67,000 People Have Been Frightened

Early in the morning, Meng Shu followed his usual routine of making breakfast for the two elders, setting it on the table, then returning to his room.

As he passed Meng Xiaoran's room, he found that her door was actually wide open.

That girl was still sleeping soundly inside. It looked like she had stayed up late watching shows in VR again last night; she probably would not wake up before ten.

He shook his head, thinking that she was far too careless to leave her door open while sleeping.

So he closed it for her.

Then he discovered that the door had deteriorated so badly with age that it would no longer shut.

The bottom was heavily corroded too. The gap beneath it could no longer be called a gap—it was more like a hole. Even a puppy could easily crawl through, let alone rats.

Looking at his sister's room, then around at their surroundings, Meng Shu sighed inwardly.

They had rented this place for over twenty years.

In other words, it had not been renovated in all those twenty-plus years.

As a result, not only was the interior severely worn down, but even the outer walls were damaged, giving the place an air of age.

The only reason the two elders still lived here was that the rent was cheap—just 800 yuan a month for three bedrooms and a living room.

Gently pulling his sister's door mostly shut, Meng Shu returned to his room.

He sat in his chair without speaking for a long while.

It seemed that moving to a new place would also have to be added to his plans for the future.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, turned on his computer, and logged into the Cyber Platform, intending to see how Dark Forest was selling.

It was 6:40 in the morning, meaning the game had been available for nearly seven hours.

Meng Shu had already prepared himself for dismal sales.

After all, this world was not friendly toward horror, and horror games had a terrible reputation. They were unpopular.

He opened the developer dashboard on the Cyber Platform. The moment he saw the figures, Meng Shu froze.

Dark Forest's latest sales figure was...

80,000 copies?

Meng Shu thought he must have misread it, or perhaps counted an extra zero.

So he rubbed his eyes and looked carefully again.

80,000!

Still 80,000!

He had not misread it!

It really was 80,000 copies!

Meng Shu could hardly believe it!

In less than seven hours since Dark Forest had launched, it had actually sold 80,000 copies!

What kind of concept was that?

It meant that during the dead of night, while everyone was asleep, more than 80,000 people had bought the game.

And a day had twenty-four hours. There was still an entire daytime ahead for people to buy it, so its first-day numbers were still unknown!

He had priced it at 69 yuan, so 80,000 copies meant...

5.52 million yuan!

In less than seven hours, he had earned 5.52 million yuan!

And aside from the time invested, there were practically no other costs!

It was pure profit!

Pure profit!

Even the initial 30,000 yuan needed to start the company had come from the video's earnings, and that video had come from the system gift pack.

It could be said that the 5.52 million yuan was completely pure profit!

Meng Shu's heart raced. He drank several mouthfuls of water before calming down.

He had not expected this. He really had not expected this...

In a world where horror was so barren and had such an awful reputation...

His horror game had actually achieved sales like this.

His original expectation had been to sell around 10,000 copies in twenty-four hours.

But the result had far exceeded expectations!

In less than seven hours, it had already surpassed his expectations several times over!

Then how many copies would it sell on its first day?

Were players in this parallel world really this numerous and this enthusiastic?

Sure enough, without certain policy restrictions, games fit the current era more naturally. More people could discover and understand a game, rather than it being limited to the single-player crowd like in his original world.

At that moment, Meng Shu could not wait to find out how many copies it would sell after twenty-four hours.

Judging by the trend, a conservative estimate would be 100,000 copies!

He was not greedy. He knew his own limits. He was not some major studio or famous figure; if first-day sales reached 100,000 copies, he would be completely satisfied.

Meng Shu drank water as he grinned from ear to ear.

He wanted to restrain himself and act more composed, but the sales figure of 80,000 copies in seven hours made it impossible for him to stay cool and indifferent.

If not for the neighbors and his own reputation, he truly wanted to throw back his head and laugh, shouting, "My fate is mine to command, not Heaven's!" just like a villain in a xianxia novel.

After calming down from his excitement, he entered the game's review section to see what the people who had bought it thought.

Player A, total playtime: 5 hours:

"Awesome! Awesome! I thought it was another trash game trying to scam people out of money. After watching a streamer play it, I got out of bed and bought it on the spot. In the end, it scared me so badly that I did not dare turn off the lights all night!"

Player B, total playtime: 2.5 hours:

"I got scared out of my mind after playing the Prologue for over thirty minutes. I finally made it to Chapter 1, only to get terrified stupid by the underground tunnels. I heard it gets even scarier at night, but I really do not dare play anymore."

Player C, total playtime: 3.9 hours:

"This is what a horror game should be! What the hell are those things on the market? They only know how to scam people for money. Go learn from an indie developer's game! This money was well spent! But I seriously do not dare keep playing!"

Player D, total playtime: 5 hours:

"This game made my scalp tingle. So many parts are just cheap scares where nothing actually happens, and it has tortured me into being terrified. I really wish a monster I could see and touch would show up already, so I could feel safer. Instead, there is nothing there, yet the eerie environment still scares the piss out of you!"

Player E, total playtime: 5.9 hours:

"I saw it on a stream and thought it looked interesting, so I bought it. I thought the streamers' startled screams were just for show, but after playing it myself, I screamed myself hoarse."

Looking at those reviews, Meng Shu smiled inwardly.

Being recognized by so many players was already an immensely rewarding thing.

It seemed that people did not dislike horror games.

There simply had not been any good works released, leaving nothing but trash to hold up the genre.

Now that Dark Forest had appeared and crushed every horror game that had come before it, there was a reason it had become so beloved by players.

In high spirits, Meng Shu leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

Immediately, a data panel appeared in his mind.

Planning: 60 (Average)

Programming: 60+3 (Average)

Art: 60 (Average)

Music: 60 (Average)

Dark Forest: 67,000 people have been frightened

Total Fear Points: 143,000

Seeing those figures, Meng Shu opened his eyes and raised an eyebrow.

Programming had increased by 3 points.

Maybe his abilities had improved a little during the development process.

The others had not changed because he had not used them. That was somewhat reasonable.

But these Fear Points...

They were a little beyond his expectations.

They had actually reached around 140,000!

At a ratio of one to one, with 67,000 people being repeatedly frightened in the game, 140,000 did not seem impossible to accept.

Still, he had not expected a small game like Dark Forest to scare people in this parallel world so badly. They truly needed some mental and physical training.

Then let me take on that responsibility!

Meng Shu closed his eyes again, entered the system's game store, selected the horror survival category, and began choosing a new game.

Then he discovered...

His 140,000 Fear Points seemed a little too few.

He could not afford any decent horror games at all.

Even the cheapest ones cost more than 40,000, and those were only 2D survival games like Skyhill.

Well, damn.

Meng Shu felt like crying but had no tears.

It looked as though he held 140,000 Fear Points and was brimming with confidence.

Yet he could not even meet the minimum standard for buying a game.

After thinking it over, he decided to forget it.

He would check the sales and Fear Points again after twenty-four hours.

For now, he would go check out the livestreams online and see how players were reacting to the game.