Chapter 19: Secrecy and the Path to Battle
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Ling Feng had no idea that his exceedingly evil laughter had just frightened one of the “little friends” in the room.
Since he was going to rely on livestreaming to obtain Emotion Points from now on, naturally he had to go where the audience was largest.
He opened his browser, entered the Psyduck livestreaming platform, and began registering a streamer account.
However, when he entered his identity information, he found himself in a quandary.
No matter how he entered his personal details, the result was always a string of garbled characters.
“Huh? Is it bugged?”
Just as he was feeling somewhat bewildered, a system notification appeared before his eyes:
[Ding! Host, please take note. From the moment you crossed into this world, the novice protection function was activated. Your identity has been placed under strict confidentiality, and no one can investigate or obtain your information.]
[Remaining protection time: 4 days, 3 hours, 23 minutes]
[Renewing the protection for one week requires 10 Emotion Points. The cost will continue to increase with each renewal.]
Looking at the information before him, Ling Feng suddenly understood.
No wonder the identity information he had entered when registering on the gaming platform had also turned into a string of garbled characters. He had thought the Alliance’s website had malfunctioned.
So it was actually the system’s influence!
He tried selecting Confirm on the webpage before him. Sure enough, even with a whole mess of garbled information, the notification stating “Registration Successful” still popped up as usual.
“It only costs ten points to renew?”
Ling Feng stroked his chin.
This function really was useful...
With it, even if the game he created became a runaway hit in the future, he would not have to worry about being targeted by others.
Of course, what he was mainly worried about was rival game companies—or perhaps the villainous organizations in this world.
After all, he still had no idea what the likes of Team Rocket and Team Galactic were up to in this world.
What if one of those villainous bosses discovered that he knew too much and sent people to silence him?
With this identity-concealment effect, he would no longer need to worry about that.
The incident also reminded Ling Feng that he needed to act with greater caution and keep a lower profile in the real world.
As for the internet...
He could do whatever he wanted!
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After all, as long as he did not go looking for trouble, no one could discover his true identity!
With that thought, Ling Feng closed the panel before him and opened his own livestream room.
But he did not start the livestream right away. Instead, he clicked the icon on his desktop and launched Battle Road.
That was right. Ling Feng’s plan was to livestream himself playing this “masterpiece” from Dream Factory.
For one thing, this was the only relatively mature online competitive game on the market.
For another, he could take this opportunity to study the game carefully and gain a better understanding of how it worked.
As the saying went, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never lose a battle.
Creating a virtual Pokémon battle game was undoubtedly a step Ling Feng was destined to take next.
After all, there were many things Dream Factory could not accomplish in game development—but for him, as long as he had a more advanced module, none of them would pose the slightest difficulty!
At that moment, the game launched amid a burst of cheerful music, and the Dream Factory logo appeared on-screen.
A gentle female voice followed:
[Welcome to the world of Battle Road. Please enter your player name!]
After a brief moment of thought, Ling Feng rapidly struck the keyboard and decisively entered four characters.
[A Person of Quality]
...
After successfully registering his account, Ling Feng spent several minutes completing the game’s tutorial and gained a general understanding of its mechanics.
In a sense, Battle Road was also a turn-based game. The difference was that, unlike Emerald, the battles in this game were presented in a much more realistic manner.
The general process was for players to use a microphone to issue a spoken command, directing their Pokémon’s next action.
The game program would then spend some time calculating and simulating the result, presenting the clash between the two Pokémon several seconds later.
Once one round of combat ended, both players would issue new voice commands for the next round.
Although this was not real-time combat and involved a considerable delay, genuine commands such as “Dodge to the left” and “Use Flamethrower on the sky” could still be carried out.
In fact, considering the level of game development in this world, technology like this was already ahead of the entire world and stood at its very peak.
No wonder Battle Road remained firmly enthroned as the most popular game even while Dream Factory was resting on its laurels...
However, as far as Ling Feng was concerned, this kind of battle game was certainly not what he would consider satisfactory.
Just as he returned from the tutorial to the main menu, a huge notification box flashing with multicolored lights popped up directly on the screen.
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[Congratulations! You have unlocked the limited-time First Top-Up Bonus!]
[Top up 6 yuan to receive the limited-edition cosmetic item “Psyduck Hat” and one random “Selected Purple Pokémon Unlock Card”!]
Ling Feng froze for a moment. He closed the notification box, only for even more pop-ups to pour forth one after another.
[The Cumulative Top-Up Event has begun! During the event, accumulate top-ups totaling 648 yuan to claim the precious item “Special Red Pokémon Box”!]
[Summer Rebate! Reach different top-up tiers to receive Prisms in return!]
[The new season has begun! The Battle Pass is now available. Unlock the Deluxe Edition for only 388 yuan and instantly advance twenty levels!]
...
Looking at the dazzling array of top-up events before him, the corner of Ling Feng’s mouth twitched.
Now that felt familiar.
Far too familiar...
As a free-to-play game, Battle Road certainly did not lack in-game purchases.
This familiar style faintly reminded him of a certain old acquaintance...
Shaking his head slightly, Ling Feng closed all the interfaces and opened the Pokémon menu for a look. He could not help but pause.
As a simulated battle game, every single Pokémon in it actually had to be unlocked.
They were divided into five ranks, from white, blue, green, purple, and finally red.
The more popular and powerful a Pokémon was, the higher its color rank.
For example, pseudo-legendary Dragon-type Pokémon such as Garchomp and Dragonite were both ranked “Red.” Unlocking the right to use either one required one thousand Prisms—the game’s premium currency.
Converted according to the top-up ratio, that amounted to a full five hundred yuan!
In other words, if someone wanted to build a powerful team, they might easily have to spend several thousand yuan!
And if they wanted to go a step further, unlocking more than a hundred powerful Pokémon and expanding their Pokémon pool, the cost would run into tens of thousands of yuan!
Even for a professional Trainer, that was no small sum...
The only good news was that topping up did not increase the Pokémon’s stats within the game.
Otherwise, Ling Feng estimated that the number of online comments and posts cursing Dream Factory would have multiplied several times over.
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