Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 216 - 215: This Experience Store Seems Full of Bugs!

Chapter 216: Chapter 215: This Experience Store Seems Full of Bugs!

How bizarre!

Hou Ji had indeed encountered this kind of situation before.

The USB port was an extremely outdated and user-unfriendly interface, its biggest problem being that it had to be inserted the right way round,

if inserted upside down, it wouldn’t fit in.

So, later ports, like the TYPE-C, were designed not to have an upside-down, making it impossible to insert them incorrectly.

But there was no helping it; the USB port was, after all, a historical relic and would remain in use for a long time to come.

As a college student with a laptop, Hou Ji also often inserted the USB the wrong way.

But blindly inserting it the wrong way round would normally take at most three attempts.

The first time it didn’t go in, you’d flip it and if it still didn’t go in, then by the third try, it almost always would.

Don’t ask why not just two times; if you ask, it’s mysticism.

But the situation at hand was evidently bizarre; Hou Ji blindly attempted to insert it three times and still couldn’t get it in, even after a fourth and fifth attempt, it still wouldn’t fit!

Wasn’t that just freaky?

Could there be something wrong with this port?

Hou Ji was utterly perplexed and, after the fifth failed attempt, he finally couldn’t help bending down to take a closer look at the port, then inserted the USB drive.

This time, it went in on the first try!

"How bizarre,"

muttered Hou Ji under his breath, completely unable to comprehend what was going on. But, whatever it was, after inserting the key, he at least got to the normal page.

He had chosen a driving simulator with a steering wheel.

The entire experience store was spread over three floors, each with its own assortment of equipment.

The first floor was the lobby, with large TVs on two walls. In front of the sizable TVs were some coffee-shop-like small round tables and single sofas where customers could rest, have coffee, watch TV, and of course, play multiplayer party games—although Sky Against Heaven had not yet released such games.

In one corner, several driving simulators with steering wheels were set up, complete with high-spec computers, triple screens or ultra-wide curved monitors, and a co-branded direct-drive steering wheel set.

Another corner featured a two-person sofa and a large TV, with the latest co-branded controllers on the table, including mini steering wheel attachments.

On the second and third floors, individual seating including single sofas and slightly smaller TVs or monitors was arranged.

as for the equipment, keyboard, mouse, controllers, steering wheels, etc., were all available, allowing players to choose according to different needs.

However, at the moment, there was only one customer in the store, not even filling up the seats on the first floor, much less bothering to go up to the second or third floor.

Hou Ji continued to look at the page in front of him, which currently had two options: register an account or guest login.

The page also explained:

About guest login, there’s not much to say; one click and you could play, but it wouldn’t save any game progress.

If you registered an account, you could have a designated account for the Sky Against Heaven Game Experience Store, which would keep all your game progress.

It could also link with cloud save data from any Sky Against Heaven games you had played before, allowing you to pick up where you had left off.

Hou Ji was a bit baffled, couldn’t he just log in with his official platform account?

But on second thought, that wouldn’t really be appropriate since these were public devices and not necessarily secure.

If someone logged in directly with an official platform account and it got hacked, what then?

Many would worry about this. Even if the experience store promised that wouldn’t happen, people wouldn’t be reassured.

But if you registered a new account specifically for this and just linked it to the official platform account,

it would be like setting up a firewall; even if this new "Sky Against Heaven Game Experience Store account" got hacked, it wouldn’t affect your official platform account. And since a hack of this experience store account was worthless,

hackers naturally wouldn’t bother, and players wouldn’t have to worry.

Yeah, this approach did make some sense.

The registration process was simple. Hou Ji filled in the account name and password, as well as the email and phone number for verification, and quickly completed the registration.

Now he should be able to play without any hassles, right?

Hou Ji clicked to log in to his account, entered the username and password he had just registered.

However, upon hitting the enter key, a striking prompt appeared on the screen: Password incorrect! Have you forgotten your password? [Click to retrieve password]

"What?"

Hou Ji was shocked, It’s the account I just registered!

Something wasn’t right.

He clicked on "Retrieve Password," sent a verification code to his phone, and entered a new password.

The prompt appeared on the screen again: "The new password cannot be the same as the old one!"

"Pfft!!"

Hou Ji spurted out a mouthful of blood again. What the heck was this!

How could the new and old passwords be the same? Didn’t it just tell me the password was incorrect?

He was speechless and simply exited the password change interface, returning to the original login screen, and entered the same password again.

This time, he naturally logged in successfully.

Hou Ji scratched his head in confusion, a bit unable to understand what was going on.

Had he entered the password incorrectly before?

Well, it was possible, for after entering the password, all that showed was asterisks, and he couldn’t rule out accidentally hitting the wrong key.

After all, he was using a steering wheel simulator, with the wheel itself in the center and the keyboard to the left side, which was inherently awkward to use, so mistyping one or two keys was understandable.

Hou Ji didn’t think too much of it and opened up "Road Rage Simulator," the game.

It was the only game currently supported by Sky Against Heaven for driving simulation that used a steering wheel, and there were no other options.

As he loaded the game, Hou Ji also looked around.

He hadn’t paid much attention before, but now he noticed, the decor of the experience store... seemed to have some tricks up its sleeve?

He always felt something was off about this store, but at that time he thought it was just his imagination and didn’t analyze it seriously. But now upon closer inspection, it seemed like there were weird details everywhere.

First were the walls of the store.

Walls shouldn’t have problems, as standard decor usually just involves a coat of white and smoothing out the plaster, but the store’s walls were noticeably uneven. Plus, they weren’t pure white but a tad gray, and under the lighting, they looked like a complete mess.

It was as if the textures hadn’t been applied properly in some games or as if the graphic quality had been reduced due to low configuration, making everything seem blurry.

Then there were the tables and chairs in the store. He hadn’t paid much attention to them before, but now upon closer inspection, it turned out that many of them had issues. Some looked like they were stuck into the wall, and others, the table and chairs had merged into one, as if they had glitched through each other.

Also, there were lines used to divide the different areas. The lines themselves looked very thin, but when the sunlight shined on them, they cast noticeably jagged shadows, like what you would see without anti-aliasing in some games.

Large paintings were hung on the walls, but the content was exceptionally simple. They looked like spaces extending inward, yet upon closer examination, they were just trompe l’œil paintings, actually flat. But at first glance, they made one feel like they could be doors to a monochromatic otherworld.

Hou Ji inexplicably felt a bit creeped out. Why was there an eerie vibe all over this experience store?

It looked... as if he were in a game world full of bugs.

Hou Ji had to temporarily cast aside these thoughts and began his experience with "Road Rage Simulator."

Just half an hour later, he began to question his life.

What kind of crappy game was this!

He had thought he could at least last the one-hour free trial, but Hou Ji quickly realized he was wrong. This game just couldn’t hold out that long!

True, the direct-drive steering wheel made for a decent driving experience, but just like what happened during Wang Dawei’s live stream, the game would inexplicably throw in a traffic accident when the player was feeling good, and if handled incorrectly, one would get fined.

At first, Hou Ji chose the single-player mode only to encounter many idiotic NPC drivers. After some thought, he switched to the online mode.

Unexpectedly, there were even more idiotic NPC drivers!

It could only be said that after a day’s worth of issues online, numerous accidents were happening frequently, leading to many recklessly driving "give-up bros," and their antics further triggered more accidents, causing even more players to give up...

Many players who drove seriously had now become "half-disheartened," which further exacerbated the poor gaming environment within the game.

In short, the experience for new players got even worse!

Hou Ji initially came to get a taste of the joy of racing with the steering wheel, but now instead of experiencing any thrill from racing and drifting, he was just left with pent-up frustration, which was very unpleasant!

"Forget it, I’m not playing anymore!"

Hou Ji was fuming. Since it hadn’t even been an hour yet and he was still in the free trial period, he stood up, logged off the machine, pulled out the key, and returned it to the front desk without looking back, completing the process in one smooth motion.

Seeing the returned key, Sui Tao was quite helpless: "Manager, this... "

But Gu Fan was in a state of calm anticipation as if he had expected this all along: "Why are you making a fuss? It’s normal for customers not to like something. Stay calm! Just do your job."

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