227: Side Story: A Certain Planner's Interdimensional Journey

(I have a full schedule of classes today, so I'm only posting one extra chapter.)

(I will make up for it with 4 chapters tomorrow.)

(Also, this chapter takes place in a parallel world; there is no malice intended towards anyone or anything.)

(You can skip it, you can skip it, you can skip it!!!)

It had been a month—

Li Yang lay on a stretch of dead, silent loess, watching the sun slowly rise on the horizon, thinking silently to himself.

Just last month, he was still the lead designer for a large-scale SLG game, in charge of the design and operation of an entire project.

And now, he felt like he had lost everything—

That's right, just one morning last month, he encountered the biggest catastrophe of his life.

It was supposed to be an ordinary morning; he was carrying their project team's artist on his back, walking to work.

In Li Yang's eyes, the sheer bizarre nature of this commute was no less than if Lü Bu decided not to ride Red Hare, but to ride Dong Zhuo instead.

But there was no helping it; the tradition of the company he worked for was that the artists rode the designers to work.

Walking down the street, the looks from passersby, as if they were staring at an Ancient God, along with the occasional exclamation of "poor star-crossed lovers," made Li Yang's temple throb incessantly.

He couldn't help but quicken his pace, wanting to escape the surrounding gazes as soon as possible.

"Li Yang!"

Suddenly, a loud noise came from behind. Li Yang turned his head and saw a familiar figure—wasn't that the designer from the project team next door?

He was carrying their project team's artist on his back and sprinting towards him, seemingly shouting something continuously.

"What is this guy saying?"

Li Yang didn't understand, but before he could figure it out, his shoulder was hit by a sudden, violent impact, and it suddenly felt light—

"Raven sits on the plane!"

The artist on his shoulder jumped up with a "whoosh," and then, in the very next second,

"Screech—Bang!!!!!!"

A deafening sound rang out. Li Yang finally reacted and looked sharply to his side.

A red, flat-nosed Xifeng Dayun truck, with a red paper sticker that read "Have a Safe Journey" plastered on it, was barreling towards him in an eerie manner—

"Holy shit!!!"

He shouted out loud, wanting to jump to the side, but it was already too late.

Just before he could turn into Mu Zi Ri, a black hole with a hint of purple suddenly appeared before his eyes and brutally used "Storm Inhale" on him.

It then brought him to this very place.

Not to mention people, there wasn't even a shadow of life to be seen here.

There were only a few small, town-like ruins sitting on a desolate land, telling the story of a civilization that once existed here.

As a newcomer, Li Yang was exceptionally terrified. Faced with this dead silence, it took him two whole days to adapt, and only under the threat of death did he stop watching and start exploring those ruins.

Fortunately, there were no bots inside shouting "Either surrender or meet the King of Hell"; there were only a large number of survival supplies that hadn't been taken away in time.

Relying on these supplies, he managed to survive.

After a month of adjustment, Li Yang finally completely adapted to life here.

Aside from being a bit lonely, there really wasn't anything bad about this place—

At least those canned meats, made from who-knows-what, tasted better than the cafeteria food, and there were no artists riding him to work every day here.

Loneliness had caused him to develop the habit of watching the sunrise and sunset, just like today—

The sun had completely cleared the horizon, and Li Yang began to reminisce about the past again.

That time when he was a designer was his happiest time.

Every update was a top-tier battle of wits between him and the players, comparable to Dora catching Swiper the Fox:

For example, fixing the bug where bombing was too overpowered;

For example, fixing the bug where the sense of ceremony in the gacha screen was overflowing;

For example, fixing the bug where the hub couldn't deploy support ships;

For example, fixing the bug where the Guaranteed Box wouldn't drop a series of trash like the FG300 or AC721...

Of course, the most classic ones were the repeatedly nerfed drop rates, and adding "Search, Strike, Retreat" elements into the SLG game.

(I personally believe the most authoritative "Search, Strike, Retreat" is actually JM, especially the 350... and a series of other high-quality DLCs.)

"Buzz, buzz, buzz..."

As he was reminiscing about those days,

Suddenly, a low rumbling sound came from the distance, and the small pebbles on the ground began to jump with an extremely tiny amplitude.

What was that noise?

Li Yang first jumped up violently, and then, a wave of ecstasy crawled onto his face—

There are finally signs of human life!!!

...

(The Dayun driver later admitted that he had been staying up all night managing accounts in a certain large-scale domestic space-themed SLG mobile game, which resulted in him not sleeping all night, leading to such a car accident.)

(That is a story for another world.)