Chen Jiajun had perfectly replicated the vicious, ruthless malice of the fraud syndicates from his previous life into the game, one-to-one—if anything, he had taken it even further.
The security standards of the telecom-scam compound were implemented at the highest level.
In addition, he had also established a cooperative relationship between the telecom-scam compound and the local warlords.
Soldiers and bandits, all in one.
Under such an impregnable model,
forget getting guns;
even if the players really did get their hands on firearms, they still wouldn’t be able to escape.
Of course, nothing was absolute.
If brute force could not work, they could still rely on strategy.
If the players who entered the compound in the same batch could reach a consensus, work together, and draw up a reasonable “prison break” plan, perhaps they could stage a telecom-scam-compound version of The Shawshank Redemption.
After all, the players possessed a unique cheat—unlimited restarts.
They could fail countless times.
As for how many times they would have to die before escaping the compound, that was anyone’s guess.
There would definitely be people who felt that if the game’s difficulty was set this perversely high, what if all the players got abused into quitting?
Chen Jiajun had done quite a bit of research into the psychological mechanisms behind game design.
The difficulty of Blood-Red Golden Triangle: Survivors was indeed very high. After dying, players would definitely curse and complain.
How could he make players unable to stop, rather than drive them away with frustration?
In truth, it was about digging into deeper needs and creating a game experience that was “abusive but addictive.”
Each time the player failed, the game had to continuously provide just the right amount of positive feedback and anticipation.
For example, after dying, when the player faced the same crisis again, they would already have a response plan in mind.
The supplies and items that players had gone to great pains to hide would not be wiped clean just because their character died.
This meant that
every failure was not the end, and their efforts had not been in vain; all of it was accumulating experience for the final escape from the compound.
Chen Jiajun was debugging the game mechanics when his phone suddenly rang.
He picked it up and saw that it was Shen Yingying calling. He was not particularly surprised; this call had actually come a little later than expected.
Chen Jiajun took a sip of water before answering the phone.
“Hello, I received the helmet.”
Before Chen Jiajun could speak, Shen Yingying began asking him what exactly a fully immersive game meant, and what on earth the virtual helmet was about.
To be honest, Chen Jiajun did not know how to answer these questions either.
It was not as if he could tell her about the system, right?
In the end, Chen Jiajun could only brush it off by saying it involved commercial secrets.
The more he explained, the more flaws there would be.
If she really wanted to know, she could go guess for herself.
Wasn’t the brain meant for filling in the blanks?
He could hear Shen Yingying exhaling on the other end of the phone, clearly trying to calm herself down.
Since she could not get anything out of him about the helmet, she might as well learn about the game.
“We’ll be able to enter the game soon. Are there any game instructions or guides?”
“Uh… not for now.”
Chen Jiajun had not thought that far, but Shen Yingying’s words did remind him.
When the game officially launched, he had to develop a forum function so players could post and communicate more conveniently.
“You don’t know anything no matter what I ask. Are you serious?”
Shen Yingying snorted.
At the very least, she was also a shareholder in the studio. The game also had her share in it.
Was this attitude of yours appropriate?
“Boss, time is short and the task is heavy. Xiao Huang had something come up at home, so I’m the only one working. How would I have time to write guides?”
“Why don’t you invest a bit more money?”
“Thirty million isn’t too much, ten million isn’t too little.”
In truth, Chen Jiajun himself knew that the game had been made a little hastily.
But the conditions were limited. Being able to make it this far was already extremely difficult.
“Dream on!”
At the mention of money, Shen Yingying coughed lightly twice and immediately changed the subject.
“Briefly tell me about this game you made. What were you thinking? How did you conceive and design it? That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Chen Jiajun pondered briefly, then said slowly,
“Then we have to mention the first game we developed, Mao Pian.”
“This game requires players to play as a group of swindlers. They roam the city, search for prey, formulate plans, set up meticulous schemes, lure the enemy deeper, and finally draw the greedy, lustful, and heartless rich into their net.”
“Several outstanding plot-based games of this kind have already emerged this year.”
“Mao Pian certainly isn’t bad among them. Otherwise, Penguin wouldn’t have copied it wholesale.”
“It wouldn’t be hard for this game to place in the competition, but if we want to take the championship, the hope is slim.”
“The reason is that the setting is simple and too easy to grow aesthetically tiring.”
“After playing for a while, players might get sick of it before even clearing the game.”
“After that, I carefully studied the purpose of the anti-fraud competition.”
“I believe the best way to prevent fraud is to let players personally experience the cruelty of scams.”
“So I started from this direction and developed an online multiplayer survival-escape game.”
“The game has a vast worldview and a complete narrative. The players’ actions can influence the fate of every character and the development of every plotline.”
“And thus, Blood-Red Golden Triangle: Survivors was born.”
After Chen Jiajun finished speaking solemnly, there was first silence on the other end of the phone, followed by an undisguised burst of laughter.
“No, bro!”
“Do you know how many companies made survival-escape games last year?”
“Over a hundred! In the end, the only one that broke out was Penguin!”
“What exactly is going on in that head of yours? This is a red ocean market, and you’re still diving into it?”
“Hoo… let’s set the market aside for now. Let me ask you, what is the theme of this competition?”
Chen Jiajun was a little stunned by the question. “Anti-fraud and fraud prevention.”
“Heh, so you do know it’s anti-fraud and fraud prevention?”
Shen Yingying’s voice abruptly rose.
“Then have you ever thought about why the protagonists of anti-fraud games on the market are all scammers?”
Without waiting for Chen Jiajun to speak, she answered her own question.
“Because scammers are easier to build a plot around.”
“And also because their ending is destined to be arrest. Doesn’t that promote positive values?”
“What about you? You say it’s survival and escape, but according to your description, won’t players be accomplices to fraudsters in the early stages?”
“Openly promoting fraud in an anti-fraud competition?”
“You’re dancing on a tightrope!”
“If you want to die, don’t drag me down with you!”
Shen Yingying unleashed a frantic barrage into the phone.
She simply could not understand it. How did this guy dare?
Could it be that because Mao Pian had been plagiarized, he had simply smashed the pot and given up, deciding to rot completely?
Doing this could indeed attract attention, and even bring in a lot of traffic.
It might even explode in popularity.
But all the traffic it attracted would be negative!
If things went badly, they could be boycotted and banned by the entire industry, and even be sent inside to work a sewing machine.
How did he dare!?
“Huh?”
Chen Jiajun found this somewhat baffling.
He was just properly making a game. How was that courting death?
Thinking that he might not have explained clearly enough, he said,
“First of all, I need to state that this is not promoting fraud. It’s merely allowing players to ‘experience’ the cruelty of fraud and understand scams, thereby increasing their vigilance.”
“In addition, this game is set in a fictional world with an original worldview, so it has not violated the Jiuzhou Game Law.”
Hearing this, Shen Yingying’s brows furrowed unconsciously.
Wasn’t this just exploiting a loophole in Jiuzhou’s laws?
However, according to Chen Jiajun’s sophistry, it did indeed achieve the purpose of anti-fraud and fraud prevention.
“Fine, fine.”
“The closed beta is about to begin. There’s no point saying more. Go into the game and experience it yourself.”
“If you still think it won’t work by then, I’ll make adjustments.”
Chen Jiajun was too lazy to keep arguing with Shen Yingying. He still had plenty of work to deal with.
If she wanted to know whether this game advocated anti-fraud, she would understand everything after going in and experiencing it once.