Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 249 - 248 Pulling Lilith’s Wool Across the River

Chapter 249: Chapter 248 Pulling Lilith’s Wool Across the River

Lilith felt her brain was frying a bit; she couldn’t figure out where exactly the problem lay.

Of course, this was mainly because she had introduced too many variables in her search for the traitor.

At the beginning, the only variable was Gu Fan, but Lilith’s problem was that she had never been able to find definitive evidence to prove that Gu Fan was the traitor, only suspicions.

So, to determine whether Gu Fan was indeed the traitor, she hired some new employees at Nitiandang, such as Su Tong and Zhou Yang, but she still couldn’t confirm it.

After that, Lilith began a battle of wits with Hell Frontline. During this process, Gu Fan made commendable contributions, seemingly further proving his loyalty and capability.

She still couldn’t confirm if the traitor was Gu Fan or not!

Eventually, Lilith turned to Qin Fengliang, a strategist she completely trusted, but several of his suggestions ended in disaster, costing her a fortune.

Lilith couldn’t even be sure who had caused her more losses, Gu Fan or Qin Fengliang?

The situation was extremely awkward.

From the results, if Lilith continued to trust Qin Fengliang despite all of this, then she had no reason to distrust Gu Fan, who had a better track record.

Looking at the process, if Lilith suspected Gu Fan due to the plan’s failures, she should also consistently doubt Qin Fengliang.

Add to that the possibility that there were angels causing mischief...

Lilith felt her head swelling with frustration!

"Damn it! These battles of wits are just not suitable for us demons!

"If only we could fight those tricky and sly bird-people in a real battle on the frontlines!"

Seeing Lilith somewhat crazed, Gu Fan couldn’t help but feel tense.

Are you sure you can defeat the angels on the battlefield?

However, Gu Fan still put on a very understanding and tolerant face, "President Li, I think if some things are not clear for now, it’s best not to think about them. Perhaps after a while, when you calm down, things will naturally become clear?

"Let’s focus on dealing with the issue at hand. You were saying, Hell Frontline has released a new game?"

Lilith snapped out of her previous whirlwind of thoughts and hastily shifted the topic along Gu Fan’s line of suggestion, "Right, our top priority now is to deal with Hell Frontline’s new game!

"Here, this one, ’Hell Racing’!"

Gu Fan booted up the computer, searched for the keywords on the official platform, and quickly found the game "Hell Racing."

Needless to say, the name alone suggested it was definitely a racing game.

"This Azazel, why is he targeting us again?

"It’s hard to imagine what Hell Frontline would do if one day Nitiandang stopped making games..."

Lilith nodded indignantly, "Exactly! All he knows is how to fleece me to cross the river, he’s nearly sheared me bald!"

Gu Fan coughed lightly, "President Li, it’s better not to mix metaphors like that..."

But after a quick test, Gu Fan discovered that although "Hell Racing" was also a racing game, it was distinctly different from Road Rage Simulator.

Road Rage Simulator had a realistic style, whereas "Hell Racing" leaned towards a cartoonish one;

Road Rage Simulator recreated a realistic driving experience, whereas "Hell Racing" employed a completely different set of in-game driving rules;

Road Rage Simulator had a high penalty for collisions, requiring rescues, while "Hell Racing" was solely about the competition on the track.

Clearly, although Azazel was fleecing Lilith, he hadn’t completely copied her.

He had evidently perceived the advantages of racing driving games in collecting negative emotions and, seeking to avoid repeating past mistakes, created an entirely new racing track.

"Hell Racing" gave Gu Fan the impression of games like Mario Kart or other kart and racing games he recalled.

Except, it replaced all the various elements, including characters, cars, and track maps, with hellish versions.

Among the characters, there were tiny Inferior Demons as well as virtuous Knights, and even large and muscular Hell Demons.

In terms of vehicles, there are Hellfire Sports Cars that look fairly cool, as well as smaller motorcycles.

Both characters and vehicles can be freely matched, so it’s quite amusing when a tall and burly Hell Demon hops onto a little motorcycle.

As for vehicle performance, there’s not much difference in the performance of vehicles at the same level; motorcycles and sports cars don’t have any fundamental differences in handling—it’s just the appearance that changes.

As for the maps, they are of course rather gloomy, including cemeteries, haunted houses, Purgatory, and so on.

Of course, these maps are not particularly scary, after all, the game itself leans towards a more chibi style.

But unlike those cute and adorable chibi-style maps, the maps in "Hell Racing" are still somewhat eerie, and playing for extended periods can be somewhat unsettling.

You can tell that Azazel pays close attention to detail, not overlooking even the small things that can induce negative emotions.

After getting a deeper experience, Gu Fan basically understood where the killer feature of this game lay.

Mainly in two places!

First of all, the vehicle attribute settings in this game are extremely unreasonable!

Whether it’s a low-level car or a high-level car, accelerating from 0 is very slow, just like a turtle crawling.

But once you pick up speed, further acceleration becomes faster and faster.

That is to say, when at low speeds, players desperately want to speed up on the straights to overtake positions, but at this time, their vehicle acts like an emaciated Old Yellow Ox, slow and unable to accelerate.

However, when a player’s speed is already quite fast, just a light tap on the accelerator and the car shoots out, and you’ll almost inevitably end up crashing into a wall, with speed returning to zero!

This is completely contrary to the laws of physics and goes against the daily driving experiences of players.

In addition, the drifting, nitrous acceleration, and collisions between vehicles in this game... these designs are also different in details from other games, resulting in a very strange feel.

Secondly, there are three default NPC vehicles in this game!

The game allows up to 8 players to compete in a room. But among these 8 people, there will always be 3 NPC vehicles, and they cannot be removed.

And the most infuriating thing is that these three NPCs always make a flashy entrance, all of them tall and mighty Hell Demons, with luxurious sports cars equipped with various flame effects or ghostly effects.

As soon as the race starts, they take off at an extremely fast speed, and then leave the players in the dust, not even their taillights visible.

In the end, of course, the NPCs unsurprisingly sweep the top three places.

Running a normal race in the game does come with rewards; accumulate a certain amount of Gold Coins and you can exchange them for characters, cars, or some other miscellaneous items.

If you finish in the top three, the rewards are very generous.

But once you finish fourth, the reward is greatly reduced, becoming almost negligible. And if you come in last, it’s almost equivalent to wasting your time.

When these two characteristics combine, the game experience of "Hell Racing" is just abysmal; it had already been inundated with complaints not long after launch!

As for making money... well, that’s of course out of the question.

The current monetization model of the game is simple: recharge and then purchase vehicles in the game.

But there are restrictions on buying vehicles; cars are divided into different levels, and if you want to purchase higher-level vehicles, you need to complete higher-level tracks and finish in the top three first.

Then it becomes a vicious cycle.

Furthermore, most players are already discouraged by the peculiar handling and ludicrous NPCs at the start of the game, and are unlikely to spend real money on such a game.

Anyway, Azazel seems to be brimming with confidence this time!

Seeing Gu Fan exit the game, frown in contemplation, and sigh softly, Lilith couldn’t help but get anxious.

"How is it, Gu Fan, is there any hope for this game?"

"I know it’s quite difficult to get players to spend money on such a game, but with Road Rage Simulator being what it is now, we absolutely can’t let Azazel succeed!"

Gu Fan sighed silently, "I... will do my best."