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Chapter 24: Lin Qi's Game Analysis
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“The game’s volume is huge? I haven’t even finished my first playthrough.”
“The art style is excellent… I really haven’t seen any reused models with recolored textures.”
“Hiss—”
“I can’t just lie through my teeth, can I?”
Lin Qi sat on the couch, staring at the small notebook spread out on the table, feeling a headache coming on.
He rubbed his hair absentmindedly and instinctively picked up his phone. After pausing for a moment, he turned the screen off again.
“This is tough…” Lin Qi glanced at the cabinet, where two thick envelopes sat on top.
That’s right—just a few days had passed, and that mysterious developer had sent another payment.
He hadn’t counted the exact amount, but judging by the thickness, it wasn’t a small sum.
This time, he hadn’t rushed to sign for it. Instead, he had cornered the delivery person and “interrogated” them thoroughly.
But as expected, there were still no leads. The sender’s address was fake once again.
“What was it called again? Fa… Fa something?” Lin Qi looked down at the slip of paper on the table.
It was a small note, its corner pinned down by a water glass to prevent it from blowing away. Written neatly on it were the words:
“Fanaluqia.”
What a tongue-twisting name.
Lin Qi had checked—it didn’t exist. Just to be safe, he’d even asked an AI, but the AI started giving unrelated answers. Clearly, this question was beyond its database.
Forget it. Let’s tidy up and get ready to head out… Lin Qi shook these distracting thoughts from his mind.
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The weather had begun to warm up slightly, but it was still bitterly cold, forcing Lin Qi to bundle himself in a thick padded jacket, wrapping himself tightly.
Every time he saw passersby dressed in stylish yet revealing clothing, no matter how many times, Lin Qi couldn’t help but marvel at how incomparable people’s willpower could be.
“Over here!” As he entered the milk tea shop, a scarf-wrapped figure waved enthusiastically at Lin Qi.
After sitting down, Lin Qi noticed two cups of milk tea on the table. He politely pointed at one and asked:
“Ruan Yun, is this for me?”
“Depends on whether you’re willing to pay for it,” replied the woman named Ruan Yun.
“In that case…” Lin Qi paused for half a beat, then shrugged. “Unfortunately, you’ve missed your chance to bribe me.”
“No…” Ruan Yun clutched her chest dramatically, breathing heavily as if heartbroken.
But the next second, all her exaggerated expressions vanished, replaced by a somewhat cold tone:
“It’s like missing a piece of chocolate that’s been stepped on a few times on the street.”
“That’s pretty bad,” Lin Qi responded indifferently.
He picked up a fry, swirled it in ketchup, and steered the conversation back on track.
“How have you been lately?”
“The usual—overtime, getting yelled at, project restructuring…” Ruan Yun ticked off on her fingers.
“They keep saying the times are progressing, so we must progress too. Like this milk tea shop—last time we came here, they didn’t sell fries, right?”
“They didn’t,” Lin Qi confirmed.
“Exactly. So higher-ups dumped a bunch of stuff on us to learn, without raising our salaries.” Ruan Yun sighed, rubbing her forehead.
“Look on the bright side—at least working for a big company is stable. That’s something many people would kill for.”
“Relatively stable,” Ruan Yun corrected, continuing her complaints.
“When I first joined, I had some dreams—like making a domestic AAA title.”
“And reality hit hard?” Lin Qi asked curiously.
Ruan Yun nodded.
“In the end, our project was a low-quality pay-to-win mobile game. Without a license, the entire project got axed.”
“A year of work down the drain.”
“At least your salary didn’t get cut, right?” Lin Qi consoled.
He joked:
“Look at me now, being driven crazy by a mysterious client.”
This was why Lin Qi had invited his old friend out. Ruan Yun wasn’t just a professional in the gaming industry but also a gamer herself.
When they first met, her online ID was “Skeleton Winter”—a scary sounding nickname that, combined with her reputation as a speedrunning expert, made Lin Qi mistakenly assume she was a burly, world-class gamer.
In reality, she was just another office worker his age.
A mysterious client… Ruan Yun’s curiosity was instantly piqued. She leaned forward slightly:
“Tell me more.”
Lin Qi thought for a moment before replying:
“For now, it’s… asking me to write a guide for their game. Although it’s only a half-finished product, its completion level is quite high.”
“Why you?” Ruan Yun was puzzled but quickly realized her phrasing was ambiguous. Hastily, she added:
“I’m not insulting you—I just mean that developers usually have more options when it comes to this kind of thing.”
You’ve already insulted me enough… Lin Qi’s lips twitched slightly. Shaking his head, he said:
“I don’t know. No contract, no legally binding methods—just the game itself and the money delivered to my door.”
“Isn’t this just free money?”
“Yeah, I’m confused too.”
Lin Qi found the whole situation highly illogical—even turning it into a movie would land it squarely in the paranormal section.
“As I mentioned earlier, the developer is very mysterious. I still don’t know their name.”
“There aren’t any classified documents in your game, are there?” Ruan Yun teased.
“Maybe.” Lin Qi suddenly thought it wasn’t entirely impossible.
“So mysterious.” Ruan Yun popped the last fry into her mouth and wiped her hands. “All right, let’s stop talking about this. If it happened, there must be a reason.”
She continued with interest:
“Let’s talk about the game again. What type is it?”
“It’s an RPG. The background is a sword-and-magic world, but with some differences.” Lin Qi began counting on his fingers. “It’s very similar to our society—magic energy replaces electricity, there are amusement parks, and there are milk tea shops too.”
“Does that world have…” Ruan Yun paused, picked up her milk tea, and then continued: “…Pumei Milk Tea?”
“Nope.”
Before Ruan Yun could ask how he knew, Lin Qi’s next sentence shut her down completely.
“Because of copyright issues.”
“All right.” Ruan Yun smacked her lips and carried on as if nothing had happened:
“What about the gameplay?”
“It’s unique. It’s like a weaker-guidance version of Grand Theft Auto, but in terms of freedom, it’s closer to Baldur’s Gate.” Lin Qi gestured to make his description more vivid.
“That good?” Ruan Yun blinked in surprise.
Both games were critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Calling them the flagship titles of their respective genres wouldn’t be an exaggeration.
“But this game hasn’t captured the essence,” Lin Qi took a sip of his milk tea. “Do you know what the problem is?”
“What?”
“The protagonist is too strong!”
Too strong?
Is that even a flaw?
After working in the industry for so long, Ruan Yun was used to players complaining that the protagonist wasn’t powerful enough or that they were overshadowed by other characters—but rarely had she heard anyone say that a protagonist being too strong was a downside.
“Think about it,” Lin Qi said matter-of-factly. “If defeating an enemy requires a huge cost, wouldn’t you start thinking of other ways? Like poisoning them, assassinating them, or even bypassing the monster altogether.”
“Under those conditions, high freedom makes the entire process full of surprises and a sense of accomplishment.”
“But in that game—”
“Taking a detour is less efficient than just charging in and killing everything.”
He continued:
“Though it seems the developers intentionally tried to limit this behavior by adding an Honor system. But I’ve already figured out a way around it.”
“In the starting village, there’s an NPC—a little girl who gives you Honor points if you buy her balloons. I’ll try stealing the balloons back from her later to farm Honor repeatedly.”
That sounds… rather hellish.
Ruan Yun didn’t know how to react to Lin Qi’s behavior—it was like trading real-life Honor for in-game Honor.
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