[1/5] Chapter
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Aside from Nintendo, Valve could be considered the company most depressed upon hearing this news. The launch of the [New World] platform was tantamount to a massive challenge to their own Steam platform.
It should be known that the Steam platform was currently the absolute largest gaming platform in the entire world, bar none.
Beyond that, the sweet days of lying back and enjoying their cut of Subnautica's sales revenue were now gone for good.
Subnautica was simply too popular. Although it had only been on the market for less than a month, the revenue it had brought them already exceeded that of incredibly popular games that had been listed for several years.
That kind of comfortable life was likely gone forever.
Other companies such as NetEase, Tencent, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and the like also convened series of high-level executive meetings in response to the launch of the [New World] gaming platform. Executives from every company furrowed their brows tightly, analyzing the [New World] platform and discussing countermeasures.
In fact, some tech giants had already secretly taken action, which was precisely why a portion of those hackers had mobilized in the first place.
The internet giants could all clearly see that [New World] was too fierce, and its ambitions were far too grand. The New World Studio goal wasn't just to overturn the gaming industry; They was trying to overturn the entire internet, rewriting the entire digital landscape.
Although the [New World] platform was only in its initial launch phase, with a long way to go before realizing a true "Second World," Lucien still couldn't hold back. He first drew an incredibly massive pie, thoroughly hooking the players' appetites.
But it was precisely this massive pie, coupled with the introduction of Tifa, that produced an extraordinarily massive effect. In just a few short hours, the download count for the [New World] gaming platform effortlessly reached tens of millions, and it was skyrocketing at a rapid pace!!!
Sitting on his sofa, Lucien watched the continuously soaring download numbers through the backend, nodding his head in deep satisfaction. His mood grew increasingly joyous.
When he saw the download count break past the one hundred million mark, he couldn't hold back from throwing his arms up and letting out an impassioned, slightly chuunibyou sigh. "If the heavens had not given birth to the great Lucien, the gaming world would forever be as dark as the endless night."
After his moment of chuunibyou passed, Lucien remembered something and quickly asked, "Right, Gaia, the official website is running stably, right?"
"Although the official website is still under heavy attack, it can still guarantee stable operation," Gaia quickly replied. "These attacks are nothing. I can block them all."
"That's no problem then." Lucien nodded. In truth, the official website being attacked was something he had long anticipated. After all, he had practically provoked public outrage by now. The big shots of the internet were likely all itching to take him out or swallow up his lucrative operation entirely.
Therefore, Lucien had Gaia act as the official website's bodyguard on the side, directly programming multiple network defense countermeasures into the code. What could he say? The System's black technology was just that powerful.
Whether it was DDoS attacks aimed at the servers, or attacks targeting the website's programming and database, she could deflect them all perfectly.
Right, there was one more thing he needed to do. Now that the gaming platform was launched, a new game had to be put on the agenda as soon as possible. Otherwise, having only Silent Hill and Subnautica available on a brand-new gaming platform would be too shabby. He had to produce a new game at the very least, released exclusively on his platform, to keep up appearances. With that thought, Lucien buried his head in front of the computer once again, acting with intense urgency.
Meanwhile, the players who had logged onto the [New World] platform, after having their attention heavily captivated by that trailer, shifted their gazes back to Tifa beside them.
After all, the things shown in the trailer were all events for the future. But a hot, beautiful girl was keeping them company right here, right now.
Tifa's unparalleled facial beauty and utterly indescribable figure truly made it hard for them to sit still.
Besides, this was their own personal gaming platform. Whatever they did, no one else could see it anyway.
"Player, how may I assist you?" Seeing the incredibly suspicious gazes of certain male players, Tifa asked gently.
"Ahem, could you not call me 'Player' and call me 'Hubby' instead?" Some perverts quickly couldn't sit still and began making unreasonable requests.
"I cannot." However, Tifa replied with a smile, "Player is Player. I cannot change my terms of address at will."
Huh, she actually can't? Even Gaia could do that, but Tifa can't?!
This truly exceeded the players' expectations.
And so, another player quickly asked, "Then can I give you a hug?"
The players asking this question firmly remembered an extremely important piece of knowledge: this was a f*cking full-dive VR game.
Aside from taste and pain, every other sensation could be perfectly simulated!!!
New World Studio had always provided incredibly realistic in-game feedback. Even when swimming, the sensation of seawater brushing against the skin was rendered with such lifelike and exquisite detail. So, the interaction between players and NPCs (specifically human ones) had to be extremely realistic too, right?
They really wanted to experience it. Of course, it wasn't for any other reason; they purely wanted to experience the studio interaction technology to see exactly how advanced it was.
"That's not allowed." However, this request was once again decisively rejected by Tifa. She continued to shake her head with a smile. "I am merely an assistant AI. Please calm down, Player."
'Why is this not allowed, and that not allowed either...'And Tifa's "Please calm down, Player" genuinely felt as if she had completely seen through their facade.
How the hell were they supposed to calm down!
This wave left the players feeling very uncomfortable. Some players had thin skin, so since Tifa had already spoken, they decided to just drop it.
But a large portion of the players simply felt anger rise from their hearts, giving birth to malicious courage. Since Tifa already knows my dirty thoughts, I'm done pretending! Let's just go for it.
The players dropped all pretenses and pounced toward the Tifa in front of them with the posture of a starving tiger lunging at its prey. No one would know anyway!
However, Tifa simply kicked off the ground with her foot, executing a nimble backflip that vaulted her right over the player's head. By the time the player turned around in bewilderment, they saw Tifa continuing to look at them with a smile, her mouth repeating the same phrase. "Player, please have some self-respect!!!"
The players were instantly dumbfounded. Holy crap, what's up with Tifa? She seems to have some pretty good moves!
These entirely shameless players began chasing Tifa frantically.
Yet Tifa was like a nimble cat, dodging left and right, absolutely refusing to let the players touch a single hair on her head. It wasn't until the players were so exhausted their legs turned to jelly, collapsing onto the ground panting like dogs, that they realized they hadn't even managed to touch the hem of Tifa's clothes.
In contrast, Tifa stood perfectly straight, looking down at them with a smile. "Please have some self-respect, Player..."
The players were instantly out of options. What they didn't know was that the Tifa Lucien had created didn't merely share the same outward appearance; he had also implemented her super-strong combat capabilities as a female martial artist.
If the players wanted to touch her, they had no chance.
In the time following the launch of the [New World] platform, people worldwide were primarily discussing two things. The first was naturally the massive pie that New World Game Studio had drawn in the sky, and the second was Tifa.
The discussions surrounding Tifa on the internet became incredibly heated. Overnight, a dedicated Tifa subreddit was created, quickly attracting tens of thousands of members. Across Reddit and countless other online communities, countless perverts passionately discussing Tifa:
[Tifa is seriously way too beautiful! She perfectly matches all my specific tastes! Everything I've ever dreamed of has been realized in her!]
[Ever since I downloaded the New World platform and got Tifa, every other virtual avatar feels completely worthless. They're too crude and trashy.]
[Agreed. I announce that Tifa is my new wife. Gaia has to get in line behind her.]
[This is a wife that belongs to all of us!]
At the same time, Mika Pikazo also posted a tweet update:
[AHHHHH. When the developer told me my design had won, I was genuinely so happy.
But then he immediately followed up with, "I'm not actually going to use it."
...Huh??? Honestly, I was a little frustrated at first. I've been working as an illustrator for a very long time, so I do have confidence in my character designs. BUT...
When Tifa was revealed, I surrendered completely. White flag raised. Seriously, how is a game developer this absurdly good at character design??? Tifa is just... she's Nope, I can't explain it.
Anyway, thank you, Anon, for bringing an ideal beauty into existence. Also, the $30,000 prize money has safely arrived, which feels very nice. Alright, that's enough tweet for today.
I'm off to spend time with my wife, Tifa.]
Mika words also made the people laugh. Sure enough, Tifa's charm was irresistible. Any male or female who saw her could only give a thumbs-up and shout 'Fucking Gorgeous.'
However, as the people continued their discussions, the topic somehow grew increasingly derailed.
[Tifa is undeniably gorgeous, but let me ask y'all: is there any way to make physical contact with her? I don't mean anything weird by it, I just like her and purely want to hold her hand!]
[Ahem, a friend of mine had the same idea. He just likes her a lot and wants to hold her hand.]
[Tsk, tsk, do you guys really just 'like' her? You're lusting after her body! You're despicable!]
[I'm not pretending anymore, I'm laying my cards on the table. I'm totally lusting after her body! But lusting is all I can do! I've tried several times, and Tifa runs fucking fast! She's so nimble that I can't catch up to her at all.]
[Is it because our intimacy level isn't high enough?]
[Do you think you're playing a dating sim? You think there's an intimacy setting?]
[Not necessarily! What if there actually is? The developers thoughts are very hard to guess!]
[The developers really went too far! To design such a flawless, perfect beauty avatar, and then the players can only look at her!]
[Yeah, we can only look. I bet when the Anon plays it himself, he gets to do way more than that!]
[Isn't that obvious? The Old Thief definitely has way more options when he plays his own version. Just thinking about that scene makes me so mad!]
[That's enough for you guys. Getting to look at her is plenty. You actually thought you could lay your hands on her?!]
[Say no more, I absolutely must leave the Anon a negative review. He's not honest at all.]
The People frantically complained about Lucien. Amidst these grievances, a particular post rapidly blew up and became a trending topic.
The title of the post was: [Be careful, players! I got kicked by Tifa!]
The content was a rant from the original poster.
[Well, I saw that Tifa's hair looked very silky, so I wanted to go pet her hair. But Tifa kept refusing. Since she refused, I got anxious, so I kept chasing her, and she kept running away. After chasing Tifa for a few minutes, she suddenly turned around and delivered a flying kick right to my face, sending me flying! What kind of game did the developers design? Isn't she supposed to be an assistant? Since when do assistants beat people up!]
The comments below were equally lively.
[You know she's your assistant, so act like it! She's an assistant, not your wife! I'm too embarrassed to even call you out. Chasing her all over the room, and you're telling me it was just to touch her hair?!!]
[Wait a minute, he got kicked by Tifa? Holy crap, how did you get kicked? I want to try it too!]
[True, this might be the only chance we get for intimate physical contact with Tifa!]
[Retard, hurry up and explain! I chased Tifa all over the room for a long time too. How come I didn't get kicked?!]
[Yeah, how do you trigger this easter egg?! Tifa, my Tifa, I want to be kicked by her so badly too!]
[Ahem, how about we go to Jenny's Twitter and report the issue of being unable to interact with Tifa on the gaming platform to Anon!] (Anon is the name Lucien used when he streamed with Jenny.)
[Right, right, right! That's a great idea! Everyone, go report it!]
And so, under these circumstances, Jenny's Twitter was once again swarmed by a massive horde of perverts.
While this group of players was constantly striving to research how to take advantage of Tifa, the asian players were in a completely different situation. Of course, it wasn't that they didn't want to take advantage of her, but rather because they faced an even larger problem.
And that was the language barrier.
That's right, this iteration of Tifa still only spoke English. If Asian players wanted to understand what Tifa was saying, they could only do so through the subtitles below. Fluent communication was completely out of the question.
As a result, the Asian players were incredibly depressed.
Originally, after the Gaia incident during Subnautica, many players had already run off to learn English. But there were still quite a few who were hesitating. Now that Tifa had debuted... well, there was absolutely no need to hesitate anymore!
With such a stunning beauty standing right in front of them, if they couldn't even communicate with her, then what was the point of life?!
Learn! They absolutely had to learn.
For a time, the already lively trend of learning English in many Asian countries didn't die down after the New World platform's release; instead, it surged even higher.
Adv. 30 chapter on patreon .com/EdgyReader