[Game Failed!]
[Dear player, this survival challenge has been terminated.]
[Save your kindness for those who deserve it. Not everyone is worth you baring your heart and soul.]
[Every act of caution is a responsibility you take for the safety of your own life.]
[Games can be restarted. You only get one life.]
Wang Zixu took off the helmet and looked speechlessly to the heavens.
Who could have thought these kidnappers would be so vicious? They didn’t hesitate at all—they said they’d shoot, and they shot!
Rubbing his brow lightly, he thought: tying up a lackey was useless. What if he went straight for the guy in charge on the boat?
……
……
[Host: Chen Jiajun]
[Age: 23]
[Lifespan: One month and seven days]
[Health: 17 (Prone to sudden collapse, drowsiness!)]
[Inventory: Universal Model Asset Library]
[Reputation: 406]
[Exchange Shop: Locked (Can be unlocked once reputation reaches one million)]
By rights, having been rewarded with an extra week of life should have made Chen Jiajun happy.
But as he looked at the translucent information panel before him, he couldn’t smile at all.
Every mission meant working overtime, exhausting himself half to death.
He was literally racing against the Grim Reaper.
His health had originally been at 18, but because he had overworked himself these past two days, it had actually dropped by 1.
If things kept going at this pace,
his health would hit zero sooner or later.
When that time came, what use would all the lifespan he had left be?
Without health, what was the point of talking about longevity?
Perhaps it was time to change strategies.
Completing system missions was certainly not wrong, but it was too damaging to his body.
If he switched to a health-preserving work mode, efficiency would be too slow, and the lifespan he was rewarded wouldn’t even be enough to offset what he consumed.
Chen Jiajun looked at the reputation value on the panel.
He had a faint premonition that this was the true key to extending his life and restoring his health.
Reputation could be obtained not only by completing system missions,
but also by gaining recognition from the outside world and the business community within the gaming field.
If he wanted to accumulate reputation quickly, he had to make Bloody Golden Triangle: Survivor famous.
How could he make it famous?
Complete the closed beta as soon as possible, find investment, and spend money on promotion!
At this thought,
Chen Jiajun’s mind gradually became clear.
Just as he finished sorting through all this, the system panel appeared again, and the mission list had refreshed.
[An opening CG is a very important part of game development.
Although the TIG Independent Game Development Competition does not make it mandatory, a good opening CG can set the tone for the entire gaming experience, ignite emotion, and build anticipation.]
[Mission: Produce an opening CG for Bloody Golden Triangle: Survivor to warm up publicity for the game.]
[Reward: Five days of lifespan, 500 reputation points, random item.]
Make an opening CG?
In his previous life, he had watched many anti-fraud and scam-prevention films, such as No More Bets… and others.
Although he only remembered them vaguely, he could splice together some of the more exciting scenes.
Chen Jiajun stroked his chin. The key question was: where was the budget supposed to come from?
Even if it was a realistic-themed game and didn’t need all those flashy, light-pollution special effects, the most basic modeling and rendering still had to be done properly, right?
Players these days were all like they had cultivated Fiery Golden Eyes; their gaze was viciously sharp.
Whether a model was rough, whether the textures were detailed—one look and they could strip it down to the roots.
If even the opening CG ended up looking cheap, then it would be better not to make one at all.
Otherwise, if the publicity didn’t work and instead drove away a huge wave of players, the loss would outweigh the gain.
Right.
Chen Jiajun suddenly thought of the mission item he had been rewarded.
With a thought, he opened the inventory interface and saw the item icon of a sculpted model.
[Universal Model Asset Library (24h): After use, you may freely select exquisite models from the system asset library. The models have been sculpted by the system, with perfect details, and come with bound commands for simple operation.
P.S.: Even if you’re a total newbie who doesn’t understand a thing, with the support of the Universal Model Asset Library, you’re a god of the 3D scene!]
With the model library, quite a bit of trouble would indeed be saved.
However, rendering was still a difficult problem.
The CG made with ordinary software would have mediocre effects and no sense of texture.
If he truly wanted to reach film-level refinement, he would have to be willing to spend money.
But there wasn’t a single cent in the company account.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be eating instant noodles every day.
“When the cart reaches the mountain, there’ll be a way through. I’m not thinking about it anymore. Sleep!”
It was not particularly late yet, but Chen Jiajun had already resolved to preserve his health. From now on, he would keep a regular schedule.
He put on the virtual helmet, but did not launch Bloody Golden Triangle: Survivor.
As the developer, although he was full of confidence in this game, that did not mean he liked playing it.
It was just like some authors writing books.
Most authors pondered what the market liked to read and whether what they wrote could become popular.
As for whether they themselves liked it?
That was not quite so important.
To him, northern Myanmar was too cruel.
He did not want to experience it a second time.
He might as well play a satisfying round of match-three to kill time before sleep.
The night passed without incident.
The next day,
in a student dormitory at Jingzhou University.
It was already close to noon. Wang Zixu was wearing a virtual helmet, lying on his bed, and had stubbornly played through the entire night and morning.
He had even skipped his professional course in the morning.
By now, he had died at least more than ten times, yet he was still playing.
“Goddamn it!”
Wang Zixu suddenly moved on the bed, took off the helmet, and slammed it hard onto his pillow.
He was furious!
There was just no getting past this opening plot!
During this period, he had tried all kinds of methods.
For example, at the start, he kidnapped the leader of the kidnappers on the boat, only for the lackeys to overthrow the natural order, ignore their boss’s life and death, and open fire directly.
He had also tried inciting the two NPCs on the same boat to resist together, but they were suppressed the moment they acted.
After that, he tried creating chaos and taking the chance to jump into the sea.
Could you imagine what it felt like to be fished back up with a fishing net?
As soon as he was hauled up, the kidnappers beat him savagely.
Since the other side had already become wary of him, he had no choice but to restart.
Sowing discord, pretending to be sick, playing dead…
He had tried every method he could think of.
And yet he had not survived even once.
“Yo, Old Wang’s awake?”
At noon, his roommates returned to the dorm one after another.
Song Yu carried a plastic bag in his hand, filled with food he had just bought from the cafeteria.
“I put your meal on the table.”
“Old Wang, oh Old Wang, you’ve gotten bold now.”
“You even dared to skip Black-Faced Wu’s class!”
“But you really are lucky, kid. He didn’t take attendance today.”
As Song Yu smacked his lips, he shook his head, his expression clearly saying, What kind of dogshit luck do you have, kid, that you could dodge even this?
The other two roommates had already nimbly climbed onto their beds, set up their little bed tables, opened their laptops, and shouted without even raising their heads:
“Old Wang, hurry up and eat. After you’re done, log in and queue up with us!”
“Nah.”
Wang Zixu lowered his head and shoveled food into his mouth, but his mind was still pondering the game plot—how to break the deadlock of being kidnapped at the start. His answer was absent-minded.
“What’s up with you? So weighed down with worries? Tell us so your brothers can have a laugh!”
Wang Zixu sighed, then explained in detail the tragic experience of dying over ten times in Bloody Golden Triangle: Survivor.
“Wait, Old Wang, why are you so stubborn?”
The roommate beside him couldn’t help laughing.
“What do you mean?”
“If you can’t get past it, and the system hasn’t prompted that the mission failed, then why don’t you just follow the plot?”
Wang Zixu was suddenly stunned.
Holy shit, that made so damn much sense!
He really had been too close to see clearly!
He had fought until his head was muddled!
If he couldn’t brute-force it, then he should first follow the kidnappers off the boat, see how the subsequent plot developed, and then act according to the situation.
“Thanks!”
“When you guys have time, make a reservation for Bloody Golden Triangle too. This game has something to it. You won’t lose out by jumping in!”
“If we reserve now, we’ll still be on the same server. Maybe we’ll run into each other in-game.”
Wang Zixu held his stainless steel lunch bowl, hastily shoveled down a few mouthfuls, then grabbed the plastic bag and tossed the whole thing into the trash can.
In a few quick moves, he climbed back onto his bed and put on the virtual helmet.