Lu Ma: I Was Just Eating, Why Did the Game Shut Down?

Fate Farmhouse Restaurant.

After hearing Lu Ma say that the character he was controlling was specifically Ning Rongrong, Sima Xi fell into deep thought.

By now, half the dishes had been eaten, and neither of them had spoken again.

Seeing Sima Xi looking puzzled, Lu Ma didn't want to interrupt; after all, he hadn't eaten lunch either.

Halfway through the meal, Sima Xi finally raised her head.

"So, after you took control of Ning Rongrong, you've just been following the Shrek main storyline? How far have you gotten? Fighting Zhao Wuji, physical training, the Great Soul Arena, the Star Dou Great Forest... where are you up to?"

"I just finished the Great Soul Arena. But you're slightly off; as I mentioned before, this game incorporates monster elements, so some of the original main storylines no longer exist. For instance, the physical training was replaced by a special soul beast hunt."

"Why did you have to hunt a soul beast?"

"Because my soul power reached level 30."

"How did you get there?"

"In this game, there was a mission to destroy a Holy Spirit Sect stronghold before the Zhao Wuji encounter—yes, that Holy Spirit Sect from Douluo Dalu II... the reward from that mission leveled me up to 30."

Sima Xi grew even more confused.

"What were they doing inside the Holy Spirit Sect stronghold?"

"What else would they be doing? The kind of things Evil Soul Masters do, of course—sacrificing young girls. Why are you asking about this? Isn't that something you'd find in any typical game?"

"That's not what I meant." Sima Xi shook her head. There was something she had to confirm, but she didn't want to bring it up directly, so she took a roundabout approach. "I was just wondering about the level of detail in the game. Can you hear what those Evil Soul Masters are saying and things like that?"

"Detail? When it comes to detail, this game is fantastic." Lu Ma exclaimed, "I can clearly hear every word they say. I've forgotten some of it, but generally speaking, they are praising an existence called the Holy God... much like how people praise The Fool."

"The Holy God!"

Sima Xi stood up abruptly, looking at Lu Ma in disbelief, but upon seeing his confused expression, she let out a sigh of relief and sat back down.

"Why are you so worked up? Is this Holy God some deity you worship? What a coincidence." Lu Ma teased.

"It's nothing, I just heard a familiar name. I have a friend whose screen name is Holy God. By the way, is there no character naming phase in this game?"

"Hmm, no, but most games of this type don't have that, right? What's the point of naming a character in a single-player game?"

"Then, in the game, have you ever tried to obtain items like the Aromatic Silk Beauty, Shi Nian's Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, or the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone?"

Lu Ma's head snapped up: "But aren't those things only something a transmigrator would need to worry about? I'm a player, not a transmigrator. It's unlikely the game company would make those into easter eggs, right?"

Sima Xi nodded blankly: "That's true."

"Sigh, though I'm quite troubled about what to test next."

"Have you ever thought about joining the Holy Spirit Sect while following the Shrek main storyline? You said earlier that the guidance was poor, and according to you, the game has a high degree of freedom. Why not try joining the Holy Spirit Sect?"

"Good idea, but I don't know how to join."

"If there is a design for joining the Holy Spirit Sect, then you just need to obtain the right item."

Sima Xi said this with practiced ease.

"How are you so familiar with this?"

Lu Ma looked at Sima Xi suspiciously. A blush crept onto her face; she put down her chopsticks and retorted: "That's not it! I'm full, goodbye. Since you're testing the game, I won't bother you for the next few days."

With that, Sima Xi left the private room.

Lu Ma watched her figure disappear into the twilight, feeling a bit dazed.

"She didn't actually lose her mind, did she? Did I say something wrong?"

Lu Ma thought about it, and he didn't think so. Recalling some of the things Sima Xi had said earlier, he tapped his hand!

"The 'I have a friend' trope—so her screen name is Holy God!"

Lu Ma felt he had figured everything out.

After finishing the meal, he discovered that Sima Xi had already paid the bill.

Shaking his head, Lu Ma didn't dwell on it, walked back to his apartment, and entered his small room.

He turned on his computer, and the screen displayed the time.

[17:22]

"Time flies."

Lu Ma sighed, set an alarm for half an hour, lay down on the bed, and cleared his mind.

[17:55]

Lu Ma sat back down in front of the computer and skillfully opened the streaming platform. There were unexpectedly many viewers—a full seven hundred and ninety-nine.

Realizing something was wrong, Lu Ma frowned. His first thought was that something had happened to the game, so he opened the official game website—

There was a notice announcing the cessation of updates.

Opening it, he saw that the game would upload its final version today, that the top-up function was disabled effective immediately, and that the servers would shut down in one year.

"No way, it's only been a week, how could the game stop updating?"

Lu Ma couldn't wrap his head around it. Moreover, looking at the release time of the notice—17:00—it was exactly when he was about to finish his meal.

What a coincidence.

He scrolled down further to find the special acknowledgments, and his name was on the list.

[Platform Streamer: Lu Ma cc]

It wasn't particularly prominent, but Lu Ma could spot his own name at a single glance.

"So, is this where the viewers came from?"

He muttered to himself, having already forgotten that he had started his stream. The streaming platform icon at the bottom of his computer screen was blinking; he opened it to find nothing but—

[Haha, why is the streamer reacting like this?]

[Hey streamer, as an officially recognized streamer, do you have anything to say?]

[Hey streamer, don't mind the low viewer count, all the Douluo players are right here.]

[Bullshit, just look at the streamer's thousand-plus followers and you'll know it can't just be this many people. When I checked earlier, there were only a few dozen followers...]

Only then did Lu Ma notice his follower count climbing rapidly; in just these few minutes, it had jumped by another two hundred.

He launched the game, downloaded the data pack, and entered the game.

The first pop-up window was precisely this announcement.

[Just got here, how skilled is the streamer that even the officials have to thank you?]

[18:00]

The number of people in the stream continued to grow.

"Alright, since the game has stopped updating, let me see what this version has added."

Lu Ma said, skillfully maneuvering his game character.

The feeling of every strike landing with impact was simply different.

The new version contained a wealth of content, opening up the Star Luo Empire adjacent to the Heaven Dou Empire, and even unlocking the core regions of the Star Dou Great Forest and the Sunset Forest. Just unlocking the teleportation points for these areas took Lu Ma over an hour. As for the treasure chests, the production team must have had a change of heart, as they had stuffed the rewards directly into his mailbox.

The new content regarding combat was even more extensive, with several high-difficulty bosses and new classes added.

Most importantly, despite all this new content, there were very few bugs.

After a full four hours of gameplay, Lu Ma lay on his bed, a faint feeling that something wasn't quite right gnawing at him.

"This amount of content is enough to last at least half a year of updates. Releasing it all so early, is there something wrong inside the game company?"

He rolled over.

"If only Dolphin Head could send him this much playable content tomorrow morning, too. It would be best if they released a new playable character. I really don't want to play this 'trading blood for blood' wheelchair build anymore."