"At most ten oo coins will suffice!" Bannon muttered to himself with considerable confidence.
Truth be told, our Mr. Bannon was a decent fellow. While he might have spent company funds on games, he didn't squander money or act ostentatiously, nor did he treat the company's money lightly. After all, the company was now running at a deficit and on the verge of collapse. Thus, spending less was always better.
So, Bannon only recharged one hundred oo coins. He felt his goal was simple: just surpass sixty-three points and get the better of that little brat.
He already had forty-two points, and with the option to revive and continue, surely gaining another twenty-one points wasn't out of the question!
The phone screen returned to the game. It was still paused at the screen requiring revival coins. This was good. Bannon repeatedly exchanged one oo coin for revival coins, then directly revived himself and continued the challenge.
Then, with a "splat," the bird crashed directly into a tree, gaining only one extra point before perishing.
"Ahem, it's not my fault. I was busy recharging just now and lost my previous rhythm. I'll get it right on the next try!" Bannon found a perfectly fitting excuse for himself and then restarted.
However, this was followed by over a dozen consecutive losses. Not only did he fail to reach his previous score of forty-two points, but the revival coin button didn't even activate, preventing Bannon from using a revival coin.
This made Bannon's nose turn red. Fortunately, after his eighteenth death, the prompt to revive with a revival coin finally reappeared. By this time, his score was forty-one points.
Later, Bannon discovered that the revival coin function wasn't something that could be activated at will. It only became available after achieving a score of forty points or higher.
In the words of the developers later, they feared players might irrationally use revival coins to revive even after scoring only two or three points, thereby wasting a significant amount of money.
"This rule is so considerate! If it were me, I'd make players pay a revival coin right at the start of the game!" Bannon exclaimed, then without hesitation, he used another revival coin, allowing him to revive at the forty-one point mark.
In fact, Bannon's self-justification proved true. Having completed the revival operation in a short time, his muscle memory was still intact. Thus, he easily passed level forty-two and then blazed through over a dozen more levels, finally falling at level fifty-one.
Although he still hadn't surpassed the little brat's score of sixty-three points, this was an excellent result, and the future looked promising.
Thus, Bannon began to charge forward with even greater excitement. As he adapted to and became more familiar with the game, and given Bannon's actual gaming talent, he improved rapidly.
Previously, it took eighteen deaths to achieve a score over forty points. After an hour, Bannon could consistently score over forty points and activate the revival coin with only about three deaths.
Then, he would unhesitatingly use a revival coin to push forward. At his peak, he reached fifty-nine points, just a step away from the sixty-three point mark.
Unfortunately, this "Bastard Bird" was truly a bastard. After exceeding fifty points, the bird's flight speed doubled.
The original flight speed of this bastard bird was already quite fast, comparable to a small car. Now, the small car had become a sports car. Even more critically, its upward and downward speeds also increased.
This seemed logical, as only by increasing the ascent and descent speeds could it keep pace with the faster changing background environment. The problem, however, was that human reaction times didn't speed up. Faced with simultaneously faster flight and up-and-down speeds, Bannon struggled immensely. By fifty-nine points, he was already finding it very difficult.
Fortunately, Bannon was not one to admit defeat; otherwise, he wouldn't be in the position of CEO. This failure completely ignited the stubbornness in his personality. He put everything else aside and focused solely on the bird.
It wasn't until his secretary came to remind him that it was time to leave work that he realized he had already worked over two hours past closing time.
"I actually worked overtime; I'm too diligent!" Bannon exclaimed, then he tidied up his things and prepared to head home. However, after only a few steps out of his office, he turned back, picked up the landline, and began to dial to recharge.
After all, out of the one hundred oo coins he had initially recharged, more than forty were left. While there was still a considerable amount, Bannon clearly planned to play again that evening, and it might not be enough.
So, Bannon recharged another one hundred oo coins before leaving the office with satisfaction.
The next day at work, President Bannon had an unusual pair of dark circles under his eyes, but it didn't matter. He summoned those little brats into his office and presented his score, saying, "Sixty-nine points! Surely that far surpasses your sixty-three points!"
"Mr. President! You reached sixty-nine points in one night; you truly have some skill!" Upon seeing Bannon's score, the little brats actually showed a flicker of respect on their faces.
This was something Bannon had never elicited from them before when he had given them orders as their president. This made Bannon feel quite proud.
However, the next second, he heard one of the little brats say with a grin, "But I had good luck last night and directly scored seventy-eight points. President, you still can't beat me!"
"What? You've already reached seventy-eight points!" Bannon was utterly shocked. He had stayed up until four in the morning the previous night, and somehow, under circumstances he himself couldn't explain, he had reached sixty-nine points. The cost was that out of his second recharge of one hundred oo coins, only just over twenty remained.
Yet now, this fellow had managed to score seventy-eight points. How was that possible?
He had to consider that starting from sixty points, the flight and up-and-down speeds of the Bastard Bird continuously increased. It was estimated that by seventy points, the speed would double again. Bannon believed that even with ten more days, he might not be able to surpass seventy points, so how had this little brat directly reached seventy-eight?
"You don't have to believe me; just look!" The little brat proudly took out his phone and showed Bannon his score. It was indeed the historical highest score of seventy-eight points. This caused Bannon's fingers to tremble slightly.
"Alright, I understand. Gentlemen, I will definitely defeat you again!" Bannon said, then he stood up and asked these little brats to leave.
However, perhaps no one noticed that Bannon had unconsciously started referring to these little brats as "gentlemen." This had never happened before... or rather, apart from the company's senior executives, Bannon had never addressed any ordinary employee as "gentlemen."
It had to be said that Bannon had even developed a sliver of respect for this little brat.
However, this respect only fueled Bannon's anger. He took out his phone again, temporarily set aside various tasks that needed handling, and immediately started playing.
He continued playing for another day. It wasn't until close to quitting time in the evening that Bannon, as if divinely aided, pushed forward again, finally surpassing his previous record of sixty-nine points and reaching the seventy-point mark.
Although he only gained two more points, reaching seventy-one points, Bannon then met his demise.
However, after dying, Bannon discovered a secret: a prompt had popped up, "Do you wish to use ten revival coins to revive and battle again?"
"It can revive a second time!" Bannon was shocked. After using one revival opportunity before, he had never had another chance to revive. He had assumed that each game only allowed one revival. He hadn't expected a second opportunity to arise.
But Bannon quickly realized that this was likely a privilege unlocked only after exceeding seventy points. Exceeding forty points granted one revival opportunity, and exceeding seventy points granted another. However, the price for the second revival was exorbitant, increasing tenfold to require ten revival coins, which was equivalent to one dollar.
In China, considering the purchasing power of money, this would be about three yuan per revival. For many ordinary players, this was still a considerable expense. But for Bannon, it was pocket change. After all, he had already recharged three times that day using his landline. For his final recharge, he simply charged one thousand oo coins at once to avoid the hassle of constant recharges.
With an additional revival opportunity, Bannon was surprised to find that the flight and up-and-down speeds had slightly slowed down. Although only slightly, the difficulty had decreased, allowing Bannon to easily score eighty points, surpassing the little brat's seventy-nine.
Then Bannon called those little brats in again. Upon seeing Bannon's impressive score of eighty-two points, these little brats truly bowed their heads, their gazes toward Bannon filled with extreme admiration.
It was at this point that Bannon finally remembered his original purpose and began to seek detailed information about this Bastard Bird from these little brats.
Only then did Bannon belatedly learn that "Bastard Bird" had now become the most discussed game on the oo mobile game platform in the entire United States, even surpassing the popularity of games like Pokémon.
About a month prior, "Bastard Bird" had appeared on the oo mobile game platform. Initially, not many people paid attention. However, a few days later, the American superstar "Michael Jackson" suddenly posted on his Weibo account.
The post featured a pixelated bird, a screenshot of a score of "107," and a screenshot of the number one ranking on the overall leaderboard.
Finally, Michael Jackson proudly asked in his post, "Who else?"