Chapter 912: Nebula World

Although for players who often don't dress like proper people in cutscenes, this wave of easter eggs felt like a delicious bowl of Eight Treasure Porridge that had been slightly burnt, leaving a somewhat off taste.

But after a brief moment of awkwardness, many players felt a surge of emotion. After all, no matter what, these were all remnants of their bygone youth.

Besides, this stuff was only visible to them, the players. As long as it wasn't made public, there was no such thing as 'social death'.

After all, who doesn't have some 'dark history'?

As kids, they'd copy song lyrics into notebooks, or write cringeworthy chuuni diaries. After watching wuxia TV shows and movies, they'd grab bamboo sticks with their friends and start the most primitive form of cosplay.

Indecipherable melodramatic phrases in their social media bios, and non-mainstream IDs written in Martian script.

In comparison, not acting like a normal person in a game seemed far less embarrassing when you thought about it.

Countless familiar NPCs emerged from those game scenes, accompanied by the players' thunderous cheers and the melody of the background music.

Chen Xu's figure appeared in the sky.

Facing all the players, he didn't deliver a lengthy speech, only a simple address.

'Thank you to all players for attending Nebula Games' tenth-anniversary celebration. Finally, please experience the joy that Nebula World brings!'

As Chen Xu's words fell, the players remained still, but the NPCs throughout the game erupted in various cheers.

Nebula World brings joy?

Aren't they already in it?

Although the 'Life in Gaming' video was full of emotion, and the gathering of various NPCs had them incredibly excited.

But if it's about joy, this isn't exactly a carnival, is it?

However, the players' confusion didn't last long, because the moment Chen Xu's image vanished from the sky, all players received new notifications.

First, there was the most basic thing: insane discounts.

All games from Nebula Games' first-party and third-party developers were uniformly on discount.

And the discounts were quite substantial.

Secondly, time card-based games like World of Warcraft, as well as games with cosmetics like Rainbow Six Siege and DOTA, all launched special limited edition cosmetics and corresponding, very substantial discounts.

Staring at the uniformly green percentage discounts, many players instantly seemed to lose their minds, rushing to add items to their shopping carts, expressing their inner feelings with three simple words: Buy, buy, buy!

But after checking out, these players suddenly felt that something was amiss.

Damn it, they came to participate in Nebula Games' tenth-anniversary celebration, so why were they damn well spending money?!

Mr. Chen, you're even collecting 'contribution money' from them like this?

Of course, more players were still focused on what Chen Xu had said about Nebula World.

It was not unfamiliar to any of the players present; when Nebula Games first launched, it could be said to have shocked many players.

However, what was then called Nebula World was mostly a way for players to pass the rather long loading times in the early stages, due to hardware limitations.

It was little more than a bonus.

Later, with the development of technology, Nebula World was not abandoned by Nebula Games. Instead, it was continuously updated, gradually replacing the early achievement trophies on the Nebula Games PC platform and becoming new collectible achievement content.

But in terms of its presence, it was relatively weak for most players.

Although it also had various gameplay modes built in, these were mostly for collecting achievement-like content, or just experiencing the game's visuals and simple gameplay.

But now, at this tenth-anniversary celebration, according to Chen Xu, it seemed to have become a new focal point?

“Holy cow, so many modes! What the heck are these?!” Song Ren exclaimed, looking at the brand new Nebula Games personal easter egg interface with a surprised expression.

“I don't know,” Zhang Yi replied, a little curious himself. “And some modes even have matchmaking. Is it open for teaming up with strangers now?”

Adventure, Survival, Trial, and Free – there were four different modes in the options.

According to the descriptions, the Adventure mode seemed to be the usual single-player gameplay.

The remaining Survival mode and Trial mode were for online multiplayer content.

The final Free mode was a bit ambiguous and Zhang Yi didn't quite grasp it, but the slogan 'Explore Freely, Change Destiny' reminded him of a Nebula Games title: Final Fantasy.

The sacrifices of Zack, Aerith, and the Avalanche trio, but in a second playthrough, players could change that tragic fate.

However, whether it was truly like that remained unknown; without hands-on experience, it was just guesswork.

“How about we try the Survival mode first?” Song Ren suggested.

Honestly speaking, Song Ren was quite curious about the enigmatic Free mode too.

But since it was a single-player mode, Song Ren still wanted to play with his buddies.

“Sure!” Zhang Yi didn’t have any objections, nodding in agreement. “But there are so many game worlds to choose from!”

But after opening the Survival mode interface and seeing the long list of game worlds, he felt a bit overwhelmed.

Due to time and content constraints, not all Nebula World IPs were included, but there were certainly many.

“How about Red Dead Redemption?” Wang Han offered a suggestion.

“I think that works.” “Agreed!”

It wasn't that they preferred Red Dead Redemption over all the others; it was mainly because many of the game worlds in the list made them feel a little daunted.

Elden Ring, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dark Souls, Monster Hunter: World… damn it, these were either games with physical damage, or games with psychological magic damage, or even both! Who could possibly endure that?!

Thinking about it carefully, most of the games Mr. Chen had developed in the past ten years seemed to have a 'small problem'!

In comparison, Red Dead Redemption was quite normal, even though its ending still moved people to tears.

But for Survival mode, they didn't even need to read the description; just those four characters made it clear enough: it was simply about surviving. It naturally wouldn't involve any plot, and given Red Dead Redemption's gameplay, how could it make them suffer?

“Instant entry. But didn't we match with any random players?” Song Ren said, a little surprised, on the interface before entering the game.

Because there were only three of them. Did that mean three players was the maximum limit?

【From Strawberry Town to Valentine and then to Blackwater Town, the hyena-like Pinkerton Agents have been relentlessly pursuing us for three whole months. Their noses are as sharp as hyenas'. Out of fifteen, only seven of us remain. All of this stems from that robbery plan in Saint Denis.】

(End of Chapter) <>