Chapter 1: I

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

Daxia Federation.

Donghai City.

On the top floor of a skyscraper in the city center, Zhao Ming looked out the window with shock at the various transport drones flying by and the hundreds-of-meter-tall energy towers standing in the heart of the city.

Anti-war slogans and game advertisements were hung everywhere.

A cool breeze blew in from the window.

Zhao Ming gradually recovered from his shock and couldn't help but gasp:

"Hiss—"

"Damn it... there really is 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 while jumping.

While the version of himself on Earth had already hit the ground at that point.

Died early and transmigrated, it had materialized...

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

It was different from his own situation.

He had bet everything he had and lost it all making a movie.

This version of himself had bet everything he had to make a game, wanting to participate in the 【Anti-War Competition】 jointly held by the six major federations.

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

Besides the Daxia Federation, there were the Free Star Cluster Federation, the Golden Moon Federation, the Antarctic Star Federation, the Slavic Energy Federation, and the Yadong 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 constantly 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 and leaped into the technological age.

To this day.

Things like magnetic levitation and drones were already commonplace, and things that hadn't been popularized or perfected on Earth, like virtual helmets and sensory pods, 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, which had already reached 300 times the total computing power of Earth in 2024.

It was enough to support most people in independently designing, rendering, and creating movies, 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 off, and even pulled in a partner to get another 30 million from her, dumping it all into the game he designed 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 so quickly in this world, the transition from agriculture to industry, and from industry to discovering new energy and entering the technological age, hadn't taken much time at all.

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

Furthermore, with near-infinite new energy, why fight a war?

Better to hurry up and develop new technology.

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

By then, although life was prosperous and issues like food and clothing had been solved thanks to new energy photosynthesis factories, people suddenly became idle and had nothing to do.

The crime rate in each federation rose sharply.

Some even clamored for war, shouting slogans about unifying the world.

For a time.

The citizens of the six major federations were incited into a war frenzy, holding parades to demand that the federations launch wars, which caused quite a few incidents during that period.

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 over a dozen categories, including 【Movies】, 【Games】, 【Novels】, 【Plays】, and 【Short Dramas】. As long as you had extraordinary imagination and genius creativity.

You could utilize the low-cost photonic supercomputing clusters within the federation.

Individuals or groups could create the works needed for the competition.

The ranking of the entries was determined by public voting; 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 that won infinite honor would either skyrocket to success or grow even stronger; by now, it had become an indispensable annual event on Blue Star.

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

For major categories like 【Movies】, 【Games】, and 【Novels】, the fixed prize was one billion Federation Credits and one year of Federation promotion, while the prize money for minor categories like 【Short Dramas】 and 【Plays】 was much less, only a few tens of millions.

The original owner had participated in the 【Games】 category, aiming for the championship prize money and the year of Federation promotion.

The reason he was so confident in dumping 60 million Federation Credits into it was that he felt his creativity was excellent; otherwise, if it weren't good, 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 purchase servers and spent the rest on the computing power of the photonic supercomputing cluster.

He hired some staff and spent eight months.

He made a game called "Cyber Blue Star: 2077," which told the story of a long-planned terrorist attack on the future Blue Star that crushed the fragile rule of the six major federations in one fell swoop.

Society was in chaos, turbulent, and various forces rose to take advantage of the situation, with wars continuing endlessly.

The gap between rich and poor in society began to widen unprecedentedly.

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

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

But...

It was plagiarized.

The news was known yesterday, and the building was what he wanted to jump off today.

Why did he want to 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.

Out of a hundred people, a hundred would say the original owner's was a shoddy imitation; having the copyright was useless.

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 dumped enough money, there was no effect you couldn't create. Being plagiarized by someone with ten times the capital, his original version would definitely be dead on arrival once released.

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 【Movies】 track was impossible; registration had long since closed, and besides, the company employees were all game developers, so making a movie wasn't realistic.

If he wanted to turn things around.

Then 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 completely consumed, and even the computing power purchased from the photonic supercomputing cluster was nearly gone.

It was almost impossible to create another new game to participate.

Moreover...

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

In his past life, he had heard his roommates discuss games like "Battlefield," "Black Myth," and "One Blade 999" in college, but he had never played them at all, only heard about them.

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

How the hell was he supposed to do this?

How could a filmmaker make a game?

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

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

He did know quite a few anti-war movies.

If he wanted to make the public feel the cruelty of war and eliminate the war consciousness, the first choice would definitely be Earth's WWII series of movies.

But he couldn't just turn those WWII movies into games, right?

Hmm?

Turn WWII movies into games?!

Holy crap?!

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