Chapter 488

In mid-June, Wei Ming and his sister arrived in Hong Kong; before even leaving the airport, Wei Hong pulled her brother toward Old Ghost’s house.

Actually, she wanted to bring Wei Ming to Amin, but Wei Ming told her: “I bought a house in Hong Kong—let’s stay there instead.”

A Long came to pick them up, bringing the keys to the new apartment.

“Back from the Magic Capital so soon?” Wei Ming handed over his luggage—it was heavy, filled with American comic books meant for A Long.

A Long smiled: “Yeah, everything went smoothly, and Ying needs regular prenatal checkups, so we didn’t stay long.”

“How was the trip?” Wei Ming asked.

“I brought five staff members—they’re from different departments—we can now form a basic animation team.”

“Oh, you want to make animation?”

A Long didn’t answer directly: “While back in the Magic Capital, I heard two pieces of news: the American version of The Smurfs is being imported, and Japan’s Clever One-Eye is being dubbed into Chinese.”

Wei Ming understood—he knew that every year several top foreign TV animations entered China, while domestic TV animation had only ever produced one standout: Black Cat Detective—but it had been halted due to cost-cutting and resource allocation.

As for theatrical animated films, the mainland produced one every few years; left unchecked, the 80s generation would grow up watching foreign animation, with deeply harmful subconscious effects.

After sharing his discoveries, A Long said: “Our little aunt has decided to invest in Maniac Comics to produce an animated series of History Cat, and ATV is interested in buying it. I still have to draw Dragon Ball and can’t direct myself, but I want to be deeply involved.”

“It seems your little aunt tasted success with the Transformers animation—this kind of promotion is expensive, but far more effective than regular ads. Go ahead and do it.”

The most famous domestic example is the Hai’er Brothers—this kind of influence is long-lasting and profound.

A Long nodded: “Besides, History Cat comics already have considerable influence on the mainland—we can sell the animation to mainland TV stations too.”

Wei Ming waved his hand: “Forget selling—just give it away. Think about what ads we can bundle with it.”

Imported American and Japanese animations all followed this model; mainland TV stations were used to free deals and couldn’t bear paying the Meiying Factory for content.

Besides recruiting talent from the mainland, collaboration with Taiwanese cartoonists continued—Ao Youxiang had published short comics in Maniac Comics.

A Long also mentioned Maniac Comics’ next project.

“Our cash flow is strong—we plan to expand into other periodicals, building an entertainment media matrix to increase our influence,” A Long said. “Since our comic readers are mostly teenagers, we want to launch a youth-oriented publication first.”

Wei Ming could offer some ideas—for example, name the magazine Yes! and feature a popular female star on every cover.

“If we’re no longer just publishing Maniac Comics, shouldn’t we change the company name?” A Long asked.

Maniac Comics as a company name was inappropriate—it wasn’t just about comics. Wei Ming thought: “How about Minglong Media?”

“Your Ming, my Long?” A Long suddenly blushed.

“The ‘Ming’ in ‘Minglong’ means ‘astonishing debut,’” Wei Ming said—he could use this name for an IPO later, turning it into more than just a comic giant, but a media empire with multiple magazines and newspapers, easier to tell stories with.

Wei Ming’s new three-bedroom apartment was in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island, next to Victoria Park and not far from the Hung Hom Tunnel; A Long drove them from the airport, arriving at the building’s parking lot in about half an hour.

He’d also bought two parking spaces.

After entering, Wei Hong exclaimed: “Nice! It’s so cozy!”

Wei Ming knew it hadn’t been like this before—it was Xue’s doing; this apartment embodied her beautiful vision of living here with him.

Too bad she’d already returned to Jingcheng; lying in the master bedroom that night, Wei Ming longed for someone to keep him company.

Wei Hong sensed something was off—her brother had come to Hong Kong and showed no urgency to see Amin. This was abnormal.

Were they having a lovers’ quarrel? Wei Hong decided she had to act—only now did she realize her own “Hong” meant “matchmaker’s Hong.”

“Brother, tomorrow let’s visit Grandpa and Ni Nai—I miss them,” Wei Hong said.

Wei Ming: “Tomorrow I’m going to Longning to meet with your little aunt about business.”

“Will it take all day?”

“It might not even finish in a day.” There was the gaming business and the villa purchase too.

Wei Hong pouted: “Then I’ll go see them myself—watch out, they’ll say you’re unfilial.”

Wei Ming: “Your little aunt brought back many new game consoles and games far more fun than Pac-Man from Japan.”

Wei Hong immediately changed her mind: “I think we should handle business first—let’s visit them another day.”

That night, Wei Ming fell asleep reading the latest issue of Maniac Comics—Zhao Rude’s City Hunter made its debut.

The male lead was drawn unmistakably like Cheng Long—with that big nose.

Meanwhile, Master Wutian in Dragon Ball was now using the alias “Cheng Long” to enter the World Martial Arts Tournament.

This issue mocked “Cheng Long,” and the long-awaited World Martial Arts Tournament arc officially began—no wonder A Long said his copy of this issue was already sold out; it was selling too well.

Dragon Ball’s collected volumes had already released two volumes, each containing roughly ten issues; the first volume sold 150,000 copies in one month, the second, featuring the Dragon Ball summoning arc, sold a staggering 230,000 copies in under a month; the third volume, centered on the World Martial Arts Tournament with intense fight scenes, perfectly showcased A Long’s skill—sales would surely rise further.

The highest sales for Feng Yun’s collected volumes were 160,000 copies.

Almost every Dragon Ball reader who read the weekly Maniac Comics would repurchase the collected volumes to keep and reread—A Long’s Dragon Ball was about to create a cultural phenomenon rivaling Jin Yong’s wuxia novels.

If overseas markets were included, each Dragon Ball volume could easily sell over a million copies.

But this still fell far short of the original timeline’s Dragon Ball, whose single-volume sales reached roughly ten million.

Of course, time and distribution scope were major factors—but the original’s extensive licensing and merchandise development expanded its influence, feeding back into sales.

In the original timeline, Dragon Ball launched TV animation, theatrical films, and video games just two years after its manga serialization, with countless other licensed toys and merchandise.

But Hong Kong’s market was too small; before the mainland market opened, Dragon Ball’s commercial development had to rely on Taiwan and Japan.

Tomorrow, I must talk seriously with my little aunt about comprehensive development for Dragon Ball.

After bringing Wei Hong to the Longning CEO’s office, Wei Ming first spotted a familiar yet unfamiliar figure among the many figurines and toys.

McDonald?

Seeing Wei Ming stare at the spotted pig doll, Li Zhi came over: “It’s called McDonald—a new character we’re developing for Longning’s gift shop. Apparently drawn by a female university student.”

Wei Ming nodded—he hadn’t expected that a reward program would bring this local Hong Kong cartoon character into existence so early.

Around McDonald were other cartoon figurines Wei Ming had never seen—likely also results of the reward program.

Wei Ming glanced at them briefly; he doubted they could compete with Sanrio—those guys had been running IPs for decades and knew how to operate them.

But no rush—he’d guide them when he had time; he still had plenty of cute ideas in his head.

As he was looking, Wei Lingling walked in; Wei Hong immediately asked: “Little aunt, where are the Japanese game consoles you brought back?”

She hadn’t touched a console in ages—she was itching to play.

Wei Lingling asked: “Do you understand Japanese?”

“I only know ‘kuso’ and ‘mimi mimi,’” Wei Hong said.

That was worse than Wei Ming—he at least knew “yamete” and “ichidai.”

Wei Lingling said: “Little Li, take Xiao Hong to test the toys.”

“Okay,” Li Zhi led Wei Hong into another room.

The door closed; Wei Lingling suddenly slumped into her office chair: “I—I’m starting to doubt whether Bu Bu Gao can really succeed.”

“What happened? Did Nintendo crush you?” Wei Ming had checked the news—their groundbreaking product hadn’t even launched yet.

Wei Lingling sighed: “I arrived in Tokyo just in time for Nintendo’s new product briefing—they announced the price of their new Family Computer.”

The Family Computer was the first FC, Nintendo’s true breakthrough, a landmark product.

Landmark products usually had landmark prices too.

Wei Lingling told Wei Ming: “This home console costs only 14,800 yen!”

What did that mean? The Atari 2600 was famous for its value, priced at $199.

The FC’s price, at this year’s exchange rate, was only $60!

Wei Lingling worried: “That price is too low—even if they lose money on the hardware, just selling software could let them sweep the global market.”

Anyone familiar with home consoles knew how insane that price was—if they also had a few decent games, they’d be unbeatable.

“What about the hardware quality? Did you get one?” Wei Ming asked.

Wei Lingling shook her head: “No, I didn’t even touch one—I only remember it was red and white. The host demonstrated it; I felt it was smoother than the Atari 2600. You have to wait a month to buy one—I only brought back Nintendo’s Game & Watch and Sega’s console.”

She’d brought only handhelds; Sega’s first home console hadn’t even launched yet.

Wei Ming patted his little aunt’s shoulder: “Are you worried you’ll buy an Atari, only to find its tech is outdated and uncompetitive?”