Later that day Ling Qin was in his room seated by his desk facing his laptop while listening to a man making a report on the other end of the call. The laptop screen displayed Ling Qin's new game 'The Last Run' that was just about to launch 5 minutes from now at five o'clock.
"Boss everything has been prepared. All the servers are operating well, everyone that needs to be here at headquarters is here and we have finished with the necessary advertisements and announcements. There is currently a large number of people watching the live broadcast so I'm pretty sure that we are going to have a very successful launch." The man on the other side said excitedly
"Mhm, just pay attention and make sure that nothing goes wrong" Ling Qin commented lightly "Oh right don't stop the advertisements once the game is launched. Try your best to let the game reach an even bigger audience. I want it to be a big hit everywhere in the country. This upcoming period is the best time so there better be no mistakes."
"Got it, boss. Don't worry we've got everything under control!" the man responded
"Good! I've got other things to do I'll call you later" Ling Qin said before he ended the call.
He then entered into his contacts and looked for the name Bear. Once found he immediately called the other. The phone rang for a few seconds before a cheerful voice came from the other end
"Qin!" Blake's loud voice made its presence known
"Hi, Blake have you already settled down?" Ling Qin inquired.
"Yep we arrived in the capital around 10 am so we've had plenty of time to settle down at my grandparents' house," Blake replied
"What are you doing now?"
"I'm in my room waiting for that game of yours to launch so I can download it " Blake replied
"I thought you forgot." ling Qin commented lightly
"How could I ?! This is the very first time you are interested in a game so of course, I'll remember!" Blake responded, "Oh the game is starting!"
"Hm let's start then," Qin said placing his phone down on the table after putting it on speaker mode.
"Alright !"
Once the game began both Ling Qin and Blake went on to read the introduction.
The screen darkened for a bit before a world map appeared. With the appearance of the world map, a line of words burst out arranging themselves in the middle of the screen. The words read "On this day, April 5th, They appeared and the end of the world came with them!"
In the next second the image of the map began to shake and thirteen circles glowing in a bright blue light began to form all over the world.
These circles represented the portals the Ganria used to enter the planet. With their appearance, the world began to shake, earthquakes began to happen, tsunamis and floods occurred and volcanoes began to erupt. Everything happened at once not giving people any time to react.
After showing the scene of the Ganria's appearance the scene displayed on the screen changed again and showed one of the world's armies fighting together to destroy the creatures as well as the final ending of the battle and eruption of the Pacific rim.
Once that was over the scene changed once again but this time with Ling Qin's character that he had to design appearing in a bedroom. He quickly chose one of the primary characters available and chose not to customize it. He planned to do that later on.
Once he chose his character his first main mission of gathering supplies was then issued followed by the side mission of killing 20 zombies.
"Wow, the graphics of this game are awesome!" Blake's voice came through the phone
"Heh" Ling Qin smiled at that while he continued reading through the basic information on the setting of the game and mission.
"Hey what's your username I wanna send you an invite to join the chat so that we will be able to communicate through the game. My airtime will run out at this point." Ling Qin suddenly said once he was done reading through the basic information.
"Ok my name is Dark warrior " Blake responded.
"Tsk such a corny name," Qin said as he opened the settings to create the chat.
"Bah, you just have horrible taste okay? my name is the definition of cool" Blake snarled back at him.
"Whatever" Ling Qin then immediately sent an invite to Blake to join the chat. Once Blake joined he cut the call on his cellphone and put on his headphones
"Hey, can you hear me?" Qin asked testing out his mike
"Yes, I can!" Blake responded
"Alright then let's start"
Ling Qin then opened the map to check his current location as well as the mission target: the supermarket.
Ling Qin was currently on the fifth floor of an apartment just three streets away from the local supermarket. To complete the first mission he had to successfully collect supplies from the supermarket according to the list he received and safely return to the apartment.
In normal circumstances, this wasn't a big deal but this was a zombie apocalypse game so he needed to deal with the zombies if he wanted to complete the mission and finally enter the real game.
This mission that Ling Qin was about to undertake was one that every player had to first complete before they could be brought back into the world that had undergone crazy changes with the appearance of the Ganria as well as the place in which the player's characters could begin interacting with each.
Just as Ling Qin was about to exit the bedroom Blake's piercing scream came through the headphones. Ling Qin immediately took off the headphones and flung them off onto the desk.
"What the hell!" Ling Qin grunted annoyed "What are you yelling for?!"
"What kind of perverted game is this ha! Some bloody monster just attacked me the moment I left the bedroom and ate my player up! The hell! Shouldn't they give us a warning or something I lost a life here!" Blake's voice laced with pure annoyance and irritation came through from the other side
"Oh, that." Ling Qin had forgotten about that entrance surprise.
According to the game design, all players were supposed to be killed by the surprise zombie once the game began. This was supposed to increase the players' vigilance and also remind them that their family members could also become zombies so they must always be alert and not die in the beginning.
Though this might seem cruel, traumatizing, and unnecessary, Ling Qin believed that this was the most necessary part of the game. One of the reasons that the human race was at a major disadvantage during the apocalypse was because the majority of people that died were due to them being killed by their family members and partners. After all, they did not have the necessary vigilance at the beginning and we're caught by surprise.
No one could be certain that their partners sleeping next to them would not just wake up and become zombies so this caution was absolutely a necessity. The players first needed to kill those zombie family members before they could advance.
"Thanks for the heads up." Ling Qin responded "Be more vigilant next time, this is an apocalypse game after all. One can never be too careful."
"You could have said that before I died!" Blake said sarcastically
"Just hurry up and complete the mission so that we can meet up"
"How am I supposed to even complete the mission if I can't even leave the room and get killed by some beast ah?!"
Ling Qin's gaze shifted around in the room for a moment before his eyes settled on the wooden chair by the desk. "Break the leg of the chair and use it as a weapon. You can also use the umbrella in the wardrobe or curtain rod if you want. Even the whole chair can be used as a weapon if you up to it."
"Eh, you can do that?!" Blake exclaimed as he moved towards the chair.
"Mhm now hurry up and remember to aim for the head. And don't rush out once you have a weapon be more vigilant, will you? Don't lose all your lives "
"Alright alright, I got it," Blake responded
"Tsk!" Ling Qin then moved towards the chair and pulled it away from the desk. He then began kicking at one leg repeatedly until the leg snapped. He then bent down and twisted the leg completely breaking it off from the chair.
With the leg in his hand he began making his way towards the door and just as he was about to open it he stopped in his tracks.
Dropping the wooden leg, Ling Qin ran back to the bed and took off the thin covers. He then proceeded to tie one end off the covers on the door handle. With the other end of the sheets in hand, he picked up his stick and moved back till he was standing close to the window in an area that was more open and didn't restrict his movements.
Getting his player into a battle-ready stance he then proceeded to harshly pull at the door with his right hand that held the sheets while keeping a firm grip on the chair leg with his left hand.
The moment the door opened he quickly dropped the sheet and held the wooden stick with both hands.
Right at that moment, a female zombie came hurtling through the door straight at him.
The zombie looked disgusting it was beyond creepy. Her face was pale with blue and green veins sticking out through her skin. Her lips were a nasty shade of puke green with a black liquid dripping out and her eyes were completely black with no pupils and one eye sticking out of the skull more than it should. Half of the zombie's head was also ripped apart by what seemed to be the zombie's long black nails. Some meat and muscles were just hanging from the head.
Ling Qin felt nauseous for a second at the sight of her but he quickly adjusted his emotions and controlled his player to move toward the zombie.
Ling Qin and the female zombie headed straight for each other but just as they were about to make contact he controlled his player to bypass the zombie by swerving to the right and coming to stand next to the zombie. He then lifted the wooden stick and hit the zombie straight on the head from behind before the zombie could react and turn around.
Once hit the zombie stumbled forward as its head folded in. Ling Qin took this chance to quickly approach it and hit it again on the same spot. He hit the zombie twice with a great amount of force before its head burst open and the brain matter spilled out.
Seeing as it was not moving he moved towards it slowly and hit the head another time just to make sure it was dead. He didn't want a situation whereby the zombie stood back up.
Ling Qin then proceed towards the door and finally exited the bedroom passing the first hurdle of the game.
From the door of the bedroom, Ling Qin had a clear view of the dining, room, lounge, and kitchen. He stood there for a second just surveying the surroundings to make sure that no other surprises were lurking around the corners.
Once he was sure there was nothing he moved back into the bedroom, picked out a big bag from the wardrobe, and began looking around the house for some basic medicine and food.
He also placed some big knives in his bag and exchanged the wooden stick in his hands for a baseball bat. He fiddled around with the baseball bat for a few seconds but he felt like it wasn't enough so he went looking around for some big nails and hammered them into the bat changing its appearance to look more lit a spiky club.
Just then Blake's frustrated voice came through again "What the hell is that!"
"What is what?!" he questioned back
"That thing how can it look so nasty I almost puked out my lunch. Can't the designers make the characters more appealing?" Blake answered
"It's a horror game Blake, it's supposed to be nasty," he said shaking his head as he proceed towards the door.
"Either way this is too nasty," he whispered back.
"Did you kill the zombie?" Ling Qin asked Blake.
"Nah I got mauled the moment I opened the door. How am I supposed to kill this thing if I can't even open the door ah?! This is ridiculous!" he whined.
"Use your brain dumbass! Don't open the door directly ah, tie something on the handle and open the door from a distance it's not that hard." Ling Qin responded
"Bah do you think everyone is you? It's a game! Who would think that far?" he mumbled
"Tsk stop complaining and just do it. Where is the fun in making things too easy." Ling Qin sneered.
If people couldn't even use their brains in the game to solve such easy things then they might as well just throw themselves in a zombie crowd during the apocalypse to quickly end their suffering. "Hurry up and kill it already I'm already leaving the apartment. Don't let me leave you too far behind."
"Alright alright, I got it," Blake responded as he looked around the room. His eyes came to land on the curtain so he ripped it off the railings and went to tie it to the door getting ready to face the zombie
"Mhm tell me when you have left the apartment building, I'm logging off for a bit." Ling Qin said pausing the game and picking up the phone that was ringing beside him
"Ok" Blake's voice came through just before Ling Qin paused the game.
"How is it going?" Ling Qin asked his assistant once he picked up the phone.
"Boss it's going great!" the assistant's excited voice came through ."Close to 2 million people are logged in right now and the feedback we are getting is mostly good with just a few bad comments here and there but almost every player is saying that this game is incredible. The headline for the game is quickly moving up the charts on Twitter and Weibo and we expect that it won't be long before it reaches the top of the charts. The guys this side are saying that they are expecting to have at least 500 thousand more players joining the game."
"Hm make sure that there are no mishaps and that the servers do not get overloaded. We can't have the game freezing during the first day that's unacceptable." Ling Qin instructed.
"Yes boss"
"And Xaiofen.... keep up the good work if the launch is a success you'll all get bonuses"
"Thank you boss we won't let you down!" Xiaofen replied super excited.
"Alright now head back to work. It's still early I expect an increase of at least one million players by the end of the day."
"Yes sir!" Xaiofen answered as the call ended.
Ling Qin then went downstairs to get himself some water and some snacks before he came back. Checking the time and seeing that it was just half past five he decided to play for one more hour before heading down to dinner.
He wore his headphones to make himself comfortable and unpaused the game so he could continue playing.