To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

“You don’t get it, I feel like these rules must have something to do with the easter eggs. Everyone’s heard about the peccadilloes of Fang Cheng Studio’s games. Their boss, Fang Cheng, always takes pleasure in hiding the most fun gameplay elements. Maybe he’s watching us scratch our heads and secretly laughing at us right now!”

“Agree, I can already picture his obnoxious smirk!”

“I don’t know what he looks like, but appearances stem from the heart, he must be exceptionally sleazy.”

“Exactly, definitely a sleazy uncle!”

After much discussion, the group couldn’t come to any conclusions and could only enter the game with a sense of frustration, letting the beautiful scenery soothe their restless hearts.

Meanwhile, Fang Cheng was quite satisfied.

His studio’s reputation was growing, and with the genius operator Wang Xiaoying and Gao Tianyun’s VR integrated machine laying the foundation, the sales of the new game were quite good.

He wasn’t interested in the profits from sales. What interested him was one thing only, the Dustfire formed by the emotional cohesion of the players.

The Dustfire related to the keyword “Botanic Garden” was burning fiercely, with a massive convergence of players’ emotions, it illuminated a pure and flawless flame.

Appreciating the mood brought about by the Botanic Garden, combined with the essence of the garden itself, their Dustfire carried a transcendent charm, which was consistent with what Fang Cheng wanted to convey.

This feeling was very pure; even Fang Cheng didn’t detect anything amiss. Although there were some disturbances, they were just normal occurrences.

Pleased with the Dustfire, Fang Cheng drank a sip of freshly picked Spiritual Tea, enjoying the Dustfire while waiting for its growth.

But just when everything seemed to be going well, a disturbance rippled through a black hole outside the Botanic Garden.

A battered shuttle struggled to fly out of the black hole, desperately heading towards the nearest planet.

Behind the shuttle, enormous and twisted hands composed of Shadows reached out from the black hole, frantically trying to drag the shuttle back.

Realizing it was caught by the giant hands, the shuttle began to struggle vigorously. Its internal engines ran at full power, and the resulting thrust tore the shuttle in half. One part was pulled back into the black hole by the giant hands, while the other half continued to charge forward due to inertia, crashing into the approaching Star-devouring Beast.

The Star-devouring Beast, which was regulating the climate, noticed the arrival of the shuttle.

However, this matter was too trivial compared to the instructions from Fang Cheng, not worth mentioning at all.

So it let the shuttle land, ensuring only that it didn’t damage the Botanic Garden, and then ignored it.

The shuttle deployed its parachute before landing, but still blazed red from air friction, finally managing to land on the ground with great difficulty.

After landing, condensation water sprayed from above the shuttle, and a copious amount of white vapor emitted, spraying for a full half hour before stopping.

When the shuttle cooled down, the door, the size of a bus, was opened. Three drivers clad in spacesuits stumbled out from inside and lay gasping on the ground.

The drivers, even in spacesuits, stood only thirty centimeters tall. Their dark helmets effectively blocked cosmic rays, also veiling their faces behind the spacesuits.

After resting on the ground for a while, a driver marked with a number one on the helmet raised a hand and shouted in an alien language, “I am Captain One, if anyone’s still alive, please, raise your hand!”

“There might be no air here, so your voice can’t carry over, you idiot.” Number Two, the driver, said discontentedly, “Besides, dead people can’t raise hands, you complete idiot.”

“Then how can you hear?” Driver Three asked curiously.

“That means there’s air here, you’re an idiot too.”

One and Three got up, exchanged a look confirming their thoughts, then proceeded to give Number Two a sound kicking.

This was their race’s way of expressing discontent and anger. Although it seemed fierce, there was no harm due to the spacesuits.

Moreover, this act also served to dispel anxiety; by transferring the irritation of two individuals onto a third, it increased the number of happy individuals in the team to two.

After venting, they left Number Two on the ground sulking, and released their all-purpose explanation robot, Beta.

Beta was what they had found within the remnants of their ancestors.

According to the records of the ancestors, their descendants had escaped into another universe for a thousand years.

However, within that millennium, their technological strength not only failed to improve but showed signs of decline; their technological development now depended entirely on archaeology, which was undoubtedly a step backward.

But there was no helping it, for the universe was truly too dangerous.

Moreover, due to the different natural laws in various places, the same experimental conditions could lead to different outcomes, making technological development a very random affair.

As the explanatory robot Beta scanned the surrounding environment, Number One began inspecting his own shuttle and the more he looked, the colder his heart felt.

The spaceship had been snapped in half by the force of the Shadow Apostles, its engine now in the hands of the Shadow Apostles, and there was no chance of getting it back.

If there were no other civilizations on this planet, they would probably be trapped and die here.

And even if there were other civilizations, it was uncertain whether they would be willing to accept three stranded astronauts. If the civilization here was barbaric and practiced live sacrifices, then they would truly be doomed.

As Number One pondered what to do, the explanatory robot Beta finally finished scanning the composition of the air.

“Nitrogen accounts for about 78%, oxygen about 21%, rare gases about 0.939%, water vapor about…”

After reporting the composition of the air, it added with a monotonous electronic tone, “The air here is suitable for your survival conditions, you can come out of your spacesuits now.”

Number One let out a sigh of relief, extended his four-clawed hand, took off his helmet, and then began to stretch out his fur.

He looked like a giant snow squirrel, with neat and glossy fur indicating that his diet had been quite good up until now.

Number Two was a chipmunk with fine black stripes on his back, but the expression on his face always seemed displeased.

Number One could understand this because anyone who had just been hit would not be pleased.

Number Three was a black Demon King squirrel, also the bulkiest among them.

Although all black made him look more fierce, his personality was the most honest among the three squirrels. But if there was a chance to fight, he would certainly not miss it.

After removing their spacesuits, the three squirrels frolicked on the barren land, drank water, ate fast food, and then heard the voice of the explanatory robot Beta, “Hypothesizing this place to be in the Pisces Galaxy, Changfeng System, X-3 spiral arm, the specific location is…”

While Number One and Number Three were still nibbling on nuts, they noticed Number Two stop, staring blankly at the explanatory robot Beta.

“What’s the matter? Doesn’t it taste good?” Number One asked. “If you don’t want to eat, can you give it to me?”

Number Two swatted away Number One’s paw and then said to the explanatory robot Beta, “Expand the scanning range, tell me, what universe is this?”

“The main universe.”

“Request confirmation.”

“Confirming… confirmation complete, no error in the message, this place is the main universe.”

Number One and Number Three were taken aback by the chipmunk’s expression.

At this moment, the chipmunk’s eyebrows were furrowed tight, he didn’t say a word, the severity of his demeanor made Number Three forget about sneaking food, and it made Number One feel that something was amiss.

After a long while, Number Two slowly asked, “Do you still remember the history of our ancestors?”

“I remember, the bipeds took us away from the main universe, but they couldn’t adapt to the climate of the new universe and perished one after another. Our ancestors successfully ascended to power, eventually forming our great Squirrel Man kingdom.”

“Then do you still remember which planet our ancestors came from?”

“Of course it’s… no way!”

“That’s right.” Number Two nodded vigorously, “This is the place. This is our home planet.”