Free Web NovelChapter 226: Chapter 197: Getting Along Before the Game
If the Visual Kei style of dress ever took off on the Feilin Continent, Doudou would be the one primarily responsible.
The moment Doudou stepped into the room, all eyes immediately locked onto him.
"Good lord!" Zog couldn’t help but exclaim.
"Is that thing *hair*?" Elsa asked doubtfully.
"Goblin... thinks... very cool!" Ren 82 gave an approving thumbs-up.
"You’ve got a good eye, little goblin. I hereby declare you the second-most aesthetically gifted person in this room, after myself."
Doudou was sporting a gravity-defying hairstyle that looked like it came straight out of *Yu-Gi-Oh!*, paired with a bizarre set of armor one would only see in comics and video games.
It was the type of armor that offered zero protection for the upper body but insisted on having a single, flamboyant pauldron on one shoulder—embodying the principle of "the less you wear, the higher your defense."
As he spoke, he struck a pose with a flair that was distinctly reminiscent of JoJo.
Daring to show off his hobby in public, Doudou was definitely a rare social butterfly within the otaku community.
Luckily, American-style superhero comics hadn’t been invented yet. Otherwise, Zog suspected he’d dare to walk down the street in spandex.
"What are you doing dressed like that?"
In Zog’s memory, Doudou’s wardrobe typically maxed out at T-shirts with fictional characters printed on them.
All the printed apparel they had made before had been sold to Doudou and his little friends.
Salary recycling—an inescapable fate for every employee of the Zog Group.
As the leading Dragon Object among the children, Doudou had also given away plenty of clothes to kids who couldn’t afford them, which was why a huge crowd of children followed him wherever he went.
He had truly pioneered a new way for the Dragon Race to find followers. Other Dragons used force to compel Contracts; he offered benefits first, relying entirely on volunteers.
"Hah! Since you’ve asked so sincerely, I shall graciously tell you. Join our Cosplay Gang, and you too can get an outfit like this. Aren’t you tempted?"
Zog and Elsa shook their heads repeatedly.
"I... join!" Ren 82 was incredibly tempted.
"A wise choice."
"Wait," Zog interrupted. "The experienced gamers I asked you to find... they’re not all from that... ’gang,’ are they?"
Since many of the kids who played with Doudou were from commoner families—the target audience for a home console—Zog had given him the task of finding playtesters.
Many parents were relieved to have their children play with Doudou. At least it was much better than them hanging out with a real gang.
Occasionally, they even got a few new sets of clothes for free. Regardless of how they looked, they were still new clothes made from good material.
The most amazing thing was that the children who played with Doudou never ran into any danger. Common occurrences like being beaten up by older kids or having their pocket money stolen by delinquents simply stopped happening after they started hanging out with him.
"Of course! They’re right behind me. Every single one is a veteran member of the Cosplay Gang. They’ll absolutely play your game console inside and out!"
As he spoke, several more tweens walked into the room.
Without exception, they all had hairstyles that defied the heavens, coupled with completely unrealistic armor.
If this whole group were transported to the world of *Final Fantasy* right now, they wouldn’t look out of place at all.
"I am... Silver Spark!"
The self-introduction was delivered with thunderous force, accompanied by another pose.
"I am..."
Zog calmly watched the rest of the introductions. Although he was cringing so hard on the inside it hurt, he managed to hold it in.
He didn’t tell them that the playtest session was being recorded.
The children’s embarrassing pasts were now archived in high definition, just waiting to be played at their weddings before the watchful eyes of friends and family.
"Allow me to introduce it. What you’re about to playtest is a home video game console that hasn’t been released yet," Zog explained.
"A home console? Does that mean we can buy it and take it home?!" one kid said excitedly.
"The consoles now can also be bought and taken home. Can you afford one?" another kid retorted, throwing cold water on his excitement.
"That’s right. This console will be one that everyone can afford. And its biggest feature is that up to eight players can play together," Zog continued.
"Whoa, really? Then John can definitely afford it! We can all go to his house to play."
"You use codenames in front of outsiders! What John? That’s White Mouse Hero."
"Everyone, please take a controller. You’ll be testing a brand-new multiplayer co-op game, *Cute Cat Park*. If you pass all the test levels, there will be a small prize."
*Cute Cat Park*, also known as *Pico Park*, is a game that supports two to eight players simultaneously and features puzzle-solving and platforming elements.
The level design itself wasn’t particularly difficult; both the puzzles and the action segments were relatively simple.
However, beating the game was anything but simple, because its difficulty didn’t come from individual skill, but from cooperation with teammates.
As everyone knows, the more people there are, the less sense they have collectively.
When everyone needed to coordinate to overcome a challenge, the difficulty of even the simplest-looking level would increase exponentially with the number of players.
A small mistake from any single person could lead to failure. And what are friends for, if not to torture each other?
It was just that, right now, these kids had yet to realize the "malice" of this game.
With a full eight players, they were about to experience it at maximum difficulty.
A cute image appeared on the Magic Vision Device, showing eight little cat-headed figures of different colors.
The children’s attention, however, was still focused on the console itself.
"You have to connect it to a Magic Vision Device to play? Then we can only go to Jo— ah, I mean, White Mouse Hero’s house to play. We don’t even have a Magic Vision Device at home."
"This console is so cool! It feels like a mysterious treasure you’d find in a vault after defeating an Evil Dragon." Doudou said this, managing to poke fun at Zog while also including himself in the joke.
"The controller is moving!"
"There must be an Undead inside controlling it, just like with the cameras. They say cameras are actually made using Undead."
Zog’s eyelid twitched. ’What’s going on? Has our trade secret been discovered?’
’Next up will probably be the rumor that getting your picture taken by a camera will steal your soul.’
’No, I have to get the propaganda machine rolling. We need an official certification that the Stone prototype is not an Undead.’
’It’s like the difference between a sorcerer and a wizard. They’re not the same thing!’
"How do you use the controllers?"
"Look at the screen. The controls are explained right there."
The playtest build didn’t have a tutorial level. It only had a few levels to experience different game elements, so the controls were written directly on the initial screen.
Although it looked crude, it was actually a very efficient way to teach the player.
The teaching of controls in entertainment products has gone through three stages of evolution: writing them out directly, guiding the user to discover them, and then going back to writing them out directly.
For a long time, designers believed that crudely writing out the instructions was unaesthetic. An excellent design should use visual cues to guide the user on what to do.
They still think that way now.
However, they’ve now discovered that just writing it out is more effective. Visual cues? The user couldn’t care less about those.
Of course, players don’t necessarily read them even when they’re written out. But at least when customer service gets a complaint like, "How the heck do you use this thing?", they can simply reply that it’s already written down and where to find it, effectively increasing communication efficiency.
"Forward, back, jump, use item... too easy. I’ve already got it. That prize is as good as ours," someone said confidently.
"The graphics feel so childish. Like something my little brother would play."
The teenage years are an age where one despises childishness above all else, trying every way possible to prove one’s maturity.
Hearing this, Elsa forced back the praise she was about to give the game.
’She didn’t want to be called childish by a little brat.’
But she really did like the graphics. She didn’t know why, but as her years on the job increased, so did her inability to resist cute things.
Zog saw what Elsa was thinking and said in a low voice, "It’d be a bit difficult for you to play this game. Even Toto would have a hard time carrying you."
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
Elsa retorted loudly, though she wasn’t refuting her own gaming skills.
"How could Toto possibly not be able to carry me?!"
"This one’s a little different. With this game, the only possibility is that you’ll make Toto rage quit."
Meanwhile, the eight "heroes" of the Cosplay Gang had already started the game.
"I’m red, I’m red!"
"I’m blue."
Soon, everyone had identified their character.
A great part of *Cute Cat Park* is that regardless of how many people are playing, it’s all on a single screen. There’s no split-screen, and local multiplayer doesn’t divide the view into multiple boxes.
"Let’s go, let’s go! How many levels are in this demo?"
"Four."
"That’s it? Piece of cake. We’ll clear it in half an hour, easy."
The group held down the forward button and charged ahead.
"Careful!" someone warned. "Watch out, it might be one of those *Cat Mario* type games."
Clearly, this one had also been tortured by *Cat Mario*. He was inching forward, taking one step and then another back, testing for traps with every move.
*Cat Mario* had now become its own genre of game, with an influence not much smaller than the original *Mario*.
Because it was easy to imitate, a whole series of troll mini-games had appeared on the Red Middle Network.
Each of them had a lot of players, and some people even got addicted to playing these kinds of games.
Brain: This is torture.
Hand: Must click and try it.
"Huh? There are no traps?"
The little Cats ran all the way across without the ground collapsing or spikes falling from the sky. Everything was peaceful and serene.
The only obstacle was a slightly high platform. They quickly figured out they could step on each other’s heads to get up, and the person who got up first could press a button to activate a spring that launched the others up.
"Too easy. Half an hour is too long. Ten minutes, we’ll clear all four levels."
"We’ll beat it without dying once, easy."
"I don’t know who would ever get stuck on such an easy game."
The young heroes started boasting to each other.
"I think this game was really designed for me," Elsa said after watching them clear the first level.
"It’s fine. The second level will humble them," Zog said calmly.
"Charge, charge, charge!" The young heroes ran toward the second level.
"Hey, why is there a health bar?"
"Do we have to fight enemies in this level?"
"Why is the health bar going down?"
"Wait, don’t touch me! Didn’t it say ’Don’t touch me’ at the start of the level?!"
’Sure enough, even if you write it out, no one will read it.’
A special feature of *Cute Cat Park* is that every level has a new rule. For this one, players lost health whenever they touched each other.
"Get away, everyone get away! Pink, move it!"
"I jumped up! Wait, Red, don’t come over here! The platform is ice, it’s slippery!"
On a sheet of ice, the players slid around like curling stones, crashing into one another as their health bar drained at lightning speed.
First death achieved.
"I get it now," Doudou said first, taking on the responsibility of a gang leader.
"Everyone, listen to my command. Next time, we’ll beat it without dying again, easy."
