Wow, a Golden Legend

Chen Xu looked at the virtual screen before him. The contents displayed on it were exceedingly simple and clear.

There was an instruction button, something like a gacha machine filled with capsules, and a reward list beside it listing the possible rewards: Normal Profession Skill Books, Rare Profession Skill Books, and Special Items.

Below that was a string of numbers: 473451.

He opened the instructions first, and Chen Xu quickly got the information he wanted.

Clearly, this system was his golden finger. No doubt about it.

It was a very simple lottery system, though it required points.

The source of those points was equally simple: whenever his works immersed players, viewers, readers, listeners, and so on, and made them feel happiness, joy, excitement, sorrow, anger, fear, and other emotions, he would receive corresponding Emotion Points.

Once converted into points, they could be used for draws. And the more than four hundred thousand Emotion Points he had right now...

Were what Chen Xu had accumulated in his previous life.

Seeing that, Chen Xu felt a little regretful.

"If I'd known this would happen, why did I bother with level and narrative design back then? I should've just become an event planner." Chen Xu felt somewhat regretful.

Unlike in this Parallel World, where players cursed game designers whenever they were unhappy.

In his previous life, planners were the ones who took the blame.

Your favorite character got nerfed? Damn planner!

Your favorite character got killed off? Damn planner!

The server for your favorite game crashed? Damn planner!

No matter whether it was actually the planner's fault, cursing the planner was never wrong.

"100,000 for one draw? One million for ten draws, with no discount? Fine, but there isn't even a free draw? Even the pig factory's games aren't this predatory!" Chen Xu had thought he had quite a lot of points, but when he saw the draw prices, he fell silent.

So his four hundred thousand-plus points were only enough for four single draws?

Still, although he complained aloud, Chen Xu's hands did not stop as he immediately began drawing.

He decisively pulled the lever four times and watched the gacha machine before him whirl noisily before dropping out four capsules.

Then, golden light blossomed from all four capsules.

Originally, Chen Xu had not expected to get anything good. After all, he only had four chances.

And the machine only had three possible reward types in total.

But now?

Wow! A golden legend!

Chen Xu even supplied the voiceover in his head, his face full of anticipation.

Then...

Normal Profession Skill Book ×2, Rare Profession Skill Book ×1, Memory Capsule ×1

Looking at the four items before him, Chen Xu was completely speechless.

So that damn golden light was just a loot box—no, a capsule-opening effect?

System, you really were something.

Chen Xu grumbled inwardly, but his hand still reached for one of the Normal Profession Skill Books.

Next, he watched the skill book turn into a cluster of purple, starlike motes that merged into his body. At the same time, a prompt appeared.

Story Design +1

As the purple light flowed into him, Chen Xu felt his thoughts become incomparably clear. At the same time, he seemed to understand some things about pacing a story that he had not understood before.

The feeling was quite wonderful. It was like when he had been doing math problems in school and racked his brains over a question without finding an answer.

Then he saw a relevant formula and suddenly understood everything.

Chen Xu then tapped the other two books.

Music +1, Drawing Skills +5

Music had come from the Normal Profession Skill Book, while Drawing Skills had come from the Rare Profession Skill Book.

The boosts they provided were different. As for whether that was because they belonged to different categories or simply had different numerical values, he did not know.

After all, he did not have enough points to test and draw conclusions.

Finally, Chen Xu turned his gaze to the last item he had drawn.

Memory Capsule: After use, allows the user to excavate deeply buried memories for 1 hour.

Looking at the Memory Capsule, Chen Xu revealed a delighted expression.

This was great!

It was basically a time-limited photographic memory.

As someone from the gaming industry in his previous life, Chen Xu had played countless games. More than merely playing them, he had studied them.

Take the famous game "The Last of Us," for example. Ordinary players would play it and think things like, Wow, that's awesome! Ah, scary! No, I'm dead!

But for someone in the gaming industry like Chen Xu, there were many aspects that needed to be considered and studied.

For example, why the story was told in that manner, whether the distribution of monsters was reasonable, why the map and its cover were arranged that way, and how hidden details should hint to players that they ought to discover them.

So, with the Memory Capsule, Chen Xu could recreate some of the games he had played in the past within his mind to the greatest possible extent.

For the time being, Chen Xu left the Memory Capsule in his inventory, intending to save it.

Before developing his first game, there was still some preparatory work to do.

For example, learning how to use the official game engine, researching the game market, looking into the current mainstream game genres, and deciding which platform to release the game on once it was finished.

All of that needed to be prepared in advance.

"Alright, let's take a look!" After closing the system, Chen Xu sat before his computer and typed on the keyboard with both hands, searching for the information he wanted.

First, he took a look at the game engine tools in this Parallel World.

Because he had previously done outsourced concept art for game companies.

Chen Xu already had the official game engine software installed on his computer and had long since registered an account.

This area was fairly mature in the Parallel World.

For example, concept artists, modelers, musicians, even voice actors and the like could all be found through the platform within the game engine.

"Hmm, it's not very difficult, and it isn't cumbersome either. There are just far too few resources."

Chen Xu skimmed through the introductory video at high speed, then searched online for the relevant written materials.

He now had a basic understanding of the game engine. It was not very difficult to get started with.

Next came the platform side of things. The flourishing cultural industry had also brought harsh crackdowns on piracy, and games developed using the game engine were technically protected against piracy altogether.

Of course, the absence of piracy did not mean the industry lacked competition. Competition was just as fierce.

As for game platforms, they were not very different from those in his previous life. There were both domestic and foreign platforms.

However, unlike in his previous life, where one foreign platform dominated the market, foreign platforms did not have such great influence in this Parallel World. Domestic game platforms were instead the mainstream.

This was mainly because, unlike in his previous life, where blood in domestic games had to be green or gray and even skeletons needed flesh on their bones, real-name verification was fully implemented in this Parallel World. Cultural products also had a corresponding rating system.

Games like "The Witcher 3" and "GTA," which would have had virtually a 0% chance of passing review in his previous life, could be approved in this Parallel World. They would simply be rated 18R.