing?! You Scared Me!!!"
"I went in thinking what kind of game could be made in two months, with absolutely no expectations, but was slapped in the face by its excellent production. I've never seen such clean game graphics in my life!"
"Please go play it! I strongly recommend it!"
"After playing intensively for a while, here are my takeaways:"
"The game has extremely high freedom, with no main storyline or plot. It's all about eating, shopping, and drinking in the city. Since you're on paid vacation in the setting, money is deposited into your account every month. Basic necessities in the city can be covered by your salary, but if you want a better life, you'll need to find ways to earn more money."
"There are 21 cities in total, each with different characteristics and streetscapes. I chose a northern city where it snows six months out of the year. The freedom is so high that you can choose transportation to visit other cities. After finding my house, I flew to a coastal city in the south - it was beautiful, and the ocean was amazing!"
"There's a pet shop on Yongrong Street in Lihai City. I went in for a look and discovered you can keep cats and dogs. Since I wasn't settled in Lihai City, I didn't buy (adopt instead of purchase) any at the time. I tried it out and found you can even 'kidnap' stray cats to take home."
"Who understands how excited I was, as someone whose parents won't let me keep pets in real life, when I saw this feature?"
"I also saw cruise ships at sea - you should be able to take cruises to other cities."
"High freedom is one of its highlights, and another is its perspective and graphics."
"Whatever perspective you see in real life is what you see in the game. There are no black screen transitions, only an immersive experience."
"It truly delivers on its tagline of 'vacationing in a foreign land.'"
Comments:
"As a gaming enthusiast, I'm blown away by this game."
"Support Random Entertainment in revolutionizing the gaming industry!"
"Only those who've played it can truly relate to OP's words... I was really shocked."
"The last time I was this surprised was when I discovered the gem that is Random Entertainment in the terrible entertainment industry."
"Not planning to sleep, I'm going to play for days straight. Wait for my updates, sisters!"
"You can add friends and travel together! Ahhhhh!"
"Such an excellent production just to promote five androids' next comeback... Random Entertainment, I'm crying. Other entertainment companies should just come and kneel down."
The unique gaming mode not only shocked their own fans but also outsiders. The gameplay recordings looked like first-person animated movies, with a picture book art style combined with realistic city proportions, truly creating an immersive experience.
Many gaming streamers were bombarded with private messages from fans requesting them to test this game, and the quick ones had already downloaded it and started exploring.
Jiang Liuxing, who downloaded the game immediately, had been playing for four hours. She lay on her bed with her phone, so engrossed that she forgot to eat or turn on the lights in her room, her eyes glued to the screen.
"Hehe..." Jiang Liuxing giggled at the screen.
Just arriving in Lihai City, she spent her entire savings of several tens of thousands on a seaside apartment just steps away from the ocean. She bought all the furniture from the furniture mall that afternoon. The Golden Retriever she never had time to keep in real life was now part of her virtual life - she bought few things for herself but loads of items for the dog.
She had just taken the Golden Retriever for a check-up at the pet hospital and was now walking home on the small path.
Overwhelmed with happiness, Jiang Liuxing didn't want to quit the game. She never understood before what was so fun about games, but now she gets it - she wasn't addicted before simply because those games weren't good enough.
While players immersed in the game didn't care about the trending topics on the internet, those who hadn't yet tried the game were becoming increasingly curious.
The hashtag #ForeignLand# shot to the top of trending topics, even earning Random Entertainment's first [explosive] tag in its history.
In just a few hours, it achieved a level of popularity that other games couldn't reach even with years of promotion. Timetrain's name was frequently mentioned, as people found it hard to believe this was a game made by an entertainment company to promote their boy group.
"Outsiders hold your shock, let us insiders be shocked first (I'm from the gaming industry)"
"This couldn't have been made in less than three or four years, and such high freedom requires enormous engineering work, plus twenty-one cities and the number of NPCs inside... Really... industry insiders are shocked to death."
"I've been making games all my life, and got beaten by an entertainment company."
"Is there a recharge channel? Let me show you what a whale looks like."
The Moonle fans who were already addicted to the game completely forgot about the hidden spoilers for the next comeback, all busy buying furniture and decorating their houses with great enthusiasm.
Players who quickly spent their initial funds flooded the official blog's comments section, demanding a recharge channel.
"Title: Entertainment Industry Discussion/LOL, Players Have Taken Over the Five Androids' Official Blog."
"'Foreign Land' doesn't have an official blog - the announcement was made on the five androids' official blog. Everyone played all afternoon and spent all their savings, and now they're demanding a recharge channel. But since they can't find the official blog, they've rushed to the androids' pages."
"First time seeing different voices appear in a comments section with millions of fans, and they actually made it to the top."
"Please go look, it's really hilarious seeing 'Your grandpa wants a recharge channel!' among all the fan comments."
"[Image]"
The content in the image is even funnier, with the top comment full of people tagging Random Entertainment.
"@Random Entertainment, my girl is talking to you!"
"@Random Entertainment, my girl is calling you!"
"@Random Entertainment, can't you hear my girl speaking?"
Comments:
"Laughing uncontrollably, someone save me from my terrible sense of humor!"
"@sjyl, my girl is talking to you!"
"There is a recharge channel, it's just a bit tricky. Open the phone options, there's a bank APP with a secret vault savings pouch. Click the withdraw button to recharge, the ratio is 100:1, one real yuan equals 100 in game."
"Random Entertainment, really... I'm crying, why make the recharge channel so hidden, afraid of making money?"
"And it's actually 100:1, ice cream in the game is only one Mo Currency! And it's a huge tub! I'm going to spend forever!"
"Here I am feeling like an idiot spending 188 on a skin..."
"Hahahaha check the Weibo comments in reverse order, it's hilarious, netizens tagging all major game companies to come see the emperor of games."
"Daily expenses aren't expensive, but if you want to go to another city you need transportation, prices are half of reality. My flight to Lihai City cost 855 Mo Currency. Unless you're flying several times a day, it won't cost much, but if you fly frequently you can buy an annual unlimited flight pass."
"After I die, please import my digital life into this game, thanks."
Random Entertainment, which usually stayed within its own small circle, truly became famous this time. The game, originally aimed at the fan circle, successfully integrated people from other circles. The names of Random Entertainment, the game, and Timetrain hung on trending topics all night.
"Foreign Land" topped the download charts on all major app stores, with revenue exceeding 20 million just on the afternoon of launch day.
Related game videos became successful viral content across all platforms - anything posted would definitely go viral.
This situation attracted even more gaming content creators and players.
These results were beyond what Jiang Juyou had imagined, and beyond what Random Entertainment's employees had expected, as they had never heard of this game's existence in the company before. When asked about the project, even the project team said this wasn't their proposal.
In the end, no one knew who spread the rumor that this had been prepared by the boss long ago, planned for use several years later, but unexpectedly put to use now.
Although she didn't know who helped cover for her, Jiang Juyou simply accepted it.
The game's success exceeded their expectations and made subsequent work much easier. At least they didn't have to worry about the attention and sales of the album after its release, as the players would definitely buy it.
With such a big burden lifted, Jiang Juyou suddenly felt much more relaxed. Her long-tense nerves could finally ease a bit, and her attention turned to the female trainees. They had already finished the second public performance, and the third was about to begin. The final lineup would be determined by the end of next month.
To connect with upcoming activities, the girl group's album had already begun production, and Jiang Juyou had listened to it several times.
If she had received news about the album being in production, the trainees must know about it too.
As the competition entered its final stages, it reached a fever pitch. Both on and off camera, contestants were breaking down and anxious, but none of this emotional turmoil showed on screen. All the girls tacitly protected this secret, not wanting their vulnerable sides to be seen.
But some people—
"I know this game is fun, but at this point, can we put it down for a while?" Yu Dan had just returned from the bathroom when she saw Si Yanyu hugging an iPad, playing "Strange Lands."
Her gaming habit was nothing new, but the third public performance was in two days, and recently other groups had been catching up. If they didn't perform well, their rankings could easily drop. Yu Dan had already fallen out of the top seven, and her anxiety had been intense lately, making her easily triggered.
Si Yanyu held the iPad, her expression not particularly good, with beads of sweat on her forehead. "Sorry, sorry... but I can't help it."
After speaking, she made a strong effort to tear her eyes away from the iPad. Si Yanyu tossed it aside, wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, and stood up saying, "Let's continue practicing when the others return. I need to go to the bathroom."
Si Yanyu's reaction made Yu Dan feel like she'd said something wrong. She opened her mouth to stop her but ultimately said nothing.
During the first and second performances, all four of them were together. For the third, they were split up. This time, the judges put Yu Dan and Si Yanyu with five other girls in a seven-member group. Han Lemi was assigned to a group with strong vocalists, while Pei Zhiping was grouped with Xia Simiao and Ji Wensu.
The mixed-up groupings for the third performance were quite intriguing. After the second performance ended, their group assignments trended on social media. With a month until the third performance, fans were already excited.
This clearly showed how much tension these groupings created.
In another practice room, Han Lemi watched her playful teammates as her temples throbbed. Her quiet complaints were caught by the production team and included in the final cut.
"Turns out I'm the slacker among the overachievers, and the most hardworking among the average ones."
"Oh my god, they've sparked my ambition. If I keep slacking off, I'll be eliminated."
"Wow, they're eating chocolate... I should have one too, or I won't fit in."
"Little Bread! Stop making excuses for your snacking!!!"
"These girls are quite carefree..."
"Mom was worried Little Bread would go there and just slack off, but now look, my girl's ambition has been fully ignited!"
"I'm crying, look what those three overachievers have done to my girl!"
Han Lemi: Missing my overachiever teammates.
