Chapter 1 The First Look

With a mix of curiosity and doubt, Chen Sha found *Naval Fortress* in the official game store, downloaded it, and registered.

To his surprise, the game's file size was considerable, even larger than *Bullet Marks* and far exceeding *Anti-Terrorism Project*.

But Chen Sha didn't dwell on it too much; there were plenty of poorly made games with large file sizes.

He recalled a certain domestic game whose terrible optimization caused even the best graphics cards on the market to struggle with its subpar visuals, creating the legend of "Titanfall."

So, large file size and high system requirements didn't necessarily mean anything. The key was the content of the game itself.

Soon, Chen Sha entered the game.

His first reaction was, it looks…not bad?

The graphics were much better than he'd expected!

Chen Sha had assumed it would be another unreliable and bad game, and hadn't had much hope, simply wanting to see what the epic weapon selling for 888 yuan looked like.

But his first impression of the game was surprisingly positive!

Although there was no opening CG, both the login screen and the scene UI looked great, not inferior to *Bullet Marks*.

Chen Sha immediately found the store.

There, in all its glory, was the legendary epic weapon: a rainbow-colored, dazzling Fire Kirin! (Qilin: A mythical hooved creature)

At first glance, it had the familiar shape of an AK, but with extensive modifications to its appearance:

The entire gun body was golden, with a rainbow-colored coating on the barrel that spread towards the main body, like colorful rainbow ripples, making it extremely dazzling;

Beneath the barrel was a uniquely shaped golden bayonet, called a "Kirin Spike" in the store;

At the connection between the barrel and the body was a huge kirin head;

The kirin's large mouth was open, swallowing the barrel and bayonet;

The kirin's eyes were blood-red, and as the gun moved, they had a flashing red dot effect, making the kirin seem alive;

The kirin's fur had the color and texture of flames, and it moved like flowing water;

In addition, the magazine, grip, stock, and other parts had all been modified to some extent. While retaining the original AK shape, they had been exaggerated in size or uniquely shaped, making a lasting impression!

Chen Sha was stunned.

This was too cool!

He was a veteran player of *Anti-Terrorism Project*, and had also played *Bullet Marks* extensively during its testing phase.

But both *Anti-Terrorism Project* and *Bullet Marks* tried to recreate real-world firearms as accurately as possible.

For a gun like the AK, the most they would do was change the paint job; the basic shape wouldn't change much.

They were afraid of being criticized by military game enthusiasts.

In contrast, *Naval Fortress* was extremely bold with its modifications!

Of course, strictly speaking, this Fire Kirin was a bit too flashy.

The exaggerated shape, bold modifications, and gaudy special effects…all made Chen Sha feel instinctively uncomfortable when he first saw it.

This was because Chen Sha had been playing FPS games for so many years, and had long been accustomed to the AK's appearance. The art style had suddenly changed from realism to fantasy, so it was normal to feel unaccustomed to it.

But you had to admit, this weapon was cool!

And the more you looked at it, the cooler it became!

Chen Sha stared at the Fire Kirin's special effects for a long time, especially the fiery red fur on the kirin's head, which moved like flame textures and even had a breathing effect, combined with the gun's dazzling paint job…

Once you accepted this design, it felt surprisingly awesome?

Then he looked at the price.

A genuine 888 RMB!

Chen Sha couldn't help but exclaim, "Awesome!"

Daring to price a single weapon so high, this designer was truly awesome! So brave!

Generally, the in-app purchase pricing in games increases step by step, slowly testing the limits of players' psychological acceptance.

For example, in *Cute Three Kingdoms*, the initial spending ceiling wasn't very high. Later, many players reached this spending limit, so *Cute Three Kingdoms* added some new payment points, gradually raising the VIP system and the spending ceiling.

A starting price of 888 like *Naval Fortress* was too rare!

Chen Sha browsed the store again and suddenly noticed a problem.

There were no tabs or product slots in the store!

Because the entire store only sold one item!

This was also the only payment point in *Naval Fortress*.

In other words, besides the 888 Fire Kirin, *Naval Fortress* didn't sell anything else!

Of course, there were some other weapons in the game, which could be found in the "Armory" feature.

Here, their specific stats and how to obtain them were listed.

There were various ways to obtain them. Some were unlocked by completing the story mode, some were unlocked after completing a certain achievement, and some were purchased with in-game currency.

In-game currency was obtained through daily activities and battles. Although it wasn't unlimited or in large quantities, it wasn't difficult to obtain either.

Chen Sha was surprised to find that, apart from the Fire Kirin, none of the weapons in the vast armory could be obtained through top-up!

Chen Sha scratched the back of his head, completely unable to understand the game's monetization model.

Was the Fire Kirin that good? Selling for 888?

He carefully read the Fire Kirin's description.

In the game, weapons were divided into four levels: Common, Elite, Heroic, and Epic.

Compared to a Heroic weapon one level below, the Epic weapon was only slightly better in terms of stats.

If you didn't look closely, Chen Sha wouldn't even notice the difference in stats between the Epic weapon Fire Kirin and the Heroic-level AK.

The same was true for other levels. Each level of the same weapon had a slight increase in stats, but it wasn't obvious.

In addition, Epic weapons had some special effects.

Players gain 200% more experience. (Experience affects player level, but level isn't very useful. You just get some game currency for each level up, and level might be a requirement for certain functions.)

Players in the same room gain 50% more experience.

Players in the same room gain 30% more game currency.

When a player dies, the weapon dropped is a normal AK, but if the player actively drops the weapon, it will still drop the Fire Kirin.

The Fire Kirin's reload speed and weapon swap speed are faster, and the magazine capacity is also larger.

Besides that, nothing!

It did have a slight advantage, but it wasn't obvious, and it was far from a game-breaking effect.

Because this was an FPS game, a headshot with a Common-level AK was an instant kill, and a headshot with the Fire Kirin was also an instant kill. No difference!

The Fire Kirin did reload and swap weapons faster, but it might only be a few hundredths of a second faster.

Or when shooting through walls or at the feet, the Fire Kirin's damage might be slightly higher than a normal AK.

In Chen Sha's opinion, the Fire Kirin did have a slight advantage over other weapons in terms of stats, but this advantage was in no way worth spending 888 RMB to buy?

Chen Sha didn't know how to define this game…

Could you say it was conscientious? Daring to sell a weapon for 888 was in no way related to being conscientious, right?

Could you say it was a cash grab? Apart from the Fire Kirin, the game was completely free, and buying the Fire Kirin for 888 didn't create any real stat-based dominance, right?

Chen Sha felt that the designer who designed this payment model could be nominated for a bewildering human behavior award. It was truly… completely unfathomable!