Chapter 128: Game Release

As Shen Yu predicted, Azure-2120 went on sale at 00:00 on December 15th, and by midday the next day there was another small spike in downloads, and again in the evening, only to slow down after 10pm that night.

At this point the twenty-four hour sales have reached 5,200 copies, almost all of which have been purchased and downloaded by fans who have come over from the Beep Station specifically to support the project.

There are 180,000 fans following the daily life of the sinking fish Luo Yan on the beeping site, and the fact that so many people have actually come out to support them is quite unexpected for Shen Yu and Li Xiang.

To sell more than 10,000 copies, word of mouth will have to ferment from these 5,000 people, otherwise it will be difficult to break 10,000 copies.

Unlike ordinary romance games where you can't ctrl through the plot, after downloading Azure-2120, you are first attracted by its beautiful artwork and then you start to patiently walk through the plot and start interacting with Arya.

Chatting away and getting into the swing of things without realising it ......

On December 16th, one of the first players to play the game in depth posted a long review, something to the effect that the game seemed endless and that he had been stuck interacting with Arya for seven or eight hours, going through the routine without progressing in the plot, but he was particularly positive about the AI program, saying that it was almost like interacting with a real person and that sometimes after talking for so long, even he thought Arya was real, so much so that he At times, even he thought Arya was real, so much so that he forgot to push the plot while he was interacting with Arya.

One after another, there are quite a few players who agree, and all are united in their dissatisfaction with the game: too few cg resources! How can there be so little of such beautiful artwork! Where's the sound? Where's Arya's voice? I don't know how to move the plot forward!

On December 17th, a player finally moved on from his daily interactions with Arya to the next step in the main story, and posted a thousand-word comment in anger, along the lines of: Give me back my Arya! I'm crying! The ending has a knife in it!

At the same time, a large number of in-depth demo reviews began to appear, many of which were over a hundred words long, thus showing that players were unknowingly immersed in Arya's world, and that ninety percent of those who made it to the ending were, without exception, knifed hard, watching Arya's core shattered by high-powered bullets and dying in their arms. But ......

There are a few players who interacted with Arya in a way that led to an alternate ending: Lance protected Arya from the federal army and lived happily ever after, even releasing their wedding photo in the comments section, prompting a slew of players who had been knifed to ask them what the hell was going on and how this plotline should go.

The two days of the sixteenth and seventeenth were the two lowest days for the purchase and download of Azure-2120, and many players even changed their ratings and gave it a bad review because of the ending, until the discussion about the game was finally ignited after one after another people went to the other ending line.

Players gathered in the game's comment section, the daily comment section of Luo Yan, the beeping station's sinking fish, and the comment section of the game's review bloggers to discuss enthusiastically how they could get to an alternate ending line with Arya, avoid getting knifed, and get happily married.

After all, there are only a few players who are able to play the game without being knifed by the ending, which stimulates the competitive spirit of the players, and after playing the game in depth, there is always some affection for Arya, who wants to be knifed.

From the 18th, the number of downloads began to rise sharply. After two days of atrophy on the 16th and 17th, the number of downloads exceeded 10,000 on the 18th, and judging from the rate of increase, it is expected that the number of downloads will continue to rise in the next two days.

......

Shan Lun is a famous game reviewer and a veteran geek, whose job is to live review all kinds of new games, push the fun ones and troll the crap ones.

Unlike some of the big upvoters, he usually prefers to review more niche games, which have a higher fan viscosity and are also more fresh.

Since the 18th, when he was live streaming, he often saw fans recommending him to play a newly launched relationship game called "Azure-2120", and more and more fans were commenting on it, Shan Lun realized that it might be a new hot topic, so he immediately spent $19.90 to download and try it out.

A brief look at the game's information, home-made and still indie, the preview screen is quite beautiful.

"I have played many domestic romance games, most of them are not good, this type of genre has a low threshold and is suitable for start-up groups to practice, let me see the synopsis ah ...... cohabitation? Is it selling meat? The story line also seems to be very single ah ......"

[Stop bleeping and play with the wheel! I want to see you cry!

"Cry? The end of the knife? Then it's going to be cold, who plays with knives now ......"

I've got a license with Arya's wife]

"So there are two lines?"

Shan Lun looked at the gameplay and saw that it was basically about interacting with Arya to move the plot forward, which is quite different from the usual scripted romance games with fixed lines, and the gameplay was quite new.

"If the interaction is too mechanical, it's not fun to play, it's a gimmick by the development team, right? Who makes a text adventure game with AI."

[Play, play, play!

At the urging of his fans in the live stream, Shan Lun ordered a cup of milk tea and with the game already downloaded and installed, he clicked into the game.

The initial flow is not too different from a normal romance game, with a general background of the world and information about 'me', but Arya is not introduced much, making it quite mysterious.

Soon the game enters the plot, and a beautiful riser appears on the computer screen: a dying young girl lying in the weeds, with long human-like hair and pale skin, and tattered clothes.

"That would be the heroine."

At first glance, Shan Lun was attracted to the style of the drawing, and he watched the soft girl for a while, his heart swelling with protectiveness.

Subconsciously, I pressed the shortcut key to jump to the next one, only I couldn't jump past it and no lines arranged by any of the characters popped up.

[Interact! You have to interact with her! Be bold and do what you want!

Seeing the pop-up alert, Shan Lun now typed in, "Who are you?"

The young girl opens her eyes, and the whole painting just does a little action here and there, and the art resources are quite minimal, but the big blue eyes are beautifully drawn ......

"Who ...... are you?"

Her dialogue box popped up on the screen and she asked Shan Lun back.

[haha, not the same as when I was playing]

[I came up and said I'll take you home to bed and she said fuck off]

Looking at the pop-ups, Shan Lun got a kick out of the fact that it wasn't really a fixed line! Different players interact differently!

"My name is Lance, my family lives in town, and I'm very kind."

"Lance ......"

"You haven't told me what your name is."

"My name is Arya ......"

"Come home with me and make me a wife."

Since it was a review, Shan Lun wanted to play around a bit, to see how smart this so-called AI really was.

"No! You, you stay away from me!"

Shan Lun froze, taking her home was definitely the next step in the plot, but it was impossible to jump into this one, so we couldn't just keep chatting away, could we?

[Spill the money! You have to step into the role!

[Lure her home first]

[Forcing her is refusing to leave!

The pop-ups gave Shan Lun another reminder, recalling the information about the characters and a brief background of the world before the story began, and only then did he begin to play in earnest.

"Where have you come from? Why are you so badly wounded?"

"My ...... hometown suffered a war ...... I wandered here to escape ......... ..."

"You're injured now, my family lives in town, it's safe, come back with me and I can take care of you, I'm a good person."

"I can't trust you. ......"

"It's dangerous here, you'll be found out soon if you stay here, why don't you come back with me?"

After a lot of hard work, Shan Lun finally managed to get Arya into her home.

Soon the scene also changes from the outdoors to the home.

The pace of the game is slow, slow, and Shan Lun has to try to step into Lance's shoes in order to navigate the plot bit by bit.

Sometimes he gets impatient and tells Arya to sleep together, or to strip naked, which causes Arya to recoil, she gets angry, and the play comes to a standstill, requiring him to re-cajole her to get in her good graces.

"There's something interesting about this game! The developers must have built in parameters such as fit or heart value, but we can't see them, I've confessed eight times and been rejected every time!"

"This AI is so smart, it allows me to speak and interact freely, it's not like a real person is hiding behind it!"

Unlike Xiaomeng I, the parameters of Arya's persona are based on the script, and the super intelligent interaction makes her seem like a young girl living in the future.

I once made Arya so mad she ran away from home.

Shan Lun was so engrossed in the game that he felt like he was really becoming Lance and started to concentrate on his live-in routine with Arya.

He would talk to her, he would eat with her, he would go shopping with her, he would look at the stars from the rooftops with her, and he would tell her about his real life problems, and Arya would listen and comfort him like a gentle girl.

There aren't many scenes in the game, but occasionally, when chatting and interacting, a new scene is triggered and Shan Lun finds it incredibly exciting.

When the show kicked off the next day, fans were eagerly following Shan Lun's progress in picking up Arya.

[What's up wheel, did you get a hit?

[Crap, that's fine, I just played too, and she's never spoken to me so gently!

Shan Lun seemed to forget that she was playing the game to get through it, and indulged in her daily interactions with Arya, feeling like her empty soul was being nourished.

"Great game guys! You can buy a wife for $19.90, blood money!!!"

[Confessions Confessions!

With fans clamouring for more, Shan Lun picked a good time to confess to Arya: "Arya, let's get married and live together like this."

"Well ...... I love you, Lance ."

Finally, no more rejection this time! Shan Lun jumped out of her chair in excitement, the feeling was as exciting as first love.

On the pop-ups, fans also brushed up their wishes and small gifts clamoured up.

It's a virtual romance that actually makes Shan Lun feel like she belongs!

The scene then finally progresses from trivial routine to the next, and an unbelievably beautiful risqué picture appears on the screen, with Lance and Arya kissing each other.

[Screenshot! Wheels! Your new desktop wallpaper is available!

Shan Lun didn't hesitate to take a screenshot and immediately changed the desktop of her computer to this wallpaper.

"Guys! I've got a wife on wheels! I'll draw everyone a thousand dollars in red envelopes later to congratulate them!"

Shan Lun continued to interact with Arya, not knowing why, when fans in the live stream were posting funny, dog-headed, chopper emojis.

"Lance, I have a secret I've been keeping from you, I'm sorry ......"

When I saw Arya say this, the room immediately erupted.

[Don't answer! Don't answer! Don't answer!

[Danger!

[Here it comes]

[What's meant to be will be sooner or later]

[Wheels! Get the tissues ready!]

[Crying is no shame]

"What are you doing? You guys are ......"

Shan Lun was confused, didn't he know that Arya had a secret he wanted to tell him, when he already knew it, even though the plot and character descriptions didn't say anything, but the bastards kept giving away spoilers and everyone knew Arya was a mechanical girl.

[Wheel, take my advice, don't listen to this secret!

[Listen and Knife!

[Just don't listen and you'll get a chance to collect your wedding group photo!

[Danger!

[Danger!!! +999]

The pop-ups were pouring out, Shan Lun Since the beginning of the live broadcast, the volume of pop-ups has never been as high as today, and at the end, almost all of them were [critical].

So much so that he's wimped out ......

Shan Lun really wimped out, and although Arya is only a secondary wife, his feelings for her have been built up as part of the geek community.

Other people's second wives are just a picture, but my second wife has real interactions!

"Oh ...... brothers don't scare me ......"

[Wheels, don't die!

[Danger!

After thinking about it for a long time, Shan Lun replied to Arya, "Don't tell me you're sorry, I don't care about anything and you don't have to tell me anything."

"But I always feel like I owe you if I don't tell you, I'm sorry ...... sorry ......"

Damn the developer for popping up a picture of Arya crying in pain at this moment, and Shan Lun's heart softened at the sight of her crying.

"Does it make you feel better if you tell me?"

"I don't know what to do, but I can't keep it from you, I'm sorry ......"

Arya confesses.

[Finished]

[You've lost the wheel]

[You're actually fucking soft]

Looking at the pop-ups, Shan Lun regretted a little and tried to save the day when it was too late.

The game pops up the current world situation and the federal army starts searching for the AI that has gone into hiding in the human world.

"Holy fuck!"

Shan Lun got nervous and immediately said to Arya, "I'll take you and run away, let's hide somewhere where no one knows!"

[Exactly as scripted]

[There are millions of roads, the wheel rolls to the most knife-like one]

[Get the tissues ready]

The game has come to a point where there is no turning back.

[Give up the wheel]

[The more you struggle, the louder you cry when you lose]

"I don't fucking believe it! I haven't even gotten my wedding photo yet!"

After a three-hour struggle, Shan Lun was unable to salvage the end, as a Federation bullet shattered Arya's core and she died in Lance's arms.

"Lance ...I love you...like a human being...love you...always ......"

Look at the last picture on the screen: Lance is holding Arya, whose function is fading away, and she reaches out to caress Lance's face, her big blue eyes are full of reluctance ......

Shan Lun wowed ......

"Holy fuck ...... my wife is gone! I'm in so much pain!"