114: Chapter 114 Backlash on Reputation

Very quickly, with only one hour left until the 3:30 PM punctuality online event for crossfire.

In Old Chu's stream on Douyu, the viewer count had rarely broken through 300,000.

Ever since the incident where he forgot to end his stream, it had been difficult for Old Chu's stream to even break 150,000, yet now it had 300,000.

Logically, Old Chu should have been happy, but his expression was not very pleasant.

The reason was simple: these 300,000 viewers were almost all roasting him.

The barrage was scrolling by so fast that even the moderators couldn't keep up with the bans.

"What kind of trash game is alliance of valiant arms? I uninstalled it. I played for three hours and still don't know what I was doing."

"Fun? Fun my ass. It's just a car repair simulator mixed with picking up rockets and trash."

"Are you blind? How could this game be more fun than crossfire? I can understand taking money to do a job, but taking money to spout nonsense is too much. This game doesn't even compare to CS."

"You said earlier that crossfire was an obsolete product. Sorry, but this 'obsolete product' is ten times more fun than alliance of valiant arms."

Even with moderators frantically banning accounts, they couldn't stop the flood of negative reviews.

Not all players possessed the same thick skin as Old Chu, who would blame himself rather than the game.

Most players, after trying alliance of valiant arms, quickly realized that apart from the graphics, the game was worthless. In fact, because the graphics were too demanding, it lagged in many areas.

Everything else—the shooting mechanics, kill feedback, weapon design, and game modes—was completely crushed by crossfire, and it couldn't even compare to CSGO.

And this was happening even before many players had logged into crossfire.

They had only played alliance of valiant arms and already felt they had been scammed.

Because previously, all the streamers and media had been saying this was the most fun shooter ever made. When they actually played it, it was a completely different story.

Looking at the screen full of negative reviews, Old Chu wiped the sweat from his forehead incessantly.

He was muttering to himself. Didn't the people at Tencent say alliance of valiant arms was great? Didn't they say crossfire was just a placeholder?

Now, the situation seemed completely reversed. Was crossfire actually that fun?

He cleared his throat, his voice sounding dry. "Um, I'm not feeling well today, so I'm going to end the stream."

With that, he hurriedly closed the stream, and the screen went black.

It wasn't just Old Chu. Many streamers and gaming media outlets that had praised alliance of valiant arms were being bombarded by angry players. In the gaming sections of Douyu and Huya, anyone still streaming alliance of valiant arms was being flooded with nothing but insults in the chat.

Some streamers bit the bullet and kept playing, but the abuse only increased, forcing them to sheepishly switch to other games.

Some media outlets quietly deleted their previous articles hyping up alliance of valiant arms, but players had already taken screenshots and posted them on major gaming forums.

Many players had tried alliance of valiant arms because of these streamers and media, only to find that it was very average and nowhere near as good as they had hyped it up to be.

Objectively speaking, alliance of valiant arms wasn't completely worthless; it did have some merits, at least the graphics were indeed good.

But the key was that the game simply couldn't compare to crossfire, or even to CS.

Combined with the insane hype from the streamers and media earlier, it was no wonder the players were so angry.

And this was just the first wave of attacks from the angry players. By the afternoon and evening, when the majority of players had experienced both games, the real backlash would begin.

Objectively, if the streamers and media had reviewed alliance of valiant arms fairly from the start, its reputation might not have been great, but it wouldn't have been roasted like this.

But because they took money from Tencent and lied through their teeth, it led to this current situation.

As the time drew closer to 3:30 PM, the number of online players for crossfire skyrocketed to an incredibly exaggerated figure.

...

In the internet cafe behind Shenzhen University, Old Chu finally pushed his mouse away and closed alliance of valiant arms.

His brows were knitted together, his face full of annoyance. "What a trash game, it's completely pointless." "That Old Chu… when I get back, I'm definitely going to roast him."

He had played a few more rounds of Escort Mode, but every round just involved repeating the same things: repairing the vehicle and grabbing rockets. Occasionally, he would rush out to kill someone, but the kill feedback was so dull that he couldn't even tell if he had hit his target after shooting for ages.

He finally couldn't take it anymore and exited alliance of valiant arms.

Beside him, Chen Yang listened to his voice without turning his head. "You're only just realizing it's not fun now?"

"Haven't you noticed that no one in the internet cafe is playing it anymore? I didn't even want to try alliance of valiant arms; I knew the game wasn't fun just by watching you."

His character was still jumping around in the Zombie Pyramid map, practicing the movement and jump spots he'd seen someone use earlier.

Hearing Chen Yang's words, Old Chu looked up and scanned the internet cafe. Almost every computer was logged into crossfire, with the others playing league of legends. There wasn't even a trace of alliance of valiant arms.

The situation was the complete opposite of what it had been when the servers opened at 10 AM.

Old Chu looked away and placed his fingers back on the keyboard. Beside him, Chen Yang checked the time and urged him.

"Log in quickly, or it'll be too late. There's only ten minutes left." "Once 3:30 hits, the number of online players is definitely going to explode."

Old Chu nodded and took a sip from his water cup. "Don't worry, it'll be fine." "We'll make it in time."

He opened the crossfire client and entered his Langchao Group account and password. Unlike Chen Yang, who used his phone number to log in, he had registered an account directly.

A second later, the login was successful. There was no queue; he entered the main interface of the crossfire server directly.

Old Chu let out a sigh of relief and glanced at Chen Yang. "See? I got in. It's not as exaggerated as you said, about not being able to get in."

He opened the channel list, intending to find a random room to idle in. But the next moment, he froze. Every single channel was full. He scrolled from the top of the list to the bottom, and not a single one was green. It was all red! Everything was packed.

Old Chu sat up straight and clicked on a random channel. The system prompted: "The current channel is full. Please select another channel." He tried another. It was still full. He tried again. Still full.

Old Chu's breathing quickened. He noticed one of the channels in the list flicker; it instantly turned from red to green, then immediately back to red.

Someone had logged out for a split second, freeing up a spot, which was then instantly filled by someone else.

He began to stare at the channel list, his finger hovering over the confirm key. He started using the method he'd learned: he locked onto one channel and held down the confirm key without letting go.

For a while, Old Chu's screen flickered frantically. He couldn't even see the reminders popping up before they vanished and the screen flickered again.

Beside him, Chen Yang checked the time. "I told you so, but you didn't believe me. How could you possibly get in without logging in early?" "Are there really no channels with fewer people?"

Chen Yang only dared to watch Old Chu's screen; he didn't dare to exit his own session to check, in case he couldn't get back in and was screwed.

Old Chu's voice sounded tense. "There aren't any with fewer people; they're all full." "The whole server is packed. There are so many channels, and every single one is red."

Old Chu stared fixedly at the channel in front of him, trying to force his way into that one. The beeping sound in his headset from trying to join the channel was almost deafening, but he still couldn't squeeze in.

Time kept ticking away. Old Chu's expression grew increasingly grim. From time to time, voices erupted in the internet cafe.

"I got in! Man, that was exhausting!" "Don't just idle in the channel! You'll get kicked for idling, start the game quickly!" "Once you get in, whatever you do, don't leave! If you leave, you're done for."

Old Chu kept pressing. His fingers were starting to ache. Finally, just as he was about to give up in despair, the screen flashed. He was in.

He let out a huge sigh of relief and slumped back into his chair, his fingers still trembling slightly.

The screen showed he was in a channel. At a glance, it was all Zombie Mode, and most of the rooms were even full!

However, before he could catch his breath, Chen Yang patted him on the shoulder. "Hurry up and join a room to start, what are you just sitting there for?" "If you stay idle, you'll get disconnected. You have to start a game!"

Upon hearing this, Old Chu quickly sprang into action. He soon found a room with an empty slot, entered, and immediately clicked to start the game. Only then did he finally let out a sigh of relief.

The time had finally reached 3:30 PM. Looking at the match loading screen, Old Chu exhaled deeply. "Damn alliance of valiant arms." "It almost ruined everything for me!"

At the same time, almost all servers and channels for crossfire were completely full. Previously, even if many people hadn't had the chance to try the new mode in crossfire because they were experiencing alliance of valiant arms, at this very moment, all crossfire players began to try this brand new Zombie Mode!