Chapter 1444 Old Qiao is Full of Motivation

After the opening CG, the game entered the formal story mode.

After playing the beginning for a bit, Qiao Liang immediately realized that his understanding of this game had been slightly off.

*Ghost General 2* was completely made according to the process of an action game.

Whether it was the story cutscenes, character modeling, map design, game mechanics... various details showed shadows of action games such as *Repentance*.

The only difference was that this was a fighting game, with a fighting game's perspective and combat system.

Many action games put the combat system tutorial at the beginning of the game, but here it became a fighting game system tutorial, teaching players to move, jump, perform combos, and so on.

However, it was also different from action games like *Repentance*. In some situations, it was possible to go into Musou mode (a term for mowing down enemies effortlessly).

For example, during the map-clearing process, a large number of soldiers often poured in from all directions, and at this time, players could control their generals to start mowing them down. A single slash would cut down a large number of them like harvesting leeks, which was extremely satisfying.

Even when the general sidestepped, they would simultaneously release a fan-shaped attack skill, directly hitting the soldiers on the side and sending them staggering, as if entering an unmanned area!

This sidestep was executed by double-tapping the up or down arrow keys, that is, moving towards the inside or outside of the screen. Holding the button after double-tapping resulted in continuous movement. This was clearly a reference to the settings of some of the latest fighting games, while also making certain changes to target the characteristics and needs of *Ghost General 2* itself.

When pressing the right arrow key to move forward, the general was always going towards the next key node, which might be an enemy general, or some special map mechanic, or a mission objective.

This was equivalent to adding a new dimension to the plane of traditional fighting games, turning the entire battlefield from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

It had to be said that after playing so many difficult action games, playing a Musou game was still quite interesting!

Moreover, due to this special level map design, players could experience both two-dimensional side-scrolling level content and three-dimensional action game level content, which made it a unique experience.

During the boss battle stage, mowing down enemies was no longer an option.

Players had two ways to clear the level. The first was to fight the boss head-on and grind it out, and the second was to find special map mechanisms in the battlefield to enhance their own generals or weaken the enemy generals. In short, relying on skill was one method, and relying on intelligence was another.

The difficulty of the game could be said to be relatively moderate. Someone like Qiao Liang, who hadn't played many action games, could clear the level after dying a few times in the easy combo mode, as long as he found the map mechanism for the boss battle.

For some fighting game experts, if they wanted to pursue a more difficult challenge, they could try using the standard combo mode to fight the boss head-on, just like Cai Hong's game promotional video back then.

Moreover, this suggested combo mode was not extremely simplified. It wasn't that the system would automatically help with combos by frantically pressing A, but rather that it still required some simple combo actions. Mashing A mindlessly wouldn't work.

In addition, there were two more points that were very commendable: the generals' skills and the game's background story!

Although *Ghost General 1* had also shown some performance in these two aspects before, it was relatively weak, since it was a card game after all.

The generals only had one skill, and the level storylines in the game were also very simple, even glossed over.

In *Ghost General 2*, each general had more than a dozen large and small skills. For example, Zhuge Liang, in addition to the regular light and heavy attacks, also had different skills such as Borrowing the East Wind, Kongming Lantern, Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse, Zhuge Repeating Crossbow, and so on, which perfectly combined with his character setting!

In terms of plot, the levels in *Ghost General 2* were adapted from familiar historical stories and romances, and were well integrated into the historical background. For example, Kongming's "Borrowing the East Wind" made Qiao Liang exclaim, "It can even be like this!"

After finishing the first level, Qiao Liang was satisfied and prepared to rest for a while, then looked at the bullet screen.

Then he was surprised to find that the popularity of the bullet screen had decreased?

When the broadcast first started, there were many people in the live broadcast room, and the bullet screen was very dense. Everyone was joking about the pigeon spirit starting the broadcast, and all the bamboo shoots on the mountain had been snatched away.

But now Qiao Liang had been playing the game silently for a while, and the number of people in the live broadcast room had shrunk instead.

Moreover, the content discussed on the bullet screen was a bit strange. Only half of the people were discussing the game *Ghost General 2*, and there were also some... annoying bullet screens.

Obviously, many viewers had missed the wave of snatching bamboo shoots when the broadcast first started, and had only arrived recently.

They were late, but not too late, because there were still bamboo shoots left to be snatched.

"Whoa, why is Old Qiao suddenly so diligent today? Starting to play games to collect material?"

"Does that even need to be said? He must be feeling the pressure. He went on a suffering trip for two months, but Tenda released two games in a row, and Old Qiao didn't get to蹭 (cèng, meaning 'sponge off' or 'get in on the hype') either of them. This is like a piece of meat being cut off for Old Qiao. The pigeon spirit felt the pain, so of course he has to work overtime!"

"If Old Qiao doesn't work hard, he's going to be surpassed by Young Master Tian! Look at the video that Young Master Tian made for *Real Estate Agent Simulator*, how good it is! Incisive and in-depth analysis, not only is the game content well explained, but it also analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the real-world industry! Coupled with Aeeis' voice and superb video editing skills, it's amazing!"

"Sorry Old Qiao, I'm Young Master Tian's person now, I can't go back!"

"Hurry up and release a video, Old Qiao, otherwise Tenda's official UP master title is going to change hands."

Seeing these people's comments, Qiao Liang was extremely angry.

You fans are just too malicious, coming in waves?

And each time the angle of snatching bamboo shoots is different?

It's the same as rubbing salt in the wound, the first wave of people sprinkles edible salt, and the second wave directly sprinkles sea salt?

Not only is the damage huge, but the insult is also extremely strong!

But what can he do? These are all the fans, his bread and butter. Even if they're wrong, it's the son's fault, and he can only endure it.

Qiao Liang patiently explained: "Look, look, isn't this narrow-minded?"

"As an excellent UP master, Tenda's decipherer, I, Qiao, am absolutely impossible to have such narrow-minded thoughts as you."

"Excellent UP masters are constantly emerging, and there is more and more good video content. Even if it's discussing the same thing, there will definitely be different angles. For the audience, being able to understand the problem more comprehensively is obviously a good thing!"

"Everyone is relying on their true skills and competing fairly. Whoever makes better content will gain more fans."

"I, Qiao, was lucky enough to take an early step and achieve a little bit of insignificant success, but I can't lie on my laurels and not get up, can I? You want to use this to provoke my relationship with other UP masters, that's wishful thinking! I, Old Qiao, am not that kind of person at all!"

A righteous statement made the fans in the live broadcast room call out that they were touched.

However, while Qiao Liang said that he didn't care, he was actually drawing circles in his heart, feeling very resentful towards Meng Chang.

I told you to imitate, but I didn't tell you to surpass me!

Qiao Liang knew that Young Master Tian was Meng Chang, and even using Aeeis' voice to make videos was Qiao Liang's idea for Meng Chang.

Back then, it was because of the Dawn Games platform. Although Qiao Liang's video was also made, the details weren't done well enough, so he gave the interpretation opportunity to Meng Chang.

Qiao Liang originally thought that Meng Chang had a regular job, and only occasionally made videos to explain Tenda's industries, so he couldn't pose a threat to him at all.

But now he realized that he was wrong.

Meng Chang was working while also releasing videos, and as a result, his output wasn't any lower than his...

This time, Qiao Liang was forced to go on a suffering trip, and Young Master Tian had even fewer opponents, dominating the internet!

The video interpreting *Real Estate Agent Simulator* was hung on the homepage of Aili Island for several days, and the ranking also climbed to the top three, with explosive popularity.

Even more annoying was that Qiao Liang had forwarded it to Young Master Tian before, and many fans had gone over there along the way.

Qiao Liang's own video update speed was too slow, and everyone couldn't find new videos to watch, so they had to watch Young Master Tian's videos, objectively completing a perfect traffic diversion.

In short, Qiao Liang said "I'm actually fine," but in his heart he was extremely angry.

Who would have thought that Meng Chang would have so much time to make videos in addition to working seriously? He was doing it so well that he posed a serious threat to him!

But there was nothing he could do. After all, Meng Chang was President Pei's person, so getting angry was useless.

He could only urge himself to release more videos and regain the attention.

Looking at the bullet screens discussing *Ghost General 2*, Qiao Liang basically understood why the popularity of the live broadcast room had declined.

Because the fighting game theme naturally had a deterrent effect on players.

Many people saw that Qiao Liang had started broadcasting, came in to chat for a while, and then left as soon as they saw that he was playing a fighting game.

It wasn't specifically targeting *Ghost General 2*, it was simply that they weren't interested in fighting games!

Moreover, everyone had seen the actual combat videos of *Ghost General 2* before. Losing so much health from a single touch, it looked like a game of suffering.

Suffering in an action game was one thing, but suffering in a fighting game? Many people weren't interested.

No wonder Tenda had invested so many promotional resources in *Ghost General 2*, but it had only achieved a familiar face in front of players, and hadn't achieved a very good promotional effect at all.

"I've discovered that these people have a big misunderstanding of the game *Ghost General 2*!"

"This game is nothing like what they think it is."

"In fact, this game could have been made into an action game like *Repentance*. Action games make so much money, how great would that be?"

"But President Pei still insisted on making it into a fighting game, why?"

"Obviously, there's a deeper meaning here that most players haven't understood."

"Heh, but it doesn't matter, because I, Teacher Qiao, am back!"

"During my suffering trip, President Pei released two games, neither of which had anything to do with me, but as soon as I came out, it just so happened to coincide with the release of *Ghost General 2*! Is this a coincidence, or an implication?"

"Whatever, in short, I'm definitely releasing this video, I can't let Young Master Tian have it again!"

Qiao Liang suddenly felt full of motivation. Grind time!