Offside game

Su Yi already had a general framework for the game. The game was called *Historic Evolution*, where players would choose a creature to be born into a world similar to Earth, surrounded by other creatures of various levels. The evolutionary path of the chosen creature was entirely up to the player. Upon entering the game, players had ten templates to choose from, each with eight constructs: five basic constructs and three optional constructs. The difference lay in the optional constructs; these three were created by selecting three from the ten constructs, each representing a different evolutionary direction.

Of course, in the initial template, all the structures are basic components. The goal of the game is to acquire components and points from various creatures while surviving in this world. The components players acquire can replace their existing components to make themselves stronger; this process is called fusion in the game. The points acquired, through accumulation, can be used to evolve existing components, thereby obtaining higher-level components.

The game's architecture is vast, with complex evolution and point calculation methods, as well as an upgrade system, all posing significant challenges. Over countless years, the Yuga people have accumulated a wealth of data and information about biological evolution and structure. Su Yi doesn't find this difficult, as that data is the best source material; with slight modifications, he can easily handle it. What he needs to solve now is the complex formula for calculating points gained by various creatures in the game world after battle, based on their overall strength and comparison with the player's creatures. This is crucial to the entire game's structure and progression, a very intricate system. He needs to consult game data and find the best solution.

Just as he was pondering these questions and making notes on the T20, the phone at home suddenly rang.

He picked up the receiver and heard Ji Feng's voice: "Master, I'm here, but I can't find your house. Come and pick me up!"

Su Yi glanced at his watch; it was already a little past 10:30. He then spoke into the microphone, "Tell me where you are right now, and I'll come pick you up."

Five minutes later, Su Yi saw Ji Feng standing at the entrance of the residential area. The guy was looking around with his phone in hand. When he saw Su Yi coming, he happily ran to his side and said, "Master, can we start today?"

When Su Yi accepted this disciple, it was somewhat of a joke, but Ji Feng had always been extremely insistent on having him as his master. Therefore, Su Yi had considered how to treat this unexpected disciple.

"Have you eaten?" Based on Ji Yanran's description and the sleep in Ji Feng's eyes, he guessed that the guy had just gotten up.

"Not yet, never mind for now, let's go play CS, Master." Clearly, Ji Feng was the type who wouldn't eat breakfast on his own. Many boys had this habit during their teenage years.

"No, Ji Feng. If you want to be a professional esports player, remember, a regular lifestyle is crucial. It's essential for your health. Professional esports players train and compete in front of computers constantly, so maintaining your physical condition is extremely important. A regular lifestyle will also make your training twice as effective," Su Yi said, feigning seriousness. If he had simply told Ji Feng to go eat, Ji Feng would have been dismissive. But when his dream—to become a professional esports player—was mentioned, Ji Feng immediately took it seriously. Su Yi suddenly found it a little amusing; he himself was quite young, yet he was acting like an old man, lecturing him.

After taking Ji Feng to her home, Ji Feng sat down in front of the T20 as soon as they entered the living room, admiring it and saying, "Master, you really bought this T20! My sister didn't lie to me. I've always wanted this laptop, but Dad insisted on waiting until I went to college before he would give it to me."

While Ji Feng was eagerly playing with the T20, Su Yi had already gone into the kitchen to prepare two bowls of tomato and egg noodles.

After the noodles were cooked, Su Yi called Ji Feng to eat, only to find that Ji Feng had already found CS in the T20 and was playing it.

"Come on, let's eat," Su Yi said. "You get so engrossed in playing with the computer."

"There's nothing I can do, Master. The internet is so bad these days. I can't play CS with anyone at home because it lags so badly. I can only play against the computer, so I usually go to internet cafes," Ji Feng said helplessly. This is also the frustration of many students with computers at home; the terrible internet renders the online features of many single-player games useless, because nobody wants to be frustrated by lag. Thinking of this, Su Yi suddenly felt a jolt in his heart, as if he had grasped something.

"But Master, what version of bots are you using in CS? They seem a bit different from the ones at home. If I didn't know they were all bots, I would have thought they were real people," Ji Feng said dejectedly, seemingly having died at the hands of bots again.

"Give the Kosei a consciousness so that it doesn't torture Ji Feng too badly," Su Yi said. "This is a robot program that I wrote myself, and many of the tactics are my own ideas."

Hearing Su Yi's words, Ji Feng said, "Master, you truly deserve to be my master! You're amazing! It seems there's a reason why you're a little more handsome than me. My admiration for you is like..."

"It's time to eat, or the noodles will get cold." Seeing Ji Feng's admiring expression, Su Yi quickly interrupted his long-winded speech, also wanting to maintain his own appetite...

"Wow, Master, I never knew you could cook so well! I admire you so much!" Ji Feng kept praising the noodles as he ate them.

Su Yi looked at his exaggerated expression helplessly, but it seemed like it had been a long time since anyone had eaten with him. This feeling of eating and talking at the same time was not bad.

"Hey, Master, where did you buy your ring? It's really cool!" Ji Feng said, looking at the gene collector on Su Yi's index finger as if he had suddenly discovered something new.

"I just tied it up with two tree branches," Su Yi said casually after picking up a noodle, putting it in his mouth, and slowly swallowing it.

"No way, you're lying to me again. I think it looks like jade. But no, it looks more like a wood carving. It must be very valuable." Ji Feng didn't believe Su Yi's explanation at all and wanted to investigate further.

"What time did you play until yesterday?" Su Yi quickly changed the subject when he saw the conversation was starting to escalate.

"I'm not too sure, maybe around 12 o'clock. Ah, days without school are so great! How wonderful it would be if every day were like this. By the way, I heard that universities are very relaxed, it doesn't matter whether you go to class or not, and there are lots of pretty girls there. I really long for that." Ji Feng was successfully diverted from the topic by Su Yi and fell back into his own fantasies. Judging from his expression, Su Yi knew that he was imagining the wonderful time that was about to come.

Ignoring the way he was grinning foolishly while eating, Su Yi gathered his thoughts. Ji Feng's mention of poor internet connectivity had suddenly given him an idea.

Indeed, the current network conditions in China are not yet sufficient for the data stream transmission of online battles. After all, fiber optics are just a pipe dream for many. Most so-called broadband speeds are frustratingly slow, often resulting in incredibly laggy online connections that make players want to commit suicide. However, in the data from the Mother Nest, he seemed to have encountered encryption and compression technologies related to data streams. While eating noodles, he used his consciousness to connect with the Mother Nest and found the relevant information. After reading it, Su Yi had already devised a method to improve data stream transmission; of course, applying it in reality would require his experimentation.

Things must be done step by step, so Su Yi's plan is to complete the current "Evolution of History" before starting the production of the game platform he is conceiving.

After finishing his meal, Ji Feng obediently cleared away the dishes and ran into the kitchen to wash them. Su Yi, who already knew Ji Feng somewhat, was quite surprised and touched, when he heard a crash from the kitchen…

"Master, um... this bowl is in two..." Ji Feng's words confirmed Su Yi's suspicions, and he felt a cold sweat break out. Indeed, some things are simply impossible to force for certain people.

Embarrassed, Ji Feng picked up the broken bowl and said awkwardly, "Master, I really didn't mean to... By the way, where are Uncle and Aunt?"

Upon hearing the following words, Su Yi fell silent. Ji Feng felt the heaviness in the air descend and looked at Su Yi strangely, only to hear him say in a low voice, "They are gone."

"Gone?" The words slipped out instinctively, but then Ji Feng suddenly realized something and covered his mouth. At the same time, another crisp sound rang out—the other bowl he had been holding shattered...

"I'm sorry," Ji Feng said, sounding slightly flustered. But it was unclear what his apology meant; perhaps it all implied something else entirely.

Su Yi walked over, silently threw the broken bowl into the trash can next to him, and smiled, "It's okay, it's all in the past."

At this moment, Ji Feng looked at the smiling boy in front of him and suddenly fell silent.

After a long while, Ji Feng asked again, "Master, where are we going later?"

Although his suggestion to change the subject seemed abrupt, Su Yi went along with it, saying, "Let's go to an internet cafe and try CS."

“Great! That’s what I was thinking too.” Ji Feng said excitedly, and the atmosphere relaxed again. He liked it this way.

So, after paying for the two bowls, the two of them left Su Yi's house.