Chapter 368 - 264: Things Are Looking Up, Fam (Part 2)

Chapter 368: Chapter 264: Things Are Looking Up, Fam (Part 2)

"That’s wonderful! When do we start mass production? The sooner we start selling, the sooner we start making money."

"No, no, no. We’re not going to mass-produce them. Instead, we’re going to film you designing and building them."

"Huh?" Old Robert clearly hadn’t expected Zog to say that.

Zog’s expression turned serious. "For now, these inventions of yours don’t have much commercial potential. What I do see, however, is your incredible creativity and spirit of entertainment. A lot of people would love to watch you build these things and hear the stories behind them."

Old Robert looked a little uncomfortable. "But... but I don’t design these things for entertainment."

"I know," Zog continued. "A lot of things don’t have to fulfill their original purpose to be valuable. They can shine in other areas. It’s like how many people end up in careers that have nothing to do with what they studied in school."

Seeing Old Robert’s spirits sink a little, Zog reiterated, "Your inventions aren’t worthless—they’re very valuable, just not in a practical sense. Are you making these things for the money, or for the sense of accomplishment?"

Old Robert thought for a moment before answering hesitantly, "For the sense of accomplishment?"

In truth, he wasn’t entirely sure why he did it.

He certainly wasn’t short on money. About three years ago, his once-struggling family had suddenly found themselves well-off.

And over time, he realized the Stone family could now be considered wealthy, even though he wasn’t the one who’d earned the money.

Making these strange contraptions was probably just a way to keep himself busy and add some excitement to his otherwise dull and uninteresting golden years.

"I haven’t really thought about it that much," Old Robert said with complete sincerity.

"That’s perfectly fine. Just keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll provide you with a video production team. They can handle the filming, editing, post-production, and uploading—if you trust the Zog Group, that is."

Zog never shied away from working in a team. On the contrary, he believed creating outstanding work through collaboration was something to be proud of, and that the contributions of every team member deserved to be recognized.

He really couldn’t understand why so many online celebrities who clearly had teams acted as if admitting it would be the end of them.

"I..."

’This isn’t what I’d imagined, but it still achieves my original goal.’ Old Robert thought. ’Filming myself making things is still a way to keep busy.’

Besides, he had no reason not to trust the Zog Group.

’It’s too late not to trust them, anyway. The other three in the family are already on Zog’s ship.’

"Alright, I’ll give it a try."

"A wise choice. I’m sure you’ll find a sense of accomplishment in the world of video very soon. And it won’t be long before the money follows."

With Zog’s push, YouTube finally began its shift from a somewhat serious, professional platform toward one focused on entertainment.

Features like advertising and memberships were added soon after.

The platform still had plenty of flaws. For instance, the recommendation feature was a bit idiotic. Without a mature big-data recommendation system, it could only suggest videos based on tags. As a result, if you watched one type of video, your homepage would be flooded with content sharing the same tags.

Moreover, the live-commentary feature that Zog had been so keen on was ultimately not implemented.

The comments in the Common Tongue were simply too long; even a short message wouldn’t fit across the screen.

However, as a compromise, Zog added a sidebar for non-fullscreen playback, where viewer comments from the corresponding timestamp would scroll by.

The scrolling text could be split into multiple lines, so you could at least read the whole comment at a glance.

But on the whole, YouTube was now in decent shape, so it concluded its beta phase and officially launched.

After registration was opened to the public, it quickly attracted tens of thousands of users.

That might not sound like much, but Zog was very satisfied.

After all, there were only a few tens of thousands of home consoles in circulation. In other words, almost every single person who owned a console had registered on YouTube.

The ownership numbers were so low mainly because even the most basic version of the console cost several dozen Silver Coins. Adding a few accessories pushed the price into the Gold Coins range.

It certainly wasn’t something the average family could afford.

Moreover, because they were complex to manufacture, this was the limit of the Zog Group’s current production capacity.

Zog was confident, however. At the current rate of development, it wouldn’t be long before the console became something a commoner could afford if they scrimped and saved.

Once the Factory over in Deepwater City was built and large numbers of "automated" Inferior Demons were in place, production capacity wouldn’t be an issue.

One day, it would become a must-have in every household.

At present, every R&D and administrative employee at the Zog Group had been issued a work console.

It wasn’t that the assembly line workers were treated poorly; it was just that they had no use for one during their work.

Many of the R&D and administrative employees became so addicted to the consoles that they bought another one for their homes at their own expense.

A great way to claw back their salaries.

And don’t you dare call Zog stingy. He offered his employees the "massive" discount of one percent off.

Other people had to pay a hefty premium to buy one due to the short supply.

Of course, Elsa was not among the employees who bought one.

She hadn’t even installed YouTube on her own work console.

After seeing Robert Stone’s name trending online, she realized her own father was now a top creator on YouTube.

If she opened YouTube, she would inevitably be confronted with her dad’s bizarre videos.

She couldn’t bring herself to watch.

She was afraid of the cringe.

In Elsa’s eyes, what her dad was doing was akin to being a clown, amusing an audience.

And throughout history, the jester in a performing troupe has always held the lowest status.

The object of ridicule is rarely respected.

That’s why she couldn’t face the online comments about her father. She was afraid he was being mocked, even though she had no idea what people were actually saying.

It got to the point where Elsa began to regret introducing her father to Zog and getting him into this line of work.

Her father was busy every day now—not only designing and building, but also filming videos. Sometimes, companies even approached him for sponsorships.

Elsa couldn’t fathom what kind of company would want an inventor who specialized in making "junk" to advertise for them.

Finally, during family dinner one evening.

Elsa put her fork in her mouth and chewed on it for a while, wrestling with her thoughts before finally working up the courage to ask.

"Dad, are you happy with this new job? If you’re not, you don’t have to do it. I can talk to Zog for you. He looks intimidating, but he’s actually very reasonable."

Old Robert, who was shoveling food into his mouth, looked up. His schedule was so packed these days that he had to rush through his meals, just like back in his farming days.

"Elsa, why would you ask that?"

"I... I just feel like, in those videos, it’s like you’re... you’re being..."

Elsa hesitated for a moment before continuing, "A clown. Like everyone’s just watching you for a laugh. I’m worried you’ll get hurt."

Hearing Elsa say this, Old Robert suddenly burst out laughing.

"HAHA, what’s so bad about being a source of entertainment for others? I’m spreading joy to people, and people need joy."

"Really?"

’If I were the butt of the joke,’ Elsa thought, ’I’d never be able to handle it.’

"Of course," her father replied firmly. "Have you seen my videos?"

"No."

"Then come and have a look." He stopped eating and led Elsa to the study.

The family now had two consoles: one that her brother, Yuno, had bought, and one that belonged to her father.

Their mother didn’t have one; she could never get the hang of the thing and found it too complicated.

Old Robert skillfully pulled up his videos on YouTube.

There were two videos in total. Despite the platform having fewer than 100,000 users, each video had amassed nearly 200,000 views.

The bright red "99+" notification on his private messages was an eyesore, but he had to tolerate it. There were simply too many to read.

"Look at all my lovely viewers."

Old Robert said, showing her the comment section.

"Genius!"

"It’s useless. I tried it on my classmate, and now he’s not moving."

"Where can I buy one? I happen to have a Dwarf friend who could use it."

"HAHAHAHA! I haven’t laughed this hard in ages!"

...

The comment section was overwhelmingly positive and cheerful.

Elsa hadn’t expected internet commenters to be so friendly; it was a far cry from what she was used to seeing in games.

"Oh, right, there are some who curse me out, too."

Her father found a troll’s comment. It had already received hundreds of replies, all of them defending him.

"There’s no shame in bringing joy to others," her father said, his tone firm. "On the contrary, I’m very proud."

Just as Zog had said, Old Robert had discovered a sense of accomplishment he had never known in his first fifty years of life.