"Why didn't you answer my call?"
"Why were you calling me? And what was that about when I finally answered and you didn't say anything?"
Dusk. A private room for two at Fate Farmhouse Restaurant.
A man and a woman of similar height stood facing off, both with their hands pressed against the small table.
"I had some free time, so I called you! I didn't say anything because what I wanted to tell you couldn't be explained over the phone!"
The woman puffed out her cheeks.
"You had free time, but I was playing a game. I didn't!"
Lu Ma spread his hands, not the least bit embarrassed.
The woman across from him was Sima Xi, Lu Ma's closest friend. With his closest friend, Lu Ma always spoke his mind.
"You could've asked me to play, for crying out loud! I really regret recommending you for that livestream sponsorship back then. And your streaming hours are from six to ten in the evening; you finished your new game's special livestream yesterday at noon, too. I've waited all these days just to play with you today, and what do you do? You play by yourself and don't invite me?"
When Sima Xi heard Lu Ma hadn't answered because he'd been playing a game, she got even angrier.
"How was I supposed to invite you to play a single-player game? Were you going to help me test it?"
"Test it?"
Sima Xi's expression changed in an instant. The previous second she'd been furious; the next, she was puzzled. She sat down and stared intently at Lu Ma.
"What do you mean, test it? Did you get a sponsorship?"
Lu Ma sat down too and nodded proudly. He picked up the menu and casually checked off a few house specialties.
"You bet. Someone's finally recognized my talent."
"Quit bragging. I know what talent you have. If I hadn't recommended that sponsorship for you, who knows what factory you'd be working at now?"
Sima Xi rolled her eyes at Lu Ma, then took the menu. She paused again.
"You ordered such a feast. Have you given up on making ends meet? Are you terminally ill and stopping treatment? You should've told me. I... could recommend a few more sponsorships for you."
Sima Xi had wanted to say she could just give Lu Ma money, but she knew what he was like. If she gave it to him outright, he'd definitely refuse. But if she gave it to him indirectly, through sponsorships, he might accept.
For instance, she'd been the one to recommend the sponsorship that had started Lu Ma's livestreaming career. It paid a hundred yuan a day for four hours of streaming.
Looking at the dishes Lu Ma had checked off on the menu, she estimated the total would exceed five hundred yuan. This was a farmhouse restaurant, not some golden banquet, but Sima Xi was genuinely a little worried about him. They'd agreed on WeChat that Lu Ma would treat her to this meal.
"Huh?" Lu Ma looked completely bewildered, then caught on. "I'm not sick. I really did just land a big job. I've got money now."
"A big job?"
Sima Xi furrowed her brows.
"Yeah. A mysterious client suddenly came to me and asked me to test a single-player game. They even paid me a thirty-thousand-yuan deposit. I thought that now that I'm rolling in it, I should treat my good friend."
"A mysterious client, a single-player game, thirty thousand?" Sima Xi's brows knitted even tighter. "What do they want you to do?"
"Just... test the game."
"That's it? What exactly? Write a guide? Find bugs?"
"Uh... sort of. I'm supposed to find parts of the gameplay that might make players uncomfortable."
"Why did they choose you? You're not that popular, and you only stream commercial games based on the Douluo IP. It doesn't make sense for them to pick you..."
"Hey, are you putting me down?"
Lu Ma looked at Sima Xi, who had talked herself into a corner, and sounded a little displeased.
"No, that's not what I meant. Forget it, let's drop it. Let's just say you got lucky. Did you sign a confidentiality agreement or anything?"
Lu Ma shook his head. Aside from the game files, patches, instructions, and money, Dolphin Head hadn't sent him anything else.
So, naturally, he hadn't signed any confidentiality agreement.
"That's strange." Sima Xi clicked her tongue as she called the server over and handed over the menu. She didn't add anything; even the dishes Lu Ma had ordered might be more than they could finish.
Back at the table, Sima Xi looked at Lu Ma, lost in his fantasies. She thought for a moment, then spoke up.
"Then tell me about this single-player game. You're not going to brush me off with some talk about professional ethics again, are you?"
"No, no." Lu Ma smiled awkwardly.
"What genre?"
"Action role-playing. It has the Douluo world as its setting, but... it's a little different. Maybe to suit the theme, the game has things like monsters in it."
"Douluo, single-player..." Sima Xi reacted just like Lu Ma had. Clearly, she also found it hard to connect those two words.
As for what the monsters were, that was a minor matter.
"Fine, let's set that aside for now. What's the gameplay like?"
"Something like Elden Ring, I guess. Exploration and combat."
Lu Ma thought about his time in the game. Most of it had been spent fighting and searching for treasure chests.
"But this game has a lot of problems."
"Oh? Tell me about them."
"The guidance is terrible. It's just like Minecraft!"
"Does Minecraft have guidance?"
"In the version I played, it didn't." Lu Ma continued, "The game gives you no idea what the main quest is or how to trigger it. It's not like Dark Souls, which shoves a boss in your face at the start. If you can't beat it, you know to run away, collect equipment, and come back later."
"So it's missing an early-game goal? Is that what you mean?"
"Exactly!"
Lu Ma nodded emphatically.
"Then how did you solve that problem?"
"I stumbled across a quest by chance."
"By chance?"
"Yeah!" Lu Ma thought that if he hadn't gone to the main hall, he wouldn't have gotten that quest, and things would've been rough. To keep her from saying that it hadn't been a coincidence, he added, "And after I finished that quest, there wasn't any new quest prompt. Guess how the game solved that problem?"
"How?"
"They sent me a patch that put me straight into Shrek's main storyline, fighting Zhao Wuji!"
They sent a patch!
When Sima Xi heard those words, she was already starting to wonder if the game company was stupid. Couldn't they play the game themselves first?
"It's testing, so I can understand that. That's one problem. What else?"
Sima Xi gritted her teeth as she spoke, already hoping the game had other issues that would surprise her.
"The combat is boring. My last few fights all ended with us trading blows and health. It's like putting on heavy armor and turning an action game into a turn-based one."
"Did you switch professions? Maybe that's the problem, or maybe they designed it this way to lower the difficulty early on."
Though Sima Xi couldn't match Lu Ma's playtime, she'd played no fewer games than he had. She was an experienced gamer in her own right.
"Here's the problem: they only unlocked one support profession, and that trade-blows-for-health skill was a quest reward. As for the late game, I'm looking forward to it too, but it's still the late game."
"What's this support profession?"
"Ning Rongrong."
"Oh, you mean the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, right? I really can't imagine how you'd explore the world alone with a Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda."
"No. It's Ning Rongrong."
"You're saying you're controlling a specific character, and that character is Ning Rongrong?"
Sima Xi stared blankly for a moment before finally asking.
"Did you figure that out yourself, or did the game clearly tell you?"
"Both."
Before you continue