Translated by Coldtaco
Edited by Aelryinth
Chen Mo hit the Start button and planted an Ice-shroom in the second row.
Just a few seconds later, accompanied by the creepy sound effects, a huge wave of zombies appeared!
It was really a wave of zombies, there were so many of them it was impossible to count. It was difficult to tell what types of zombies were there, as the only thing identifiable was the red eyes of the Gargantuar, tightly stacked as it stomped forwards.
Dancing Zombies, Pole-vaulting Zombies, and Football Zombies could sometimes be identified between the Gargantuars. The Zombies with their vaulting poles in their hands looked like knights charging into battle, the people watching could barely contain their shock.
The red-eyed Gargantuars tossed their Imps one after another, and soon after eight Imps landed beside the Gloom-shrooms. That wasn't the end of it; the imps kept getting hurled towards the plants in a constant stream, all of them chewing away at the Winter-melon.
The Gloom-shrooms started shooting crazily, and the flurry of Winter-melon shots at the zombies never slowed down, either.
Chen Mo was quite calm, directing Cobs and other explosive plants towards the hoards of zombies, turning the waves of zombies into ash. Every so often, Chen Mo placed some Puff-shrooms and Sun-shroom down to slow down the zombies slightly .
Under the constant waves of explosives, the hoards of zombies fell. Before Wen Lingwei and the others could make out what the zombies looked like, they were turned into ashes and coins on the ground.
Moreover, Chen Mo had good control over the tempo of firing the Cob Cannons as he predicted the positions of the zombies and always provided support to wherever it was needed.
Jia Peng's eyes and mouth were wide open at this performance. Chang Xiuya had her hands over her mouth, and even Wen Lingwei was staring.
You can actually play like this?!
How could a puzzle game feel like it requires higher APM than your average strategy game?
Under the constant bombing by Chen Mo, it felt like the Zombies couldn't do anything in retaliation. Anything that walked onto the screen would die without resistance.
"I now know how insane the Cob Cannon is."
"I knew that it was strong, but how is he able to protect so many of them?"
"I think... that this strategy is amazing! Reacting to all different types of zombies perfectly, interesting!"
The audience were starting to get tense from the action.
As the game continued, the assault from the zombies never stopped, but their speed was slowed down significantly. Under Chen Mo's methodical bombings, they died quickly.
Even as a huge wave of zombies arrived, Chen Mo had managed to not lose any plants!
"It's coming, a huge wave of zombies are approaching! I think the manager will be able to hold!"
"Oh my, there's so many of them!"
After the warning from the game, a huge wave of zombies approached. Hordes of Imps flew towards the plants, and the Gargantuars moved forwards, withstanding the retaliating firepower.
It was all under Chen Mo's control, maintaining the tempo from Cob Cannons and Bombs; it was hard to take in, there was so much going on.
Jia Peng couldn't understand what was going on at all. He wanted to follow Chen Mo's cursor, but there was too much going on on the screen, so it was impossible for him to remember all the operations Chen Mo was executing.
The others all had their attention on the screen, too. They knew that Chen Mo being able to beat so many levels wasn't just because of the strategy, but execution and technique, too!
They basically had the statergy down, but there was still the technique that was lacking.
After a minute of exciting battle, the last red-eyed Gargantuar fell. Chen Mo's plants were basically at full health, his Bombs were essentially off cooldown, and he hadn't spent too many suns, either.
"Wow, he beat the level!"
"Two thousand and twelfth level, man! He actually beat it! Oh my heavens!"
Everyone there was shocked. How did he do it? Was beating level two thousand actually possible?
Moreover, it felt like Chen Mo had everything under control and didn't over exert himself. It was probable that he still had more in him to continue on.
However, judging by Chen Mo's face, he didn't want to continue playing.
"Manager, do one more!"
"Yeah, manager, please explain the main points of the technique!"
"Manager, how did you decide on shooting the Cob Cannon, where do you shoot it?"
"When's the best time to use the Doom-shrooms and Ice-shrooms?"
Everyone surrounding Chen Mo was talking one after another, all with questions about his technique.
Chen Mo smiled, and closed his laptop.
"Like I said, I'm only doing that once. How much you guys get from it depends on you." Chen Mo didn't say anything else, but had a smile on his face, just like an otherworldly expert.
Jia Peng protested, "What? Manager, you can't just leave it at that. You're just cliffhanging!"
Chang Xiuya added, "Manager, just do it once more!"
Wen Lingwei said coldly, "Explain it properly, or I'll leave a bad review for this game on the app store!"
The others joined in, "Yeah, bad reviews!"
They were all trying to outshine each other.
Every single one around Chen Mo wanted him to explain the technique behind it, but Chen Mo wasn't going to give in, refusing to break.
Endless mode was probably enough to entertain these people for a few years. During this time, the most enjoyable process would be trying to find the best strategy. If Chen Mo gave away all his theories, it would undoubtedly shorten that searching process, which would end up cutting down on the fun they would have.
Therefore, he chose to do it once and only once, and not explain it any further.
A few of the students saw that Chen Mo was set on his decision and quietly left the bar table, heading back to their seats, ready to try out Chen Mo's strategy themselves.
Soon after, the others gave up one after another, leaving to try it out for themselves while it was still in memory.
Before Wen Lingwei left, she rolled her eyes at Chen Mo and said, "Hmph, stingy!"
The corner of Chen Mo's mouth was twitching, but he kept it under control. It was the game and the players. Yep!
Soon after, Wen Lingwei and the others were battling in Endless Mode trying out Chen Mo's strategy.
The strategy wasn't hard to memorize. As Wen Lingwei and Jia Peng were quite smart, they got it right after playing around with it a bit. They cross-verified and got most of the way there.
The first levels were needed to set up the strategy, putting down all the required plants before eventually swapping out for Bombs in the later levels.
However, that wasn't a challenge for Wen Lingwei and the others, and they got there very quickly.
The original Plants vs Zombies had basically been figured out by a few super fans. Chen Mo chose the more common 3C eight Cob Cannon[1] build with four sunflowers. It was a more balanced strategy, and didn't have a problem with level 4000, or beyond.
Normally the more Cob Cannons you had, the more firepower you had. However, Cob Cannons were very fragile, and if they were accidentally destroyed, they would leave an empty space behind for a long time. This could easily lead into a feedback loop, eventually costing the player the game!
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T/L Note: [1] 3C is the author of the strategy.