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

Chapter 202 It turns out our world is a card-playing game.

After the huge success of Black Myth, Ghostwire: Tokyo was no longer mentioned.

They are not on the same level as each other.

Nintendo's helmet is even worse than the game's; the difference is even greater.

Renni's previously advertised next-generation helmet technology (which was actually only slightly different from the first generation of Yu Xuan in details, and mostly degraded) became a joke in the face of the second generation of Yu Xuan.

A few years ago, when basic infiltration technology was first released, although Gu Meng himself said that it was only a very basic technology, no one took it seriously.

Everyone agrees that this technology is ahead of its time.

Gu Meng's rapidly developing technologies are mostly modifications based on basic infiltration techniques.

At the time, no one thought that this technology could leapfrog at least two or three decades to reach a more multi-sensory experience, with a level of realism that was almost impossible to distinguish between reality and illusion at 98% or 99%.

If you really have this technology, why release it all at once? You could release at least five or ten more generations and make more money. What's the point?

I'm completely baffled. In short, it's unplayable now. This field will only be dominated by Youxuan in the future. Other companies might be able to make some small and medium-sized stealth games and get a piece of the pie if they try their best to catch up.

When I watched anime like Card King and Gladiator King before, I was quite curious about why the Duel Company could monopolize the market so quickly, and why the very young CEO was the world's richest man, or even the most powerful person in the world, without anyone questioning it. At the time, I thought that these were just anime worlds, and that's how the world was set up, so I didn't need to think too much about it.

Now it's like a boomerang; it turns out our world is just like in anime.

When such an important figure with a seemingly "destined" background appears, he will, as if by divine mandate, completely dominate this card-playing, oh no, gaming world with his own company.

Novels require logic, but our real world doesn't follow that logic.

Actually, Gu Meng also felt a bit...how lonely it is to be invincible.
Looking around, why are there really no formidable opponents emerging?

Even in urban fiction, shouldn't some new settings be added at this stage? Shouldn't American superheroes come out to fight against a rule-breaking demon king like me?
Why is nobody messaging me? Ugh.

If this were a fictional world, it would have already flopped by now; just look at the first 300,000 words and you'll know for sure.

...Emm, oh, not really.

I originally thought the US would be exceptionally powerful, perhaps even having some superhuman, god-like game developer randomly appear, but it turns out there are only politically conscious people. Although the US is still not up to par, and there haven't been any random appearances, Japan has actually produced something like that.

The mysterious power of the Toyokawa family's powerful hand.

Has this story finally reached the point of rambling on with a nonsensical, superhuman battle...?

After sharing the consciousness of the divine thought clone that had been sent to Japan to arrange those girl bands, Gu Meng realized that there were indeed people in this world who were beyond the norm. However, since they hadn't made any moves against the Toyokawa family for the time being, there really didn't seem to be any noteworthy follow-up.

Perhaps it's like the timeless missions in sandbox games; as long as you, the protagonist, don't trigger or advance the mission, it will remain there indefinitely? You might even be stuck in the same place until you complete the game.

Yes, that's a good thing.

To be honest, Gu Meng's current stats are quite strong. Theoretically, he could wipe out all primates on Earth at the same time. While he lacks in terms of physical destruction, he should be able to withstand both conventional and unconventional human weapons head-on.

If nothing unexpected happens, Gu Meng can be considered the strongest being in human history, a true one-man army capable of destroying an entire nation with a single thought.

Moreover, given his dominance over the vast ocean of human subconsciousness, not to mention that he could sense and dodge nuclear weapons in advance, if there were any direct hostile events, he could completely cause the planners of such events to be brain-dead before they even started. It's not as simple as just having a premonition.

Gu Meng didn't actually sense any danger from the Toyokawa family's situation. He just wanted to be on the safe side, as the other side might be of a higher status than him and he couldn't be sure of the outcome.

If there were really combat-related events... Gu Meng lacked combat experience at the same level and could only handle overwhelming situations. If the opponent's mental state was weaker than his, he could easily defeat them with a single Tsukuyomi. However, if the opponent didn't benefit from the special abilities that naturally came with increased mental strength, Gu Meng felt that he might not perform as well as Kaguya.

The only experience he could rely on was from fighting monsters in games. The only extraordinary skill he actually acquired was the support-oriented "Discerning Eye." All other abilities were abilities that naturally awakened after his mental power expanded and became divine.

It seems to be incredibly diverse, capable of brainwashing, brain-dead, telekinesis, prophecy, activating mental armor, and even traversing and manipulating the collective subconscious of humanity like Brother Tongzi. But these are actually like someone gaining strength and mastering the skill of lifting a large rock—nothing special, and certainly can't compare to the skills mastered by a professional weightlifter.

Who knows what it would be like in a real battle of extraordinary abilities? Maybe she wouldn't even be as good as Kaguya.

Incidentally, Gu Meng's perception can even directly retrieve a person's actual number of fights/kills, and if Ye Mu's kill count exceeds 100,000 every night.

Voldemort could be scared to tears.

Perhaps in battles of the mind, she is the true master, but she only operates on instinct and doesn't use it in normal times.

...Tsk, this is abnormal. How could a normal person's subconscious have such a massive volume? After Gu Meng discovered this, he immediately isolated the entire ocean of subconsciousness in Japan to prevent it from being contaminated.

It may appear normal on the surface, but if it unleashes this monster due to its extraordinary abilities, things will get complicated.

The best outcome would be to become the true God of Games from now until the future, and even to ascend to the next world with Youxuan, without causing any trouble.

I sensed that his system might not support drawing skills outside the game, and the next version might not be released until the distant future.

……

On the other side, the Toyokawa family, which Gu Meng had a premonition of, was deemed to pose virtually no threat.

Moonlight, like solidified liquid mercury, seeped into the Toyokawa family's rebuilt old house.

This old house collapsed due to a natural disaster decades ago, but for the Toyokawa family, rebuilding it was still quite simple.

The renovated building is almost indistinguishable from the original, and some new items have been completely removed at the request of the Toyokawa family.

In the "setting," this place is a special node that can enhance human spiritual vision and easily attract the attention of great beings. The buildings were also arranged by ancient occult masters, who in Japan would be famous Onmyoji. Everything about it is carefully considered.

The bronze human-faced candlestick cast a grotesque shadow in the corridor, and the maids carried lacquered trays containing obsidian daggers and vermilion talismans. The hems of their kimonos swept across the wooden floor, making a sticky sound. The atmosphere was still quite right.

"It's about to begin."

The two elders spoke simultaneously at the door, reciting incantations copied from discarded online cases. Theoretically, only direct descendants of the Toyokawa family could activate the technique to communicate with the evil god octopus, but other rituals should not require it.

The direct descendants of the Toyokawa family all died young; Toyokawa Shoko's mother and maternal grandmother died very young.

Scientifically speaking, this is a genetic disease.

According to current metaphysical interpretations, they were descendants of Nuwa... uh, the evil octopus god, which is why they died young.

Many ceremonies don't require direct descendants; a sufficient number of collateral relatives are also acceptable. Currently, all members of the Toyokawa family with the surname Toyokawa are present, except for those who married into the family.

Whether it works or not, let's try it out for now.

Two aged faces flickered in the candlelight.

They held the lacquer tray high above their heads and pushed open the cypress door.

Ten shimenawa ropes hung from the dome, each ending in a faded kimono doll, with a peach wood plaque bearing the birth date pinned to its chest. The elders of the Toyokawa family wore tatami robes stained with octopus sauce—because killing in modern society is more troublesome, and it's pointless if it's not a specific girl; for ordinary people, it's better to just use an octopus—anyway, let's believe what the abandoned case says for now.

Just like the Toyokawa family's logic before, they knew that Gu Meng was an irresistible demon king. Even if all of this was just something he had You Xuan write for fun, he was actually observing the Toyokawa family's reaction, and the Toyokawa family had to act accordingly.

The arena of the gods is not one you can simply leave at will.
The elders began chanting in ancient Japanese, the intonation was very chaotic, and the words were also unsettling. Combined with the various patterns painted on the tentacles, it was impossible to mistake this place for a kitchen rather than an evil ritual site.

The ground is decorated with a special octopus sauce that resembles a purplish-black slime, outlining a giant pentagram.

The elders seemed to sense an invisible force, and let out screams similar to those Mortis had made in the movie "The Hen".

It was an act, part of a ritual. It's quite remarkable that they could still utter such inhuman cries at such an old age.

What should be next?

After a moment of silence, someone finally asked if he might have some dementia.

"Now that we have offered our sacrifices, if it is successful, there should be a response."

"But nothing happened, didn't it?"

"So that means it failed?"

"Perhaps it responded, but we couldn't sense it."

"We still need to find a way to find the girl destined for us."

"Xiangzi... Xiangzi, Xiangzi, we need Xiangzi!"

"Damn it, he was clearly the heir of our family, but he was taken away by another evil god."

"Be careful what you say."

"Perhaps they are actually the same great being, enjoying our struggles."

"Can we just stop doing all this and continue being chaebols? I don't want to play this game anymore. I don't want immortality anymore. I'm still young."

"Do you think we can back down now? We can fail, but we must never give up."

"With that great man's ability to manipulate the consciousness of humanity worldwide in real time..."

"Could it be that all of this is fake, and that Gu Meng... the Dragon King is actually perfectly normal? Or are we just overthinking things?"

"Maybe everyone in the world is normal, and only we are mentally ill."

"You're not just my imagination, are you...?"

"Do not make jokes!"

"If there are any truly extraordinary people in this world, it's bands."

"Actually... I found it."

"what?"

“K-On! Although she may not be a girl, I’ve found her. She’s the senior in that game. Everyone can match her.”

Are they traveling through Xuan?

"No."

"Were they deliberately left behind for us to find?"

"What should we do? What should we do?"

"Bring the person here first; we have no choice but to give it a try."

……

Gu Meng was still completely unaware; he didn't actually know what the girl band was.

Speaking of which, when Subaru was making the game, he even included Momoka and Xiaocai... There must be some mystical element involved, it's not a coincidence.

She and Xiaozhi are also band characters. If they also represent band girls in a 2.5-dimensional contrast, perhaps these girls... are they magical girls in another world?

Besides the love of games, what other settings are there in this world? It can't just be a few random characters appearing, right? Is there a main storyline in this world, where an evil god is resurrected beneath the surface, and a girl fights the evil god?

If this world were an anime... Speaking of girl band games, besides the Hen Cassots, there's also Lonely Rock, an anime Gu Meng has watched, but he can't find the corresponding characters...

Gu Meng deeply regretted that he hadn't watched enough anime and had never heard of the names of Thorn Without Thorn and Mother Chicken Card.

Speaking of which, Subaru mentioned wanting to join the Revue Starlight in the next chapter, so the screenwriter needs to unify the world view. I guess there will be a lot more scrapped ideas.

Gu Meng had heard of teen opera, although it was a niche genre.

He knew the name because the anime had the classic line "The stage of an unpredictable destiny," and he had heard it was a masterpiece. Also, Gu Meng liked Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

I've heard that Revue de la Nuova sounds a lot like that.

Gu Meng activated his super brain to recall information he had almost forgotten... He had watched Madoka Magica many years ago, but he had never seen the complete Revue Starlight... However, he had read some materials and watched those video explanations that could take you through an entire anime in just a few minutes.

……

In "Puella Magi Madoka Magica", the girls buy miracles from a miracle proxy creature called QB. In return, they become magical girls and fight against witches. The final outcome is either being killed by the witches or becoming a witch in despair and then being killed by other magical girls.

Because of the law of conservation of energy, an equivalent miracle will inevitably lead to an equivalent despair. Therefore, none of the magical girls can achieve final salvation and enter the hall of happiness.

Until Madoka Kaname became Madoka God, sacrificing her physical existence to become the Circular Principle that fundamentally abolished the transformation of magical girls into witches, she was forever imprisoned in the void of spacetime.

Revue Starlight is a bit like a lighter version of Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

In the drama, a group of radiant stage girls participate in a secret audition performance called Revue organized by the Giraffe Organization in order to become the only Top Star.

……

Those things I'd only glanced at and hadn't even registered in my brain, things I should have forgotten, all flooded into my brain.

(End of this chapter)