Chapter 476: Where’s My System That I Left Right Here?
It had been a long time since he last spent money on draws. Opening the virtual screen, Chen Mo felt a little excited.
If it were just about storyline and game mechanics, his current abilities were already enough to adapt most of the games from his previous life. However, there were still some areas where he fell short, such as professional knowledge, art, and music.
His game mechanics stat was already maxed out at the second stage, and while his storyline stat was still a bit behind, it was getting close.
What Chen Mo wanted now were some books on professional knowledge and special items.
At the annual game awards ceremony, after seeing *Sheng Tang*, Chen Mo had the idea of whether he could create the *Assassin’s Creed* series.
Imagine it: as an assassin in a VR game, scaling walls, finding your target, striking with a single fatal blow, then blending into the crowd to escape pursuit. How cool would that be?
"Kill one man every ten paces, leave no trace for a thousand miles."
Of course, Chen Mo also had the idea of adapting *Assassin’s Creed* to a Chinese historical setting and creating a new game, but that would definitely come after reproducing the classic *Assassin’s Creed* titles.
Because although China has many famous assassins, their characteristics aren’t prominent enough. Adapting them into a game would require a lot of modifications and original content. Not to mention whether it would be easy to make, but players might not accept it either.
In China, cultural adaptation has always been a sensitive area. Don’t be fooled by how audiences and players seem indifferent to history and culture on a daily basis—once a TV drama or game makes a common knowledge mistake, they’ll be quick to point it out.
So, game designers are in a tough spot. Faithfully reproduce history? The effect might not be cool enough, and no one would play it. But if you change things? Someone will jump out and say you’re disrespecting history and corrupting the next generation.
Take *Honor of Kings*, for example. If you make Li Bai a super cool assassin, someone will say you’re disrespecting history. So what else can you do? Make Li Bai a "Poet Immortal"? Kill people by writing poetry?
Besides, Li Bai was historically a swordsman. Otherwise, how could he have written lines like "Kill one man every ten paces, leave no trace for a thousand miles"?
And then there’s *Honor of Kings* making Jing Ke a female character, which got heavily criticized. Even though they said from the start that it was a fictional adaptation based on history, it still wasn’t acceptable. In the end, they had to change the name.
But look at *Fate*—they turned King Arthur into a woman and had her fall in love with a loser, and no one from England protested, did they? On the contrary, it was quite popular.
It’s a bit helpless to say, but that’s the current environment in China. Trying to adapt and innovate traditional culture and history in games often comes with huge risks. One misstep and you’ll be burdened with a lot of criticism.
For this reason, Chen Mo had to be cautious. To gain experience and avoid too much controversy, it was better to start with the classic foreign titles of the *Assassin’s Creed* series.
Even if he didn’t make *Assassin’s Creed: Origins*, he could still produce the Ezio Trilogy, which were classics of the *Assassin’s Creed* series.
However, one major difficulty for Chen Mo with the *Assassin’s Creed* series was its cultural depth. For example, in *Assassin’s Creed II*, it almost perfectly recreated the atmosphere of Florence at the time. From the architecture, character costumes, and storyline, everything was highly faithful to history.
This wasn’t something you could just make by taking a trip there. You needed a deep understanding and knowledge of European history and culture to pull it off.
Of course, without relying on the wristband, Chen Mo had other methods. For example, he could hire experts and scholars specializing in European studies as special consultants, send people to Europe for on-site investigations, and use large amounts of memory-recall potions to recreate the scenes in the game.
But doing it this way was troublesome and time-consuming, and there was no guarantee that the final game would turn out well.
"System, come on, give me some professional skill books on European history and culture. And while you’re at it, unlock the third stage for me. Mwah."
Although the draws were still painful for Chen Mo, it was much better than before. After all, he already had several classic games under his belt. With *League of Legends* and *Overwatch* released on PC and VR respectively, these two games would provide him with a steady stream of income in the future. Spending a few million on draws wasn’t a big deal.
Chen Mo made up his mind: no matter how much he had to spend this time, he had to unlock the third stage!
But was there even a third stage? Chen Mo himself wasn’t sure. However, since his game mechanics stat was already maxed out and his storyline stat was close, there should be some kind of special reaction once everything was maxed out, right?
First, he topped up fifty million. Draw!
Chen Mo kept pulling the lever, and the three reels spun rapidly.
But after just over ten pulls, the virtual screen froze and a prompt box popped up.
Chen Mo was baffled. What’s going on? Could this be the start of the third stage?
No way? It couldn’t be that easy, could it? I haven’t even finished spending my fifty million, and you’re already unlocking it for me?
I was mentally prepared to throw in several hundred million, and you unlock it this easily?
Are you messing with me, Pang Hu?
He took a closer look at the prompt box on the virtual screen.
"Detected that your game mechanics and storyline abilities have reached the second stage maximum. Do you wish to unlock the third stage?"
Below were still two options: [Yes] and [Confirm].
Chen Mo was overjoyed. Nice! So there really is a third stage?
But looking at the dialog box, Chen Mo felt a bit annoyed because he knew that once he entered the next stage, the entire draw system might change.
Just like when he unlocked the second stage, the items that could be drawn in the first stage were no longer available. Although some items from the second stage remained, they were all upgraded versions and more expensive.
Obviously, now that he was entering the third stage, the items from the second stage would no longer be drawable. The ones he had stockpiled would still be there, but if he wanted to draw again, he could only draw from the third stage.
Chen Mo wanted to close the dialog box and stay in the second stage to draw some more items, but the damn dialog box didn’t even have a close button!
Moreover, aside from the dialog box, the entire screen was locked. Clicking anywhere did nothing.
Chen Mo was speechless. Doesn’t this mean I’m being forced to unlock the third stage? You didn’t even give me a choice! If I don’t want to unlock it, am I just stuck with a frozen wristband?
No choice. Unlock it!
Chen Mo comforted himself: "At least unlocking the third stage didn’t have too many twists and turns. The system didn’t screw me over. That’s a good thing..."
A very cool dynamic effect appeared on the screen. The entire slot-machine-like draw system shattered into countless starlike particles, and then the screen disappeared...
Disappeared...
Chen Mo stood there, bewildered. Where’s my system? Where’s the system that I left right here?
I was told I was entering the third stage, so why did my system just vanish?