Durandal? Dorky Goose??

Soon, he had finished watching it a second time, but the excitement in his heart had become even harder to suppress.

When he reopened the group chat, as expected, everyone inside was discussing the game.

"Holy crap! With visuals like this, are you sure it isn't some new anime?"

"Honestly, this art style is so beautiful. It hits me right in the heart, ahhh..."

"I'm looking forward to it too, but... is there a chance this is just a promotional tactic? Like... putting effort into the ads and making the game with their feet?"

"Didn't you see the big words at the bottom? Recorded from actual gameplay."

"Didn't Tencent's Civilization Domination also claim to be recorded from actual gameplay? Didn't it still end up looking like crap?"

"Ahem... did Tencent call it actual gameplay footage? Look carefully. Wasn't it called game footage?"

"That's a new term Tencent came up with. It means the actual product doesn't match the video. But this Honkai Impact 3rd clearly says actual gameplay demonstration."

"Holy crap, now I'm really looking forward to it. Pre-registered!!"

"I checked out this Studio's information and found that they'd released a game before, but its performance seemed pretty terrible."

"To be honest, I played that game. It was called Saving Girl. The gameplay wasn't much, but it was genuinely generous. You could tell from some of the details that the development team had put a lot of care into it."

"I looked it up too. That game had a great reputation, but the problem was that its gameplay just wasn't good."

"The two games are vastly different, but this Honkai Impact 3rd really has me excited."

"Excited +1."

Meanwhile, the promotion for Honkai Impact 3rd continued nonstop on Douyin and Bilibili.

Of the people who watched the trailer, nearly ninety percent said they were extremely excited, deeply drawn in by this 3D anime rendering technology.

It had to be said that the two primary promotional platforms Mo Li had chosen were producing explosive results.

Inside the Studio, the girls were all thrilled as they looked at the pre-registration numbers on the official website.

"That's incredible! It's only been three days, and the number of pre-registrations has already reached one million!"

Bronya nodded lightly. She was equally shocked inside. "At this rate, barring any surprises, won't the player count reach ten million by the time the game launches?"

Upon hearing that figure, everyone instinctively turned toward the recording studio.

Inside the recording studio, Mo Li was guiding Mei through her voice acting.

"What I'm curious about is how the boss got Kiana's voice acting..."

After hearing Durandal say that, everyone nodded in unison. Their gazes toward Mo Li were filled with deep curiosity.

"Isn't that simple..." Rita smiled lightly. "Once he comes out, we can just ask him, can't we?"

"Huh? He's out!"

As it happened, Mei had just finished recording her lines.

Seeing the strange looks on everyone's faces, Mo Li felt uncomfortable all over. "What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?"

Durandal pondered for a moment before slowly speaking. "Boss, my younger sister is clearly still in school. How did you get Kiana's voice acting?"

"Oh, that." As Mo Li spoke, he picked up the cup of water on the table. "Didn't I say before that I completed everything in the game by myself?"

"The voice acting was the same."

After saying that, Mo Li lifted the cup and gulped down a mouthful before continuing, "For the voices in the game, I just adjusted my voice according to each character's personality."

"But now that you're all here, I'll leave the voice acting for the corresponding characters to you."

After hearing Mo Li's explanation, the girls clearly did not quite believe him.

Seeing this, Mo Li merely smiled and did not try to prove anything to them.

He glanced at the official website data and quickly changed the subject. "Whoa, the pre-registration count has already hit one million."

Once the subject turned back to the game, everyone became excited again.

"Who would've thought that in just three days, the number of pre-registrations would reach the million mark..."

"And... its rating on Tap is as high as 9.8..." As she said this, Bronya looked at Mo Li with a trace of admiration in her eyes.

Though she usually wore that cold, expressionless face,

she was actually a genuine gaming addict.

And she loved everything about Honkai Impact 3rd, whether it was the gameplay, visuals, or story.

Naturally, she admired Mo Li immensely for creating Honkai Impact 3rd all by himself.

She knew she could never make such a perfect game.

If she had still been somewhat resistant to Mo Li joining them before, she now welcomed him with both hands.

Moreover, after spending these past days together, Mo Li had never once looked at them with any lecherous intent. He treated them entirely as ordinary friends.

As a result, they now followed Mo Li's work arrangements almost without question.

"Boss, is the content for Version 1.2 finished?"

Mo Li nodded. "It's already done. Now we just wait for the official launch in half a month."

Bronya asked, "Then how are we pricing this game?"

Chapter 8: Durandal? Dorky Goose??

Upon hearing the question of pricing, all the girls looked at Mo Li expectantly.

"Tell me what you think first." Mo Li did not immediately state his own thoughts, instead tossing the question back to the girls.

He wanted to see what level they thought Honkai Impact 3rd could reach.

The girls exchanged glances, and in the end, Bronya was the first to speak.

"I think that, considering Honkai Impact 3rd's quality, it would be completely reasonable to charge according to the standards of Tencent's Otherworld."

Hearing this, Mo Li nodded to himself.

Otherworld could be said to be Tencent's most profitable online game at present.

It used a time-card payment system, and it was among the most expensive games using that model.

In other words, in the eyes of these girls, Honkai Impact 3rd was fully capable of matching Otherworld in quality.

But... Mo Li gently shook his head.

"I don't plan to use a time-card payment system."

In terms of scale, a single version of Honkai Impact 3rd was inferior to that game.

But its gameplay and selling points were far superior.

Take Honkai Impact 3rd's story, for example. Even if it were not made into a game and existed solely as an anime, it would still absolutely count as an outstanding one.

From Version 1.0 to 7.0, if players experienced the story immersively, twenty-four hours probably would not even be enough to finish it.

"Huh?" The girls were all greatly surprised by Mo Li's words.

In their minds, aside from time-card payment systems, there was only the buy-to-play model.

Bronya was the first to voice her doubt. "But... the game has only been developed up to Version 1.2. If it's buy-to-play... how much money could it even sell for..."

"And the gameplay isn't suited for buy-to-play either..." Rita frowned as well, wanting to persuade Mo Li to abandon the idea.

"Heh." Mo Li smiled lightly. "I plan to make this game free!"

Durandal: "??"

Himeko: "!!"

Everyone else was stunned by Mo Li's words.

Rita said, "Boss... although we all want to seriously make a game that most people will enjoy, we don't have to run a business at a loss, do we?"

Mei also began to gently persuade him. "That's right. This game is already excellent. If you don't want to price it too high, we can just charge less."

"If I were a player, I'd be more than willing to spend money on such an exquisite game."

Seeing that everyone was getting worked up, Mo Li quickly interrupted them. "Listen to me first."

"Playing will be free, but not everything will be free..."

"You all know there are many Valkyrie Armors in Honkai Impact 3rd, and every armor has different effects..."

Next, Mo Li explained the game's profit model to them in great detail.

The uncertain gacha system left the girls completely dumbfounded!

As game enthusiasts, however, they immediately understood the key point.

If Tencent's Otherworld sold the game and equipment,

then Honkai Impact 3rd sold Character Cards, weapons, and Stigmata.

The two profit models were not all that different. The only difference was that Honkai Impact 3rd relied on exquisite character models and excellent characterization to make players fall in love with the corresponding characters, then pay for them.

And Honkai Impact 3rd just so happened to be an anime-style game...

As everyone knew... anime fans' money was the easiest to make.

"This..."

After understanding, the way the girls looked at Mo Li changed.

Himeko broke into a smile. "That brain of yours... what a waste that you're not a shady businessman."

"It really is impressive... Using free-to-play as a gimmick can attract even more players... Even if there are freeloading players, they'll probably still be unable to resist buying a monthly card..."

At this point, Bronya suddenly came to her senses. "The money from buying several monthly cards could buy an entire game..."

It had to be said that, no matter how composed Mo Li was, being so lavishly praised by a group of beautiful girls still made him feel a little lightheaded.

He took a tactical sip of water and chuckled. "You understand now, right? I'm not some philanthropist. I need to make a living too."

"Alright, everyone, take the next two days off. Once the game launches, we won't have this much free time anymore."

After saying that, Mo Li prepared to leave.

Right now, discussions about Honkai Impact 3rd were extremely heated on Douyin and Bilibili.

To keep the hype from dying down before the game launched, Mo Li planned to make some moves using the verified Douyin and Bilibili accounts.

In other words, he would occasionally post gameplay videos or fan-made videos related to Honkai Impact 3rd.

It was worth mentioning that the official Honkai Impact 3rd accounts on Douyin and Bilibili had now surpassed two million followers.

Just as Mo Li was about to leave, Durandal suddenly cried out in surprise.

Everyone was quite curious about Durandal's sudden reaction.

"Dorky Goose, what's wrong?"

Looking at Durandal's suddenly enlightened expression, Mo Li found her incredibly amusing.

She was clearly a mature and sexy older woman, yet she often acted adorably airheaded.

Durandal was exactly like that right now, so Mo Li instinctively called her by her nickname.

Upon hearing how Mo Li addressed her, Durandal froze for a moment before explaining, "Boss... my name is Durandal..."

Mo Li smiled. "I know. But don't you think Dorky Goose is a cute nickname? And it suits you pretty well."

"Does it?"

Unlike what Mo Li had expected, Durandal was not angry about being given a nickname. Instead, she seriously... entered a thoughtful state...

"Pfft..." Seeing such an adorable Durandal, Rita was the first to burst out laughing.

"I also think that nickname suits Big Sis quite well."

"Mm... it's very cute too~" Himeko added.

"Alright, let's hear what Dorky Goose wanted to say first." Mo Li interrupted the girls' teasing and brought the topic back. "Did you discover some problem just now?"

Only after hearing Mo Li's words did Durandal stop pondering whether the nickname Dorky Goose suited her.