Chapter 163: Current Priorities

"Well, that wraps up the Gamer Sky evening broadcast. Thank you all for watching."
"Up next is the midnight slot, hosted by Xiao You. We'll be right back after a short break!"
Right on the dot, Bao De announced.
The schedule for this episode was tightly packed, making precise time management crucial. They could afford to broadcast for less time, but never more.
Exceeding the time limit would disrupt the next host's workflow.
However, this abrupt cutoff in the middle of the live stream sparked dissatisfaction among the many viewers tuned in.
'Why did it end right when it was getting good?'
'So thrilling.'
'Since we're just watching the gameplay anyway, keep broadcasting.'
'This leaves me hanging and thoroughly annoyed.'
'Old Bao needs to get off work too. Just let the next host carry on.'
'Forget it, I'll go play a round myself and go to sleep.'
'Bro, seriously, don't play this at night. You'll end up playing a billion rounds.'
After Bao De signed off, the comment section instantly came alive.
Some complained they hadn't seen enough, some demanded the broadcast continue, and others intended to experience the game themselves.
Bao De was completely unaware of this.
After finishing the handover with Xiao You for the next segment, he walked straight backstage and asked the company's technical staff:
"How was the broadcast performance? What was the peak concurrent viewership?"
"A little over 5.3 billion," the technician replied.
"That many?" Hearing this number, a look of surprise crossed Bao De's face.
Although the population in the Great Universe Era was mind-bogglingly vast, their platform wasn't particularly large, and the time slot wasn't the most optimal either.
He had originally expected around a billion concurrent viewers to be a decent result, never imagining it would break straight past five billion.
Noticing the confusion on Bao De's face, the technician explained:
"At the start, there were only about a billion viewers. Based on past patterns, we expected viewership to slowly decline afterward."
"However, the reality was that the curve kept climbing steadily."
"As for the reasons, I can think of two: first, the viewer retention during the broadcast was quite high, and second, there are a lot of night owls around this time."
Hearing this unreliable analysis, the corners of Bao De's mouth twitched.
With a brief farewell, he headed toward the dormitory provided by Qiyou for media personnel.
"Off work at last!"
Crying out these words instantly made him feel as though all his fatigue had vanished.
Back in his room, Bao De pondered for a moment before opening his optical computer and sending a message to Yin Jian.
After offering some general praise, he cut straight to the point.
Bao De: Teacher Yin, the quality of *Infinity* is quite impressive, so I'm planning to continue broadcasting it tomorrow. What do you think...
Yin Jian: [Congratulations on your wealth and prosperity] Thank you for your hard work, Brother Bao.
('Bao De' claimed the red envelope)
Bao De: We're friends, no need to be so formal.
In the apartment on Baiqiao Star...
Yin Jian saw the message sent by Bao De.
He curled his lip. *If you've got the spine, try not accepting my red envelope.*
Although Yin Jian disliked this kind of behavior, he had no other choice.
After exchanging a few more polite remarks with Bao De, he prepared to close his optical computer.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration sparked in his mind.
He instantly stopped his movements.
After thinking for a moment, he sent another message to Bao De.
Yin Jian: Brother Bao, do you happen to have the contact information of the other hosts?
Bao De: What are you trying to do?
Yin Jian: I just want to make more friends.
Bao De: ..
Yin Jian: [Congratulations on your wealth and prosperity]
('Bao De' claimed the red envelope)
Bao De: [Contact List] Here is their contact information. If I didn't take you for such a straightforward person, I wouldn't normally give this to anyone.
Yin Jian: Thanks, Brother Bao.
Concluding the conversation, Yin Jian opened the contact list sent by Bao De and glanced through it.
He found they were all hosts invited by Qiyou this time around.
Confirming everything was in order, he closed his optical computer.
It was already late at night, so he decided to reach out to them one by one tomorrow morning.
Setting that matter aside, Yin Jian walked over to his computer and opened the game's backend dashboard.
He checked the growth rate of his wishlists.
The results of this live stream were phenomenal, netting him nearly one billion wishlists in a single broadcast.
Combined with his previous numbers, the total wishlist count for *Infinity* had reached around 1.5 billion.
"Sure enough, you have to rely on yourself for everything."
Seeing these figures, the corners of Yin Jian's mouth curled upward.
His initial estimate had only been a few tens of millions, but the reality was that his total wishlists had directly tripled!
The results were absurdly good.
This phenomenal outcome solidified his resolve to get more media influencers to stream his game.
In the Great Universe information age, where the collective memory of the internet lasts only three days, the old saying "good wine needs no bush" is no longer true.
Only through strong publicity can a game truly enter the public eye.
After reviewing the growth data, Yin Jian closed the game assistant backend, opened the Qiyou platform, and checked his current ranking.
No. 32.
A wishlist increase of one billion had directly boosted the ranking of *Infinity* by nearly a hundred spots.
This gave Yin Jian a glimmer of hope for advancement.
"I wonder how many wishlists the top twelve have by now."
Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated.
With that thought in mind, Yin Jian opened the page for the game currently ranked twelfth and checked its achievements.
Normally, people couldn't see the actual wishlist count of other games.
However, if one really wanted to find out, there was another way.
That was to look at the game's unlocked achievements.
Among the various achievements, reaching a certain number of wishlists would award an achievement badge.
For example:
500 Wishlists Achievement
1,000 Wishlists Achievement
10,000 Wishlists Achievement
20,000 Wishlists Achievement
...
100,000 Wishlists Achievement
200,000 Wishlists Achievement
And so on.
Although not entirely precise, the approximate quantity could still be estimated using this method.
Yin Jian clicked on the opponent's achievement interface.
He froze upon seeing their wishlist achievement.
Then, he rubbed his eyes.
[30 Billion Wishlists]
After double and triple-checking to make sure he hadn't misread it, Yin Jian decisively exited that game's interface.
He looked at the game currently ranked first—the adult content review game.
[800 Billion Wishlists]
"...Damn! Do you have to be so absurd?"
Such a massive number of wishlists left Yin Jian feeling somewhat hopeless.
He and his opponent were simply not in the same league.
Fortunately, Qiyou's game competition wasn't decided in a single round.
As long as he could break into the top twelve, he would still have a chance.
With this thought, Yin Jian clicked back to the leaderboard interface.
He examined the wishlist numbers of the games ranked past twelfth place, wanting to see starting from which rank the games ahead began to pull away by a massive margin.
After looking around the list, Yin Jian discovered that past the twentieth rank, wishlist numbers plummeted sharply.
The twentieth place still boasted ten billion wishlists.
Meanwhile, the twenty-first place abruptly dropped to just over four billion.
This reminded Yin Jian of what Zhou Shun had said earlier:
The top-ranked games enjoyed the preferential treatment brought by intelligent recommendations.
Therefore, his most urgent task right now was to push the ranking of *Infinity* into the top twenty!