Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 409 - 413: Why Did Play Less Games Network Volunteer to Take the Blame?_2

Chapter 409: Chapter 413: Why Did Play Less Games Network Volunteer to Take the Blame?_2

"If you keep doing this, will any gaming media be willing to accept your interviews in the future?"

But the more tight-lipped we are, the more concerned and invested the players become, and they might continue to bring up this issue under every single one of Play Less Games Network’s reports."

If the players don’t forget, the impact might be even more profound and troublesome."

Clearly, Play Less Games Network’s decision to release a game review at this critical juncture was a bit of a dilemma; whether they admitted it or not, it would still likely exacerbate the negative impact.

Unless...

Lilith’s eyes grew wide as she looked at the main text of the review.

"Gu Fan! What on earth is going on here!!"

The beginning of this review nearly fried her CPU.

Play Less Games Network had actually begun by directly mentioning that previous interview!

And what took everyone by surprise was that they did not shift the blame to Nitiandang, nor did they outright deny the matter.

Their response caught everyone off guard.

"First of all, regarding the interview with Nitiandang’s internal staff before ’Heartbeat Dream’ went live, as the lead author, I deeply apologize to all netizens, players, and readers!

"In fact, during the interview process, Nitiandang’s producer had already dropped many hints, and I had guessed that this game wouldn’t be as simple as everyone thought."

"But if I had detailed the game’s actual content in this exclusive interview, it would have amounted to spoiling the movie for all viewers before its release, which is quite inappropriate."

"Therefore, to take care of every player’s gaming experience, after much consideration, I decided to keep the suspense until the last moment, and we deeply apologize for any confusion this has caused!"

"However, I believe that once everyone delves deeply into ’Heartbeat Dream’, especially after reaching the game’s true ending and discovering the plot hidden deep within the game, everyone will have a brand new understanding of this game!"

Lilith was left dazed by the introduction.

She looked at Gu Fan with bewilderment, "Huh? Weird, is Play Less Games Network... taking the fall for us??"

"Are they out of their minds?!"

When it came to the Play Less Games Network’s interview with Zhou Yang, Lilith was roughly aware. To be precise, the misguidance caused to players by this interview had nothing to do with Play Less Games Network; it was all due to Zhou Yang’s efforts to keep the game a secret, purposely using ambiguous language when answering questions, which then led to misunderstanding among the players.

But in this review, after being beautified by a sophisticated pen, the meaning seemed to have changed!

According to Play Less Games Network, they had already sensed something was amiss during the interview.

As to whether they figured it out on their own or if Nitiandang’s staff had dropped hints, that wasn’t spelled out, but obviously, players would be inclined to think both had happened.

In other words, Nitiandang’s staff had good intentions, giving them some hints, but Play Less Games Network, out of the idea of "no spoilers," deliberately omitted this information, only choosing the ambiguous responses.

Just like that, it was as if they had shouldered all the blame for Heavenly Games.

If it had been any other company, there might have been some appreciation.

A gaming media outlet stepping forward to help distribute the heat—that’s some serious loyalty!

But for Lilith, this was completely unnecessary; after all, the louder the players cursed, the more negative emotions they generated. If players are cursing you instead of me, who’s going to replenish my stock of negative emotions?

The key question was why did Play Less Games Network take the initiative to shoulder this burden?

Nitiandang wasn’t at a stage where all gaming media would curry favor, right?

Lilith felt her CPU overheating; as a demon, she just couldn’t understand all these human complications and felt something must be amiss.

She had no choice but to turn to Gu Fan for help.

Gu Fan also furrowed his brow, puzzled and unable to understand the situation for a moment.

Although he had a comprehensive understanding of the game itself, he wasn’t familiar with Play Less Games Network’s internal affairs, and he was seeing this review for the first time.

"Hold on a moment, President Li, let me reason this out briefly."

Gu Fan furrowed his brows in thought, then continued, "President Li, I think after eliminating all other possibilities, the only one left is...

"The editor from the Play Less Games Network thinks that taking the blame for us is profitable."

Lilith was somewhat puzzled, "Ah? Profitable?

"Just what aspect of it is profitable? That’s impossible!"

Gu Fan explained, "Actually, the Play Less Games Network could have clarified or ignored it completely. Our Nitiandang doesn’t have the kind of influence that would make all gaming media take the blame for us, so their doing this must have a special purpose."

"As for what aspect of it is profitable...

"I believe it’s the ’plot.’ The Play Less Games Network seems to think that starting from the plot of this game, not only can it offset the negative impact of that previous interview article but also possibly bring more traffic to their website.

"That must be the only possibility."

Lilith looked again at the previous passage and realized that Gu Fan’s words really did make sense.

"If reported exactly as it is, it’s like spoiling a movie before its release, which is irresponsible to the players.

"I believe that after everyone delves deeply into ’Heartbeat Dream,’ especially after achieving the true ending of the game and understanding the deeply hidden plot content, they will definitely have a whole new understanding of this game."

From these two sentences, it was clear that the Play Less Games Network was indeed emphasizing "plot."

But this made Lilith even more puzzled. Plot? Did the game "Heartbeat Dream" even have that?

The horror content of the game was basically plotless, with players constantly on the run. After passing through, they would return to the real world and then continue on to the next horror scenario.

There was some plot to the romance content, but that was mostly written by fake-AI, which the staff at Nitiandang had filtered. Even compared to normal romance games, there was nothing particularly special.

Perhaps when the female characters took the initiative, it created a bit of a sci-fi feel, but that wasn’t worth overhyping, was it?

Lilith couldn’t help but continue reading, eager to find out just what made the Play Less Games Network so bold as to hype up something that didn’t exist at all.

"After the game was officially released, the author also deeply experienced the game and discovered that this game actually contains quite complex meta-elements..."

In the review that followed, the article detailed various operations on the character files in the root directory, including deletion, copy-pasting, renaming, and so on.

Though most players had also discovered that the files could be modified, there weren’t many who had conducted comprehensive experiments like Zhang Qifeng.

Reading this review truly offered an epiphany.

With these operations, players could actually perform many functions not originally supported by the game.

For instance, they could transform a save into a character’s exclusive save, entering it to continuously chat, train and alter the AI;

they could, like Zhang Qifeng, delete Elios’ file and then quickly skip the horror content to experience the romance part of the game in a short time;

or they could ultimately keep only Elios and unlock various in-game modification options to change the content at will, experiencing the nuances of the game like playing multiple rounds.

Although the game’s own save function wasn’t particularly sophisticated, the special mechanics of the meta-game made it convenient to accomplish some things that couldn’t originally be done.

But obviously, this was only the surface, not the entirety of the game’s plot.

"No doubt everyone is wondering, who exactly is the Savior?

"Is it those female characters who have left Eden? Or the players?

"Just what is the purpose behind the game’s apocalyptic background?

"These questions seem not to have clear answers within the game.

"But as long as we keep gathering the texts within the game, logically deduce the fragmented plot, and combine it with the meta-elements, we will find that the plot of this game is far from as simple as everyone imagines!"

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.