Chapter 911: Why Did I Used to Be So Bizarre?

Song Ren, standing there, couldn't utter a word as he watched Zhang Yi and Wang Han, hand-in-hand, flaunting their affection in front of him.

He could only describe himself as a 'dog.'

Looking around in a daze, Song Ren quickly discovered a very serious problem.

Everyone around him seemed to have a companion.

It wasn't necessarily that they were all couples; after all, how could there be so many?

But they had their bros!

Two men, three men, a group of big lads in packs, arms around each other's shoulders – compared to that, this fit the bill perfectly, didn't it?

Originally, he had one, but now that person had betrayed him!

"You two are truly heartless! If only Wang Yifan and Joey weren't so busy with work, then I'd have a companion too." Song Ren sighed.

Hearing Song Ren's words, Zhang Yi and Wang Han exchanged a glance, their faces brimming with smiles. Zhang Yi lightly coughed and said, "Old Song, maybe, probably, you don't know yet, but Old Wang and Joey have also fallen for each other."

"What the heck!? When did that happen? How come I didn't know?" Song Ren's eyes widened.

In that instant, a sentence suddenly flashed through Song Ren's mind.

It's clearly a five-person movie, yet I can never have a name.

Five people, from playing Warcraft together, to teaming up in Call of Duty, engaging in Rainbow Six counter-terrorism, then DOTA team disbanding, and even grinding dungeons in World of Warcraft.

But why, after all that gaming, was he the only one left as a lonely individual?

Over on his end, Song Ren became a bit melancholy and depressed due to the blow from his companions.

However, for the other players participating in tonight's celebration, they were practically going crazy with excitement.

Countless familiar game characters gathered together, coupled with this immersive experience, this grand event was simply too damn awesome.

And this was just the beginning; as more and more familiar characters appeared, the sky burst forth with colorful light.

Like falling snow, the colorful light turned into fragments, slowly drifting down from the sky.

Upon contact with the light, every player found that the scene around them had changed.

Originally, all the players were gathered in one scene; although there was server sharding, it was still a sea of people, but now each player was alone.

Song Ren, who had just been melancholy, also looked in astonishment at everything around him.

[Thank you to all players for your companionship over the past ten years.]

A subtitle appeared, then faded and dispersed.

The next scene, meanwhile, made all the players excited.

"Is this Mirror (Game)!?" Song Ren's eyes widened.

Dark Elves and demons danced together in the castle, Dragon Knights and dragons upheld justice... Of course, even though it was an 18R-rated Adult Game, there clearly wouldn't be any inappropriate content here, just a simple CG animated short film.

"Johnny and Liva's rabbit!"

The theme song of To the Moon played in his ears; seeing Johnny and Liva on screen stirred up old memories, filling Song Ren with a touch of emotion.

This was just the beginning.

The frantic escape in Mount Massive Asylum, the friendship-ending chaos of Breakup Kitchen, the antics of Fall Guys, and the fierce combat of Three Kingdoms generals.

These were all games he had purchased and experienced from Nebula Games.

And all of them were made into CG animated sequences.

Content cherished by every player.

Moreover, Song Ren also noticed one point: these scenes might not be the same for all players.

He also noticed that the content here was created based on the sequence in which players played Nebula Games' various titles.

Because Sanguosha and Fall Guys were both launched when Nebula Games first participated in an offline game exhibition.

At the exhibition, he played both games, but later, for some reason, he didn't immediately play one of them, choosing to put it aside for a while.

Furthermore, the characters in this animation were still the player's own in-game characters.

"But... could I apply to Nebula Games to not include my game character, to preserve some of that nostalgia and youth?" Song Ren's expression became a little complicated.

The previous games made him think of his youth, stirring up memories from ten years ago.

Even the Adult Game Mirror (Game), the emotions it brought him back when he was hand-grinding faintly lingered in his heart.

But as game after game passed, when it came to Nebula Games' first truly large-scale 3D game, the emotion and nostalgia on Song Ren's face vanished.

The name of this game was: Dark Souls.

Although he was brutally beaten by Gundyr the Ash and even tormented by the Ice Dog back then, this was just an animation, so it was clearly impossible to recreate the scenes from when players actually played. Thus, the displayed visuals were mostly cool execution animations.

But the crucial point was this!

Dark Souls didn't have fixed characters!

Just like Red Dead Redemption, no matter how much a player grew a beard or changed their hairstyle, Arthur Morgan would always be Arthur Morgan.

But Dark Souls was different.

Players could customize their characters!

Male or female, old or young, all of these could be decided!

And Song Ren's character?

A Dark Sword, reinforced to an unknown degree, plunged into the chest of the Soul of Cinder, and the Undead walked towards the Cinders, symbolizing either hope or destruction.

This should have been an incredibly cool scene, but that thumbtack-like face, the nose and mouth crammed together, one large and one small crossed eye, and the unruly purple hair all plunged Song Ren into silence.

His looks being subpar was one thing, but in the game, his character maintained the fine tradition of an excellent Firelinker: not wearing any clothes!

The two combined made Song Ren's hands tremble.

And this was just the beginning.

Monster Hunter: World, Minecraft, Bloodborne...

In addition to reliving heartbreaking, blood-boiling, and deeply moving stories like the great decisive battle between Arthas and Illidan, Captain Price and Soap's battle against Shepherd, and Arthur Morgan returning alone to camp.

One after another, characters with Eldritch appearances also made Song Ren's hands tremble slightly.

Why! Why did he used to pursue such Eldritch appearances? And act so utterly non-human?

His character aesthetics were perfectly normal in games with customizable characters released in recent years, like Elden Ring!

It took a full fifteen minutes for the iconic moments chronicling Song Ren's experience with Nebula Games' IP titles to finish playing.

At this point, he returned to the Nebula World.

Many of the countless players around him were discussing the content that had just been shown.

But quite a few players had very awkward expressions at this moment.

"Old Zhang?" Song Ren pursed his lips and looked at Zhang Yi beside him.

"Don't say it, Old Song, I know!" With just one glance, Zhang Yi understood what his good buddy wanted to say.

He, too, had once been an Eldritch worshiper.

(End of Chapter) <>