Agreeing to Create Bad Games, What the Hell Is ‘Titanfall’? Chapter 63

"It's not foot-and-mouth disease,"

Hearing this, the staff member took off their mask and pointed ahead:

"There's been a small leak up front. Just a routine check, nothing serious."

"You guys always say that!"

The driver was furious, grumbling:

"If it turns out to be swine fever again, and I wasted a whole trip, I’m not letting this go!"

"Alright, alright, no more complaints,"

The staff member, clearly frustrated by the driver’s outburst, waved the baton in their hand:

"Go on, go on, inspection’s done."

"...What the h* leaked this time, acting all mysterious... this bunch of guys..."**

"So untrustworthy."

Just as he muttered,

Beep beep beep—Beep beep beep—

The phone on the passenger seat rang.

The driver glanced over, kept the car moving, and reached for the phone.

Rustle—

The car sped along the empty highway, the driver’s eyes fixed on the passenger side, reaching for the phone.

Just as his hand was about to grab it—

Bang!!!

A massive crash!

Shen Miaomiao let out a sharp scream, instinctively grabbing onto Gu Sheng, her other hand covering her eyes. She peeked at the screen through her fingers.

Originally,

this was supposed to be a sweet, romantic moment.

Gu Sheng didn’t want to ruin the mood either.

But...

"Can you stop squeezing my waist like that?"

Gu Sheng grimaced, looking at Shen Miaomiao with a pained expression:

"What the h* did I do to you? Why are you going so hard on me?"**

"Oops, oops... my bad..."

Shen Miaomiao gave a sheepish grin, looking apologetic:

"I’ll try to control myself. Hehe."

Gu Sheng took the Coke she handed him, half-reluctantly accepting her apology, and turned back to the movie.

The truck driver in the film had realized he’d hit something. He quickly got out to check.

Bright red tire marks streaked several meters down the road.

A deer lay dead in the middle of the highway.

"Ah—f*—"**

Seeing that it wasn’t a person he’d hit, the driver cursed under his breath, spat on the ground, and drove off.

But...

he didn’t notice...

after he left,

the deer, which had been dead, suddenly stiffened and rose to its feet!

Its eyes—completely white, chillingly terrifying!

At that moment, Gu Sheng finally realized why this movie seemed so familiar!

This was...?

As the screen slowly darkened, the film title appeared:

"Fushan Express"

Pfft—!!!

The Coke Gu Sheng had just sipped went flying!

This is some crazy a st!

In this world, the director had mashed up the neon leak incident with a zombie outbreak—

creating this alternate version of "Train to Busan"!

"You okay?"

Shen Miaomiao looked at Gu Sheng with concern, handing over a tissue.

Gu Sheng took the tissue and shook his head:

"I’m good... cough... just choked a bit."

This was too ridiculous.

The more Gu Sheng watched, the crazier it felt.

And yet...

hidden within this absurdity was a certain logic.

But—

none of that mattered!

What did matter was—

whether it was "Train to Busan" or "Fushan Express,"

they were both zombie horror films!

Survival!

Hordes of the undead!

Gunfights!

In that instant, a lightbulb went off in Gu Sheng’s head!

Holy st!**

He turned to Shen Miaomiao with wide, astonished eyes, filled with admiration and awe!

So that’s it...

Boss Ou wasn’t just slacking off—

She was absorbing creative inspiration!

I misjudged her!

She really...

I’m crying my eyes out.

"...Why are you staring at me like that?"

Feeling Gu Sheng’s gaze, Shen Miaomiao turned around, puzzled.

This was supposed to be a tender, romantic moment.

But Shen Miaomiao just couldn’t feel romantic at all—

because Gu Sheng’s eyes were so damn righteous!

Like he was looking at a statue of a great leader, his eyes full of admiration!

Shen Miaomiao even suspected he was about to salute her!

"What... what’s with that look???"

Shen Miaomiao felt a chill down her spine:

"Can you not look at me like that? Feels like I should be lying down with a sheet over me!"

"No, you deserve it!"

Gu Sheng shook his head, firmly rejecting her reasonable request:

"You really..."

Gu Sheng wanted to say: You’re the most creatively gifted game dev I’ve ever met!

But he changed it at the last second:

"You’re really so talented... getting inspiration from movies like this—it’s genius!"

Uh...

Looking at Gu Sheng’s serious face, Shen Miaomiao’s expression turned a bit complicated.

God knows what kind of crazy ideas were running through that big brain of his.

But...

watching the movie still going, Shen Miaomiao gave an awkward, uncertain smile.

The film had barely been running for three minutes, and she still didn’t know what it was about.

Yet here Gu Sheng was, bursting with ideas.

Probably not very reliable ideas, either.

Might as well let this "big brain" do his thing.

Thinking that, Shen Miaomiao relaxed and waved him off:

"Alright, alright, I get it—you respect me like a river flowing endlessly, right? No need for formalities, just watch the movie with me."

Now that his biggest concern was resolved, Gu Sheng was in a great mood.

He tore open a pack of jelly and handed one to Shen Miaomiao:

"Here, a jelly as a token of my respect."

"Such a generous gift! I’m honored."

Shen Miaomiao grinned, but after a couple tugs at the packaging, her face darkened:

"...Respected subject, could you help me open this jelly? I can’t get it open."

Near noon, the movie ended.

Gu Sheng opened the door to the meeting room, just as Lu Bian was getting ready to head out for lunch.

"Dn!"**

Seeing Gu Sheng, Lu Bian was a little surprised and whispered:

"So formal? Just you and Nezha, and you went to the meeting room for this?"

Glancing into the room,

the curtains were drawn, the lighting dim,

a sofa by the table, a bit of a mess.

A few snack bags and crumpled tissues sat on the table, and Nezha was cleaning up the trash.

Lu Bian’s expression turned odd.

"Oh, nothing serious—just brainstorming for the new project. I’ll grab a drink, then we’ll have lunch with Da Jiang and chat as we eat."

Saying this, Gu Sheng walked out, rubbing his sore waist.

Even though Lu Bian was like a brother,

he couldn’t exactly explain watching a movie with the boss during work hours, so he played it vague.

Right after,

Shen Miaomiao also finished tidying up the room and walked out, drawing back the curtains.

Her eyes were slightly red.

That final scene where the male lead sacrificed himself... cliché, but still packed a punch for her.

Seeing Lu Bian standing there dazed, Shen Miaomiao felt a bit awkward.

After all, as the CEO, slacking off with her team like this did feel a bit guilty.

"Director Lu, waiting to have lunch with Director Gu?"

"Ah? Ah! Yes, yes—waiting for Lao Gu."

Snapped out of it by Shen Miaomiao, Lu Bian quickly responded.

She gave a nod and walked off.

Watching her retreating figure, Lu Bian’s expression turned even stranger.

Wait, hold up, hold up, hold up!

Holy sh** what did I just see?!

Dimly lit meeting room,

Lao Gu comes out rubbing his waist, saying he’s going to get a drink!

Then Nezha follows, picking up tissues, her eyes a little red and her face flushed!

Holy... moly!

Lu Bian was shook!

For the love of God, it’s not that I have a dirty mind!

It’s just... this situation... I can’t not think dirty!

Before he could process it all, Gu Sheng came back from his office.

Seeing Lu Bian still standing at the door in a daze, he clapped him on the shoulder:

"What’s up? Why are you just standing here?"

"Ah..."

Lu Bian turned, his Adam’s apple bobbing:

"I... I’m having an internal struggle."

"Struggling over what?"

Gu Sheng couldn’t help but laugh:

"Struggling over whether to have braised chicken rice or pork knuckle rice for lunch?"

Hearing that, Lu Bian shook his head:

"Struggling over whether to have grilled oysters or stir-fried kidney for lunch."

"You eat that stuff?" Gu Sheng gave him a weird look.

Lu Bian smirked ambiguously:

"It’s my treat."

In the end!

Despite Lu Bian’s offers of grilled oysters and stir-fried kidney, Gu Sheng went with zhajiang noodles.

He’d eaten too many snacks during the movie, so he wasn’t feeling super hungry.

Normally, Gu Sheng never ate snacks while watching movies.

But he’d seen "Train to Busan" so many times already—directly, indirectly, you name it.

He knew exactly what would happen next in every scene,

so he could only rely on stuffing his face with snacks to fight the boredom.

And strategically, he needed to protect his waist during the movie’s intense scenes.

At the table, Da Jiang slurped up some noodles and asked:

"So, Sheng-ge, how’d the chat with Boss Ou go this morning? We locking down the new project?"

"Locked down."

Gu Sheng nodded, picking up a bite of noodles:

"We’re using this opportunity from Huayu Electric to go big—make a hit game."

Da Jiang looked surprised:

"Huh? We’re not making a horror game anymore?"

Logically, they’d just received a lot of praise in the horror game market. It made sense to follow up with another horror game.

Sure, Da Jiang knew Gu Sheng didn’t like the way other studios milked a profitable IP dry, squeezing players for every penny.

But with his design talent, they could’ve definitely built another unique horror game using the "psychological horror" formula!

Yet Gu Sheng shook his head:

"It’s boring to keep doing the same genre. Players will get desensitized if we keep scaring them. Better to give them a breather—then our next horror game will hit even harder."

Da Jiang nodded:

"Ah... yeah, sounds like you."

Gu Sheng’s mouth twitched.

Was this guy calling him a psycho?

"So what are we making this time?"

Da Jiang sighed with relief, glad he didn’t have to draw all those creepy monsters again.

"A shooter,"

Gu Sheng grinned slyly:

"Zombie shooter."

Da Jiang: ...

"Nothing normal? Sheng-ge?"

Seeing Da Jiang’s expression like a kid who just got his lollipop snatched, Gu Sheng burst out laughing:

"Sorry, sorry, next time for sure."

"Alright..."

Da Jiang pouted, looking like a six-foot kid sulking.

"But this FPS plus zombie thing... isn’t that risky?"

FPS was huge—especially in VR pods.

But zombie games? Not so much.

They were more niche.

Sure, "Resident Evil 4" had been a massive hit nearly twenty years ago, and it took the zombie genre to its peak.

But after Shinji Mikami, the father of Resident Evil, retired after the fourth installment, zombie games went downhill.

Plenty of studios had tried to make VR versions of Resident Evil-style games, but none really caught on.

Players even complained:

"The graphics aren’t even as good as on PC."

No praise, no sales, a total flop.

So while the Resident Evil series was still legendary in the gaming world,

the zombie genre was a niche at best.

A hot genre plus a niche theme, plus a history of failures...

Da Jiang couldn’t help but feel this combo was a bit off.

Even Da Jiang, who trusted Gu Sheng more than anyone, was starting to have doubts:

"Is this gonna work, Sheng-ge? Feels risky."

"Risky?"

Hearing Da Jiang’s concerns, Gu Sheng smiled and shook his head:

"Nope. Not risky."

"It’s not us who are at risk."

"The ones at risk..."

"Are the big studios competing with us."

With that,

Gu Sheng slurped up the last of his noodles.

In this world,

his games had the simplest, most intuitive mechanics.

His games delivered the most adrenaline-pumping dismemberment thrills.

His games had the most ingeniously designed maps.

His games were tanks—charging through the gaming market.

His games were smokers—snagging players with their tricks.

His games were witches—shrieking as they tore competitors apart.

And above all—

his games were zombie hordes.

A tidal wave sweeping across the entire zombie game market,

bringing a revolution to FPS gaming.

Thinking of this,

Gu Sheng wiped his mouth, lit a cigarette, and triggered a thought:

Ding! You’ve consumed 100,825 Emotion Points!

Unlocked—

"Left 4 Dead 2."

Perfect.

Thanks to Nezha’s movie-inspired inspiration,

Gu Sheng had immediately chosen this iconic game from his past life as their next project for the Huayu Electric Developer Showcase!

And—

he was going to scrap the old FPS one-generation virtual aim system,

and introduce the second-generation aiming system in this world’s gaming scene!