Fate Farmhouse Restaurant.
After Lu Ma said the character he controlled was specifically Ning Rongrong, Sima Xi fell into deep thought.
They were already halfway through the meal, and neither of them had said another word.
Seeing the confusion on Sima Xi's face, Lu Ma didn't want to interrupt her. After all, he hadn't eaten lunch either.
Halfway through the meal, Sima Xi finally looked up.
"So, after you started controlling Ning Rongrong, you've been following the Shrek storyline the whole time, right? How far have you gotten? Zhao Wuji, physical training, the Great Soul Arena, Star Dou Great Forest... where are you now?"
"I just finished the Great Soul Arena. But some of what you said isn't quite right. I mentioned it before: this game has monster elements, so some of the original main-story content doesn't exist. For example, instead of physical training, there's a special Soul Beast hunt."
"Why do you have to hunt a Soul Beast?"
"Because my Soul Power reached level 30."
"How did you get there?"
"Before Zhao Wuji, there's a mission to destroy a Holy Spirit Cult outpost. Yeah, the Holy Spirit Cult from Douluo II... The reward for that mission brought me up to level 30."
Sima Xi was even more confused.
"What were they doing inside the Holy Spirit Cult outpost?"
"What else? The kind of thing Evil Soul Masters do. Obviously, they were sacrificing young girls. Why are you asking? Isn't that the kind of thing most games would include?"
"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 wanted to ask how detailed the game is. Can you hear what those Evil Soul Masters are saying and things like that?"
"Detailed? Speaking of detail, this game is incredible." Lu Ma praised it. "I can clearly hear every word they say. I've forgotten some of it, but overall, they were praising a being called the Holy God... the way people praise The Fool."
"The Holy God!"
Sima Xi shot to her feet and stared at Lu Ma in disbelief. But when she saw his bewildered expression, she let out a breath, then sat back down.
"Why are you so worked up? Is this Holy God some deity you believe in? What a coincidence." Lu Ma teased her.
"It's nothing. I just heard a familiar name. A friend of mine uses Holy God as her online handle. By the way, does this game not have a character-naming step?"
"Yeah, it doesn't. But most games like this don't, do they? What's the point of naming yourself in a single-player game?"
"Then, have you tried getting things like the Aromatic Silk Beauty, Shi Nian's Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, or the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone in the game?"
Lu Ma jerked his head up. "But aren't those things only a transmigrator would need to worry about? I'm a player, not a transmigrator. It's not like the game company would put those things in as Easter eggs, right?"
Sima Xi nodded woodenly. "True."
"Still, I'm having a hard time figuring out what to test next."
"Have you ever thought about joining the Holy Spirit Cult while following the Shrek storyline? You said the guidance was bad, so the way I see it, this game has a lot of freedom. Why not try joining the Holy Spirit Cult?"
"Good idea, but I don't know how."
"If joining the Holy Spirit Cult is an option, you just need to get the item."
Sima Xi said it as if she knew the game by heart.
"How do you know so much about it?"
Lu Ma gave Sima Xi a suspicious look. A blush crept across her face. She put down her chopsticks and protested, "I don't! I'm full. I'm leaving. 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 dusk, a little dazed.
"Could she really be acting weird? Did I say something wrong?"
Lu Ma thought it over and decided he hadn't. Then he recalled some of the things Sima Xi had said earlier and slapped his hand against the table.
"The 'I have a friend' routine! So her online handle is Holy God!"
Lu Ma felt he'd figured it all out.
When he finished eating, he discovered Sima Xi had already paid the bill.
He shook his head, then walked back to his apartment and went into his little room.
He turned on his computer. The time showed on the screen.
[17:22]
"Time sure flies."
Lu Ma set a timer for half an hour, then lay down on the bed and emptied his mind.
[17:55]
Lu Ma sat back down in front of the computer, opened the livestreaming platform with practiced ease, and was surprised to find a crowd of viewers—seven hundred and ninety-nine in all.
Frowning as he realized something was off, Lu Ma's first thought was that something had happened to the game. He opened the game's official website—
There was an announcement that updates had ended.
When he opened it, he saw that the game's final version would be uploaded that day. Purchases were suspended effective immediately, and the servers would shut down in a year.
"You've got to be kidding me. It's only been a week. Why are they stopping updates already?"
Lu Ma couldn't make sense of it. And judging by the announcement's release time—17:00—it had gone up just as he was finishing his meal.
What a coincidence.
He scrolled down and found a special acknowledgment section. His name was on the list.
[Channel streamer: Lu Ma cc]
It wasn't very noticeable, but Lu Ma spotted his own name at a glance.
"So that's where the viewers came from?"
He murmured to himself, having already forgotten that he'd started a livestream. The platform icon at the bottom of the computer screen blinked. When he opened it, he found comments like—
[Haha, why is the streamer reacting like that?] [Hey, streamer! As an officially recognized streamer, do you have anything to say?] [Hey, streamer! There may not be many of us, but all the Douluo players are here.] [Bullshit. Just look at the streamer's thousand-plus followers. There's no way there are only this many people. When I checked before, he only had a few dozen...]
Only then did Lu Ma notice his follower count rocketing upward. In just a few minutes, he'd gained another two hundred or so.
He opened the game, downloaded the data pack, and launched it.
The first pop-up was the announcement itself.
[Just got here. What's the streamer done to deserve thanks from the official team?] ... [18:00]
The livestream audience was still growing.
"Fine. Since the game's stopped updating, let's see what's in this version."
As he spoke, Lu Ma expertly took control of his character.
There was nothing like the feel of every blow landing solidly.
The new version had a ton of content. It opened the Star Luo Empire beside the Heaven Dou Empire and unlocked the core areas of the Star Dou Great Forest and Sunset Forest. Just activating the teleport points in those regions took Lu Ma more than an hour. As for the treasure chests, the development team must've finally given up on hiding things and just sent the rewards straight to his mailbox.
There was even more new content in combat: several challenging new bosses and a few new classes.
Most importantly, despite all the new content, there weren't many bugs.
After playing for four full hours, Lu Ma lay on his bed, vaguely sensing that something was wrong.
"There's enough content here to last at least six months of updates. Why release it so early? Did something happen inside the game company?"
He rolled over.
"If only Dolphin Head could send him this much playable content tomorrow morning too. Better yet, they could unlock a new playable character. I'm so tired of this blood-for-blood wheelchair playstyle."
Before you continue