Welcome to the Global Game Awards Opening Show!

On December 1, voting closed, and the results were set.

From the opening of the voting channel to its conclusion, everyone had watched it unfold. They had seen the voting begin, progress, and end.

They had watched Sprout Studio's games remain in the lead from the very beginning.

At one point, everyone wondered whether they might be overtaken from behind, surpassed by other games.

But they were not.

Voting had opened in early November. At first, the top three were neck and neck, and it seemed that anyone behind them only needed to try a little harder to overtake those ahead.

But as the days passed, the votes for every game under Sprout Studio steadily increased.

By mid-November, they were already ahead of second place by half again as many votes.

The competition for the rankings among the other games was fierce, and every game company was making all kinds of promotional pushes in the final stretch.

The overwhelming advertisements were filled with game titles people had heard of and titles they had never heard before.

One exciting game video after another appeared before the players.

But none of that open and covert struggle had anything to do with Ethan Vale or Sprout Studio.

They had not done any promotion or marketing at all that month, yet their votes continued to rise day by day.

At first, the game companies competing with Sprout Studio for the same awards had tried to struggle.

But as time passed, everyone realized that no matter how they promoted their games, they could not shake those few games from first place.

By the middle of the month, those games had become towering mountains no game company could surpass.

Just looking from afar at the summit was enough to fill them with despair.

In early December, Ethan Vale and Song Shan boarded a plane bound for M Country.

"This is terrifying..." Yinzi stared at the finalized vote counts. Even though he was not a game developer, those overwhelmingly crushing numbers made him feel like he could barely breathe.

Only when the votes were finalized did he realize that the Old Thief might not have been joking when he had dropped into his livestream and said those things.

What was domination?

This was domination.

"Even ten years from now, I feel like these game companies still won't forget the fear of being dominated by the Great Demon King." Yinzi rubbed his chest, as if trying to ease the tightness there.

He was watching the live broadcast of the TGA awards ceremony. A massive multimedia screen stood at the venue. The ceremony had not yet begun, and the screen was cycling through spectacular CGs from various games.

The livestream camera occasionally swept across the audience. The seats below were already filled with game developers and gaming media representatives who had arrived at the venue.

The lighting in the audience was dim, and the camera moved too quickly for anything more than shifting silhouettes to be seen.

"Does anyone else think the seats look a little empty this year?"

"Yeah. If one game company sweeps an award category, that means there are at least four fewer people this year." Though he could not clearly see the venue and was not there himself, Yinzi could still picture the scene perfectly.

The votes displayed online were player votes, which accounted for 90% of the final result. The remaining 10% came from reviews by gaming media outlets.

The standards used by the media differed somewhat from those of the players. Player votes might simply come down to liking a game.

Media votes, on the other hand, had to take many aspects of game development into consideration.

So even after the online vote counts had been finalized, when the gap was not too large, the game companies ranked in the top five for each award would still attend in person.

After all, every year saw cases where games with tied vote counts relied on media scores to overtake first place.

Until the awards were revealed, everything remained a mystery.

And that kind of drama was what players loved most to watch.

But such drama only happened when the vote gap was small. With Sprout Studio's numbers, there was not even a chance for anyone to enjoy a show.

It seemed attending as a top-five nominee had become a habit. After all, what if it was you?

If the host called your name in the end and no one was there, wouldn't that be awkward?

Ethan Vale and Song Shan sat in seats marked with their names. Their seats were in a special location, very close to the front.

A developer of games on his scale normally would not have been seated so close to the front, but Ethan Vale was an exception. The awards might have been minor, but there were a lot of them.

And on either side of Ethan Vale sat two big names: Evan and Carter.

Right on schedule, the massive multimedia screen onstage began its countdown.

The host stood onstage in a blue-and-white formal gown. Her golden hair gleamed beneath the lights, while her delicate skin looked almost translucent in its fairness.

"Welcome to the Global Game Awards Opening Show!" She smiled brightly as game posters cycled across the multimedia screen behind her.

In the screening hall, shadows shifted through the dim audience. The moment her words fell, applause erupted everywhere.

"This awards ceremony will be broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world."

"We have also invited celebrity guests and producers from all over, including, of course, the person everyone has been looking forward to most." She gave a playful wink and looked toward the dim audience.

The livestream camera followed her gaze. It could only make out a seated figure there, not his features.

"That silhouette looks a little like the Old Thief." Yinzi studied the outline in the darkness.

You've already been shaped into the Old Thief's image. Now everyone looks like the Old Thief to you. But honestly, that shadow really does look like him.

How could the person everyone is looking forward to most be the Old Thief? It'd already be good enough if nobody wanted to strangle him.

Among all the awards, only the Most Anticipated Person award has no trophy, and only this one uses anonymous voting, so the vote counts can't be viewed.

I voted for the creator of Wallpaper Engine. Same as every year.

No matter how chaotic the gaming world gets, the galgame community will always remain a pure stream.

Still, it seems like no galgame or eroge has ever won at TGA.

Galgames exist beyond the three realms. Why would they care about TGA?

The blonde host spoke passionately onstage. Every time she announced a game, thunderous applause rose from the audience. Whenever there was an upset result, the venue erupted with cheers and sighs.

One winner after another took the stage, while the giant multimedia screen behind them played nonstop high-energy game clips.

"Next, I will announce the winner of an award." The blonde host held a cue card. It only displayed the name of the award, with the winner's name hidden beneath a special scratch-off coating.

Even she did not know which work had won. She had to scratch it open on the spot, like a lottery ticket, to reveal the result.

"Oh, it's this one! Best Independent Game." The host smiled, her cute and playful face carrying a helpless fondness.

Holding the scratcher in her hand, she scraped away the coating without hesitation.

"Oh, of course it's this one."