[Ding!] [Skill acquired]: [Combat Power Detector]: [A god-tier player with a combat power of only 5... hundred million! Grants the user the ability to analyze others' ability scores]
"Analyze others' ability scores?" Lin Lixin stared at the new ability in his skill list, rubbing his chin. "It certainly came at the right time."
An arcade was, after all, just an entertainment service venue, and could only count as the first stop in his gaming empire.
If he wanted to grow bigger and stronger and create something glorious, starting his own game company was naturally only a matter of time.
Lin Lixin swept his gaze around the arcade, roughly figuring out how this skill worked.
Much like Arcade Machine Flaw Detection, it would display automatically with just a thought.
[Sam Weber] [Overall rating]: D (A promising future!) [Software development]: 13 (Growth potential: B) [Hardware technology]: 15 (Growth potential: A) [Administration and finance]: 20 (Growth potential: A+)
Sam's panel looked rather dismal from any angle. Although his growth potential was high across the board, as he stood now, he was still just a college student fresh out of the nest, radiating pure, unclouded stupidity.
What caught Lin Lixin's attention was that this guy was clearly a computer science student, so why was his highest growth potential in support work?
Just as he was about to check the others' stats, a dazzling golden light suddenly pierced his field of vision from the side.
It was Vivian. At that moment, her entire body was enveloped in that brilliant radiance, with a line of equally glittering golden text slapped right across her forehead.
[Overall rating]: A+
"Huh?"
Lin Lixin had always thought she was just a kindhearted senior randomly spawned by the roadside, but a closer look now suggested that wasn't quite the case.
[Vivian Pelley] [Overall rating]: A+ (A genius with a lopsided skill set) [Technical art]: 41 (Growth potential: S+) [Graphic design]: 32 (Growth potential: S-) [Software development]: 10 (Growth potential: D)
Her stats weren't outrageously high, but those two S-ranked growth potentials nearly blinded him.
Lin Lixin hurriedly switched off the stat analysis ability, and the way he looked at Vivian changed a little.
Vivian was completely unaware of this. She had just finished a tense, thrilling round of Tetris, setting a new high score on one of the new machines.
She excitedly joined the back of the line, planning to give it another try.
"Vivian." Lin Lixin took the initiative to walk over and strike up a conversation. "Didn't I say you could play for free, my treat? You've helped me out a lot."
He handed her a box filled with plenty of cent coins. Running an arcade, the last thing he lacked was change.
"Lin, this is simply unbelievable. After a week, I thought I'd be able to forget about it."
Vivian's face was flushed red. Having no room for pleasantries, she gestured at Lin Lixin, spittle flying.
"But I can't! Tetris is just too much fun. Every time I think I've mastered it, another new technique appears!"
"Are you planning to wait through another round?" Lin Lixin responded with a smile, pointing at the long line in front of them.
Getting through that line would take at least half an hour.
"Yes, this is what I want to play!"
"All right. I'd actually been planning to invite you to try the new game I developed."
Lin Lixin spread his hands and quietly walked over to another "1942" machine that was still unoccupied.
Although "1942" had only been fully finished yesterday, once he had the source code, burning another EPROM wouldn't take much time.
"A new game?" Vivian stopped just as she was about to move up one place, looking toward Lin Lixin as he sat down at that unfamiliar arcade machine.
Was it the new game using scrolling technology that he'd mentioned in the library?
But this was far too fast!
The last time Vivian had seen Lin Lixin had been Monday. How could he possibly have produced a presentable new game in just one short week?
She glanced at the line. She was right at the back anyway, so even if she went to try it out, she wouldn't lose anything.
"Wait for me!"
She took the 2P seat beside Lin Lixin, and before she had even settled in, she heard an intense exchange beside her.
"Bro, I'll cover the flank. Go all out!"
"Okay, bro. I'm leaving my back to you!"
Sam and Neil each controlled a plane, their fingers hammering the buttons with sharp clacks, their breathing rapid and their faces flushed.
Neil was now incredibly glad that he had fought through his drowsiness today to come to this newly opened arcade called GAMENOVA.
For the first time in his life, he had played a masterpiece that left him utterly speechless.
If "Space Invaders" had been the pioneer and "Xevious" had laid the foundations, then the game before him was unquestionably the culmination of them all!
Its gameplay was filled with randomness. No two runs were exactly alike, driving Neil to keep feeding in coins again and again.
As for Sam, he wasn't doing much better than Neil.
The more rounds he played, the more astonished he became.
The aircraft upgrades dropped by those elite mobs were actually random!
Lasers, machine guns, missiles, sonic waves, wingmen...
The various weapon upgrades combined in countless ways and were compatible with one another, making every run's loadout a fresh experience.
"Bro, you take this POW. I've got a laser cannon, so I've got enough firepower."
"Okay!"
Two fighters, modified beyond recognition, roared over the sea, shooting down every last plane in Japan's air force.
Watching them, Vivian grew a little envious and turned back to look at Lin Lixin with eager eyes.
The best thing about co-op mode was that as long as both players weren't wiped out, the player who died could respawn at the cost of their power-ups, provided they inserted another coin in time.
Although it was Vivian's first time playing, with Lin Lixin working alongside her, she soon got the hang of it.
The round flew by in a flash.
She sat dazed before the arcade machine, staring at the Game Over and score tally on the screen. Her mouth opened, but not a single word came out.
Was this seriously the kind of fucking effect someone could produce after studying computer graphics for one week??
The scrolling was so fluid and smooth, and it even switched between vertical, diagonal, horizontal, and various other scrolling directions across different stages.
She had thought she would see one enormous static image scrolling past. That sort of scrolling technology was nothing new.
But Lin Lixin had handled the layering with extraordinary ingenuity.
Clouds, sea, islands, ships-every element of the scenery seemed like a living object, each complementing the others.
They all scrolled at different speeds. Although it was a flat image, it conveyed an incredibly realistic sense of three-dimensional space.
After a long while, she let out a long sigh and surveyed the other machines in the arcade.
"What have I even been doing for the past twenty-odd years...?"
Once, her understanding of video games had been limited to "outdated toys" and "the poison of consumerism."
Even when the Atari Shock happened, she had thought herself far-sighted for having seen it coming.
Now it seemed she had wasted countless years for nothing.
If only she'd discovered them sooner!