I See Through the Planner Completely

Pu Shenqi took off his helmet.

He turned his head to glance at the starlight outside, froze for two or three seconds, then let out a long howl.

"Ah!!! That felt good!!!"

"This is the game I need to play!"

"Dark Souls III my ass, that's weak!"

Even though he'd only been in the game for less than two hours and hadn't even figured out the mechanics, that unprecedented experience crushed every game he'd ever played.

"So this is 100% virtual reality? Damn, it's legit."

After a moment of awe, Pu Shenqi immediately opened their three-person group chat.

Ghost Face Demon Fox and Lin Tang, who had died before him, were already chatting.

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Lin Tang isn't talking. Looks like I'm the first one dead."

"This game... interesting, so interesting I need to add an adjective—very interesting. I haven't seen a game this fun in a long time."

"It's just that the mob stats are a bit ridiculous."

"@African Thin Dog @Lin Tang, one of you die and come chat?"

"Forget it, just finish the mission. I've got a feeling this isn't a bug—it's a test from the Sentinel to see if we're worthy of the closed beta slot. If we can't complete it, we might not get to play again."

"You two keep at it. I'm going to post on the forum!"

Soon after, Ghost Face Demon Fox posted on the Dark Souls III forum: "First try at a 100% virtual reality game—way better than expected. Funny thing is, the designer is our forum's famous resource optimization guru—Sentinel."

A few minutes later, Lin Tang died and came back.

Lin Tang: "Holy crap! This game blew my mind for a whole year!"

"Can you believe it? I got torn apart by four Green Skins! The scene was super gory. Good thing the Pain Sensation isn't strong—too scary!"

"How did this pass review?"

"Pfft! Spit it out! Such a great game has to pass review!"

(Lin Tang retracted a message.)

"I, Lin Tang, from today on, am putting all my energy into 'Apocalypse OL'! Screw Dark Souls, who cares about making your mods anymore!"

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Huh? How Come You got killed by four Raiders? I thought you were handling them pretty smoothly when you were kiting them. Do they have other skills?"

Lin Tang: "Ugh, don't even mention it. This game isn't like a regular keyboard-and-mouse game. People make mistakes. I was relying on my own feel for positioning, which was smoother, but there are too many factors. You know how insane this game's precision is?"

"The vegetation underfoot changes, the friction and foot feel are different! It's like actually running in the wild!"

"And this game has a Physical Strength system like survival games. My stamina dropped toward the end, I tripped by accident, and the Green Skins caught up. Sigh~"

"By the Way, Hu Da, how did you die?"

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "That's rough for you. Me and Thin Dog Found It—a cell holding an NPC under the camp. There was a Green Skin guarding the door. To get past, we had to beat it. Me and Thin Dog went all in, and then I died."

"You mentioned it's different from keyboard-and-mouse games. I felt that too. It's like a high-precision motion-sensing game. Your own awareness and instincts affect your character's abilities. My combat sense is still stuck on keyboard-and-mouse controls—I couldn't pull off a lot of moves before I died. Too bad."

Lin Tang: "When you died, how much health did the guard have left?"

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "80%"

Lin Tang: "..."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "..."

At that, both of them went silent.

Lin Tang: "Let me try to log back in."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Just tried. It says the character is Killed and can't log in for now. Probably need to wait for the game devs to give permission. Let's wait for Thin Dog—he's probably close."

While they waited, each tried contacting Sentinel on the forum but got no reply.

Forty minutes later, Thin Dog logged in.

After reading through all the chat history, Thin Dog roughly gathered everyone's info.

African Thin Dog: "@Ghost Face Demon Fox @Lin Tang, I'm back!"

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Mission passed?"

African Thin Dog: "Smart!"

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "If you didn't die in that situation... the underground fight must have turned around. Tell me what happened after I died."

Lin Tang: "Spill it, I can't sleep!"

Thin Dog detailed everything that happened afterward, including his conversation with the NPC.

"In the end, I died from Radiation Damage. Damn! So unlucky! Otherwise, I would have completed the mission perfectly!"

Lin Tang caught the key point: "Merit rewards? Did the NPC promise them to all of us or just you?"

"Should be everyone. He said 'Calamity Base's soldiers.'"

"Good, otherwise I got torn apart for nothing."

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "Now it all makes sense. This is a classic tutorial sequence—no different in essence from any other online game."

Thin Dog: "Oh? What's your take, Hu Da?"

Ghost Face Demon Fox: "This tutorial actually teaches us how to get started with the game through a single event."

"1. The half-hour route is meant to let everyone adapt to full-immersion VR gameplay. Think about it—weren't your movements a bit clunky at first? After running that path for half an hour, it smoothed out, right?"

"2. The mission target being Overly Powerful sets the game's tone. This isn't a pure hack-and-slash game. It's an open world where various scenarios unfold. If we encounter enemies we can't beat head-on, we can outsmart them. It also showcases the monster AI design."

"3. Through simple combat, it taught us to use the watch to check the map and HP, and view battle info. That establishes the game's basic framework."

"4. What amazed me most: the designers are telling us that in this Game World, any object—including terrain—can be interacted with! Sticks on the ground, rocks, even bricks pried from a wall. I can't imagine how much budget that map ate up."

"5. The final gate defense. Both Thin Dog and I misunderstood. It wasn't a stat miscalculation by the designers. Since it's a tutorial, the monsters weren't meant to be brute-forced at our level. Our strategy should've been like Lin Tang's—maneuver! As long as we defended well, the designers had a force ready to step in and complete the tutorial. Yes, the skeleton Thin Dog mentioned. I shouldn't have died—that was my mistake."

"6. After saving the NPC. Thin Dog, you did well. You Found It—the hidden item in the tutorial, that black box. Even though radiation killed you, I'm almost certain what you got will be useful. It might affect the NPC's opinion of you, unlocking hidden rewards!"

"Finally. Next time we log in, we should start the game's real content."

Thin Dog stared at his screen, dumbfounded: "Hu Da, you saw right through the designers' scheme!"

Ghost Face Demon Fox took a sip of tea and replied with a chuckle: "Basic stuff. As Long As it's a game, it can't escape these formulas. This one just wraps it a bit deeper."

"The goal is to boost player immersion, making everyone feel like they're in a real world."

"Too bad. It can't fool us *Veteran Player*s. We saw through this game's essence at a glance."

Lin Tang: "True. Haha!"

The three of them burst out laughing in the group, feeling they had the designers completely figured out.

As the chat went on, Thin Dog said: "Let's talk in the main group and share our experience with everyone!"

"This game is so fun, it's bound to blow up! While we're the first to know, let's recruit some skilled veteran players and form a team to pioneer the content!"