The game has started, there are absolutely no bugs this time

Chapter 198 Happy April Fool's Day! This is so badly written I'm going to cut the book right now.
In Japan, Guo Jia's dark side and the invisible big hand clashed briefly with the dark side and the small hand of the Toyokawa family.

It was a one-sided victory; they were not even on the same level as their opponents.

Toyokawa family: I'm a master of stealth, really? Am I worthy of that title?

On the other hand, although Rennie was extremely unwilling, things had already come to this point, and whether Ripple Ghost Tokyo delayed its return or not, it was all over.

They'll sell it at a significant discount.

Before he knew it, it was already 2027. Gu Meng knew before he traveled through time that the game this game was compared to was probably the one produced by Shinji Mikami.

Ghostline Tokyo differs by only one character and has some minor differences in details, but overall it's based on the same game.

It seems like it came out in 2022 in my previous life, but it's still quite a while away here.

That makes sense. Game Science is gone, and Shinji Mikami is gone too. This difference is quite reasonable.

The previous game was one of those games with high expectations, but the actual release was relatively average. It was a heavily reskinned game and not really worth the money. In this game, the combat power has declined further after the stealth mode was upgraded.

Black Myth was elevated to an epic level; the two games in their previous lives were not on the same level, and the parallel world was even less so.

Renni's side has basically given up.

My second brother is invincible! Time to move on to the next opponent.

Assassin's Creed Shadow was supposed to release a stealth version in early 27, but there's been no news since. Gu Meng feels that it's probably only going to be released normally on PC. Maybe they can find a way to release a stealth version of the second generation of the game later.

Yu Xuan's plans will definitely be delayed indefinitely.

It's not just that the second generation performed better; the main problem is that the first generation simply couldn't catch the last train.

I don't know what they were thinking. Maybe they thought that adding a sci-fi time travel background at the beginning, like a memory or something, would convince players, let them immerse themselves, and ignore the limitations of the era.

Nobody believes it; that's how it was in ancient times.

Like Joy of Life, did the beginning just fool the censors? It was just a formality. It's actually a time-travel drama, right? You know it, I know it, the censors know it, the audience knows it. It's just that the problem isn't too big. The Poison King intentionally let it pass. You know what I mean.

This kind of explanation might fool a child, but it can fool others, not yourself.

Maybe it can fool players at the beginning, but after playing for a while and getting past the early stages, they'll realize that this is an ancient theme and will definitely fall apart.

If players' subconscious minds were so easily fooled, Gu Meng wouldn't have waited for the second generation of Youxuan before he could freely set themes; he would have done it himself long ago.

If they could really handle it that easily, and if Assassin's Creed Shadow was released in the first-generation basic infiltration, Gu Meng would guess that Abi also had a system and that they had also triggered a bug.

There are no problems with their PC version now. It's the same old issue with the Black Warrior, which is still selling normally. The stealth version will either take at least two and a half years (which is probably not enough, because the two generations of technology are no longer the same) to be modified to the second generation of the game.

They could either forcibly weaken it and spend a year or two changing it to a pure cartoon or even a God's-eye view, abandoning realism, before allowing players to log in to the first generation of the game, which would be almost a completely different game. It feels like if it really comes to that, they would rather only release a PC version.

It's definitely going to be delayed indefinitely, and its stealth capabilities aren't even as competitive as Nintendo's.

The next one... other major manufacturers are still refining it.

The bones in the tomb are best left uncaptured.

Seriously, is there not a single one who can fight?

The sheer number of rivals in this gaming world is heartbreaking; anyone who hears of it will weep. Is this still the parallel world where, when I first transmigrated, I felt there were many powerful foreign players and China was already in decline?

Making a masterpiece of stealth games is inherently difficult, but Youxuan's speed is an exception. It is a miracle created by Gu Meng (Tongzi Ge) and the employees who developed it. The speed is abnormal, and it also includes the learning cost of new technologies. It takes only three to five years to achieve this.

Now that the second generation of the game is actually going to be sold in early 2027, everyone is still watching and waiting.

If it really is a revolutionary upgrade as advertised... then we'll lose everything. Simultaneously releasing a PC version on multiple platforms might break even, but other platforms will be a bit difficult to sustain.

I feel that if Gu Meng hadn't been so indifferent, he probably wouldn't have gone to such lengths to cheat everyone and let them eat leftovers on the last train.

Gu Meng hadn't expected the progress to be faster than he'd imagined; it seemed rather unethical of him, haha.

Fine, go ahead and hit me.

Let his competitors use all their business tactics; let the dump trucks come at him even more fiercely. He really doesn't believe that dump trucks can still destroy him now.

He wouldn't be afraid of being hit by a plane on 9/11, a cricket or a dump truck, ha!

The only family he was wary of was the Toyokawa family. Judging from their behavior lately, they seemed very cunning. He figured that even if they did have something, they were probably just some shady characters from the mystical world.

Looking around, being invincible is truly lonely; the higher you climb, the colder it gets.

Dancing and playing with my shadow, how similar it is to being in the human world... Fast forward to "Sharing the Moon Across a Thousand Miles".

Speaking of which, if the era is no longer restricted, besides the Three Sovereigns being able to be remastered and ported to the stealth version, if a Water Margin theme is made, would Su Shi be included? If he were the emperor, he would definitely exile Su Shi severely to make him write more poems.

It might be a bit late. When the Water Margin begins, Gao Qiu has already risen to power, but was Su Shi already dead?

However, games based on the Water Margin might be able to summon the heroic spirit Guan Yu to fight Qin Qiong, and even resurrect Su Shi.

The Song Dynasty had many famous figures, but unfortunately, its emperors were not very capable. In this respect, the Han Dynasty produced more and more outstanding emperors. Unfortunately, the average lifespan of the Eastern Han emperors was worrying. Sometimes I feel that the Liu family had excellent genes.

Although Li Shimin fought for the second position and Zhu Yuanzhang rebuilt China, both emperors who founded dynasties were very capable. However, even if we add up the emperors of the mighty Tang and Ming dynasties, plus the weak Song dynasty, the number of emperors with relatively high overall evaluations should not be as many as those of the Han dynasty.

This kind of subject matter is more appealing to collectors than emperors or military generals. Among the famous novels such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Tales of the Tang Dynasty, Water Margin, Generals of the Yang Family, and Tales of Yue Fei, the most powerful military general is probably Li Yuanba from Tales of the Tang Dynasty.
Although the writing style of Investiture of the Gods is similar to that of a historical novel and the name is indeed a historical novel, you definitely can't use them in your stories.

I really don't want to play with characters like Li Yuanba and Yue Fei; they're too overpowered.

Let's talk about it later. If we're really going to make a story about Guan Yu versus Qin Qiong, it should include an "what if" scenario in addition to the Water Margin theme. Water Margin itself has elements of gods and demons, so it wouldn't be considered a completely random creation...

If the story is well-written, it's not considered a mess; if it's poorly written, it is. For example, the Fate series—no, even just the FGO series—requires analyzing different parts of the story; some parts are good, and some are bad. Gu Meng has always been very "double-standard."

……

After the final PV was released, Black Myth began its final pre-launch hype. Suddenly, the promotion started with lightning speed (like a thief stealing a bell), without any warning.

Gu Meng: Kids, I've collected all the wishes. Brother Tongzi has instantly optimized the game to its ultimate form. I'm not playing anymore.

Children: He's back! The Dragon King has returned, and he's still as fast as ever.

……

The game is finished, and its completion rate is even higher than initially imagined.

For example, at the beginning of the DLC, I thought that I could just control the real Monkey King to cause havoc in the Heavenly Palace again and charge in once more, but in reality, I can also experience the perspectives of Yang Jian and Nezha.

In other words, what was shown in that New Year's greeting prank video, the Black Myth Nezha, is actually achievable.

Oh, by the way, since Goku/The Chosen One doesn't have a face capture for the live-action short film, Gu Meng, who is the main character's motion capture and the film's action director, also played the role of Goku's human form. As for Laozi, ah, that's him too.

Anyway, Laozi's aged makeup made him almost unrecognizable, and the monkey's face was also human-like, so it didn't break the immersion.

The actor playing Yang Jian in the live-action version is Jiao Enjun, while the actor playing Nezha in the live-action version is actually Xiao Zhi. In terms of action performance, as someone whose innate golden card has been developed, don't be fooled by Xiao Zhi's seemingly weak appearance. In fact, he can fight at least ten black belts in karate. Gu Meng can make him do any action he wants, even though his main development direction is the brain region.

In the beginning of that video, because Xiaozhi was wearing heavy makeup, everyone thought she was an actress, giving off a male-female appearance.

It actually suits Nezha quite well.

Several Heavenly Palace, Underworld, Dragon Palace, IF route, mythological character pack, and flashback DLC are all released for free at once. Gu Meng will also release free mods in the future. The game is priced at 268 RMB in the Chinese region, and the deluxe edition is 328 RMB. The deluxe edition has a lot of new skins, so it's definitely worth it.

Dragon King's fans: I'm so upset! So many skins for only 60? He'll lose a fortune! The base game is so big, yet it's only 268. Even as a player, I think Dragon King is losing money hand over fist. The DLC was all free during its initial release. Stop it, Dragon King! No!
The price abroad ranges from over four hundred to over five hundred.

Let's be friends, we mainly sell helmets.

Competitor: Damn it, he really deserves to die! If this game were ours, it would be a monopolistic experience, priced at least 1998! Even at 10,000, plenty of people would buy it. How could he sell a stealth game so cheaply?

Gu Meng: Stop talking. I'm also ashamed, okay? This time, the price of the second generation of Youxuan is really hard to come down. It's more expensive than many flagship phones, and the price of the experience cabin is almost as high as a car. It's destined that not all players can play it. He really wants all his brothers to be able to play this new era of games.

I came to Goose City hoping for fairness, but unfortunately, this world is ultimately biased towards reality, and not everyone is destined to be able to play the game.

Even if the second-generation helmet has some ability to replace sleep (you still need to sleep in the real world, but it can at least shorten sleep time by half), and it may become a necessity in the future, there will definitely be people who simply cannot afford it.

……

……

Helmets sold like hotcakes. Experience capsules also sold like hotcakes.

It's an ordinary and self-evident thing.

The accompanying mid-sized stealth games, such as Under One Person, are not yet completed, but Black Myth is enough to play. There are also other mini-games, such as ping-pong, fishing, cooking competitions, and sword forging competitions. Moreover, the helmet itself also has some metaverse functions, which are very convenient for making friends and communicating. In addition, watching movies in the helmet is automatically optimized.

A small number of movies produced by Maodou Pictures can even be experienced in 4D, which is better than on a mobile phone. It's a movie with a tactile feel. How can other movies compete with Maodou Movies?

Moreover, it can already replace some sleep, which is extending human lifespan. Although Europe and the United States are still talking about safety issues, most people have already accepted this concept and are buying it without anyone being able to stop them.

This is an even stronger necessity than a mobile phone. You can forgo socializing and focus on other forms of entertainment. Don't you want to live longer? Moreover, the movies and games here are more advanced.

If we disregard real-world business sanctions and anti-monopoly measures, or if overseas entities forcibly restrict technology exchange like You Xuan's first generation, Gu Meng would become the king of the world with this product.

When everyone entered the game world Earth Online, Gu Meng, who had the highest authority, was considered a god of the game even though he was just an ordinary person in reality.

Moreover, Gu Meng is not the same as before. If he is unhappy now, he can really destroy you physically. He's just playing around and doesn't want to overturn the situation.

Too invincible, let's have some fun.

If Xu Fu, the legendary figure from the novel "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," could have lived for two thousand years in ancient times, what would he have done every day if he didn't watch movies or play games?
Although he is immortal, his physical body ages very quickly. Does that mean he can't even have sex with women? No wonder he's a pervert.

Fortunately, Gu Meng always had games to play, and he felt that his mental state was very beautiful.

Everyone is buying helmets.

After online stores sold out, long queues formed at physical stores as well.

Gu Meng's pricing is actually quite reasonable. Even if you didn't know before, after seeing the performance and cost-effectiveness of the first generation of Ren Ni, you should understand that You Xuan is truly conscientious and President Gu really treats everyone like brothers.

So, back then, when the generation said that even if they expanded production capacity, they would almost be selling at a loss, it wasn't just polite talk or propaganda. You're serious, Ah-Zhen.

The second generation is going all out, and they even support trade-ins.

Gu Meng had prepared ahead of time this time, but because the plan was progressing faster than expected, the first version of the Black Wind Mountain Golden Cicada promotional material said it was in production. At the time, it seemed normal that it could be delayed until 2028 or 2029, but I didn't expect everyone to be so supportive.

The stock is running low again. It's not a scarcity marketing strategy; plans always change faster than expected. If it were the end of 27, the stock should have been sufficient. Who could have imagined it would be so fast?

All employees, keep pushing your limits and keep going! You've been given a buff, we can't kill you!

Overtime pay should definitely be paid at the highest standard.

In the past, when games sold well, Tongzi Ge and Gu Meng did a lot of the work, and the Four Heavenly Kings did the most work. In this world of inflated game sales, they often had tens of millions or even nine-figure sales, and they still had enough money.

I know that Youxuan 2nd Generation and Experience Capsule are also operating on a low-profit, high-volume model, burning through cash in the early stages, and Youxuan insists on not going public, simply giving out benefits.

Black Myth, a game of unprecedented scale, was practically given away for free. Relatively wealthy players felt they owed Gu Meng a sum of money for the game, and began to spontaneously spend a lot of money on other games under the Youxuan Group that allowed limited in-game purchases.

Bang Bang's new work, the Mother Hen Card! Activate!

I'll recharge 648 yuan, and Xiangzi will keep recharging too! The game Youxuan participates in has such a high drop rate, he's too much of a cheater.

Sometimes I wish the Dragon King wouldn't act like that, that he could be a little more ruthless; that's not how pay-to-win games are played.

……

"I didn't expect our edamame exhibition to restart so quickly. This time it's a special edition for the Lunar New Year. In the past, it was always held in the autumn and winter."

"If we're going to sell helmets, making money isn't shameful."

The one speaking in a child's voice is Xiaocai, and the one talking to her is Momoka.

The two arrived at the latest Edamame Expo. With the release of the game, there are plenty of Edamame 2 and game pod experiences at various ongoing game expos around the world.

Some players who couldn't buy helmets also lined up here.

I only knew that you had to enter a lottery for license plates and queue up for mobile phones, but I never imagined that you couldn't even get a game console, so you had to come to a place like this to share a helmet.

Players who couldn't get their hands on the items were devastated. Domestic players were somewhat better off due to the abundance of products from domestic factories, but overseas players felt discriminated against.

On the official website of Youxuan, foreign players also petitioned: "We are the high-price zone, Dragon King, look here, it's more delicious to harvest the leeks here, we need more helmets and game pods."

A domestic player commented: "These stinking beggars have come to Youxuan to beg for food by circumventing the Great Firewall. Can the relevant departments please cover this up and shut them down? We don't even have enough of them."

"Hey, I have an idea, let's report them right now!"

“If You Xuanzhen dares to expand his distribution overseas, I will report him as well.”

"The Dragon King is my father, you're not allowed to report him!"

……

P.S.: The following is quite long. The paid part is at the beginning, and the part after that is newly added and not yet billed.

Since this is a topic related to the book and the box at the end of the chapter is too big to fit, I'll just put it here.

I won't cut the book. When I finish writing Black Myth, it means I've finished the synopsis. No matter when it ends, no matter how many words are left, it will be considered a normal ending. I won't abandon it at the last step.

But it's true that my writing is terrible, that's obvious. I felt pretty good about myself when I had 100 chapters, but by 200 chapters, I knew it was getting worse and worse.

Looking back now, it feels pointless to think that the protagonist suddenly disappeared for almost three years and then reappeared running around, skipping time to introduce the second generation of Yugen.

If you really want to jump, it would be better to stay in Youxuan and let three years pass by in a flash. Youxuan can also gloss over saying that he moved a lot of games and what he experienced during that time (of course, it was also not good, it's better to live one year at a time normally).

I felt like I was writing Forrest Gump, trying to write that although many things change, he changes yet remains the same. But it didn't feel right at all; it was just pointless whining. (Gu Meng has his reasons for being a lone star in the underworld. The protagonist isn't just whining; it's my fault as the author. Suddenly giving him a difficult problem that forces him to disappear isn't necessarily wrong, since the protagonist has to go through some problems. But I wrote it too casually and didn't do it well, so that's my problem.)

From that moment on, my thinking became very wrong, and I stopped reading comments because I subconsciously knew I had messed up. Before, I read comments because I didn't feel guilty.

To be honest, I was really frustrated back then. There was a downward pull that led me to stop updating so often, and I even had the bad idea of ​​quitting.

It was entirely because neither cutting nor not cutting was a good choice, so in the end I chose a choice that might not be so bad. Even if the writing is bad, making the best of a bad situation is better than abandoning the project.

I also had problems with my thinking. I was lazy, slacking off, and skipping updates. Most of the chapters without titles were just random random writing to meet the update deadline, meow meow meow. I'm very sorry. Moreover, I let myself go, gave up on myself, and didn't listen to good advice. Now this book is beyond repair.

I am Emperor Chongzhen, and the fall of the country is entirely my fault. Saying that I am not a ruler who will bring about the downfall of the country is just a way of shifting the blame.

The Ming Dynasty is finished. All people are guilty, but the guilt lies with me. This is actually the third version of the Edict of Self-Reproach.

I can still read it because it's something I wrote; if it weren't written by me, I probably wouldn't have been able to finish it.

It's too early to write anything new, and it's not good to change the map or world to create an infinite flow story. I haven't read the book reviews, but these few chapters are about how the real-life hen card is no longer working. If I write about the hen card in the book, I'll definitely get criticized again. I guess I deserve it; it's another one of my sins.

I feel like I should switch worlds after writing a hundred or so chapters, but it's already reached its limit and I don't want to switch, so I'll just grit my teeth and keep writing.

It should be written slowly, it should be written slowly. The opponents should be stronger and the cheat codes should be smaller. More local villains, super designers, dragon chefs, dark cuisine legends, and the God Tongue (just a metaphor) should be brought out. Or the middle part should be lengthened and more positive feedback from early and mid-game side characters should be inserted. Sorry, I have never written this kind of urban novel before and I have no experience with the pacing. I usually just level up quickly and then change the map.

Initially, I planned to expand the book's reach from China to Japan and then to North America, which would allow me to write 300 chapters. However, I found it uninteresting. I felt that clearing the domestic map was the key to reaching the top, and there was no need to seek recognition in North America. That's when I felt lost.

What if they changed the art style later, introduced some behind-the-scenes mastermind who seemed to be an evil god descending, and then trained a group of player warriors to create a fake infinite flow, like the fourth catastrophe in online games?

It could have continued a little longer, but the subject matter isn't quite right. This isn't that kind of story... But I'm not qualified to say that since I casually added a girl band to the list; it's too arbitrary.

After that, I could continue writing Dream of the Red Chamber, Water Margin, Investiture of the Gods, Primordial World, Earth Online, or it might end much earlier after Black Myth. I originally thought it would be at least 800,000 words, but it's hard to say.

If I really keep padding my writing to 800,000 or 1 million words, I might not even want to read it myself.

There are still paths to take, but it's hard to undo the mistakes that have already been made. I want to forget everything.

For my next book, I don't want to use these plot summaries anymore; it's restricting me. I want to use abstract summaries.

Sigh, the more I write, the more Yu Yu seems to come to mind.

That's enough, let's play the game.

Oh right, there's a new girl band coming out in April. I'm hesitating whether to follow them. They're another really wild band, reminding me of the wildest one ever... I'm so worn out from being hurt by hen-cardiacs. Whether to quit or not, I'll think about it later.

If Tokyo Girls Band, oh no, I mean, if there's a second season of Girls Band's Shout, I definitely won't quit.

(End of this chapter)