Qihang, as the operator, had always been willing to spend big during a game’s promotional phase.

As the first game to truly achieve “real-time cross-platform connectivity,” the promotional effort for Turbulent Spring and Autumn was at an S+ tier level—Luo Hang not only plastered game posters across streets and alleys, but also rolled out rotating banner ads across major social media, video, and live-streaming platforms.

The day before the public beta, advertisement copy appeared across everyone’s social feeds:

“The first-ever mobile and holographic dual-end real-time connected game, ‘Turbulent Spring and Autumn’ officially launches its public beta tomorrow! Stay tuned!”

This carpet-bombing style of advertising certainly paid off.

Even before the servers went live, the game’s official Weibo following broke 5 million. After all, as the world’s very first multiplayer online game with dual-end real-time connectivity, players naturally wanted to jump in and experience it for themselves, regardless of whether the gameplay itself turned out to be fun.

On the eve of the public beta, the official Weibo posted an announcement:

“Dear Players, tomorrow morning at 10:30 AM, ‘Turbulent Spring and Autumn’ will open the pre-creation character channel. Everyone can log in early to customize your appearance and reserve your character name. The game will officially open its servers at 12:00 PM sharp. We look forward to seeing you!”

Streamer Liu-ge, who hadn’t managed to snag a closed-beta test slot, had been eagerly awaiting the official launch.

On the day of the public beta, he settled into his holographic gaming pod early, connected his streaming equipment, and declared excitedly to his camera, “Family, I’m already lying down! Time to go customize my face first!”

As his stream went live, the viewer count soared, quickly crossing 1 million in popularity score.

Liu-ge chatted with his chat, “I heard from closed-beta testers that Turbulent Spring and Autumn is a gacha game? As everyone knows, Yangfan and Qihang’s collaborative female-oriented game, Millennium Love, is a gacha game where you raise virtual husbands, and the ladies go absolutely crazy over it. I know a female streamer who whaled several tens of thousands of yuan just to collect every single card in the full roster.”

Dense streams of bullet comments flooded the screen:

[Are you talking about Rabbit Sister?]

[Hahaha, Mengtu went totally crazy pulling cards, she really whaled tens of thousands!]

[Rabbit Sister is an ALL-push fan, she’s raising four husbands in that game…]

Although Liu-ge and Mengtu streamed on different platforms, they had previously teamed up in a 2v2 match during the days of Court Intrigue, so everyone knew they were good friends.

Liu-ge laughed and said, “You guessed right, I am talking about Mengtu. She posts her gacha pulls on her feed every single day. Her luck is actually insane—she routinely pulls 5-star cards in just 20 or 30 pulls!”

Mengtu used to give out red envelopes regularly in her stream, earning her the nickname “Generous Rabbit” among her viewers. Her luck in otome gacha games was indeed remarkable; back when she streamed Millennium Love, plenty of players tuned into her channel just to watch her pull cards and absorb some of her god-tier luck.

As for Turbulent Spring and Autumn, she had also logged in at the earliest opportunity.

Her intimacy scores with all four husbands in Millennium Love were already maxed out at 50+, her card collection was 100% complete, and she was currently in a casual rhythm of logging in daily for routine tasks. Without an ongoing limited event, she liked to play other titles in her downtime.

At 10:30 AM, character pre-creation officially opened.

Liu-ge registered his account, created a male character, and entered the face customization system.

The face-sculpting system in a holographic game was extremely intuitive and convenient. Players could let the system read their actual real-life appearance to build a baseline model, or pick from several system templates before tweaking the details.

A main mirror stood directly in front, flanked by mirrors on both sides, allowing players to observe their appearance in real time from multiple angles.

Liu-ge had been a streamer for so long that his audience was thoroughly familiar with his face. He simply loaded his own real-life features and began making adjustments.

As he refined his facial features, he joked, “Getting cosmetic surgery without going under the knife—this feels amazing! I’ve gained ten pounds recently from eating too much, so let me slim my face down a bit. Look at that, after slimming down, I’m actually pretty handsome, aren’t I?”

The chat broke out into collective eye-rolls:

[Your skin is thicker than a city wall.]

[To be fair, after slimming the face down, he really is 30% more handsome.]

[I want to try customizing my face in holographic VR too~]

[If you’re ugly in real life, being a hunk or beauty in a game is a nice upgrade!]

The face customization system this time was remarkably detailed. Height, body proportion, and facial contours could all be adjusted with precision. The feeling of performing “plastic surgery” right in front of a set of mirrors felt almost magical.

After finalizing his character, Liu-ge ordered takeout for lunch. By the time he finished eating, it was right on 12:00 PM.

The servers officially opened. Liu-ge hastily logged in, and a long list of servers materialized before his eyes:

System: Please select the server you wish to join.

• 1st Region – Strategic Deception / Concealing Intentions (Overcrowded)
• 2nd Region – Besiege Wei to Rescue Zhao (Overcrowded)
• 3rd Region – Borrowing a Knife (Overcrowded)
• 4th Region – Waiting at Ease for the Exhausted Enemy (Overcrowded)…

Liu-ge stared blankly at the massive sea of red “Overcrowded” tags.

“Holy crap? What’s going on?! All 36 servers are completely maxed out?!”

The live chat erupted as well:

[My god, the queue for Region 1 is already in the tens of thousands~]

[How big is the player capacity per server? It got completely slammed the instant it opened!]

[Is this game really this popular?]

[Don’t forget, besides holographic players, there are mobile players too!]

[Oh right, the first dual-end connected MMO in history—now’s the real test for their servers!]

At that exact moment, the staff in Qihang’s Network Operations Department were frantically working overtime under immense pressure.

They had pre-emptively added extra server nodes and prepared several backup servers. Everyone knew the game would be a hit upon launch, but no one had anticipated it would be this explosive!

Even though people online had tried to stir up negative sentiment a few days ago by claiming “turn-based combat is boring,” the moment the public beta opened, those same players swarmed in like a tidal wave just to check out the hype.

All 36 servers filled to maximum capacity instantly, unable to fit another soul. Region 1’s queue alone had backed up to tens of thousands of people!

Discussions erupted all over the internet:

“Everyone’s cramming into Region 1! Squeeze in, make some room for me~”

“Even the countryside servers in Region 36 are queuing up, this is insane…”

“This is even more explosive than when Wings of Dream launched ‘Realm of Elves’ back in the day! Where are all those people who sneered at turn-based combat a few days ago? Come out right now, you guys aren’t allowed to play~”

Under the official Weibo of Qihang Games, stranded players who couldn’t get in began voicing their frustration:

“Could you guys not have prepped a few more servers? Sitting in a queue is driving me crazy!”

“Qihang is so loaded, are they seriously still using cheap servers that only hold a few tens of thousands of people?”

Driven by countless player complaints, the hashtag #TurbulentSpringAndAutumn Overcrowded# shot straight to the #1 spot on the trending search list.

Seeing the trending search, Xie Yunfan immediately tracked down Luo Hang. “Everyone is stuck in queues and can’t log in. Is there a server failure?”

Luo Hang took a deep breath and replied, “There’s no failure. It’s just that each server cluster has a hard cap on player capacity, and once it’s exceeded, new logins are blocked. Just moments ago, the active startup count for Qihang gaming pods reached a record high of 12 million units, while concurrent online players on the mobile end exceeded 40 million. Combined, we broke the 50 million mark.”

Xie Yunfan froze for a moment, a surge of intense thrill washing over him. This was the sign of a massive, mega-blockbuster hit!

Concurrent online users didn’t represent total registered players. If concurrent users hit 50 million, the future total registered player base could very well break 100 million…

No wonder the servers were overwhelmed.

Xie Yunfan quickly asked, “Can we urgently spin up additional servers?”

Luo Hang spoke in a low, steady tone, “Of course. The Network Team is already setting up extra server lines. Player sentiment is a bit heated, so I’ll have the Operations Team send out a compensation gift to soothe everyone.”

Listening to his calm, deep voice, Xie Yunfan felt his mind ease immediately.

With Luo Hang personally helming the infrastructure team, server issues would be resolved shortly. Server stability was crucial for online games, especially for a dual-end connected title—ensuring a smooth player experience was paramount.

Holographic games involved physical collision calculations, meaning player density within a single server couldn’t be allowed to go overboard; otherwise, heavy player clusters could cause system strain or in-game latency issues.

While Qihang’s technology was top-tier in the industry, even they couldn’t squeeze tens of millions of players into a single server cluster.

Since this was a turn-based strategy game—a genre previously considered niche—they had prepared 36 server clusters named after the Thirty-Six Stratagems, assuming that would be more than enough. In the end, the day-one player volume far surpassed Luo Hang’s initial estimates.

Luo Hang immediately dialed the Network Team, ordering them to spin up every single backup server unit and add new network lines without regard for cost!

With the boss giving the direct green light, the tech team poured resources into expanding server infrastructure at top speed.

Ten minutes later, an official announcement was posted on the official Turbulent Spring and Autumn Weibo:

“Dear Players,

We deeply apologize that due to the Operations Team underestimating the opening-day player volume, all 36 server clusters have reached full capacity, leaving many unable to log in. We are urgently adding 30 new server clusters. Players who have not yet entered the game may choose a new server to begin their journey.

Please note that the game’s PVP Competitive Modes and Event Dungeons feature cross-server matching. Players across different servers can also meet in designated shared social maps.

As a token of our apology, the Official Operations Team is presenting all players with [Hero Recruitment Scroll ×10], which can be claimed from your in-game mailbox upon reaching Level 5.

Thank you all for your passionate support of ‘Turbulent Spring and Autumn’.”

Once the announcement dropped, crowds of queuing players rushed over to the new servers. The frustration over waiting dissipated significantly.

“A free 10-pull straight off the bat? This isn’t a bad deal at all~”

“I don’t mind staying in line, can you send another 10-pull if I wait longer?”

“Since PVP is cross-server anyway, picking a quiet rural server doesn’t even matter.”

“Big servers are crowded, small servers are peaceful. I won’t squeeze into Region 1 with you guys, I’m heading to the suburbs!”

Liu-ge read the official notice and switched regions right away.

All servers filled to capacity on day one, forcing them to expand directly to 66 server clusters?

Yangfan and Qihang, you guys are seriously built different!

At 12:30 PM, Liu-ge finally logged into Region 66 smoothly.

The game commenced. A brief wave of dizziness swept over him as he was drawn into a spacetime vortex, emerging into a brand-new world.

A soft, mechanical voice inquired: “My Lord, you have awakened! Do you still recall your name?”

System: Please enter your character name.

Liu-ge casually typed in “Cheng Liu.” A random four-digit hidden ID tag was automatically generated behind his name to differentiate him from other players with the same display name.

Mechanical Voice: “Welcome to the Huaxia Continent. Your ability to enter dreams has awakened, allowing you to freely traverse the dreams of others and read their memories.”

Mechanical Voice: “Please follow my guidance and attempt to use your power.”

Accompanied by a wave of striking visual effects, the main storyline’s Chapter 1 officially began.

Following the system prompts, Liu-ge entered the dream of Goujian.

Goujian was once the ruler of the Kingdom of Yue on the Huaxia Continent. Later, Yue was conquered by King Fuchai of Wu, forcing Goujian to sue for peace and submit as a slave to the King of Wu.

Liu-ge watched the story unfold with great interest, remarking, “Watching a story in a holographic game feels like traveling back to that era yourself. It’s way more immersive than watching a movie.”

The viewers in the stream watched along with him.

Goujian was extraordinarily patient. After becoming a slave in Wu, he was ordered around daily by King Fuchai, to the point where even the servants around the King of Wu could bully him at will.

Section 1-1‘s story cutscene came to an end.

The audience hadn’t had their fill yet and flooded the screen with comments:

[What happens next?]

[It cuts off right there? One star review!]

Liu-ge said, “Don’t rush, let’s keep watching.”

He tapped Section 1-2 of Chapter 1, and a system notification popped up:

System: Hero [Goujian] has joined your recruitment queue.

System: Goujian is a hero who excels at enduring damage and launching devastating counterattacks. Tap the queue to inspect his detailed profile.

System: In the upcoming battle, soldiers from Wu will attack Goujian. Please utilize his skills wisely to defeat the enemy soldiers.

Liu-ge opened Goujian’s skill panel as instructed by the system.

• Skill 1: Three Years of Biding Time (King Goujian of Yue possesses extraordinary endurance. Once battle begins, he can enter a ‘Biding’ state at any time, enduring the enemy’s insults without striking back. While Biding, Goujian draws enemy attacks away from two targeted allies, redirecting all incoming damage to himself.)
• Skill 2: Tasting Gall on a Bed of Firewood (Awakening Skill. After Biding for three turns, Goujian awakens and enters a ‘Vengeance’ state. His Attack Power increases by 200%, and he reflects all damage sustained during the previous three turns back at a target enemy.)

The flavor text was uniquely written, yet remarkably easy to grasp.

Liu-ge analyzed out loud, “This skill set is pretty neat. So Goujian endures damage for three turns, then awakens to land a massive counterattack?”

He rubbed his hands together with excitement. “Bring it on, men of Wu! Bully Goujian all you want—just wait until he pays you back eye for an eye!”

Battle commenced.

The turn order was displayed in the upper-left corner, allowing players to identify who would act next based on character avatars. Wu Soldiers A, B, and C took turns attacking Goujian.

When Goujian’s turn came, Liu-ge followed the prompt and selected “Three Years of Biding Time”—in other words, endure! No matter how much damage came his way, he had to take it on the chin!

For the next three turns, the Wu soldiers rained attacks on Goujian.

Goujian’s health steadily dropped as he endured the barrage, but thanks to his high health pool and defense, he didn’t collapse. By the end of the third turn, his health sat at less than 10%.

Fortunately, his second skill, “Tasting Gall on a Bed of Firewood,” was now fully awakened!

As Goujian took his turn, Liu-ge immediately activated Skill 2.

Goujian unleashed all the accumulated damage he had suffered, enhanced by a massive attack buff—with a flash of sleek skill effects, Goujian executed a devastating ultimate move, instantly wiping out all three enemy soldiers on the opposite side!

Liu-ge’s eyes widened. “Holy crap! A low-health team wipe! This character feels amazing to play!”

The stream chat erupted with rows of ‘666’s:

[One swipe board wipe, insanely OP!]

[This is the turn-based game everyone was trash-talking? Why do I feel like it’s actually super fun?]

[The skill design is so unique!]

[Hurry up Liu-ge, I want to see the rest of the story!]

Experiencing the combat firsthand, Liu-ge found it genuinely engaging.

It wasn’t the mindlessly boring, static turn-based combat he had envisioned where units simply traded static blows. True to its promotional tag as a “tactical strategy game,” the skill designs genuinely required players to use their heads.

The players who had initially dismissed turn-based games felt a pleasant sting of defeat watching the stream.

The game boasted top-tier modeling, beautiful art direction, and seamless battle animations.

A turn-based game executed at this level wasn’t something to write off lightly—it was genuinely worth sinking time into.

To Liu-ge’s pleasant surprise, clearing combat stage 1-2 rewarded him with a character card!

System: Obtained Hero [Goujian]

Liu-ge beamed. “A free card right off the bat! What a steal!”

Section 1-3’s narrative covered the historical account of Goujian sleeping on firewood and tasting gall. Watching this section, players finally understood where the design inspiration for his skills came from.

He had truly endured three years of hardship, sleeping on brushwood and tasting bitter animal gall every single day to remind himself never to forget his fallen kingdom. Viewers couldn’t help but sigh: This man was utterly ruthless to himself.

Section 1-4 was another battle stage. This time, Fan Li joined the lineup.

Since Goujian had to take three turns of punishment before unleashing his burst, he needed a healer to keep him alive. Fan Li filled the support healer role, though his skill mechanics were slightly more intricate.

After reading the skill text, Liu-ge explained, “Fan Li’s ‘Thousand Gold’ state scales with his healing output. When using him, we need to keep an eye on his stacks—at three stacks, his healing reaches its peak, while at one stack it’s at its lowest. Every heal consumes stacks, so during combat, we should build up his stacks before dropping a massive heal.”

Putting it into practice, Liu-ge mastered the tempo quickly and cleared 1-4 without a hitch.

System: Obtained Hero [Fan Li]

Liu-ge cheered, “Another free card!”

Section 1-5 presented the story of Xishi.

Xishi was sent to the Kingdom of Wu to captivate King Fuchai. Gifted in dance, she earned the King’s deep favor, leading him to build a dedicated palace just for her dances.

Yet in reality, Xishi was acting under Fan Li’s secret instructions, serving as an undercover operative right beside the King of Wu.

Watching the story unfold, Liu-ge felt a lump in his throat.

Faced with the fate of her nation, Xishi sacrificed her personal life to act as a spy beside the enemy king, funneling critical intelligence back to Yue. She never forgot her true roots as a daughter of Yue.

Section 1-6 brought another combat stage, introducing crowd-control mechanics. Xishi joined the team, equipped with her “Silk Washing” skill to cleanse crowd-control debuffs from allies.

Burst-oriented characters like Goujian were terrified of crowd control. If he endured three turns only to get stunned and eliminated right before dropping his ultimate, the setup would be entirely wasted.

When the Wu Commander stunned Goujian, Xishi, acting right before Goujian in turn order, cleansed the stun, allowing him to successfully cast his ultimate and wipe out the enemy.

Clearing stage 1-6 yielded yet another new card:

System: Obtained Hero [Xishi]

Liu-ge was almost moved to tears. “Holy crap, another free card! The dev team is so generous! They give you a burst hero, a healer, and a crowd-control cleanser right from the start. That means players can complete the main story without spending a single dime!”

He paused, then couldn’t resist throwing shade: “If this were managed by a certain rival company, they wouldn’t give you a single coin—they’d force players to buy every last unit.”

The viewers in his stream felt equally conflicted.

If this game had been operated by Wings of Dream, what would it look like?

6 yuan First Top-Up for Goujian, 60 yuan Season Pass for Fan Li, 98 yuan Selector for Xishi… After all, Wings of Dream’s entire operational playbook revolved around finding endless ways to wring money from players.

Here, right in Chapter 1, clearing three battle stages handed three heroes directly to the player for free.

Furthermore, heroes in this game were categorized into three rarity tiers: Solar, Lunar, and Stellar. The system hadn’t handed out the lowest Stellar tier—they gave out viable, high-potential Lunar-tier cards!

It was genuinely consumer-friendly. F2P players could easily clear the main storyline using just what they were given.

Liu-ge said excitedly, “Let’s keep going and finish Chapter 1 before doing our gacha pulls!”

Chapter 1 followed a smooth rhythm of alternating story sections and battle stages, weaving the new player tutorial into the flow with complete naturalness. Even players picking up a turn-based game for the very first time could master the combat loop effortlessly.

Stage 1-8 introduced the concept of Speed.

Who acted first and who acted second depended on a hero’s Speed stat. Players needed to tune their team’s speed hierarchy to ensure cleansing units acted before damage dealers, protecting core units from being locked down.

Stage 1-10 introduced Formations.

After three years of biding his time, King Goujian returned to Yue, building up national strength and expanding his population in preparation for vengeance. At the chapter’s climax, players faced a Boss battle against King Fuchai of Wu.

This fight presented a genuine challenge. The system granted players the “Long Snake Formation.”

Placing three characters in a line put Goujian in the core array position, granting him attack and defense buffs, though it also made him the primary target of enemy focus.

Players had to monitor the turn order carefully, timing Fan Li’s heals and Xishi’s cleanses with precision; otherwise, defeat was inevitable.

Liu-ge cleared it smoothly on his first attempt. As Chapter 1 concluded, his account reached Level 5.

The Mailbox system unlocked. Liu-ge clicked into his mailbox in the top-right corner:

• Turbulent Spring and Autumn Operations Team: “Dear Lord, welcome to the Huaxia Continent, where countless historical heroes await your summons. To celebrate the launch of the Huaxia Continent, we present you with [Hero Recruitment Scroll ×10]. May you enjoy a wonderful journey.”
• Turbulent Spring and Autumn Operations Team: “Dear Lord, we deeply apologize that our server preparations were insufficient, resulting in many players being unable to log in. We present you with [Hero Recruitment Scroll ×10]. We look forward to walking alongside you.”

Liu-ge: “…”

A free 20-pull directly in the mail?!

As a veteran player long accustomed to predatory gacha monetization, this was his first time encountering an operator this ridiculously generous.

Liu-ge was deeply touched—Little Sailboat never disappoints!

Yangfan’s previous title, Millennium Love, was famous for its player-friendly rewards, earning high praise from female players. It was said that buying a simple 30-yuan monthly pass was enough to enjoy the game completely.

This time, the official welfare for Turbulent Spring and Autumn was just as straightforward. If this game’s rewards matched the standard of Millennium Love, players were going to be treated like royalty!

Could monthly-pass players really thrive here without whale spending?

Liu-ge rubbed his hands together eagerly. “Family, the devs sent us 20 free pulls! Let’s see what cards we get!”

New players automatically entered the “Novice Banner,” which guaranteed a gold Solar-tier card within 20 pulls.

Liu-ge checked the drop rates:

• Solar Cards (2% drop rate): Guaranteed within 20 pulls on the Novice Banner; 70-pull hard pity on standard banners; exchangeable in the shop for 120 Gold Tickets.
• Lunar Cards (10% drop rate): Guaranteed every 10 pulls. Pulling duplicate copies upgraded a card’s Potential. Once Potential reached Tier 3, further duplicates converted into “Lunar Shards,” which could eventually ascend a Lunar card into a Solar card.
• Stellar Cards (70% drop rate): Duplicates converted into Stellar Shards, following the same ascension logic.

Liu-ge was surprised. “Even if you pull a Lunar card early on, pulling duplicates later lets you convert them into shards to upgrade the card into a Solar card?!”

He paused, then added, “That means every single Lunar card has real long-term investment value, since it can ascend later!”

For example, if he really liked Xishi, he could eventually raise her all the way into a Solar card!

Liu-ge exclaimed, “20 pulls guaranteed Solar card for new players! Let’s see if I’m blessed or cursed today. Wish me luck, everyone—give me a gold on my first ten-pull!”

He rubbed his hands and used 10 Recruitment Scrolls.

After a fluid summon animation, hero portraits appeared one after another in his showcase. Two of the portraits glowed with a radiant gold light—the highest rarity Solar cards!

System: Congratulations, Lord! You have recruited Hero [Zhang Liang]!

System: Congratulations, Lord! You have recruited Hero [Cao Cao]!

Liu-ge stared in complete shock. “Holy crap?! A double gold in one ten-pull?! Am I seeing things?!”

The chat went wild:

[Sucking up all that god-tier luck!]

[This luck is insane, two Solar cards right off the bat?]

[Closed-beta tester here: Cao Cao is the core damage dealer for Counterattack teams. He synergizes insanely well with Goujian. Streamer’s luck is crazy!]

[66666! Watching this makes me want to log in and pull cards right now!]

Fired up by his luck, Liu-ge immediately dumped his second ten-pull.

While his first ten-pull delivered a double gold, the second ten-pull yielded only Stellar and Lunar cards.

Liu-ge felt an itch in his chest. His free pulls were gone, but he desperately wanted to keep pulling… This gambling thrill was masterfully played by the game designers!

What to do?

Liu-ge put on a pained expression. “Family… I think I want to top up.”

He hadn’t felt comfortable playing the previous female-oriented game, and when he saw Mengtu pulling cards like crazy back then, he hadn’t quite understood it. Now… he was falling into the exact same trap!

It was only the first day of public beta, and he had only cleared Chapter 1—he really ought to stay calm.

Liu-ge took a deep breath.

Stay calm.

…Screw being calm!

He was going to pull more cards!