Chapter 197 - 180: A 20-Year Gap! This Speed is Unbeatable

Chapter 197: Chapter 180: A 20-Year Gap! This Speed is Unbeatable

Lu Feng looked at the rows and rows of mobile game options and, for a moment, felt a bit of decision paralysis.

After all, every era had its blockbuster mobile games, each a phenomenal success. Faced with the choice, he truly didn’t know which one to pick.

Cheng Sisi, however, was very thoughtful. She had gathered descriptions for each game, allowing him to get a more intuitive feel for them.

As he was looking through the descriptions, one game suddenly caught his eye. Its notes mentioned that 20 years in the future, it would replace games like *Honor of Kings* and *Peacekeeper Elite*, becoming the "terminator" of their genre.

’In other words, *Honor of Kings* and *Peacekeeper Elite* are going to stay popular for another 20 years.’

The game was called *Swordsman*.

According to the description, it was a game truly about the lives of swordsmen.

The swordsman was an indispensable figure in the nation’s classic tales, an archetype that countless people yearned to be.

After all, who wouldn’t want to be like those swordsmen, possessing supreme martial arts and the ability to leap over rooftops and scale walls?

Who wouldn’t feel their blood boil at the phrase, "The greatest of heroes serve the country and its people!"

Then there was the Poetry Immortal Li Bai’s verse: "Ten steps, a kill. A thousand miles, no trail. The deed is done, I flick my sleeves, and vanish, fame and all."

Swordsmen have existed from ancient to modern times. They don’t belong to any branch of the ruling class. They are masters of their craft, coming and going without a trace, yet they have never attempted to use their martial prowess to control society or aid those who do.

A swordsman doesn’t follow the Confucian ideal of "loyalty," but rather "benevolence" and "righteousness."

...

Reading the descriptions, Lu Feng got a good idea of what kind of game this was. Beyond simple entertainment, it had a clear undertone of guiding players toward virtuous conduct.

Chivalry, integrity, benevolence... These were the game’s core themes.

’That’s a lot better than Zhuge being a Mage, Jing Ke being a woman, and Li Bai being an Assassin...’ he thought.

’But aren’t these kinds of preachy games usually unpopular?’

’Life is stressful enough. People play games to relax and have fun, not to get lectured.’

"Adapt this game and load it onto the phones I gave you earlier." In the end, Lu Feng still had Cheng Sisi get the game ready.

’Either way, I have to give it a try,’ he thought. ’After all, a game that can replace *Honor of Kings* and the "winner winner chicken dinner" game must be something special.’

The mobile phones from 20 years in the future ran on a newer operating system. A direct download and install wouldn’t even launch on a present-day phone.

It was actually quite incredible.

*After the Apocalypse* had just been a game in the real world, but now that it had become a real place, it was surprisingly reflecting many aspects of reality.

Like *Honor of Kings* and *Peacekeeper Elite*, for example.

After receiving her orders, Cheng Sisi immediately got to work with a few of the top programmers.

Because the game was only 20 years ahead of its time, the difference in operating systems was a simple problem for Cheng Sisi and her team.

They had specialized programs for converting such "ancient" code. For them, it was an automated, practically foolproof process.

Before long, the game code for *Swordsman* was converted. Cheng Sisi installed the game on a Weihua phone and handed it to Lu Feng. "Boss, it’s ready."

Lu Feng nodded and took the phone. As expected, he saw the *Swordsman* logo. He checked the file size—it took up far less memory than *Honor of Kings* or the "chicken dinner" game.

He tapped the icon, and the game launched.

An unfamiliar game company logo appeared with a chime. ’So in 20 years, a new internet company will rise up and usurp Penguin’s two flagship mobile games,’ he thought.

’I’ll have to get Cheng Sisi’s team to change this logo to Qingfeng Network Company’s later.’

Soon, Lu Feng registered an account, logged in, and entered the game.

The first thing he saw was the character creation screen.

Unlike the fixed templates in most games, you could truly create your character’s appearance from scratch. There were also attribute points for players to allocate themselves, with no fixed progression path.

Of course, for those who weren’t skilled at it, there was a dedicated platform where you could commission other people to create character models and sell them.

But there was a catch: each custom model could only be sold once, guaranteeing that every player’s character in the game was unique.

’Aren’t they taking this a bit too far?’

Lu Feng casually created a bald, crooked-mouthed character and entered the game.

Unlike other games that started you in a tutorial village, this one assigned your character to a family within the game world.

It was a bit like the opening of a single-player game.

Lu Feng’s character was born into the Lu Family as the third son. Because the family was poor and the eldest son was getting married, they sold him to the town’s Escort Agency to work as a Walking Escort—in other words, a grunt.

Lu Feng was a little stunned at first. ’Don’t games usually involve grinding monsters to level up, or competitive matches like in *Honor of Kings*?’

Then, after he increased his Strength stat by hauling cargo and gained a point of Agility by making his character run continuously, he started to understand.

Afterward, he learned a basic saber technique at the Escort Agency.

In most games, a skill is just an icon that you click to use.

But in this game, after learning the basic saber technique, he found it consisted of ten different stances. You could mix and match these stances to create your own combos.

He experimented and found that different combinations and sequences had varying levels of power.

Moreover, if your fingers were fast enough, you could chain combos together, making the basic saber technique even more powerful.

’This is insane.’

This meant that even with the exact same skill and identical character stats, its effectiveness would be completely different depending on the player using it.

A lower-level player could even dominate a higher-level one. It wasn’t like other games where you could just pay-to-win and steamroll everyone with superior levels and equipment.

Right, the game had no microtransaction store, only a channel for monthly subscriptions and game-time cards.

’What a breath of fresh air!’ he thought. ’Game companies nowadays are all about pay-to-win, raking in cash as fast as they can and treating players like a crop to be harvested. To think that 20 years from now, they’d return to their roots and bring back the subscription model from 20 years ago?’

After all, a subscription-based game was the only truly fair model. As long as the player base was large enough, it could be more profitable and long-lasting than any pay-to-win game, and it was better at building a loyal, nostalgic community.

After all, there once was a game that made its boss the richest man in the country just by selling time cards.

Moreover, Lu Feng discovered the game was completely open-world and allowed for completely free player-to-player trading.

’Those two features are absolutely game-changing. Nothing on the market today can do that. Are games from 20 years in the future really this incredible?’

As he continued to play, Lu Feng found himself getting hooked. Finally, during one escort mission, his group was ambushed by another faction trying to steal their cargo.

In other games, a fight like this would just be a matter of running up and trading blows.

But not in *Swordsman*. The screen shifted, transitioning to a view that resembled a MOBA arena, but the map’s terrain was an exact replica of the area where the characters were standing.

The players were split into two teams: Lu Feng’s character and his Escort Agency companions on one side, and the robbers on the other. It was a 5v5 match.

Furthermore, the gameplay was similar to *Honor of Kings*, but with even more mechanical depth, entertainment value, and competitive potential.

Using the basic saber combos he’d put together himself, Lu Feng took down two of the robbers and assisted his Escort Agency allies in finishing off the other three. They won the match, with his final score being 2/0/3.

’Imagine if the robbers were players, and my fellow escorts were players too,’ he mused. ’Wouldn’t that be a blast?’

...

After playing for a while, Lu Feng felt the game was incredible. The open world and free trading alone were enough to crush most games currently on the market, to say nothing of its other features.

Furthermore, the game had so many intricate systems that even a PC game that was hundreds of gigabytes large would struggle to achieve this level of complexity. Yet, this mobile game had done it, all while taking up less space than *Honor of Kings*.

He couldn’t help but marvel. ’Games 20 years from now are seriously on another level.’

Lu Feng immediately turned to Cheng Sisi. "Sisi, extract the game’s source code and get the encryption program ready."

The smart assistant software had already proven that encryption programs made with code from the game world were impossible for the tech giants of the real world to crack.

That was why companies like Penguin and Douyin could only watch helplessly as Qingfeng Network Company grew. Otherwise, Qingfeng Company would have been devoured, with not even the bones left.

They already had the encryption routine, so it wasn’t a difficult task for Cheng Sisi and her team. They quickly extracted the game’s source code and prepared the encryption.

"Boss, the game is on here." Finally, Cheng Sisi handed Lu Feng a USB drive, a piece of real-world technology.

After taking the game, Lu Feng instantly disappeared from in front of Cheng Sisi and the others, returning to his villa.

Just as he picked up his phone, he saw a payment notification. It was precisely the 1.5 billion sent from Qingfeng Company.

Then, his phone rang.

It was Chairman Cheng Long from the bank.

’It must be about the transfer,’ Lu Feng thought.

He answered the call, and Chairman Cheng Long’s voice came through. "President Lu, the 1.5 billion has been deposited into your account from Qingfeng Company. I also wanted to let you know that our bank has a wide range of specialized services for our high-value clients. If you ever need anything, even a service like babysitting, just give us a call..."

"Babysitting?" Lu Feng was stunned.

He didn’t even have any kids.

He could only give a wry smile. "Chairman Cheng, I received the notification. As for the other services, I don’t need any at the moment, thank you."

With that, he hung up.

’Are banks really this competitive these days?’

On the other end, Cheng Long put down his phone with a broad smile. It didn’t matter whether President Lu actually wanted those services; what mattered was making the offer.

Besides, President Lu would have received an automatic notification for the deposit. The redundant phone call was just a way to demonstrate the bank’s high regard and respect for him.

Convincing President Lu to bank with them had been a massive stroke of luck. With this 1.5 billion deposit, he had once again exceeded his monthly deposit quota. He’d probably be promoted to the head office soon.

Lu Feng had just hung up when his phone rang again. This time it was Wang Kai, likely calling about the 1.5 billion as well.

He answered, and as expected, it was Wang Kai. "Chairman Lu, the 1.5 billion has been transferred to your account. It should have arrived by now."

"Yes, it’s here," Lu Feng replied, then gave an instruction, "President Wang, get things ready on your end. I’ll be sending the game I purchased over in a little while."

"The game’s already purchased? So quickly??" Wang Kai was astonished.

After all, he had only just sent the money for the purchase, and now he was being told the game was already bought.

That kind of speed was simply unheard of.