"So how should we rate it? I'm thinking of just giving it one star."

"I think it's okay. The first two monsters just have high damage; after dodging a bit, it's easy to kill them. Are you really giving it one star just for that? Maybe you should reflect on your own clumsy skills?"

"?"

"What's with the question mark? We shills have principles. We do what we're paid for. We took the boss's money; are you just going to be irresponsible like that?"

"Damn, if you're so righteous, why are you being a shill? You're just a beggar, acting like an emperor reviewing memorials here?"

"Aren't you a beggar too?"

"If you're so great, why are *you* being a shill? Why don't you become a keyboard warrior and fight for justice?"

"What's wrong with me finding a job to earn some pocket money? How do you know I'm not a keyboard warrior in my spare time?"

Seeing that the two in the group were about to engage in a refined and gentle battle, Hu Xiao quickly stopped them.

"Alright, stop arguing!"

"Both of you get a one-hour ban!"

"We're professionals, we need to control our anger, understand?"

"Don't bring emotions into your work. Be as detached as I am, got it?"

Hu Xiao was speechless.

Actually, this was normal. Although these shills were in the same group, they were all just doing what they were paid for. With several hundred people in a group, how could everyone know each other?

Moreover, most of these shills were netizens who didn't have much money, weren't satisfied with their lives, and liked to type on the keyboard and offer unsolicited advice. They were already mostly "refined and gentle" people, the kind who liked to greet each other's immediate family members at the slightest disagreement.

So, it wasn't too surprising that they were arguing about this.

Hu Xiao now realized that the request made by the "Hardcore Review" content creator wasn't so simple.

There was a trap here!

If they gave these shills a very clear goal, such as to relentlessly trash or praise the game, the shills would definitely just do what they were paid for and wouldn't say an extra word.

No one would dare to sing a different tune, after all, shills also had professional ethics.

But now, the boss hadn't told them how to rate it.

So, these shills were discussing it in the group, and then started fighting among themselves because they disagreed…

The administrator intervened, urgently banned a few people, and announced that anyone who continued to be refined and gentle in the group would be kicked out and wouldn't get any more shill jobs. Only then did the situation come under control.

Hu Xiao observed everyone's comments and found that most people had a pretty bad impression of the game.

Many people's computers weren't powerful enough, and the game was very laggy, resulting in a poor gaming experience, so their first impression was naturally bad.

Some people, like Hu Xiao, didn't have problems with their computer's performance, but were directly crushed by the monsters to the point of questioning their life choices, so of course they didn't have a good feeling about the game either.

But there were also a small number of people in the group who thought the game was okay.

The graphics were good, the movements were smooth, and the impact was great. Although the monsters could one-shot you, as long as you were careful and didn't get hit, you could still beat them.

This small group of people had a good first impression of the game, so their views were completely opposite to those of others.

This was normal, after all, no matter what group you were in, there would always be some players who liked to challenge themselves.

Many of the shills in the group were internet addicts who were used to hanging out in internet cafes, and they had a lot of gaming experience. When they encountered such a difficult game, their first reaction wasn't to get so angry that they wanted to smash their computers, but to feel that it was very challenging.

Although these people were only a minority, they represented another different voice.

Hu Xiao thought about it, and realized that it wouldn't be possible to unify their opinions, and it wasn't necessary.

The boss had said to rate it based on their first impression, and hadn't said that they had to give it a good or bad review.

In that case, he would just let everyone do their own thing!

Hu Xiao typed, "Alright, everyone stop arguing, let's get to work. If you want to give it one star, give it one star. If you want to give it five stars, give it five stars."

"Everyone here is a professional at stirring up trouble. If you really have personal grievances, resolve them with your keyboards on the forums. Don't argue in the group. You get paid for typing on the forums, you just get banned for typing in the group."

Everyone in the group thought about it and realized that he was right.

What was the point of arguing in the group? They should just get to work!

Those shills who had an extremely bad first impression of the game went straight to give it a one-star rating, wrote a few sentences about how disappointed they were with the game and didn't recommend it, and then refunded and uninstalled the game.

Those who were more interested in the game gave it a five-star rating and tried to come up with a bunch of reasons to praise the game.

After all, everyone was a professional when it came to blindly praising and blindly trashing something.

They were good at stirring up trouble in the first place; it would be difficult for them to write a bland review.

Moreover, writing the review wasn't the end of it.

This time, each person was getting paid three or four hundred yuan, so they definitely couldn't just post one comment and be done with it.

Everyone had tasks to complete. They had to post comments, posts, and reviews on various platforms such as the official platform, Weibo, and forums. They also had to write comments under popular posts and like and share each other's posts.

After all, the boss had spent a lot of money, so this series of services had to be arranged properly.

So, the shills who had posted reviews started sharing the links to their Weibo posts, reviews, etc. in the group.

"Please like this comment, brothers."

"You can copy and paste my comment, brothers who need it can use it as a reference."

"This Weibo post is mine, brothers, please forward it."

"It seems like a player on Erili Island has released a video complaining about the game, trashing it. Brothers who are trashing it, hurry up and like it and try to get it to the front page."

"There's a post praising the game, brothers who are praising it, hurry up and increase its popularity."

The shills in the group immediately started working hard, constantly sharing content about the game *Turning Back is the Shore* on various websites. One group was posting negative reviews, and the other group was posting five-star ratings.

Both sides tacitly refrained from tearing each other apart in the group, but brought their argumentative spirit to other websites and forums, where they fought fiercely.

Hu Xiao couldn't help but rub his forehead as he watched all of this, feeling like something was wrong with the style.

"This is the first time I've seen this kind of situation. It's like two groups of people simultaneously hired the shills from our group to fight each other…"

"But it doesn't matter, I've already done what the boss asked me to do anyway."

"But the reviews for this game are really messed up, completely polarized."

Out of curiosity, Hu Xiao also went online to look at the players' reviews of *Turning Back is the Shore*.

They really were polarized, with a lot of five-star and one-star ratings!

The shills were definitely contributing to this, but even after discounting the shills' influence, the players' opinions of the game were still mixed.

The points that were being criticized were still the same two: the game required high performance and was too difficult!

Some players were complaining in the forums that they had died more than a dozen times in front of the monsters, and that the game's numerical design definitely had serious problems!

Some were cursing the programmers, some were cursing the planners. In short, most people felt that the game's numbers were probably accidentally multiplied by 10.

"I really can't take it anymore, this game is too difficult, it's unplayable! Can anyone tell me if the game will adjust the numbers back to a normal level in the future? If it does, I won't refund it."

There were many similar comments.

Although the reviews were mixed, the players weren't too angry.

Because the game could be refunded within five hours.

The game had just been released, and it was still early before the five-hour refund period. After experiencing it, everyone found that the game's quality was still good. The graphics, movements, impact, and art design were all excellent.

High performance requirements could be solved.

But abnormal numerical difficulty could only be hoped that the official would make adjustments.

Many people felt that this might be a bug in the game, so they weren't in a hurry to refund it, but were waiting for the official to make a statement.

If the official could urgently fix the bug that allowed the monsters to one-shot you, then the game could still be played.

However, it wasn't long before the official Weibo made a statement.

"Dear players: The current numerical difficulty of the game is the optimal difficulty after the official adjustment, and it is not a bug. We will not make any adjustments to the difficulty in the future. This is to better ensure the gaming experience of every player."

A few minutes later, this Weibo post was forwarded to various forums and player groups, and the comments below the Weibo post began to increase rapidly.

"?"

"Slowly typing out a question mark."

"The official is messing with us? This difficulty is actually called the 'optimal difficulty after adjustment'?"

"Ensure the gaming experience of every player… (sly)"

"I thought the official was committing manslaughter, but it turns out it was intentional?"

"Hey? Can you explain what the epitaph means?"

"You won't make any adjustments in the future? Are you sure? Hehe, I'll wait and see if you can still be so tough when the game sales crash. Screenshot for later face-slapping."

"Laughing at a bunch of noobs crying and complaining. I can't beat the monsters, it must be because the difficulty set by the official is too high, it has nothing to do with my clumsy skills!"

"That's why Chinese players are only fit to play mindless web games that require clicking the reset button. If the difficulty is a little higher, they clamor for the official to change the difficulty. Should we change it to one hit for 999 damage for you?"

"Is this what you call 'slightly higher' difficulty?"

"Brain-dead players, why are you playing games? Hurry up and get medical treatment."

"I @#￥%*…"

Soon, the flames of war in the comments section of this Weibo post also spread rapidly.

Hu Xiao vaguely saw some shadows of shills in these comments that were fighting with each other, but he couldn't confirm it.

Hu Xiao was very clear that some of the shills in the group must have participated in this discussion. The few comments with high likes might be from his brothers in the group.

But who exactly, it was really hard to say!

Because the comments of other people also sounded like the comments of shills…