To ascend, I had no choice but to create games

Chapter 287: Chapter 185: Regret of the Unfinished (Two More)_2

Fang Cheng began to understand when he thought of “Spreading Traditional Culture Starting from Me.”

“So that’s how it is,” he said.

Mr. Shen nodded in satisfaction, “Exactly, it’s good that you understand. Horror games can hardly be launched because they are bound to be complained about, and not just a few times. Moreover, if you’re the one making it, I’m afraid the complaints would reach the sky.”

“I see,” Fang Cheng replied.

“However, if you really want to make it, there’s a way around it. You could launch it overseas and then allow domestic players to access it through scientific Internet surfing methods, which could help you avoid a lot of trouble. I can help you with the necessary qualifications and procedures, so don’t worry about it,” Mr. Shen assured.

This option seemed feasible to Fang Cheng.

He had no karma with foreign players, and his main base was in China. In the end, he would need Chinese players to verify everything.

Thus, he could use foreign players to first test some of the games that he felt were a bit tricky, adjust them based on their responses, and then release them in China.

Therefore, he said to Mr. Shen on the other end of the phone, “Thank you, Mr. Shen.”

“You’re welcome,” Mr. Shen replied.

After hanging up, Mr. Shen felt in a good mood.

His student was progressing quickly, but it seemed that he, the old antique, had not been forgotten. This feeling of being needed was quite nice.

However, looking in the mirror, he once again contemplated his own problem and then realized he should have ordered some tea leaves.

As he was regretting, a text from Fang Cheng arrived: “Mr. Shen, I’ve acquired a batch of tea leaves and will bring them to you later.”

Upon reading this message, Mr. Shen couldn’t help but remark, What a good person.

With no more worries, he finally decided to get a haircut so he could enjoy the feeling of walking into the barbershop with his head held high and chest out.

Fang Cheng was also happy to have Mr. Shen’s assistance.

With the channel issue resolved and no further concerns, he could now use Mukuai as a guinea pig and then test his ideas.

The next problem, though, was that he needed a good script.

He had no problem writing a few classical Chinese texts; after all, he had once won a scholarly honor and then stopped because he felt no connection with it, but he had no trouble in that area.

What he wanted was a more thrilling script, and for that, he needed more professional input.

Continuing his research, he discovered that the haunted house had an original model, which was a novel of tens of thousands of words.

The main creative team of the haunted house greatly admired this novel, stating that the author’s horror stories were the best they had read, and they were honored to adapt this teacher’s work.

Following the main creative team’s recommendation, Fang Cheng found the original novel, purchased the electronic version, and upon reading, confirmed the team’s praise was not unfounded.

The original novel’s writing was still immature, but its logic was already very tight. The sense of “helplessness” tragedy was vividly portrayed, and after finishing it, even Fang Cheng could deduce that the protagonist was doomed from the beginning given his capabilities.

However, this book wasn’t even the author’s pinnacle.

Another series was the culmination of this unique horror atmosphere, but there were very few printed copies of this series available, and no resources were online, which Fang Cheng found a bit disappointing.

But upon seeing the author’s name, Fang Cheng felt there might still be a chance.

The author of this series was none other than one of his own nemeses, Tang Mo.

He still remembered what Tang Mo had done in “The Nameless,” a historical simulation game of delivering letters that Tang Mo had turned into a fun transmigration story. This memory was still fresh in his mind.

Tang Mo was a slightly famous online historical fiction writer, but Fang Cheng hadn’t expected that Tang Mo had previously written such a series and published it.

After some thought, Fang Cheng found Tang Mo’s Passport World ID and left him a message.

On the other side, Tang Mo was still immersed in “The Supreme One,” spending his days in bliss, reading and drinking with the world’s number one storyteller.

Realizing it was getting late and he hadn’t finished today’s update, he reluctantly bid farewell to the world’s number one storyteller and left for Passport World.

Intending to log out, he saw his little companion Mukuai approaching with a letter, and the sender’s identity surprised him.

“Fang Cheng… Weird, what does a producer want with me?” he wondered.

Confused after reading the letter, Tang Mo was even more puzzled.

The sender was interested in acquiring adaptation rights.

Before writing online, he had written physical books, including a series.

While drafting those, the publisher, for some unknown reason, had asked him to write a particularly despairing series.

Normally, he would have ignored such unreasonable demands.

But they offered too much.

Two thousand yuan per thousand words, plus separate royalty fees— as long as the content was dark enough, scary enough, and filled with enough despair, he could write as much as the publisher wanted.

With no choice, Tang Mo complied.

He first wrote a novella to test the waters, which was highly praised. This novella was later adapted into the haunted house that Fang Cheng had played.

To earn money, he embarked on a novel, making the content increasingly bleak, which also increased his earnings.

However, after a while, he felt tired.

The texts written for money somehow felt awkward, especially as the emotions they contained were not what he wanted. This made writing become a form of torture.

Just as he was prepared to change his style and give everything a satisfying conclusion, the publisher suddenly said they had to terminate the contract and couldn’t go on.

The previous books were published haphazardly without follow-up, and his final ending was left with only an outline. He thought this series would vanish along with his dark past, but unexpectedly, Fang Cheng found it.

Fate was indeed unfathomable.

As one of the people who knew Fang Cheng best, Tang Mo liked “The Nameless” very much and believed his transmigration approach was one of the correct solutions in the game.

Now, having received an email from Fang Cheng, he mused that he truly was kindred spirits with Fang Cheng, even his old books were appreciated by him.

Thus, he replied promptly, “Sure, the publisher didn’t sign the adaptation rights with me, so the rights are still in my hands. I’ll send you the full text shortly.”

Looking at the electronic version, Tang Mo pondered for a moment.

After hesitating, he included the framework he had previously envisioned and sent it along to Fang Cheng.

As for why he did that, he didn’t know.

Maybe he also wanted his kindred spirit to help him complete the work he had left unfinished.