To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Moreover, I must say, working overtime without the other employees knowing does give a slightly thrilling feel of committing a crime.

A criminal idea, got it!

Pleased with jotting down the inspiration, Fang Cheng felt that his frequency of getting inspired had been increasing lately.

After dealing with today’s work, he also received a message from Wang Xiaoying.

The competition recording for “Quiet Cultivation” had ended.

What came next was the editing process. The contestants could all return home and wait for the show’s release to skyrocket their popularity.

Fang Cheng suddenly got a bright idea, did some divination, and then knew what he should do next.

Wang Say Games also returned to his own apartment, contentedly lying on his bed.

Although things were good at Dimensional, with great food and a comfortable place to stay, where he could play games all day and even get paid for it, it still couldn’t beat the comfort of his own little place.

After loafing on his bed for a while, he leisurely turned on his computer and entered his fan group.

As soon as he entered, he saw the group notification.

“Our beloved comrade, Old Man, passed away from exhaustion after being relentlessly hounded by five burly Han Dynasty men demanding updates. Hereby, we commemorate our comrade Wang. He was a pure man, but also a despicable one, in fact, someone who was nothing but despicable. He always jumped back and forth between being perverse and too perverse, a person who tried to create trouble but always ended up being the butt of the joke.”

Upon reading the announcement, Wang was furious.

He deleted the announcement straight away and demanded in the group: [Who did this!]

[He’s back from the dead!]

[Don’t dodge my question, who the hell did this!]

[Why don’t you ask your magical girlfriend?]

Wang was taken aback for a moment.

Since when did I have a girlfriend?

Suddenly, the name of Zhao, his girlfriend studying abroad, came to mind, and a horrifying realization dawned on him.

During his days at Dimensional, he hadn’t called Zhao at all!

He had meant to call, but as soon as he arrived, he was brutally thrashed by Monkey, and without saying a word, he just kept sparring with Monkey until he finally, by sheer luck, won once and then fell into a deep sleep.

After waking up, his time was spent dominating other streamers since sparring with Monkey had significantly improved his skills, standing out among a group of comedic streamers like a chicken among a flock of eggs.

Once familiar, every day after the competition was over, the group would sing, drink, barbecue, all fully provided by Dimensional, and they had the time of their lives.

So, he truly forgot.

Opening WeChat, he saw that their last conversation went like this:

Zhao: [I have something important to tell you. Call me whenever you’re free, and I’ll give you a surprise.]

Wang: [Okay~]

Time: Fifteen days ago.

He immediately messaged Zhao, no reply; he called, no answer; he thought about calling her parents, but felt embarrassed…

After several attempts, he felt like he wouldn’t have a girlfriend anymore.

Only an ex-girlfriend now.

With a sigh, Wang felt like crying.

Just as Wang was wallowing in self-pity, his apartment door was pushed open, and Zhao’s figure appeared at the doorway, looking even more surprised than him.

“Oh, so you’re not dead!” exclaimed Zhao, in surprise.

“How come you’re here! Aren’t you supposed to be studying abroad?”

“I’ve returned after completing my studies. The surprise was me. I wanted to see how long it would take you to discover this surprise.”

Wang was overjoyed but just as he was about to approach and apologize, he found himself spinning head over heels and slammed to the ground with a shoulder throw.

Then, his arm was expertly locked in a cross armlock by his girlfriend, and the intense pain reminded Wang that his girlfriend was a ruthless judo expert.

Hastily tapping the floor to surrender, he barely got his girlfriend to release him, then heard her angrily say, “Next time you go without contacting me for a long period, be ready to get your head cracked open by a frozen avocado.”

“Okay…”

Having explained his whereabouts for the past few days, Wang could finally relax and start his long-awaited live stream.

Then, he worried about what to stream next.

He had been playing “Quiet Cultivation” so intensely recently that he felt like messing around whenever he saw the interface, but it didn’t seem fun to do it alone.

“Botanic Garden” was the latest game, but joining in now would easily be suspected of bandwagoning, and most of the traffic had already been taken.

The result of not streaming for a long time was that the fans couldn’t be bothered with him anymore. If he didn’t produce something big for this live stream, he’d definitely be among the top ten with the most unfollows on B site tomorrow.

That kind of thing absolutely couldn’t happen.

“How about you play ‘Spreading Traditional Culture Starting from Me’?” Zhao seriously suggested.

“Let’s just focus on the issue of losing followers,” Wang replied.

Just as Wang was agonizing over it, the hero who always managed to calm the storm, Living Immortal, appeared.

Seeing the game sent by him, Wang’s eyes brimmed with tears.

Whenever he felt like he had no mischief to get into, Living Immortal always managed to hand him a beautiful opportunity.

Wiping away non-existent tears, he replied, “Thanks, bro.”

“Play it.”

After accepting the game, Wang first checked the title and found that it was actually not bad this time.

“Dark Builder,” the name was standard and at least made clear what type of game it was.

The game tags were “Horror,” “Building,” “Survival,” “Multiplayer Cooperation,” and “Pixel Art.”

Seeing the horror tag, Wang felt less afraid.

As everyone knows, Living Immortal’s tagging was on the same level as Fang Cheng; it was somewhat frightening without a horror tag, but with it, you could consider falling in love with the evil spirits within.

And the pixel art tag was somewhat intriguing.

Living Immortal’s graphics technology was also top-notch. This time he had abandoned his expertise in 3D modeling to take on pixel art, showing that he was fully confident in the playability of his game.

Pixel art games were either infuriatingly bad or overwhelmingly satisfying.

Since it was a Living Immortal game, it was likely the latter.

Thinking of this, he was immediately filled with anticipation for the game.

Upon learning the game required multiplayer cooperation, his girlfriend Zhao immediately set up her laptop and got ready to collaborate and stream together.

At eight o’clock in the evening, the live stream began.

After it started, Wang first apologized to his fans, then swiftly got into the main event and started streaming the game.

After all, fans are actually quite pragmatic. You entertain, I follow. If there are enough followers, I’m your cash crop; you can harvest me, but not too harshly, lest I can’t grow back.

The relationship between everyone was simple and direct, pure and natural.

Seeing the simple pixel art interface, an audience member commented, “Old Man, are you roast-reviewing a crappy game today?”

“No, it’s Living Immortal’s, the one who made ‘Traditional culture starts with me.\'”

“…Is Immortal out of his mind? Such good 3D technology, and even making an R-rated stuff would be better than pixels!”

“Although I don’t discriminate against pixel art games, I think you’re right.”

Ignoring the audience who started with comic dialogues, Wang went straight into the game.

Despite being pixel art, the clarity of the graphics was very high, and the various scenes, even when blurred, made their horrific atmosphere even more apparent.

With the top-down perspective, he could easily survey his surroundings and roughly understand that this was a post-apocalyptic style game.

He spawned next to a bonfire, his teammate Zhao was right beside him, and the game interface clearly listed the inventory and crafting recipes.

No tutorial, no storyline. The character controlled by the player would only occasionally say things like “I’m a bit thirsty,” “There seems to be a monster over there,” or “I don’t like camping,” to hint at what the player needed to do.

Communication was possible through voice, but there wasn’t much need for it yet.

Although it was pixel art, the immersion was strong in the game. The simple graphics allowed players to receive more information from the screen at the same time, also ensuring the game was filled with a strong personal style.

Looking around, Wang realized that beyond the bonfire, everything was shrouded in darkness.

Moving towards the bonfire, he followed the prompts to take out a burning stick of wood as a light source and then walked into the darkness ahead.