Chapter 146: Pre-Launch Warm-Up
On Lin Xue’s computer screen:
[BEGGAR]
“After failing to resist the Heavenly Dragon Sect’s assault, you suffered severe injuries and lay unconscious for months before waking.”
“When you awoke, it felt like a lifetime had passed. The Dragon King had conquered the Central Plains martial world, becoming its supreme overlord.”
“Your martial arts were completely crippled, leaving you utterly powerless. Righteous factions were either imprisoned or mercilessly slaughtered. The martial world was in turmoil, with everyone fearing for their lives.”
“You barely escaped the Dragon King’s pursuit, but from then on, your life fell into destitution. Penniless and alone, you wandered as a beggar, living out your days in misery...”
The accompanying image showed a gaunt, sallow-faced beggar huddled in a corner, his eyes seemingly filled with unwillingness.
“Ah! What the hell! What kind of game is this?!”
Lin Xue tugged at her hair in frustration.
She had been playing this game for three days, but after losing a crucial battle, the ending screen popped up immediately.
Her protagonist had become a beggar...
In other games, dying usually brought up a screen like “Please try again, hero” or “Victory and defeat are common in battle,” allowing players to reload a save. But this game had turned that game-over screen into an actual ending, greatly enhancing the player’s immersion.
Lin Xue was on the verge of a breakdown. Earlier, when the demonic sect invaded, her protagonist was ordered by his master to rally the three major factions—Shaolin, Wudang, and the Beggar’s Sect—to fight back. But before she could even gather them all, Lin Xue had already failed. As for the later events like the martial arts tournament, becoming the alliance leader, or crusading against the demonic sect, she hadn’t even seen them!
Lin Xue felt like she had taken ten thousand points of damage. After three days of effort, she had met such a tragic end. For someone like Lin Xue, who prided herself as a veteran single-player gamer, this was absolutely unbearable!
Just then, a voice spoke behind her: “Tsk, tsk, tsk. The beggar ending, huh?”
Lin Xue turned around and saw Chen Mo.
When had he appeared behind her? And he wore a meaningful smile on his face.
Lin Xue stood up: “Ah! Aren’t you Chen Mo! I’ve been waiting for you for days! Where have you been?”
Chen Mo was taken aback: “What do you mean? I’ve been going out a bit these past few days, but I’ve spent most of my time at the experience store. You were just too focused on the game to notice me, right?”
Lin Xue paused: “Uh... yeah, I guess so.”
She hesitated for a moment, then said to Chen Mo, “Quick, give me a guide! This game is so hard, it’s driving me crazy!”
Chen Mo replied, “What do you need a guide for? Isn’t the fun of a game figuring it out yourself? Good luck, I believe in you!”
With that, Chen Mo turned and walked away.
Lin Xue was left fuming alone.
On the live stream, viewers flooded the chat.
“Holy crap, we actually caught Chen Mo!”
“He’s so punchable! Always has been! Ah Xue, hit him for me!”
“Good luck? So cringey?”
“I feel like he did this on purpose, making the game this hard! Ah, this sour guy!”
“Ah Xue, don’t get mad. Keep going, you can do it!”
“Classic Chen Mo style, destined to be alone lol”
Lin Xue glared at Chen Mo’s retreating back in frustration, then sat down to restart the game.
...
Days passed, and as the deadline approached, major game companies prepared earnestly.
Soon, some game details began to leak out.
Normally, the martial arts and xianxia genres didn’t attract that much attention domestically, but since this was a big event in the gaming circle, players were watching with the curiosity of bystanders.
The most anticipated game was Zen Interactive Entertainment’s new title, *Sword Asking the Heart*. Many trial gameplay clips and concept art had already been revealed, and players were eagerly looking forward to it.
*Sword Asking the Heart* was a single-player xianxia game. Its world was connected to *Sword Legend*, a move to capitalize on their own IP.
The art was impeccable—scenes were breathtakingly beautiful, and character models were highly detailed, essentially top-tier.
In terms of combat, *Sword Asking the Heart* used a turn-based system, with a rich battle system featuring various magical artifacts, tools, spirit beasts, and more.
Technically, the game could have been made with real-time combat, but Yao Yu had thought it over and decided to stick with turn-based.
For online games, real-time combat was the mainstream because battles changed rapidly. With turn-based combat, each player would have a long time to think, slowing the game’s pace to a crawl, which most players couldn’t tolerate.
But for single-player games, turn-based combat had its advantages. Players didn’t have to rush; they could take their time to think and plan battle strategies. For designers, it was also easier to control enemy placement, difficulty, combat systems, and pacing.
In Chen Mo’s previous life, domestic single-player games like *Sword Love* had already implemented real-time combat. However, a large portion of this genre’s players were female or less skilled gamers. For them, the main appeal of such games lay in exploration, collection, character development, and puzzle-solving—not the thrill of combat. So, later domestic single-player games, like the *Sword Immortal* series, considering both investment and returns, stuck with turn-based systems.
Moreover, this was mainly to cater to the judges’ preferences.
For Chen Mo, real-time combat wasn’t impossible, but given the nature of *Martial Heroes Chronicles*, switching to real-time would require a complete overhaul of the battle system. Redoing the skill filter, hit effects, and everything else would double the workload, and the judges might not even like it—a thankless task.
For future large-scale role-playing martial arts games, it would be more appropriate to implement large-scale real-time combat.
So, Chen Mo and Yao Yu were in tacit agreement on this point, both adopting turn-based combat.
This time, *Sword Asking the Heart*’s main selling point was its story. The game’s plot was personally crafted by Yao Yu, one of the original creators of *Sword Legend* and a story designer. The script had been revised many times and was the game’s primary draw.
Although the game was mainly for the judges, player feedback was also a factor in their evaluation.
Thus, Zen Interactive Entertainment’s promotional efforts were staggering. Game media, website ads, Weibo, and major player forums were practically flooded with *Sword Asking the Heart* promotional materials.
Even on Q&A communities, questions like “How do you rate Zen Interactive Entertainment’s new game *Sword Asking the Heart*?” were trending, with pre-arranged answers quickly racking up seven or eight thousand upvotes.
Players were buzzing with discussion.
“Is Zen Interactive Entertainment going all out? I saw a *Sword Asking the Heart* poster even on the subway!”
“They’re sparing no expense for that first prize!”
“With Yao Yu personally handling it, the story can’t be bad!”
“My social feed is completely flooded with this game. I’m impressed.”
“Isn’t Chen Mo making a game too? What’s his new game? Why no news?”
“Yeah, didn’t he say he was making a Chinese-style single-player game? Why no promotion at all?”
“Chen Mo never likes spending too much on promotion. You know that!”
“So how is he supposed to compete with Zen Interactive? Good wine needs no bush, but still!”
“Sigh, maybe Chen Mo has faith in his game. But I really feel like he’s going to fail this time!”
Bystanders speculated that Zen Interactive Entertainment, sparing no expense, was likely to secure the first prize. After all, they had the deepest experience with xianxia themes, and considering the judges’ tastes, it would be hard for any other game to compete.
But just at this critical moment, a Weibo post caused an uproar.
Chen Mo: “Sneak peek of the theme song ‘Sword and Dreams’ for my new game *Martial Heroes Chronicles*. I won’t tell you it’s sung by Zhou Yifeng.”
Below the post was a link to listen.
As soon as this Weibo post went up, the onlookers were stunned. What? Zhou Yifeng?
He was a top-tier pop star with exceptional vocal skills!
In fact, some gameplay footage of Chen Mo’s new game *Martial Heroes Chronicles* had already leaked. Lin Xue had been streaming it for a while, and many of her viewers had seen the game content.
But Lin Xue’s audience was limited. Most players still had no idea what *Martial Heroes Chronicles* was, only that it was a martial arts-themed game.
Many thought Chen Mo was making this game just like other companies—casually throwing something together for the game committee judges—so they didn’t pay much attention.
But with this Weibo post, players realized Chen Mo was really going all out!
Those who had insisted Chen Mo wouldn’t spend much on promotion were immediately proven wrong. This wasn’t “not spending much”?
Hiring Zhou Yifeng to sing the theme song was way more expensive than running ads!
That was some serious prestige!