At present, this number-merging game seems to only stand out for its unique gameplay—any other aspect, even giving it a score of zero feels generous.

However, Jack Thompson has a different opinion.

“That’s because you haven’t played it yourself! Let me tell you, you have to do it like this—merge two identical numbers together, then try to get 2048…”

William Carter shot him a sideways glance.

“Isn’t that pretty easy?”

“Heh, just wait until the numbers get bigger! I can’t stand cloud gamers like you who just talk nonsense!”

“Damn! It’s only one yuan, I’ll buy one myself. I’ll definitely beat the game before you do!”

“What’s so interesting?” Attracted by their conversation, George Foster came over as well. “Let me have a look.”

Listening to his roommates chatting below, Henry Baker, who was lying on the top bunk reading an advanced math book, glanced down with half-closed eyes.

A number game?

Interesting…

But it doesn’t seem that difficult.

After thinking for a moment, Henry Baker offered a suggestion.

“Try moving the bigger numbers to the edge.”

Hearing the voice from the top bunk, Jack Thompson responded.

“The edge? I’ll give it a try…”

He had a lot of faith in Henry Baker’s advice.

After all, this guy was the only one in their dorm who got a perfect score in math on the college entrance exam.

Not only that, he also had the honor of winning first prize in the provincial round of the National Math Competition!

You know, that’s the National Math Competition!

Such an awesome contest, in his eyes, only geniuses would even dare to participate. As for himself, even after eating two pieces of “Wangzai Awesome Candy,” he wouldn’t dare to dream of it.

Sure enough, after he tried moving all the biggest numbers to the edge, the situation turned around, and his score started shooting up.

Getting caught up in the game, George Foster couldn’t help but shout excitedly.

“Damn… you’re amazing, bro!”

Jack Thompson was also thrilled, his hands trembling.

“It actually works!”

“Heh, easy.”

Henry Baker smiled faintly, his face calm and composed, and continued reading his advanced math book.

When the last two 1024s on the screen merged to form 2048, the game’s victory popup appeared in front of the three of them.

William Carter, standing nearby, widened his eyes.

What the hell?

They beat the game!

However, before they could get excited, the three of them standing around the computer froze.

What appeared before them was a leaderboard.

The player at the top of the leaderboard had already scored 131072.

And below that, several five-digit scores were still being updated.

This time, even Henry Baker, who had been quietly observing, couldn’t help but put down his advanced math book, glanced at the leaderboard on the screen, and muttered something under his breath.

The ever-excitable George Foster was the first to shout out.

“Holy crap… that score is insane!”

Taking his right hand off the keyboard, Jack Thompson said with a wry smile, “So 2048 is just the beginning… I thought we’d finished the game.”

The three of them fell silent for a moment.

The first to break the silence was George Foster, standing at the back.

“Keep going?”

Pulling himself together, Jack Thompson rolled up his right sleeve.

“Keep going! Let’s do it, let’s see if we can make it onto the leaderboard!”

“Haha, let’s change the ID to ‘Jiangda Software Engineering 1801’s Most Handsome’!”

“Pfft! You’re shameless!”

Listening to his two roommates banter, William Carter didn’t say anything, just swallowed hard, his eyes full of excitement.

As an amateur Bilibili gaming channel uploader, his instincts were screaming in his ear.

This little game, not even 2MB in size—

Is going viral at a speed you can see with the naked eye…

Chapter 010: Reverse Jinxing, the Most Lethal!

Although the video game industry in Xia Country started not long ago, it has developed quite impressively thanks to being treated as a major tool for cultural export and receiving policy support.

As the largest single-player game download platform in the country, the Dianqu platform has a complete recommendation and game listing/delisting system, ensuring a constant influx of fresh blood into this blue ocean market.

Take indie games, for example.

Any game submitted by an independent developer, with a total production cost under one million, will be assigned to the indie game section after passing the system review.

Games in this section have the chance to enjoy a series of support policies prepared by Dianqu for indie developers.

For example, information stream recommendations on the platform’s main page.

This is almost the most high-exposure spot on the entire platform—if you sell a hundred copies within 24 hours of launch, you can get on it.

Usually, the games that make it to this spot are high-quality masterpieces. Especially in this world where graphics are king—even if you don’t have gorgeous CG animations, you at least need a few eye-catching game screenshots.

However, 2048 is undoubtedly an outlier.

With no graphics to speak of, it stands out in this stream of beautiful CGs and screenshots like a pure white lotus rising unstained from the mud.