"My God, I know about the Land of Demons. There really is such a country. Could it be that it truly sealed away a monster called Chimi Moryo?"
"M-My God, wh-what was that? What happened to those people who turned into the living dead and monsters? Wh-what kind of ninjutsu was that?"
"It was demon ninjutsu! Didn't Genjutsu Game say that the evil power brought by Chimi Moryo had corrupted the entire world?"
"Ugh~~ That's disgusting! It's horrible! Wh-what even was that? What were those things?"
"The apocalypse... Was that the real apocalypse? So terrifying! Was an apocalyptic world really like that?"
"No! We absolutely can't let the world be taken over by those monsters! It absolutely can't become like that!"
"So scary... I-If I turned into something like that, I'd rather die!"
Exclamations, shouts, fearful cries, doubtful murmurs, and excited voices rang out without end. The unprecedented visual impact and horrifying scenes people had never seen before made everyone in the real world cry out in shock.
The impact was no different from the shock global players had felt back in the 1990s when they first saw the iconic zombie turn around and smile in the classic game Resident Evil.
It was also like the feeling of seeing a zombie apocalypse film for the first time—the shock of realizing that the world could become such a hellish mess.
Although the ninja world had all kinds of terrifying things and ghost stories, how could any of them compare to the impact of the incredibly realistic apocalyptic scenes projected in the venue now?
Of course, Uchiha Qi had localized the ninja-world-exclusive version. Rather than using classic methods of infection such as parasites, viruses, or bacteria, he had directly shifted it from science fiction to fantasy and used the setting of Chimi Moryo.
As it happened, the ninja world really did have Chimi Moryo. However, after being passed down through countless legends, its existence had gained many different versions, and Chimi Moryo was merely one of them.
Things involving gods, ghosts, and monsters were easy enough for people to understand. It was just that the real Chimi Moryo was not nearly so terrifying.
In truth, every game Uchiha Qi created had been thoroughly localized for the ninja world. As a reincarnated scummy game designer, he understood very well that all new things came with a "cost of understanding," followed by a "cultural effect."
Even if he could completely recreate entirely new things and bring over every overused cliché from Earth, what would he do about the cost of understanding?
Besides, if he really brought out something people could not understand at all, how was Uchiha Qi supposed to explain it to them?
Humans found it difficult to imagine things they had never seen. If Uchiha Qi truly introduced all sorts of overly advanced concepts, simply making others understand them—and explaining how he himself knew about them—would become extremely troublesome and might even put him in danger.
Thus, "localization" became Uchiha Qi's choice. He simply modified games that had existed on Earth and brought them over.
For example, Homecoming was just a modified WeChat mini-game brought over, while Fruit Ninja was actually a mashup of Plants vs. Zombies and Fruit Ninja.
The focus was on being simple and easy to understand.
Of course, it was not as if Uchiha Qi would never spread information that was "advanced" for the ninja world. It merely required certain prerequisites.
For example, concepts such as cells and bacteria already existed in the ninja world, and Left 4 Dead actually used them as well. The corruption and alteration of life by Chimi Moryo's evil power was, in fact, aimed at the cellular level. He had already buried such information within the game, and players had a chance to discover it while playing.
Well, based on Uchiha Qi's understanding of the "player" group, aside from a few people interested in such things or those with sharp observational skills, most people entering Left 4 Dead would only be seeking the thrill of combat. As for what details or hidden stories lay within, they could only wait for others to explain them.
In any case, Uchiha Qi's current "localization" had been quite successful. At the very least, the more than five thousand spectators in the venue immediately understood the background story of Left 4 Dead, even those who could not read.
Moreover, the excessively realistic scenes in the genjutsu game made many people tremble in fear from merely watching a CG animation. Even though, in Uchiha Qi's view, the CG animation had nothing but visuals going for it, to the people of the ninja world, it was undeniably a dimensionality-reduction strike. Its impact surpassed that of Earthlings seeing an IMAX 3D blockbuster for the first time.
Concepts such as the living dead and mutated monsters were forcibly shoved into the minds of these "ninja-world bumpkins," instantly opening the door to a new world for them.
Some merchants grew especially excited because they were involved in the film industry. Although the ninja world's film industry had only just begun, movie theaters had already appeared, as had black-and-white films with sound. The technology tree was simply bizarrely skewed.
With such technology, along with the existence of ninja and things like the Transformation Jutsu, making "zombie films" would not be difficult at all.
Thus, Uchiha Qi quietly completed a round of "cultural export," and the conceptual origin of terms like "zombie," "living dead," and "mutant" in this world was destined to belong to Konoha.
Among the ninja, the terrifying things in the CG animation also left them deeply unsettled. Even those who had participated in the Ninja World War and were used to mountains of corpses and seas of blood could not help swallowing.
After all, although the Ninja World War had been cruel, the dead simply died. Yet according to the information revealed in the game, people might turn into brainless living dead after dying and launch indiscriminate attacks on the living.
That was truly terrifying. The impact even far surpassed how people would feel when facing the Impure World Reincarnation Army in the future Fourth Great Ninja War.
Moreover, most ninja let out relieved breaths in lingering fear—thankfully, this was only in a game. It did not exist in the real world.
Yet a small number of people who knew more, or thought more deeply, could not help wondering—did such a thing truly not exist?
For example, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. As Hokage, he knew far more intelligence than others. He knew that Chimi Moryo, the monster of Land of Demons legend, truly existed and had always been sealed away. The priestesses of the Land of Demons had guarded and sealed it for generations, and Konoha had even accepted related missions in the past.
Taking a puff of his pipe, Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered, "We need to pay closer attention to the Land of Demons. Whether the legendary Chimi Moryo can do what it did in the genjutsu game or not, we cannot ignore such an evil creature, one so vastly different from even the tailed beasts."
Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura both nodded in agreement. They also knew about Chimi Moryo. Although giving it special attention because of a genjutsu game seemed somewhat excessive, there was no harm in keeping an eye on it—after all, they too found the content of Left 4 Dead rather horrifying.
That was Konoha's first impression of Left 4 Dead.
As for Uchiha Qi, the corners of his mouth were already impossible to suppress, like an AK's recoil, and he deeply felt that holding this launch event had been the right decision.
Because now that the system had officially activated, people were continuously generating Emotion Value, bringing Uchiha Qi an unending stream of it.
Although each person provided only a little, the total amount was terrifying.
Uchiha Qi made up his mind. Tonight, he would conduct a round of Emotion Value draws!
At the same time, inside the game, the players of the four teams stared at one another in astonishment.
They had been shocked by the CG animation just now, but being transformed into other people was even more surprising.
Only Minato Namikaze, who had received some basic information from Uchiha Qi in advance, looked at his disciples who had become strangers. Smiling, he reassured the three uneasy children and explained, "There's no need to be so surprised. In this game, we directly play game characters. There are four male characters and four female characters in total, and after entering the game, we randomly become one of them."
"Of course, men become men and women become women. There won't be any cases of men becoming women or women becoming men."
Hearing this, the three students were finally reassured.
However, they soon became extremely curious again. After all, they were children, while the game characters were all adults.
Suddenly becoming adults naturally felt completely different.
Among them, Uchiha Obito had become a vicious-looking bald man in his thirties, Hatake Kakashi had outright become a white-bearded old man, and Nohara Rin had become a woman with a black ponytail.
As for Minato Namikaze, he had become a haggard blond young man.
All the game characters shared one trait: they were filthy, and their clothes were ragged. They had the distinct appearance of refugees, fully displaying what survivors in an apocalypse should look like.
These game characters all had their own names and identities, but the trial version had not included that content. It would only be revealed after the official release.
For now, the genjutsu game only displayed the players' real-world names, so everyone could immediately recognize one another.
As a result, Uchiha Obito did not hesitate to begin mocking Hatake Kakashi. Becoming an old man was simply too funny.
Hatake Kakashi's face darkened, and he immediately began firing back at Uchiha Obito with his sharp tongue, saying that Uchiha Obito did not look like a good person right now and belonged in Konoha Prison, where he should be thoroughly interrogated.
Thus, the two naturally began arguing, looking as though they were about to start fighting.
Seeing this, Nohara Rin hurriedly tried to mediate between them, shyly telling them not to act like that. She was far more anxious than usual.
Because Nohara Rin had not forgotten that they were being livestreamed right now. More than five thousand pairs of eyes were watching them outside.
As it turned out, Nohara Rin's concern was not unwarranted. Once the audience recovered their wits and saw Kakashi and Obito arguing, they all burst out laughing.
Elementary-school children arguing was not particularly interesting in the ninja world, but when it was a vicious bald man and a white-bearded old man having an elementary-school-level quarrel, the feeling became extremely bizarre.
Especially...
When the two were still using their own voices, which severely mismatched their appearances, it instantly carried the aesthetic of an absurd cursed meme video compilation.
And so, the fun began.
Uchiha Qi also discovered that such absurd scenes that brought people joy could generate quite a bit of Emotion Value, confirming another new avenue for collecting it.
Before you continue