We promised to develop a game called Candy Crush, what the hell is the Third Reich?

Chapter 214 [Great Power Rivalry] On the Eve of its Outbreak (4.3k)

a few days later.

TianSha Live Streaming Platform, [Awakening Era] DLC section.

The storyline in Fang Ming's game has reached the end of 1939.

This time, his identity was that of a soldier in the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army.

As a streamer who once successfully challenged the Order of Stalingrad, and who survived 15 days of searching by Imperial soldiers and military dogs in the freezing cold.

Fang Ming initially thought this wasn't a difficult plot point.

As long as you lower the threshold a bit, the rest should be similar to the challenges you faced during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Both places were covered in ice and snow, and both were being searched for.

The only difference is that during World War II, they were facing soldiers of the Empire, but now they are facing Japanese soldiers, both of which are Axis powers.

Then he is very familiar with it.

However, as the story unfolds with the arrival of the Anti-Japanese United Army, the harsh conditions in the Northeast region deliver a harsh blow to Fang Ming.

It happened to be December, the end of the year.

Temperatures of -40 degrees Celsius at night are common, and one could easily freeze to death if not careful.

And it is different from the empire's search and arrest.

The Japanese army was conducting a sweep, chasing you while simultaneously raiding any villages they encountered along the way.

This forced Fang Ming to avoid going to areas with villages.

Because once the Japanese soldiers tracked them down to the village, what awaited the villagers was a plunder and massacre.

In winter, with the vast expanse of white snow and mountains, it's virtually impossible to find any food.

Fang Ming was so hungry that he ate snow in large mouthfuls, and his strength was getting weaker and weaker.

At this moment, Fang Ming, alone with only a gun, walked unsteadily through the icy snow. Gazing at the mountains, Fang Ming felt a wave of despair and said to the viewers in the live stream:

"This is terrible!"

"There's no wild game here. It's -2 or -30 degrees Celsius during the day, so the wild game would probably have frozen to death."

"My timeline is 1939. If we start counting from 1931, it has been 8 years."

"I can't imagine how the Anti-Japanese Allied Army soldiers managed to persevere for eight years."

"I reckon that even if you threw the guy who survived to the end in Leningrad here, he'd have a very slim chance of surviving."

"Leningrad still has supplies, bread, and even edible things."

"But look at this, it's all snow, it's so hard you can't even bite through the bark, it's frozen solid."

"I've been separated from my team for three days now."

"If this continues, we're afraid we'll starve to death."

The live stream chat was filled with comments:
[Please restart the stream, there's nothing we can do in this situation.]

【If all else fails, how about boiling some tree bark in snow water? That should be edible, right?】

Beware of snow blindness; avoid looking at snow for extended periods.

[With snow everywhere, how could you not want to see it?]

[This is outrageous. I feel like I'm going to die if it's -15 degrees Celsius here on Earth, I can't even imagine what it would be like at -40 degrees Celsius.]

Fang Ming, panting heavily, pulled his feet out of the snow and walked forward.

Snow blindness?

"I estimate I'll starve to death before I get snow blindness."

Faced with the Japanese army's sweeps, the anti-Japanese guerrillas' homemade guns and cannons were no match for them. The Japanese army carried out sweeps every year, and every winter was a difficult time to get through.

After walking arduously through the snow for a long time, Fang Ming gradually became exhausted.

Plop.

He slumped down in the snow, half of his body submerged in it.
"Damn it."

"Won't they let me starve to death here on Polaris?"

"Really no hints at all?"

The live stream chat was flooded with comments:

[LOL, is this your first time playing a Polaris game? Do you even know what a completely realistic simulation is?]

[Don't panic. Based on your terrain, although Polaris didn't give you any clues, I used the Photon Supercomputer to locate your position. Go 23 kilometers west; there's a village there.]

[23 kilometers? Do you think he can even walk 23 meters like that?]

[At least there's hope, hang in there, streamer!]

Fang Ming slumped down in the snow, letting out a bitter laugh:
"23 kilometers?"

"persist in?"

"I do think so!"

Leaning against the snow, with the sun shining directly overhead, Fang Ming inexplicably felt a little comfortable, closing his eyes to enjoy a short rest:
"Guys, I'm going to take a nap."

"Remember to call me in two minutes."

A bunch of question marks floated across the live stream, while Fang Ming, whose physical fatigue had been simulated to its limit, fell asleep almost instantly.

While I was sleeping, the screen in the live stream suddenly went black.

Swish!
The game has returned to the main menu.

Having exited the game's storyline and lost the complete simulation, Fang Ming's spirits immediately returned to normal:
"what's the situation?"

"Why did I exit the storyline?"

"Am I frozen to death?"

The viewers in the live stream were speechless. What did you think?

Sleeping in the snow at minus 20 or 30 degrees Celsius.

However, Fang Ming cannot be blamed. After all, he had been chased by the Japanese army for several days, and he was out of ammunition and food. He was so hungry that he could only eat snow. In this situation, once he fell, it would be difficult for him to get up again.

Fang Ming stretched his body a bit, looked at the custom story button, but didn't click to start again.

Because we've already experienced the storyline from 1939.

Even if they didn't freeze to death at the beginning of 1939, they probably wouldn't have been able to play through much of the story, because World War II broke out and the story would have to switch to the [World War II] side.

Fang Ming opened the [World War I] section and took a look.

The popularity of the World War I theme has been largely driven by the Awakening Era DLC, which has drawn most players to the Republic of China era.

However, due to the enormous population of Earth.

Even though 80% of World War I players are on the Awakening DLC, there are still millions of players on the World War I side.

There are also many interesting story videos on Toutiao, which is updated daily.

Some streamers triggered the Empire's [Beer Hall] speech event, broadcasting the entire scene inside the beer hall live, and jokingly said they wouldn't be swayed.

Meanwhile, the Blue Star players were just watching the spectacle, observing the young leader waving his arms and giving an excited speech.

This is also the first time that players on Earth have watched the young leader's speech in its entirety, instead of the often-interrupted speeches seen in CG sequences, where the speech is only interrupted at the end.

Although many NPCs in the game looked excited, the streamers and viewers in the live stream did not show any strong emotional fluctuations.

Many people suspect that he may have been a young head of state, and that his speeches were not as persuasive.
Even the streamer thought so.

But as he chatted with his viewers on the live stream and then turned around to order a drink, his thoughts changed completely; the 50-mark bread was just an appetizer.

The drink that the anchor ordered cost 1600 billion marks.

The exchange rate between the US dollar and the German mark that day was 1 US dollar: 500 billion German marks.

Money is now worth less than waste paper.

Little did they know, this was just the beginning.

Just 7 days later.

The exchange rate has become outrageous, reaching 1 US dollar to 4.2 trillion marks.

That's right.

In just seven days, the value of the Mark plummeted 84 times.

Even the printing speed of a banknote printing press cannot keep up with the devaluation of the mark.

Until then.

The streamer and the viewers on Earth, watching the procession on Imperial Street, finally understood why the young leader received so much support.

No one's success is accidental. Even the anchor who said the young head of state's speech was nothing special fell silent when faced with the rapid devaluation of the mark.

There's absolutely no way to refute this; it's just too outrageous.

It's not just the Imperial side of the storyline; many World War II players, knowing part of the plot, choose to interact with famous figures from their younger days.

However, some celebrities have never been good people since they were young.

A news anchor who was a nobleman in the Russian Empire and happily shared news on his phone every day ended up watching as the Russian Empire was overthrown in World War I, and even the Russian Empire ceased to exist.

As a nobleman and someone who had personally sentenced his 'benevolent father' to exile, he naturally could not escape the fate of being a streamer.

It's said he died a horrible death.
Fang Ming browsed through the posts on the World War I forum for a while and saw quite a few interesting plot points.

Then the focus shifted to the [World War II] side.

The forum's top-of-the-line post is an announcement from Polaris Corporation stating that the storyline of World War II, which continues the events of 1939, is still in production and will be released soon.

It is obviously open to players who have already experienced the 1939 storyline.

However, only a small number of people have experienced the 1939 storyline so far, and it is estimated that it will be available for some time to come.

Fang Ming watched for a while, then switched back to the live stream.

I opened my friends list and started contacting Yu Feng directly.

After a few seconds.

Yu Feng's voice came from Fang Ming's live stream:
"what's the situation?"

Fang Ming spoke up:
"I've almost finished the World War I storyline. I have to wait for the Polaris storyline to pick up where World War II is before I can continue experiencing the Republic of China era."

How's things going on your end?

"Is there any interesting plot that I'd like to try out?"

Yu Feng said with a smile:

"That's perfect."

"Come here, let's team up."

"The Cold War Shadows DLC is about to open the battlefield against the United States Federation."

Fang Ming was somewhat speechless:

"The 1v17 one?"

"hiss--"

"Wait, I'll update the [Cold War Shadows] DLC right away."

Fang Ming went directly to the Polaris platform to update the game while browsing the announcements.

I didn't notice this kind of news when I went to the [World War II] section.

Clicking into the official website of "Cold War Shadows" at this point, I indeed saw the countdown '1' day to the opening of the 1v17 battle against the United States Federation battlefield storyline.

Just as Fang Ming was reading the announcement, the "Cold War Shadows" DLC was already updated.

soon.

Fang Ming then entered the game and glanced at the main interface.

It maintains Polaris's consistent style, only now it uses a cool color scheme. It still features the [Immersive Story Mode] and [Custom Story Mode] modes.

However, there was an extra gray button next to it, which looked like it was not yet activated, with the words "Peninsula" written on it.

Below, a countdown of '1' days appears, indicating that there is only one day left before it opens.

Fang Ming then turned to Yu Feng and asked:
"What timeline are you on now? Where should I start with my custom timeline?"

Yu Feng replied:

"The timelines are actually quite similar. The Cold War period is a bit slower than the Awakening Era. You guys have experienced everything from 1931 to 1939."

"Most of the players here only experienced the atmosphere from 1945 to 1950."

"According to some players' personal storylines, the joint forces of the US federal organization will land in Incheon tomorrow."

"Polaris will also be releasing this storyline tomorrow."

"At that time, all players will be able to experience it, and it will not conflict with their own immersive storyline or custom mode storyline."

"It's said to support multiplayer online, but most people who prefer single-player games plan to play within their own storyline."

"Because the latest timelines are all consistent; the only difference is between a single-player version and an online version."

Fang Ming understood.

Polaris is still open based on the player's latest timeline.

Those who are already on the latest timeline don't need to play this game, while those who haven't reached that point in time can directly participate in the story.

Experience the latest battles in the timeline.

Fang Ming clicked on the custom mode, intending to play around with it first. He also selected the role of a reporter and then asked:
"You've been playing around here for so long, what kind of intelligence have you gathered?"

Yu Feng spoke up:
"They're all on my homepage, take a look."

Fang Ming said:
"That's too much trouble."

Yu Feng smiled and said:

"alright."

"In fact, the current situation of the 'Earth' world is mainly due to the various landmines planted by World War II."

"For example, the great war that is about to break out between our neighbor, the Republic."

"The main reason was that, on the eve of Japan's surrender in 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States divided their neighbor's territory in two."

"This situation is actually quite common in Europe, where each side supports a faction, directly plunging that country into war."

"Whichever side supports ultimately wins, that side will gain covert control over that country."

"But Europe is, after all, the homeland of the Soviet Federation."

"After World War II, the Soviet Union took in a group of satellite states that were completely subservient to the colonial power."

"Only some countries on the British Commonwealth side, which are close to the French Commonwealth, and with the support of the United States, can rival the Soviet Union."

"And the same is true for the area next door; it was just a line drawn haphazardly by the U.S. federal government at the time."

"As a result, the Soviet Union actually agreed, and afterwards, there was nothing between the two superpowers regarding this line, but the local forces always wanted to unify."

"Friction between the two sides is also constant."

"Neither side had paid much attention to this place originally, but the Republic suddenly broke the deadlock in 1949, disrupting the balance between the two superpowers."

"The Republic is right next to the Soviet Federation, and the United States does not want the Republic to side with the Soviet Union."

"The Soviet Union was already a very large entity, and the sudden appearance of a threat next door, though not as large as them, made it impossible for the Soviet Union to feel at ease."

"So, in the five years since the end of World War II, the neighboring country, which had not experienced any large-scale conflicts, suddenly launched a strong offensive with the support of its big brother."

"Seeing this, the US federal government also organized a coalition force to go there and support the forces it had been supporting."

"Now the two sides are fighting right next to the Republic's pillow, but the big brother behind them has suddenly retreated, so the neighbor next door is naturally no match for the US coalition."

"What should the Republic do in this situation?"

"In June 1950, the Republic's neighbor, with the support of its big brother, broke out into a full-scale war. At this time, the Republic had just broken out of the predicament and had only been established for a little over six months."

"This is a deadly attack on the Republic."

"It's easy to imagine the pressure the Republic is facing."

"The US federal troops are about to land at Incheon. Our neighbor next door is definitely no match for them. At that time, the [Republic] faction should be allowed to participate."

Fang Ming looked at the countdown on the page:
"It'll be quick too."

"Anyway, it starts tomorrow."

"The U.S. federal troops, to say the least, have really strong firepower."

"These are things that ordinary countries cannot compete with."

"I wonder how the Republic will fight?"

At the end of World War II, the United States had enough resources and weapons to destroy 90% of the countries on Earth just by bombing. Once the Allied forces landed, where would the neighboring countries go to fight?
The next day.

With the update, Fang Ming and Yu Feng immediately teamed up to enter the storyline.

The powerful shout at the start completely stunned everyone, including those in the live stream.

What? Broken bowl?

Wait a minute, this accent doesn't sound like someone from the "Republic"!

(End of this chapter)