Chapter 12: Subsequent Developments!

"I'll do my best to secure the university's entrepreneurship support resources for you, but you must follow every single point you wrote down, make it formal, give it substance, and produce results!"

Professor Yu Qian removed his gold-rimmed glasses and tapped the thick 47-page "Five-Year Development Plan for the Esports Industry" on the desk with his lesson plan: "Do you know why the department made an exception to grant the Entrepreneurship Park Level A resources?" He pointed to the data charts in the appendix, "Last year, the Ele. me project incubated by Zhejiang University reached a valuation exceeding one hundred million; your esports proposal is the only one in nearly three years capable of competing with it on its business model—"

"So don't embarrass me. If you get it right, the department will reserve a spot for you in the combined bachelor's, master's, and doctoral program."

"Understood!!!"

Yu Qian added: "Additionally, if esports truly develops as predicted in your proposal, experiencing a boom in 2015 and 2016, then you must accumulate as much capital as possible over these few years. Don't let the cake be made only to have someone kick you out."

"If you face difficulties, don't struggle alone; just tell your teacher."

Jiang Ming's eyes were full of gratitude as he replied loudly, "Thank you, teacher."

He knew very well that he was just an ordinary university student; even with a second life, without prior experience in the relevant field, even if he rode the wave of the times, he would ultimately be nothing more than a "nouveau riche" with a bit of money.

To truly enter an industry chain worth tens of billions as an ordinary person, even if you get lucky and squeeze your way in, you will eventually be kicked out.

Didn't Dong Baiwan, PDD, and others try to form teams?

They certainly tried!

But what was the outcome?

Jiang Ming gazed at the new tender buds on the plane trees outside the window, recalling the "Internet Cafe Emperors" of his past life who were as fleeting as the moonflower.

The past incident in 2014, when the Royal Team was forced to sell the team due to a broken capital chain, remained a thorn in his side.

Therefore, Jiang Ming had consciously started making a name for himself since his freshman year, actively answering questions in class, ranking first in every exam to build his reputation as a top student, while simultaneously using the insights gained from the future internet explosion to attract the attention of the big shots in his School of Economics and Management, striving to become their disciple.

In society, the only identity of someone with no relatives or friends who is willing to help you wholeheartedly is one:

A teacher!

"Oh, there's one more thing!"

"Also, don't take things without giving back. The department has helped you so much; establish a research project for the department based on your esports proposal, and provide data materials regularly. Is that okay?"

"No problem!"

"Oh, there's one more thing!"

"Teacher, just say it all at once. As long as it's within my ability..."

Jiang Ming was somewhat amused and helpless; his teacher seemed to be possessed by Uncle Jackie Chan.

"I want to say that if you can avoid it, don't take a leave of absence. Work hard, study the books of various teachers in advance during your daily routine, keep up with the exams, and I'll figure out a way to handle your daily assessment points."

After leaving the teacher's office and walking through the corridor of the School of Economics and Management covered in wisteria, Jiang Ming's phone vibrated continuously:

After confirming that Lin Lin Lin Xuejie could handle things, he didn't return to the shop in the Entrepreneurship Park but headed straight for the training base where the team was located.

On the way, Jiang Ming thought, "The teacher is right. Although it doesn't cost much money in this makeshift stage now, once we enter the LPL and become formalized, venue rentals, daily operating expenses, various hardware facilities for the esports club, and player salaries will all be significant monthly expenditures."

"Getting kicked out after the cake is made is a matter for later; the real fun would be if we can't sustain it halfway through."

"Current real-time data for my Taobao store: daily meat floss cake sales have nearly approached over 400 orders, and the advertising rates for the livestream room are getting higher and higher."

"The immediate priority is to use the first-mover advantage to eat up the cake in the high-quality LOL video creation sector; a single tutorial video is far from enough."

"If online store orders get even higher, I can renegotiate the supply price with Youchen; the contract with the livestreaming platform is also nearing expiration..."

LOL videos can be divided into two main categories: tutorial videos and entertainment videos. My new hero tutorial series falls into the first category, while parodies like "Teacher Xu's Mountain Patrol Series" belong to the entertainment category.

Both types of videos can be deeply explored to expand the track. Some videos that only require editing, such as "The Style of the Strongest King," don't need me to do them personally; I can completely find two high-quality 'cattle and horses' from the media major... ahem, I mean, high-quality talents from Jin Ling University to produce them, and I don't need to pay them too high a salary.

My basic foundation is the online store. Increasing the store's visibility and using video traffic to acquire more funds as quickly as possible is essential in this barbaric era of esports lacking sponsorship and commercialization methods.

The current products in the online store are mainly various digital products centered on esports peripherals, seasonal clothing, and snacks!

Sales of esports peripherals are average; not considering the case where ten-something yuan ordinary keyboards are sold as mechanical keyboards to fool people, the profit from this part isn't high, mainly because a keyboard often lasts a long time.

Clothing is the same; considering reputation and future paths, Jiang Ming didn't learn from certain peers and sell T-shirts costing twenty or thirty yuan for one or two hundred.

Therefore, the most profitable items in the store are actually snacks like meat floss cakes, after all, for gamers, meat floss cakes that taste good and are filling are the best choice.

In 2013 and 2014, countless esports streamers made a fortune selling meat floss cakes.

"It seems that to ensure funds don't run out, I have to keep selling meat floss cakes," Jiang Ming smiled helplessly.

When starting the business and opening the shop, I made a bold claim, "Watch me sell a hundred thousand meat floss cakes..."

Now it seems that not only is the original target about to be reached, but the figure will far exceed one hundred thousand.

After all, just yesterday, I sold several thousand meat floss cakes.

Thinking of this, Jiang Ming remembered something else, took out his phone, opened WeChat, and quickly sent a message to Lin Lin Lin Xuejie.

(You transferred 4000 yuan to Lin Yidan! PS: Last month's salary)

Lin Yidan: "Waaaaah, the salary not only increased as promised, but it was paid on the second day too! Thank you, boss!"

"The boss is generous, I love you so much. (Work instantly has power again JPG)"

Indeed, no matter where you are, asking about someone's health and well-being is not as practical as sending a huge sum of money.

With a little money paving the way, Jiang Ming, whose backbone instantly became much stiffer, typed and sent the following to the other party.

"Lin Lin Xuejie, please work hard on the recruitment these few days. The store should have a few more days of exploding orders, so it's fine to hire a few more part-time packers. Also, help me contact if there are any students from the media major; I have some part-time video editing tasks here."

Hmm, if it can be outsourced, I won't consider recruiting full-time employees for now.

On the other side of the internet, Lin Jingyi typed and asked, "Okay, okay, okay. What about the interviews? Online interviews like before, or will you come back to school?"

"You handle it; I'll be very busy for the next few days."

"Also, when the warehouse receives snacks sent from Youchen and when we pack and ship them out, remember to check the production dates. Don't cause any issues by selling expired products."

In his memory, many streamers who sold meat floss cakes seemed to have had incidents due to passing off inferior goods as superior; a few even ended up in state custody. Jiang Ming didn't want that to happen to him.

"No problem with that; I check the goods coming in and going out of the warehouse every day. How many part-time media students do you need?"

"Two."