Chapter Twenty-Nine: Is It Too Bold to Tackle All Four Great Classical Novels in One Go?

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“As expected of you, President Gu. Both projects have been planned exceptionally well, but if I had to choose between them, I personally lean more toward The Heroes of All Ages.”

“Is that so?”

Gu Meng stroked the physical cards for Three Kingdoms Battle lying on his desk and fell silent for a moment.

What?

Boss, why aren’t you asking me why?

I prepared a whole speech.

And you surely know about the copyright situation too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have proposed The Heroes of All Ages. Since you’re hesitating, you must have your own reasons. Why not say them?

Wu Mengyou tried to transmit her complaints into Gu Meng’s mind through sheer force of eye contact.

She succeeded. Gu Meng took only one glance at her to guess what she was thinking.

She was far too easy to read.

In this life, Gu Meng had grown up as a young master, but in his previous life he had also been a wage earner.

“I know what you’re thinking. Indeed, logically speaking, no matter how you look at it, we should start with The Heroes of All Ages. Asking you was probably unnecessary.”

Wu Mengyou’s reasoning was very simple. Both projects could be made; the only question was which would come first.

There was no need to rush into the Three Kingdoms project. They could make the martial-arts game first.

Gu Meng’s reason for bringing up these two projects was equally simple: both were convenient for him to copy—

No, to draw inspiration from.

How could the future God of Games possibly plagiarize?

In this parallel world, the domestic game industry was missing the entire Legends of the Condor Heroes series. Only individual martial-arts novels had received game adaptations, similar to the games The Return of the Condor Heroes, The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, and The Legendary Siblings from his previous life.

Japanese games had not yet produced anything resembling Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty either. Those were all projects worth attempting to imitate.

But the Three Kingdoms was a classic work in the public domain. It could be made at any time.

The Heroes of All Ages, however, used a large number of characters from famous martial-arts novels. It clearly required proper licensing; otherwise, it could only be released for noncommercial use. Gu Meng did not have much time left.

Just as with the two great martial-arts masters of his former world, the masters known here as Gu Yong and Jin Long had both already passed away, and their copyrights had become thoroughly fragmented.

The game rights were likewise held by several different companies. Any of those companies could make a related game, yet none had ever produced anything particularly good.

Back then, Gu Ritian had obtained the game rights to both masters’ works through a stroke of luck. He had seized the opportunity from a rival who was leaving the entertainment industry and acquired the rights at a bargain.

He had even made a film-game hybrid adaptation. It bore only a loose resemblance to The Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, with Gu Meng playing Zhang A-Niu.

Production had continued until the Demonic Cult’s failed assault on the Nine Great Sects, ending when the Mongol princess invited Gu Meng to meet her in the capital.

The reviews had been decent, but the costs were too high.

Since it had made no profit, filming had not continued. In a few more months, the rights would expire if they remained unused.

Moreover, this year the authorities were holding a game competition titled “Chinese Martial Arts: The Greatest Chivalry.” If Game Metaphysics moved quickly, it could still enter.

Winning would bring immense promotional benefits through official channels. There were also invisible advantages to receiving an award.

Some players would buy a game simply because it had won.

If a company possessed a large number of official awards, even some more daring games would be less likely to be taken down.

That could no longer be called an unspoken rule. It was an openly acknowledged one.

Games had completely dominated this world for ten years, and certain rules had long since been placed on the table.

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An award demonstrated that a company’s “ninth art” possessed greater artistic merit. When judging violations, authorities naturally treated works with artistic value differently from ordinary works.

Put it in more worldly terms: winning an award meant that the authorities had lent the company some of their own “prestige,” giving it an official endorsement.

After considering everything, Gu Meng decided to abandon the Three Kingdoms project. Martial arts was the better choice.

Speaking of the Three Kingdoms, he actually had another bold idea.

Since his company was called Game Metaphysics, naturally he wanted to make Black Myth: Wukong.

If Gu Meng were the one making it, he would create all ten chapters at once and make every one of them flawless.

However, in his previous life, Feng Ji’s Game Science had also been a dream team of people chasing an impossible dream. Even after seven years, they had produced only an unfinished work. It had practically been an impossible mission, an industrial miracle in the game industry.

With Gu Meng taking over now, he certainly could not complete it in a short period of time.

The system had no limits, but Gu Meng’s employees and the funds he could recharge into the system did. That did not mean it would be impossible in the future.

Apart from Journey to the West, Gu Meng even wanted to make games based on the other three great classical novels, along with Investiture of the Gods, all in one breath.

Investiture of the Gods was far inferior to the Four Great Classical Novels in artistic achievement and literary status, but it was also widely known.

Journey to the West was a mythological work, and Black Myth had already provided an excellent example.

Dream of the Red Chamber could become a game about managing an ancient family.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin could be made either as war games or as heroic adventure role-playing games.

They could also be radically reimagined. The setting of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Fiends was not historical to begin with.

Investiture of the Gods could be adapted in any manner whatsoever. There would be no harm in weaving in elements from the popular prehistoric-cultivation genre of online fiction.

After all, Investiture of the Gods itself was already a rough patchwork—a kind of ancient power fantasy. There was no need to worry about criticism from literary circles or historical purists. Players would complain only if the game was boring or failed to make sense.

What if he made games based on all five of these classics at once? Wasn’t that bold?

But Gu Meng was excited for only a moment before giving up on the idea.

That would be biting off more than he could chew. He had to take things one at a time.

Now that he had weighed the Three Kingdoms setting against martial arts, he had once again abandoned the Three Kingdoms project.

In truth, these classical works were incredibly appealing. They were famous intellectual properties, yet they were not encumbered by copyright.

Besides the Four Great Classical Novels, there were also Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, The Plum in the Golden Vase, The Classic of Mountains and Seas, The Legend of the White Snake, and many others that could be turned into games.

A few domestic games had already used such themes, but most of them had been poorly made. The classic example was that domestic Three Kingdoms games were still inferior to foreign ones. For the Journey to the West intellectual property, the domestic game Monkey King: Hero Is Back had been ruined by unscrupulous companies, while foreigners knew only Dragon Ball. As for The Classic of Mountains and Seas, it had become nothing but an outright scam.

Players clicked in expecting to evolve a giant mythical fish, only to find themselves inside a basketball legend game.

If Gu Meng built his future games upon these Chinese classics and then spread Chinese culture abroad, he would gain both prestige and practical benefits.

He had conceived this idea on the very day he changed the company’s name to Game Metaphysics.

And it was not limited to classical novels.

China possessed five thousand years of history. There were countless cultures, historical periods, myths, and legends that could serve as source material.

Choose any one magnificent era, and he could make The Yellow Emperor and Chi You: Total War, The End of Xia: Total War, Shang and Zhou: Total War, Sweeping the Six Realms: Total War, The Fall of Qin: Total War, Chu and Han: Total War, Han and Xiongnu: Total War... all the way to The End of the Qing Dynasty: Total War.

At the very least, that could produce more than twenty games. Or, instead of making so many separate titles, he could consolidate them and present the rest as downloadable content. Seven or eight games would hardly be excessive.

This world had games resembling Total War, but it did not yet have Total War: Three Kingdoms, nor were those games exactly the same.

Gu Meng knew the game mechanics unique to his former world, and with the system assisting him, he was filled with confidence about the future.

He was certain he could create ancient war games that surpassed every war simulation game in this world—and even every game from his previous life.

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Such a long history, so many legends, so many tales of heroes—all of them formed an inexhaustible well of inspiration.

To forge glory for Chinese games, I have no choice but to do my part!

Still, martial arts was an excellent subject too, one rooted in history.

At present, aside from mobile games, the overall standard of Chinese games in this parallel world lagged far behind the world’s leading level.

The martial-arts games on the market were also mostly made by small studios. And Gu Meng happened to have an intellectual property ready to use...

He would proceed step by step. Martial arts it was.

An original martial-arts story was certainly possible, but since he already had something in hand, The Heroes of All Ages was clearly the more suitable choice.

There was one more matter—

[Mission: Release a game produced with the system’s participation and turn a profit.]

[Searching... Initial payments for Pure Love Warrior Simulator have been received. The game has become profitable. Mission complete.]

[Calculating profit value... Forecasting the game’s total earnings over the next ten years...]

[The mission has been completed in excess of requirements. Reward upgraded.]

[Basic reward: One Bronze Chest. Excess reward: One Silver Chest.]

[Would you like to open the chests?]

Yes.

[Bronze Chest opened. Congratulations, host. You have obtained Skill Tree Insertion Code. Usable in extraordinary combat-oriented games.]

[Silver Chest opened. Congratulations, host. You have obtained a Dimensional Game Motion-Capture Studio. Related patents will be registered automatically.]

...

Gu Meng had not actually extracted either reward yet, but from the descriptions alone, he could tell that both were geared toward combat-focused gameplay.

If he made a martial-arts game, he had always believed that turn-based combat—one exchange at a time, numerical superiority determining victory, and the story taking precedence—was what a martial-arts game should be.

That belief had been shaped by the stereotypes of his former life.

Gu Meng’s first thought was that possessing such formidable combat technology and using it on a martial-arts game would be a waste.

Why not try something like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty instead, a game with an existing template ready to imitate?

That was why he had hesitated between the Three Kingdoms project and the martial-arts project.

Still, there were only so many games he could directly imitate. In the end, he would have to create something original.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty was hardly a timeless classic whose essence would be wasted if left un copied.

Forget it.

How could the future God of Games possibly plagiarize?

Martial arts ought to have dazzling techniques and spectacular movements in the first place.

Gu Meng would create his own The Heroes of All Ages.

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