Chapter Thirty-Three: The Old Demon Li
The next day arrived.
“Spore Evolution” officially launched with 760,000 bookmarks.
...
Baiqiao Star
In a luxurious mansion on a private island,
Li Shan, his hair a wild mess, yawned and then lay down in his T-9 gaming pod.
As an UP on Tengbi, his daily work was to select games to livestream.
Though it was now the age of interstellar travel, the streaming industry, despite facing considerable challenges, still retained a sizable market. Among streamers, those who focused on gaming earned the most. After all, many ordinary people hesitated to spend money on expensive games.
Of course, in this era where copyright reigns supreme, it was impossible to watch a livestream and get a game’s story for free. The platform charged a ten-yuan viewing fee. Half of this went to the platform, while the other half was split equally between the streamer and the game’s developer. If viewers were pleased and tipped the streamer, those rewards would also be divided in the same proportions.
“Li the Old Devil is starting so early today!”
“The well-connected Old Devil Li!”
“Which unfortunate game will be his victim today, I wonder.”
“The last time Old Devil Li streamed that game, the designer’s reaction was hilarious. He tried to stop Li from streaming it, and now his game’s completely flopped—can’t even afford a meal. Doesn’t he know Li is called the ‘Savior of Flop Games’?”
“Yeah, just one of Li’s streams guarantees over a million freeloads at least. Tsk, tsk, tsk...”
“You’re all up so early? I thought I’d be all alone this morning,” Li Shan teased as he glanced at the rapidly scrolling comments, greeting his audience before opening the Qiyou platform to search for today’s game.
His streaming style differed from the others. He didn’t play high-quality games but instead sought out “trash” games to critique. Having once been an indie game developer himself, he knew the pain of failure. So, while roasting these games, he’d also offer advice to struggling developers—his way of supporting them as a former peer.
After opening Qiyou, Li Shan immediately pulled up the game categories, filtered for new releases this week, and sorted them by price from low to high. The cheaper the game, generally, the worse it was—though exceptions existed, with the occasional gem buried beneath the surface.
In all his time streaming, though, he’d only ever encountered one such case.
Yes, a genius designer held back by a terrible game title; after some of his advice, this designer had become a star on Qiyou.
“Huh? I selected new releases, so why are there trial games on the list?” Li Shan frowned at the results.
Right at the top was a game with no listed price.
“‘Spore Evolution’... Strange, it’s marked as a new release. Is this a bug?”
After pondering for a moment, he spoke to his viewers: “Hold on a sec, I’ll ask the Qiyou operations team about this.”
The appearance of such a bug on launch day could be disastrous for a game.
He immediately contacted a friend at the Baiqiao branch of Qiyou using his neural terminal.
Seeing this, his fans flooded the comments:
“Here we go, Old Devil Li’s calling in a favor again!”
“Li the Old Devil: You’ll never guess how many big shots I know.”
“I still remember last time, when Han the Old Devil was playing a battleship game and started explaining the mechanics, only to get roasted by viewers. He just called up someone from the Cosmic Defense Force to livestream a real battleship barrage on an asteroid field—that blew my mind.”
“If only I could have friends like that...”
Li Shan, busy questioning his friend, didn’t notice the comments. After getting the details from Qiyou, he frowned and explained to his viewers: “My friend says all the data is normal. The price was set by the designer.”
“What?! There’s actually a free game?”
“Is this charity work?”
“I’ve played this one. The reviews tricked me into downloading it—it fried my brain.”
“It’s actually not bad, but... if I remember, Old Devil Li doesn’t play horror games, right?”
As fans, both experienced and curious, commented away, Li Shan, seeing their interest, decided against picking another game.
He opened “Spore Evolution” and checked its description and reviews.
Then—
“This game...”
He was stunned to see 130,000 overwhelmingly positive reviews.
Even the most popular phenomenon-level games rarely had such a glowing reputation.
Paid reviews?
The idea crossed his mind, but as he checked a few player accounts and saw their review and purchase histories, he dismissed it.
These were all genuine, active players—not bots.
“Looks like this is a real gem. If you’re interested, you should try it yourselves,” Li Shan said, then clicked to start the game.
“Haha! Even Old Devil Li got tricked by this bunch of jokers!”
“The game looks pretty good. What’s up with this designer? Purely doing it for love?”
“This should be fun.”
...
Amid the lively comments, Li Shan entered the game.
And promptly froze.
“Why is it all black? No, wait, I think I’m underwater.”
He spoke to his viewers.
The T-9 gaming pod could analyze a game’s environment, giving the player a degree of sensory feedback. Even if the realism was only about thirty percent, it was much better than just playing in virtual reality.
After a glance at the comments, Li Shan suddenly remembered something and added:
“Oh right, Qiyou recently added a bubble-comment feature. I haven’t tried it yet.”
As he spoke, he activated the bubble-comment function.
Immediately, countless translucent bubbles appeared in the darkness.
He focused on one, and its contents appeared before him:
[Newbies run! This game is full of nothing but guys!!!]
“Haha, what the heck!”
“Netizens really know how to have fun. I’m going to leave a bubble too when I play.”
“...”
Li Shan’s mouth twitched, but seeing the audience’s reaction, he continued to check other bubbles.
Though a bit silly, it made for good entertainment.
[This is the first stage. Don’t get discouraged—the later content is truly amazing. Walk left for seven seconds, and you’ll find another bubble. Just follow my tips and you’ll quickly get through the toughest first stage.]
After seeing several more ridiculous bubbles, he finally found a normal one.
“Alright, everyone, let’s play it safe for the first round and follow the guide left by this senior player,” Li Shan said. He figured the first stage wasn’t that interesting and wanted to move on quickly—after all, he was livestreaming and needed to show the fun parts.
He checked the comments—no one objected—so he followed the “senior’s” instructions step by step.
[Now go straight for seventeen seconds...]
[Here, go right for eight seconds...]
...
Following the prompts, the number of bubbles around him dwindled.
Eventually, after walking a bit farther, only a single bubble remained in his field of view.
“This must be the end,” he said, then tapped the final bubble.
[You fool, you’re dead!]
-END-
[Evolution progress]: 0
[Gene points earned]: 0
Would you like to restart the game?
Li Shan: ???
“These netizens are too talented.”
“I’ve had professional training—usually, I don’t laugh. Unless I can’t help it. Hahaha!”
“I just realized how naive Old Devil Li is. He actually trusted a random internet guide.”