Chapter 1: I

PS: Parallel Blue Star (no history of world wars) (advocating anti-war) (fictional for survival).

Great Xia Federation.

Donghai City.

Inside the top floor of a skyscraper in the city center, Zhao Ming looked at the various transport drones flying outside the window and the energy tower standing hundreds of meters tall in the city center, his eyes filled with shock.

Everywhere were anti-war slogans and advertisements for some games.

A cool breeze blew in from the window.

The shock in Zhao Ming’s eyes gradually faded, and he couldn't help but gasp.

"Hiss—"

"Damn it... is there really a parallel world?"

Zhao Ming turned his head to look at his reflection in the window glass. The person in the reflection not only looked exactly like him, but even had the same name. What was even more absurd was... this guy had also almost jumped off the building.

Why say "also"?

Because this parallel-world version of himself had hesitated for a moment while jumping.

Whereas he, on Earth, had already hit the ground.

Died early and transmigrated to materialize...

Zhao Ming recalled the memories in this parallel self's mind and couldn't help but feel a toothache.

It was different from his own situation.

He had bet his entire net worth on a film and lost everything.

This version of himself had bet his entire net worth to make a game, wanting to participate in the [Anti-War Competition] held jointly by the six major federations.

According to the memories Zhao Ming found in his mind, this world was called Blue Star.

Besides the Great Xia Federation, there were the Free Star Cluster Federation, the Golden Moon Federation, the Antarctic Star Federation, the Slavic Energy Federation, and the Asian-Eastern United Federation. This world had never experienced a world war.

Four hundred years ago, a meteor shower descended upon Blue Star.

It left Blue Star devastated.

But after the meteor shower, the humans of Blue Star seemed to have gained enlightenment; they continuously created and invented, rapidly transitioning from the agricultural age to the industrial age.

Subsequently, they discovered countless new energy sources beneath Blue Star's surface, leaping into the technological age.

To this day.

Things like maglevs and drones were commonplace, and virtual helmets and sensory pods—things that hadn't been popularized or perfected on Earth—were already flooding this world.

The technology in this world was extremely advanced.

The photonic supercomputing cluster in Donghai City alone had a single-cabinet computing power of 380 ZFLOPS, reaching 300 times the total computing power of Earth in the entire year of 2024.

It was enough to support most people in independently designing and rendering creative films, games, and so on.

And that was just a city-level photonic supercomputing cluster.

The original owner had bet all the assets left by his parents, obtained about 30 million Federation Credits after selling them, and pulled in a partner to get another 30 million, dumping it all into the designed game to participate in the Federation's Anti-War Competition.

While called an Anti-War Competition, it was actually a project launched by the six major federations to appease the public.

Because technology updated too quickly in this world, the transition from agriculture to industry, and from industry to discovering new energy and entering the technological age, had taken very few years.

So, the major federations were busy researching new technology at that time and had no time to fight wars.

Furthermore, with nearly infinite new energy, why fight a war?

Better to hurry up and research new technology.

By the time the momentum of the technological explosion passed, decades had already gone by.

Although life was affluent by then, and with new energy photosynthesis factories and the like solving the problem of food and clothing, people suddenly became idle and had nothing to do.

The crime rates in each federation rose sharply.

Some even clamored for war, unifying the world, and other such slogans.

For a time.

The public of the six major federations was incited to a fanatical war consciousness, and they held parades demanding the federations launch wars; that period caused quite a lot of trouble.

Later, to appease the public.

After a period of research, the six major federations jointly launched the [Anti-War Competition].

The competition was divided into more than a dozen categories including [Film], [Game], [Novel], [Play], and [Short Drama]. As long as you had extraordinary imagination and genius creativity.

You could use the low-priced photonic supercomputing clusters within the federation.

To create the works needed for the competition, either individually or collectively.

The ranking of the entries was decided by public vote. As long as you won the championship, you would receive infinite honor and support.

The [Anti-War Competition] had been held for over three hundred years.

Every year, individuals or companies won infinite honor, whether they rose to the top or grew stronger; by now, it had become an indispensable annual event on Blue Star.

And the participants were just aiming to obtain the fixed support and prize money from the federation.

For major categories like [Film], [Game], and [Novel], the fixed prize was 1 billion Federation Credits and one year of Federation promotion, while the prize money for minor categories like [Short Drama] and [Play] was much less, only a few tens of millions.

The original owner had participated in the [Game] category, aiming for the championship prize and the year of Federation promotion.

The reason he was so confident in dumping 60 million Federation Credits in was that he felt his creativity was excellent; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to attract investment from another partner, and the original owner had established a company.

He used part of the funds to buy servers and spent the rest on the computing power of the photonic supercomputing cluster.

He hired some staff and spent eight months.

Making the game "Cyber Blue Star: 2077," which told the story of a future Blue Star encountering a long-planned terrorist attack, crushing the fragile rule of the six major federations in one fell swoop.

Society was chaotic and turbulent, various forces rose to power, and wars were constant.

The wealth gap in society began to widen unprecedentedly.

Players needed to play as wanderers, roaming the badlands, scavenging for scrap, and trading for supplies, allowing players to experience how difficult life was after the war, thereby reducing people's war-mongering consciousness.

The idea was very good, and the game was made very well too.

But...

It was plagiarized.

The news was learned yesterday, and the building was to be jumped from today.

Why jump?

Because even if he sued, there was no way; the small workshop had been plagiarized by a top 500 Federation enterprise.

Whether it was the investment or the game content.

Everything had been expanded by more than ten times based on his foundation. In other words...

If these two games were compared on the market.

One hundred out of one hundred people would say the original owner's "Cyber Blue Star: 2077" was a shoddy imitation, and it would be useless even if he had the copyright.

On Earth, there might be works that made a comeback due to special effects or details.

But on Blue Star... in this era of overflowing computing power, as long as you spent enough money, there was no effect you couldn't create. Having his game plagiarized by someone with ten times the funds, once his original version was released, it would definitely be dead in the water.

How could he not jump off the building...

Zhao Ming walked back to the desk, sat in the boss's chair, and leaned back, looking at the time on the computer.

There were nine days left until the opening of the [Anti-War Competition].

Switching to the [Film] track was impossible; registration had long since closed, and besides, the company employees were all game developers, so making a film wasn't realistic.

To make a comeback.

He had to create a new game within nine days to replace "Cyber Blue Star: 2077."

But "Cyber Blue Star: 2077" was something the original owner had led a group of people to create over eight months, in order to build a massive worldview and a multiplayer online server.

The 60 million Federation Credits were almost exhausted, and even the purchased photonic supercomputing cluster computing power was running low.

It was almost impossible to create a new game for the competition.

Moreover...

He was a filmmaker, and he didn't understand anything about games.

In his previous life, he had heard his roommates discuss games like "Battlefield," "Black Myth," and "One Slash 999" in college, but he had never played them; he had only heard about them.

He didn't even know what genre these games were.

How the hell was he supposed to do this?

How was a filmmaker supposed to make a game?

Zhao Ming sighed and leaned back in the boss's chair, looking at the ceiling speechlessly.

Anti-war... anti-war...

He knew quite a few anti-war films.

If he wanted the public to feel the cruelty of war and eliminate war consciousness, the first choice would definitely be Earth's World War II series of films.

But he couldn't turn those WWII films into games, could he?

Hmm?

Turn WWII films into games?!

Holy crap?!

This actually seems possible?! ===== CHAPTER 2 =====