Age of Legends

Chapter 259 Nuoyi's First Time

After the start of the new semester following New Year's Day, Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei went to an internet cafe before evening self-study. This was mainly because Jing Qinming and his team were submitting their project proposal and preliminary content website after New Year's Day. Since it wasn't necessary for them to make the trip themselves, they agreed that Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei could pick them up at the internet cafe after school. Zhang Chen had no choice but to tell Shen Nuoyi that he wouldn't come back early to do his homework that day. There were quite a few internet cafes near Yude, but their favorite was a small courtyard internet cafe located in an old courtyard on a tree-lined street, partitioned off from the ground floor of a residential building.

After school, there was only an hour and a half between evening self-study and the end of the afternoon session. Time was tight and the workload was heavy, so they couldn't go to Zhao Tao's internet cafe. This small courtyard internet cafe was their favorite among the nearby illegal internet cafes. There was a big banyan tree in the courtyard, and the environment was quite nice. The computers by the window faced the courtyard outside, and the air was fresh. Everyone knows that the most annoying thing about illegal internet cafes is the smoky, foul air.

Zhang Chen and Wang Shuowei turned on the computer, contacted Jing Qinming on QQ, and then opened their email to look at the business plan. While Zhang Chen was reading the plan, Wang Shuowei clicked on a link in their messages, which led to a website.

Upon entering the website, a large icon displayed the four characters "万象江湖" (Wanxiang Jianghu) in artistic font. Although it was still quite rudimentary, it exuded a unique game-like feel. Wang Shuowei immediately exclaimed, "Wow!"

This is mainly the studio's main interface. Following Zhang Chen's suggestion, the main interface uses title pages, with titles arranged side-by-side. Clicking on different titles refreshes the corresponding section content. The first title is "Game News," and they've added some hyperlinks, making it look like a legitimate game news website. Next to it is the title "Self-Developed Games," and currently, this section only contains one game: "Wanxiang Three Kingdoms." The adjacent subpage is the game forum, primarily for player discussions.

Wang Shuowei quickly reminded Zhang Chen: "Hurry up and register. All three of them registered on the forum in advance."

Zhang Chen was reading the business plan written by Jing Qinming.

"Week 1-2: Develop the command system framework. Weeks 3-4: Develop the map engine. Weeks 5-6: Develop the asynchronous combat system. Weeks 7-8: Data storage..." This is the development schedule, which technical director Jing Qinming can figure out himself. Zhang Chen mainly focuses on the progress of the art content.

A crucial aspect of this type of web-based strategy game is its art design. If it could reach the level of Koei Tecmo's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, that would be ideal—almost the pinnacle. The style can be adjusted to closely match the game's aesthetics, and the art direction is very important, so Zhang Chen personally oversaw the creation of the art department.

“I contacted my classmates from the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. They are all master’s students majoring in traditional Chinese painting and meticulous brushwork. One of them, Yang Jing, was quite famous in school. She loved drawing comics when she was very young, and the whole class would ask her for her drawings. To be honest, I was also amazed by her drawings back then. She drew a Sailor Moon character for me, and it was so lifelike. I slept with the drawing every night… Actually, my first love was probably given to that drawing!” Jing Qinming reminisced.

Zhang Chen: "Nobody wants to know that your first love gave you a painting! You don't need to tell me about that kind of past. Does she want to come over?"

Jing Qinming: "Of course she wants to. She's wanted to draw comics for a long time, but unfortunately, the environment in China is unavoidable. If she wants to seriously draw and publish comics, she has to go to Japan. She applied for a major in traditional Chinese painting and draws a lot of comics all the time. Her house is piled high with them, but traditional Chinese painting doesn't make money. A painting sells for 500 yuan, and it's been hanging there since last year. People ask about it, but no one buys it. It's very difficult to become a professional in traditional Chinese painting. Now that I've told her about it, she's very excited. She can draw illustrations for games, which is basically the same as comics. And she can make money from it. She even brought over a senior from her comic club. Both of them are quite good! Let me show you their paintings."

Soon Zhang Chen received a JPG document. Inside were many paintings laid out on the ground, taken with a digital camera, one by one, showing that the other party wanted to put all the works on display at once.

But Zhang Chen understood at a glance.

Zhang Chen: "Okay. Your drawing skills are excellent, and your style is also good. You should be able to understand my ideas." Many of those paintings are in the style of Japanese anime, and there are also many gorgeous styles, beautiful characters, exquisite costumes, and extremely dense and complex backgrounds. As expected of someone with formal training, you have a good grasp of light and shadow and depth of field. What's most remarkable is that you've loved comics since you were a child and have a great sense of comics.

In the art department, simply having good drawing skills isn't enough, because good drawing isn't as important as capturing the atmosphere. For war strategy games like this, the atmosphere surrounding the characters is particularly crucial. Each character, even with just one image, seems to embody their personality and entire life. This is what's known as emotional atmosphere. Koei Tecmo excels in this aspect of character design. Combined with melodious music, the reason players are so engrossed is because they are truly immersed in that era, in an epic world.

Zhang Chen believes that the most important thing about a game is to immerse the player in its world. Getting people into that world is the definition of a successful game.

Even for web-based games, Zhang Chen decided to uphold the concept of "Wanxiang Jianghu" (a world of martial arts and chivalry).

The world of martial arts is a vast and ever-changing realm. Every game is a world you're willing to enter, to fight and conquer, to worry about and even shed tears for.

Jing Qinming: "That's good. I'll inform them that they've been accepted. They'll start work tomorrow and begin working on map materials and character design. I'll oversee the process for you."

Zhang Chen: "Okay, no problem."

After briefly meeting Jing Qinming, Zhang Chen was dragged by Wang Shuowei to register on the forum. Laughter from some boys and girls echoed through the internet cafe.

This is what makes this little internet cafe so annoying. Because of its pleasant and secluded environment, it has become a popular spot for couples from nearby schools to go online and play games after school, avoiding the watchful eyes of their teachers.

Sitting here, I see many guys with girls around me.

Unfortunately, some of the guys' girlfriends were really good-looking, which made the single guys and lecherous old men present quite uncomfortable. They would see the guys flirting and teasing each other, which made them feel hot and bothered. They even wondered if the guys had brought girls to interfere with their shooting, making them unable to shoot properly and always getting headshot by the guys' sniper rifles.

Ironically, whenever her boyfriend won, the girls would clap and cheer, their voices ringing out like silver bells throughout the small internet cafe, making people feel both refreshed and irresistibly eager.

Zhang Chen saw Wang Shuowei staring at a goddess-like girl from No. 12 Middle School. His mouth went dry as he turned around. He had heard rumors about the girl in the internet cafe before. She was from No. 12 Middle School and her name was Liu Xiaoyu. She was sweet and cute, and most importantly, she was always by her boyfriend's side, providing him with plenty of emotional support.

Only seasoned internet cafe perverts truly understand what a top-tier girl is. They don't envy fair skin, beautiful faces, or long legs; they don't envy glamorous, slutty vixens. What they envy most is a girl who can play games with her boyfriend, joke around with him, cheer for his good performance, and comfort him when he loses. That's what a top-tier girl is.

Liu Xiaoyu is the best of the best in this little courtyard internet cafe.

After being drawn back by the other person's silvery laughter, Wang Shuowei turned around and saw Zhang Chen just turning his gaze away from him. Wang Shuowei said, "What are you looking at? You're a lucky dog."

As he said this, he thought of his best friend's relationship with Shen Nuoyi and added, "But you're not bad either! Although Old Shen wouldn't come to a place like an internet cafe, at least you can go back and get tutoring from her!" Wang Shuowei felt he knew Shen Nuoyi too well. From childhood to adulthood, Shen Nuoyi had always been the obedient daughter in the eyes of parents. She tried everything, but never crossed the line. For example, when everyone in the Third Division and Fourth Courtyard used to climb trees together, she would climb too, but she knew her limits and would never be reckless enough to climb over someone's tree or steal someone else's fruit. So, parents often felt at ease when they heard that Shen Nuoyi was going out with them. The reason they felt at ease was that with Shen Nuoyi around, even a group of boys wouldn't do anything too extreme; they would all restrain themselves in front of her and wouldn't be too flamboyant or unrestrained.

And girls, needless to say, while it's impossible for everyone to like her, most girls will enjoy being with her.

Just as Wang Shuowei and Zhang Chen were talking, a female voice came from the other side of the courtyard wall. Then two girls walked into the courtyard. The passageway in the courtyard was directly opposite the windows of the internet cafe, so the entrance to the courtyard and the passageway could be seen directly from inside the internet cafe.

The boys' eyes widened in surprise. Liu Xiaoyu seemed to have lost her appeal for a moment. Of the two girls who entered, one had short hair and looked sunny and cheerful, while the other had long hair, wore a white jacket and casual trousers, and had a perfectly proportioned figure. They walked in side by side.

This is absolutely the best of the best, the kind of girl you would never see in an internet cafe. To put it simply, girls with this kind of figure and looks are generally not found in internet cafes. Internet cafes are places that are smoky, chaotic, and frequented by perverts; I've never seen a girl like this there.

Which celestial being has descended to earth this time?
When the two girls reached the window, Wang Shuowei, who was peeking out from behind the computer screen facing the window, looked at Zheng Xue with a surprised expression. "No wonder you asked me where I was surfing the internet today... Are you and Shen Nuoyi coming over?"

Zheng Xue replied, "No, I just had dinner with Shen Nuoyi and we were both free, so we came over to check it out."

Wang Shuowei turned his head to look at Zhang Chen beside him. If nothing unexpected happened, he had never seen Shen Nuoyi come to an internet cafe during his high school years. Was this…her first time?
There happened to be a seat right next to them. This small internet cafe caters to students, and because of its good computers and pleasant environment, it costs about 50 cents more per hour than other internet cafes. Don't underestimate that 50-cent difference; it basically determines why many people would rather squeeze into a smoky, unlicensed internet cafe than spend a little more money to improve their online experience.

So the number of people coming here to use the internet isn't actually that high. Plus, it's mostly students after school who quickly play some games or chat on QQ before leaving. There are quite a few people taking turns, so the turnover rate is relatively high.

Shen Nuoyi sat down at the empty machine next to Zhang Chen. She had just opened a card with Zheng Xue and then turned on the machine.

Zhang Chen blew away the cigarette ash left by the previous person on her keyboard, then widened the window opening a little to let in fresh air. He turned his head and asked, "Hey, what made you decide to come over?"

"I just... came here to surf the internet and also to see you guys."

Wang Shuowei, standing to the side, thought to himself, "Old Shen just won't add that 'us.' I can accept that. Just kidding, I've lived through wind and rain for eighteen years, what haven't I endured? Even if you stab me with that knife, I'll survive."

Zhang Chen knew that Shen Nuoyi wasn't that bored. After eating, she would at most walk around the playground or go back to the classroom to do practice problems. She wouldn't be going to an internet cafe to surf the internet.

However, this was definitely not her first time at an internet cafe; she knew how to register and use the computers. But coming to an internet cafe during school hours was a first for her.

Then she saw the content on Zhang Chen's screen. She was stunned for a moment and said, "Huh? The Myriad Worlds are out?"

"It's just a forum. It was recently created, and we're registering today to take a look at this initial version."

“Then I’ll register one too.” Shen Nuoyi showed great interest.

"Of course, after all, this is the name you came up with, so you're considered one of the founders."

"Then you teach me."

"Okay, I'll send you the website address via QQ..." So Zhang Chen then directed Shen Nuoyi to register for the forum step by step.

Throughout the entire process, Zheng Xue kept smiling like an aunt. When Shen Nuoyi suddenly suggested going to the internet cafe to check on them after dinner, Zheng Xue knew she was now involved.

They say a day apart feels like three autumns. How long has it been since these two last met? I never expected Ms. Shen to have this side to her.

Of course, Zheng Xue knew very well that Shen Nuoyi wouldn't express it directly; instead, he would only use this method. If he missed someone, he would approach them.

Zhang Chen taught Shen Nuo how to register, and the two of them came up with a name and logged onto the forum. To their surprise, Jing Qinming and the other two were astonished to find that there was already a female member! The three of them immediately started posting enthusiastically in the discussion area, asking about the other person's background.

Zhang Chen and Shen Nuoyi joked around with them, making the three even more puzzled. They even discussed it in the group chat in private. The conversation eventually drifted to whether the three of them had a crush on a female classmate or colleague in real life. The three Sherlock Holmes racked their brains, making various deductions and solving the case, while Zhang Chen and Shen Nuoyi hid in the back with a mischievous sense of fun.

Looking at the naturally beautiful woman beside that boy, listening carefully to him speak, laughing, and coming up with a mischievous idea with him, her eyes sparkled with a natural charm, yet without a trace of vulgarity. It was the unique allure of her phoenix eyes, a blend of nobility and intelligence.

Everyone in the internet cafe was stunned. They felt that the large banyan tree in the courtyard outside the window in front of the two people seemed to have the brightness of summer in the bleak winter.

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　　Thank you to the bold coconuts and the sledgehammer springs on Xueyuan Road for the generous donations!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)