Chapter 58: What Kind of Ending Could Ever Do It Justice

At the New Year's Eve Gala of Game Star, even the non-major competitors who participated alongside them but were relegated to the middle and back rows felt a sense of astonishment.

Jingdong was extraordinarily daring. Given their level of hype, and the fact that it was merely an interactive movie game, securing a nomination was already purely riding someone else's coattails.

If President Gu had possessed such treatment while he was still around, he probably would have kowtowed to the judges several times to thank them for including interactive movie games.

Yet now, Xiong Kuohai actually had the audacity to accept the award?

Was this a desperate, all-in gamble to court notoriety and rise through infamy?

On second thought, it made sense. To be fair, this wave generated a massive amount of traffic. If they could actually catch and hold onto it, they might really take off. The plot of *Legends of Heroes* translated quite well into a live-action series, and with so many Maodou Best Actresses involved, coupled with stepping over You Xuan to rise to the top...

Hiss, it was entirely possible that this really would siphon off a number of Maodou fans and casual onlookers.

Surely they wouldn't let him leverage this momentum to become the annual drama king and dominate the interactive movie game sphere, would they?

At the banquet following the awards ceremony, active agitators like Wang Feng from Pinnacle Games had already begun networking with industry peers.

Unfortunately, President Gu was not present. Not only did Wang Feng want to rally You Xuan, the "aggrieved party," to attack Jingdong together, but he also had some personal matters he wanted to consult Gu Meng about as a "gaming expert."

His son's foot-fetish mobile game was finally finished, but the process had been extremely torturous, and his son himself was dissatisfied with the final product.

However, the funds had already been exhausted, and other investors were pressing hard.

He had an ominous premonition; the mobile game distribution channels were fiercely saturated, and the future looked bleak!

Putting his son's affairs aside and returning to the topic of interactive movies.

His company was merely one of the many medium-sized interactive movie game companies in Donghua City. Everyone had transitioned from various media backgrounds, crossing the river by feeling for the stones left by Maodou.

Yet, their collective strength could not be underestimated.

Since they had managed to grind Maodou to death with great difficulty, the interactive movie game circle absolutely would not allow a new Maodou to emerge—unless that new Maodou was themselves.

They had to strike heavily and hype up Jingdong's scandals mercilessly!

The previous rumors about transgender people were too far-fetched; they should instead reheat the story about Xiong Kuohai soliciting male celebrities through unwritten rules, because that one was actually true.

Everyone in the industry knew that Xiong Kuohai was genuinely gay, and during his holidays, he would even fly to Chengdu to hunt for innocent youths.

Moreover, apart from the Xiongxiong series, he also had a predilection for middle-aged men, seniors, and bearded guys.

In the past, he had even coveted the explosive masculine charm of Big Sun.

He wanted to be thoroughly ravaged by Big Sun, only to be heavily rebuffed and slapped in the face.

If Gu Meng hadn't been so young and not his type, Gu Meng might not have been in the mood to eat today—it was simply disgusting to be eyed by such a person a few times, alright?

...

Across major online platforms, related keywords were frantically surging up the trending searches.

Currently, the attacks were limited to the game itself, but soon they would begin dragging in "Xiong Kuohai's unwritten rules scandal."

To some extent, Jingdong had achieved its goal.

They were genuinely popular now; people who had never cared about interactive movie games before were now searching for related game videos to taste the drama.

Then, anyone who played *Legends of Heroes* would realize: isn't this blatant plagiarism?

And what was going on with the vote counts on the Game Star official website? Casual onlookers also remembered—wasn't it precisely them who had ballot-stuffed during the "Heroes of Chivalry" martial arts game competition?

What the hell! Switching tracks and doing the exact same thing again, are we?

Who on earth is voting for this game anyway?!

And yet, sales were actually increasing...

That made sense, too. For an interactive movie game with numerous branches, interspersed with turn-based combat and cultivation elements, simply watching without playing didn't provide the same thrill. Moreover, in this parallel world with much stricter copyright laws, the full playthrough videos of interactive movie games were mostly restricted upon release.

After actually playing it, people would feel that the plagiarized plot was surprisingly quite good.

Much like the same IP—watching the animated version didn't stop people from watching the live-action version.

Dragon King, it's not that we brothers lack loyalty, it's all the fault of our sisters-in-law—ah no, I mean, the Maodou Best Actresses were simply too captivating!

Although the beauties in *Legends of Heroes* were also gorgeous, even more so, the sisters-in-law offered much better fanservice!

So you couldn't really blame us for playing this game as a fanfiction spin-off of *Legends of Heroes*.

At most, we'll just buy an extra copy of *Legends of Heroes* to ease our conscience.

Furthermore, aside from fanservice-seeking players, the normal demographic of interactive movie game players in this world was expanding aggressively.

After *Legends of Chivalry* stepped over *Legends of Heroes* to win the award, even if domestic players understood the nature of the pure inside job, many niche interactive movie game players in Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea, and North America had no idea what had happened.

They only knew that the game description on the homepage pop-up promotion stated: "Playful Game Star Game of the Year."

The description mentioned in various languages that this was one of the highest-traffic and largest awards in China, with the livestream of the award ceremony drawing over 150 million viewers.

It even explicitly pointed out that this game had defeated China's masterpiece *Legends of Ancient and Modern Heroes: True* in a "fair" player vote to win the grand prize, making it the best game recognized by Chinese players this year.

In addition, foreign action game fans who had played *Legends of Heroes* and considered it a masterpiece would also try purchasing a copy of *Legends of Chivalry*.

Even worse, some genuinely believed Xiong Kuohai's acceptance speech, thinking that their project was made first and plagiarized by *Legends of Heroes*. Because this kind of statement was so bizarre, it actually found a decent market overseas.

Don't doubt it—could you possibly understand the industry better than insiders in the Chinese gaming circle?

If they were willing to give Game of the Year to *Legends of Chivalry* instead of *Legends of Heroes*, there had to be a reason.

Who was the plagiarist went without saying.

The sales of *Legends of Chivalry* broke 1.5 million the very next day. Absolutely exasperating.

Casual players, none of you are allowed to play that game!

Fanservice seekers, can't you just go look for pirated versions?

It seemed you really couldn't, the crackdown was too severe.

Alright, fanservice seekers, carry on then.

Players of *Legends of Heroes*, don't buy a copy of *Legends of Chivalry* just out of a completionist collecting urge! *Legends of Heroes* and *Legends of Chivalry* just have similar names; they aren't from the same company, so don't provide resources to the enemy!

Overseas players, quickly refund the game, please!

We Chinese players don't think giving Game of the Year to an interactive movie game is reasonable either, that's not how it works!

That voting was not fair at all!

You only knew that China had a lot of living people, you didn't know that China had even more ghost soldiers!

I'm so pissed off, is there any way to report and have this game taken down?!

It was precisely at this moment that Pure Fan Teacher, who had stayed up through goodness knows how many nights and hadn't updated videos for a long time, released a new video guide.

...

After Pure Fan Teacher finally figured out the method to reach the hidden true ending, he rushed to finish producing the guide video, pushing himself so close to the limit that he almost ended up in the hospital.

Having rested for an entire day, he had stayed up late watching the livestream yesterday and almost passed out from anger.

The strength of *Legends of Heroes* was plain for all to see; even with various flaws, and despite some late-game players complaining that the true ending needed a better payoff, the overall quality and the brilliance of its strong points were undeniable!

And this didn't even deserve an award?

The award itself didn't matter; the game was already hugely popular.

You Xuan might not care, but you guys couldn't just withhold recognition!

What's more, you gave it to the plagiarized *Legends of Chivalry* instead. This wasn't just slapping us players in the face; this was spanking President Gu's backside!

Pure Fan Teacher wasn't a young man anymore, and he was so infuriated he almost laughed in disbelief.

The Dragon King fans and pure romance fans who had stuck around since the Maodou era were even more dissatisfied. I'm so pissed off, Oh Ley!

How did the Chinese gaming circle turn into this?

Even though they knew the standards couldn't compare to foreign awards and that it historically lacked credibility,

and giving preferential treatment to one's own people at an awards ceremony was normal, pulling a stunt like this was simply going too far!

Originally, Pure Fan Teacher's new guide video was supposed to be a celebration video for *Game Metaphysics* winning Game of the Year.

The tentative title was: "What kind of ending could possibly be worthy of this arduous journey?"

Looking at that title now, it felt incomparably mocking. Turns out that when you roam the world without connections or a background, you only deserve this kind of ending.

He really wanted to change the title to "Scolding."

Pure Fan Teacher had been in the gaming circle for many years, had his own connections, and understood the rules clearly.

He had thought that since they even let You Xuan cut the line to get a nomination, surely they wouldn't intentionally string him along.

As it turned out, that was exactly the case. They really hadn't given him the award; they had deliberately lured him in just to let Jingdong Game step over You Xuan to climb to the top.

Simply too bullying!

Even casual passersby couldn't stand it anymore!

Just how good-tempered was the Dragon King, and just how lucky was the Chinese gaming industry to stumble upon such a dropped-from-the-heavens fierce savior?

Yet, just how unfortunate was Chinese gaming that the industry could be so dark and malicious? Bullying someone just because You Xuan lacked backers!

It broke one's heart with grief and indignation!

It wasn't that President Gu didn't deserve to win an award; it was that the Chinese gaming circle didn't deserve to have President Gu.

Pure Fan Teacher officially converted into a die-hard fan.