OGP CH59

Saturday evening, inside a residential complex in Magic City.

Tang Tian, a first-grader who had finally finished her homework, poked her little head out of her bedroom and asked earnestly, “Daddy, I finished my homework. Can I play some video games for a bit?”

Tang Ming replied, “Sure, but only for two hours.”

Retrieving his daughter’s phone from a drawer, he walked into the children’s room. He originally planned to search for a cute animal-raising game by Wings of Dream for her to play, but the moment he launched Mobile Home, a splash screen advertisement greeted his eyes: “New Title Journey to the West Officially Open for Download.”

Journey to the West? What kind of game was this?

Driven by curiosity, Tang Ming tapped the ad to investigate. The homepage description read: Journey to the West is a tactical combat mobile game suitable for all ages, featuring rich and engaging level designs. Chapter One: Havoc in Heaven is available for free download and trial. The page displayed numerous promotional screenshots, showcasing quite a distinctive art style.

A free-to-play trial suitable for all ages?

Intrigued, Tang Ming downloaded Journey to the West and said, “Tiantian, a new game launched today. How about Daddy plays it with you?”

Tang Tian nodded like a pecking chick. “Okay!”

Father and daughter sat by the bedside, downloading and installing the game. The moment the game launched, the stunning cinematic caused the little girl’s eyes to widen in surprise: “Daddy, why did a monkey jump out of a rock?”

Tang Ming was equally surprised, stroking his chin as he noted, “The setting of this game is remarkably novel.”

He realized the game’s art style was truly “suitable for all ages”—not only did his daughter love it, but he found himself thoroughly captivated as well. The protagonist was a monkey, lively, agile, and quite adorable.

The first stage required controlling the monkey to climb the mountain. Tang Ming said, “Let’s play on Easy mode first. Here, take the phone and see if you can clear it.”

Taking the phone from her father, Tang Tian controlled the monkey to jump upward along the path. With platforms serving as footholds, jumping up wasn’t difficult at all. Upon finding the Water Curtain Cave, the little girl cheered excitedly, “Daddy, we’re gonna be the Monkey King!”

Tang Ming laughed. “Impressive!”

The subsequent story cutscenes held the little girl Tang Tian in rapt attention. Clutching the phone with utmost concentration, she guided Sun Wukong through the mist-shrouded Mount Lingtai Fangcun to seek out Grandmaster Bodhi and apprentice under him, mastering the Somersault Cloud and Seventy-Two Transformations.

Tang Tian had an absolute blast messing with the Seventy-Two Transformations.

“Sun Wukong turned into a tree!”

“He can even turn into a fish!”

“Daddy, Sun Wukong is so cool!”

The cartoons she usually watched were filled with robots and aliens; seeing a monkey as the protagonist who could transform into all sorts of things was fascinating beyond words. Tang Tian was so hooked she couldn’t put the game down.

Before they knew it, two hours had flown by. Tang Ming was amazed to find that accompanying his daughter through the game hadn’t felt boring in the slightest. Most games made for children were completely unengaging for adults. Yet this Journey to the West possessed a unique magic. While appearing “childish” at first glance, anyone who pushed past the first stage would realize that its core mechanics were astonishingly deep—rivalling even hundred-yuan AAA single-player blockbusters! Even he, a grown father, felt the urge to jump in…

At 10:00 PM, Tang Ming reminded her, “Tiantian, time for bed.”

Reluctantly closing the game, Tang Tian asked, “Daddy, can I keep playing Journey to the West tomorrow?”

Tang Ming said, “You can play once your homework is finished.”

Tang Tian followed up, “Then can I post on Moments? This game is so fun, I want to share it with the other kids in my class.”

Tang Ming smiled and said, “Of course. Good things should be shared with friends.”

The little girl immediately snapped a screenshot and posted it to Moments: “Recommending a game to everyone, Journey to the West! It’s super fun, you definitely have to play it!” Having posted the update, she handed the phone to her father and drifted off to sleep happily.

Closing his daughter’s bedroom door, Tang Ming returned to his own room…

He reopened the game to play it himself! Watching his daughter play earlier had made his fingers itch to try it. Now that she was asleep, he immediately cranked the difficulty to “Challenge mode” and continued from where she left off. Truth be told, he was dying to know what happened next in Sun Wukong’s story.

[Act Three: Bull Demon King]

The cutscene revealed that after Sun Wukong’s apprenticeship, his mischievous nature and disregard for rules led him to constantly cause chaos, prompting Grandmaster Bodhi to expel him from the sect. Sun Wukong returned to Huaguo Mountain, where a formidable foe called the “Bull Demon King” came knocking at his doorstep to pick a fight.

[System: Main Quest Updated — [Defeat the Bull Demon King]]

[System: Acquired temporary weapon “Wooden Staff”, temporary skill “Basic Attack”]

Tang Ming quickly focused his attention, initiating the solo boss encounter. Less than ten seconds into the battle, he was one-shot by the boss.

The Bull Demon King was definitely no walk in the park! Every 15 seconds, he summoned a pack of minions to swarm Sun Wukong. Players had to kite quickly and burn down the mini-bulls immediately; otherwise, the adds would continuously stack bleed debuffs on Sun Wukong, leading to certain death upon reaching five stacks.

At the same time, the Bull Demon King’s own abilities were lethal. His frequently cast “Brute Force Charge” sent him barreling across the arena in random directions without any discernible pattern, severely testing the player’s reaction time. If caught in his path for even a split second, it resulted in an instant kill! Furthermore, the Bull Demon King wielded an “Iron Cudgel,” unleashing sweeping cone attacks with staggering damage. Taking a single hit cleaved off half a health bar; two hits meant instant death.

After being swept down multiple times in a row, Tang Ming couldn’t help but gasp, “Is Challenge mode really this sadistic?!” Watching his daughter play the first two stages had seemed so effortless that even a young kid could master it in seconds. Yet after switching to “Challenge mode”… it practically felt like an entirely different game!

Meanwhile, Liu-ge was also taking on the Bull Demon King solo. Scaling the mountain in the first stage had eaten up nearly an hour before he reached the Water Curtain Cave. The second stage’s maze not only had him constantly lost, but was also packed with bizarre mechanisms that required intense puzzle-solving. Add to that his giddy excitement playing with Seventy-Two Transformations atop the peak, losing all track of time…

Consequently, by 10:00 PM, he was still wrestling with the Bull Demon King. At this hour, countless streamers found themselves hitting a wall against this very boss. Endless waves of summoned adds; random charging where reacting a second too late meant instant death; sweeping strikes with blinding speed and astronomical damage! Players had to maintain supreme situational awareness with zero margin for error, all while looking for precise windows to strike the Bull Demon King with that crappy starter wooden stick provided by the system.

This was absurdly difficult!

After getting pulverized by the Bull Demon King several times, Liu-ge began theorycrafting combat mechanics. He vented to his audience, “Chat, this boss casts skills way too frequently. You need absolute focus and flawless execution to even stand a chance. Our Sun Wukong’s Somersault Cloud is disabled during boss fights—which makes sense, otherwise players would just fly off into the sky, so what would be left to fight? As for Seventy-Two Transformations…”

Glancing toward the bottom-right corner, his eyes suddenly sparkled: “Wait, Seventy-Two Transformations isn’t disabled!”

Seventy-Two Transformations had a 30-second cooldown with a 10-second duration. In clutch moments, could he use this ability to evade the Bull Demon King’s strikes and charges? With that realization, Liu-ge initiated the boss encounter once more.

The split second the Bull Demon King charged ferociously toward him, Liu-ge tapped Seventy-Two Transformations in the bottom right corner—morphing into a tiny honeybee and buzzing high into the air. The Bull Demon King’s charge whiffed completely.

Liu-ge shouted: “Holy shit! Even that works?!”

In the very next instant, the Bull Demon King suddenly looked up, swinging his cudgel straight into the sky, knocking him right out of the air. Scrambling to his feet covered in dust, Liu-ge declared, “Let’s keep going, I figured out the trick. Can we jump onto his shoulders to beat him up? This old bull is massive and sluggish; there’s no way his weapon can reach his own shoulders, right? Or we could turn into a small animal and slip right between his legs?”

Having discovered this strategy, Liu-ge began timing the cooldown of “Seventy-Two Transformations,” constantly morphing to weave in and out of the Bull Demon King’s reach—soaring into the air one second and tunneling underground the next… As long as he avoided the charges and sweeping strikes while efficiently clearing the adds, the boss’s health could be whittled down bit by bit.

Honestly, this method of fighting a boss was utterly unprecedented in the gaming world! It was ridiculously fun. The more Liu-ge played, the more thrilled he became, and the stream viewers watched with equal excitement.

[Fly onto his head and smack him!]

[Slipped right under his armpit, that was close!]

[6666, Sun Wukong is ridiculously agile!]

[Watching this makes me want to play…]

[Already downloaded! I’m jumping into Challenge mode right now!]

The battle against the Bull Demon King was blistering in pace. Liu-ge’s nerves were wound tight, his fingers aching from the sheer intensity of inputs. Meanwhile, the stream viewers felt a surge of long-lost adrenaline. This boss design was genuinely unheard of. Players could shift into diverse forms to counter the boss—leaping onto his shoulders one moment and darting beneath his feet the next. It was novel, thrilling, and thoroughly engaging!

The playstyle wasn’t the rigid, scripted rotation seen in other games; it demanded fluid improvisation. By reacting to boss mechanics with swift positioning and shapeshifting, every player could formulate their own unique strategy. The dynamic possibilities unlocked by Seventy-Two Transformations were virtually limitless. Such high-freedom boss encounters were a breath of fresh air!

Initially, upon seeing that the protagonist was a monkey, everyone’s instinctive reaction was that it was “a game for kids.” But watching the streamer play up to this point, everyone realized… they had been dead wrong. This monkey was an absolute beast! With only two skills and zero gear, he could already run circles around a boss using Seventy-Two Transformations; how much stronger would he become later on? Everyone was buzzing with anticipation for this shadow-dropped monkey protagonist.

It took Liu-ge a full hour to finally topple the Bull Demon King. By then, it was already 11:00 PM. It had been ages since he had been this thoroughly absorbed in a game. Games crafted by Yangfan Studio truly possessed an uncanny magic.

The story cutscene began to roll. Following his showdown with the Bull Demon King, Sun Wukong found his weapon lacking and sought a more formidable treasure to wield. Since Huaguo Mountain bordered the sea, he was essentially neighbors with the “Dragon King of the East Sea.” Hearing rumors that the Dragon Palace housed countless treasures, Sun Wukong decided to pay his neighbor a visit.

[Act Four: Dragon Palace]

Liu-ge declared, “Act Four! Another new stage. Let’s head into the Dragon Palace to check it out!”

The moment he entered the Dragon Palace, an environmental pan swept across the screen. The camera glided swiftly through the palace halls. Each time a new dungeon opened, a transition cutscene played to give players an introductory panoramic view of the area—one of the signature design choices of Journey to the West. The viewers gasped at the sheer splendor of the undersea Dragon Palace. Many scrambled to take screenshots; with this visual fidelity, every frame could easily serve as a phone lock screen!

Praise flooded the chat:

[The undersea Dragon Palace is ridiculously gorgeous!]

[Look at all the coral!]

[The NPCs in the Dragon Palace look adorable!]

[I see a bunch of crabs holding tridents pacing back and forth, are they on patrol?]

[Hahaha, those crabs actually scuttle sideways!]

[Are those fish holding spears?!]

The cutscene ended, placing the player at the entrance of the Dragon Palace.

[System: Main Quest Updated — [Explore the East Sea Dragon Palace, Locate the Dragon King of the East Sea]]

[System: The Dragon Palace is patrolled by shrimp soldiers and crab generals. Please evade them with caution.]

Liu-ge said, “Looks like a maze crawling with patrol mobs. We need to be careful and dodge them.”

Taking a few steps forward, he arrived at a three-way intersection. One crab was patrolling from left to right, another from right to left, and a third was walking directly toward the player’s position. Liu-ge ducked aside to hide. The three crabs converged at the crossroads, paused for a single second, and then dispersed in three different directions. With these patrol patterns, as long as one timed their pathing windows properly, they could slip past the intersection while the guards had their backs turned.

Seizing the opening, Liu-ge dashed across the junction. Yet barely two steps in, a crab on the flank suddenly turned around and spotted him. Instantly, the two neighboring crabs swarmed toward Sun Wukong as well.

Liu-ge cursed aloud: “Holy crap, aggro linking!”

Aggro linking was a staple mechanic in online games: drawing the attention of one mob caused nearby allies to link up and gang up on the player. These coordinated patrol packs were notoriously tough to handle. All three crabs were melee combatants dealing massive critical hits. Fighting a 1v3, Liu-ge watched his health bar plummet rapidly. By the time he finally defeated them, his health bar was flashing red.

Liu-ge said, “We need to find something to heal up.”

Advancing further, he spotted a treasure chest. The chest was uniquely designed like a giant clamshell, glowing with a soft luster beneath the ocean waves. Opening it prompted a system notification:

[System: Obtained [Coral Grass] ×2]

[Description: A specialty of the Dragon Palace. Consuming restores 20% HP.]

Liu-ge was delighted: “There are treasure chests with healing items in the Dragon Palace! Let’s stockpile healing supplies and take it slow. There must be plenty of linked packs, so this won’t be easy!”

Liu-ge spent the trek hunting chests and battling mobs. He noticed the mob designs in the Dragon Palace were cleverly thought out. The Crab Squad scuttled sideways wielding tridents, specializing in melee burst damage. The Catfish Squad swam with swift speed, specializing in ranged attacks and bombarding him with water spheres; worse, they coordinated from multiple angles, hurling projectiles in an infuriating barrage. The Turtle Squad possessed pitiful offensive power but impenetrable defense. Yet ignoring them wasn’t an option, as they constantly shrieked, “Help!” and “Intruder in the Dragon Palace!”, alerting every mob in the surrounding sector!

Liu-ge experimented with Seventy-Two Transformations: transforming into a crab, he slipped into a patrol line and successfully bluffed his way past the guards.

[Transforming into a crab means having to scuttle sideways too, lmao!]

[If you walk forward normally, they’ll immediately bust you as an undercover agent!]

[Can Sun Wukong turn into anything he has laid eyes on?]

[Shame the cooldown is so long, otherwise you could just stealth your way through the whole dungeon!]

Inside the Dragon Palace, the cooldown for Seventy-Two Transformations was indeed lengthy. As such, Liu-ge only utilized it to bypass areas densely packed with mobs. For the rest of the time, he charged in head-on and hacked his way through. Losing track of how many mobs he had slain and how much Coral Grass he had consumed, he finally reached the inner sanctum of the Dragon King of the East Sea an hour later.

A story cutscene triggered. Sun Wukong stated his purpose, declaring he was looking for a handy weapon and demanding the Dragon King present his treasures. The Dragon King instructed his subordinates to fetch weapons, but weapon after weapon was brought forth, and Sun Wukong rejected every single one.

Sun Wukong demanded his finest treasure. A subordinate whispered an idea: “Our East Sea possesses the Sea-Calming Divine Needle, weighing 13,500 catties. That demon monkey could never lift it! We can use that excuse to dismiss him.”

The Dragon King thought, Indeed—we have a divine treasure, but pity you can’t lift it. And so, the Dragon King led Sun Wukong to inspect the Sea-Calming Divine Needle.

The Dragon Palace court gathered around to watch the spectacle, expecting Sun Wukong to back down in defeat. To their shock, Sun Wukong scrambled up and down the massive pillar, laughing uproariously and admiring it with utter delight: “Fine treasure! This Sea-Calming Divine Needle belongs to Old Sun now!”

The Dragon King gasped in horror: “No! This is my treasure!”

Sun Wukong’s voice dripped with cheeky insolence: “You claim it’s your treasure? If you call out to it, will it answer?”

The Dragon King: “…”

Sun Wukong beamed, “If I call it, it will answer!”

With that, he commanded the towering Sea-Calming Divine Needle: “Shrink, shrink, shrink!”

The colossal pillar, originally over ten meters wide, actually followed his command and shrank continuously, condensing into a staff that Sun Wukong gripped eagerly in his hand. With the Sea-Calming Divine Needle uprooted, the entire East Sea shuddered violently like an earthquake! Frightened out of his wits, the Dragon King rushed to stop him, but Sun Wukong paid no mind to his panic, swinging the staff back and forth with relish, finding it perfectly balanced in his hands.

Sun Wukong shrank the needle down to the size of a toothpick and tucked it into his ear. He continued, “Your Dragon Palace has plenty of treasures; lend Old Sun a few more pieces to wear, and I’ll return them once I’m done!”

Afflicted with immense grief, the Dragon King summoned his three dragon brothers. After huddled deliberation, they decided to offer up several pieces of divine gear just to send this unruly monkey packing, intending to appeal to the Heavenly Court afterward and let the Jade Emperor handle him!

The Dragon Palace dungeon concluded.

[System: Acquired signature weapon [Ruyi Jingu Bang], Sun Wukong’s Attack +500%]

[System: Acquired equipment [Cloud-Treading Boots of Lotus Silk], Sun Wukong’s Movement Speed +200%]

[System: Acquired equipment [Golden Chainmail Armor], Sun Wukong’s Defense +200%]

[System: Acquired equipment [Phoenix-Winged Purple Gold Crown], Sun Wukong’s Agility +10]

Gazing upon this cascade of notifications, Liu-ge couldn’t contain his sheer exhilaration: “Holy shit, this trip to the Dragon Palace was worth every second! A full endgame set in one go!”

The stream audience shared his joy. Clearing the Dragon Palace on Challenge mode had taken a grueling hour, but it was brimming with peril and thrills, culminating in a jaw-dropping windfall.

[One trip to the Dragon Palace and he’s filthy rich!]

[Hahaha, our Monkey Bro is instantly loaded!]

[Decked out in full armor, he looks ten times more badass!]

[Oh no, I think I’m actually falling in love with this monkey!]

[I loved how he clapped back at the Dragon King!]

[Dragon King: Don’t take my treasure! Wukong: Duh, if it wasn’t a treasure, I wouldn’t want it~]

[Wukong: Call out to it, will it answer? If I call it, it answers!]

[Hahaha, Sun Wukong’s trolling stat is maxed out!]

[We’re the Monkey King who fears neither Heaven nor Earth!]

The Dragon Palace dungeon was a major turning point: not only did Sun Wukong walk away with a full gear set, but with Ruyi Jingu Bang in hand, his damage output skyrocketed! Returning to Huaguo Mountain, the Bull Demon King arrived to challenge him once more. Sun Wukong reasoned that Huaguo Mountain belonged to everyone and there was no need to brawl daily. Thus, both sides shook hands, made peace, and swore an oath of brotherhood.

Bulls and monkeys gathered together in the Water Curtain Cave, feasting merrily at a grand banquet. Sun Wukong drank until he was thoroughly intoxicated, and in his stupor, his soul drifted from his body.

Players suddenly caught sight of familiar black-and-white figures materializing beside the monkey.

[Holy shit, the Underworld folks are here?!]

[Oh no, don’t tell me my Monkey Bro is gonna die?!]

[Black and White Impermanence came to reap his soul…]

[Is our Wukong destined to die young?!]

Most of the viewers in Liu-ge’s stream had played Underworld Maze and Ghost Realm. They were intimately familiar with the Netherworld and knew exactly what the appearance of Black and White Impermanence portended. Everyone worried that if Sun Wukong perished like this, how would the game even continue?

Nobody expected that once Sun Wukong arrived in the Underworld…

To hell with the cycle of reincarnation! If he wasn’t having it, he’d just throw hands! Brandishing his golden staff, he launched a savage assault straight into the Palace of King Yan.

[Stage 5: Book of Life and Death]

This was an intense, high-difficulty one-versus-many boss encounter, scaling up an entire tier beyond the Bull Demon King fight. Retrying repeatedly, Liu-ge grinded away until the wee hours of the morning. No way in hell would he let the monkey die here! He had to clear this stage before he could even think about sleeping.

With bated breath, the audience watched the streamer maneuver Sun Wukong through Yama’s Hall. Empowered by Ruyi Jingu Bang, every critical hit Sun Wukong landed dealt tens of thousands of damage—an exhilarating display of raw devastation. One monkey took on all Ten Kings of the Underworld, turning the Netherworld upside down.

After vanquishing the bosses, Sun Wukong demanded the Book of Life and Death: “Bring Old Sun a brush!”

Trembling with terror, an attendant offered a calligraphy brush. Clenching the brush between his teeth, Sun Wukong flipped through the ledgers until he located his name. With a grand sweep of ink, he struck his name clean off the Book of Life and Death, laughing boisterously: “From now on, Old Sun’s lifespan is beyond your control!” He proceeded to strike off the names of every monkey in his troop while he was at it.

The Kings of Hell: “…………”

A flurry of bullet comments blanketed the stream screen like a blizzard:

[Absolute legend, Monkey Bro!]

[He straight-up wrecked the Ghost Realm and altered the Book of Life and Death…]

[This wild monkey is completely lawless! I love it~]

[Sensational! A protagonist with this much personality is truly one of a kind!]

[Dragon Palace in shambles, Ghost Realm in shambles, is the Heavenly Realm next on the chopping block?!]

[The Jade Emperor who said he was “nothing to fear” at the beginning is gonna get clapped in the face!]

[Lmao, I thought the monkey was a goner, who knew he’d invade the Underworld to erase his own mortality?!]

[Insane play, Monkey Bro! You’re my big bro for life!]

The animated sequence for the Underworld narrative was pulse-pounding and full of blood-pumping action. In this high-stakes one-versus-many boss trial, Sun Wukong’s devastating critical strikes delivered an exceptionally crisp, satisfying gameplay experience. Players who had initially scoffed that “a monkey protagonist sounds boring” found themselves eating their words: their faces were completely swollen from being proven wrong. This monkey was unimaginably cool! He was the most wondrous, badass monkey in the world!

Meanwhile, many casual players who had downloaded the game after 8:00 PM on Easy or Normal mode had progressed to the Book of Life and Death stage as well. Every single player was left flabbergasted by Sun Wukong’s outrageous stunts.

—Wreaking havoc in the Underworld and striking his name from the Book of Life and Death?! Even that worked?!

In the early hours of the morning.

A trending topic, #SunWukongIsTooOverpowered#, unexpectedly claimed the #1 spot on the trending charts. A gaming blogger, after test-playing Journey to the West, had posted a glowing review singing praises of Sun Wukong, sparking widespread consensus in the comments:

“This protagonist has so much personality!”

“Is Sun Wukong about to overturn all Three Realms single-handedly?”

“He looted the Dragon Palace’s Sea-Calming Divine Needle and rewrote the Ghost Realm’s Book of Life and Death!”

“Back when I played Ghost Realm, the Ten Kings of Hell clapped me into oblivion. And now Sun Wukong is just strutting through the Underworld like he owns the place? Isn’t this combat power completely god-tier?”

“This game is addictive. My five-year-old nephew is completely obsessed.”

“Tell me about it, the little girl next door is hooked too.”

“I just peeked at my kid’s elementary school chat group—they’re all hyping Monkey Bro like crazy.”

“Our Monkey Bro’s charm appeals to both young and old alike!”

Xie Yunfan was getting ready for bed. Before sleeping, he habitually refreshed the dashboard analytics.

Because he had purchased the splash screen ad on Mobile Home for launch day, the conversion traffic had been remarkable. Mobile Home’s downloads had already surpassed 1.5 million, coupled with another 1.5 million from Yangfan Studio’s official portal… In other words, the shadow launch had racked up 3 million downloads on Day 1. This had already surpassed Soul of Music‘s first-day download figures!

After all, Chapter One of Journey to the West was completely free, encouraging countless players to give it a spin with a “might as well try” mindset; retaining these players in the long run would be the true challenge. This shadow drop hadn’t broken any legs; instead, organic word-of-mouth had propelled it straight onto the hot search rankings.

By dawn, even the name “Sun Wukong” had rocketed to trending status! This was the very first time the name “Sun Wukong” had been introduced to the general public of this alternate world. The Great Sage’s charm had already begun conquering players’ hearts.

Xie Yunfan shut down his computer with immense satisfaction.

No need to rush. Our Great Sage’s true magnificence had only revealed a tenth of its splendor so far.

The legendary journey of Journey to the West was only just beginning.