Chapter 284: Chapter 282: Who Exactly is the Mole?
Translator: 549690339
At this point, players on the race track had long put Night City out of their minds.
Some players focused on the finish line with single-minded determination, seeing only the first place.
Some players cheered for themselves, hoping not to be eliminated and considering reaching the third round a big victory.
Some players, after running two laps of the track, succumbed to their PVP urges and didn’t care about winning or losing anymore, instead finding joy in crashing into others, busy wreaking havoc on the competition venue.
Influenced by them, some players no longer cared about victory either, their sole goal became to knock down those troublemakers or kick them off the track.
Among the more than a thousand players, almost all professional gamers belonged to the first category.
It seemed that, due to some occupational hazard, their eyes were set on nothing but the first place.
—It’s worth mentioning that the professional gamers who got test qualifications all carried the important mission of “gaining an early understanding of Night City, obtaining as much information as possible, and securing advantages for the club.”
This mission was obviously declared a failure the moment they entered.
Camille Victoria was the last type of player. Even Xiaomei was stirred up by her, and the two cooperated, rushing up to any “bastards” they saw making trouble and delivering a flying kick, raining down sanctions from the sky.
After all, it was a closed beta test, and all rewards could be collected and tried freely, so Camille Victoria didn’t need to fight for victory to get her desired appearance, she could change it on the spot if she liked it.
Because of this, Camille Victoria took on the role of the “marshal” on the competition venue, enjoying it without any pressure.
Lincoln and Xiaomeng watched as Camille Victoria sprinted, kicked, sprinted again, and kicked again, all while having a great time.
Xiaomei, wearing a doll costume that looked like a Psyduck, followed closely behind Camille Victoria, ready to grab her whenever she was about to fall off the track.
Of course, it wasn’t realistic to keep hold of her every single time amidst the chaos on the track, sometimes they would both fail and end up tumbling off the track together, splashing huge water sprays.
Super Tomato was a unique case, not belonging to any of the aforementioned types of players. He was probably the only one who truly came with the intention of testing the game.
On the competition venue, he was still trying to find loopholes, like instead of looking for a crackable door among the many closed ones, he teamed up with a few teammates and tried to climb over them by forming a human ladder.
And it was successful in no time!
Which led to a bunch of players following suit immediately.
Seeing this, Lincoln decided that after the test, the door would definitely have to be raised!
Players could climb over it, but not so easily that everyone could do it effortlessly.
—Otherwise, who would bother with the proper game mechanics if they could take shortcuts!
Of course, Lincoln did not forget his main task, and the data on winning rates for different outfits continued to be recorded.
The first round of weight adjustments would take place tonight.
However, there was still not enough data for this round, so the adjustments would be small, with the weight of those outfits whose winning rate was zero being reduced by twenty percent.
Detailed adjustments would have to wait until the game was released on a large scale, and targeted modifications could be made based on massive player match data.
Samuel had a very accurate understanding of his boss’s personality, so he didn’t wait until bedtime in the evening.
On the way home, Lincoln watched the trailer for “Paradise” in the car.
Initially, Lincoln wanted to name the game “Summer Paradise” as it felt more in line with the current lively atmosphere in reality and in the game.
But Samuel reminded him that it was already Autumn in reality, plus the game was going to be operated all year round.
At that time, Lincoln really wanted to argue: “Night City is about to go international soon, so when our summer ends, somewhere else in the world, their summer has just begun! There’s always summer somewhere around the world.”
But in the end, he silently removed the words “Summer,” and “Paradise” became the final name of the new game.
Although time was tight, “Paradise” itself was a relaxing and casual game with simple content, so the trailer wasn’t too difficult to make.
After watching the trailer, Lincoln felt that there were indeed some improvements to be made but decided to let it go after checking the time.
A hard reality that would hit Samuel’s team was: at this stage, whether or not Cloud Dream’s games had trailers, they would have no trouble selling.
Compared to Mirage’s sales volume, Cloud Dream’s games were too scarce, and players spent most of their time in a state of desperate longing.
As long as Cloud Dream released a new game, regardless of whether they were particularly interested, they were willing to buy and try it.
As a result, the goal of Samuel’s team in making game trailers was always the potential players who had not yet purchased a console.
They hoped to use trailers to arouse their buying desires and thus increase Mirage’s sales.
The problem was, Mirage’s sales had always been excellent, never experiencing a situation where a new batch of goods was not sold out within a week.
After the launch of the new game, console sales did see some improvement, but it’s hard to say how much credit could be given to the trailer.
The specific contribution of their work on the trailer has always been in a state of Schrödinger’s cat – it might be there, or it might not be; no one can say for sure.
So Lincoln’s emphasis on the trailer is constantly fluctuating.
It mainly depends on how much he personally likes the project and his mood when watching the trailer.
That’s why this time, just let it be!
Don’t distract him from having a feast with Yue Pengju.
This small-scale testing session went on until 8 0’clock in the evening.
Shuihua sprinted all the way after class, catching up to the closed beta just before it ended and rushing into the test server.
Seeing the adorable, highly unusual race track, Shuihua was overjoyed, grateful that she made it in time and that her sweat on the way wasn’t for nothing.
—But she rejoiced too soon.
After putting on the thick Pear Jacket, getting matched up and entering the competition, she suffered a “ruthless” blow.
Her opponents were almost all people who had been racing on the track all day.
It’s fine for the ones familiar with the track, running fast; a little envy from Shuihua wouldn’t affect her play.
But those who were there just to mess around were a different story, as Shuihua was slammed, knocked down, and thrown off the track again and again.
The first two rounds could be described like this:
Shuihua fell in the water!
Shuihua fell in the water again!
Shuihua fell in the water yet again!
Every time Shuihua fell into the water, it would splash a lot of water.
Not until the third race, when she met Camille Victoria at the starting point and joined the “Sanction Squad,” did her situation finally improve.
Shuihua played until the test server closed, and she never got to properly cross the finish line a few times.
When she took off her headband and started doing homework, she felt regretful.
Before she could write a few words, Lance contacted her on her mobile phone, asking about the content of the new game.
Shuihua’s reply was impulsive: “A fighting game where everyone is dressed in doll clothes.”
Lance immediately replied with a series of question marks.
“Isn’t it Night City?”
It’s no wonder that Lance asked, as the current information on the Internet is quite chaotic.
This time, Cloud Dream’s closed beta invitation didn’t make the players sign a strict confidentiality agreement, only prohibiting live streaming and video recording features inside the test server.
Players didn’t widely publish the game’s content out of caution, fearing they might lose their chance to test future games if caught.
But the emergence of moles is inevitable, the only question is how much information they leak.
However, when the moles do appear, non -tester players become even more confused – the information they expose is completely jumbled up.
Some people say it’s not Night City at all, but a casual game.
But more people insist that it’s definitely Night City, with exciting combat content!
Some even swear that the original “Fast XX” game Lincoln mentioned was actually “Fast Frenzy”!
Others claim to guarantee with their own character that all of the recently purchased IPS by Cloud Dream have appeared in the new game.
All kinds of indistinguishable true and false information fly around, muddying
For a moment, it’s impossible to tell who is a real mole, who is a fake one, and who is just a fun-loving person.
Lance thought he could get an answer from Shuihua, but her response made him even more confused…..