On Saturday night, “Liu-ge,” who was cross-dressing to play the “Noble Lady” (Show Maiden) path, was officially titled “First-Class Attendant Xu” after the selection process and finally reached the “bed service” (attending the Emperor) step.

Liu-ge said excitedly: “I’m actually serving an NPC in the game. Oh my god… this is so stimulating, hahaha!”

The audience was collectively speechless.

[Reported for lewd streaming!]

[Have some shame; I’m afraid you’ll scare the NPC to death.]

[Liu-ge, you’re really high on playing a female character, aren’t you?]

[No wonder this game is rated 18+. Is there really steamy content?]

Liu-ge coughed lightly: “I suggest you don’t hold your hopes too high. Even if this is an 18+ adult game, the planners won’t describe the process of attending the Emperor in detail. The censors wouldn’t pass it, so we have to manage our expectations.”

He was right. Although the game was 18+, there was a bottom line regarding explicit content; players would not have any intimate physical contact with NPCs.

After being sent to the Emperor’s bedroom, the screen went black, followed by a transition to “The Next Morning.”

Liu-ge said, still wanting more: “My first night serving the Emperor, and it just ended like this with no feeling at all?”

[…Hilarious.]

[What kind of feeling did you want? To actually sleep with an NPC?]

[Big Brother, watch your image!]

[You sound quite disappointed, don’t you?]

[Liu-ge is too immersed; he should change careers and become an actor.]

Returning to his quarters, Liu-ge received some silver sent by the Imperial Household Department. He used the silver to reward the maids and eunuchs, improving his favorability with the people around him.

After that, his “Begonia Pavilion” remained quiet for a while. The Emperor didn’t come to see him, and the Empress, Noble Consort Xiao, and others seemed to have forgotten him.

It wasn’t until a day one month later that he felt dizzy after lunch, and his maid rushed to invite a royal physician to take his pulse.

After diagnosing for a moment, the physician hurriedly stepped back and bowed deeply: “Congratulations, Young Master. You have a pulse of joy (pregnancy)!”

Liu-ge: “Huh?”

The viewers in the live stream: “Hahaha!”

[Pregnancy pulse, I’m dying laughing in your stream.]

[Brother, you’re pregnant. It’s the Emperor’s child~]

[Liu-ge: I was terrified at the time.]

[After a night of serving the Emperor with no feeling, you got pregnant with no feeling.]

[The first male streamer in history to get pregnant [doge].]

Liu-ge never expected that playing a role-playing game would allow him to experience “painless motherhood.” He couldn’t help but laugh out loud: “Hahaha, I’m pregnant, family! What should I do now? Do I really have to give birth in the game?”

He paused and smiled: “I’m a guy, and I’m pregnant and giving birth in the game. Isn’t that a bit weird?”

Though he said it was “a bit weird,” his tone sounded genuinely excited. The audience was almost laughing themselves to death.

Liu-ge put aside the jokes and analyzed seriously: “Based on the developer’s style, since the process of serving the Emperor was skipped with a black screen, the birthing process will surely be glossed over too. So, no psychological pressure needed; let’s take good care of the fetus and give birth to the child!”

At the same time, “Cute Rabbit,” who was also playing the Noble Lady path, received the news of “serving the Emperor” and thought for a moment before saying, “I don’t want to serve him. This Emperor has so many wives; why should we wait on him? No, no!”

[You might get executed for disobeying the imperial decree, Rabbit!]

[According to the rules of this game, the Emperor’s orders cannot be disobeyed, right?]

[You can try disobeying; at worst, you just restart.]

With the “Rebirth Card” in hand, players could constantly reload their save files.

Cute Rabbit considered for a moment and said: “Disobeying directly won’t work, but we can make excuses. Here’s what I’ll do: I’ll go pour cold water on myself. Being sick should be enough, right!”

Without a second thought, she poured a basin of cold water over her head on the spot. She succeeded in catching a cold, and it was quite a severe one.

…That’s ruthless!

When the Emperor heard she was ill, he stopped asking her to serve him.

Cute Rabbit said: “Personally, I don’t think it’s interesting to play the harem path and fight for favor with a bunch of concubines. I’ve decided—I’m going to help the Empress directly!”

“The Empress is the Emperor’s original wife. By our world’s standards, she’s the ‘first wife,’ and the other concubines are just mistresses.”

“What’s the point of fighting for favor with a bunch of women? I’m going to help the original wife defeat these mistresses. It’s decided!”

“As soon as I recover, I’ll go pay respects to the Empress, build up her favorability, help her stabilize the harem, and help the Crown Prince secure his succession.”

[…Your way of thinking is impressive.]

[Sister Rabbit really doesn’t follow the rules~]

[I agree with Rabbit. Help the Empress defeat Noble Consort Xiao!]

[That Noble Consort Xiao is too arrogant; I really don’t like her either.]

The barrage section was buzzing with lively discussion.

Cute Rabbit initiated the “Help the Empress” playstyle. Once recovered, she took the initiative to visit the Empress, deciding to help her clear obstacles and assist the Crown Prince in ascending the throne smoothly. She felt that the Empress and the Crown Prince—being the original wife and the legitimate first-born son—were the only ones qualified to win in the end.

Before 11:00 PM, the streamers logged off one by one.

While you can grind a mobile game for ten hours or even all night without feeling too tired, holographic games connect to the player’s five senses, so five or six hours is exhausting. Moreover, the time in Palace Storm moved at an accelerated pace; five hours in the real world could equate to five years in the game.

Before bed, Cute Rabbit sent a message to Liu-ge: “I heard you’re playing the Noble Lady path too. How is it going?”

Liu-ge sent a row of awkward emojis: “Still stuck in a cycle of miscarriages.”

Cute Rabbit: “Huh??”

Miscarriage? Big Brother, is playing this game that intense?

Liu-ge was so angry he sent a voice message: “I’m f***ing done! After I served the Emperor, didn’t I get pregnant? It wasn’t long before I miscarried. The longest one lasted eight months before the child was gone. They didn’t even spare an unborn baby! These people are truly terrifying!”

Cute Rabbit was speechless: “…”

Liu-ge asked: “How about you?”

Cute Rabbit said: “I didn’t serve the Emperor. I chose to help the Empress. Currently, my favorability with the Empress is 150, and with the Crown Prince, it’s 100. The Empress has decided to take action against Noble Consort Xiao.”

Liu-ge sent a thumbs-up: “Support-style play? Not bad!”

Cute Rabbit reminded him: “Recurrent miscarriages must be caused by problems with food or the environment, right? After you restart tomorrow, carefully search your residence and see if you can find clues.”

Liu-ge: “Alright, I refuse to believe I can’t catch the mastermind behind this!”

Although Cute Rabbit and Liu-ge were streamers on different platforms, they had known each other since they were nobodies, had added each other, and were on good terms privately.

After discussing for a while, they went to sleep.

The next day, after logging into the game, Cute Rabbit continued to see the Empress.

She learned from the Empress that the person closest to Noble Consort Xiao in the harem was Consort Li. This woman was the Noble Consort’s lackey, always doing the Consort’s dirty work.

The person Noble Consort Xiao hated most was Concubine Zhou, because Concubine Zhou was the visual peak of the entire harem, well-liked by the Emperor, and had even given birth to the Eighth Prince.

Cute Rabbit realized: “To take down the boss, you have to solve the mobs around her first. Let’s start with Consort Li. Concubine Zhou is Noble Consort Xiao’s most hated person; maybe I can try to win her over and see if she’s willing to stand with the Empress.”

Following this logic, Cute Rabbit went to farm favorability with Concubine Zhou.

At the same time, while investigating secretly in the harem, she discovered that Consort Li was harming a newly arrived show maiden. The Emperor had been particularly fond of this new show maiden recently, which had drawn the jealousy of Noble Consort Xiao’s faction.

Cute Rabbit and Concubine Zhou followed Consort Li together and caught her in the act. When the Emperor came to the harem, Cute Rabbit exposed the evidence, hoping to get rid of Consort Li once and for all.

However, when she presented the evidence before everyone…

Concubine Zhou suddenly betrayed her. Not only did she not testify for her, but she said: “Sister Li was with me enjoying the moon in the Imperial Garden last night. Afterward, I watched her return to the Autumn Water Pavilion with my own eyes. How could she have pushed anyone into the pond?”

Cute Rabbit was dumbfounded: “We both saw her push someone into the water last night, didn’t we? It was very clear at the time, right?”

Concubine Zhou looked innocent: “Little Sister must be remembering wrong?”

Cute Rabbit: “WTF!”

She almost cursed on the spot.

The audience was also stunned, and the barrage was filled with question marks.

[What’s going on? Did Concubine Zhou just backstab her?]

[Didn’t Sister Rabbit farm her favorability to over 100?]

[If favorability is over 100, the NPC helps the player. Is this a bug?]

[I also think it’s a bug. It shouldn’t happen; she clearly saw Consort Li push the person, why wouldn’t she testify?]

Due to Cute Rabbit’s lack of evidence, the Emperor, in a rage, had her executed for “creating chaos in the harem and sowing discord.”

Looking at the [Game Failed] message on the screen, Cute Rabbit was so angry she almost hit the table: “…I am so f***ing wronged!”

Cute Rabbit used a Rebirth Card and returned to that night in the Imperial Garden.

She was cautious this time and asked Concubine Zhou: “Sister Zhou, did you see clearly that it was Consort Li? She pushed that person into the pond.”

Concubine Zhou nodded with a pale face: “I saw clearly; it was her.”

The next day, Cute Rabbit reported Consort Li to the Emperor. However, Concubine Zhou once again said innocently: “Little Sister must be remembering wrong?”

Cute Rabbit: “Wrong your mother!”

She truly hated that she couldn’t record audio in the game to let the Emperor hear. You agreed to be my witness! How could you backstab me once we got to court?

After being wrongly executed again, Cute Rabbit looked at the black screen and said blankly: “Not a bug? It seems Concubine Zhou doesn’t want to help me at all. Why?”

“Noble Consort Xiao hates her so much, Consort Li and Noble Consort Xiao are in the same camp, and she clearly expressed a willingness to stand with the Empress. My favorability with her is over 100; she should be helping me. Why did she backstab me when I pointed out Consort Li?”

Cute Rabbit thought for a moment, and a sudden realization struck: “Could it be that she has a deeper relationship with Consort Li? Damn, I need to check this!”

After restarting, Cute Rabbit didn’t rush to take down Consort Li. Instead, she bribed the eunuch around Consort Li to gather information first.

She waited patiently for a dozen days and discovered something—on a dark and windy night, Concubine Zhou secretly went to the Autumn Water Pavilion where Consort Li lived.

The two acted intimately and even secretly burned paper offerings together.

Cute Rabbit: “!!!”

She had stumbled upon a huge piece of gossip.

After repeated investigations, Cute Rabbit finally learned the truth—Consort Li and Concubine Zhou were both from Qingzhou. They grew up together and were best friends. The benefactor they were secretly worshipping was a deceased mentor.

Cute Rabbit didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “I stepped on a massive landmine without realizing it!”

If you want to destroy her best friend, of course she’s going to backstab you.

The NPCs in this game actually have such hidden relationships?

The viewers were all staring in disbelief.

[These NPCs don’t just have 800 layers of schemes each; they also have complex hidden relationships?]

[I never expected these two to be best friends!]

[They look like they’re on different sides, but are actually protecting each other in secret?]

[One stands with the Empress, one stands with the Noble Consort, protecting each other from the shadows… I’m moved by the sisterhood between these two.]

[A sister who protects you regardless of life or death is truly rare.]

Cute Rabbit felt complicated.

Seriously, the NPCs in this game were all so flesh-and-blood that she couldn’t even bring herself to do evil things anymore.

[Chapter 81: Different Endings]

Driven by a large number of streamers, Palace Storm remained highly popular. One week after the game’s launch, it had a stable daily concurrent user count of 5 million in gaming pods, easily exceeding 8 million during peak hours.

This online population was slightly lower than the 10 million of Ghost Realm. After all, Palace Storm was a purely story-driven game without rich gameplay mechanics like fighting monsters, raiding bosses, or sightseeing, making its target audience relatively narrow.

However, the game had a large number of “die-hard fans” who used Rebirth Cards repeatedly to reload saves, making the average online time per player far exceed that of Ghost Realm.

Calculated at an average of 2 hours online per player and a payment of 10 yuan, the game’s daily revenue was over 80 million, making a monthly revenue of over 2 billion a certainty. After opening the two-player and Faction PK modes later, revenue would rise even further.

Competitors were green with envy.

Controversies about the game existed online, but they didn’t affect the players’ enthusiasm in the slightest.

It was strange; players who liked this game had extremely high stickiness and would log in almost every day to farm favorability with the NPCs.

The immersive experience was simply impossible to put down!

…

A week later, Xia Kucao was the first to achieve the ending of the “Male Pet” path. By this time, his live stream room had 5 million followers.

Starting from less than 500,000 fans, his following grew tenfold in just one week. Xia Kucao had captured countless fans with his calm analysis and logical reasoning.

Previously, the audience in his stream room called him “Brother Hand-Cripple,” thinking he was just a visual streamer. They never expected that a game relying on mental warfare would allow the handsome young man to shine so brightly.

Slow hands? No problem, his brain speed was fast! Watching a smart person play a game was a pure pleasure.

In the later stages of the game, Xia Kucao’s favorability with the Fourth Prince exceeded 300, making him the prince’s most trusted confidant.

At the same time, through the strategy of “using the court to influence the harem,” and relying on his understanding of the concubines, he eliminated his opponents one by one.

He schemed to make the Emperor misunderstand that Noble Consort Xiao’s family was “planning to revolt.” Naturally, the Emperor no longer favored her, threw her directly into the Cold Palace, and her son, the Second Prince, lost the Emperor’s trust.

When Noble Consort Shu’s father was investigated for corruption, the Emperor was shocked to find a golden mountain hidden in the family home of his beloved consort. The national treasury had almost been hollowed out by them. The Emperor was furious and had the entire family of Noble Consort Shu executed!

The princes and concubines lost power one after another.

Before long, the original Empress “passed away from illness,” and the Fourth Prince’s mother, Consort Xian, was made Empress. Xia Kucao had Consort Xian take care of the Emperor and helped the Fourth Prince ascend the throne.

The Fourth Prince directly appointed him as Prime Minister.

[Congratulations, you have achieved the S-level ending: “A Generation’s Wise Prime Minister, Power Over the Court.”]

The audience in the live stream room collectively dropped their jaws.

From a male pet despised by everyone in the harem, he became the Prime Minister after shifting to the court path, and the Emperor was especially obedient to him…

All one could say was: This guy is a legend!

Xia Kucao said: “Next, I’ll try the Seventh Prince role.”

His strategy for the Seventh Prince was also a support-style path.

He didn’t try to become Emperor himself, but assisted the Crown Prince in ascending the throne. Because he understood the court officials very well from his first run as the male pet, he cleared the Seventh Prince path in half the time.

After the Crown Prince ascended the throne, he made the Seventh Prince a Prince of the First Rank. However, gradually, the Emperor began to fear the power of this prince, as there were too many of the prince’s confidants in the court.

The Emperor wanted to get rid of the prince.

Xia Kucao struck first. Not long after, the new Emperor “passed away from illness” under Xia Kucao’s arrangement. His son was very young, only three years old, so the Seventh Prince served as regent to handle state affairs under the imperial edict.

[Congratulations, you have achieved the Seventh Prince’s S-level ending: “The Regent.”]

The audience was dumbfounded again: There’s this way to play? Regent, turning the young emperor into our puppet! 666!

Xia Kucao immediately tried the Crown Prince path.

He discovered that the Crown Prince path was the most difficult. Once you were in the position of Crown Prince, everyone stared at you, wishing for you to make a mistake. Other princes and concubines wanted to get rid of you; there was a crisis everywhere, and every step was like walking on thin ice.

This path was exceptionally thrilling and stimulating.

Not long after starting, Xia Kucao made a mistake and was deposed by the Emperor, even being placed under house arrest.

As a “deposed Crown Prince,” he naturally didn’t attract much attention.

He sat on the mountain and watched the tigers fight, farming favorability with some confidants. Although he was under house arrest, the situation outside didn’t escape his intelligence network.

Once the princes had fought enough, he came out to clean up the mess.

The Emperor found that this son was still the most capable, so the “deposed Crown Prince” re-entered the Eastern Palace and became the heir to the throne once again.

By this time, the concubines in the harem were dead or injured and couldn’t stir up any trouble. The capable princes were all gone, so the Crown Prince’s position was stable.

When the Emperor “passed away from illness,” the Crown Prince roleplayed by Xia Kucao successfully ascended the throne.

This “make a mistake to become the deposed prince, then use the fisherman strategy to become the final winner” was indeed the most brilliant way to play the “Crown Prince path!”

[Congratulations, you have achieved the Crown Prince’s S-level ending: “Reigning Over the World.”]

All three male characters achieved S-level endings. This smart and calm handsome streamer had become a complete hit!

At the same time, Liu Bo, who haunted the entire harem as a ghost, also received attention from netizens because of her bizarre line of thinking.

After her Consort De came out of the Cold Palace, she used “impersonating a ghost to scare people” to ferret out many masterminds. She didn’t directly point out these culprits, but instead let them fight each other like dogs.

The so-called “dogs biting dogs” drama of sisters in the harem turning against each other was also very exciting, and Liu Bo enjoyed the gossip all the way through.

The Emperor had a headache from the anger. Thinking it over, he decided “Consort De is the most gentle and obedient,” and after the Empress was harmed, he made Consort De the Empress.

Liu Bo finally put away the kites and white clothes she used for impersonating ghosts and sat happily on the Empress’s throne. To stabilize her position, she got rid of the Emperor and the Crown Prince, and supported her own son, the Sixth Prince, in taking the throne.

Her son was busy with state affairs, while she enjoyed her life beautifully as the Empress Dowager. Her well-behaved son would even come to “pay his respects” every day.

Being a mother without pain in the game, having such a handsome son who came to see her every day and sent her all kinds of delicious food and fun things—this was just too cool!

[Congratulations, you have achieved the Consort De S-level ending: “Ultimate Turnaround, Supreme Empress Dowager.”]

Netizens: “666!”

One week after the game launched, streamers achieved a wide variety of endings.

For the Male Pet path, some people played to the ending of “Favored Throughout the Harem”; the Seventh Prince path also had the “Final Winner” ending where one became Emperor.

The most common ending for the Noble Lady path was the “Mother of the World” ending as Empress.

There were also those like Cute Rabbit who took a different path, refusing to serve the Emperor, not seeking his favor, but helping the Empress clean up threats in the harem and assisting the Crown Prince in ascending the throne.

When the Crown Prince ascended, the Empress would be promoted to Empress Dowager, and she would be the “Dowager Concubine,” the Empress’s most trusted good sister.

Planting flowers and raising fish in the harem every day was also quite leisurely and free. This ending was the A+ ending: “Peaceful Dowager Concubine.”

Liu-ge’s thinking was different from Cute Rabbit’s. He was cross-dressing to play a female, so he was not resistant to plots like serving the Emperor or having children. After repeatedly reloading save files, he identified the mastermind and successfully gave birth to a child.

The interesting part of this game was that you could choose the gender when the child was born. Liu-ge said excitedly: “I like daughters; I want to have a cute and beautiful little princess!”

On the day his daughter was born, he even sent out a wave of red envelopes in the live stream.

The audience almost died laughing.

[Congratulations to Liu-ge on having a little princess.]

[Does this count as fulfilling a dream in the game?]

[It’s clear that in the future, when you become a father, you will definitely be a daughter-slave.]

Liu-ge turned the game into “Raising a Daughter in the Game.” Watching the little girl grow up was such a wonderful feeling.

He thought that with a princess, he could live a leisurely life in the harem. But the other concubines wouldn’t let him go—how dare they harm his daughter? That was asking for death!

In a rage, Liu-ge got rid of these concubines, became the Empress in one breath, then got rid of the Emperor, and supported his own daughter as the Crown Princess.

What should I do if my daughter is still young? Liu-ge had no choice but to hold court himself.

—Congratulations, you have achieved the S+ ending: “Ruling from Behind the Curtain.”

There were also some experts who were not satisfied with being Empress. After wining over some officials in the court, they got rid of the Emperor and became Emperor themselves.

This ending was also the S+ rated: “Empress of the Ages!”

The Princess path was the hardest, and experts on the forum posted walkthroughs.

First, whether it was crying and being miserable to soften the Emperor’s heart or reasoning to convince him, the first step of the Princess path must be to cancel the marriage alliance; otherwise, the journey to the alliance would be full of crises and would be a sure-death scenario.

After cancelling the alliance, there were two choices.

The first was the “Support Flow,” assisting a certain prince in taking the throne. Once he ascended, as the greatest contributor and also his own sister, her status would be very stable.

This ending was the A+ rated: “Princess Protector of the State.”

The second, super-difficult way to play was to find a way to ascend the throne.

Why can the throne only be inherited by men?

Players with this ambition could strategize in the early stages, secretly unite the forces of their mother’s family, and establish their own camp.

They could also take the initiative to find a husband to help themselves. The choice of husband was very important; one had to find a second-generation official worth utilizing.

Finally, ascending the throne resulted in the S+ rated: “Empress of the Ages.”

…

Half a month after the game launched, the official forum for Palace Storm saw a large number of strategy posts.

In addition to the known high-difficulty endings, some players had explored some alternative playstyles.

For example, in the Princess path, instead of political fighting, some bribed officials and managed to amass wealth, ultimately achieving the “Wealthy Enough to Rival a Country” ending.

Or, in the Noble Lady path, some made everyone in the harem die of anger, achieving the “Sole Sovereign” ending.

Some played the Consort De path and, after coming out of the Cold Palace, ignored worldly affairs, staying in their own palace every day to enjoy flowers and the moon, achieving the “Heart Like Still Water” ending.

Or, if players didn’t want to get involved in the fighting, they could achieve endings like “I’m Just a Salted Fish in the Harem,” “Gossip Spectator,” or “I Just Want to Survive.”

I thought that a single-player, story-driven game would lose interest once beaten… I never expected that after seeing all the playstyles on the forum, everyone would become even more enthusiastic!

First playthrough cleared? Let’s go for a second playthrough.

Change a character or change a playstyle, and you get a different ending.

Smart streamers like Xia Kucao even started cross-dressing to play female characters just to collect all the endings.

Cute Rabbit specialized in the Noble Lady path; she had almost researched all the relationships between the characters in the harem.

Strategies on the forum emerged one after another.

Every time players visited the forum, they discovered some fresh settings or details they hadn’t noticed at all.

This game was indeed made with great sincerity!

The hidden relationships of many NPCs required players to patiently dig for them; this vast world felt as if it truly existed.

From repeatedly dying at the beginning to later figuring out the rules of this world and using the NPCs to achieve the endings they wanted—whether it was becoming the master of the world or peaceably being a spectator—the immersive feeling of the holographic role-playing game gave players a novel experience that was completely different from just fighting bosses! It was as if a holographic role-playing game was a journey to another world.

Three weeks after the game launched, there were more and more rave reviews online.

Players used their imaginations, and the endings they achieved became more and more varied.

Many people went to Yangfan Studio’s Weibo to urge them: “When is the two-player mode coming out? I want to play!” “Hurry up, I want to carry my best friend!”

Amidst the eager anticipation of the players, on August 25th, Yangfan Studio finally released a promotional post—

“The Palace Storm two-player online mode will officially go live on September 5th. On the night of September 4th at 8:00 PM, Yangfan Studio Chief Planner @LittleSailboat and Qihang Games boss @VastStarSea will live stream to introduce the two-player online gameplay. Stay tuned! ^^”

Peers in the gaming industry were speechless—Xie Yunfan, holding a live stream personally; are you trying to force your peers to death?