EWN CH2
Zhao Ming suddenly sat up straight, eyes full of excitement.
What does Blue Star have in abundance?
Computing power from supercomputers!
In this era, Blue Star had long developed virtual helmets and immersive simulation pods that allowed players to enter virtual worlds. What supported these devices was the overflowing computing power of Blue Star.
As long as you had money, you could apply for photon supercomputer cluster power to design products, create works, and more.
This was also why many companies on Blue Star had very few employees.
Because as long as you had an idea — even if you weren’t an expert — through continuous optimization, you could eventually create what you wanted.
Of that 60 million federal credits, apart from 10 million used to rent a large server, the remaining 50 million were all used to purchase computing power from the photon supercomputer cluster. In eight months, over 48 million had already been spent.
Only a little over 1 million federal credits of computing power remained. Creating another sci-fi game comparable to Cyber Blue Star: 2077 was nearly impossible.
But…
What if it was just rendering a single island or a battle scene?
That probably wouldn’t even cost tens of thousands in computing power.
Most of the 48 million had been spent on rendering sci-fi technology — the future world, various sci-fi details — which made it expensive.
But rendering and designing a regular island with some conventional weapons?
No fancy high-tech stuff, just realistic and grounded visuals — that’s much simpler and doesn’t require much computing power.
And what he wanted to do was adapt a movie scene into gameplay.
That’s much easier.
There were so many WWII movies on Earth, many of them cruel and thought-provoking.
Blue Star had never experienced a world war. Most understanding remained superficial, even the “Anti-War Contest” organized by the Six Major Federal Organizations was just to appease the public.
Anti-war? If you’ve never experienced war, how do you truly oppose it?
It would be better to let Blue Star’s people witness the brutality of World War II.
The impact… would definitely be explosive.
Zhao Ming stood up excitedly, pacing back and forth in his office. The more he thought about it, the more he felt this plan could work:
“Damn… I’m a genius.”
“Now I just need a WWII script — which one should I adapt into a game?”
[Ding——]
[Keyword ‘script’ detected. Activating the Earth’s Strongest Director System!]
[This system contains Earth’s complete archive and can help the host become the strongest director.]
[Archive is now open.]
[Exchanging data requires Emotion Points, which are earned from others’ emotions — anger, shock, admiration, etc. Please collect Emotion Points promptly.]
[Current Emotion Points: 572]
WTF?!
A system???
The sudden voice in his ear and the virtual panel in front of him stunned Zhao Ming for a moment.
Then he smiled with delight and quickly opened the so-called Earth archive, searched based on the prompts.
Good lord…
Everything was there.
Zhao Ming looked up a movie’s production data — not only what the director did at every minute and second, their thoughts, even how many puffs of a cigarette they took or how many people they cursed — all were included in detail.
So thorough. So complete.
This could be rendered instantly using the computing power of the photon supercomputer cluster.
Instant scene recreation.
But…
Zhao Ming suddenly thought of a critical question:
“System, does it have to be a movie?”
“Can it be a game?”
He was currently participating in a game category competition, not a movie one. He wasn’t sure if he could earn Emotion Points from that.
[Ding——!]
[Please note, this system is the Earth’s Strongest Director System, intended to help the host become the strongest director.]
“…..”
“No room for negotiation?”
[Ding! No.]
“But this is Blue Star, not Earth.”
[Ding! No, this is Earth.]
[This system never arrives in the wrong world — absolutely not.]
“You slipped up there, didn’t you?”
[Ding! No.]
Zhao Ming’s mouth twitched. Damn… this system really has a hard mouth.
Without further ado, Zhao Ming opened up his computer and pulled up Blue Star’s history and naming conventions. He pointed to the screen:
“Alright, tell me.”
“What are these two characters?”
The characters were clearly there — let’s see how you spin this one.
The system went silent for two seconds.
[Ding! Earth.]
?????
Zhao Ming looked confused:
“What did you say?”
Looking right at the characters for “Blue Star,” the system was lying through its teeth.
[Ding! Earth.]
Hiss—
Zhao Ming took a sharp breath.
Damn it?!
This system’s got sass now?
“Alright, alright, you want to play like this?”
Zhao Ming then pulled up the Anti-War Contest section on the Blue Star portal, pointed to the two characters under the ‘Game’ category:
“Tell me what these two characters say?”
[Ding! Game.]
Zhao Ming grinned:
“Nope, these two characters say… movie.”
[…]
[…]
[Host, please refrain from spouting nonsense.]
“Who’s the Blue Star native here, me or you?”
“You have Earth’s archive, not Blue Star’s.”
“These characters, on Blue Star, are called movie.”
“You want to collect Emotion Points, right? We need to collaborate.”
“So… what category am I participating in again?”
[…]
[…]
[…bzzt… Updating data…]
[Ding! Host is participating in the Anti-War Contest, Movie category.]
Zhao Ming nodded in satisfaction:
“Now that’s more like it.”
Taming a wild system — gotta write this experience down.
“System.”
“Search some speech material for me.”
“I need to make an opening CG.”
“Also search for the movies and data on Normandy Landing and Battle of Stalingrad.”
“I’m making a match-3 game.”
He only knew how to play match-3, but that should be enough.
Games are all the same.
Bullets hit the brain — human match-3…
Hmm… makes sense.
[Ding!]
[Speech material requires 500 Emotion Points.]
[Normandy Landing materials require 150,000 Emotion Points. Battle of Stalingrad materials require 280,000 Emotion Points.]
[Current Emotion Points: 572]
….
What the hell?!
That’s only enough for the opening CG?!
What about the game?!
Emotion Points had to be earned through reactions to him.
Maybe…
Start a scandal?
But who even knows him? No one would care.
Scratching his head, Zhao Ming looked at the system panel and gave up — he’d just start with what he could get:
“System, exchange the speech materials first.”
As soon as Zhao Ming gave the order, data flowed into his brain, and a new folder appeared on his desktop. Zhao Ming opened it — everything was in there.
Amazing.
He skimmed it — all versions were included, even fan-edited compilations.
He chose one, dragged it into the local server linked to the photon supercomputer cluster.
Based on inherited memory, he began rendering this video into a CG scene.
—
At the same time.
Outside the office, all was silent.
The recent major blow had left the entire company paralyzed.
Boss Zhao Ming had shown up in the morning but had been locked in his office for most of the day without a sound.
Tap tap tap!
A mature woman in a black dress walked in. Her cool-toned white skin and slightly furrowed brow gave off a chilly vibe. She looked at the silent office and said coldly:
“No one working?”
“Where’s Zhao Ming?”
Everyone in the office looked at each other.
They’d already been taken down — what was the point in working? No way they could compete anymore…
The front desk, seeing that it was the company’s second shareholder, Shen Qinghan, quickly stood up:
“President Shen, President Zhao has been quiet all day.”
“Maybe… you should check on him?”
The receptionist spoke cautiously, while secretly hoping Zhao Ming wasn’t thinking of doing something drastic.
President Shen had money — maybe she’d know what to do?