radicalducati Chapter 17 What a poorly made game!
Chapter 17 What a poorly made game!
In the dormitory of the First Military Academy of Imperial Star.
Tian Baiwei texted her best friend: "Xuanxuan, I'm practically growing moss in my dorm room!"
She slumped onto the table with a sigh, complaining to her friend on the other end of the phone while idly browsing the web on her personal computer.
"The teachers are just looking out for your health..." The woman's voice on the other end of the phone comforted her softly, "Your mental strength has been hovering near the danger line. If it's not dealt with in time, what if you faint from a headache like last time..."
Tian Baiwei responded sullenly.
She knew that the school and teachers wanted her to stay in the dormitory until her mental strength level dropped to a safe level for her own good, but as a student in the mecha combat department, she felt uneasy if she didn't participate in training for a day.
But this time, for some reason, her mental strength was decreasing very slowly, even though she had been spending almost all her time in the holographic game these past few days.
"I'm almost sick of all the games I've played these past few days..." Tian Baiwei sighed. "It's so boring!"
"Isn't there a holographic horror game competition going on recently?" a gentle female voice suggested softly. "Why don't you look for some fun games there?" Besides, horror games... sound like they should consume more mental energy...
"I'm watching it now..." Tian Baiwei muttered to herself, "But the games on it aren't much different from the ones I usually play... at most, it's just a different era where you fight alien beasts—wait, what?"
Tian Baiwei's casually gesturing fingers suddenly stopped: "What...is this thing?"
On the "Holographic Horror Game Competition" webpage, in the "Latest Uploads" section, there is a red and black game icon that is mixed in with a bunch of silver-white mecha battle game icons that are about 80% similar, which is very... out of place.
"What's wrong?" the person on the other end of the phone asked curiously.
"I think I've spotted... a rather strange game." Tian Baiwei curiously tapped the game icon. Once she entered the game's details page and saw the enlarged game logo, Tian Baiwei noticed that the strange game's icon was actually just a single character—a black background with red...
"囍?"
What does this mean? Tian Baiwei curiously clicked on the game's description.
The introduction is very short.
"You are a senior student majoring in folk culture. During the summer vacation, you and your classmates were assigned by your tutor to go to a remote mountain village to conduct research on the topic of 'Changes and Inheritance of Local Wedding Customs'."
"And then...that's it?"
Tian Baiwei flipped through the description section in disbelief, unable to believe that while other games were going on and on about their unique backgrounds and desperately trying to promote how appealing they were, this strange game... only had such a bland and unremarkable description?!
It neither explained the meaning of the character "囍" nor made it clear how the game was played...
Is the creator of this game... really that confident?
Maybe... it's a new work by some gaming master?
Tian Baiwei was filled with respect, then subconsciously glanced at the game producer's name—
"Red clothes".
It seems... I haven't heard of this name before.
She glanced again at the real-time download count of the game displayed to the side.
Two or three hours have passed since the game was released, and the current download count... Tian Baiwei fell silent.
Wow...what a huge zero!
Tian Baiwei even exited the game page and looked at other games that were uploaded around the same time as this game.
Other games ranked before and after this one, even the worst ones, still have a dozen or twenty downloads; only this unique game... doesn't even have a single-digit number.
That's so pitiful... Tian Baiwei shook her head and decided to kindly contribute a download to encourage this unconventional game producer.
Soon, a message indicated that the game had been downloaded successfully.
"It downloaded so quickly?" Tian Baiwei was somewhat surprised. She was used to holographic games being hundreds of gigabytes in size, and had even prepared herself for downloads to take several hours. She was even planning to go out for dinner and uninstall it, but it was already downloaded in the time it took her and Xuanxuan to exchange a few words?
Since the download is already complete, and she's just killing time anyway, why not...
"Xuanxuan." Tian Baiwei picked up her holographic helmet. "I'm going to play some games first, then we'll continue chatting later~"
She hung up the call, put on the holographic gaming helmet, and clicked on the red and black game icon that she had just downloaded, which stood out conspicuously among a bunch of mech battle games.
The world was plunged into darkness.
Tian Baiwei knew that she was entering a game.
When the light returned, she found herself standing in front of a strange, enormous, withered tree.
The surrounding area was shrouded in thick white fog, and even with Tian Baiwei's eyesight, she couldn't see through the fog to make out the scenery. The entire game world was gray, as if only the red strips of cloth hanging on the withered tree branches were the only color.
"This game..."
Tian Baiwei looked around and revealed a disappointed expression that said, "Just as I expected": "It's so poorly made..."
Putting aside the fact that the game developer probably forgot to enable the five senses system, resulting in her not being able to smell anything after entering the game and feeling completely isolated from it, lacking any sense of immersion, even the most basic weather system wasn't properly configured.
Otherwise, how could it be that... even though she doesn't feel any wind blowing, the red ribbons hanging on the branches are swaying gently?
No wonder this game file package is so small... it turns out it was just a hastily submitted, unfinished product.
Tian Baiwei had given up hope on the game.
However, with the thought that "since I'm already here," she patiently waited for a while, but then, she didn't hear the background music that meant the game was about to start.
She tried walking around a bit more. When she realized she couldn't get out of the thick white fog, Tian Baiwei completely lost patience and prepared to quit the game.
She brought up the game interface.
When she brought up the game interface, she discovered that the game's UI (user interface) was shockingly simple.
It has nothing but an "Exit Game" button!
The more Tian Baiwei looked at the game, the more absurd she felt it was, and the more she felt that she was a complete idiot for clicking on it before.
She sighed, her finger hovering over the "Exit Game" button, ready to press it.
Just then—
"Hmm..."
A very soft, very close breath suddenly rang out without warning, close to the back of Tian Baiwei's neck.