Chapter 3

As Wang Fubu finally picked up his chopsticks, the noodles were just the right temperature to eat. He was hungry and slurped them down.

Xia Ci sat on the other side of the table, her hands supporting her cheeks, quietly watching Wang Fubu. She seemed lost in thought.

After a moment, Xia Ci said, "Tomorrow is Saturday. Will you accompany me to Xinjiekou?"

Xinjiekou was the city center. Wang Fubu was puzzled and asked, "What are you going there for?"

"I have a foot washer who works at a café in Xinjiekou. I want to go see her," Xia Ci said, a bit embarrassed.

Wang Fubu automatically ignored the first part of Xia Ci's sentence, thought for a moment, and guessed her meaning. He asked, "You mean working? You're so young, what kind of work can you do?"

Xia Ci stomped her foot and said, "My guardian spirit eats so much! The money my mother sends me every month isn't enough! As your summoner, I have the duty to make sure you don't starve!"

Wang Fubu laughed and couldn't help but stand up and ruffle Xia Ci's hair, "Worrying too much. I'm a grown man, with hands and feet. I don't need you to support me."

"But..." Xia Ci seemed very uncomfortable with being touched, her head almost retreating into her neck, her thoughts in a mess. She couldn't come up with anything after saying "but" for a long time.

"Don't say 'but' anymore. Starting today, I'll make sure you live like a real princess. A princess should have food served to her and clothes handed to her," Wang Fubu promised. He didn't believe he came to the year 2000 because of Xia Ci's "summoning," but he believed there must be some unknown reason.

"Um..." Xia Ci nodded, then thought it wasn't right and whispered, "But I'll dress myself..."

"Fine, you can dress yourself," Wang Fubu said, mimicking the European nobility he had seen in movies, extending his hand, "Please, Princess, to bed. Your guardian spirit needs to think about how to make our princess live like a real princess."

"Okay!" Xia Ci also extended her hand, placing her index finger in Wang Fubu's palm, looking quite proper. She gracefully crawled back into bed.

"Good night," Wang Fubu helped Xia Ci cover herself with the blanket.

"Wang Fubu, my guardian spirit. When I open my eyes tomorrow, I'll still see you, right?" Xia Ci said, blinking her eyes.

"Absolutely," Wang Fubu promised.

With that, Xia Ci closed her eyes in peace.

Wang Fubu then opened his briefcase and took out the laptop that had come with him to this era.

Having made a bold promise, Wang Fubu needed to make Xia Ci live a comfortable life. How to achieve it? As the laptop booted up, Wang Fubu looked at Xia Ci, who was sleeping like a porcelain doll, deep in thought.

With the startup sound, Wang Fubu opened a shortcut icon on the desktop, entering a folder named "Games I Made."

This folder contained games Wang Fubu had made during his university years. There were small Flash games a few MB in size, as well as 3D games over 1 GB.

Selling the games he had made was the first idea that came to Wang Fubu's mind. But the key was, which one to sell?

The small games were definitely not sellable, so they were ruled out first. The remaining options were two large games. One was an ARPG game similar to "Diablo 2" based on "Torchlight," and the other was an FPS game similar to "Left 4 Dead" based on "Counter-Strike 1.6."

Back in college, Wang Fubu's grades were average, but his ability to make games made him a well-known tech geek.

The games he made received mixed reviews online, but they were very popular on campus, thanks to word-of-mouth among his classmates. Wang Fubu was also happy to listen to and incorporate all feedback on his works. Thus, what started as games to satisfy his own interests gradually improved with the constant suggestions from his classmates.

In a sense, the final versions of these two games, while not as polished in terms of graphics and music as foreign blockbusters, were nearly perfect in terms of upgrade mechanisms, story, world-building, and combat fun.

"You made these games, and I still haven't deleted them. They absolutely crush domestic games," a classmate said seriously at a reunion two years after graduation.

Wang Fubu was also very confident in his works. In this era, just changing the Chinese to English would allow him to sell them abroad.

"So, which one to sell?" Wang Fubu looked at the two folders, unsure.

After all, they were the products of his all-nighters. Selling both would be a pity. He wanted to sell one to get his first pot of gold and then work on the other.

Gradually, his eyes fell on the game made with the "Counter-Strike 1.6" engine, similar to "Left 4 Dead."

The game was called "Raging Tide." As the name suggests, the player would fight against waves of zombies. The game was set in New York, and Wang Fubu, who had never been to America, used the New York map from "Prototype" to create a circular map with a radius of 1.5 kilometers.

Compared to the 3A games made by major studios 14 years later, this was nothing. Games like Ubisoft's "Far Cry 3" and "Watch Dogs" had maps over 10 square kilometers, Bethesda's "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" had a map of about 50 square kilometers, and Rockstar's "GTA 5" had a map over 100 square kilometers.

The size of the map doesn't necessarily determine how fun a game is. But a fun game with a large map can bring unimaginable joy to players.

Speaking of fun, Wang Fubu was absolutely confident in "Raging Tide."

"Raging Tide" was a sandbox game where the character could freely explore any corner of the map.

There was no time limit in the game. As time passed, the enemies would evolve from basic zombies to more advanced monsters. The player could rescue human survivors, expanding their influence and gradually gaining more power.

Of course, the player could also choose to kill the survivors, but Wang Fubu made various small settings to encourage players to help them.

When the game was first made, only Wang Fubu's roommate played it. Wang Fubu listened to everyone's opinions, improving and debugging the game bit by bit, spending countless hours to enhance its quality.

Other dorm mates went from initially dismissing it to flocking to copy it, using USB drives to queue up. Only Wang Fubu knew how many all-nighters he had pulled.

However, the carefully crafted "Raging Tide" did not bring Wang Fubu fame or fortune. Apart from a limited number of classmates, most people didn't know that a student had spent half a year making such a game. Even when he graduated and looked for a job, these games couldn't be a plus on his resume.

The only reward, perhaps, was the simple joy Wang Fubu felt when he operated the game's characters.

Unexpectedly, Wang Fubu found himself back in the year 2000.

He could confidently say that in this era, no game had the gameplay of "Raging Tide." He also believed that no player would refuse such a carefully crafted game.

Of course, it was unrealistic for Wang Fubu to single-handedly bring "Raging Tide" to market, especially in the Western market. He planned to sell "Raging Tide" to Valve Corporation.

Valve's "Half-Life" series had always been a classic in sci-fi games. Wang Fubu wanted to sell "Raging Tide" to Valve not only because the company was wealthy but also because he remembered a specific event.

Around 1999, two players created an expansion mod called "Counter-Strike" based on "Half-Life." They simply placed "Counter-Strike" on Valve's official forum for other players to download.

Unexpectedly, "Counter-Strike" quickly became popular. Valve could have claimed the copyright and taken it over, but they didn't. Instead, they found the creators, bought "Counter-Strike" for a high price, and invited them to join the company. These two players eventually became executives at Valve.

This was a rare win-win story in the gaming industry.

Knowing this story, Wang Fubu trusted Valve even more.

After making the decision, Wang Fubu started to modify the game's text, changing the Chinese to English.

Fortunately, the game had no quest system or unrealistic items. Most of the translation work was in the dialogues. With 100 NPC survivors, each having about 200 lines of dialogue with the protagonist, there were roughly 20,000 lines in total. It wasn't an enormous workload and could be completed in a few days.

However, he didn't plan to wait until the translation was complete before releasing it. Instead, he intended to release an initial version tomorrow and a second version the day after. The final version would be kept in reserve, depending on the situation.

As a programmer, Wang Fubu had read over a dozen thick English books, but he still needed a dictionary for the translation. Fortunately, Xia Ci's desk had an English-Chinese dictionary.

While translating, Wang Fubu couldn't help but find it a bit amusing. In 14 years, translating English games into Chinese was common, but "anglicizing" Chinese games was unheard of. The term "anglicize" sounded awkward.

Immediately, a sense of ambition arose in his heart. It sounded awkward because it was rarely heard! Since he was in this world, sooner or later, everyone would get used to the term "anglicize." Wang Fubu had this confidence.

Tap, tap, tap...

In the quiet night, only the sound of Wang Fubu's keyboard tapping could be heard.

Occasionally, a "Demon" passed by outside, but the sound was much quieter. This was the most peaceful night Xia Ci had slept in two years.

"Guardian spirit..." Xia Ci sat up groggily, her hair, which usually flowed like a waterfall, now a mess. She rubbed her eyes and mumbled, "Accompany me to the toilet..."

---

The page turned, and an ad began.

The page turned, and the ad ended.