You were supposed to have a fake marriage with the diva, so how did you become her father?

The development of the base system has entered the right track, and Zhao Yiming and his technical team have begun to dissect the underlying logic of site selection and biological placement.

The art team also produced the first batch of concept drawings for the base buildings. After Lu Ran reviewed them, he felt that the direction was right, so he asked them to continue refining them.

But he knew that it would take at least a month from development to launch, and he couldn't just wait around during that time; he had to focus his attention elsewhere.

So he turned his attention back to those old games that had been running for a long time.

He checks the game data every day, but he hasn't been keeping a close eye on it as much lately.

He opened the backend report of the European server of "League of Legends" and found that the peak concurrent online users had broken the record again, which was nearly 30% higher than three months ago.

In the German gaming community, someone organized an offline viewing event. Dozens of people rented a small space, set up a projection screen, and gathered together to watch a live stream of high-elo ranked matches on the European server.

After photos of the event were posted on the forum, the comments were all asking when the next one would be held.

In Europe, there are three agents promoting localized operations in their respective regions.

A small tournament was held in the French-speaking region; the prize money wasn't much, but the number of participants exceeded expectations.

Several rounds of player surveys were conducted in the German-speaking region, and the feedback on the game's balance was significantly higher than the previous quarter.

The user growth curve in the English-speaking region has never declined.

Zhou Mingzhe once spoke a very honest truth at a morning meeting: "The current state of the European server is not growth, it's rolling. Players come in and don't leave, and those who leave come back after a while."

The situation in North America is more complicated.

Because the impact of the previous trade war had only recently subsided, the North American market's acceptance of Chinese game products was still in the recovery period.

However, the data for League of Legends has never dropped; on the contrary, it has been gradually recovering.

Some say it's because the game itself is of high quality, while others say it's because North American players truly have a keen eye for quality games.

Lu Ran didn't delve into the reasons; as long as the data was rising, it was a good thing.

Minecraft takes a different approach.

Sandbox games are characterized by a strong long-tail effect; as long as people are still playing, new content will always be generated.

In Europe and North America, several player-organized construction teams have recreated landmark buildings from their respective cities in the game.

A German team built an entire Cologne Cathedral in the game, which took them nearly three months, and the curvature of each flying buttress was extremely precise.

After they posted screenshots of the completed project on a forum, several European gaming media outlets shared them. One comment read, "This game has made building enthusiasts and gamers the same kind of people."

In North America, someone has replicated the White House and Capitol Hill complex, even making the fountains on the lawn and the layout of the walkways.

One player on the forum said, "I toured the interior of the White House in the game and felt that there were more details than when I visited Washington."

What truly caught Lu Ran's attention was not the data itself, but the things that overseas players started doing outside of the game.

Someone posted a long thread on a North American gaming forum with the title, which translates to "I've been playing Chinese games for a year, and now I want to learn Chinese."

The post wasn't very long, but it was written very seriously. It said that at first, he just thought "League of Legends" was fun. Later, because he wanted to understand the background stories of the heroes in the game, he looked up some Chinese history. The more he looked up, the more interesting he found it. He recently signed up for an online Chinese course.

The poster said he never thought he would actively learn an Asian language, but now he has three Chinese learning apps on his phone.

The replies to that post were much more lively than expected.

Someone commented below, "Me too. I looked up the Chinese character strokes in order to understand the characters on the plaque of a certain building in Minecraft."

Someone said, "I've learned 'hello' and 'thank you,' and now all I need is a friend from China to practice with."

Some people went even further, posting a photo of their own handwritten copy of "The Memorial to the Throne on the Eve of the Northern Expedition." The handwriting was crooked but it was indeed Chinese characters, with the caption, "I copied this stroke by stroke from a screenshot in the game."

Lu Ran stared at the photo for several seconds, confirming that it was not a screenshot from a game but a handwritten note on paper.

A discussion thread was started on a German forum, with the topic "Why can China make such solid games?"

The poster said that he has been playing games for over 20 years, from games by major Western companies to Japanese games, and now to games from China. He feels that Chinese games have something that other countries' products don't have.

He wasn't quite sure what it was, but while playing, he could feel that the development team cared a lot about whether players could have a comfortable gaming experience.

In the comments below, some people said, "Dragon Kingdom Games doesn't make those designs that force you to spend money to pass levels," some said, "Their update rhythm is very stable, and they won't suddenly make a hero useless," and others said, "The game's background music also has a very Dragon Kingdom flavor, not the kind of canned music that's just copied and pasted."

Lu Ran was holding a teacup and leaning back in his chair when he saw the post.

He put down his cup and read the post again from beginning to end. The word "solid" that the German player used really struck him as interesting.

He had never imagined that overseas players would use this term to describe Dragon Kingdom's game products, because most of the things he made were directly taken from the system, and every item in the system had been polished for many years in his previous life.

The refinement wasn't something that happened overnight; it was the result of continuous feedback from hundreds of thousands of players in real-world environments.

All he did was move those things over exactly as they were.

But the act of copying itself is also a form of selection. His system library contains hundreds of game projects, and the few he picks out happen to be the most suitable for this world, the ones that players are willing to accept, and the ones that people want to keep playing after finishing them.

Those "coincidences" add up to what overseas players call "Chinese games are really well made".

In Europe and America, players have begun to spontaneously compile a timeline of the development of Chinese games.

Someone made a video on American social media that traced the entire process of Chinese games, from early agency imports to current independent research and development.

The video was made with great care, collecting a lot of publicly available information and game screenshots. The final conclusion was that "Chinese games are becoming an undeniable force in the global gaming industry."

The video didn't get a particularly high number of views, but in the comments section, you could see people seriously discussing every game mentioned in the video, like they were doing a rigorous academic project.

What surprised Lu Ran even more was that some people in North America had started combining elements of the Chinese nation with games to create content.

An American player built a garden in Minecraft that resembled the Dragon Kingdom, complete with ponds, rockeries, corridors, and pavilions. After posting it on a forum, he was asked, "Have you ever traveled to the Dragon Kingdom?"

He said he had never been there; he just copied the Chinese-style theme from the game's built-in mod.

In the comments below, someone said, "Your garden is even more beautiful than some of the real gardens I've seen in China."

These things, taken individually, are not a big deal, but when viewed together, Lu Ran noticed a trend.

Overseas players' acceptance of Chinese culture is shifting from "curiosity" to "active engagement".

The hero backstories in League of Legends led some players to delve into the historical records of the Dragon Kingdom; the Chinese-style building mod in Minecraft led some players to study the structural principles of ancient architecture; and the map design in CrossFire led some players to understand the geographical layout of cities in the Dragon Kingdom.

After those proactive contacts accumulated, they transformed from individuals into a group, and from scattered comments into large-scale discussions.

Lu Ran sat in his office and pondered these phenomena over and over for a long time.

When he was making those games, he only thought about making them good and letting players have fun; he never thought about cultural export.

But when he saw the German player say "Chinese games are well-made", the American player write "I signed up for a Chinese course", and someone on the North American forum organize the development of Chinese games, he realized one thing - those games were already doing things for him that he had never intended to do.

He picked up his phone and sent a message to Zhou Mingzhe: "What do you think the players' reaction would be if we made a new game now, using the mythology of the Dragon Kingdom as the core world view?"

Zhou Mingzhe replied after about ten minutes: "Isn't it already underway? Isn't that Classic of Mountains and Seas game based on the mythology of the Dragon Kingdom?"

"That's different. The Classic of Mountains and Seas game is AR, and its content involves collecting and exploring. I'm talking about a different type of game, the kind with a complete storyline. A large-scale one, a role-playing game with real-time combat, where the player's character directly participates in mythological events. The Classic of Mountains and Seas is about 'seeing,' that one is about 'doing.'"

Zhou Mingzhe replied after a while, his tone noticeably more serious this time: "You have something new again?"

"I've had that idea. But I haven't figured out how to do it yet. Let's talk about it later, I'll organize my thoughts then."

After putting down his phone, Lu Ran sat in his office chair for a while, the thoughts still swirling in his mind.

He hasn't quite figured out the specifics yet, but the direction is clear. If a few games can motivate overseas players to learn Chinese, study history, and understand architectural culture, what if he created an epic work directly based on Chinese mythology?

Once a game of that scale is rolled out, its influence will extend far beyond just a few forum posts.

He opened the system light screen, typed a line in the search bar, and then browsed through the system library for a while.

He found some things, but the previous versions of those things were based on Western fantasy, so he couldn't just copy them over; he had to change the entire worldview.

The workload wouldn't be small, but he was determined to go in the right direction. He especially wanted to adapt "Investiture of the Gods" into a film, which was the grandest, most numerous, and most spectacular story in the mythology of the Dragon Kingdom.

That evening, he called Shen Zhiwei.

After the call connected, he first asked if she had eaten. Shen Zhiwei said she had just finished eating and was sitting on the sofa reading a script. Then he asked Lu Ran what was up. Lu Ran said she wanted to talk about something related to the movie.

"Dad, do you have any projects lined up lately?"

"Yes, I do have some offers, but nothing's decided yet. I'm looking at a script for a period drama, but I think it's just so-so, and I'm hesitant about whether to take it. What, do you have an idea?"

"I have an idea I'd like to discuss with you regarding filming 'Investiture of the Gods'."

After a moment of silence, Shen Zhiwei spoke again: "Be more specific."

Lu Ran leaned back on the sofa, adjusted his posture, sorted out his words, and then began to speak.

He said he wanted to make an epic film based on the mythology of the Dragon Kingdom, using the biggest scenes, the highest production standards, and the most solid script to film that story.

The struggles between gods, demons, and human emperors, the impending doom of the Shang Dynasty at its end, and the destiny of the Western Zhou Dynasty at its beginning—all these, when placed in a film, would be an epic grand enough without any embellishment.

He said that China has produced many period dramas over the years, most of which focus on palace intrigue and power struggles, with very few films truly using blockbuster techniques to depict mythology.

He didn't want to make the kind of movie where only a few actors perform in a studio in front of a green screen. What he wanted to do was to present the world of Investiture of the Gods in its entirety by combining real-life scenes with special effects.

Shen Zhiwei listened quietly on the other end of the phone without interrupting.

After Lu Ran finished speaking, he remained silent for a moment before saying, "I understand what you're saying. But do you know how much a film of this scale costs? Just a decent set construction costs tens of millions, not to mention the special effects."

"I'll contribute the majority. Yuege can also invest some; she has some savings she hasn't touched. You don't need to put any money in; as long as you're willing to film this movie, I'll figure out the funding. If all else fails, I'll ask Tan Yu to contribute; he'll be back to work after his honeymoon."

Shen Zhiwei was silent for a moment, then chuckled: "You should sort out the money issue first. What about the script? Do you have one ready?"

"No. But I can write. Give me some time; I should be able to produce a first draft in about a week."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Ran leaned back on the sofa for a while.

He hadn't figured out the specific plot yet, but the general framework had already taken shape in his mind.

He has found the most suitable container to encapsulate those grand scenes that have been adapted for the screen countless times and experienced by countless players in the past.

Starting tomorrow, I need to finish writing the script for "Investiture of the Gods".

This time, it's not about making money or any business strategy; it's simply about filming the truly significant stories from the mythology of the Chinese dragon kingdom in a way that best suits them.

"Investiture of the Gods" is a work with a strong Chinese cultural background. Moreover, in this world, there is no systematic compilation of the Investiture of the Gods. There are only fragments of mythological stories. What Lu Ran needs to do is to package them together and create a collection.

...