My game, you have no right to award

Chapter 141 Seed
The initial demo trailer of "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" received over one million views on YouTube, but this is also the only trailer that has exceeded one million views.

All subsequent trailers received lukewarm responses on foreign video platforms, making people even more suspicious that the demo trailer’s popularity was just an accident.

It will be even worse when well-known Western gaming media such as IGN give low scores. Although European and American players also despise IGN, they will still refer to the ratings it gives when actually purchasing games.

In addition, Megvii Games did not invest much in the promotion and marketing of "Nether Mountain and Sea" abroad, so when the game was officially launched, the sales of "Nether Mountain and Sea", excluding the sales in the domestic region, were just over 100,000 copies.

No publicity + Chinese company + low ratings = poor sales.

Rationally speaking, although these figures are not as good as domestic sales, they are by no means bad.

At least not an embarrassing number like several thousand.

So what kind of players are the foreigners who bought "Youming Shanhai" at this time?

The first is to be interested in Chinese culture. After all, the cultural core of "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" is the Classic of Mountains and Seas. The content in the trailer is still very attractive to some foreigners who like "mysterious oriental culture" and "exotic customs".

If you don't usually have the opportunity to play this type of game, it's normal to buy a game developed by a Chinese production team to try it out.

There are also overseas Chinese, who will also constitute part of the audience of "The Netherworld Mountains and Seas".

Although there are games in the West with Asian protagonists, they are extremely rare.

Even less than giant pandas!

Even if there are such games, many of them are still made according to stereotypes, which will make Chinese people who have not internalized the ABCs feel somewhat uncomfortable.

The third reason is that I was attracted by the reviews of the gaming media.

Among them are players and anchors.

For example, some anchors like to play some bad games, commonly known as - eating history.

Only when the anchor chooses to eat history actively can the show be effective. Players don’t have to suffer themselves, and they can also enjoy the fun of watching the anchor suffer while playing garbage games. Why not do it?

The host who eats history seems to be in pain, but in fact he has been very happy because of the free popularity brought by eating history.

If this game came from faraway China, and combined with the domestic American public opinion and narrative logic that demonizes China, it would be even happier!

This is a real treat for American supremacists, such as rednecks!
Players are more attracted by the style and difficulty of "Youming Shanhai".

No matter how the gaming media criticizes it, no one media outlet says that the game's graphics are bad.

Yang Ji's signature dark style, combined with the oriental aesthetic style he excels in, creates an effect where the sum of the two is greater than the sum of the two.

This kind of visual effect made many Western players feel that the game was very novel, so they bought "Nether Mountain and Sea".

On the other hand, players who come for the game’s difficulty almost all appear after the media reviews are released.

They are very curious about the quality of this game that has caused several well-known American gaming media to collectively fail and have been praised in their reviews as having "an incredible difficulty design".
When it came to April 4th, since the game was unlocked at 27: am China time, it was already early morning or evening in many European and American regions, which was not very friendly to these players.

However, there are still many European and American players waiting patiently in front of their computers, ready to try the game "Youming Shanhai" as soon as possible.

Jackson is a black game anchor from the United States. He is sitting in front of the camera at this moment, asking and answering questions in his chat.

"Do you think this game will be fun? Bro, you're hilarious~ You're hilarious~ Ha-ha!" Jackson clapped his hands rhythmically, shook his shoulders, and spoke rapidly. "Of course not, didn't you see IGN only gave it a six? But I still want to try this game!"

"why?"

"Because I want to see how bad the games made by the Chinese are!"

He laughed and smiled as he looked at the voices in the barrage that echoed him.

"It's useless to just copy and replicate, and everyone knows that."

"Hahaha!"

"Oh? It's time!"

It was already ten o'clock, local time, which was the peak time for gaming.

After Jackson opened the game, his two fat lips flew around and he began to complain without patience.

"Oh! Chinese UI design is pretty good, but why is the font so ugly!"

"It's so ugly it's going to explode!"

Jackson shook his curly head and pressed the button to start the game.

The opening animation of Nether Mountain and Sea began to play. When Jackson saw the Chinese-style ink painting on the screen, he was suddenly stunned.

He had never seen a similar style of art before, so he was stunned when he first saw it.

By the time he reacted, he had missed the opportunity to speak. He opened his mouth, but in the end no word came out.

Jackson originally planned to complain and mock the game "Underworld Mountain and Sea" throughout the whole process.

After all, the media had already sentenced this game to death, and the fact that this game was produced by a Chinese production team almost cut off any chance of this game.

But why? The animation before my eyes... is so thrilling!
His heart followed the rhythm of the opening animation, up and down. Although he could not fully understand what the plot was about because he was not used to reading subtitles, he could still feel the heaviness brought by the Chinese culture and history.

When he saw the second half of the opening animation, he was even more shocked.

“HOLY SHIT!!!”

When he saw countless ugly monsters of different shapes killing each other and the scenes changing rapidly, he subconsciously exclaimed in amazement.

He didn't react until the game started.

Jackson suddenly felt a little embarrassed. Would he be laughed at by his brothers in the live broadcast room for making such a fuss just now?
I play "Youming Shanhai" myself to mock the games made by the Chinese, not to praise them!

So, he coughed twice to hide his expression, and then explained seriously: "The opening animation is okay, but we still need to see the actual content of the game."

So he controlled the character to move.

"What the hell is this?"

When he saw that he was controlling a hermit crab, he burst out laughing.

Who wants to be a pathetic hermit crab instead of a tough warrior?
He controlled the protagonist to complete the tutorial and became proud again.

"That's it? Ha! IGN should learn more about how to play games!"

Jackson moved forward with full confidence. This game is not as difficult as they say!
Finally, he encountered the first boss in the game.

"Oh! A murloc!"

Jackson exclaimed!
He didn't know what a mermaid was, so he mistook the mermaid boss for a merman.

"Let daddy show you how a man fights."

Jackson stuck out half of his tongue, approached the merman boss with excitement on his face, and then...

"Snapped!"

The hermit crab was directly knocked away by the barrage of pearls shot by the mermaid.

He had not anticipated the enemy's sneak attack at all and his face was filled with anger.

"Hey! That's not fair!"

He controlled the character to stand up and wanted to chase and attack, but when he ran in front of the enemy, he was knocked back by the mermaid's counterattack.

Jackson became even angrier. His two consecutive attacks were interrupted. This would never happen a third time!

His character slashed again, and this time he finally hit!
Seeing the blood spurting out of the mermaid, Jackson's face was filled with joy.

But before he could react, the mermaid stood up and delivered a critical hit, knocking him into a state of stiffness, and then counterattacked with two consecutive hits. Jackson was so surprised that he completely forgot to dodge.

Under the smooth combo of the mermaid boss, his health bar was instantly cleared to zero by the mermaid!
The fight between the two lasted less than twenty seconds, during which the mermaid was attacked once by him, and he was attacked five times by the mermaid, ending with the protagonist's death.

"what?!"

Jackson's mouth dropped open. He had never expected that he would die instantly. He had only been hit a few times by the enemy, so how could he die?

Two black and white air currents appeared on the screen, forming a Tai Chi pattern, which attracted his attention.

Although many foreigners look down on many things in China, they still have an inexplicable awe for Tai Chi, a seemingly "mysterious symbol".

Below Tai Chi is a line of words.

"If a person's abilities don't match their status, disaster is sure to ensue."

That is the English translation of "If one's virtue does not match his position, disaster will surely follow."

Seeing such blatant mockery, the audience in the live broadcast room all laughed. They just liked to see Jackson get humiliated.

"Hahahaha"

"Hahaha"

"Why did you die so early?"

"weak ass"

"You're a terrible fighter."

"Why don't you let me play?"

Jackson's already gloomy face became even darker when he saw the comments mocking him in the chat box of the live broadcast room.

"It was just an accident!"

He said, clicking on restart.

As a result, the game progress returned to the last save point, and all the game currency on him fell off!

Looking at the currency amount in the upper right corner of the screen which was zero, he spread his hands in confusion.

"What? Why do all the resources drop when you die?"

At this time, the system prompt finally came, indicating that he had to return to the place where he died before to pick up the resources dropped after his death.

"Oh! Absolutely not!" He resisted, waving his arms in confusion, "What's the point of such a design?"

After hearing so much from him, the audience in the chat room became dissatisfied.

"Hey, don't be a coward, go back now"

“Just play games.”

"I don't think you dare to go back and challenge that fishman."

Seeing that the audience was getting impatient, he reluctantly controlled his character to move.

When he returned to the location he had previously conquered, his eyes lit up as he finally found what he had dropped. However, before he could go over, the mermaid boss had already been activated.

Jackson had no choice but to give up picking up resources and face the mermaid boss directly!

"Come on, come on! I'm not afraid of you!" He shouted while holding the handle to give himself courage. This time, he finally avoided the enemy's attack!

The moment the mermaid attacked, Jackson pressed the dodge button and dodged to the side.

When he realized that he had dodged, a surprised smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

"Let daddy teach you a lesson!"

He controlled the hermit crab and chopped it down immediately!
One, two, three times. When he was hit for the third time, he still had no intention of retreating, but was ready to hit the fourth time.

However, such greedy behavior will definitely be punished in "Netherworld Mountains and Seas".

Without thinking, he pressed the fourth attack button, and the hermit crab also swung its weapon and slashed at the mermaid!
The mermaid's movements were even faster than his, and she directly hit the character controlled by the player with an elbow!

"puff!"

The hermit crab was knocked to the ground and its health bar was greatly reduced.

"Hey! Stop it!"

Jackson saw this and muttered to himself irritably.

I only hit him for the third time, why wouldn’t he be allowed to hit me for the fourth time?
It was clear that the enemy had hit me three times in a row not long ago. As players, shouldn't they be treated a little better?

In his irritability, his attention was not as focused as before. The two sides fought for a few more rounds. As the hermit crab fell to the ground, Jackson fell in front of the mermaid again.

"T-This is an accident!"

He insisted on starting over.

"boom!"

The hermit crab flew away.

"Come again!"

The hermit crab fell to the ground.

"I don't believe it! I can beat him!"

The hermit crab can no longer fight.

……

Finally, after using it more than ten times, Jackson finally reached the second stage of the mermaid boss.

Now the chat box in the live broadcast room is full of comments mocking him.

After all, the audience in the live broadcast room don’t need to play the game themselves, all they need to do is speak.

Jackson himself was a little annoyed, but he felt that he seemed to be able to see the enemy's movements more and more clearly.

He was slowly summarizing his experience in combat and learning the mechanics of the game.

He is slowly adapting to the rhythm of the game.

Just mindlessly press the attack button from the beginning, and then react when you see the enemy attack.

Until now, wait for the enemy to attack first, then counterattack, and never be greedy with your sword!

He would rather attack fewer times than be caught by the enemy because of his greed for swordsmanship.

Jackson has actually learned the most basic combat principles of "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" by himself through constant deaths.

This time, when he thought he could see through the mermaid boss's attack and defeat him, he found that when the mermaid's health was reduced to half, it would enter the second stage.

"What?" he said subconsciously, and was shocked when he saw the mermaid tearing open his throat and spurting out a lethal amount of blood.

"WTF!!!"

As expected, Jackson was completely caught off guard by the mermaid's sudden attack and was knocked away.

He didn't understand the enemy's attack logic at all and fell at the beginning of the second stage of the mermaid boss.

“If there is no kindness in the heart, disaster is sure to follow.”

Seeing the "ridicule" on the screen, Jackson was surprisingly not frustrated.

He suddenly felt that the process of fighting with this boss and the process of this challenge were very interesting!
After each death, he could truly feel his improvement. Whether it was reading the enemy's moves or understanding his own attack methods, he was improving through continuous learning and summarizing!

Now that he is dead, he is not sad at all. Instead, he is looking forward to how he can improve himself!
Jackson pressed the restart button, and a fire ignited in his heart!

I'm going to defeat it today!

No matter how others laugh at me or belittle me!
I just want to defeat this damn murloc!

Jackson remained firm in his belief and began to challenge again.

Once, twice, three times...

He kept dying, and in the eyes of the audience, he was just taking on meaningless challenges, hoping that luck would help him pass.

But only he himself knows what is missing between himself every time he challenged the mermaid boss and his current self!
at last!

When he challenged for the thirty-seventh time, the mermaid boss was finally almost killed by him.

At this time, the mermaid boss still had two small points of health left. According to Jackson's estimation, he could defeat the opponent with 5-10 normal attacks.

But at the same time, his own blood volume is even more critical!
Not only has Jackson used up all his blood bottles, but his blood volume is less than half!

If he gets hit twice, he will die instantly!

Therefore, he stared at the enemy behind the black blood cloud in front of him, and sweat broke out on his forehead.

He must not get hit!
Suddenly, he saw a flash of light in the black blood mist out of the corner of his eye. He subconsciously pressed the dodge button with his finger, just in time to avoid the enemy's sneak attack, and broke out in a cold sweat.

If he gets hit this time, he's doomed!
Jackson knew that he had to dodge all the mermaid's sneak attacks next, and then wait for him to break out of the black blood mist, dodge all the opponent's crazy attacks, and wait for the mermaid to become stunned, then his chance would come!
This sounds like a fantasy. After all, there are so many attacks to dodge, how can there not be mistakes?

But now he is confident!
He has died so many times just for this opportunity. He will never let go of this chance to defeat the boss!
"laugh!"

Jackson's eyes flashed, and he controlled the hermit crab to avoid another sneak attack from the mermaid. He felt that the protagonist's body looked so shining at this time!
Handsome!
The mermaid rushed back into the black blood mist, and after a while, attacked again.

"puff!"

Jackson dodged it easily!
Finally! The merman couldn't stand it anymore, broke out from the cover of the black blood mist, and rushed straight towards him.

Jackson had already prepared himself, silently reading his attack in his mind.

"...one, two, three!" When he dodged the last three consecutive attacks, he felt refreshed.

"Fuck it!"

He shouted and went around behind the mermaid, frantically attacking the opponent's weakness - the skeleton.

"Ouch! Ouch!"

As the skeleton exploded, the mermaid screamed and lost a large amount of health. After Jackson hit him a few more times, he finally fell to the ground.

"I won?" He looked at the screen in a daze. The mermaid had indeed been killed by him.

After confirming it again, he felt a great sense of satisfaction in his heart. This sense of satisfaction made his whole body numb, as if he was flying up to the sky.

“FUCK YEAHHHHHH!!!”

He jumped up from his chair and celebrated wildly, slamming the table so hard that the camera fell onto the table due to the vibration.

After he calmed down a bit, he saw that the chat box was full of comments congratulating him.

It seems that what you, the audience, say is different from what you think!

Jackson sat in his seat with a proud smile on his face, savoring the feeling of defeating the mermaid just now.

Suddenly he felt a little excited. What kind of strange creatures were behind?

This game isn't that bad... No, quite the opposite!
This game is very fun!
Even someone like Jackson, who was extremely prejudiced against China, changed his mind after playing the game because of its quality.

"Man, I was wrong. I was so wrong!"

Jackson suddenly spoke up.

"The Chinese have made a good game. I'm serious." He showed a serious expression, different from his usual cheerful expression.

"This game is really fun, and the combat is pretty good! Give it a try, maybe you'll like it."

After he finished speaking, he looked at the chat box and found that some people still didn't believe him, and some even asked if he was paid. Why did he suddenly change his attitude and speak up for the Chinese?
Jackson didn't know what to say after seeing this. He usually looked down on Chinese things, but the game "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" broke his inherent consciousness.

"Hey, man, I don't know what to say..."

"I really didn't expect this to be a good game, like..." He shook his head. "I can't even believe I'm saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway."

"Media outlets like IGN are just talking nonsense! They've lied to us again!"

"This is the best action game I've played this year!"

he said firmly.

“I haven’t played the rest of the game yet, but I take back my initial review of this game.”

“It’s a good game.”

"I'll play until I'm through and then give my final review."

Jackson's impression of China came from movies and TV series full of stereotypes, and all the information about this country and its people came from their media.

Demonization is the only and unchanging theme of these American media towards China, so it is natural that Jackson cannot have any good impression of China.

But today, "The Netherworld Mountains and Seas" completely broke his previous cognition.

An idea arose in his mind, and he began to wonder how such a poor, uncivilized and barbaric country could make such a good game.

Perhaps his inner thoughts have not been completely changed, but this idea has become a seed of hope.

The moment it is planted, nothing can stop it from taking root and sprouting!
Jackson was silent for a moment, then began to control his character to pick up the things dropped by the mermaid boss and continued to move forward.

Games are not only games, but also a kind of cultural product.

When cultures blend with each other, all hypocrisy and illusions will be exposed to the sun.

Some groups divide people into different groups for their own interests, but when people can communicate directly and face to face, they will find that there are not as many differences between the two sides as they imagined.

Many times, misunderstandings come from a lack of communication, and cultural exchange is a very important part of communication.

Zhou Kuang himself may not have realized it, but under the influence of "Netherworld Mountains and Seas" produced by Megvii Games, which he led, a wall that was once thought to be indestructible had a small crack for the first time.

And one day, this gap will tear apart all barriers and let everything return to their original self.

(End of this chapter)