You said you were going to make games, how did you become the richest man without doing anything?

In the second week after StarGate was launched, a "phenomenal" live streaming storm quietly swept the entire Internet.

It was an ordinary evening when the livestreaming platform's homepage was suddenly dominated by a short video titled "[He's Not the Only Brave One] A High-Fuel Record of Wang Laoju's World-Breaking Slash." The video, only five minutes long, was being shared at an astonishing rate on platforms like Bilibili, TikTok, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, and Zhihu.

The first second of the video shows Wang Laoju fighting against his "dark self" in the Star Trial.

In the picture, the brave man is wearing a star-lit battle robe and facing the "dark self" that follows him like a shadow. The sword light and starlight collide in the void, and every frame of the camera is full of tension.

The climax comes when the brave man unleashes the "Severing World" in the judgment of fate. The starlight sweeps across the Void Blade like a wave, the background music suddenly explodes, and the lights are perfectly synchronized with the rhythm of the battle.

Wang Laoju's slightly trembling whisper became the soul anchor of the entire video:

“I don’t fight to win, I fight to keep going.”

As soon as this line came out, the barrage instantly flooded the screen:

[I got goosebumps! ]

【This is not a game at all, this is a myth! 】

[This Ju-ge...acted out the struggle of my life!]

[I can watch that sword move of the World-Splitting Slash ten times!]

The comment section below the video also collapsed:

“It’s the first time I’ve cried watching a streamer play a game.”

"I didn't even feel like I was watching a live broadcast, I was watching him fight for me."

"This sword is my sword."

And this is just the beginning of the frenzy.

Three days later, an editor named "Scissorhands Thirteen" on Douyin released a new version of the "Britain Slash" highlight clip, titled "Dawn of Destiny".

He combined Lao Ju's live broadcast with the epic soundtrack "Lacrimosa," depicting the hero falling, rising again, and finally severing his fate with a single sword. The camera's progression perfectly matched the climax of the music.

At the end of the video, a sentence appeared on the black screen:

"We've all faced our dark selves, but he didn't have a sword."

This short video has been played over 8 million times on Douyin, received 500,000 likes, and has been forwarded 100,000 times.

The topic #Destiny is not the only one# ranked fifth on Weibo's hot search list, and #How exciting is the world-shattering slash# ranked first on Bilibili's hot search list.

At the same time, related secondary creations also emerged like a tide.

The WeChat public account "Star Whisperer" published a long article "The Narrative Logic Behind the Rift Slash", analyzing this battle from the three perspectives of mythology, narrative structure, and game art.

The article states:

"What a brave man defeats is never his enemy, but rather his refusal to become that 'possibility' of himself. This kind of self-denial and transcendence is the core inheritance from Homer's epics to Dark Souls."

"The reason Wang Laoju made this fight so popular wasn't just because he performed it well, but because he 'believed' that the fight was real. His emotions weren't acting, but participation."

The article went viral on WeChat Moments, and was even forwarded by a professor of literature at Nanjing University, who left a comment:

"We are witnessing a golden age for video games as a narrative art form."

On Zhihu, the topic #Why does the Rift Slash in "Stargate" resonate so well# has generated over 20,000 answers.

One of the top answers came from user "月下无名":
"Because each of us has faced our 'dark self'."

"We all sit in front of our computers late one night, thinking about giving up and escaping."

"But we still gritted our teeth and opened the documents, PPT, code, and canvas. We continued."

“Maybe we can’t slash out dazzling starlight, but we are also splitting our destiny in our own way.”

This passage was screenshoted and forwarded on countless social media platforms, becoming the most popular "resonating quote" in those days.

In the secondary creation fan circle, a huge "Severing Universe" is quietly being established.

Artist @风起星海 drew a set of illustrations called "Shadows of Fate":

One was the moment when the hero confronted the dark self, with a collapsing planet in the background; one was the banner of the Rift Sword cutting through the starry sky, with shadows of other worlds emerging from the sword marks; the last one was Wang Laoju himself sitting in the live broadcast chair, with countless players turning into starlight and gathering behind him.

This set of illustrations went viral on LOFTER and Pixiv, and was even made into "Boundary Slash commemorative T-shirts" by players themselves, which sold out in three hours of pre-sale on Taobao.

At the same time, the game strategy circle also started a "Rift Slash analysis craze."

The UP host "Skill Cooldown" released a 45-minute mechanism disassembly video titled "Full Disassembly of the Rift Slash Mechanism: Why Are You the Only One Who Can't Perform It?"

In the video, he used slow motion, hitbox comparison, and astral resonance value analysis to analyze the conditions and techniques for releasing "Boundary Rift Slash" frame by frame.

"It's not that you can't operate it, it's that you don't have 'resonance'."

"You haven't entered the astral rhythm. Your rhythm is wrong."

This sentence has become a "magic golden sentence" in the strategy circle and has been everywhere in the forum.

[My resonance points are not high enough today, so my boss got me beaten up at work]

My girlfriend said yesterday that I couldn't even break the world in front of her, so we broke up.

During my interview today, I kept repeating to myself: A brave man isn’t about winning, but about moving forward… and I became one.

Even a love blogger made a joke on Weibo:

"If he doesn't even dare to use the Realm Breaking Slash once when facing you, then how can he be worthy of you if he can't even defy fate?"

One hundred thousand likes.

The real climax was when Wang Laoju himself posted a selfie on Weibo.

He was wearing the custom-made Ripstar T-shirt with a gray star-shaped flag on the back. He had no captions, just one sentence:
"I'm not a hero, but I'm also a star walker."

That night, the Weibo server was temporarily down.

That night, StarGate truly completed the transition from "game" to "culture".

That night, countless players silently thought in their hearts:
“I’m not here to win, I’m here to keep going.”

"I'm not the only possibility."

"I am the repairer of fate."

"I am a star walker."

They are not playing a game, but writing a universe together.

That night, the entire Chinese Internet seemed to be swept by an invisible starlight.

The comments section under Wang Laoju's concise Weibo post exceeded 100,000 in just a few hours:

You are the hero in our hearts. We are not the protagonists, but we are all struggling to continue in the cracks of fate.

[I remember the moment you used the Realm Breaker to save the Ether Remnant, and I wanted to save myself too.]

[Brother Ju, thank you for showing us another world and ourselves.]

Players spontaneously organized a relay event with the theme of "#I am a Star Walker#", and released their own "Star Declaration" on platforms such as Weibo, Bilibili, Douban, and Zhihu.

Someone took a selfie while waiting for the train at the subway station. The background was an empty platform late at night, and the text read:

"I'm rushing to the overtime site in the early morning, like a brave warrior crossing the astral rift. I'm not the protagonist, but I'm willing to move forward."

Someone secretly took a photo of the father who was receiving an IV drip in the hospital corridor, with the caption:
"I know fate is sometimes unfair, but I will still choose to stand up, just like the sword of the World Breaker."

Someone else simply shared a doodle from a notebook, a picture of a brave man and the line that has become a national consensus:

“I don’t fight to win, I fight to keep going.”

In just two days, the reading volume of the topic #我是星界行者# exceeded 6 million, becoming a phenomenal event of the year.

Bilibili also responded quickly and opened a special page [Star Walker Creation Festival] to encourage players to submit original content.

In just 72 hours, we received over submissions:

Someone created a pixel-style animation of the moment "Severance" is released, with the background music being the game's score, played on guitar. Someone used Unreal Engine to recreate the scene of the "Beginning of Destiny" hall, even adding an original plot branch. Someone covered the game's hidden background music, "Star Oath," performing different world versions in four languages. Someone even hand-painted the cover of the "Star Walker" book, featuring nine falling lightsabers surrounding a broken key, with the inscription: "We are all glimmers of light in oblivion."

One of the short films, "Rift and Shattered Dreams", stood out. It was jointly produced by five players and tells the story of an ordinary person who falls into a dream due to the collapse of reality, and fights against his "failed version of the future" in the astral world. In the end, he cuts off the past with a sword, returns to reality and chooses to stand up again.

This short video has been played over 3 million times on Bilibili, and the comments are full of tears:

I am also the failed me.

Thank you for letting me see that I still have a choice.

【Everyone is working hard to survive, really, thank you. 】

The UP host "Jiu Meng Xingchen" wrote in the postscript of the work:
"I used to suffer from depression, but it was Stargate and your works that brought me back to normal. Now I also want to use my creations to help others."

The official website of Bilibili added the badge of "Star Walker Special Honorary Creator" for him on its homepage.

At the same time, countless game anchors have also begun to create new content around this cultural wave.

Huya's "Under the Night Sky" launched a series called "Ten Questions on the Rift," each episode focusing on a philosophical question:
The first issue is "If you had the key to the astral world, would you be willing to give up everything?" The second issue is "What would your dark self say to you?" The third issue is "After your memory is erased, will you still be yourself?"

These seemingly grand questions, however, seem relatable and realistic due to the game's background, and the comments were enthusiastic:

[This isn't a game show anymore, it's a philosophy class!]

[I went from a Souls gamer to a philosophy enthusiast]

[Severing World Slash is not a move, but a projection of thinking]

On Weibo, "rift literature" has quickly become a unique way of expression.

After watching Wang Laoju's live broadcast, a copywriter wrote a short article:
"We've all faced the reality of Carlos: it's unemployment, it's cancer, it's our parents' arguments, it's our children's silence, it's an empty wallet at four in the morning."

"Yet we still click 'Continue Game' over and over again, and we still choose to release that sword."

"Not for victory, but for survival."

This passage was forwarded crazily on WeChat Moments and was even used in advertising copy for a certain brand.

The ad shows a tired delivery man panting in the corridor, with a deep blue sky and building silhouettes in the background. He looks down at the order on his phone and says softly:

"Okay, I'll continue."

Four words appeared on the screen:
"Severing World Slash, real-life version."

The ad ends with a simple tribute:

"To every astral walker in reality."

Even the education community has begun to pay attention to the cultural phenomenon sparked by this game.

A professor at the School of Journalism at Fudan University wrote in his official account:

"Astral Gate's Sundering isn't just a skill in the game; it's a projection of the collective unconscious, a philosophical inquiry into 'choice' and 'fate'."

"It broke through the circle not because it's fun, but because it's 'real'. And this kind of truth is the most scarce power in our time."

"We've seen how a game can awaken people's reflection on fate, and how live streaming can become a narrative site for modern myths."

“We’ve also seen that players are no longer just audiences, but co-creators and co-writers of the world.”

Wang Laoju attended an official "Star Creator Meeting" as a guest.

He stood in the center of the stage, with the familiar star map behind him.

He smiled and said:
"I've been live streaming for ten years, and I never thought that a Breaching Slash would make me feel like I wasn't playing a game, but writing poetry."

"I never thought that I could become the 'Repairer of the World' together with so many people."

He paused, then held up a custom-made Astral Key and said:

"I'm not a brave man, but I'm willing to keep moving forward."

The audience applauded like thunder.

At that moment, countless people's hearts echoed the whisper that had become as familiar as faith:

"I am a star walker."

The stars converge, their light radiating endlessly. After the Breach, the world remains incomplete, but someone is still repairing it.

As StarGate enters its third week, player enthusiasm continues to grow. The entire online community has entered a new phase: the "Golden Age of Strategy Gaming."

Unlike other games that typically experience a cold start, StarGate immediately captivated a large audience of core players and content creators with its epic storyline and deep systems. Following the "Sundering" incident, the release of strategy guides saw a surge. New posts, videos, and long articles appeared on major gaming forums, video platforms, and social media platforms almost every ten minutes. The content was so detailed and tightly paced that it could be described as a "galactic infusion of player wisdom."

—

On the homepage of the Stargate section of TapTap, a long post appeared that was featured and pinned to the top:
[Ultimate Integration] A Complete Explanation of the Astral Realm Mechanics + A Complete Guide to Hidden World Trigger Conditions (Continuously Updated) | Updated to the Dreamless Land

Author ID: Xuanshuang Mengyu

This ID has long been famous in the Souls fan circle. It has participated in the internal testing of the mechanism of "Echoes of the Ancient Soul" and is known as the "No. 1 data party in the entire server."

This post starts with a straight to the point -

"I spent 112 hours recording the mechanics of every battle, every plot branch, every NPC's favorability changes, and the frequency of fluctuations in every astral rift."

"I believe that destiny can be understood." (End of this chapter)