I Want to Play a Game with You: Revised

As a publisher, Infinite Network Entertainment had extremely broad promotional channels and immense reach.

The day after 21 Points was completed, the general manager's office received the game. After half a day of testing, they immediately issued an urgent notice to the promotion department.

Temporarily replace all Dark Forest promotions with 21 Points!

This included Danmu Network, comprehensive gaming media sites, entertainment portals, and more. Every one of them switched over and ran a striking headline.

A high-quality domestic VR game, 21 Points, was now officially live! Download it for free without spending a cent! Personally created by Shuo Guang, producer of Dark Forest—quality guaranteed, and it definitely won't disappoint!

Once this headline was promoted across major websites, it immediately drew people's attention.

Only then did players remember that, a month ago, the producer of that horror game really had said something like that.

They had assumed he was either someone who had never been beaten down by reality, or someone who had achieved a little success and become overly full of himself.

Who would have thought the game had actually come out?

And it was free?

The players instantly lost their composure.

No one could refuse free stuff.

Especially when it was a game.

Almost every gamer had experienced the joy of adding a free game to their library.

And now, they had another opportunity—this time, it was a VR game!

Following the links on the promotional sites, players arrived at Infinite Network Entertainment's gaming platform and discovered that the game was on IGame.

Those who already had the platform saw 21 Points directly in the homepage carousel. They did not even need to search for it!

They clicked in and saw that it was 6 GB in size!

By contemporary standards, it counted as a small-scale game.

So players began downloading it one after another.

That included all kinds of streamers.

For them, a new game meant traffic. Streaming it could not go wrong.

Especially since it was a VR game developed by Shuo Guang, a producer who had recently gained some recognition in the industry.

So everyone downloaded it to try something fresh and experience it for themselves.

As for the quality, although the promotional headline claimed it was high-quality, almost no players believed it.

After all, people had not forgotten the lessons taught by major studios.

Zai Zong finished downloading it almost immediately. With his gigabit internet, downloading a 6 GB game was effortless.

At that moment, he started a stream and prepared to try the game.

"Guys, let me tell you something. The first time I played Dark Forest, I predicted it would definitely be trash, but it ended up slapping me right in the face. It hurt like hell."

"Now that 21 Points has just finished downloading and I haven't played it yet, let me make another prediction. Forget everything else—everyone knows VR StarCraft, right? It was made by a huge foreign studio, and everyone can see how terrible it is. So I'll say this first: if 21 Points is even half as bad as VR StarCraft, that counts as a success. What do you think?"

The moment Zai Zong said that, the chat immediately flooded with comments.

"Hahahaha, that foreign major studio spent three years making a rough piece of work like VR StarCraft. How could Shuo Guang possibly compare to them?"

"Honestly, if Shuo Guang spent a month making a small game, I think it might very well be excellent. But he spent a fucking month making a VR game? You could think of the quality with your toes—it can't possibly be good, right!?"

"The screenshots on IGame look pretty good, but that visual quality clearly doesn't look like a VR game. VR games can't possibly have graphics like this."

"Sigh, what a shame. Shuo Guang is right to want to enter the VR field, but he should at least consider whether he can actually pull it off."

"By the way, what does 21 Points mean? Does it mean nine o'clock at night?"

"I think it's probably a card game. Haven't you guys played 21 Points before?"

"If it's a poker game, then the quality probably won't be too bad, right? It's not even the same type as VR StarCraft."

Zai Zong watched the chat while waiting for the game to install.

When he saw the title 21 Points, the first thing he thought of was a card game too.

After all, there was no way a large-scale game like VR StarCraft could be made in just one month.

But if it was a card game, then it made sense. In such a short amount of time, it seemed that only this sort of puzzle game could be made.

Still, he would have to enter the game to find out what it was really like.

As the progress bar reached full, 21 Points finished installing!

Without another word, Zai Zong picked up his VR headset and put it on. He gripped the controllers in both hands, looking fully prepared.

Because he was playing on a computer, the stream would not be affected.

"Alright, guys, I'm entering the game. I've already prepared myself for this game to be bad. I just hope it doesn't hit me too hard."

The chat immediately chimed in, saying they too were mentally prepared for a bad game.

Some even said it was free anyway, so it did not matter how bad it was.

At that moment, Zai Zong sat in his chair with the VR headset on, feeling little excitement.

What he felt was only curiosity.

Curiosity over just how bad a VR game developed in a month could be, and whether he would even be able to keep playing it.

Even though this producer had just created the high-quality viral hit Dark Forest, it could not dispel that feeling.

After all, everyone knew what VR games were like.

Come on, let's see whether you're a mule or a horse!

The moment that thought crossed his mind, he saw an indistinct blurry mass slowly appear in his vision.

The viewers in the stream immediately saw the image as well.

As the blur gradually came into focus, they all froze, then could not help laughing.

Because before them was only the large, continuously bleeding game title, 21 Points. Beneath the dripping blood was a simple menu: "Start," "Settings," and "Exit."

There was no scenery at all. In utter darkness, this absurdly simple menu had simply appeared. It was truly disappointing.

Zai Zong immediately lost all anticipation.

Even with the effect of blood dripping down, it still felt insincere.

The stream erupted in laughter, with everyone saying this was the simplest, simplest, simplest, simplest, simplest menu interface they had ever seen in their gaming careers, bar none!

Zai Zong felt the same, but he was a player and a streamer, so he could not just follow the rhythm of the chat.

So he clicked Settings and turned the graphics up to the highest level.

There was no special reason.

His PC was just that powerful.

Then he backed out and clicked Start Game.

"Well, it's free anyway. Let's give it a try."

Just as he thought the menu interface would slowly fade away, a focused beam of light suddenly shone down from above. Accompanied by a deafening sound like a light being switched on, the menu vanished instantly, startling him so badly that he was caught completely off guard.

"Holy shit, holy shit, what the fuck was that!?"

Zai Zong, who had been leaning back, jolted upright in fright. Wearing the headset, he hurriedly looked around, thinking something had happened, but he saw nothing.

Other than the table in front of him.

A table that had appeared at some unknown time...

Zai Zong tried raising his head and looking upward.

All he saw was deep Pitch Black darkness and a glaring white spotlight.

There was nothing else.

The table before him was an old green square table with peeling paint. Large patches of rust seemed to tell the story of its age.

Under the light, he saw a highly conspicuous English word on it.

'BlackJack'

With his college-level English, he naturally knew what it meant.

The Jack of Clubs, also known as 21 Points.

A card game.

Just as he frowned at the tabletop, another loud crash rang out. Two beams of light instantly shone down from the left and right, completely illuminating the current environment.

Once Zai Zong saw it clearly, he froze.

With the expanded light source, he saw more rust stains on the table, filthy peeling walls, outdated old televisions piled together with metal ornaments, and a stranger seated across from him, wearing a thick coat and a burlap hood.

Zai Zong could not help staring blankly. He blinked and fixed his gaze carefully on the person opposite him.

This...

Wasn't this a real person?

No! It was a model!

But it was way too lifelike, wasn't it!?

The fine texture of the fuzz on the clothes, the grime in the folds, the burlap texture of the hood—it was practically indistinguishable from the real thing!

And those piles of televisions behind him did not look like game models at all. Their texture and lighting were perfect, while the reflections on the glass screens looked just like reality. It was impossible to tell real from fake!

At that moment, Zai Zong even suspected this was not a game, but a VR film or television show!

"Guys, can you even tell this is a game? My first impression was that it looked way too much like reality."

The people in the stream were also stunned by the detailed graphics. Some immediately claimed it was not a game, but a film or show merely presented through gameplay.

Others believed it was still a game, just an insanely impressive one.

Zai Zong deeply agreed. Having experienced it himself, he still noticed some differences after his initial shock.

There were still traces of modeling, but they were not obvious. That was why anyone seeing it for the first time would get the illusion that it was real.

He had only noticed that through personal experience. The viewers watching through a screen were not microscopic-detail fanatics, and they neither had nor would make that kind of observation.

After glancing at the chat, Zai Zong ignored it. He put away his shocked expression and turned his gaze toward the hooded person across from him.

His head hung low, and he did not move. But his faint breathing and gently rising chest showed that he was alive, as though he had merely passed out.

At the same time, his right hand was restrained on the tabletop, all five fingers spread apart and bound individually.

Zai Zong noticed that his own left hand was likewise restrained on the tabletop by the same device. It looked familiar, but he could not remember what it was for the moment.

The viewers, however, recognized it.

A Finger-Breaking Torture Device!

It was an old torture tool that used something like a tiger-head guillotine to sever fingers from above.

When Zai Zong saw the comments, his heart jolted.

Looking at himself and the other man, as well as the obvious card table before them, he instantly understood what sort of card game this was!

It was a bloody game of suffering!

Just then, the piled-up televisions all suddenly lit up at once. Static blared, and snow flickered across the screens.

The sound abruptly woke the Hooded Man across from him. He panicked, struggled, and twisted desperately!

But his firmly restrained right hand did not move at all. He grew frantic and even began trying to pry apart the torture device.

Zai Zong stared wide-eyed. Before he could react, every television screen displayed a figure.

A man wearing a Chilling Mask.

Through the black-and-white screens, he slowly turned his head and looked directly at Zai Zong, making the hairs on his body stand on end and his Adam's apple bob.

In the silent environment, only a hoarse, low male voice emerged from the black-and-white televisions.

"I want... to play a game with you."

Thanks to Book Friend 3848 for the donation support. Thanks to Sakura Loli for the monthly ticket support.