Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  The clip reload speed and weapon switch speed of the Red Kilin was faster. Its clip capacity was also larger.

  Other than that, there was nothing more!

  The Red Kilin did have some slight advantage, but they were not very apparent. It was far from being evidently superior to the other weapons.

  This was an FPS game. A headshot with the Red Kilin would kill instantaneously… so would a normal-tier AK rifle. They were no different!

  Although the Red Kilin did have a faster clip reload speed and weapon switch speed, it was only centiseconds faster.

  Maybe the Red Kilin’s damage would be slightly higher than a normal-tier AK rifle when it came to shooting through walls or shooting at the legs.

  Although the Red Kilin did have a slight advantage in terms of its stats as compared to other weapons, Chen Sha felt that the advantage was not worth its price of 888 yuan.

  Chen Sha was a little confused as to how to perceive this game…

  It might seem as though the developers are abiding by their conscience. However, the action of pricing a weapon at 888 yuan seemed nothing conscientious at all.

  However, one could not say that the game was lousy either. Other than the Red Kilin, the game was completely free to play. Moreover, the 888 yuan Red Kilin did not have noticeably superior stats.

  Chen Sha felt that the designer of the payment options could be in the hall of fame for the most eccentric human behaviors yet. It was simply… unfathomable!

  Chapter 62

  In that case, Lin Wan has given me preferential treatment when he said that he will try his best to gift me a Red Kilin?

  After all, the market price for the Red Kilin was 888 yuan…

  However, Chen Sha shook his head shortly after and threw that absurd thought out of his head.

  How could the Red Kilin cost 888 yuan? It was just a bunch of f*cking codes in the game. Why would anyone possibly buy it?

  If no one bought it, wouldn’t that make the Red Kilin worthless?

  Yeah. As long as no one bought the Red Kilin, this game would be very fair for all players.

  Chen Sha really didn’t get the intentions of this game. He had seen FPS games like Counter Strike which did not have any in-game purchases and only profited from selling the game itself. He had also seen FPS games like Bullet Hole which were free to download but included premium systems that encouraged players to spend money to climb up the premium ranks.

  However, he had never seen a game like Ocean Stronghold.

  Driven by curiosity, Chen Sha exited the in-game shop and explored the other features of the game.

  “There are many new combat modes in the game. Apparition mode and biochemical mode? Never heard of such things.

  “What the heck? Why is there even a story mode?”

  Chen Sha was pleasantly surprised when he saw the apparition mode and biochemical mode. However, those game modes didn’t shock him.

  After all, it was not unusual for combat FPS games to come up with innovative game modes.

  Then again, Chen Sha was stunned when he saw the story mode.

  Be it Counter Strike or any other domestic FPS game producers, never had anyone come up with a story mode!

  Creating a plot within FPS games was something that took a lot of effort but yielded less than satisfactory outcomes. Most domestic game producers were not able to accomplish that!

  Some of the more renowned games included plots, but they were often huge projects that required huge amounts of investments. They were a completely different concept as compared to ordinary FPS games!

  Sun Strike Studios had spent so much time on Bullet Hole to perfect every aspect of the game. Yet, they did not include a story mode either.

  One reason was that Zhou Muyan felt that it wasn’t necessary. Secondly, he wasn’t confident enough to do it!

  Why would Ocean Stronghold, which did not have much fame, dare to include a story mode when Sun Strike Studios didn’t even dare to do so in Bullet Hole?

  That spurred Chen Sha’s interest.

  He did not close the game as he had expected but instead decided to try out the story mode.

  He was prepared to be bored and disgusted by it.

  …

  …

  Entering story mode.

  Blank screen.

  Slightly long blank screen time.

  Chen Sha almost thought that there was a bug with the game. However, soon after, sounds were heard from his earphones.

  “Is he dead?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s barely alive. However, there is no way he will live after contracting the G Virus.”

  “Let’s throw him here then.”

  The voices were in English and had a native accent. Luckily, there were subtitles on the black screen.

  The screen seemed to have jolted in the dark, signifying that the protagonist had been thrown aside.

  Afterward, the footsteps slowly faded.

  The screen was still pitch-black. However, specks of light seemed to appear in the distance. It looked similar to the field of vision of an ordinary person who closed their eyes in the day: their eyes could sense the light rays as they seeped past the eyelids.

  More sounds blared in Chen Sha’s earphones.

  There were heavy breathing sounds and soft groans which were most probably that of the protagonist.

  There were noisy rustles that probably came from something crawling or limping.

  Muffled sounds were produced in the back of the throat, which sounded like a tattered and torn box bellow—that was the standard growl of zombies. Those growls sounded intermittently from somewhere far away.

  Very soon, two arcs appeared on the screen. Blurry images could be seen from the area enclosed by the arcs—that was to duplicate the view of the protagonist when he opened his eyes.

  After several blinks, the protagonist’s vision returned to normal. Chen Sha could finally see the graphics of the game clearly.

  The first thing that appeared before his eyes was a hand. The hand was pale, and its veins popped. It was the hand of a dead person!

  Both the protagonist and Chen Sha were shocked.

  The protagonist struggled to stand up. When doing so, he saw an even scarier scene. He was not on a soft bed but was instead lying on a pile of dead corpses!

  Each corpse looked different. Some of them were severely mangled and looked gruesome. They were enough to make anyone puke out the dinner they had the night before. Some were still relatively intact. There weren’t even any obvious external wounds. Their only abnormal characteristics were their pale skin and popped veins.

  Some had started to rot. Abnormal flesh grew on the corpses. They were mutating!

  Pools of fresh blood had dried and coagulated. These corpses seemed to cling onto one another and seemed inseparable.

  At that moment, the protagonist was about to become one of them!

  The protagonist was at the border of the corpse pile. It was apparent that the people who carried him here did not want to go near the corpse pile, hence simply throwing him there casually.

  After some giddiness, the protagonist fell from the corpse pile onto the ground. He rested for a while, recovered some energy, and finally managed to stand up.

  By then, Chen Sha discovered that he had gained control over the protagonist and could freely manipulate the protagonist’s vision and movements.

  Some simple instructions appeared on the screen. Chen Sha could observe his surroundings by moving the mouse, and he could move in all directions using the WASD buttons.

  That was the basic PC control scheme for FPS games. Taking into account that some players might not have played this type of game before, Ocean Stronghold had very detailed guidelines for them. It seemed to be emulating overseas Triple-A games.

  Under the first-person perspective, Chen Sha had completely regarded himself as a character in the game.

  The surroundings were dark, and yet he could tell that the protagonist was ins
ide a building that seemed similar to a military base.

  There were originally some chairs, a huge conference table, and some military computers; and yet they had all been discarded and thrown aside casually. There were also many corpses piled on the furniture.

  When Chen Sha looked at the biggest corpse pile, he wasn’t sure if he was seeing things. He seemed to have seen an exposed arm buried underneath the corpse pile struggle and move slightly.

  That scene made Chen Sha feel a little uneasy. He started to look for an exit.

  There were a total of three exits which all had green lights shining above them. One of the lights had the word ‘EXIT’ written on it. The lights in the room were not lit. The protagonist had relied on the light from the exits to observe the situation in the room.

  Chen Sha controlled the protagonist and walked to the nearest door.

  The protagonist moved slowly. Occasionally, his vision would turn blurry. His right hand swayed along with his movements, but his left hand stayed on his abdomen. Clearly, he wasn’t feeling well.

  When he reached the first door, he tried pushing it open but failed. It seemed as though the door was locked or that something was blocking the door from the other side.

  He came to the second door. There was a digital lock on it. He needed an access card to unlock the door.

  Chen Sha then controlled the protagonist again. With heavy steps, the protagonist approached the corpse pile again and walked towards the third door which was the furthest among the three.

  Looking from afar, the door seemed to be partially open and accessible.

  The surroundings seemed to quiet down. Only the protagonist’s breathing sounds and footsteps could be heard.

  At that moment, a corpse suddenly lunged at him from the middle of the corpse pile and grabbed the protagonist by his right leg. It stretched its mouth wide open and bit on the leg!

  The protagonist screamed in agony. The sides of the display turned red. It meant that the protagonist was being attacked!

  Chapter 63

  Chen Sha followed the instructions on the screen, moved his mouse, and left-clicked to attempt an escape from its grasp.

  The protagonist screamed in agony while he tried to escape with all his might. He kicked the zombie aside and stomped on its head, causing its head to explode!

  Of course, his field of vision had veered sideways at the crucial moments to avoid displaying the gruesome scene.

  Although the ESRO had its own rating system, both Bao Xu and Huang Sibo did not want Ocean Stronghold to be listed as unsuitable for teens. That would cause the number of players to shrink.

  The game would make some adjustments to such scenarios to avoid showing them too explicitly.

  The protagonist fell on the floor in pain. Under the first-person perspective, Chen Sha could see that there was a bloody wound on the protagonist’s right leg from the zombie’s bite. There was a hole in the middle of his combat pants. Underneath the hole, his flesh was mangled, torn, and dripping with blood.

  The protagonist struggled to stand up and shuffle towards the exit.

  Finally, he reached the last door.

  The door was left ajar, and light was seen shining through the door gap. There seemed to be indistinct sounds behind the door.

  The protagonist pushed the door open with both hands.

  The moment the door opened, a blood-soaked zombie launched towards the protagonist from behind the door and pushed him onto the ground.

  “F*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck…!”

  Chen Sha was completely horrified. The zombie’s face was plastered on the protagonist, and it covered the entire screen. Even the blood stains and decomposed flesh on its teeth could be clearly seen.

  Although this zombie’s face was not designed to be very realistic and detailed, Chen Sha was still terrorized! He had not expected the zombie to appear out of the blue.

  The zombie was clad in mercenary uniform. Its body was intact and muscular, unlike the previous zombie which was tattered and weak.

  The mercenary zombie pushed the injured protagonist onto the floor and struggled to stretch its head towards him. “Grrr…” Growls sounded from the back of its throat as it attempted to bite off the protagonist’s neck!

  The protagonist strangled the mercenary zombie’s throat with his right hand while his left hand moved towards the zombie’s waist.

  Bang!

  A gunshot sounded. Amidst the blood-covered field of vision, Chen Sha saw the protagonist push the mercenary zombie away and throw its corpse aside.

  There was a handgun sticking out of the mercenary zombie’s waist. The protagonist pulled it out and shot the zombie in the head!

  The screen gradually turned blurry as the protagonist lost blood. Therefore, Chen Sha did not see how the zombie’s head exploded with the gunshot. However, the blurry vision and voice over of the protagonist emphasized the tension in the air!

  Chen Sha was terrified.

  This was really messed up!

  This game claimed to be an FPS game, but its content seemed to be that of a horror game. That’s going to scare people to death!

  In reality, those two battles merely whizzed past in a flash. As long as one used their hands to shift the mouse, those battles would end in no time. However, Chen Sha still broke out in a cold sweat.

  The main reason was that the thigh-biting zombie and the zombie that attacked from behind the door both appeared out of nowhere. He was not mentally prepared to face those zombies at all. Therefore, the scary factor was very intense!

  The next phase of the game was the standard guideline mode.

  The system started to teach the standard game controls such as how to aim with a handgun, shoot, change clips, and squat. The game controls were no different from other FPS games. Chen Sha got the hang of it very quickly.

  Meanwhile, in the story plot, the protagonist had found a first aid kit in the cabinets of the room and started to bandage the wounds on his abdomen and right leg.

  Concurrently, he had also found an access card on one of the corpses in the room.

  After some simple healing and bandaging, the story mode of the game had officially started. Initially, the protagonist only faced relatively weaker zombies which moved slowly. He could shoot the zombies in their heads one at a time.

  However, the protagonist did not have many bullets at the starting phase of the game. Zombies would always appear in unexpected places. Therefore, a slight inattention could cause him to be bitten or pushed onto the ground.

  Although Chen Sha had a good aim, he was still constantly shocked.

  The game did not tell the player the identity and purpose of the protagonist directly and rigidly. However, as the initial story plot progressed, Chen Sha had several reasonable guesses.

  The protagonist was inside some secret base. A mysterious virus had somehow circulated in this place. Numerous humans contracted the virus and mutated into zombies.

  Not only was the protagonist hunted down by mercenaries from the secret base, but he was also bitten by the zombies.

  Although the protagonist tried to stop the bleeding by bandaging his wounds with supplies in the first aid kit, that was not sufficient to stop the virus from activating. It was only a matter of time before he turned into a zombie.

  The protagonist did not have any friends, companions, or equipment that could be used to contact the outside world. He could only brave the dangers and search for resources within the base individually. He had to fight zombies and some living human mercenaries to survive.

  In the process, players faced countless obstacles.

  In terms of battling, there were different techniques used to fight zombies and mercenaries.

  Zombies had exceptional hearing. Firing at will would attract tons of zombies in the surroundings. Unless the player had exceptional marksmanship, he could be in deep trouble if he was besieged by zombies.

  Moreover, even if players manage to kill the zombies, it was norma
l for them to run out of bullets. They would then be stuck in a situation where there was a lack of ammunition.

  Therefore, the best way to deal with zombies is by close combat. Players had to hunt down the zombies secretly and assassinate them individually.

  Meanwhile, mercenaries often patrolled in groups. Once anyone went missing, others would be on the alert. They would shout and inform their companions and become vigilant.

  Therefore, assassinating was not a good solution to deal with mercenaries. Players should try their best to have a gunfight with these mercenaries and finish the battle as soon as possible. Once they killed the mercenaries, they would be able to replenish their ammunition and maybe even seize new firearms.

  Of course, in certain circumstances, players may face mercenaries and zombies at the same time. They could most definitely lure zombies and mercenaries to a place and make them fight with each other. They would then strike last and benefit from their battle.

  In some obstacles, players could have fun with special items, such as using heavy machine guns situated at designated areas to sweep at the zombies. However, in most scenarios, players had to carefully allocate weapons and bullet usage. In their prudent attempt at survival, every bullet was pivotal.

  Although all the scenarios within the game occurred in the base, it was designed like a maze.

  Some doors were blocked and inaccessible, some required access cards, and some needed to be torn down using special items.

  While the game progressed, their enemies would increase in strength and variety.

  What’s worse was that the protagonist’s mental state would gradually deteriorate. The screen would suddenly turn blurry and then restore to its original state some time after. The protagonist’s hand would tremble, and he wouldn’t be able to aim properly. His movement would become slow, and he may not even be able to walk in a straight line.

  Finally, Chen Sha faced his first miniboss.

  The first boss was a strong mutated zombie. It was larger than other zombies and had a much longer health bar.

  However, since that was only the first miniboss, Chen Sha managed to defeat it using various weapons that he had collected previously.