Shen Qinghan didn’t take this old-fashioned shooting game seriously.
Although she wasn’t much of a gamer, she had played competitive games for a while during university. Even in ultra-high difficulty mecha battles, she had won the university league championship.
This primitive shooting game was naturally nothing to her.
As the assault boat shuddered violently, as if the bottom had hit something.
In the virtual reality state, Shen Qinghan stumbled and nearly fell. At this moment, a voice rang in her ears:
“Everyone! Form two lines, avoid the shell craters!”
“Prepare to land!”
“May the Lord bless you all!”
Before she could think about what “the Lord” was or why they needed blessing.
CLANG—
The front panel of the assault boat had already dropped.
Shen Qinghan looked up to see the NPC in front of her about to charge toward the beach.
Suddenly, the roar of machine guns erupted.
Before Shen Qinghan could fully straighten up, she saw the NPC in front of her torn apart by the powerful machine gun fire, with blood and chunks of flesh splattering toward her.
Warm blood splashed all over Shen Qinghan.
The almost realistic sensation and temperature sent chills down her spine. Shen Qinghan was completely stunned.
She couldn’t think at all.
BANG!
Her chest suddenly took a heavy hit, and before the intense pain could spread—
BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Blood bloomed from various parts of Shen Qinghan’s body. The thoughts in her mind were useless; she had no time to react as a series of machine gun bullets struck her body.
With a thud, she collapsed.
Falling onto the deck.
Shen Qinghan’s mind went completely blank.
Not dead?
This thought flashed through her mind. Shen Qinghan tried to get up, but found she couldn’t control her body. The colors in her vision grew weaker and weaker until everything plunged into darkness.
Then Shen Qinghan’s perspective lit up again, only now it had changed to a god’s-eye view, watching the charge below.
Watching as the soldiers from the assault boat below were completely wiped out by the beach defenders.
A game over dialog box appeared before her eyes.
Only then did Shen Qinghan return to the desktop. She gritted her teeth.
And clicked on “World War II: Rise of Empire” again.
That was just too embarrassing.
Good thing no one saw it.
She didn’t even make it off the assault boat before getting killed.
No wonder they had to form two lines.
Standing in a cluster was just asking to be sitting ducks.
How did that guy Zhao Ming come up with such a twisted game?
And why was there only one chance? Why did you have to wait so long after dying? Could such a long respawn mechanism really retain players?
Refusing to give up, Shen Qinghan appeared on the assault boat once more.
The game began.
Half a day later.
In Zhao Ming’s office.
Time was approaching noon. Shen Qinghan had been wearing the VR headset, sitting on the sofa playing for an entire morning.
Zhao Ming estimated she must have died dozens of times by now.
Dying dozens of times and still playing—it seemed his design was very successful. Even Shen Qinghan had become addicted to it.
Just as he was thinking this.
Shen Qinghan on the sofa stirred, reached up to grab the VR headset from her head, and slammed it hard on the ground:
“ZHAO MING!!!”
She was furious!
She had played over forty times and hadn’t survived longer than three minutes even once!
She had even drowned twice after falling into the sea and being unable to swim back up! How ridiculous!!!
What kind of broken difficulty was this!
Shen Qinghan clenched her teeth, stood up, and glared furiously at Zhao Ming at his desk.
Zhao Ming cleared his throat lightly:
“What’s wrong, Senior?”
Shen Qinghan said through gritted teeth:
“What kind of trash game is this!”
“Does this game even have a clear option?! Huh?!!!”
“I died over forty times!!!”
“This game makes it completely impossible to successfully land!”
Zhao Ming coughed twice:
“But Senior, you played for an entire morning. Doesn’t that prove this game’s success?”
Shen Qinghan was momentarily speechless with anger:
“That was because I…”
She had kept restarting because she refused to accept defeat:
“That’s different.”
Zhao Ming said with a smile:
“How is it different?”
“You just couldn’t accept it, right? And it’s not just you who thinks this way—other players will definitely think the same after playing.”
“If everyone thinks this way, won’t the game become popular?”
Listening to Zhao Ming’s twisted logic, Shen Qinghan’s head was buzzing and ringing, but she couldn’t come up with any rebuttal. She could only say:
“Even if this method is correct.”
“Isn’t the game difficulty too intense?”
“And why can’t you respawn after death? Why do you have to wait until the match ends?”
“And bullets hitting your body affect your movement.”
“These…”
Zhao Ming said:
“All of these are very reasonable, aren’t they?”
Shen Qinghan said through clenched teeth:
“How are they reasonable?”
“These settings make the game experience terrible.”
“Players will definitely protest.”
No respawn count, and injuries affecting movement.
It was hard to imagine this was a shooting game.
This kind of real-time feedback should be for large-scale survival games, right?
In this type of gunfight game, having injuries affect movement was simply deadly.
Zhao Ming shook his head and said:
“No, this is the most realistic and reasonable approach.”
“This game doesn’t have data panels or death counts.”
“Because in reality, you only have one life.”
“There’s no setting like in other games where you can respawn at will after death.”
“This is to make players value life.”
“Moreover, many people fantasize that once war comes, they’ll command thousands of troops on the battlefield, perform great feats, and rout the enemy.”
Shen Qinghan’s face turned red.
Why did it feel like he was talking about her…
Come to think of it, before dying the first time, she had been studying how to land on the beach, from which direction to take down the enemy’s firing positions. The result… she died over forty times and still hadn’t made it onto the beach.
All those thoughts were completely wasted.
Looking back now, those thoughts were really laughable.
But Zhao Ming didn’t notice Shen Qinghan’s expression and continued:
“But reality is often harsh.”
“The vast majority of people can only be cannon fodder.”
“Just like those on the assault boat.”
“The goal is to let players experience this cruelty, recognize reality, and know that they’re nothing more than cannon fodder.”
“This way.”
“Who would still look forward to war?”
“Doesn’t this achieve the anti-war purpose?”
“It perfectly fits the core requirements of ‘Anti-War Competition.'”
Shen Qinghan frowned slightly, unable to refute this. After thinking for a moment, she said:
“Then shouldn’t the game’s pain sensation and movement be adjusted?”
“It’s already hard to land on the beach in perfect condition. If your limbs get shot, you’re basically waiting to die.”
Zhao Ming shrugged and said:
“You only have one life, and only one pair of hands and feet.”
“This VR headset scans the player’s physical data to generate their body.”
“To give players a better experience.”
“I specifically enhanced the scan data.”
“The character you control in the game has 1.2 times your real-world speed and strength.”
“In other words.”
“If a real war broke out.”
“Being cannon fodder in the game is no different from being cannon fodder in reality.”
“I’m the one who truly cares about players and puts heart into making games~”
(End of Chapter)
