Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 566 - 549: Beta Version Opening

Chapter 566: Chapter 549: Beta Version Opening

One year later.

Early one Saturday morning, Zhuge Jun and Hou Ji showed up at Nitiandang’s offline experience store, as usual, taking up their favorite two seats by the window.

"Great, grabbed these prime spots again, how delightful!"

Zhuge Jun was very happy, as there were occasionally times when these seats were taken by others.

Overall, however, Nitiandang’s experience stores had never really been overcrowded, which was still highly appreciated.

It wasn’t that Nitiandang’s experience stores weren’t popular, it was mainly because they expanded quickly.

As long as they opened enough stores, they could keep up with demand.

Over the past year, Nitiandang’s experience stores had begun to spread comprehensively, from first-tier cities to second-tier cities.

Moreover, Nitiandang increasingly cooperated with offline internet cafes and game stores, which also played a role in diverting traffic.

As for in Capital City, the number of experience stores was even more impressive.

However, in contrast to the booming expansion of offline stores, Nitiandang’s game development had pretty much stalled.

For the entire year, no new games had been released.

This was obviously quite hard for the gamers to accept.

In fact, this was a normal situation in the gaming industry, where it was common for major game development cycles of many companies to last three or four years, with no leaks during the development period being a normal occurrence.

Gamers had grown accustomed to waiting eagerly, from one trailer to the next, until the flowers wilted.

But Nitiandang was an exception, always known for its ultimate project management skills and development efficiency.

At its fastest, a new game came out every three months, and at its slowest, every six months.

Over time, gamers’ tastes had been honed, and if they hadn’t played a new game from Nitiandang for a while, they felt uncomfortable, almost like they were experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

And this year was a year of eager anticipation for everyone.

Zhuge Jun was naturally among them.

He tried many times to gank Gu Fan at the experience store to ask about the new game, but never got the chance.

Such a complete disappearance naturally led to the spread of numerous rumors online.

Some speculated that Nitiandang had gone bust, with rumors of investors and the CEO fighting during meetings, even throwing chairs.

But everyone knew that was just a joke.

For a company as badass as Nitiandang, the boss and investors were definitely close-knit and synergistic, so how could there be any major conflicts? It was unthinkable!

Gradually, various rumors converged into a plausible truth: Nitiandang was working on something big!

Of course, while it was said to be a convergence of rumors, there were actually many credible official pieces of information to back it up.

Firstly, fans of Gan Di confirmed that he had indeed stopped streaming, and mod production had also completely halted.

Even privately, when asked about his recent condition in a fan group, he barely responded, simply stating he had signed a confidentiality agreement and couldn’t discuss much.

Moreover, there was that most important piece of solid evidence: Nitiandang released a teaser trailer for the new game, revealing two key pieces of information:

The new game was called "Endless Fantasy Legend 2," and Gan Di would be the chief planner for its development.

This announcement had caused some controversy when it was first released.

The anticipated massive uproar didn’t occur, mainly because the news really seemed too fake, even for an official release from Nitiandang, it felt like a prank with no credibility.

If the release had been on April Fool’s Day, it would’ve been confirmed as a joke, but unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Those who thought the news was fake had good reasons:

Why would Nitiandang go to such great lengths to develop a freemium mobile game? Had they lost their minds? And why would they let Gan Di be the planner—did he even understand how to do that?

Moreover, why use the IP of Endless Fantasy Legend for a mobile game?

Overall, the information seemed outrageous, and coupled with the fact that this was a game Nitiandang had been developing for over a year, even fewer players believed it was actually a mobile game.

Until today, this special day: Nitiandang had already announced a week earlier that "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" would release an early beta version and had distributed invitation codes to a batch of loyal fans!

For gamers who had been waiting for a year, this news was nothing short of a bombshell, instantly causing a massive stir.

And as loyal fans of Nitiandang games, both Zhuge Jun and Hou Ji were lucky enough to get the beta invitation codes; such an opportunity to try out a new game naturally couldn’t be missed.

"Hey, it really is called ’Endless Fantasy Legend 2’, so it’s not a prank?

"Damn, it’s actually cross-platform compatible, fuck, you can play on mobile!"

As soon as he accessed the game’s official website, Zhuge Jun couldn’t hold back.

This time the game was distinctly different from Nitiandang’s previous ones, which were generally just uploaded to the official gaming platform, but this time there was a dedicated official website.

To say it was because this was just a beta version, hence the website?

That wouldn’t make sense, since the official gaming platform also allowed for beta versions to be released.

At this moment, the only explanation seemed to be that the game itself was being released on all platforms, so integrating the platform entrances onto the official website made access much more convenient.

Seeing the huge artistic fonts on the official website, "Download for Android Platform" and "Download for IOS Platform," Zhuge Jun was hard-pressed to describe his feelings, as they were difficult to maintain.

But as he continued browsing through the official website, there was even more information that made it hard for him to keep calm.

"’Ascension’? ’Blood of Lies’? These IPs are also going to appear in the game?"

Zhuge Jun rubbed his eyes, almost thinking he had seen wrongly.

There was some basic promotional information about the game on the website, including background concept art and some silhouettes of characters.

Among them were two very familiar silhouettes, clearly Li Huanzhen from "Ascension" and the Hunter wearing a triangle hat from "Blood of Lies."

Although they were just silhouettes, these two characters left too deep an impression, so it was hard not to recognize them.

However, compared to the original characters in the game, the edges of these silhouettes seemed a bit rounder.

This was because after these two characters were moved to "Endless Fantasy Legend 2," both underwent changes in artistic style, switching from a realistic to a more cartoonish style, reducing polygons, which naturally made the edges look rounder.

This level of detail was, of course, not something ordinary players like Zhuge Jun could discern.

"What on earth is Heavenly Games trying to do!

"It’s just a mobile game, do they really need to bring over all their top IPs as a backing?

"People might think this is some kind of prized in-house project!"

Zhuge Jun found it utterly baffling.

Logically speaking, mobile games weren’t usually given such prominence.

And pulling all classic IPs to support a new game often meant that this new game was like a favored child within the company, a project that the company would spare no expenses or resources to promote.

If this game had been a major production, this move would seem more reasonable; but if it’s a mobile game, it would seem a bit... abstract.

"Forget it, why think so much? Let’s just go in and see.

"Judging a game by the first impression is always unreliable."

Zhuge Jun repeatedly convinced himself not to have any stereotypes about Heavenly Games’ games.

Because Heavenly Games often produced results that defied any stereotypes.

Upon entering the game, the first thing that played was a CG for the opening, which could also be viewed as promotional CG.

Accompanied by a melodious tune, a vast meadow came into view.

The grass was green, dotted with various colored flowers, and in the distance, one could faintly see towering mountains and rushing rivers...

Wait a second, why does this feel so familiar?

This seems so familiar!

Oh right, isn’t this the promotional video from "Endless Fantasy Legend"?

Zhuge Jun still remembered the gist of that promotional clip, where the forest animals were startled, and then a cartoon-style Hero climbed up a mountain peak, with the camera slowly rotating around the Hero to capture the surrounding scenery.

It must be said, that scene was quite impressive back then.

The opening CG of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" was very similar. If there had to be some noticeable differences...

It seemed that the visuals were just a tad blurrier?

No, to be precise, it wasn’t really blurry, but there were some stylistic differences.

Originally, "Endless Fantasy Legend," though cartoonish, ran on consoles and computers, so it looked more detailed and sharp, with more polygons in the characters;

"Endless Fantasy Legend 2," on the other hand, was clearly tailored for mobile configurations, making the visuals closer to a cartoon style.

Even when played on a computer, minor changes were noticeable.

Of course, Heavenly Games wasn’t just blindly lowering the quality; these two styles were hard to compare, and "Endless Fantasy Legend," though indeed slightly lower in requirements after optimization, became more unique in its color and visual presentation.

All in all, it barely managed not to lose any points.

But the next scene was different.

Originally, the Hero was supposed to leap from the mountain peak, then unfold the Glider Wings and mount a giant wolf, preparing for a battle with the Demon Cave in the center of the continent.

However, now, the image displayed a Hero wearing a hood, of indeterminate gender.

This Hero did not jump down the mountain slope directly; instead, they remained on the summit, looking worriedly into the distance.

There, at the edge of the view, there seemed to be a special fog dispersing.

Zhuge Jun raised his eyebrows, puzzled, "Oh? Does this mean that based on the original, the map has been further expanded?"

"Endless Fantasy Legend" itself already had a vast continent. At its center was a terrifying Demon Cave, below it lay a bottomless rift, and above it stood a towering, sky-splitting black iron structure resembling the Demon Sword.

As for the surroundings,

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