Chapter Nine: The Scheming Dog!
“Crack!”
A skeleton hunter was shattered by Li Shang with a single blow from his diamond sword.
He gathered up the scattered bones from the ground and strode toward a purple building not far away.
After being tormented by all kinds of monsters for several hours, he had finally gotten a good grasp of the game's content.
Now, not only could he kill various monsters with ease, but through relentless effort, he had also crafted the strongest equipment possible at this stage.
A full set of armor and weapons forged from diamond.
“I wonder what loot this boss will drop.”
Li Shang gazed at the building ahead, bathed in blue candlelight, and, without hesitation, walked straight in.
He’d first discovered this place one night while fleeing from enhanced monsters during a blood moon event in the game.
Driven by curiosity, he entered directly.
Inside, he found a gray blocky figure.
It was an elderly NPC. After talking to him, a giant skeleton boss called the Skeleton Captain would appear from the underground.
Back then, he had no equipment and was crushed by the boss without any suspense.
Later, after gearing up, he planned to return and redeem himself.
But instead of encountering the Skeleton Captain, he was instantly killed by another boss named the Skeleton King.
After several attempts, he finally figured out how both bosses spawned.
During the day, the NPC wouldn’t appear. Forcing entry into the dungeon would only bring out the Skeleton King, who dealt 9999 damage regardless of your gear.
Clearly, this wasn’t a boss meant to be defeated, but rather a safeguard by the game’s designers to prevent players from skipping ahead.
The Skeleton Captain, who appeared at night, was the real boss of this stage.
Li Shang, now experienced, approached the dungeon NPC and quickly completed the dialogue.
Once the conversation ended and the NPC vanished, he used the brief moment before the Skeleton Captain surfaced to pull dirt blocks from his inventory and build terrain to his advantage.
Though his gear was the best currently available, this was already his third attempt to face the Skeleton Captain in this state.
Previously, due to inexperience and too many mistakes, he hadn’t even managed to bring the boss’s health down by half.
This time, however, he was confident he could defeat it, having discovered another interesting game mechanic: monsters could be trapped by manipulating the terrain.
A rumbling sound, growing louder by the second.
The candles in the dungeon's building were snuffed out all at once.
In the darkness, two blue flames, each the size of a baby’s head, appeared out of thin air.
A harsh rattling of bones followed, and then a massive skull came into view.
It rolled toward him at high speed, exuding an aura of utter destruction.
Li Shang quickly sidestepped to dodge and thrust his sword at the approaching Skeleton Captain.
-10
4030/4040
“...”
Though he’d seen this health bar before, Li Shang still couldn’t help but twitch at the sight.
That health pool was simply absurd.
The designer clearly never played his own game, just throwing in random numbers.
He was determined to finish off this boss and then have a few words with the game’s designer—to tell him this is not how games are supposed to be made! Such a great premise, wasted.
The sounds of grinding bones and clashing swords intertwined.
Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye.
When he was down to his last sliver of health, Li Shang delivered the final blow.
-10
The Skeleton Captain’s health was finally depleted.
With a loud crash, the giant skull shattered into countless fragments that scattered across the floor.
Seeing this, Li Shang’s weariness vanished in an instant!
With the boss slain, it was time for the most exciting part—looting the corpse.
He hurried to the spot where the Skeleton Captain had fallen and checked the dropped items.
There was a large pile of coins, which he had collected plenty of from smaller monsters but still didn’t know their purpose.
Aside from the coins, there was also a bone claw and a purple book adorned with a skull on its cover.
Rubbing his hands together, Li Shang reached out eagerly.
[Notice! Please stay tuned for more content!]
???
Li Shang: What the hell is this, you damn designer!
...
...
In his room,
Yin Jian anxiously opened the assistant’s backend.
He glanced at the two new sections that had appeared after the game was approved.
[Game Data]
Favorites: 281
Recommendation Tickets: 18
Monthly Tickets: 0
Rewards: 0
[Game Comments] +17
Having no prior experience, Yin Jian had no idea whether these numbers were good or bad.
After a moment’s hesitation, he clicked into the comments.
He wanted to see what players thought.
If the feedback was positive, then things couldn’t be too bad.
[Without Me, There’d Be No Keyboard Warriors]: Please, just be human! What are the stats on the Skeleton Captain’s drops? Cutting off here—are you a demon?
[I Love Pairing With Pigs]: What a trash game. The graphics are all blurry. The quality of games from Qiyou is getting worse and worse. Any monster or freak can get a publishing contract now.
[Polyp]: Please update faster! This game is so interesting, I’m impatient to play the next part already.
[Who in the World Doesn’t Know Me]: Short and weak, please release more content soon.
[Wild Combat Maniac]: What a trash game! How could Elder, a duke, be ousted by a mere farmer? There’s not even basic logic. Why are you making games at all? You should just be reborn!
...
Yin Jian read through all the comments. Those who had played it generally responded well, though some were immediately put off by the art style.
But...
“What’s with this Wild Combat Maniac?” Yin Jian was baffled, unable to understand what the commenter meant.
Was this really about his game?
Perplexed, Yin Jian took a screenshot of the comment and sent it to Zhou Shun.
Zhou Shun was an experienced designer, so he should know.
Zhou Shun replied quickly.
After all, with a neural interface, notifications popped up instantly—hard to ignore.
Zhou Shun: “Ignore it, just a cloud critic, someone who doesn’t play but only complains.”
“...”
Yin Jian stared at the comment, speechless.
The world really is a big place, and there are all kinds of people in it.
This was the first time he’d heard the term “cloud critic.”
He felt as though he’d just gained some peculiar new knowledge.
Zhou Shun: “If you’re getting comments, that means you’ve made it onto the trial push. Congratulations! How are your stats?”
Just as Yin Jian was about to express his thanks and get back to developing new content, Zhou Shun sent another message.
Since he was being asked, Yin Jian didn’t hesitate and sent a screenshot of his own stats.
“How is it? Can I advance?”
Zhou Shun: “...Just focus on making your game. Don’t worry about anything else. Treat your first game as practice, and don’t put any pressure on yourself.”
After reading Zhou Shun’s reply, Yin Jian realized his stats probably weren’t great.
Still, he didn’t mind too much.
Low-quality visuals and poor results were something he had already anticipated.
It would be great if he could move up to a higher recommendation tier, but if not, it didn’t matter much.
He was making a free game, which was different from a paid one.
A single recommendation wasn’t life or death.
Once he had enough funds to add multiplayer, players would promote it on their own.
Being a free game was a natural advantage in late-stage distribution.
After all, it cost nothing to try—what was there to lose?
[Ding! Your editor, Stone, has sent you a message.]
After thanking Zhou Shun, Yin Jian saw a new message pop up on the backend.
Stone: “Your results aren’t ideal. If you want to advance to the next recommendation, you’ll need to make some changes to the game. There are six days left in this recommendation period, so there’s still time.”
ps1: The number of investors has already hit 100; don’t invest any more, you won’t lose money, but you won’t earn much extra, either.
ps2: Don’t bet on new books; this one’s a money pit.
ps3: There are a lot of sci-fi big names this round; this book has no chance for the three-river promotion, and even making it to the next tier is doubtful.
ps4: Please vote for me! Recommendations are important for new books—they help get on the rankings and bring more exposure early on.