Chapter Summaries

At a gaming expo, Big Brother A+ and the players experienced Golden Wind’s war game as both factions charged toward the Central Building. The Red Faction began capturing Point C under smoke cover, but the Blue Faction counterattacked, leaving Qiezi firing a heavy machine gun to suppress them.

• Big Brother A+ admired the game’s detailed newspaper, atmospheric lighting, and distant city views as the players advanced while singing together.
• The Red and Blue Factions captured points near their bases and raced to fight over the Central Building at Point C.
• Teacher Ma and Tuanzi’s tank was hit by enemy fire and anti-tank missiles, and Tuanzi deployed smoke to cover its retreat.
• XTT, Qiezi, and another squad used the smoke to enter the Central Building and begin capturing Point C.
• The Blue Faction rallied four squads and attacked the building, and Qiezi mounted his Type 88 heavy machine gun to suppress their fire.

Qiezi and xtt held the central building against shourd’s squad with a machine gun and precise covering fire. As the Red Faction neared capturing the point, shourd tried using C4 to breach the building, and its explosion left the outcome uncertain.

• Qiezi’s machine gun wiped out most of the attackers charging the building, pinning shourd and his surviving teammates behind barricades.
• shourd and his teammates failed to find a way through the guarded entrances, so he proposed using C4 to blow open a side wall.
• shourd’s teammates covered his dash toward the building, but 9n, shadd, and taco were killed by Qiezi and xtt’s fire.
• A light helicopter targeted shourd and the approaching reinforcements, so shourd attached C4 to the building and detonated it as the helicopter’s gunfire struck him.

A Battlefield demonstration showcased the Golden Engine’s real-time destruction as shourd’s C4 breach transformed the match and the venue erupted. Meanwhile, A+ led a squad on a rear infiltration near Blue’s base, where Big Bro destroyed an enemy vehicle and provoked a furious response.

• Shourd’s squad blew a three-meter breach through a wall, allowing Blue to storm the defenders and revealing Battlefield’s real-time destruction system to the crowd.
• The fighting spread across the map as aircraft and tanks destroyed buildings and inflicted heavy casualties on both teams.
• A+ diverted his squad from the contested Point C and headed toward Points D and E to draw Blue’s troops away from the front.
• Big Bro had Chris blast a shop wall near Blue’s base, then hid there and waited for an infantry fighting vehicle to pass.
• Big Bro attached four C4 bundles to the vehicle, detonated them as he walked away, and triggered an angry call for Blue players to defend their base.

The Blue Faction’s infantry fighting vehicle squad stormed the Coffee shop at Point E and overwhelmed Big Brother’s squad with a coordinated breach. Big Brother turned the fight around in a one-versus-three and reclaimed the point, just as the perspective shifted to Octane’s fighter jet.

• The infantry fighting vehicle captain sent two engineers to blast through the Coffee shop’s wall while he and the medic breached the back entrance, leaving Big Brother alone against three attackers.
• The engineers blew open the second-floor terrace, but Big Brother rolled through the hole, killed an engineer, and caught the returning medic with prefire.
• Big Brother and the infantry fighting vehicle captain clashed at the stairs, where Big Brother killed him and took his Dog tag.
• The Red Faction captured Point E, prompting the audience to erupt in cheers for Big Brother’s performance.
• The perspective shifted to A35 and Octane’s fighter jet as another thrilling sequence began.

Octane escaped a pursuing Z20 with a daring midair rocket-launcher stunt, then narrowly avoided a missile by flying alongside the Shanghai Center Tower. The tower collapsed into the battlefield, and with both factions down to 20 tickets, the fight for its ruins began.

• Octane shot down the Z20 by opening his cockpit canopy and firing a rocket launcher, then reattached to his A35 and restarted its engine.
• A surface-to-air missile locked onto Octane as his damaged A35 climbed toward the Shanghai Center Tower.
• Octane flew vertically beside the tower, avoided the missile, and the missile detonated against the building.
• The Shanghai Center Tower cracked and collapsed, burying the Point C battlefield beneath dust and rubble.
• With 20 tickets remaining for each faction, both sides ordered their forces to seize the Center Tower ruins.

With Point C left as the deciding neutral point, Tuanzi and Old Ma made a desperate motorcycle charge against the Blue Faction’s Viper attack helicopter. They launched their C4-laden bike toward the aircraft, ending the chapter mid-attack.

• The Red and Blue Factions fought through the ruins as their remaining forces dwindled, and Tuanzi revived Old Ma during a brief lull.
• A Blue Faction Viper attack helicopter flew toward Point C while the Red Faction’s last troops approached in an infantry fighting vehicle.
• Tuanzi and Old Ma decided to attack the helicopter with a small off-road motorcycle and unexploded C4.
• Old Ma attached the C4 to the motorcycle, climbed on behind Tuanzi, and urged her to go.
• Tuanzi drove the bike up a slanted slab and launched it toward the Viper as they shouted, “We are! Motor-cycle Killers—!”

Golden Wind’s spectacular demo match and player sessions thrilled the exhibition crowd, while Komeila’s Nakamura Masakazu reviewed the day’s weak booth results. He learned that the far stronger comparison figures belonged not to Golden Wind but to Zhenting Games Studio, and exploded in anger.

• The Red Faction secured the final objective after a bizarre suicide-cart attack destroyed the Blue Faction’s armed helicopter, and the players celebrated the match together.
• Gu Sheng, Moriya Tetsuya, Lu Bian, and Da Jiang announced that they would join players in the game as squad captains.
• Moriya Tetsuya worried about facing the players shouting for them to take down Gu Sheng, while Gu Sheng insisted that he stay by his side.
• Nakamura Masakazu compared Komeila’s poor first-day booth data with a much stronger set of figures and assumed the latter belonged to Golden Wind.
• Kodera Taro and Inoue told Nakamura Masakazu that the stronger figures were from Zhenting Games Studio, prompting him to slap them and shout at them.

Nakamura Masakazu discovered that Komeila’s booth had performed disastrously beside Golden Wind’s overwhelming success at the CJ Exhibition. Meanwhile, Shen Miaomiao eagerly awaited Battlefield’s weekly sales results, hoping the game would finally earn her a rebate.

• Nakamura Masakazu erupted at Koterra and Inoue for using Zhenting’s data to compare Komeila with Golden Wind, then demanded Golden Wind’s actual figures.
• Nakamura Masakazu saw Golden Wind’s report, which listed 110,000 daily visitors, a 29-minute average stay, and 208 media outlets, and ordered Koterra and Inoue to pick up Zhenting’s report.
• Minister Li called Gu Sheng to congratulate Golden Wind, and Shen Miaomiao took his praise as a sign that the company had lasting support.
• After the call, Gu Sheng asked why Shen Miaomiao had suddenly become interested in Battlefield’s sales, and she claimed she cared because games remained Golden Wind’s core business.
• Shen Miaomiao privately hoped Battlefield would earn her a rebate, since she believed it was the most likely project to do so in nearly a year.

Shen Miaomiao expected Battlefield: Uprising to miss its break-even target and earn her a huge system rebate, while Gu Sheng hoped its launch would prove Golden Wind’s self-developed engine had secured the company’s independence. The game sold 4.88 million copies in its first week, earning Shen Miaomiao an $1.8 billion rebate as she and Gu Sheng celebrated.

• Shen Miaomiao reviewed the Golden Engine project’s combined $473 million investment and set a one-week, tenfold rebate, convinced Battlefield: Uprising would sell fewer than 7.88 million copies.
• Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng opened Huayudian’s dashboard as Battlefield: Uprising’s first-week global sales appeared: 4.88 million copies.
• Gu Sheng celebrated the result as proof that Golden Wind had overcome its dependence on outside capital, contractors, and core technology.
• The system settled the project with $180 million in losses and transferred Shen Miaomiao an $1.8 billion rebate.
• Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng embraced and celebrated, then Shen Miaomiao hinted that their celebration should become more intense.

As Golden Wind’s Golden Engine fueled China’s gaming boom, Kornik worried that Vendi’s failed engine blockade had left the company losing ground. He approved Firebird Studio’s Alien: Endless Dark Tide, but agreed to use Phoenix rather than Dream after Firebird argued it was better suited to horror.

• Golden Wind’s Golden Engine helped spur new Chinese game projects, and Golden Wind and Xunteng announced that Golden Experience and Tianlang would co-develop The Finals.
• Kornik reflected on the failures of Vendi’s engine blockade and worried that Golden Wind’s momentum was becoming impossible to stop.
• Kornik called on Firebird Studio to develop a game for Vendi’s second-half lineup, and the studio proposed the horror FPS Alien: Endless Dark Tide.
• Firebird’s director asked to use the Phoenix Engine for the game, arguing that its visuals were better suited to horror than Dream.
• Kornik approved the Phoenix Engine and said he would have Bedang contact Phoenix.

Gu Sheng revealed that Steel Chain Fingers would develop a Wolf-type ARPG spinoff of Sekiro, but the Golden Engine could not yet deliver the visual detail he wanted. The team debated alternatives, and Shen Miaomiao quietly considered Yuki’s suggestion of combining engines.

• Sato presented Steel Chain Fingers’ European reference photos and sketches to Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao.
• Gu Sheng announced that the studio would make a Wolf-type ARPG spinoff, prompting Steel Chain Fingers to celebrate the return of Sekiro.
• Shen Miaomiao realized the popular, low-cost spinoff was unlikely to lose money and regretted the prospect of another failed expense report.
• Gu Sheng said the Golden Engine lacked the visual detail needed for the planned series’ first game to approach Dream Engine quality.
• Yuki suggested temporarily switching to Phoenix, but Okura warned that abandoning the Golden Engine would damage its standing and commercialization plans.
• Yuki joked about combining Phoenix and the Golden Engine, and Shen Miaomiao began thinking about the idea.

Nagashima Mita told Cloud Might vice president Charlie Betan that Phoenix Engine would stop providing the company with engine services, and Shen Miaomiao revealed that she had enough influence as Phoenix’s second-largest shareholder to support the decision. The chapter ended with Shen handing Betan his briefcase and ordering him to leave.

• Charlie Betan and his delegation waited three and a half hours for their scheduled meeting with Nagashima Yuki, then grew furious when Nagashima Mita received them in the VIP room.
• Nagashima Mita told Betan that Phoenix would no longer provide engine licensing services to Cloud Might, effective immediately.
• Betan demanded an explanation and threatened Phoenix, but Shen Miaomiao entered and challenged him.
• Shen Miaomiao explained that she was Phoenix’s second-largest shareholder, holding a 23.22% stake worth 1.8 billion dollars.
• Shen handed Betan his briefcase and told him that he was the one who had come with bad intentions.

Shen Miaomiao used Golden Wind’s investment to become Phoenix’s second-largest shareholder and learned CloudWeaver needed Phoenix’s technology. She confronted Betan over CloudWeaver’s cooperation with Phoenix, setting up a reverse blockade against Dream Group and CloudWeaver.

• Shen Miaomiao recalled how the system reduced rebates to one-fifth when she invested in a project already approved by the Principal, but decided that spending her 1.8 billion dollars could still earn a substantial return.
• Shen Miaomiao chose Phoenix for its size and the value its visual technology could bring to the Golden Engine, while deciding she wanted to make a good game as well as lose money.
• Shen Miaomiao invested 1.8 billion dollars in Phoenix and became its second-largest shareholder after President Nagashima Yuki.
• Nagashima Mita told Shen Miaomiao that CloudWeaver needed Phoenix, giving her a chance to counter CloudWeaver’s cooperation with Dream Group.
• Shen Miaomiao asked Betan whether CloudWeaver was trying to become the gaming industry’s public enemy.

Shen Miaomiao warned Cloudwei’s Bedang that Golden Wind could turn the engine dispute into a public-opinion counterattack, and reports soon spread that Phoenix had blocked Cloudwei and other Vendi developers. With Cloudwei’s planned role as GDC’s featured guest now controversial, Jimmy Lawrence suggested replacing it with Golden Wind, leaving Will Brown stunned.

• Shen Miaomiao told Bedang that her information about Cloudwei came from others who had evidence, while Bedang threatened legal action over speculation.
• News outlets reported that Phoenix had imposed an engine blockade on Cloudwei, Komeila, and two other Vendi developers, while Cloudwei denied the rumors and Dreamscape stayed silent.
• Jimmy Lawrence read the reports and discussed Cloudwei’s worsening reputation with Will Brown, who reminded him that Cloudwei was scheduled to be GDC’s featured guest.
• Lawrence argued that Cloudwei was no longer suitable for the featured guest role and suggested Golden Wind as its replacement.
• Will Brown reacted with disbelief when Lawrence proposed Golden Wind.

Golden Wind was named the 14th GDC keynote guest, replacing Yunwei and promising to reveal a major new ARPG. Kornik watched Golden Wind’s rise unravel Yunwei’s plans, leaving Yunwei without its keynote spot and likely absent from GDC for the first time.

• Lawrence persuaded Brown to consider Golden Wind as GDC’s keynote guest by reminding him of the company’s achievements at the GDCA.
• GDC confirmed Golden Wind as the 14th conference’s keynote guest, and reports said it would unveil a major new ARPG.
• Players, media outlets, Golden Wind’s partners, and other Chinese game companies celebrated the announcement and speculated about the new game.
• Kornik realized Golden Wind’s investment in Phoenix had disrupted Yunwei’s plans to partner with Phoenix and Dream and expand its influence at GDC.
• Yunwei lost its keynote status, its relationship with Dream weakened, and Kornik gave up on attending GDC as an ordinary guest.

At the Stockholm game developers conference, Gu Sheng announced that Golden Wind had partnered Golden Engine with Phoenix, then unveiled a trailer for a new medieval fantasy game set in Lothric. The trailer ended with a pilgrim collapsing in a bleak, lifeless world, leaving the game's story and identity to be revealed.

• Gu Sheng told the conference that cooperation between developers was essential and revealed Golden Engine and Phoenix's partnership.
• The audience reacted to the partnership, which combined Golden Engine's large-scale environments and physics with Phoenix's visual rendering technology.
• Golden Wind unveiled a trailer for a new game, credited to Gu Sheng and Steel Chain Fingers Studio, with music by the China National Symphony Orchestra.
• The trailer showed ruined landscapes and the Gothic royal city of Lothric as an aged voice described it as the homeland of generations of Fire Keepers.
• A procession of pilgrims carrying heavy turtle shells trudged toward the royal city through a desolate, snow-covered world.
• One pilgrim fell in the freezing wind as the trailer's mournful music and narration portrayed the land's despair.

Golden Wind unveiled Dark Souls at GDC with a cinematic trailer showing the Lords of Cinder awakening, then released a free trial demo. The demo ended at Firelink Shrine, and the chapter left players facing the challenge of Dark Souls’ stamina-based combat in a full-dive pod.

• The trailer showed Aldrich, the Abyss Watchers, and Yhorm the Giant awakening as the Flame faded.
• A silver-haired woman placed a crown-shaped blindfold over her face before the Dark Souls title appeared.
• Gu Sheng reflected on finally bringing Dark Souls 3 to life after years of wanting to make the game he had helped develop in his previous world.
• A Yin praised the trailer, visited Golden Wind’s developer page, and found the newly released free trial demo.
• The chapter explained how Dark Souls’ stamina management and full-dive perspective made its combat far more difficult than Sekiro’s.

A Yin began Dark Souls as a poorly equipped character and easily handled the early enemies, boasting that the game was too easy. He entered a cave and encountered a giant Crystal Lizard, which charged at him as he tried to escape.

• A Yin emerged from a coffin in a graveyard with only a wooden club, then found an Estus Flask and learned the basic mechanics.
• A Yin defeated tutorial enemies and encountered a fast Crystal Lizard that viewers nicknamed Porsche.
• A Yin chose a narrow side path, entered a cave, and recognized its cliffs and snow from his memories of the Guardian Ape.
• A Yin found a huge Crystal Lizard, which viewers called the Bugatti Veyron, and it charged at him.
• A Yin panicked and rolled away from the charging Crystal Lizard.

A Yin faced the Crystal Lizard in Dark Souls, learning that rolling drained stamina and left him vulnerable to its lethal grab. After repeated attempts, he defeated the monster and received a complete Dragon Form Wedge Stone.

• A Yin tried to evade the charging Crystal Lizard by rolling, but its grab attack caught and killed Useless Person.
• A Yin realized he needed to manage his stamina, dodge timing, and healing instead of rushing in like he had in Sekiro.
• A Yin repeatedly fought the Crystal Lizard, struggling against its relentless charges, pounces, and body slams.
• A Yin broke the Crystal Lizard’s poise with his chicken leg and finished it with an execution.
• The Crystal Lizard dropped a complete Dragon Form Wedge Stone, and the chat celebrated A Yin’s victory.

Lao Ju entered the arena and pulled the Coiled Sword from Ashen Iudex Gundyr, awakening the first boss. Gundyr overwhelmed him with powerful attacks, and Lao Ju died after mistiming a roll against a delayed axe swing.

• Lao Ju reached the circular arena and noticed the many bloodstains showing other players' deaths.
• Lao Ju pulled the Coiled Sword from Gundyr's chest, causing the Ashen Iudex to rise and the boss fight to begin.
• Gundyr attacked with sweeping axe strikes and a crushing leap, forcing Lao Ju to roll repeatedly and costing him much of his health.
• Lao Ju tried to evade Gundyr's axe combo, but Gundyr delayed his spinning follow-up and struck him down.