Chapter 1150: Thank You for Playing My Game (Fourth Update, Grand Finale)
In the internal employee break room, a TV screen was playing an interview on C-Station.
"Lin Xue is a streamer on the Moyu streaming platform. For someone who attended a top domestic university and has been a top student since childhood, choosing such a career seems unbelievable to many."
"To this day, she has been diligently working in the streaming industry for over a decade, and many young streamers respectfully call her a senior. Her live streams have millions of daily viewers, making her an undeniable online leader."
"However, Lin Xue has always believed that as a streamer, she should use positive energy to influence players. During her streams, she insists on using polite language and never engages in any behavior that might mislead her audience. Sometimes, she even plays the role of a caring older sister, offering advice on relationship issues to players who write in."
"As a refreshing stream in the streaming world, Lin Xue also has her own views on the industry's development. In an interview ten years ago, she believed that through the waves of time, good content would always stand out. Now, she is steadily achieving her goals, using her streams to bring emotion to more viewers..."
Outside the CEO's office, Han Lu was nervously memorizing the interview outline, muttering to herself in confusion, "Strange, no matter how many times I interview Chen Mo, I always get this ominous feeling..."
Suddenly, a commotion erupted in the hall as many players gathered around.
A confused player squeezed into the crowd and asked, "What are you all looking at?"
Someone explained, "Haven't you seen? Those two big streamers, Master Qin and Old P, are competing! Others are watching on the streaming platform, but we're watching live on-site—this is the real deal!"
The confused player looked bewildered. "Holy crap, what are they competing in?"
A passerby explained, "They're randomly entering two game pods, then randomly picking a Thunder Entertainment game, and seeing who can progress further in half an hour! If they lose, see those two cases of beer on the table over there? One loss means chugging a bottle..."
The player gasped. "Holy crap, these are big-name streamers with reputations to uphold. Why go this hard..."
The passerby chuckled. "They've only drunk five or six bottles of beer, but they've already received at least two hundred rockets... Poverty is really limiting your imagination!"
...
"Victory!"
The crystal exploded, and the screen displayed the word "Victory."
A little girl, just over two years old, clapped her hands with a giggle, struggling to lift her phone to show Li Jingsi, as if flaunting her achievement.
Li Jingsi smiled and picked her up. "Baby is amazing! You won again!"
Chen Mo scratched his head in frustration. A two-and-a-half-year-old already playing Honor of Kings? When she grows up, she'll be unstoppable!
Then again, you never really know who your teammates are in Honor of Kings...
Although having a daughter was great, a daughter this obsessed with gaming might end up dominating the entire streaming scene when she grows up...
Suddenly, the phone on the table lit up with a message from Little Fatty.
"Boss! Where's my character you promised? Where's my Pandaren Zhou Zhuo? I've been waiting for three whole years! When you promised me, I hadn't even beaten Nefarian, and now I've already taken down the Lich King!!"
Chen Mo chuckled. "Don't rush. It'll come in a couple more expansions."
Zou Zhuo was stunned. "Holy crap, three years and then another three, and then another three after that? How long do I have to wait!"
Chen Mo said, "Hey, what's the big deal? It's a custom character. With our friendship, I can't just make you one character, right? I have to build you an entire continent of Pandaria. Think about it—making a whole expansion pack and a whole continent isn't something you can just whip up overnight."
Zou Zhuo was silent for a long time. "That kind of makes sense. Fine, I'll wait a bit longer."
Chen Mo suddenly thought of something. "Hey, isn't it Wednesday today? Aren't you streaming... Did you bail again?"
Zou Zhuo coughed. "I've only bailed twice since Monday. That's completely within my audience's tolerance. Don't worry, don't worry."
Chen Mo was shocked by Little Fatty's shamelessness. "It's only been three days since Monday, and you've bailed twice, and that's within your audience's tolerance? Are your viewers just burning incense for you?"
Zou Zhuo said, "Oh, my wife is about to give birth, so I have to go to the hospital. Talk later! Oh, by the way, how about we arrange a marriage pact? Once my kid is born, whether it's a boy or a girl, they'll team up with your kid to play games!"
Chen Mo replied, "I can't promise that. I'll have to ask my daughter. What if she thinks your kid is too bad at the game?"
Zou Zhuo said, "Pfft! Goodbye!"
Seeing the kid start another game, Li Jingsi picked up a nearby magazine. "The latest issue of Time magazine. Where should I put it?"
Chen Mo waved his hand. "Oh, just another cover feature. It's all routine. Throw it away."
"No way. I'll save it for you."
With that, Li Jingsi took the latest Time magazine and went off somewhere to store it.
Chen Mo smiled and looked at the virtual bracelet on his left wrist.
After three years of development, sales of the Matrix Game Pod had been climbing steadily. The growing player base and extended playtime had earned him more and more lottery opportunities.
The three tech points on the sixth layer had all been unlocked.
The seventh layer had only one tech point. Chen Mo silently clicked on it, and the description appeared.
Memory Blocker: When a player enters a virtual reality device, it can block their memories of the real world and automatically write in memories programmed by the virtual world.
Chen Mo was stunned. He hadn't expected the seventh-layer tech point to be this.
The Memory Blocker meant that when players entered the virtual world, they would completely forget all their memories of real life, believing themselves to be original inhabitants of the virtual world.
Clearly, this was the ultimate leap in immersion for virtual worlds. It would allow players to fully immerse themselves, free from any real-world troubles.
Take GTA 5, for example. Players would enter the game and believe they were Michael, a former thief now retired and facing a midlife crisis.
In Silent Hill, players would believe they were James, determined to find his wife, Mary.
Of course, to make good use of this tech point, many gameplay restrictions would be needed—like forcing players to wake up under certain conditions.
But these weren't things Chen Mo needed to worry about right now, because the unlock condition for this thing was: Total Matrix Game Pod players reaching 3 billion.
"What a ridiculous unlock condition..." Chen Mo shook his head in exasperation.
Just then, he blinked, wondering if he had seen something wrong.
When he had clicked on the seventh-layer tech point, he thought he saw a faint, almost invisible line leading downward.
Were there hidden, higher-level tech points?
But when he looked again, the line seemed to have disappeared. The seventh layer was the last one.
Just then, his assistant Lin Xiao knocked on the door and said, "CEO Chen, the documentary for Thunder Entertainment is almost edited, but the director says it's missing something at the end. He wants you to say a few final words to the players as a closing."
"Oh, okay."
Chen Mo followed Lin Xiao to the in-house studio, changed into formal wear, got his makeup done, and sat in front of the camera.
"Ready... action!"
Chen Mo looked at the camera, a bit lost.
A thousand words were on the tip of his tongue, but none came out.
Everyone else was stunned too. They never expected the smooth-talking big talker Serent to be at a loss for words in front of the camera.
A moment of silence.
Chen Mo looked up, smiled at the camera, and said, "Thank you for playing my game."
(Main story concluded. Author's note to follow.)
(Temporary) Author's Note
It's finished. My feelings are complicated.
The last two months have been a struggle, with many distractions. Besides getting my driver's license, I also took a trip to Japan, which seriously disrupted my train of thought. For a long stretch, I felt my writing wasn't very coherent.
I even had to get up at 6 a.m. today to take the driving test for Subject 3. It was supposed to be last month, but it got delayed due to the Japan trip and the lousy driving school's schedule.
(Breaking news: I failed Subject 3. Cheers...)
Anyway, the main story has ended the way I wanted it to. I'm a bit reluctant to let it go, since this story has been going on since the end of August last year—quite a long time.
Let me first talk about the follow-up plans, then share my thoughts on this book.
There are still many games I haven't written about, so I'll try to update them as side stories, mainly focusing on new games.
Initially, I thought about taking a half-month break and then releasing a dozen chapters at once. But many readers expressed fear of a "Ci Miao tragedy," so after some thought, I've decided to guarantee at least one chapter per day. Once the new book stabilizes in a couple of days, I'll start writing.
Future updates will be divided into sections. Each major section will clearly state which game it covers, so you can choose to save chapters or skip.
One chapter a day isn't me being lazy—it's because I need to write a new book.
The new book will be released within three days, possibly tonight or tomorrow. Please stay tuned for updates.
Why end the book at this stage? There are two main reasons.
First, the book's length has far exceeded my initial expectations. I originally planned for about 1.5 million words, and the later main story couldn't fit any more games.
Second, the "copycat" genre has its limits. I can feel my passion for this book gradually fading.
This isn't about effort—it's a limitation of the genre.
The "copycat" path is narrow, and for game novels, it's even narrower. "I'm Really a Superstar" could cover math Olympiads, Go, variety shows, and documentaries, but this book can only focus on games and game-related content.
I remember when I started writing the Warcraft competition arcs, many readers protested and said they wouldn't read it. I'm glad I persisted, or the book's highlights would have been halved, and its content would have shrunk by a third.
But still, there's not much to write about. Writing about non-game topics feels off-topic to me.
I absolutely refuse to write cliché plots like taking a girl to an amusement park or buying a house or car. Not that all such plots are bad—some people might write them well—but I don't want to, because I find them boring.
In the later stages, I mainly wrote about AAA games. But from a gameplay perspective, they're all pretty similar. Besides the story, there's not much else to differentiate.
This book has covered mobile games, PC games, VR, remakes of many classic games, derivative stories for online games, and even looked ahead to future games. After much thought, there really isn't much new to write.
Since the readers of this book have very different backgrounds and demands, it's hard to satisfy everyone.
Some say, "I don't have time to play games. I want to learn about games and their stories through this book. Write more about game plots."
Others say, "Why are you always writing about game plots? I've already played through these games. It's boring."
Some say, "Why isn't there any face-slapping or power fantasy anymore? It's not fun."
Others say, "Game novels should just focus on making games. It's not an urban novel. Why do you need so much face-slapping?"
Some want more romance and relationship drama, while others say they prefer no female lead.
On the topic of romance, I admit that as a straight guy, writing relationship drama makes me uncomfortable. So I really can't write it.
If I can't write it well, I shouldn't force it. Otherwise, it'll be awkward for both me and you.
I'll try to improve in the next book.
For this book, Serent's story isn't over yet. You can still see him showing off in the side stories.
Looking back, this book has achieved far more success than I ever imagined. The game + copycat + game design genre has been attempted before, but none were as popular as this. Ultimately, I owe it all to your support. If it weren't for the average subscription exceeding 10,000, I might not have been so determined to make this my lifelong career.
Of course, I'm always a bit nervous when starting a new book. But web novels are like rowing upstream—if you don't advance, you fall back.
You can't rely on old formulas forever, but innovation comes with the risk of failure. If it flops, so be it. I'll grind for half a year to finish it and then write the next one.
So the next book will be a bit different from this one. I wonder if you remember Qin An, who fought his way out of the cheater-filled server in PUBG? The new book's story has some similarities, and the protagonist's surname is also Qin.
A very embarrassing surname.
Today's four updates leave me with 12 chapters of debt. I won't track monthly votes anymore. These chapters will be repaid through side stories, and the number of side stories will far exceed 12.
From the start of the book to now, it's been 11 months, or about 330 days. The guaranteed updates were 660 chapters, but I've actually updated 1,150 chapters, meaning I've repaid over 490 chapters.
Because I wrote too quickly, some parts were poorly thought out, and some arcs dragged on, causing some readers to drop off. For the new book, I hope to write slower and more solidly, so more people can stick with it until the end.
Finally, let me recommend a game. I've always supported domestic games, but there are very few worth recommending. This time, it's a mobile game called "Butterfly Sword." Yes, it's the spiritual successor to the single-player action game IP from over a decade ago. I originally wanted to write about it in the novel because it's quite unique—a high-difficulty hardcore mobile game, rare in China. But due to conflicts with the main story, I never found a suitable place to include it, so I had to reluctantly give up. The game should be starting its second beta test today. Its keyword is "suffering." I know many of you are Dark Souls masochists, so go check it out.
Anyway, thank you all for sticking with me until the end. Please keep your collections and next month's recommendation votes ready. I have to start leveling a new character again.
The new book will release 10,000 to 20,000 words at once once it passes review. I'll post a separate chapter here to introduce the title and general plot.
Thank you for reading my book. See you in the new one.