My game is depressing worldwide.

Chapter 103: A Malicious Bug on the First Day of Public Beta Testing

For players of gacha games, the simultaneous broadcast of two previews on the 23rd was a major event.

Although the preview livestream of "Starry Night" had few viewers, it was still quite popular to some extent.

Or you could say it became a hit.

But what went viral wasn't the content, but the meme.

"Could it be?"

"Okay, okay."

It has become a common phrase used by players to tease some game companies.

Every time a game company releases some tantalizing content, countless people comment "Could it be?" in the comments, causing many game companies to be on edge.

The advantage is that no one dares to deliberately create anticipation among players anymore.

If you do this, you'd better live up to the players' expectations, otherwise you're just asking for trouble.

Players thought the fun would subside for a while, and they could quietly wait for the Lunar New Year.

But to my surprise, there were quite a few funny moments.

First up is "Starry Night". After being criticized by players and trending on social media, it quickly released a wave of benefits, trying to catch up with "Honkai Impact 3".

However, Honkai Impact 3rd also followed suit with an announcement, raising the game's launch benefits to a new level.

There's a certain kind of momentum to it—I'll fight you to the bitter end.

The second thing is the public beta test date.

The release date for "A Date with the Stars" has been moved up!

The date was moved from the end of April to March 25th.

Many people can tell that this is a sign of weakness; they know they can't beat Honkai Impact 3rd, so they're thinking of launching the public beta early to try and make as much money as possible.

Honestly, this kind of thing is quite embarrassing.

Following closely behind, Honkai Impact 3rd also announced its public beta launch date.

3 month 25 day.

Same day!

Just a few days after the news was released, on New Year's Eve, "The Promise of the Stars" issued another announcement.

The deadline has been raised again.

3 month 10 day.

However, just a few minutes later, Honkai Impact 3rd followed up with an announcement.

change!

Also on March 10th.

This unconventional competition left the entire "Starry Night Promise" production team completely baffled.

Zheng Yanbin is almost withdrawn.

No, why are they still chasing after him to kill him?

Is this never going to end?!

The construction schedule was already very tight.

From the end of April to the beginning of March, the round trip was shortened by more than 50 days.

If the update is pushed forward again, players will get a version with many bugs that haven't been fixed yet.

That's already the limit.

Zheng Yanbin truly regretted it at this moment.

I was really out of my mind back then, provoking Chen Xuan, that demonic pill.

"Wang Hongguang, you've gotten me into a huge mess!!"

A surge of resentment.

If it weren't for Wang Hongguang's suggestion, we wouldn't have gotten ourselves into such a big trouble.

They've all become nightmares.

Like a maggot clinging to a bone, impossible to shake off, impossible to fight, impossible to defeat.

Throughout the Spring Festival, Zheng Yanbin lived in dire straits.

Even the New Year's greetings that I used to be unable to reply to are now pitifully few this year.

Clearly, many people think he's finished.

It's just that it hasn't been buried yet.

After the Spring Festival holiday, we entered another busy development period.

In contrast to the chaos at "Starry Night," everything at the Asylum Studios was in perfect order.

With the Frostfire Engine, development efficiency has been further improved.

Due to production capacity issues in the early stages of the game's launch, the storyline of Honkai Impact 3rd was not updated for every version.

Now we can not only guarantee that the storyline is implemented in every version, but also ensure both quality and quantity.

Soon it was March 10th.

The same day that two gacha mobile games were launched.

Chen Xuan doesn't like opening champagne early, but at this point he can say that everything is settled.

With a solid 400 million pre-registrations, gameplay that's a game-changer, innovative cross-platform compatibility, and launch benefits that have countless players drooling over.

In addition, the main program, Shen Qingtu, is a treasure trove, which almost eliminates the possibility of large-scale malicious bugs.

Honkai Impact 3rd's launch time remains the familiar 10 AM.

"The Promise of the Stars" seemed to be a last-ditch effort, as it was scheduled an hour early, at nine o'clock.

Hmm, never mind.

We decided not to pursue and kill them for the next hour.

However, some surprises are still in store.

Chen Xuan glanced at the system inventory.

【Curse of Misfortune (Purple Quality): Can cast a curse of misfortune on a specific object or thing, causing misfortune to afflict the person without endangering their personal safety. 1 use remaining】

"I wonder how strong this curse is? I hope it doesn't go too far and kill my electronic pet, my future treasure employee."

Let's use it anyway.

However, this tool cannot be used on Zheng Yanbin, but it can be used on projects.

[Will this be used for the Tianshuo Network Technology project "Starry Night Promise"?]

Yes!

The curse of misfortune has taken effect; nightmares will follow you like a shadow.

Well, now it's time to have some fun.

At the same time, Zheng Yanbin, whose eyes were red and who looked somewhat haggard, suddenly shivered and felt a chill down his spine.

What happened?

Zheng Yanbin rubbed his nose. Had he caught a cold from working too hard lately?

Hmm, that's possible.

Could it be that we've been following something unclean?

Laugh to death.

I've been so busy lately that I actually resorted to superstition while feeling lost and confused.

Zheng Yanbin couldn't help but close his eyes, put his hands together, and gently tap his brow.

He prayed silently.

Please don't let anything happen, please don't let anything happen.

"Han Zhengrong, how is it? Are you sure there aren't any serious bugs?"

Han Zhengrong is in an even worse situation. Recently, he has only been sleeping three or four hours a day, and his eyes are covered in dark circles.

It's almost burning out relics.

"Manager Zheng, don't worry, there won't be any problems!"

Seeing this, Zheng Yanbin breathed a sigh of relief.

Shen Qingtu... such a treasure of an employee, it's only when you lose her that you feel the pain.

But thinking about it further is pointless.

I glanced at the time.

The game's public beta launches in the final five minutes!

Western University.

"Playing 'Starry Night' for the sake of live streaming, making videos, and gathering materials shouldn't be considered betrayal, right?" He Xiangsong rubbed his nose. "It shouldn't be."

The plot of two gacha games pulling each other's hair is hilarious.

Since the official stance is already so aggressive, the players' expectations and focus are all in place.

Is it possible to gain popularity without making videos?

Stirring things up!

We must fan the flames!

Furthermore, we need to create comprehensive comparison videos.

Upon hearing him say that, the comments section burst into laughter.

[Hello, if this counts as betrayal, please complete the Dark Souls demo 100,000 times.]

[So you're up to something, huh? What good would it do you to have me, General Manager Zheng, kill you?]

[Okay, okay, okay!!]

Seeing the comments in the live chat, He Xiangsong gave a wry smile: "Stop messing with me, this boss is a bit difficult... But I still have to say, Gundyr is really cool, isn't he!"

"But I have my doubts. Are they releasing the late-game bosses for players to fight early on? Honestly, that would be a bit difficult."

[If it's not difficult, how can it be considered a punishment?]

[Is the streamer planning to spend money on in-game purchases in "Starry Night"?]

"We still need to spend a little money. We're going to make a comprehensive comparison video, so it's bound to include comparisons of gacha pulls and loot. Besides, don't you guys love watching streamers have bad luck with their pulls?" He Xiangsong said, pursing his lips.

He now has some live streaming experience.

Compared to watching streamers perform amazing feats, most gamers prefer watching streamers suffer setbacks and lose their composure.

At this point, it was already nine o'clock in the morning.

He Xiangsong tried logging in and, sure enough, the download for the day-one patch was displayed.

Once the download is complete, log in!

First, there's an intro CG sequence.

To tell the truth.

If He Xiangsong hadn't seen the preview of "Honkai Impact 3", he would have thought that "Starry Night" was a pretty good game.

Although it still can't escape the outdated gameplay of card-based matchups and turn-based systems.

It has indeed made many innovations, and its gameplay and depth are much more advanced than many of its peers.

The art style is also quite good, ranking among the top in China's gacha mobile games.

There was nothing we could do; we'd just run into a big devil.

While playing, He Xiangsong commented, "This game isn't bad, it's just unlucky to have been released at the wrong time. It ran into the Asylum Studio, which is a bit of a pity."

"If it had been released a few years earlier, it would have been a great game, and might even have become a classic."

Quite a few people watched his live stream today.

Before the Madhouse Studio, players like Xiao Rizi, Xiao Xiba, or Xida were most familiar with Tianshuo's various reskinned games, which raked in a lot of players' money.

Despite the disappointing preview livestream, the addition of extra perks has still attracted some players to "Starry Night".

[So I'm planning to take weekends off. I quite like the art style of "Starry Night".]

Honkai Impact 3rd is an action game, and I'm not good at it, so I can only play Starry Night.

I'm a story-driven player, and I plan to see which storyline is better before making a choice.

Soon, He Xiangsong had completed the initial storyline and unlocked many game systems.

This also includes the in-game store and the gacha system.

"Brothers, let's each spend 3 units on both sides and see how the drop rate is." He Xiangsong excitedly opened the store and started spending money. Here, "unit" refers to the highest recharge tier of 648, and 3 units is nearly 2000 yuan.

The maximum amount you can spend in a single transaction at the Fruit Shop is $99.99, which is equivalent to 648 RMB at the exchange rate at the time.

He Xiangsong was playing on a foreign server. He clicked on the 648 tier, linked and used PayPal to pay, and made three payments in a row.

"Alright, let's start the draw... Huh? Wait a minute." He Xiangsong paused for a moment, "Where are my game points? They haven't arrived in my account?"

[Is the network lagging?]

[There might be too many players since the game just launched]

[Seriously, is the Starry Night server really that bad?]

It should be fine in a little while.

He Xiangsong didn't think there was any problem; he figured he could just wait.

So he chatted with the comments section while waiting.

However, more than a minute passed, and the points still hadn't arrived in my account.

He Xiangsong frowned: "Wait, isn't this too much of a makeshift operation? They haven't arrived yet?"

I'll just quit the game and log back in.

But it still didn't work.

All points are gone.

He Xiangsong was dumbfounded.

What happened?

The viewers in the live chat were also confused.

[Could it be a bug?]

[Wow, that's a pretty big bug. Shouldn't the payment system be treated with the highest level of security?]

[Don't let it get given to someone else, haha, just like in the old days of paper game cards]

It was at this moment.

Hey~

A text message came in.

He Xiangsong picked it up and glanced at it; it was a payment record indicating a successful payment.

"Wait a minute, besides the three $99.99 charges I received, why is there a fourth $99.99 charge? I didn't spend any extra money!"

He Xiangsong was getting anxious, but before he could find the reason, the fifth deduction message arrived.

Then came Article 6, Article 7, and Article 8.

In the blink of an eye, five or six hundred dollars were missing from his account.

He Xiangsong's scalp tingled instantly: "Brothers, something terrible has happened... This damn payment system really has a bug, you bunch of jinxes were right."

"What the hell? Why are they deducting money from my card for no reason? What's going on??"

"A cyber robbery?!"

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