Entertainment to the death, make a tokusatsu film that will crush the entire internet.

The tenth floor of the headquarters building of the Land of Light, the game testing area.

Two hundred workstations are arranged in a circle, each equipped with a top-of-the-line host computer and dual-screen monitors.

The desktop provides enough space for players to freely swing their arms.

The soundproofing panels on the ceiling absorbed most of the echoes, so the space wasn't too noisy even when it was full of people.

The wall displays concept art for the 22 heroes of Overwatch, each accompanied by a representative quote from the hero.

A huge real-time data screen stands at the entrance.

The screen displays online player count, active game count, hero pick rate rankings, and latency data from various regions.

Today is the third day since the test began.

All two hundred workstations were occupied.

Wu Hongyu sat in a window seat in Section C, the blue light from the screen reflecting on his face, clearly illuminating his expression.

His lips curled up uncontrollably, but his brows were furrowed, and his pupils rapidly tracked the crosshair and the enemy's figure on the screen.

He had been playing for four hours straight, only going to the toilet once in between.

His hero is Soldier: 76, a beginner-friendly all-around assault character who unleashes a barrage of fire on the enemy with a heavy pulse rifle.

The concept for this role was personally defined by Yang Qian.

A soldier from an old era, burdened with an unknown past, protects everything he can in the new era in the simplest way.

Wu Hongyu chose it for a simple reason: after trying out all the heroes at the training range, he felt that this gun had the most stable feel.

But at that moment, his soldier 76 had just been killed in action.

On the screen, the enemy Reinhardt's "Ground Smash" knocked down his teammates.

Hanzo's "Dragon" roared from the bowstring, and two giant energy dragons swept through the entire corridor, wiping out the enemy's advancing lineup in one fell swoop.

Wu Hongyu leaned back in his chair, removed his hands from the keyboard and mouse, stared at the death replay of his own falling posture, and remained speechless for a long time.

Zhao Lei, who was sitting at the workstation next to him, took off his headphones and turned to look at him with a gloating smile on his face.

"Swallowed by the dragon again?"

"...That dragon went through the wall, that's too overpowered!"

Wu Hongyu's voice carried a sense of frustration, as if he had been bullied and had no way to complain.

"I wouldn't dare say that, in case Hikaru finds out he'll kill the Genji."

Zhao Lei teased in a high-pitched voice, then laughed out loud before turning back to the screen to continue selecting a hero.

Wu Hongyu smiled and then gripped the mouse again.

In the bottom right corner of his screen, a player with a gold-bordered ID sent a message to the team chat.

"Nice try. See you at the respawn point."

He took a deep breath, pressed the H key to switch to Angel, and teleported back to his teammates.

The moment the angel's wings of light unfurled, a system notification flashed on the screen.

"Heroes never die."

He paused for a moment, then his smile deepened.

The online reaction to the Overwatch test server was even stronger than Yang Qian had anticipated.

The game's disruptive gameplay itself is the first shockwave.

In a market where the FPS genre is divided between hardcore military shooters and tactical competitive games, a hero shooter game has suddenly emerged.

Each character has a unique skill set and ultimate skill, and the economic system and equipment purchase have been eliminated.

The game pace is compressed to the point where a match can be completed in just a few minutes.

For players who have been trained in traditional shooting games for many years, this experience is like someone who is used to drinking plain water suddenly being given a sip of ice-cold cola.

The moment the bubbles exploded on my tongue, I felt a jolt.

The gaming section of the video platform was the first to be compromised.

The streamers who obtained the test qualifications started broadcasting one after another, and the density of bullet comments increased several times compared to usual.

The pushcart mode has become the most popular live streaming content.

One team is escorting an armored vehicle carrying an energy core from the starting point to the finish line, while another team is trying everything they can to stop it.

Every inch the cart moved forward was accompanied by intense firefights and skill clashes. The back-and-forth battle between the attacking and defending sides at a narrow corner was so tense that it made people involuntarily hold their breath.

Whenever the defending team makes a comeback in the last moment, the chat is flooded with a row of "OHHHHHHH";

Whenever the attacking team miraculously pushes the car to the finish line during overtime, the chat will be filled with "666666".

The point capture mode has also garnered considerable attention.

Within a closed map area, two teams compete for control of a single point.

Every jump in the capture progress bar tugged at everyone's nerves.

Some players posted on forums describing this experience.

"It's like being trapped in a 20-square-meter elevator with a group of people inside. The music gets faster and faster, the countdown gets louder and louder, and then suddenly, either the whole place explodes or the whole place goes silent."

Team Deathmatch mode provides a direct outlet for players who don't want to use their brains.

Twelve people engage in close combat on a relatively small map, and the first side to get enough kills wins. It's simple, brutal, and exhilarating.

But what truly made Overwatch a mainstream phenomenon was the heroes themselves.

The Soldier 76's heavy pulse rifle has a solid feel, is beginner-friendly, and even experienced players can perform amazing vertical maneuvers.

Reaper's "Death Blossom" is a close-range slaughter feast; the dual-wielding Hellfire Shotgun's barrage strikes fear into the hearts of all squishy heroes.

Genji's "Flash" can deflect all projectile attacks, and his ultimate skill "Slash" allows this bio-ninja to draw his Dragon Blade and cut through enemy lines.

High-level players' Genji gameplay highlights began to be edited into compilation videos and went viral on various platforms.

D.Va's mech self-destruction allowed countless newbies to experience the thrill of a pentakill.

The Fortress's Sentry mode is a fixed turret with such strong suppressive power that it makes any player who tries to break through its defenses grit their teeth.

Hanzo's "Dragon" can penetrate walls and cause widespread damage, and the sound effect of his arrows hitting the head is widely regarded by players as the most pleasant sound in the entire game.

His ultimate skill voice line, "竜が我が敌を喰らう", became one of the first Japanese phrases to be collectively learned by players.

All the heroes' lines began circulating online.

"Don't worry, leave it to me" has become the most common opening line for players when forming a team.

Lucio's "Yo, let's all get hyped!" has been made into background music for various short videos.

Reinhardt's phrase "Justice will be served" has been widely circulated on social media, accompanied by various images depicting the execution of justice.

Of all the lines, the most popular one comes from an angel.

This support hero, who possesses healing and resurrection abilities, utters a short and powerful line when she unleashes her ultimate ability, "Rebirth."

"Heroes never die."

These four words swept across the internet in a way that Yang Qian had never anticipated.

It appears at the end of a highlight reel video;

It appears in the titles of stories where players share their comeback experiences;

This phrase appears in the team chat when complete strangers in the game achieve perfect teamwork and simultaneously type it out.

One player left the message "Heroes never die" in the chat box after the match ended and then logged off in a dashing manner.

The person on the other side was left staring blankly at the screen on the results screen.

Someone made this sentence into their phone wallpaper, with a small note in the bottom right corner.

—From Overwatch.

Some people have found that saying this after a truly perfect team effort in a real-world match brings a more satisfying feeling to their teammates than winning ten ranked games.

The angel's "Heroic Immortality" is a skill voiceover in the game, but outside of the game, it has been given a deeper meaning.

In line with Overwatch's slogan, "The world needs more heroes."

It reminds one of the many heroes who contributed to peace in the past.

"Maybe I can use it to edit a video."

One of the video editors on Starlight Video has already started collecting various materials.