In less than an hour, Jiang Qiao managed to shift the blame onto the Tian Gong One Three terminal.
"It's done."
After exiting the creator mode, Jiang Qiao immediately ran to his bedroom, pulled out his laptop for writing, and placed it on the table in the living room.
"You dumped this on the Tian Gong One Three terminal?"
Hai Lan was holding Jiang Qiao's frying pan, trying to figure out what Jiang Qiao meant by "pan" when he was busy hacking into Tian Gong One Three's system.
"Not that kind of pan! I mean, players can now download Holy Spirit on the official platform of Tian Gong One Three."
Jiang Qiao logged into Huaguo's Tian Gong platform, which was the official platform of Tian Gong One Three and also Huaguo's official gaming platform.
Games from various companies were gathered here, somewhat similar to STEAM on Earth. Of course, these games had to be manually reviewed to pass.
Games "made" by Tian Gong One Three didn't need that, and Holy Spirit had the highest level of access on Tian Gong One Three, making it impossible to delete manually.
Jiang Qiao also set up an information blocking mechanism, which meant Tian Gong One Three would automatically block any official posts that were unfavorable to Holy Spirit.
This was the "convenience" of the internet age.
Jiang Qiao typed "Holy Spirit" into the platform's search bar, and a triangle icon popped up, with only one search result.
Holy Spirit
Type: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game/MMORPG.
Price: Free.
Game size: 5210G.
Jiang Qiao randomly filled five thousand gigabytes with content. The Holy Spirit on the platform was just a façade. The real "entrance" would only reveal itself when players logged in with an activation code.
"How do players gain access?"
Hai Lan put down the frying pan and circled the laptop before sitting on the sofa to look at the screen.
"Three-quarters lottery, one-quarter based on skill," Jiang Qiao said.
"I get the lottery part, what about skill?" Hai Lan made a fist, "You don't mean fighting in the real world, do you?"
"Not real-world fighting. The skill part refers to these things."
Jiang Qiao opened his play records for several games on the platform. He was an experienced gamer, having spent a lot of time on most major titles.
The Tian Gong platform had an achievement system for both online and standalone games. Some standalone games also had speedrun timers and the platform's own live recording feature.
Players had countless ways to prove their skills on this platform.
Jiang Qiao leveraged this mechanism, granting a quarter of Holy Spirit's access through invitations to top players, while three-quarters were left in the random lottery pool, allowing ordinary players to enjoy the game too.
"What if they get access but don't play?" Hai Lan, who didn't know much about this world's games, wasn't sure if the Holy Spirit World Jiang Qiao created was fun or not.
"If they don't reach level fifteen within a month, their access will be revoked. If they play up to level fifteen, they should get hooked."
Jiang Qiao only said "should". With diverse player tastes, he couldn't guarantee everyone would like it, but he was sure most would.
Holy Spirit's gameplay itself was exceptional. In creator mode, Jiang Qiao knew what made games engaging, and the game's system surpassed all other games in this world.
After all, no other game in this world allowed players to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch with such realism.
"We only have a hundred available slots. That's nowhere near enough, is it?" Hai Lan knew that Huaguo alone had fifteen billion people, making a hundred slots seem very few.
"That's where our beta testers come in." Jiang Qiao began eating a piece of bread, "I'll open a new world fragment as an instance in a few days. Killing monsters or clearing the instance will give extra player slots. Also, it's time to start a guild."
"What's the guild for?" Although she knew why Jiang Qiao wanted to start one, Hai Lan still asked.
"I want to experience the guild system," Jiang Qiao mumbled through a mouthful of bread.
"Is that even a reason..." Hai Lan mused.
"Hai Lan, when you were a creator, did you just watch from the sidelines and rarely do 'field research'?" Jiang Qiao's next words left Hai Lan speechless.
"As a god, mixing with my creations might... scare them," Hai Lan found an excuse to refute him.
"That's likely why your world fell apart. A good game designer needs to understand the player experience better than the players themselves. I believe you can't fully grasp their feelings without personal experience," Jiang Qiao said. "Also, being a creator doesn't stop me from being a gamer. I'm a player who loves video games, and you know being a god all the time gets boring."
"I... suppose it does," Hai Lan lightly bit her lower lip. The reason she sealed her creator mode was because... it was too boring, without desire, like a saint.
"Let's just say, I have two identities. The first is your contractor, creator Jiang Qiao. In this role, I maintain Holy Spirit World's development and guide players. That's what I find interesting about this identity," Jiang Qiao explained.
"But I also have another identity, a normal person, a fourth-year finance student at Jiang Cheng University, considering graduate school, a web novelist, a Holy Spirit player very interested in games, and a game designer responsible for the game's ecosystem. Understand?"
"Does that mean I have dual identities too?" Listening to Jiang Qiao's analysis, Hai Lan realized she was similar to him.
"Pretty much."
Jiang Qiao had incredibly strong self-control. Unlike someone with procrastination, when it was time to write, he never delayed, placing his hands on the keyboard without hesitation.
That's why Jiang Qiao could control his use of creator mode well.
"What's the guild name going to be?" Hai Lan seemed ready to help Jiang Qiao name the guild, something like Sea Blue Divine Sect.
"I haven't decided yet."
Jiang Qiao struggled with names, so the guild name hadn't been determined yet. He just felt it was time to start one.
"How about..."
"Someone's already starting to draw for playtesting qualifications!"
Jiang Qiao shoved another piece of bread into Hai Lan's mouth as he opened the Holy Spirit's official site.
The Holy Spirit's site was very simple, with just a mysterious triangle emblem, an option to log into the Tian Gong platform, and an option to draw for playtest slots.
Jiang Qiao hadn't asked Tian Gong One Three to heavily advertise Holy Spirit, relying on players discovering it as they explored game queues.
While Hai Lan and Jiang Qiao were talking, thirty-seven out of the seventy-five testing slots he put in the lottery had already been taken.
When the thirty-eighth testing slot was drawn, Jiang Qiao's laptop suddenly popped up with a message.
"Official personnel obtained a slot."
This message was privately sent to Jiang Qiao by Tian Gong One Three, reminding him that someone related to it had drawn a slot.
"Game ID: Black-haired Chang Qing."