Chapter 137: Epilogue
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Eight to GameLaunch, two to the designer.
After all, GameLaunch was covering the material and labor costs, so the split was fairly reasonable.
After checking the contract once more and confirming that it contained no hidden traps, Yin Jian finally signed his name.
The interests involved were simply too great for him to be careless.
Once he had signed the contract, he sent it to Yu Jia.
Her response came very quickly.
Stone: The changes are done. The preliminary rankings for this round of the GameQuest entries are out as well.
Stone: The Twelve Kings are the twelve games occupying the top twelve places on the leaderboard on June 20.
After seeing Yu Jia’s reply, Yin Jian immediately opened the GameLaunch platform.
He clicked on the leaderboard.
Before long, in an especially conspicuous position, he discovered a new ranking list called the Kings’ List.
He clicked on it.
A notification appeared before his eyes.
[The Kings’ List is a newly established ranking on GameLaunch. All games participating in the Theater GameQuest and signing contracts will be displayed here. Rankings are calculated according to a unified formula that takes into account numerous factors, including views, favorites, comments, recommendation votes, monthly votes, and replay counts. Formula: rank = ... ]
After reading the entire notice, Yin Jian clicked confirm and turned his attention to the twelve games currently occupying the top positions.
No. 1
The Ninth Agency
No. 2
The End of Machines
No. 3
The True Hunt
No. 4
Dawnstar
No. 5
The Witch’s Calamity
No. 6
A Guide to Identifying Customs and Races
No. 7
The Black-Hearted Monster Company
No. 8
...
After looking through the games near the top one by one, Yin Jian began scrolling steadily downward in search of his own.
Yet even after the ranking had passed eight thousand, he still could not find his game.
“Wasn’t it supposed to be guaranteed a place? How can there still be so many signed entries?”
Yin Jian found it absurd.
He almost felt as though he had been deceived.
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“Forget it. I’m done looking.”
After searching a few more times without finding his game, he decisively abandoned the pointless effort.
The game had only just been released. Its current ranking could not prove anything.
He closed the GameLaunch platform and opened the group chat. Taking a glance inside, he found everyone discussing the games on the Kings’ List.
Eggy the Eggy: I’m absolutely blown away by A Guide to Identifying Customs and Races. It’s insanely good. Playing it shattered my entire worldview. That designer is truly a role model.
Divine Phoenix: Is it really that exaggerated?
Eggy the Eggy: Play it and you’ll know. It really deserves to be called a game worthy of the real-world GameQuest. I only played the demo, but I already feel my aesthetic sense beginning to shift in a distinctly inhuman direction.
Cuckold Romance Landlord: I’d recommend seeing a psychologist about that. What if—
You Forced Me: Which of the games on the current leaderboard are actually worth playing?
Grey Wolf, King of Frying-Pan Lovers: Has Big Boss Pup finished his game?
You Forced Me: I’ve released it already.
Divine Phoenix: I haven’t used my recommendation vote today. I’ll go support you.
Happy Afro: I played a few of the games near the top.
You Forced Me: How were they? @Happy Afro
Happy Afro: I suddenly feel like I’m completely useless. QWQ
Happy Afro: They’re all far too strong. This isn’t merely a difference in quality. It feels as though we aren’t even operating on the same level.
“That ridiculous?”
After seeing Lu Guo’s words, Yin Jian began to lose confidence in whether his game could advance.
But now that the game had already been released, there was no point saying anything more.
All he could do was take things one step at a time.
You Forced Me: What about Swordrise? How is his game coming along? @Sect Master Swordrise
Sect Master Swordrise: I’m still working on it. You’ve already released yours?
You Forced Me: Yes.
Seeing Yin Jian’s reply, Swordrise tightened his slightly plump hand.
“I need to speed things up.”
He muttered the words under his breath, then closed the chat window and devoted himself once more to developing the game.
His game was a sports competition title.
Unlike traditional sports games, he had drastically altered the setting.
Everything revolved around sports.
And the sports themselves were far from ordinary. There was no upper limit to skill.
Take table tennis, for example.
Smashing through a paddle, making a ping-pong ball curve through the air, creating clones—every kind of fantastical technique could be realized in this game.
Because the game had to account for an enormous number of sporting events, its development was more difficult than anything he had ever attempted.
Although he only needed to create the demo portion, even that required him to arrange the early competitions for every sport individually.
In fact, he had created a separate protagonist for each sport to drive its story forward.
His ambitions were immense this time. He wanted to create a game universe of his own.
...
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...
Before long, May 27 arrived.
Only four days remained until registration for the GameQuest closed.
“The real competition begins next month.”
Looking at the date, Yin Jian let out a long breath.
This time, he was more nervous than ever.
He opened GameLaunch and entered the leaderboard to see whether the Kings’ List had changed again.
The habit had nearly become an essential part of his morning routine. Every day, it was one of the first things he did after opening his eyes.
After nearly half a month of fierce competition, the twelve games at the top of the leaderboard had changed dramatically.
Of the games he had originally seen there, fewer than a third remained in the top twelve.
Every newcomer was the work of a platinum designer.
Their enormous fan bases gave them an innate advantage. The moment they released their games, they had already left the other GameQuest entries far behind.
That initial lead had grown into a gap ordinary designers could never hope to cross.
Of course, everything still depended on whether GameLaunch distributed its recommendations fairly.
Otherwise, the twelve places among the Kings would likely be monopolized entirely by platinum designers.
Yin Jian scrolled down the rankings.
This time, he did not have to search for long.
After only a couple of swipes, he saw his own game.
No. 56
Infinity
Beyond the top twenty, the leaderboard became the domain of master designers and their games.
So far, more than a hundred master designers had entered the GameQuest.
Infinity had managed to reach this position not only because of the game itself, but also because Cultivation Clan had only recently been released, and player activity was at its peak.
That had brought Infinity a tremendous amount of traffic.
But...
Yin Jian was not satisfied with this ranking.
Only the top twelve would advance. Whether he ranked twelfth or thirteenth—or even lower—made all the difference.
“It all depends on how GameLaunch chooses to distribute its recommendations. Otherwise, there’s no way I can win.”
Muttering to himself, Yin Jian closed GameLaunch.
After thinking for a moment, he opened the group chat.
Amid the constantly refreshing messages, however, there was no sign of that familiar name.
“Registration for the GameQuest is almost closed. Why hasn’t there been any news from Swordrise? Did he forget? Or has he gone silent again?”
With that thought in mind, Yin Jian sent a message.
You Forced Me: @Sect Master Swordrise—how is the game coming along?
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