EWN CH12
A thought flashed through his mind.
Shen Qinghan stared at the pitch-black screen.
There was a long silence.
Even though Shen Qinghan knew this was a game CG…
Even though he believed it was just part of a game’s plot…
That Soviet soldier who continued charging even while engulfed in flames, fully doused in gasoline, still gave Shen Qinghan an unparalleled sense of shock.
How could anyone possibly do that?
Burning all over yet still charging forward?
And after charging… what then?
With that level of fire, even if they stopped to extinguish it, there was little chance of survival.
Yet in that situation…
These Soviet soldiers still chose to charge.
They charged straight toward the Imperial army.
What gave them such determination?
What allowed them to overcome the fear of death and still choose to perish with the enemy?
At that moment—
Shen Qinghan desperately wanted to understand this game—its background, its world, everything about it.
On Blue Star, a world without a global war…
There had only been small, localized skirmishes, all within controllable limits.
Such tragic and heroic plots…
Had never appeared on Blue Star.
Or rather…
People couldn’t imagine things that had never happened.
There were many games with post-war themes like this one.
Zhao Ming’s Cyber Blue Star: 2077, or Emperor Penguin’s plagiarized Ruined Future: 2100, were all based on post-war worlds.
These games may have gained popularity due to innovation or gameplay…
But none of them delivered the emotional impact that this single CG had on Shen Qinghan.
Shen Qinghan took a deep breath and looked up at Zhao Ming:
“I’ll give you another 30 million.”
“To what extent can this game be perfected?”
“The Third Empire, the Anglo-French Federation, the Soviet Federation—every part of the background story must be refined.”
Right now, Shen Qinghan had a strong desire to understand what happened in that world.
Even if it was a fictional world created by Zhao Ming, something that didn’t exist—
Just from that one CG, Shen Qinghan knew—
This game would shock the world.
So he couldn’t wait for Zhao Ming to reveal more from his imagination.
Zhao Ming was a little surprised—was it really just a CG?
In fact—
What Zhao Ming didn’t realize was… this kind of tragic and heroic plot, the willpower and determination of the Soviet soldiers, had a far greater emotional impact than he expected.
Because this would be the first time Blue Star faced the cruelty of war—a spiritual shock to the soul.
Zhao Ming looked at the serious-faced Shen Qinghan, and a system panel appeared in front of his eyes.
Looking at [Current Emotion Value: 145772].
Adding the previously exchanged Normandy Landing data, he now had enough points to fully redeem the complete Normandy Landing materials.
But judging from Shen Qinghan’s reaction, he seemed captivated by Earth’s World War II history.
Zhao Ming thought for a moment and said:
“The first game mission, ‘Normandy Landing’, is basically complete.”
“I was planning to flesh out the Empire’s background story next.”
“But if you want me to develop other nations and federations too, it’s no big deal—just means adding more immersive narrative lines.”
“It’ll take some time.”
“No need for that much money. Just transfer 10 million Federal Coins to the company account.”
“Use the remaining 20 million on publicity, to keep both the game and the company in the public eye.”
“All the way until the start of the Anti-War Tournament.”
Actually, the computing power left in the company account—just over a million Federal Coins—was already enough to render the entire WWII history.
But rendering aside, the materials still had to be exchanged from the system.
The system required emotional value to redeem materials.
Without maintaining public interest, there would be no emotional points, and without those, the game couldn’t be developed further.
So the only option was to double down on promotion.
Shen Qinghan nodded.
“Alright.”
He picked up his phone and started operating it.
Half a minute later—
“All done.”
“I’ll handle all the promotion. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“These 30 million Federal Coins—make me a great game.”
Ding!
Zhao Ming’s phone chimed—the information panel showed that 30 million Federal Coins had been transferred.
Truly powerful.
Zhao Ming clicked his tongue, looked at Shen Qinghan, and confidently said:
“No problem.”
“I’ll get back to work immediately.”
At that moment—
Zhao Ming realized—
Shen Qinghan had clearly been deeply moved by the game CG.
Because as he recalled—
There weren’t many such heart-wrenching scenes on Blue Star, mostly because such things had never actually happened. Most movies and games were purely based on imagination.
They couldn’t fathom what kind of will it would take for someone to charge the enemy while completely engulfed in flames.
Based on Zhao Ming’s memory, most movies and games his original self had seen portrayed characters fleeing when their federation or country fell.
Swearing revenge silently in their hearts, returning years later in a revenge-fueled power fantasy.
None of them had that sense of devotion to one’s nation.
If that’s the case…
Zhao Ming figured he had found his direction.
Since they couldn’t understand patriotism—
He would deliver that sense of national devotion and sacrifice to Blue Star through this game.
Once the full game background was laid out—
It would spark countless questions in the minds of Blue Star’s people.
To them, if a city was destroyed, they should just relocate.
Wait until they’ve rebuilt their strength—then fight back.
Why go to such lengths to defend it?
Moscow.
Just a city.
What made it worth millions of Soviet soldiers and civilians sacrificing themselves over and over for it?
Even if their parents lived there, that might justify one or two individuals.
But could millions all have their parents there?
They probably couldn’t understand—
What “Tovarisch” (Comrade) truly meant.
Why, when Soviet officers shouted “Tovarisch,” everyone would prepare to die?
All these answers—
Zhao Ming planned to reveal in the game’s plot.
The system’s database didn’t just contain movie and game info.
It could even provide full biographies of individuals—as long as enough time, emotional value, and computing power were available.
With the help of the photon supercomputing cluster—
Zhao Ming could recreate WWII in its entirety on Blue Star.
Making sure every person was a living, breathing individual.
No other developer could do this. After all, no matter how wild their imagination, they couldn’t write full life stories for every NPC, and have a photon supercomputer simulate their behavior.
But Zhao Ming could.
After sending Shen Qinghan off, Zhao Ming immediately went into “closed-door development mode.”
And Shen Qinghan unleashed his full power—
To begin the aggressive promotion of Polaris Games.
Eight days until launch… seven… five… three…
At the Emperor Penguin Company.
Game Department.
Bang!
The sound of Xu Huan slamming the table in rage echoed through the room:
“They’ve been trending for a whole week, every damn day with a new trending hashtag!”
“F***! Is this ever going to stop?!”
“Shameless leeches!”
“Polaris Games is like a damn piece of duct tape!”
“Damn it!!!”