The next day, the game "Summoning Ghosts" officially entered the public beta stage. With Qi Jiayuan's generous investment and the game's excellent quality, the results were much better than expected.
Qi Jiayuan said with a sly smile, "Oh, great! I don't have to go back and inherit billions of family assets!"
To boost sales, everyone was sparing no effort to promote this game. They mobilized all their relatives and friends, and I was no exception. I sent out invitations in all directions and even bought the game with my own money to contribute to the sales.
When I finally sent the invitation to Cheng Yu, I transferred the money first and then pleaded with him, "Do me a favor, please. A wage - slave's entrepreneurial journey needs your helping hand."
Surprisingly, Cheng Yu actually did as I asked, but he still couldn't resist taking a dig at me, "If you switch to selling insurance in the future, remember to block me."
Me: "Come on... It's not like I'm tricking you. This game is really fun! It's the fruit of my hard work! You can play it after you buy it. I swear on my life that it's a great investment!"
Cheng Yu: "I don't have time."
No time?
You're an unemployed person and you don't have time to play games?
Me: "Oh, so you're scared of ghosts."
Cheng Yu: "Who said that?"
I smiled and suggested, "This is a super - scary horror game. If you're scared, it's better to find someone to play with you."
Cheng Yu: "I have no one."
Huh?
Isn't the correct answer that he'd be having a great time playing with his boyfriends?
He wants to play but can't find anyone?
Could it be that his sugar daddy is too timid or too old?
I volunteered myself, "I'm a professional game companion. I'll accompany you throughout the game without any spoilers. I'll definitely give you an unexpected surprise!"
Cheng Yu: "Aren't you busy?"
Me: "If you buy this game now, you're a player. Players are my customers, and customers are gods. No matter how busy I am, I'll make time to serve the gods!"
I could even apply for overtime pay. It was a win - win situation. Hehe.
I wasn't as busy as before. After 8 p.m., I got off work and went to Cheng Yu's place.
He seemed to have just come back. He cooked a bowl of beef brisket noodles, brought it in front of the computer, and said to me, "You play. I'll watch."
Me: "Okay."
Then I watched him eat his noodles slowly while I loaded the game. My mouth was watering.
When Cheng Yu was halfway through his meal, his eating speed slowed down significantly. I seized the opportunity and asked, "Can't eat anymore?"
He looked at my hungry eyes, paused for a moment, and asked, "What do you want?"
I swallowed my saliva and said, "If you can't finish it, I can help you."
I only had a bowl of grain meal for dinner to lose weight. Now that he was sitting next to me eating so deliciously, every second was torture for a person on a diet.
Cheng Yu slightly widened his eyes and emphasized, "I've already eaten from this bowl."
I stared at him shamelessly and said, "I know..."
Cheng Yu: "Aren't you scared?"
I was puzzled. "Scared of what? Do you have AIDS?"
Cheng Yu: "Get out of here!"
Me: "Well, that's that. To be honest, I'm not even afraid of poison. I'll eat the whole bowl of noodles and even lick the bowl clean!"
Cheng Yu: "..."
I rubbed my hands eagerly. "So, you can't eat anymore, right?"
Cheng Yu said coldly, "I can."
Me: Shit!
I angrily turned back to continue setting up the game. Cheng Yu said calmly, "Didn't you say in the restaurant last time that my cooking was just so - so?"
Me: Oh my god!
So he was still holding a grudge!
This petty guy was deliberately humiliating me!
I was so angry that I said, "Actually, the noodles in that restaurant aren't even half as good as yours. But I learned from a book that when you're not really close to someone, you can praise them to the skies without any consequences as long as it makes them happy. But now that you're my close friend, constantly praising you would actually do you harm. I don't want to stop you from achieving higher levels in cooking, so I give you a bit of a push to encourage your progress."
Cheng Yu: "..."
Well.
Why was he looking at me like I was an idiot?
Cheng Yu couldn't help but ask, "What book?"
Me: "Must - Read for Flirting with Men?"
Cheng Yu: "Burn it."
Me: "..."
It was thanks to this book that I became friends with you. It's a great hero and I'm not going to do something so ungrateful.
The game was set up and it started.
The first step was to choose a mode.
There were three modes: [Normal], [Expert], and [Hell].
I asked Cheng Yu, who was eating noodles, "Which one do you choose?"
I thought a guy like Cheng Yu would directly choose the [Expert] or [Hell] mode, but he said, "Normal."
As the designer of this game and his good gay friend, I couldn't help but say to him, "If you're brave enough, choosing the normal mode is okay. But I advise you that for your first time playing, it's safer to choose the [Hell] mode because the scariest one is actually the [Normal] mode. It's a deliberate reverse design to ensure that most ordinary players can have the most extreme and all - round scary experience."
Cheng Yu: "Who designed it? So perverted."
Me: "It's me."
Cheng Yu: "..."
The story began.
A few reckless young people went to an abandoned mental hospital on the outskirts at night to play the ghost - summoning game.
After they entered the hospital, it was completely silent.
It was pitch - black, and they only had a flashlight to look around.
Cheng Yu came back after washing the bowl. We both held our breath and looked for clues. Suddenly, he asked, "Why is there no background music or voice - over?"
I whispered back, "The previous voice - over was so out of place. It was like a cartoon for scaring kids, so I removed all the sounds from this part. Isn't it scarier without any sound?"
This kind of oppressive and suffocating tension made one feel like there was a ghost about to jump out at any moment.
But whether they pushed the door, turned their heads, or looked under the bed for ghosts, they found nothing.
The longer the time passed, the scarier it became. When I first played this game, I felt like I could hardly breathe.
I quietly asked Cheng Yu, "Do you need some BGM? I can play 'Great Compassion Mantra' for you?"
Cheng Yu: "Get out."
Me: "Okay."
Then I carefully and responsibly checked every corner step by step to find the clues for summoning ghosts.
Maybe I was being too meticulous. Cheng Yu seemed a bit impatient. He directly reached out his hand and wanted to take the mouse from me. "Let me do it."
Me: "Wait..."
I had just picked up a scalpel and triggered a plot. That extremely scary scene was about to appear at any moment. I didn't really care if he took over at this moment, but I was afraid of scaring this guy who clearly seemed scared of ghosts but was trying to be tough...
However, Cheng Yu had already stood up. He wrapped his arms around me from behind. Just as his big hand covered mine and was about to take the mouse -
"Shuaaaahhhhh!!!"
The whole room was filled with shrill ghostly screams!
Suddenly, a headless hanging ghost dropped from the ceiling of the dark ward!
The broken face and the bloody, hideous ghost face filled the entire screen!
Me: "Holy shit!!!"
This was exactly the hanging ghost that Zhang Yuan cosplayed that day!
Although I had approved this ghost design, every time I played to this part, I would be scared out of my wits.
And unfortunately, this time was no exception.
I jumped up suddenly. The back of my head hit Cheng Yu's chin. I was tripped by the chair and staggered back. I tilted to one side and "bang"! I knocked the tall and big Cheng Yu, chair and all, to the ground.
I turned around and looked -
Me: Aaaaaahhhhh! I'm doomed!
My delicate and beautiful friend was now lying flat on the ground, limbs splayed out!