“Why shouldn't we chase after popular internet trends?”

“To consider it from another angle, what are the problems with the most popular internet trends?”

“Hmm, thinking carefully, there are quite a few problems. For example, the truth is often unclear and easily reversed, so taking a stance early on could easily get you implicated; the hottest trends are often superficial, which completely contradicts the purpose of Useful App; these trends often come and go quickly, leaving a mess behind once the hype dies down…”

Yu Ping’an quickly identified a series of problems and potential dangers.

The current online world is composed of massive information cocoons, where most people only care about the parts that interest them.

This leads to a problem: the most popular topics must be able to pull everyone out of their information cocoons and involve them in a comprehensive discussion. And these topics tend to be limited to a very few areas.

For example, emotional topics and topics related to relationships.

After all, a person may like games, movies, anime… each hobby corresponds to a small circle, and you can choose not to pay attention to circles you don’t like. But everyone is born either male or female, so it’s impossible to avoid the circle of relationship topics.

Another example is that entertainment topics will always be more popular than academic topics.

Because academics are something that only a small number of people can grasp or access, while ordinary people will have watched some movies, variety shows, and know a few celebrities during their entertainment.

The more broadly a topic is covered, the easier it is to generate buzz; but the more discussions there are, the easier it becomes for people to talk at cross-purposes and attack each other.

The characteristic of the online world is precisely that no one can convince anyone else; it’s simply a matter of who can shout the loudest. And the volume of the voice often depends on the skill of arguing; whoever has the fewest scruples in an argument is more likely to win.

Therefore, the biggest trends for a period of time are often topics that are widely participated in by the general public, but are extremely lacking in substance.

These are like melons that seem very appetizing at first glance, but after eating them, you feel like you've eaten nothing at all.

This is clearly contrary to the purpose of Useful App.

Useful App wants to create a pure land without garbage information on the Internet, and repeated, excessive discussions of "flame-baiting trends" are in themselves creating garbage information.

Thinking of this, Yu Ping’an had an epiphany.

“So, President Pei is reminding me to pay attention to the degree.”

“It is necessary to pay attention to trends, because trends to some extent reflect the collective demands of ordinary people. As a software, Useful App serves most ordinary people, so paying attention to trends is a process of understanding the collective demands of ordinary people.”

“But we can’t focus on those flame-baiting, over-discussed, meaningless trends, because that would be completely contrary to the purpose of Useful App.”

“Yes, President Pei’s teachings are very reasonable and thought-provoking. But… President Pei still hasn’t said exactly how to choose the right trends?”

There are currently too many trending events on the Internet, but very few are valuable or meaningful.

The hottest trends tend to be broad, lacking specific content, and prone to triggering wars and inciting different groups to attack each other.

But are lower-trending topics any different?

Obviously not. Among the less popular trends, these broad, meaningless, flame-baiting, garbage trends that incite different groups to attack each other are just as common.

“President Pei said to observe more.”

“But with so many trends, how do I choose? I don’t have that kind of powerful insight!”

“If President Pei were to choose himself, he would definitely be able to find the best direction.”

“But how could President Pei possibly spend his valuable time selecting trends for Useful App…”

Yu Ping’an felt like he had entered a dead end: President Pei had proposed a solution, but this solution could only be used by President Pei himself.

“Wait a minute.”

“Who said President Pei doesn’t have time to help with the selection? Isn't President Pei always choosing!”

Yu Ping’an suddenly realized that he seemed to have fallen into a misunderstanding.

He thought that President Pei was so busy that he definitely wouldn’t have time to help Useful App choose a general direction.

But the key is, what is President Pei busy with?

Isn’t he busy finalizing the general direction for the development of Tenda Group!

As the helmsman of Tenda Group, President Pei is constantly leading Tenda into various different fields. These industries seem to have nothing to do with each other, and at the beginning, they seem like they are going to fail, but soon they become closely connected, and it is proven that this is the direction of future development!

Every time President Pei enters a field, he can change the business model of that field and cause a sensation.

Isn’t that also a meaningful trend?

Thinking of this, Yu Ping’an’s vision suddenly broadened.

“What games is the Tenda Games Department developing? Oh, *Eternal Reincarnation*… that doesn’t seem very reliable.”

“What about Shang Yang Games?”

“*Safe and Civilized Driving*! This seems to be a game related to cars, transportation, and urban planning.”

“Useful App can also start from this field and study car-related fields. On the one hand, it can ride the wave when *Safe and Civilized Driving* is released, and on the other hand, it can provide some theoretical support for the game.”

Yu Ping’an suddenly understood the future development direction of Useful App for a period of time.

First, cooperate with various universities in a step-by-step manner, continue to enrich various basic fields, and build up the entire framework as soon as possible; second, cooperate closely with the industries that Tenda plans for in the near future, which can not only provide theoretical support, but also use the popularity of the industry to promote Useful App.

“This forms a complete closed loop! Too perfect!”

Yu Ping’an was no longer confused, and his choice paralysis was completely cured.

After receiving President Pei’s inspiration, he no longer hesitated and immediately threw himself into work, preparing to find relevant professionals!

…

…

September 21st, Friday.

Meng Chang didn’t go to work today, because he had long realized that it was mostly impossible for him to get any commission this month, which meant that work had ended early.

No salary, who would still work?

But Meng Chang didn’t feel as depressed as he had in the past. Although he was back home, he was still paying attention to the progress of *Eternal Reincarnation*.

Because he wanted to know the deeper meaning of President Pei disrupting his publicity plan, and he was still waiting for the answer in Teacher Qiao’s video.

If this answer couldn’t satisfy him, then Meng Chang would have to re-examine the Pei-style publicity method he had summarized, because this event might indicate that he had entered a very wrong misunderstanding.

And if this answer could satisfy him, it would mean that the overall Pei-style publicity method was correct, but there were errors in some details.

And President Pei’s action of disrupting his publicity plan was to correct this error.

In short, no matter which situation it was, Meng Chang had to cheer up and pay attention seriously.

Since the combat system for *Eternal Reincarnation* was updated last Friday, the online reviews and feedback from players have also changed.

But this change was not exactly the same as Meng Chang had predicted.

Originally, Meng Chang thought that updating the combat system in advance was equivalent to detonating the hype at the wrong time, which would lead to the hype not reaching its highest point, but instead spreading steadily and continuously over the next period of time.

At first, the situation was indeed as he had expected.

Players were very excited about the new combat system, and the difficulty problems that had been criticized before seemed to no longer exist. Everyone was seriously honing their parrying skills, and various experts posted their no-damage speedrun videos online.

It has to be said that there were indeed many genius experts. Only a week after the combat system was updated, someone had already completed the achievement of killing Black and White Impermanence at the beginning. It was unknown how many times they had practiced.

Of course, defeating Black and White Impermanence would not have a decisive impact on the game process, but would only give the player access to the weapons and props on Black and White Impermanence in advance.

In terms of the plot, the protagonist would no longer be locked up and taken to the Yellow Springs Road by Black and White Impermanence, but would go to the Yellow Springs Road himself through the props on Black and White Impermanence.

In addition, in the original process, the game progress would advance to the middle stage and encounter Black and White Impermanence again. If these two bosses had already been killed at the beginning, then there would be no need to fight them again here.

In short, it actually didn’t affect the game content, it just added an achievement.

But no matter what, being able to defeat the mid-game bosses in the prologue with only a magic sword was enough to show the strength of these players.

Many players were discussing this combat system, believing that it combined the gameplay of action games with the rhythm of rhythm games and the attack directions of fighting games, marking another breakthrough for action games.

These were all completely in line with what Meng Chang had expected.

But soon, something that made Meng Chang feel a little surprised happened: some players began to naturally compare *Eternal Reincarnation* with *Repentance*.

And the result of the comparison was that although *Eternal Reincarnation* had made some innovations in the combat system, it was far inferior to *Repentance*!

Meng Chang’s first reaction to this statement was also very confused, even puzzled.

So, he found the source of this statement, a post by a self-proclaimed hardcore *Repentance* player.

This player also posted a screenshot of all the achievements in *Repentance* and a screenshot of the achievement of killing Black and White Impermanence in the prologue of *Eternal Reincarnation* at the end of the post to prove that he had a deep understanding of the two games, not just scratching the surface.

"To be honest, when *Eternal Reincarnation* first updated the combat system, I was very excited, but after experiencing it now, I am slightly disappointed."

"I know many people will say that one-third of the game's content has not been updated, and this is just a DLC, so it shouldn't be required to meet the standards of a new game. After all, as a DLC that only costs a fraction of the price of the original game, the current performance is already very good value for money."

"But I still want to briefly talk about my views and why I think *Eternal Reincarnation* is not as good as *Repentance*."

"I won't emphasize the repetition of scenes and monsters that many people have mentioned before, after all, this is just a DLC and the price is cheap. What I find a bit regrettable is precisely this combat system in *Eternal Reincarnation*."

"I think that although this combat system is very novel, it has two major problems: First, its operating difficulty is too high, so that most people cannot get enough fun as in *Repentance*; second, it is actually to some extent contrary to the spirit of *Repentance*, loses the "breaking the fourth wall" effect that Teacher Qiao mentioned, and the spiritual core of endlessly suffering in this desperate world is weakened to some extent."

"In *Repentance*, every player can personally feel that despair, but after suffering for a period of time, they can immerse themselves in it. Just like Teacher Qiao said, the game breaks the boundaries with reality and will give players a spiritual baptism."

"But after *Eternal Reincarnation* made major changes to the combat system, it lost this feeling."

"For players who cannot master the new combat system and have difficulty adapting to parrying, this journey becomes pure suffering, and it is difficult to obtain the joy of growth after suffering. In other words, the entry threshold for combat is too high; for those players who have adapted to this combat, although they can obtain strong joy from it, they have lost the feeling of struggling in a sea of ​​bitterness."

"So, there is nothing wrong with the game itself, it is still of high quality as always, and the combat system is refreshing; but in terms of breaking the fourth wall and deeply exploring the spiritual gameplay, I think there is a big gap with *Repentance*. Not only has it not been inherited, but it has gone in the opposite direction."

"In my opinion, this is a very regrettable thing."