Chapter Twenty: The Challenges of Game Development

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

During these three days, Yin Jian had managed to build the map model required for "Spore Evolution." Yet, just as he finished the map and was preparing to enrich the world, he hit a roadblock. Although he was making a game, it demanded a certain level of expertise in biology. But what did an operations major like him know about biology, anyway?

“How am I supposed to deal with this?” Yin Jian scratched his head, wholly unprepared for this particular obstacle. He searched on Yidu, but the information he found was fragmented and offered little help for his game development.

After racking his brains and coming up empty, he sent a message to Zhou Shun asking for help.

“Knock, knock, knock!”

No sooner had the message been sent than there was a knock at the door. Turning on the camera, Yin Jian was momentarily stunned to see who was outside. He hurried to let Zhou Shun in.

“You got here way too fast, Zhou,” Yin Jian said, astonished.

Zhou Shun grinned, tipping his cap back to reveal his eyes. “Just happened to be collecting rent for the month.”

Seeing the list in Zhou Shun’s hand, Yin Jian realized what was going on—and then remembered he was already three months behind on rent. Once Zhou Shun was seated, Yin Jian immediately offered to settle his debt. “Zhou, can you tally up the three months’ rent I owe?”

Zhou Shun pretended to be angry. “Don’t talk to me about money! It ruins friendships. Stay as long as you want. I don’t care about a couple of apartments’ rent.”

Noticing that Yin Jian was still unwilling to let the matter drop, Zhou Shun waved his hand. “Don’t waste time. Ask your question, and let me get back to collecting rent. I spent last month working on a game, so now I have to visit thousands of tenants. No time to spare.”

Yin Jian’s lips twitched at this, but he dropped the subject of rent and described the difficulties he was encountering in his game development.

After hearing him out, Zhou Shun said, “Head to Huaxin Book City for that.”

“These sorts of specialized resources are copyrighted. You have to purchase them to view,” Zhou Shun added, making a sliding motion in midair, as if operating something in virtual space.

Before Yin Jian could figure out what Zhou Shun was doing, a message alert popped up on his computer. It was from Zhou Shun—a website link and a platinum virtual membership card.

“What’s this…?”

Yin Jian was puzzled.

“That card gets you a twenty percent discount on information purchases,” Zhou Shun explained.

“Alright, I’m off to collect rent. I probably won’t have much time this month, but I’ll come by for cloud barbecue next month,” Zhou Shun said, not giving Yin Jian a chance to protest before he swept out the door.

Yin Jian opened his mouth but couldn’t fathom why Zhou Shun went door to door collecting rent when he could just transfer the money online.

“Maybe that’s just the dull life of a landlord,” Yin Jian mused. If he could, he wouldn’t mind living such a “dull” life himself.

He closed the door and returned to his desk, opened his computer, and clicked on the link Zhou Shun had sent.

The moment he clicked, his consciousness detached from his body. When his surroundings came back into focus, he found himself standing in an open plaza.

It was a vast square, where people kept appearing out of thin air. Clearly, this plaza was a virtual online space, instantly accessible through the link.

All around the square flashed all manner of advertisements. Yin Jian quickly spotted his destination.

[Huaxin Book City]

Established by the state, it was the most extensive and comprehensive book city in the universe, with the largest and most complete reservoir of knowledge. Its purpose was not profit, but rather to prevent the loss of knowledge over time and ensure its continual transmission. For this, Huaxin Book City was also known as the Torch of Civilization.

Yin Jian entered the book city. Though a virtual world, it maintained the traditional format of books on shelves, not just virtual screens listing items as in other stores.

Following the overhead signs, he soon reached the section on biological evolution.

However...

Although he’d found the right area, the sheer number of densely packed books left him at a loss. With only a cursory understanding of the subject, he had no idea which book he actually needed.

...

Meanwhile, on the other side of the biology section, a young man with an explosive Afro, wearing a bookstore uniform, was making rounds, looking for customers in need of assistance.

“Still a bit short on money…” Lu Guo muttered, scanning the crowd—then his gaze landed and froze.

He spotted Yin Jian, standing tall and handsome but frowning at the shelves, clearly uncertain where to begin. Lu Guo found the silhouette familiar, but shrugged it off and strode over. Every transaction he helped complete would earn him a modest commission.

“Sir, do you need—holy crap! Yin Jian!”

His words trailed off as, seeing Yin Jian’s strikingly handsome face turn toward him, he blurted out an expletive.

Yin Jian’s expression changed as well at the sight of Lu Guo’s wild hair. “Lu Guo, what are you doing here?”

A look of embarrassment crossed Lu Guo’s face. If he could help it, he’d rather not run into Yin Jian at all.

The reason was simple: Yin Jian was a notorious braggart.

For example:

“Do you know why Goose Studio’s annual revenue is only ten trillion and not a hundred trillion?”

“No idea.”

“Because I haven’t become their game operations director yet.”

Such lines rolled off his tongue without the slightest repetition—completely outrageous!

As one of Yin Jian’s college classmates, Lu Guo least wanted to run into him under these circumstances.

Because, for all his bluster, Yin Jian had real abilities.

Unlike himself…ah, well.

“Shouldn’t you be aiming to be the greatest operations director? This is the biology section. The games section is upstairs.” Lu Guo dodged the question, not wanting to discuss his own situation. After all, he’d majored in operations but now worked as a bookstore clerk—it didn’t exactly look glamorous.

“Let’s not talk about college, alright?” Yin Jian replied, a bit embarrassed. Every time his old university antics came up, he wanted to crawl into a hole.

Lu Guo saw the look on his face and felt a sense of camaraderie in shared misfortune. He assumed Yin Jian had also fallen on hard times after graduation. “Fair enough. I won’t mention college. Just… don’t tell anyone from our class that I work here.”

If their classmates found out about his current situation, he’d never have the nerve to attend another reunion.

Yin Jian nodded. As long as his own embarrassing past wasn’t brought up, anything was fine.

“What book are you looking for? I’ve skimmed through most of them during my shifts, so I know the general content.”

“I’m looking for something comprehensive about the history of biological evolution—preferably a detailed chronicle.”

“Oh, that one…” Lu Guo thought for a moment. “I remember something like that. Wait here.”

He walked off into the shelves, recalling that he’d come across such a book a few days ago.

It didn’t take long.

He found his target on a shelf: a massive tome, nearly as tall as a person and nearly two meters wide.

Lu Guo picked it up with one hand—after all, in this virtual space, objects had no weight unless specifically programmed.

“This ‘History of Biological Evolution in the Universe’—five thousand credits,” Lu Guo said, patting the cover as he returned.

“Thanks.” Yin Jian stared in awe at the enormous book, then thanked Lu Guo sincerely.

Seeing his expression, Lu Guo hesitated, then said, “You can read it here. As long as you don’t take it out of the book city, you don’t have to pay.”

Times were tough for everyone. As classmates, a little mutual support wouldn’t hurt.

“Thank you,” Yin Jian said, his gratitude heartfelt. He had some money, but spending five thousand on a single reference hurt.

Any savings were more than welcome.

He took the “History of Biological Evolution in the Universe” from Lu Guo, found a spot to sit, and immediately buried himself in study.

Time was short, and he needed to make every minute count.

Lu Guo watched as Yin Jian became completely absorbed in the book, and, using his administrator privileges, created a private area for him to study undisturbed.

With that done, Lu Guo resumed his rounds in the biology section. Finding few people around, he opened his personal device and muttered, “Log in to Game Assistant.”

PS: It was my mother’s birthday today. I took her out for a good meal, so the update is a bit late. Sorry!