36: Chapter 36 Azure Released! You guys think filling this out is super easy?

It was the eighth day of the Lunar New Year.

The temperature in The Capital was extremely low. Zheng Yiyun carried her bag and walked through the gates of Silver Horn Studio.

Song Yan led her to an independent office.

On the desk lay a thick stack of level design drawings for "celeste". Zheng Yiyun pulled out a chair, sat down, and flipped to the first page.

The red-haired girl, Madeline. The steep Mount Celeste.

The edges of the pages were covered in dense annotations. Jump frame judgment, dash hang time, wind resistance coefficient. Everything was precise to two decimal places.

Zheng Yiyun gripped the papers. She understood that this was by no means special treatment. This was a mature and extremely hardcore commercial project.

She opened the world-building document on the computer.

Madeline faced anxiety, faced another dark version of herself. Constantly dying, constantly starting over.

Zheng Yiyun stayed up all night reading the entire proposal. She touched the gauze on her face. This game was prepared just for her.

She picked up the digital pen and began to sketch the outline of the snowy mountain.

Three months later.

Summer arrived in The Capital.

Zheng Yiyun sat at her workstation and hit the Enter key. The screen displayed that the packaging was complete.

Ye Fei walked over carrying a coffee.

"The test results are out." Zheng Yiyun pushed the test report over. "No bugs. The core frame rate is stable at sixty."

Ye Fei glanced at the report.

"The publicity department hasn't come up with a plan yet," Ye Fei said. "You decide the release time."

Zheng Yiyun turned her head and looked at the street outside the window.

"Today," Zheng Yiyun said.

Ye Fei looked at her.

"Upload it now." Zheng Yiyun clicked on the backend developer interface of the Xinghai Steam Platform. She dragged the packaged files into the upload box. The progress bar filled up.

In the tagline column of the game details page, Zheng Yiyun typed a line: [So You Think It's Very Simple?]. She clicked publish.

Bald Eagle Country, Xbox headquarters.

Dunn was in a meeting with the board of directors, discussing strategies for next month's exhibition.

The assistant pushed open the meeting room door, walked quickly to Dunn's side, and handed over a tablet.

"Silver Horn has released a new game," the assistant whispered.

Dunn stood up and stared at the "celeste" icon on the screen.

"Zero publicity? Zero publicity again!" Dunn slammed the table.

At the same time, on the StarNet gaming forum, the trending list was occupied by a little red-haired girl within ten minutes.

"Old Thief Ye is launching a sneak attack again!"

"'celeste'? A platformer game? Priced at forty-five Star Coins."

"Look at that tagline! 'So You Think It's Very Simple?' This is definitely the Old Thief provoking us!"

"Buy it! Today I'm going to teach Ye Fei a lesson; I'll beat this game with my eyes closed!"

8:00 PM.

On the Xinglan Live Streaming Platform, the official Silver Horn Studio account started streaming. Ye Fei sat in front of the camera. A massive wave of comments instantly covered the screen.

"Old Thief, do you dare to release a 3A game!"

"A forty-five dollar pixel game? You've gotten arrogant!"

"What do you mean by that tagline? Who are you looking down on!"

Ye Fei looked at the comments.

"'dark souls' is still in development," Ye Fei said into the microphone. "'celeste' is an independent project of the studio. The lead artist and level coordinator is someone else."

Ye Fei turned to the side.

Zheng Yiyun walked into the frame. She was wearing a white hoodie, without a hat or a mask. The large areas of burn scars on her cheeks and neck were directly exposed to the camera.

The comments instantly stopped.

Tens of millions of viewers looked at the scarred girl on the screen.

Zheng Yiyun's fingers pinched the hem of her clothes. She looked directly into the camera.

"My name is Zheng Yiyun," Zheng Yiyun said in a steady voice, "the lead artist and level coordinator for 'celeste'."

She pulled up a few line drafts from the development process.

"Three months ago, I was lying in the hospital, without even the strength to hold a pen. A fire burned my face," Zheng Yiyun looked at the camera. "I once felt like my life was over. It was Mr. Ye who pulled me into this project."

"Madeline in the game suffers from severe anxiety and self-doubt. She climbs the snowy mountain to prove to herself that she can still accomplish things."

"This game is my closure for myself," Zheng Yiyun straightened her back, "and it is also for everyone who is currently experiencing pain. The scenery at the top of the mountain is worth all the falls and deaths."

The live stream chat was silent for a few seconds.

Then, the screen exploded with comments. No insults, no provocations.

"Salute!"

"For the sake of these words, I'm buying it for forty-five!"

"Sister Yun, stay strong! Scars are a warrior's medals!"

"So this is a healing masterpiece; the Old Thief has finally done something decent."

Ye Fei watched the sales climbing steadily in the backend.

The system panel floated silently. Super Difficult rating count: 120 / 1000.

The number didn't change at all. Players poured their sympathy and emotion into the game; under such emotions, they would absolutely not give a "Super Difficult" rating.

Ye Fei turned off the live stream.

"Well done," Ye Fei said to Zheng Yiyun.

Zheng Yiyun let out a long sigh. She had finally walked out of the shadow of that fire.

At the same time, in Brother Bao's live stream room, the popularity broke eighty million.

"Brothers, I just watched Sister Yun's live stream," Brother Bao rubbed his eyes, "It was so moving. This is a game that heals the heart. Today, we will accompany Madeline and slowly climb up this snowy mountain."