Chapter 197: My Game Developer Father

Curse your dad to die, huh? Stop pulling nonsense, tell me something useful!

Aminos, you unfilial bastard… Forget it, I won't argue with a patient, just wait a moment…

Ji Ming opened the library's surveillance from the past few days, watching how the players who came to exchange magic operated.

Although the mage class has a high barrier to entry, takes time to show results, and early on needs other players' help to avoid messing up, magic is just too attractive.

Whether it's closed-beta players or open-beta players, whether human players or orc players…

Even players who had already chosen other professions came to ask, to the point that there were long lines here these past few days.

Looking at it this way, Mo Shou would go straight into ultra‑self‑isolated mode, just like Si Tong reciting standard questions and answers— that's actually normal.

--Damn players, you're so annoying!

However, when choosing magic, the vast majority of players decided to play it safe.

Moreover, possibly because it's flashy and versatile, the Fireball Technique has the highest selection probability, accounting for over half of the results.

Next is the Earth Shield Technique, probably because it's convenient to team up with other professions— after all, which warrior could refuse to have a reliable magic shield raised in front when they launch a berserk charge?

Then comes the Wind Blade Technique— a flick of the finger can blast a howling gust strong enough to snap wood, which is genuinely satisfying, and some players have already day‑dreamed about developing a magic sword‑immortal playstyle in the future.

Finally is the Ice Arrow Technique.

【Ice arrow is annoying, this lousy magic ball is useless as a hammer— can't draw a strong bow, we might as well just buy a crossbow (sweating soybeans)】

Only an extremely small number of players chose to act as gambling dogs in such an important place, and they probably did it just for the livestream effect.

As for Bai Yesheng… she's sick.

Ji Ming rubbed his temples, thought it over, summoned a notebook and quickly wrote an eight‑hundred‑word essay, then sent it to her.

Bai Yesheng pursed her lips.

"Please don't let it be something like 'Rebirth: My Wife Is a Heaven‑Mender'…"

"Impossible, if I really wrote that I'd definitely write 'Penetrating the Heavenly Dawn'."

"You'd better be!"

She made a snarky remark, but when she lowered her head and just glanced at the title, she almost couldn't hold back.

"What does 'My Game Developer Father' mean?"

"This is absolutely effective—I used it myself back then to get a promotion; the effect was so good it's comparable to a strategic nuclear weapon, and I would never write this for just anyone!"

"Just go on spouting nonsense…"

Trembling with her fingers, Bai Yesheng really wanted to delete this article from its physical record all the way to her memory.

But I have to admit, at least in the realm of flattery and praise…… it really knows how to suck up! And it's oily but not greasy, really digging into those itchy spots.

"Wait, a promotion? Weren't you always doing advertising marketing at the juice company?"

"After knowing you, that's true, but I'm talking about before then."

Ji Ming let out a faint sigh, sinking into his youthful memories.

"Back then I had just left school, was getting ready to show what I could do, and I got into a fairly well‑known local advertising company right away……"

"Young and full of energy, I was always thinking about getting a promotion and raise to be the top performer, swapping computers, swapping phones, buying all kinds of games and toys. So at Christmas I was successfully selected as the outstanding new employee and earned the right to make a wish to my superior."

"Normally, a modest gift worth a thousand or eight hundred dollars would have been enough, but who knew I'd have a brain‑fart then and decide to lay on the praise thick, butter up the leader to earn a promotion‑raise chance, so I wrote a letter full of flattery and praise."

Bai Yesheng's heart suddenly filled with an ominous premonition, and she hurriedly asked.

"Your CEO couldn't be a fifty‑year‑old bespectacled big‑bellied freak who likes handsome young men, could he?!'"

"No… but it's pretty close."

???

By this point, Ji Ming's smile grew even more bitter.

"She's a widow with a daughter, just over thirty, clearly has a CEO father yet insists on being independent and self‑reliant—a beautiful woman."

!!!

"And not long after I sent that letter, she called me to her office to discuss department performance, company development, views on love and marriage, and her tragic experience of losing her husband."

"The next day, she asked if I minded that she had a daughter."

"The third day……"

"Stop!"

Bai Yesheng let out a sharp shout and took several deep breaths.

"Then what? You didn't mess up, did you?"

"No, I turned her down when she asked to date, because I confidently said I wanted to be an excellent man who doesn't sponge off others and succeeds entirely through my own effort."

Saying this, Ji Ming punched his own forehead.

"Now that I think about it, I'm really stupid, really, all I was thinking about……"

Bang!

She kicked the small table beside her and grabbed the text box floating in midair.

"Damn it, Wai Shu—if I draw a useless ignition spell, I'll set your hair on fire!"

I couldn't listen anymore—some talk is better than none—so she took this article to try her luck.

As soon as she read the title, Mo Shou lifted his head and looked at her curiously.

Um, is the reaction really that big?

I remember the player who just recited 'Blessing' outright only managed to make people stop reading, that's all.

With grit, she barely managed to finish reading this heartfelt piece that was almost overflowing with beautiful words.

Then she repeatedly scraped her tongue with her upper and lower teeth, as if trying to pull something off of it.

--Ugh, that's disgusting—my mouth isn't clean anymore!

But although she finished reading it, Mo Shou remained expressionless, aloof, and showed no reaction at all.

After a long while, he took out a cotton swab and cleaned his two ears that were sticking out of his hood.

"Did you write this article?"

"No, someone else sent it to me."

"Oh..."

Mo Shou fell into silence again, turned his head to glance at Ji Ming standing in the corner, then looked around at the precious books.

He sighed, as if making a decision that went against his ancestors.

"Although it has no real meaning, it can still be considered a rare piece to share; after living so many years, I've never seen such an article before—it's quite a novel experience..."

As if evaluating, yet also constantly self-hypnotizing, he quickly wrote a spell in that seemingly endless notebook, then casually tore it off and set it aside.

"Here you go, this spell is the most suitable for you."

Bai Yesheng pinched it between his fingers, ran to the side, and took a close look.

"Ah?"

"What, did you really give me the fire spell?"

"No."

She placed the paper in front of Ji Ming, and the system automatically displayed a layer of introduction on the complex spell model.

【Explosive Arrow: Arrows imbued with this magic will explode and be destroyed at the set time】

【Introduction: Once, a mage passed by an outhouse, discovered his enemy squatting inside, and so…】

You'll never escape the fate of being an explosive genius in this lifetime, right!

Leaving the tall tower castle, the time had come to eleven o'clock, with less than an hour before the new instance would start.

During the stable phase, players could pull off several rounds of nasty moves; waiting for me to announce the mission rewards, who knows what nasty tricks they'll come up with then.

Ji Ming glanced at the door, where the streamers had noticeably thinned, and thought he should seize the time to rest and recuperate.

It's a shame that when I'm free, I'm truly free, but once something comes up, everyone piles together.

Before he could even teleport to the Holy Hall, he received messages from Cang Lang and Fei Ying.

【Our tech tree has made a major breakthrough; hurry to Dog Dog Village for a quick meeting】

There was no choice; he could only temporarily change the teleport coordinates, explaining offhand.

"Aurora, I have something to attend to elsewhere first; you do your own thing, see you later."

But before he could press confirm, Bai Yesheng grabbed him in a handful.

"Hey, make it clear—what do you mean by 'let me play by myself'? I also..."

She frowned, opened the friend list entry 【Crooked Neck Tree】, glanced at it, and indeed found something in the guild column.

"You little brat, you secretly joined a guild behind my back, didn't you? There's a small group that can share resources for free, and you didn't call me?"

"Speak up—is it the cross-dressing friendship group or the Nan Tong friendship group? You keep sneaking off with your buddies to do nothing—do you even have a conscience?"

"You don't want me to post the whole truth on the Feixin group, do you? Then hurry up and send me that photo of you wearing white silk cat-paw socks, leather shoes, tiny high heels, lace-trimmed short skirt, sleeveless performance outfit, long cloth gloves, star-shaped hairpin—let me have a look!"

Ji Ming: …?

"What nonsense, don't spout nonsense—I joined a proper guild!"

"I don't believe it—let me check!"

"Don't go; they're many, and you'll get sick as soon as you land."

"What's wrong with many people? More is better—look, when I just read that article, it felt completely natural; if I'm ill, I need to exercise more!"

"Those are your words—don't regret them!"

He quietly recorded the last sentence, and Ji Ming had no choice but to share the teleport coordinates.

"What I said is what I said—I absolutely won't regret it!"

It's a shame that, given Ji Ming's understanding of Aurora, her stubbornness is also top-notch, having played games for years, including but not limited to.

Playing RTS, she farms in the back, guaranteeing that as long as Ji Ming holds out ten minutes, she'll emerge as overlord and sweep the field.

Playing FPS, just aiming the gun and glancing at the opponent lets her confidently report she scored 99.

Playing Three Kingdoms Kill, biting herself means loyalty; playing Werewolf Kill, she insists she's human.

As for the final outcome, either Ji Ming died without waiting for reinforcements, or she rattled off a burst of gunfire and discovered she was the true 99.

There are too many examples; just thinking a little brings forth endless blood and tears from his mind.

After all, Aurora Dance is……

A gaming domain god!!!

So when she saw Cang Lang and Fei Ying standing under the lamppost in the small square, all her earlier bravado vanished.

However, Cang Lang was very perceptive, immediately put on an enthusiastic smile, and began the introduction.

"This is a net friend known to both me and Wai Shu, Aurora Dance, also a closed-beta tester."

"Aurora, this is a friend of mine, Bibo Fei Ying; although not from the same place, we're also colleagues, so we play together."

In just a few words, he easily dispelled all doubts and issues; it seems this Muscle Bro isn't usually honest either.

"Not bad—friend's friend is friend, after all; good thing our team is many and strong."

Fei Ying glanced at Aurora, though he wanted to say something but held back, quickly got into position, and gestured toward outside the village.

"Come on, come on, I'll take you to see something good."

They walked on and went far, arriving at a wilderness where players basically never come.

Ji Ming was still wondering whether firearms might really have some major breakthrough, when he saw Fei Ying pull a large lump of iron from his backpack.

Thick iron tube, tiger-claw support, portable for a single soldier……

"Tiger Crouching Cannon!"

He tapped the resonating cannon barrel, and Fei Ying rejoiced as if his wife had just given birth safely.

Although making a proper spear is still a bit difficult, putting together this thing first is no problem; besides, there's still...

Let Cang Lang grab some stones to set up a target, he then pulled out something that Ji Ming and Bai Yesheng were very familiar with.

I really don't know which clever ghost managed to conjure up all those Heaven‑shaking Thunders for me—really able to pull off a stunt, perfect for using as cannonballs.

Alright, looking at the boss, blast him!

Clever ghost:?

That damn guy:?

After a glance, Cang Lang still needed a bit more time to set up the target, Fei Ying had the cannon barrel ready and had nothing to do, so he simply continued speaking.

Actually I watched the footage; during the final battle of the closed beta, the players had already built a three‑bow bed crossbow for me, and at that time they already had gunpowder kegs, so building this must definitely have been done by a closed‑beta player.

But making some black gunpowder and such isn't actually hard, after all the protagonists of time‑travel novels love to tinker with this stuff; if you really want to up the difficulty, it'd be...

He threw out a screenshot, with a red line circling a corner.

Although they were pretty sneaky, not livestreaming when they built things, we still managed to capture something on the bulletin board from far away.

This is truly awesome, look—Old Li! Maxim! T‑34! Hey, where did they get the design drawings for this pile of museum‑piece antiquities?

When mentioning his old profession, Fei Ying, who usually is a cool‑mannered bespectacled man, spoke with animated eyebrows and flushed face.

But just as he was enjoying himself, he turned around and saw two people with complex expressions.

Um...

Only then did he realize he knew a bit too much, and his tone immediately became steady.

Just joking, just joking; let's still test this weapon.

Since we're using Heaven‑shaking Thunder as the cannonball, there's no need to overthink the power of the tiger‑crouching cannon—it's just a big bomb with a longer throwing range.

Although as a hundred‑percent novice‑village boss meant for live‑combat drills, Ji Ming's face had already turned a little pale, yet Fei Ying remained quite humble.

It's just a fun transitional product; give me a little more time and I'll figure out how to make that red‑coat cannon for you—it's even more powerful!

You really want me dead, huh?

Seeing Bai Yesheng nearby still sweating profusely while idling in place, Ji Ming quickly pulled Fei Ying to the side.

Officer Zhang, we won't get caught for doing something this big…… I mean, we won't violate discipline, right?

But Fei Ying's expression suddenly changed, and he lowered his voice.

If this game came out through official channels, we would definitely give it the strictest supervision, and only after confirming everything is safe would we release an incomplete version.

But…… they're too overbearing, privately launching the closed beta without any notice, even saying that only during internal testing did we manage to insert our own people.

And our competitors? In just three days they've packaged themselves as an investment firm, building everything from game guilds to game variety shows, their power rivaling that of the great powers.

Given the situation, if we still clung to traditional things and bound ourselves with red tape that slows development, wouldn't we be falling behind, and how could we compete with them?

Ji Ming, in special times we must use special means, as the higher-ups have emphasized—since it's something for young people, we should handle it with young people's methods!

So this is our side's attitude, then what about theirs……

Ha, just as Fei Ying said, they've already poured massive funds into it—what attitude they have doesn't even need us to guess.

Looks like this plan can still proceed steadily, and if luck is on our side, they might even be willing to 'lend a hand'!

After all, no matter what, we still need to rely on the real world to attract players and complete the Fourth Calamity plan.

If even the strongest among them were to oppose us, imposing restrictions and bans, we'd really have no good recourse……

How could Fei Ying know what this big mole is thinking? He even thought he was pondering Fei Ying's own words.

He then gave a slight smile and patted Ji Ming on the shoulder.

Don't be afraid, don't overthink it, just carry out your mission properly; other matters have nothing to do with you and won't affect or harm you in the slightest.

This is the foundation that allows our Special Operations Bureau to endure to this day, something everyone can guarantee with their lives!

……By the way, hey, wake up, let me ask one more thing: who exactly provided that closed‑beta blueprint?

Ji Ming hesitated a moment, furrowing his brow.

I don't know either—I'm just a nobody in the closed beta; otherwise my nickname wouldn't be such an awful 'Dog Head Advisor'.

Fei Ying looked regretful.

That's truly a shame—being able to produce something this great is definitely not simple in reality.

Ah, speaking of not being simple, your female net friend…… what does she do in real life, do you know?

Ji Ming suppressed the urge to nod, choosing instead to keep shaking his head and feigning ignorance.

Seeing her keep secretly staring at you, she must be an important person; from now on keep her company…… patient! Very serious!

He let out a faint sigh, and Fei Ying's eyes grew somewhat complex.

Although the family situation is good and there's no shortage of money for treatment, life might be prolongable with money, but health truly can't be bought back.

Whoa, there's meaning behind the words, there's a story……

However, Ji Ming doesn't have the habit of probing others' secrets, so he pretended not to notice, merely nodding solemnly.

I understand.

Testing the tiger‑crouching cannon was just a interlude; after trying to fire it a few times and confirming there were no issues, Fei Ying put away the slightly heated barrel.

He also recorded a few numbers and symbols in the notebook, returning to his serious state in weapon crafting.

The data has been recorded; I'll later do some optimizations and changes, so please look forward to the next version.

Thanks, not looking forward to it.

The boss felt a pang of sadness, glanced at the time, and realized it was already nearly twelve o'clock.

Just as he was calculating how many minutes left before opening the scheduled dungeon, he suddenly saw a gold‑bordered prompt appear in his field of view.

【Congratulations to player 【Chun Shu Bian】 for successfully discovering the hidden map 【Earth‑digging Tribe】】

【Limited‑time challenge mission: Mole People Rescuer · Activated!】

Although the plan indeed calls for opening this, but……

How could it be so early!?