Bang!
In the silent room, the one person game cabin made a slight noise. The cabin door slowly opened sideways, revealing the man with closed eyes inside.
He didn’t open his eyes immediately. In the bright light of the room, it could be seen that there were faint crystal clear drops of water at the corner of his eyes, hidden by his hands.
After a long time, Xu Yuheng lowered his hands and opened his eyes.
The dark phoenix eyes were filled with sinister intensity and the red, bloodshot eyes made him look very fierce.
He wiped the water from the corner of his eyes and sat up.
The painful and intense emotions were still in his heart. He didn’t know how to calm down. Perhaps he would never calm down, unless…
Xu Yuheng’s eyes narrowed slightly. He got down from the game cabin and wanted to make a call, only to remember that his phone had been smashed by him last time. He had been in the game for over a week and hadn’t replaced it.
He took a deep breath and used the communication system that came with the game cabin to call his assistant and request a phone be sent over.
On the phone, the assistant replied positively.
Xu Yuheng was about to hang up when the assistant hurriedly stopped him.
“Mr Xu, you’ve been on vacation for around a week… do you want to go back to the company to take a look?” The assistant asked in a trembling manner.
Xu Yuheng raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“There have been some problems with a few projects recently…”
“What about Xu Fengqing? Go to him if there are any questions…”
“Cough, President Xu…” The assistant hesitated. “President Xu is also lacking the ability right now…”
Xu Yuheng frowned. “What happened?”
“It is just… the Starry Sky Age holographic game project has been burning money too fast and there has been no income for so many years. The directors want to force President Xu to terminate the project.”
“Is this group of people sick?”
Xu Yuheng couldn’t help scolding in a low voice.
Burning money was actually a very polite way of saying that Starry Sky Age was simply a gold-devouring beast or a type of gluttonous beast.
In the past 10 years, the Xu family had spared no effort in investing in this project.
Even in the years when the economy was in turmoil, the entire family would rather sell their original manor house and move to their current residential building than stop the investment.
If it was all converted, it would definitely exceed 100 billion or even a lot more. This could be called real bankruptcy.
Now that the game was finally on track and about to be released, this group of old guys actually asked to terminate the project?
“Don’t they know that the deposit for the game cabin of the second closed beta is already 50 million?” Xu Yuheng wondered.
50 million wasn’t much compared to the investment cost but don’t forget that there were only 5,000 places and this was just a deposit. The number of people who could pay the deposit would be far more than 5,000.
This proved the potential of the game. Then once the public beta was launched and cheaper game helmets were developed, it was only a matter of time until the cost was recovered.
“They know.”
The assistant lowered his voice. “It seems that Director Dong said that unless President Xu can sell half the equity…”
Xu Yuheng couldn’t help gritting his teeth.
He finally realized that these old guys weren’t mentally ill but were very shrewd. They wanted to pick the soft fruit.
“I know. You go ahead and do things. I’ll go back to the company tomorrow.”
Xu Yuheng exchanged a few words before ending the call.
He looked at the game cabin in front of him and clenched his fists. His eyes were full of darkness. After a while, he called Xu Fengqing’s number.
There were a few rings and the phone was connected. A man’s slightly tired and hoarse voice was heard.
“Hello?”
The communication system of the game cabin was used so Xu Fengqing’s phone was probably displaying a strange number.
Xu Yuheng pursed his lips. He still remembered the last quarrel in his heart but…
“It’s me,” he whispered.
“Oh, Ah Heng.” The man’s voice became lighter. “Have you changed your number?”
Xu Yuheng didn’t answer and just said bluntly, “I know about the company. How are you going to deal with it?”
Xu Fengqing paused and didn’t speak for a moment.
“Do you need me to help you? Who else is there besides that old fox Lin Hua?” Xu Yuheng wondered.
“You don’t have to worry about it.”
Xu Fengqing spoke softly, “I won’t let them mess up this project and ruin Xiao Li’s dream.”
“Take care of your own business first.”
Xu Yuheng frowned with a bit of irritation. “Can you do it?”
Xu Fengqing laughed from the other side of the phone.
“I’m your older brother. What do you think?”
“I’ve wanted to dig out these tumors for a long time. Now they are jumping out on their own. I don’t have to work hard to get rid of them one by one.”
“Don’t set yourself on fire while playing with fire.” Xu Yuheng warned sternly.
“I know.”
Xu Fengqing spoke calmly, as if he didn’t take the conspiracy of these directors to heart. “You can spend more time with our parents and less time… playing the game.”
Xu Yuheng was too lazy to pay attention to him. He directly hung up the phone. As for the fact that he had already met Snow Roland, he didn’t bother telling his brother.
In any case, in the eyes of his older brother, no one else could be Xiao Li’s stand-in, not even data.
But… was that really just data?
“Second Brother, I’m not data!”
The sad appearance of the silver-haired youth appeared before his eyes.
His aggrieved eyes as well as the choking sound in his voice was constantly playing back in Xu Yuheng’s mind.
Xu Yuheng’s hands trembled slightly and he bit his lips until he tasted blood. He released his teeth, took a deep breath and managed to calm down.
What if… what if that was really Xiao Li?
He couldn’t help thinking involuntarily.
It was too similar…
Really too similar…
He had to admit that the game AI of Starry Sky Age was very strong. The intelligence of the NPCs had reached the point where it was hard to distinguish between real or false but…
Was completely copying a person something that could really be done? Xiao Li was a real person. How could they completely replicate his behavior and manner of speaking?
This NPC even found a way to come from Imperial City to meet him.
Was this really something that an NPC could do? He even knew about the class transfer…
NPCs had no concept of a class transfer. At the age of five, their talent would be detected and they would go to the Elementalist Academy for further studies.
Class change was a term for players.
Of course, this might also be the design of the game team but Xu Yuheng still had doubts.
10 years ago, holographic games were in their infancy.
During the time when he was investigating the whereabouts of Xiao Li’s money, he found that Xiao Li had only been in contact with the game for a few months, a very short amount of time.
In such a short period of time, did the game team collect enough data to completely simulate Xiao Li’s voice and smile? So much so that he couldn’t even find a sense of strangeness?
After all, it had been 10 years.
His impression of Xiao Li had actually been beautified a lot in his memory. Yet when he saw the silver-haired young man, his first impression was of Xiao Li.
Xu Yuheng frowned deeply.
He kept analyzing it, constantly trying to convince himself to believe in something that was ridiculous at first sight.
After the plane accident, Xiao Li’s soul crossed into the game.
However, he lacked evidence.
Xu Yuheng looked at the communication system of the game cabin. He stretched out his hand but hesitated.
He was afraid.
Yes, he flinched slightly.
What if he verified it and it really was a surprise designed by the game team?
Xu Yuheng clenched his fists tightly before pressing the communication button with his eyes closed.
He couldn’t actually deceive himself or else the words of his older brother wouldn’t echo in his ears from time to time.
Do you think data can replace Xiao Li?
Of course not, how could it?
Xiao Li, his beloved brother, was unique.
Maybe he could give up after it was verified.
It was just like… Xiao Li was really reborn in the game and he, as the son of the Xu family, had his own responsibilities and things to protect.
It was absolutely impossible to spend all his time in the game, no matter what happened.
Finally, the phone was answered.
Old Wang’s voice was filled with a bit of helplessness as he answered.
“Mr Xu, I really have no way to intervene in the game process and I can’t open a backstage for you. You have to use the gameplay to go to Imperial City.”
Xu Yuheng heard the words and couldn’t help having some subtle emotions in his heart.
He didn’t mention that he had seen Snow Roland and instead asked, “Old Wang, you told me about the storyline of Snow Roland. Are there any other hidden settings?”
“Mr Xu, all the settings of Snow Roland have been passed to you previously.” Old Wang answered.
After all, Xu Sili was the original investor of the project and the game team attached great importance to his legacy.
“You’ve played the game so you should understand that the story of this game is completely uncontrollable. It has its own logic and it is easy to produce unpredictable changes due to the butterfly effect.”
Old Wang patiently explained to him.
“Snow Roland might’ve had an unpleasant childhood but in this way, it can guarantee that he always stays in Imperial City.”
“The background of the Roland Empire is very dangerous. If he was allowed to stand out from the beginning, it would be very easy for him to die, just like his imperial brother and sister.”
“Rest assured, from the moment he ascended to the throne, the road to the counterattack will begin.”
Old Wang changed his words and continued.
“Si Sheng is the highest level NPC in the game and it was written in his data to protect Roland when his data was transferred to Starry Sky.”
“He is almost invincible at this stage and has super high wisdom. As long as he is there, the Roland Empire can’t be destroyed. He is also absolutely loyal to the Roland imperial family. Snow can’t have an accident with his protection.”
“Moreover, the Roland Empire has many special talents. Their skills are derived from Game of the Gods and the Roland Empire will soon develop with their drive.”
“In the beginning of the game, Snow’s level might be lower but there is generally no danger as long as he stays in Imperial City.”
“You know, he has a different leveling system from the players. Give him a bit more time and he will grow quite quickly.”
“That…”
Old Wang’s voice became hesitant but he finally said truthfully, “It is just that his current personality might be a bit different from Xiao Li…”
“However, there is nothing we can do about this. The environment he grew up in is different so the formed personality is definitely not the same. It is too difficult to reproduce it perfectly.”
Proofreader: Purichan
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