"Xiao Liu, why haven't the planning documents for this stage play been completed yet? Hurry, do you know that Mr. Wang is in a hurry!"
"Xiao Liu, take a look at the artists you contacted. They are all crooked. Can you find some popular ones?"
"Xiao Liu, I have an overtime class today. The choreographer said there is a problem with the lighting on the stage. Please contact the person in charge."
"Xiao Liu, the clothing factory said that the workers are on strike, and our costumes will probably be affected. Please find a way to find a new place for me as soon as possible."
"Xiao Liu, let me urge the screenwriter to revise the script, is that okay?"
"Xiao Liu."
At 2:30 in the morning, in the only room with lights on in a residential building late at night, a thin middle-aged man with two dark circles under his eyes sat at a computer desk and tapped tiredly on the keyboard.
He is currently staying up late to revise the business plan requested by his boss.
The bad news is that this is already the fifth version he has revised, and he was ruthlessly beaten back the previous few times.
The good news is that this is his last job today, oh no, it should be said to be the last job left yesterday.
As the last line of the plan was finished, Liu Yang let out a long breath. It was finally completed. He looked at the watch next to him and saw that it was almost three o'clock.
His body had sent countless signs of fatigue. Liu Yang stood up from his computer desk. It seemed that he felt dizzy because he stood up too hard or because he had been sitting for several hours before.
Liu Yang quickly held on to the desk lamp next to him and took a while to recover.
After simply brushing his teeth and washing his face, Liu Yang turned off the lights and lay down on the bed.
However, although his body was obviously very tired, he still couldn't sleep. Anxiety filled his mind. Worries about the future, anxiety about work, and boredom about facing his boss all made him toss and turn in bed. can not sleep.
For Liu Yang, this has become a "habit". He often has to stay up until four or five o'clock before he can barely fall asleep, and then he has to get up at seven o'clock to go to the company.
Talk about it.
When did you become like this?
Liu Yang, who couldn't sleep in bed, couldn't help but recall that twenty or thirty years ago, he was still a fledgling, passionate about society and the future, with lofty ambitions in his heart, and he plunged into the entertainment industry as a dream-seeking young man. You must cultivate excellent actors and become great directors in your own hands.
However, the reality is that after so many years, although he is not considered inactive and has become the so-called assistant director, in fact, this position does not have the rights of a director, but he has to undertake all kinds of dirty work. It is to accumulate experience for him.
I don't know if he has accumulated experience, but he suffered from severe anxiety disorder.
Thinking of this, Liu Yang sighed deeply in the dark room.
When can I get over it?
Are you yourself?
Really not suitable for this line of work?
I really want to resign.
Just when Liu Yang fell into the same late-night inner struggle as before, a "ding-dong" suddenly rang from the mobile phone next to him, which was the new message notification tone.
As an assistant director, Liu Yang did not dare to put his phone on silent even when sleeping at night, for fear of missing any instructions from the director or other producer leaders.
After all, it did happen. He finally fell asleep, but was woken up by a phone call at three or four o'clock, and then went to pick up the leader who was already drunk at the KTV.
It must be something else this time, right?
Liu Yang thought this in his mind. After sighing, he picked up his phone and unlocked the screen. He habitually checked the social software, but there was no new news on it.
so.
"Um?"
Liu Yang made a strange noise, which soon turned into surprise, because this message came from a game account that he had forgotten for a long time. To be precise, he had put it in a corner and had been there for almost twenty or thirty years.
The email in his mailbox now comes from the game account he bound to it.
That is
"come down"
Liu Yang rubbed his eyes and looked carefully several times before confirming that this was "Falling" and not the popular "Falling 2" mobile game.
Are games from twenty or thirty years ago fake?
After Liu Yang clicked in with curiosity, he found that it was true that the original "Falling" now has a new DLC (expansion pack).
DLC is quite common in stand-alone games, which is equivalent to additional supplementary content, just like extra chapters or spin-offs.
But this is the first time Liu Yang has heard that a game that has been dead for 20 or 30 years can still launch DLC.
It is this strange feeling that makes Liu Yang, a social worker who is extremely busy every day and has stopped playing games for a long time, take another look at the new expansion pack - "Reunion"
The strange thing is that there is no introduction to the expansion pack. What is there is just a video.
I just wanted to watch it casually, which can be regarded as a kind of nostalgia. Since I couldn't sleep now, Liu Yang clicked on the video.
He originally thought it would be a promotional video with a unified format, but as the screen opened, Liu Yang was stunned.
because
"Master Yang Shen, long time no see."
The first sentence at the beginning made Liu Yang startled. Some memories that had been forgotten in the deep corners of his mind along with the game account were gradually awakened with the appearance of the game characters on the screen.
"It has been many years since our world was saved by Master Yang Shen. We have lived up to Master Yang Shen's expectations. We all worked together to rebuild our homeland and ushered in happiness and peace in a world without disaster. , the only regret is that it would be great if you could be here, Mr. Yangshen."
"But I know that Mr. Yangshen also has his own things, his own world, and his own dreams. He continues to struggle in a place we don't know."
"I am sending this message to you to report the current situation to Mr. Yangshen. Although there are indeed some new and difficult crises, everyone and I should be able to get through them smoothly. Of course, if Mr. Yangshen can come back and command us again."
"Time flies so fast, that's about it. By the way! Mr. Yangshen, you must pay attention to your health and rest, don't stay up late anymore, and don't get into trouble when you encounter problems!"
"What? Ask me how I know, well. After all, in our world, Mr. Yangshen also has difficulty making choices. He often hesitates for a long time just because of a choice. It must be like this in your world. Human right?"
"But I and everyone know that this is because you have a strong sense of responsibility and are afraid of causing trouble to others because of your mistakes, so you are very cautious every time and have high requirements for yourself."
"Phew! Unconsciously, I said so much in one breath, and that's the final word."
"Good night, Master Yangshen."
The video was not long, only a little over a minute, but Liu Yang felt in a trance, as if he was touched by something deep in his heart.
Twenty or thirty years ago, I was not a social beast. I was a middle-class young man with the ID of "Yangshen". He especially liked development games and the feeling of developing characters. At that time, "Falling" It undoubtedly attracted him.
Because unlike other developed characters, "Falling" is completely random, which means that each player's world is different, and the characters developed are "uniquely" their own.
This is why Liu Yang has not played the current "Falling 2". On the one hand, he is busy with work, and on the other hand, he does not like to rely on "drawing cards" to create a development type where everyone has the same role. .
He would choose to engage in directing work because he likes this kind of nurturing feeling.
Unfortunately, the gap between reality and virtuality is very cruel.
Return from memory to reality.
turn out to be
There are still people who care about me
After changing from a young man to a social animal, Liu Yang was faced with numerous tasks and requests from leaders every day. Not to mention others, even he seemed to no longer care about himself. Got a job.
Now seeing the characters that he had invested emotions and cultivated in the past, appear in front of him again, sending sincere greetings, it is even as if these virtual characters really have some secret connection with him, knowing that he is anxious, I stayed up late every day and couldn't fall asleep, so I told myself to pay attention to my body and sleep well.
As a social animal, Liu Yang rationally told Liu Yang that this was just marketing from the game company, a way to sell feelings. It was probably a video generated by some high-end intelligent AI. After all, the game was fake. How could the characters in the game really be able to give... Send messages yourself.
But, how to say
Liu Yang got up from the bed, turned on the computer, clicked on the game he hadn't opened for a long time, and pre-downloaded the latest DLC installation package.
He admitted he took the bait.
After all, in reality, no one has ever cared about him. Sometimes, he occasionally indulges in some virtual fantasies, isn't it good?
Of course.
Liu Yang let the computer download it by itself, but he quickly climbed back into bed and did not choose to play immediately.
After all, didn't "Lily" tell herself that she should have a good rest and not stay up late?
"Good night."
In the dark room, Liu Yang muttered quietly, as if he wanted to convey his voice to a farther place.
And the magical thing is that this time, he has unprecedented peace in his mind, and the anxiety that once hindered him has disappeared.
This sleep.
He slept soundly.
Liu Yang is not an exception.
There were tens of thousands of players of "The Fall", and Liao Ji sent such a "unique" email to everyone.
Just as Liao Ji thought, after twenty or thirty years, things have changed.
Players in the past are now busy and nervous working social animals like Liu Yang, parents who have married and have children, lawyers who have become social elites, and top-notch chief doctors in the industry.
Of course, there are also authors who get stuck every day and are scolded by readers, and there are also authors who are still sitting at home accomplishing nothing.
have.
People who have passed away because of accidents and accidents.
The reset version of "Fall 1" launched by Mori Moe did not attract much fanfare. This niche game that once had only tens of thousands of players did not require too much public attention.
Retrieving the players' archives was the first step, which was somewhat difficult in Blue Star, so Liao Ji chose to divide his forces into two groups.
Annuo continued to stay on Blue Star, and with the help of the "cloak" that had been repaired by the elves, he took the succubus and returned to the world of "Falling". Liao Ji and Rena began their journey on the Star World Tree together.
It is somewhat similar to the one in the original succubus diary.
They went to the parallel worlds on the mother world tree, the worlds of other players, brought the seeds of the child world trees to their worlds, and then cooperated with Blue Star's Annuo to establish new connections for these worlds.
In this way, there will be a way for former Blue Star players to return to their world, which is the window to "log in" to the game.
All that's left is how to get players to come back.
As Liao Ji said before, "Falling" is a development game. For players who can pass the game, more or less, Liao Ji believes that everyone must have invested a lot of emotion.
This feeling for the world and the character I developed may have faded a lot, become blurred, or even forgotten after twenty or thirty years.
What Liao Ji needs to do is to push a little more and touch a little more.
Calling the "Mother of Disaster" Polika and joining the team, Liao Ji used Polyka's ability to reappear the power of the "Spirit of the Old One" in other worlds.
The characters who once served as the "saviors" of the players can be reappeared. Although this is not a resurrection, it is just a short summons, but it is enough.
Both for Liao Ji and for these spirits of the past.
Tell these old spirits the truth about the "players", and with the help of the player information collected by Annuo, let them see the "true" appearance of the savior on the Blue Star.
The purpose of doing this is to make the video that Liu Yang saw earlier. This is also the most "should" way of reunion that Liao Ji can think of.
Liao Ji originally thought that this would be a bit difficult and would require him and Reina to do a lot of psychological work on these "spirits of the past."
But what surprised him was that most of the old spirits, the characters under the former players, did not express much violent reactions to this truth. On the contrary, many old spirits were more concerned. , caring about players in another world.
Even if.
These players have shed their "savior" aura and become, it seems, just ordinary people.
No.
Some players, such as street writers, homeless people, squatting at home, etc., are not even as good as ordinary people and are complete losers.
Why can they tolerate players infinitely and love players infinitely, no matter what the player really looks like in reality, it seems that in the eyes of these characters, the player is always the only one, the savior.
As a "player", Liao Ji may not really understand.
But what Reina said later made Liao Ji understand.
"What if there was a leader on Blue Star who could forget about food and sleep, who could ignore himself, who could not embezzle a penny or even ask for a salary, who could not let fame and fortune corrupt his mind, and who could truly fight for the country and his people wholeheartedly? , wouldn’t you do this?”
The player is indeed such a character.
At least this is the case for players in "The Fall", and this is enough for the characters to ignore all the other shortcomings of the players.
Fortunately, the number of players in "Falling 1" is not large. There are tens of thousands of players corresponding to tens of thousands of worlds to visit, and Liao Ji and Reina can barely cope with it.
If it were an order of magnitude more, this plan might not be feasible.
But even so, this is still a process that takes several months to grow, which means that they will have to continue to hold on for several more months under the offensive of the "Source Lord".
However, whether it is Rena, Anno, or Ssutia, Jiuyou, Zero who stayed in their own world, and many other spirits of the past who were summoned to resist the invasion of "Source" None of them had any complaints.
Because what Liao Ji was doing was exactly the meaning of their fight.
He wants to rediscover the bond between players and the world, which is also a process of mutual redemption.
Players who once acted as "saviors" saved their world. Now, they also hope to help those who are either social animals suffering from anxiety and insomnia, squatting at home in decadence and darkness, or street-fighting authors who are scolded every day. , becoming the light in the world of "players", even if it is only in memory, can be remembered occasionally, and it will be able to gain some kind of motivation and courage to move forward.
finally.
As the 9465th world came to an end, the list of players of "The Fall" that Anno gave to him was finally completed, and the invitation letter for the "The Fall" dlc was sent out.
The reason why there are obviously tens of thousands of players, but in the end it will be 9465, is because it excludes deceased players and those worlds that have been completely destroyed by the "source" and cannot be restored.
Liao Ji has tried his best.
The rest is whether the players are willing to return, help themselves, and start the final battle with the "Source Lord" for control of the World Tree.
It can only be left to "fetters".
(End of chapter)
