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

On the seventh day after the third batch of Collector's Edition pre-orders were opened, the community atmosphere of Stargate quietly changed.

From the initial anger, anxiety, and self-deprecation when the rush to buy failed, to the subsequent group buying and anti-scalper actions, to the quiet, gentle joy that every successful reservation holder feels when they receive the system confirmation email...

This is no longer a simple buying war, but a collective memory that will be remembered.

At 3 a.m. on March 15, players from all over the country received their "StarGate Collector's Edition".

Sometimes the delivery guy would shout downstairs: "This is too heavy, come down and help me move it!"

Some excited college students rushed into the dormitory building, holding the packaging box and waving from the balcony: "I got it! I really got it!"

Another netizen posted on Weibo:

"I woke up at five and squatted at the gate of the residential complex at six, waiting for a delivery. I wore a custom-made 'Sundering' T-shirt, like a believer waiting for fate to come."

There is a sentence printed on the express box:

“You are not the only destiny, but you are the destiny worth writing.”

This sentence once became a hot search on Weibo and became the "official unboxing copy" in players' circle of friends.

On this day, major social media platforms became unboxing shows for the collector's edition:
Someone spread a black cloth on the living room floor and took a "sacred" unboxing photo of the entire collector's edition. Someone hung their key on their chest, captioning, "I'll wear this to interviews in the future to give myself courage." Someone else wept while flipping through the design collection: "I've waited so long, and finally I can touch the heart of this world."

UP host "Jiu Meng Xingchen" filmed an unboxing Vlog, the video title is:

I Received a Letter from Another World

The camera slowly moves forward, he opens the collection box, takes out the heavy Star Key, and gently presses it against his heart.

The background music is the hidden BGM "Echoes of the Rift" in the game.

他 说:

“It’s not a key, it’s a testimony of a journey.”

“What I opened with it was not a box, but my persistence, love, and waiting over the past thirty days.”

"I finally have the fragment of my destiny."

Barrage full screen:

I cried like a three-year-old

[This is not an unboxing, this is a confession]

[The Star Gate is our shared memory]

02｜The Collector's Edition is not just a collection, it's also the seed of creation

Once the setting set was released, it immediately ignited the enthusiasm of the secondary creation circle.

This 156-page hardcover setting collection, known as the "Astral Bible," contains:

Early art drawings, including the unreleased "Mirror of Dawn" map; Alzarian's original manuscripts, showing the evolution of his design from "Astral Observer" to "Lord of the Fallen"; sketches of deleted plot branches - one of which shows that the protagonist could have chosen not to "sever the rift" but to "seal himself" and become the new guardian of the astral gate; a complete collection of astral language symbols, with grammatical structure and syllable breakdown tables.

The richness of the content of this setting collection exceeds the imagination of all players.

UP host "violet star core" was moved to tears during the live broadcast of unpacking the book:
"Do you know what this means? We can use this information to construct a complete Astral language system. We can even write poetry in Astral language."

She really did.

Three days later, she released the first installment of her work, "Poetry of the Star Language," a poem she handwrote, translated into the Star Language, and performed with a voiceover:

"I am not the forgotten one, I am the last whisper under the stars."

"Ael'na valun, el'kera serun."

The barrage is flooding the screen like crazy:

[I understand it, but I don’t understand it, so beautiful]

This is not a second creation, this is the origin of a new civilization.

I want to learn the Astral language so I can write to myself.

—

Another master artist, "Liuguang Weimian", used character sketches that were not used in the setting collection to create a four-meter-long scroll of the stars.

She wrote on Weibo:

“I see the collector’s edition as an invitation.”

“You’re not collecting a box, you’re invited into the heart of the creation.”

“You are not an audience, you are a resonance.”

—

03｜Collector's Edition becomes a social code and status symbol

On forums, Bilibili, and WeChat Moments, the collector's edition has unknowingly become a kind of "star identity card."

Players often ask:
"Which batch of collection are you from?" "What's your key number?" "Have you read page 89 of the setting book?"

A player numbered "00001" posted on TapTap:

"I used to be a socially anxious person, but ever since I took out the Star Key at the party, suddenly more than a dozen people came over to chat with me."

"We talked about the fate of Alzarian, the poetry of the Traveler's Camp, and the resonance of the moment of the Sundering."

"For the first time, I felt that there was a world that connected us lonely people."

—

Some players even turned the collector's edition into a "real prop":
Some people have modified astral keys into USB flash drives to store their novels. A couple used a key as an engagement ring box, adding the phrase, "If I can't die for you, I'll live for you." One elementary school student even wrote in an essay, "I want to be a game designer when I grow up and create my own astral gate."

—

At Nanjing University's "Interactive Narrative and Player Co-creation" seminar, the Collector's Edition of Astral Gate was brought into the classroom, and "The Cultural Structure of the Astral Gate" became the theme of the lecture.

The professor showed the undisclosed plot branches in the setting collection and proposed:

“When a game’s peripherals are no longer accessories, but become materials that players actively deconstruct and recreate, it has completed ‘reverse text generation’.”

"This isn't 'fan culture,' it's 'co-construction of mythology.'"

The students had a lively discussion:

“We are not just players, we are the writers of the myth.”

“We’re not playing games, we’re collectively creating culture.”

—

Three months later, the official announcement was made: "The Collector's Edition has sold over 500,000 copies and will enter the global release stage."

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the development team held a live broadcast called "Astral Night".

They invited ten player representatives to share their stories.

One of the girls, who was only 12 years old, said:
"I don't dare to speak in reality, but in the astral world, I can stand before Alsarian and say my name."

Another 70-year-old retired engineer said:
"I made games when I was young, but they didn't achieve much. Now that I have the Collector's Edition, I feel like all those failed codes I wrote have become stars." The development team finally showed a photo:
It was a player in the treatment room, holding the Star Key in his hand, looking at the camera with a determined look.

they said:
"When we received this photo, the whole team was silent."

"During the final stages of his cancer treatment, he said he wanted to use his remaining strength to complete the main storyline of Astral Gate."

"We sent him a custom collector's edition, numbered 000000."

"He finished the game and also finished his life."

"His name has been engraved on the monument of the Star Realm Council."

As the craze for the Collector's Edition of Star-Gate gradually fades from intense heat to warm memories, what's left behind isn't a swarm of scalpers, buying scripts, and limited-edition numbers, but a deeper cultural resonance that continues to brew, ferment, and spread throughout the entire player community.

This is not just a simple peripheral craze, it is a collective call about belonging, dreams and destiny.

01｜After the Collector's Edition, the World Rift Slash continues
In the minds of many players, the arrival of the Collector's Edition seems to mark the end of a journey. But when they actually open the setting book and hold the heavy Star Key, they suddenly realize:
This is not the end of the journey, but a new beginning.

Because the last page of the setting collection only has one line of words:

"The real Star Walker is not in the game, but in reality."

It was this sentence that caused countless players to start a "reality splitting slash".

On Zhihu, the topic #Realistic Boundary Break# quietly reached the top, and in just a few days, it had more than 100,000 answers.

One programmer wrote:

"I was facing layoffs, and I pulled all-nighters writing my resume and preparing for interviews. That night, I looked in the mirror and said, 'I'm not fighting to win, I'm fighting to keep moving forward.' The next day, I got a new offer."

A college student who had just failed the postgraduate entrance exam wrote:

"I hang the Star Key on my desk, and the first thing I do when I wake up every day is look at it. It reminds me that failure is not the end. I am not a loser, I am a Star Walker."

One young mother wrote:
"I gave the Collector's Edition to my ten-year-old daughter. She said she wanted to be a girl who could cut through the darkness. I hugged her as if I were hugging the entire astral world."

These stories have no game screenshots or battle effects, only a moment deep in life when a person quietly pulls out the "Sword of the Real World".

In more and more communities, players are beginning to use "collector's edition" to convey certain emotions.

In the Douban group "Star Walker Club", a user posted:
"I sent the Collector's Edition to my first love. He helped me through the first chapter, but now we're both far apart. I wrote in the letter: 'You were once the hero of my destiny.'"

On Bilibili, a UP host shot a short film called "The Key".

The story tells of an elderly father who passed away. While sorting through his belongings, his son discovered a collection of settings and a star key. The child retraced his father's journey using the game archive he left behind. In the dreamless land, he saw a message left by his father:

"May you have a wider astral realm than mine."

The number of views of this micro-film has exceeded 10 million, and the comment section is full of tears.

My dad also played games with me once, and that was the last time we spoke.

I began to understand why a key could bring people to tears.

I will leave this collector's edition to my children, if I have any.

—

In reality, the collector's edition has become a "spiritual anchor" for some people.

It is no longer a commodity, no longer a collection, but a "relic" endowed with meaning - inheritance, commemoration, and symbol.

It represents a period of time, a belief, or even an unspeakable emotion.

03｜Official "Rift Memorial Exhibition" held, players built their own "Star Museum"

The enthusiasm has not yet subsided, and the official took advantage of the situation and joined hands with many offline cultural exhibition institutions to hold a two-month "Breaking World Memorial Exhibition" in BJ, Shanghai and Chengdu.

The exhibition is divided into five themed exhibition areas:

Hero's Path: Recreates the story of Alzarian's growth in the game, featuring interactive holographic projections. Abyss: Players can experience the VR version of Abyss, equipped with heart rate sensors and motion capture systems. Celestial Chronicles: Exhibits commemorative letters, artwork, and a collection of celestial poetry submitted by players. Fate Workshop: Open workshops where players can craft their own "Key of Fate." Galaxy Finale: A dark space, its walls composed of tens of thousands of player messages. Lights illuminate as visitors walk, symbolizing "resonance."

On the opening day, thousands of people lined up to enter, and many players even took the high-speed rail from other provinces just to write the following sentence on the "Galaxy Finale" message wall:

"I am a star walker."

—

At the same time, a private player built a "Star Realm Miniature Museum" in Guangzhou. It was originally just an empty room in his home decorated as a "Traveler's House". Later, more and more players visited, left messages, and donated, and finally it was opened to the public.

他 说:

"I just wanted those who didn't get the collector's edition to be able to 'enter the astral realm'."

He hung a wooden sign on the door:
“No entrance fee, only stories.”

—

04｜"Slash" is officially selected as a research topic on game culture

At the School of Journalism and Communication of Peking University, a new course was quietly launched:
Game Narrative in the New Myth Age: A Case Study of Astral Gate

The course focuses on analyzing the dissemination path of "Bridging the World" as a cultural symbol - evolving from game mechanics to secondary creation hot spots, and then transforming into psychological projections of real-life behaviors.

During the class, the teacher played a video:
This video is about a player who cuts off his sketchbook at night after years of unopened work and starts creating again. He writes at the end of the video:
"My World-Splitting Slash is picking up the pen again."

Teacher's comments:

"This is the sign that games have become a culture: they no longer just happen on screens, but take root in the real lives of every player."

—

On the People's Literature WeChat public account, a long article titled "An Analysis of the Psychological Resonance Mechanism between the Boundary Slash and Contemporary Young People" was widely forwarded. The article reads:

"Severing World Slash isn't a skill; it's the convergence of the emotions of the times."

"It represents the determination of a generation that is willing to fight hard despite pressure, anxiety and uncertainty."

"And the Collector's Edition is a monument to that blow."

—

On an ordinary summer night, an old player named "Moonlight Old Shadow" posted on a forum:
"I'm a cancer survivor. The year I was diagnosed, I played StarGate."

"I got the collector's edition, and I thought I wouldn't live to see it in the mail."

"I hung my key by my bed, and every day when I woke up I would say to myself: 'One more day, one more kill.'"

"Now, I'm healed. I want to tell everyone—Sundering isn't a skill in a game, it's how I survived."

"That key doesn't lead to the stars, it leads to tomorrow."

Thousands of people left comments below the post:

You are a true star walker

May every day of your future be your own victory.

[We are also trying to live, thank you for letting us see hope] (End of this chapter)