Chapter 40

In a city hundreds of kilometers away from Donghai City, a cold drizzle was falling from the sky. The rain brought by the summer typhoon had weakened over several days, but the temperature had not returned to the usual 37 or 38 degrees Celsius. Instead, it was only around 20 degrees, much to the relief of the overheated people.

Li Dong, holding an umbrella, walked into the dormitory building of the university, returned to room 419, and opened the door. He saw that his roommates were fully engrossed in playing League of Legends, so much so that they didn't even notice his return.

Li Dong placed the snacks he had bought on his desk and turned on his computer.

"Hmm, Li Dong, you're back?"

Zhang Long, who was playing League of Legends, didn't even turn his head, clicking the mouse at a rapid pace as the hero on the screen wreaked havoc under his control.

"I'm back. I bought the things you wanted. You can take them later."

"Oh."

Zhang Long responded casually.

Li Dong didn't mind; anyone who had played League of Legends knew that when you were immersed in the game, nothing around you could distract you.

However...

Li Dong, a long-time League of Legends player, had lost interest in the game. He clicked the mouse, unsure of what other games to play.

There were no major 3A single-player games being released recently, and the ones that had been released, he had already completed. He had no interest in playing them again.

Although the graphics of current big-budget single-player games were better than a few years ago, the gameplay had regressed. It was hard to say whether he would even have the interest to complete them, let alone play them multiple times.

Many games lost their appeal just by watching the trailers, let alone playing them.

Bored, Li Dong browsed various websites, but they were all old news, and there were no games worth playing. Just as he was about to close the game website, a headline caught his eye.

"3A Mobile Masterpiece, Made by Chinese?"

Just from the title, it was...

Too sensational!

Li Dong knew that some journalists and editors would do anything to attract attention, twisting common events into sensational headlines to draw traffic. They had no integrity to speak of.

But it was true that the more sensational and bizarre the headline, the more curious people became and clicked to view it. No matter how much readers cursed after reading, the editors had already achieved their goal of attracting a large amount of traffic.

Li Dong knew this, but he couldn't resist clicking the link.

"Top Game of the Week — 'Endless Stars.'"

"It's time for the best game of the week. There are many great games this week, whether it's updates or new versions. I won't go into detail about each one. But today, I want to recommend a game developed by Chinese. Whether it is indeed developed by Chinese is still up for debate, but I must say, this game is one of the best I've ever seen. It's a sandbox game — 'Endless Stars.'"

"'Endless Stars' is a sandbox game with graphics that rival 'Modern Warfare 4,' yet it offers the same level of freedom as 'Minecraft' on PC. Those who have played 'Minecraft' know that it is famous for its unparalleled imagination and creativity. However, 'Endless Stars' offers even more freedom and imagination, which is quite unbelievable."

"In 'Endless Stars,' you can control your character to explore and build bases on various planets with different ecosystems. Each planet is as large as Earth, with unique and carefully crafted ecosystems."

"You can hunt, build, and play, even mine and create various types of spaceships, all you need is a bit of imagination."

"Moreover, players can fly their spaceships to other planets. I played for over ten hours and discovered six different planets, including one like Mars and another like Jupiter. This game offers endless fun and challenges, perfect for fans of sandbox creation and survival games."

This was a detailed game introduction, and the editor's enthusiasm for 'Endless Stars' was evident, leaving Li Dong quite surprised.

"Is this game really that good?"

Li Dong looked at the game screenshots, which were indeed impressive, but he wondered if the actual game was as good. Since he had nothing else to do, he decided to download it to his phone to pass the time.

However, when he saw that the game's installation package was only about 50MB, he thought there would be additional data to download after installation. To his surprise, he could directly enter the game.

"The CG is really well done!"

Li Dong nodded, and his interest in the game increased slightly.

"Repair the main engine and fix the fault within ten minutes."

The first task appeared as Li Dong pondered.

Li Dong placed his hands on the screen and started controlling the character to leave the control room.

"How big is this spaceship in the game?"

Li Dong was quite surprised.

Logically, a 50MB game shouldn't have such detailed and large internal environments. Indeed, Li Dong's character walked through several corridors and saw many rooms, each decorated with great detail, which was quite unexpected.

But what happened next was even more surprising.

When he finally controlled the character to the engine room, he was stunned by the massive nuclear fusion engine. The character seemed so small in comparison. How could he repair it?

Fortunately, years of gaming experience helped him quickly calm down. He followed the game's prompt and opened the main circuit of the engine.

"What does this mean?"

The screen was filled with complex circuit diagrams, not just one layer, but dozens of pages.

Li Dong wondered if he had missed something and quickly exited the circuit diagram. He then noticed a computer terminal with a screen full of English, which almost blinded him.

After a while, Li Dong understood that the screen was filled with the main engine's operation logs. To repair the main engine, one needed to understand circuit knowledge to diagnose the fault.

"Damn, are you messing with me?"

Li Dong almost threw his phone. Was the game developer intentionally making it difficult? Did players need to be engineers to play this game?

Time was running out. Li Dong controlled the character to walk around the engine room, hoping to find some clues, but there were none.

"Main engine damaged, failed to restart, initiating backup engine..."

"Backup engine failed, spaceship will enter low orbit..."

At this moment, the spaceship's warning sounded, and Li Dong smiled bitterly, "Looks like I have to start over?"

However, to his surprise, the game didn't end there. The spaceship broke through the atmosphere and crash-landed on the ground.

"Strange, was that task not necessary? Or..."

Li Dong pinched his chin, "Is this a branching storyline?"

"First task: Find useful resources to repair the spaceship. Second task: Explore the planet."

"Hmm, these tasks are quite broad, aren't they?"

At this point, he could input his player name and adjust his appearance. Li Dong didn't care much about these details and casually chose "I Am Lonely" as his name before controlling the character to walk out.

"This... the graphics are really good!"

He landed on a beach, and it was already dusk in the game. The sun was slowly setting on the horizon, creating a beautiful scene.

But the next moment left Li Dong speechless! (Please give some recommendations, thank you.)

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