Fei Zhiyuan looked at the glowing Saintess Lamp and then at the soaring popularity of the live broadcast, and he was speechless.
He even felt a little dejected.
At this moment, he finally realized:
He could never predict what decisions the Dream Building boss would make.
They were not on the same path at all.
This outrageously designed lamp would undoubtedly cause huge controversy on Weiguang. The anti-feminist groups who already hated them to death would never ignore this thing.
It was impossible for the Dream Building boss not to realize this—even if he didn't, his employees would.
But he still did it.
So, what could he gain by taking such a big risk?
Nothing!
At least, in Fei Zhiyuan's opinion, nothing at all.
It seemed like he just… thought it was fun, so he did it?
Besides that, Fei Zhiyuan really couldn't think of a second reason.
But it was this outrageous thing that actually caused the live broadcast's popularity to skyrocket!
And it wasn't just the live broadcast; this popularity would undoubtedly spread, gaining huge attention on social networks.
—Controversy and attention are two sides of the same coin.
What's even more outrageous is that if this happened at another company—like Moyu or Fourth Dimension—players would think it was vulgar! Obscene! Borderline!
That would be purely negative news.
But happening at Dream Building…
Dream Building has been openly engaging in 'sexiness' with 'Frost Snow Project' for so long.
A lamp that is properly dressed, with nothing exposed except for a bit of 'absolute territory,' isn't that normal?
Among the ACG game players, this is even positive news!
Just look at the enthusiastic barrage of messages for the lottery in the live broadcast to know…
They really like it!
A bunch of people are frantically shouting for the link.
"Domestic game box users can also bind their accounts and play games with players around the world using the console, making friends with foreign enthusiasts."
After saying these words, the live broadcast showed some scenes of Dream Building's technical staff working with Softel Game Box's technical staff.
Finally, the screen gradually darkened, and the sound slowly disappeared.
When the live broadcast lit up again, the scene returned to the [Silver Mystery Ballroom].
The dancing girls had disappeared, and on the huge stage, only Qing Ling was left standing in front of the microphone, singing softly.
Several NPCs sat under the stage, silently enjoying her song.
So everyone finally confirmed: the preview was over.
The final popularity of the 'Frost Snow Project' preview program was: million!
While the antagonistic 'Divine Bird' only had million.
A complete and utter defeat!
The onlookers quickly dispersed, and players with things to do gradually left the live broadcast, and the popularity of the live broadcast began to slowly decline.
But the decline was very slow.
Countless people still remained in the live broadcast, watching Qing Ling sing with the NPCs, and admiring her gently swaying figure.
They just felt that the more they watched, the more beautiful she was!
A full three minutes later, the song ended.
The NPCs under the stage applauded for Qing Ling, and the players also sent barrages of applause and cheers.
At this time, everything was still normal.
But suddenly, an NPC in the front row stood up and walked towards the stage, step by step.
The players, watching this scene, quickly sobered up from their state of enjoying the performance:
"What does this mean? Do the NPCs have extra scenes?"
"No, wait, don't get close to my Qing Ling!"
"Wasn't the preview over? What's going on?"
"Is it an easter egg?"
…
Amidst a large number of surprised messages, this NPC, with a motion fluidity far exceeding all NPCs in the game, rushed onto the stage from the side in three steps.
Everyone felt a strong sense of incongruity!
After the remake, 'Frost Snow Project' was indeed willing to put in a lot of effort, but this 'willingness' was limited to characters that could be drawn.
The NPCs were still the same as before, with limited templates, stiff and repetitive movements, and they would even get stuck on their feet when going down the stairs.
But this NPC's movements were too damn smooth!
At first glance, it was no worse than the carefully designed new character Qing Ling!
Under everyone's shocked and puzzled gaze, this NPC quickly walked to Qing Ling's side and finally turned around to reveal his face.
"Damn!" Heroic Sniper Jishou leaned back violently, his headphones fell off, and the gaming chair moved back a large distance.
"Xu Meng!!"
He shouted this name in shock.
In the live broadcast, after the audience was informed that this was Xu Meng, the barrage of messages quickly exploded:
"Damn! Xu Meng!!"
"What the hell? Did the Dream Building boss put himself into the game?"
"What an outrageous operation!"
"'Frost Snow Project' has no male characters! You said it yourself!"
"I get it! Xu Meng is a trap!"
"No, a male body with a female face is a trap. His appearance isn't worthy of being a trap!"
…
That was indeed Xu Meng's face.
Although it seemed like an ultra-strong ACG filter had been added, making the whole face a bit cartoonish, it was indeed Xu Meng's face.
Xu Meng, who had disappeared for the entire preview livestream, finally appeared on screen in a way that no one had expected.
He smiled and reached out to pat Qing Ling's little head.
Then, he greeted the camera, saying:
"Hello, everyone!"
"Although the preview is about to end, I have some great news to share with you all. So, please allow me to take up a little more of your time."
He gently tapped the standing microphone in front of Qing Ling, causing it to emit a muffled thud.
"You might think that I asked the employees to create an NPC in my image and put it in the game, and that everything you're seeing now is drawn frame by frame by the animators."
"Going to such great lengths just to satisfy my twisted desire for attention."
"Haha!" Xu Meng chuckled at his own joke, "But that's not the case."
The latest novels are first published on [Liǔ] 9 [Shū] [Bā]!
"Dream Architect's production capacity is very precious and will not be wasted on such things."
"The movements you're seeing now haven't been touched by animators or modelers at all; they all come from real-time motion capture."
"When I reach out my hand in reality, my in-game self will also reach out."
"When I run in reality, my in-game self will also run."
"Of course, just saying it might not be very convincing."
"But that's okay, I've prepared a very persuasive set of actions!"
"Come on, everyone, pay attention to my hands—"
The virtual Xu Meng spread out his hands, and the camera zoomed in to match, and then—
His ten fingers began to move up and down irregularly and rapidly!
Due to the game's frame rate limitations, these ten fingers were moving so fast that they were almost blurry!
But this was just the beginning. Next, he began to make some complex movements with both hands:
Pretending to make cat's cradle, waving his hands, forming hand seals…
He effortlessly performed all kinds of actions that would make animators explode on the spot, one after another.
Every single viewer was completely stunned.
In gacha games, even the characters in the gacha pool are considered good if their fingers can separate, make a fist, or perform a few fixed actions.
When have they ever seen such flexible hands in a game?!
"This is… how is this done?"
This wasn't just the question of countless players in the livestream.
It was also the question of countless peers.
The answer, of course, was the [Full-Body Sync Suit].
After Staff Officer Wu left, the Ningzhou Garrison approved the cooperation application for [King of War] the next day.
On the fourth day, military advisor Xie Buyun came to Dream Architect's Jinghu office building and joined the development team.
On the sixth day, Staff Officer Wu visited Dream Architect with a special eight-person team from Xia Jing.
On this day, they finalized the first order for 100,000 full-body sync suits and guaranteed that if the results met expectations, the next order would be for 1 million suits.
They also ordered 100,000 corresponding omnidirectional treadmills and VR glasses.
At the same time, Xu Meng had an additional task—
To assist the military research institute in mastering his development technology in this area, ensuring that even without him, the military could independently design virtual battlefields and configure various weapon parameters.
Initially, they didn't ask Xu Meng to hand over all the algorithmic details of the full-body sync suit, but only hoped to master the development and application technology.
But Xu Meng proposed another solution—
I can teach you all the algorithms completely, but you must allow me to freely commercialize them while ensuring technical security, and at the same time, both parties share the [simulated sensation] code.
It wasn't impossible for Xu Meng to weave the tactile sensations of all the materials by himself, but it would be too time-consuming and laborious.
Even with Xiao Meng, it would still be too cumbersome.
But if military researchers joined, it would undoubtedly increase efficiency exponentially!
After confirming that it was just the code for [simulated sensation] and did not involve any weapon parameter code, the other party readily agreed.
So, he spent most of his time teaching and discussing.
Otherwise, when [Frost Snow Project] and [Divine Bird] were competing for popularity, he would have definitely joined in the fun.
Fortunately, he had finally finished teaching.
And he had gained some unexpected rewards during the discussion.
—What was happening right now was one of those rewards.
"You must be very curious about how I did it."
"The answer, of course, is—"
"Magic!"
Xu Meng snapped his fingers, eliciting a wave of dissatisfied complaints.
But he really didn't plan to reveal the secret here: "Alright, just kidding."
"First, I want to apologize to everyone, because I'm going to keep you in suspense here."
"If you want to know what's going on, please pay attention to the Cologne International Games Show next month!"
"At that time, Dream Architect will show you a brand-new technology, a technology that—"
"Truly enters the game world and touches virtual characters!"
As he spoke, he reached out and rubbed Qing Ling's head again.
Qing Ling showed a wronged expression.
—Of course, this expression was created by the animators.
But watching Xu Meng [enter] the virtual world, actually touch the game character's head, and the game character even respond to his actions…
The millions of viewers in the livestream were all excited!
If they could enter the virtual world and live together with their waifu, who would be willing to be separated by a layer of glass?!
"Well then, this preview program has come to an end."
"Thank you all for watching."
"We'll see you at the Cologne Games Show on August 22nd!"
Asking for monthly tickets!
