To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 632: Chapter 361 Long Time No See (Second Update)_2 Chapter 632: Chapter 361 Long Time No See (Second Update)_2 And the explosive popularity of “Immortal Road” has become a recent hot topic, with numerous companies starting to imitate the design of “Immortal Road,” only to find themselves stuck at the most critical point.

The AI in “Immortal Road” was too impressive.

As enemies, ordinary AIs would act like a player just like themselves, letting players enjoy the fun of battling against friends.

And as allies, AI could display a significant degree of human touch. AIs with random personalities might even use little tricks, making players feel they were facing real people, not AIs.

Not only that, but the powerful AI allowed for many different types of gameplay within the game.

For example, players could team up with multiple AIs to attack a high-difficulty AI.

Or they could ally with a high-difficulty AI to challenge the entire world.

In this way, the AI was truly artificial intelligence, not artificial stupidity.

Besides, the appearance of player characters made the game’s visual content more abundant, giving players a sense of reality while also making the AIs feel like actual entities, not mere programs.

As a result, these AIs became even more annoying.

Upon realizing that they couldn’t create such strong AI, the manufacturers had to settle for less, continuously reducing the role of AI until their products inevitably became mediocre.

After this comparison, these companies realized that Fang Cheng Studio was indeed an extraordinary studio, with a technical threshold that had been built to an extremely high level. This made people both look forward to and fear their future work.

The anticipation was because Fang Cheng Studio’s games could always spark a craze, and the fear was that their games were truly impossible to replicate, expressing a sentiment akin to “I, your humble servant, can’t do it.”

Amidst the game developers’ dilemma and the players’ revelry, the first DLC for “Immortal Road” was released.

In the new DLC “War of the Gods,” players could choose gods to worship and offer various sacrifices to improve the gods’ favor and then gain their support.

The power of gods was comparable to a cultivator who had become an immortal. They could alter the terrain, increase or decrease resources, or even bestow blessings to significantly enhance the effects of wonders and eliminate any adverse effects of wonders.

This was Fang Cheng Studio’s counter-offensive, aiming to show the players through the power of the gods: what you’re pursuing is too superficial; a true immortal is this powerful.

So stop chasing after earthly matters, and come become an immortal quickly.

But from the players’ perspective, it was like: “It’s over, I’m going to be surrounded by AI daddies.”

After all, some experts had calculated that the strength of AI on different system levels was multiplicative; with each new system introduced, the AI’s power would significantly increase.

After all, the AI understood the game better than the players and knew the specific functions of each god.

Even in the same circumstances, the high-difficulty AI would increase its strength drastically with the addition of systems, reaching the point where it could make players kneel and sing “Conquer.”

Seeing players who were becoming increasingly focused on the ground and forgetting the original objective of the game, Fang Cheng felt that this generation of players was truly uninspiring.

Forget it, whatever.

Do what you will.

I’m off to muddle through.

While Fang Cheng retreated to the Cosmic Void to meditate and disperse his helplessness, Liuzi finally had time to play games again.

His new work, “That Year’s Snow,” had become a pillar of “DUMP,” a romance comic that managed to stand out among a slew of action-packed comics, evidence of the work’s exceptional strength.

In recent surveys, “That Year’s Snow” had been ranked first seven times in a row, and just three months after serialisation, it was announced for both animation and live-action adaptations, making it one of the fastest to receive such treatment in recent times.

The animation company was JAY, with its delicate and subtle art style combined with extremely heartwarming storylines, bound to make viewers cry uncontrollably.

Because of this, Liuzi had an especially busy schedule, with frontispiece color pages, all sorts of signings, the release of singular volumes and movie promotional interviews requiring his personal attendance. All the while, the serialization couldn’t stop, which was almost too much for Liuzi to handle.

However, today, he could finally log in and play the game.

Upon entering the game and updating it to the latest DLC “War of the Gods,” he was about to invite his partner, the Goddess of Art, to join him when he saw her reply.

[Liuzi:

I’m really sorry, but I have an important task from the Great Heavenly Lord to complete, so I won’t be able to join you in the game. But don’t worry, I’ll be watching you. And if you worship the wrong gods in the game, then I’ll have to impose the “curse of forever puncturing the toilet paper” on you—remember that.]

After reading her message, Liuzi couldn’t help asking, “What kind of punishment is that? If you puncture it with a big account, can’t you just switch to a smaller account? Wait, it seems not that kind of ‘big account.'”

Upon understanding the content of the Goddess of Art’s message, Liuzi gasped, feeling that even though it was only an NPC in a game, the curse seemed a bit too vicious.

Although it was a bit lonelier playing “Immortal Road” without a partner, since she couldn’t come, there was nothing to be done about it.

Moreover, the games produced by Fang Cheng Studio were quite detailed. An NPC could have its own life, which greatly enhanced the NPC’s image, making them feel more like living beings.

Going into the game alone, Liuzi began to familiarize himself with the changes.

He had already played “Immortal Road” for a while when it was first released and was fairly familiar with the various game settings.

Expertly settling down his starting point, he began to build a school, and then immediately hired some citizens to scout ahead.

This time, he chose the Squirrel Man race, a new race added in the DLC.

This race features traits such as “Small Size (lower food requirements, lower strength, higher city population limit)” and “Flora and Fauna (fast recovery, fast breeding rate),” making it a race that can easily accumulate virtue but has comparatively weak strength.

However, this race has a strong desire for exploration. Every turn, a citizen could be conscripted as a Scout to discover the world, and as technology unlocked, the Scouts’ strength would also grow.

The early game process remained the same as before, continuously increasing the population count and using the high population growth to constantly conscript Scouts, then sending them out to explore and understand the surrounding situation.

After discovering an abandoned relic nearby, he immediately led a team of Scouts to this relic.

In the game, relics could have a multitude of random effects. Some could remind one’s race of forgotten technologies, while others might harbor great dangers, ready to attack any outsiders daring to enter.

Liuzi was in luck this time.

After a turn of exploration, his Scouts brought back a strange object.

It was a one-meter-tall statue made from what looked like marble, but strangely, the statue was indestructible, and not even Liuzi himself could damage it.

Players in the game, as Cultivators, are the equivalent of a Hero Unit, but they possess greater potential growth and can improve their own strength based on virtue.

Even a Cultivator couldn’t destroy this statue, which showed that it was extraordinary.

Based on appearance alone, it was a white hedgehog without spikes, its skin wrinkly and not particularly attractive.

However, the Scouts who came here were entranced by the statue, facing it and starting to worship it. And then, the voiceover chimed in:

“Your Scouts have discovered something extraordinary in the relic. It seems to harbor a presence unknown to you. You realize it’s a statue of a god, and the attention of this god still lingers here. If you know the name of this god, then call upon Them, and They might bring art and joy to your civilization.”

Staring at the marble statue, Liuzi knew what the Goddess of Art’s job was.

Chuckling bitterly, he said to the statue, “Come out, Goddess of Art.”

No sooner had he finished speaking than a bright phosphorescence emerged from the statue. The radiant Goddess of Art descended there and delicately alighted on Liuzi’s shoulder.

Touching Liuzi’s head, the Goddess of Art smiled and asked, “Been a while, haven’t you missed me?”