On the afternoon of November 10th, in the Design School of Rong City University, Professor Lin Feichi, the head of graduation projects, received a student’s graduation project work in his email.

The game was called Soul of Music. The main person in charge of the graduation project team was Xie Yunfan, and participating members included Ji Yan, Zhang Zizheng, and Xu Kairan from Dorm 318, as well as Zhou Shiyue, a girl who usually kept to herself.

There was also a girl named Yan Ke who wasn’t even from their major.

Professor Lin wondered: “Xie Yunfan, didn’t he take a leave of absence last semester? He usually skips classes often, how could he produce a graduation project work so quickly?”

Professor Lin was the leader of the school’s graduation project review team and didn’t manage logistical matters like leaves of absence or taking time off. When Xie Yunfan took his leave back then, he went directly to the school’s academic affairs office, so Professor Lin wasn’t clear about the detailed situation of this student.

Most students only handed in their graduation projects in the second semester of their senior year, right before the school’s prescribed deadline. For Xie Yunfan to hand it in so early… what kind of thing did he make?

Could it be something casually thrown together to fool him?

Carrying curiosity, Professor Lin opened the installation package.

After the game opened, there was a 1-minute opening animation. It was relatively low-cost 2.5D animation, but the character modeling was extremely exquisite.

At a glance, it was obvious that effort had been put into this, with a clear distinction from those shoddily manufactured games. Professor Lin’s spirit immediately lifted, and he continued playing.

The more he played, the more he felt—not bad, quite creative!

Instrument anthropomorphism—such a rhythm game hadn’t appeared on the market yet. Moreover, the art style of this game was very special, employing a large number of landscapes, bamboo forests, pavilions, and other backgrounds, giving people a very fresh and elegant feeling.

Listening to this beautiful music, even an impetuous mood became peaceful.

Professor Lin tried operating it for a few rounds. The feeling of impact and sense of rhythm in this game were exceptionally well done. After matching the rhythm of the notes and pulling off a long combo, one actually felt the exhilarating sensation of a master musician truly playing an instrument.

Not bad, truly not bad!

The level design was also very reasonable. The first level was a beginner’s tutorial. Starting from the second level, as the combo count increased, one could obtain [Music Soul Fragment] rewards. The rewards players got weren’t just pure data, but could also be redeemed for codex entries?

He flipped open the codex to take a look. There were 10 kinds of instruments, and the card codex entries were made exceptionally beautifully. Pipa, guzheng, yangqin, etc.—different instruments had different designs, which was quite interesting.

As he continued playing… there was actually a plot themed around the souls of music? The plot was written quite movingly, and effort had clearly been put into the writing.

Professor Lin kept playing until, before he knew it, it was already 5:30 PM.

His teaching assistant asked: “Professor, aren’t you getting off work?”

“Oh oh, getting off work.” Professor Lin returned to his senses, picked up his car keys, turned around, and went out the door. Stepping out of the office, he turned his head back and instructed: “By the way, what day does the senior design class have no classes? Have Xie Yunfan bring his graduation project team to come see me.”

The teaching assistant paused for a moment, then quickly sent a message to Xie Yunfan: “Classmate Xie Yunfan, Professor Lin has already received your graduation project work. Find a day when you have no classes to come to the office to see the professor, he wants to talk to you guys.”

Xie Yunfan replied: “Is tomorrow morning at 10 AM okay?”

Teaching assistant: “Yes, that works.”

---

After returning home, Lin Feichi muttered to himself while cooking: “This batch of students is truly formidable! It’s been a long time since our school had a graduation project work with such a high degree of completion.”

His wife was a professor at the music conservatory next door. Hearing this, she couldn’t help but ask in confusion: “What graduation project work has you talking about it non-stop?”

Lin Feichi said: “An instrument anthropomorphism rhythm game. The style is very novel, and the degree of completion… I can say it’s at a level where it could be directly launched for sale.”

The couple chatted while cooking.

“In past years, most of the graduation project works at Rong City University were small games of around 100MB, coming up with one or two types of gameplay. But this game, as a student’s work, exceeds the standard by far too much.”

“It’s that impressive? Let me see.” Professor Cheng Ping took his phone, opened it, and took a look.

Lin Feichi said: “You’re more professional in the aspect of music. What do you think of this game’s design?”

“…” Cheng Ping didn’t speak for a long time.

Lin Feichi thought she was going to criticize it. As a result, she suddenly sighed with emotion: “Traditional music? It’s truly rare for someone nowadays to think of using traditional music to make a game.”

“Is it because traditional music is too niche?”

“Yes, internally among music conservatory students, there’s actually a chain of contempt. Those who study piano and violin look down on those who study traditional music, feeling that they are ‘very rustic.’ But actually, instruments aren’t divided into high and low status; our traditional music also has characteristics that Western music cannot replicate.”

Cheng Ping paused and said: “These students of yours are quite creative. From what I see, they must have made this game with the thought of ‘promoting traditional music’ in mind. All the tracks they selected are exceptionally beautiful classic traditional music pieces.”

“Right? This work truly surprised me.” Professor Lin paused, and the topic of conversation shifted: “However, this student Xie Yunfan frequently skips classes and fails subjects at every turn. He’s skipped my class several times.”

“Skips class frequently?” Professor Cheng was very surprised. “Then how could he produce a graduation project game so quickly?”

“I suspect he bought this creative concept from a professional game planner.” Professor Lin said with a headache, “I’ll ask him personally tomorrow and see.”

He truly couldn’t believe that a student who frequently skipped class could complete such an outstanding work?

---

The next morning, Xie Yunfan brought his few companions to Professor Lin’s office. Professor Lin Feichi was around 50 years old, with graying hair and a very good temper. Xie Yunfan used to skip class frequently and wasn’t very familiar with this professor.

This was his first time coming to the professor’s office in his several years of university.

Xie Yunfan greeted respectfully: “Hello, Professor Lin.”

Lin Feichi sized him up from top to bottom. A quite handsome young lad, why didn’t he study properly before?

Being stared at made Xie Yunfan somewhat awkward, and he smiled: “Professor, you asked to see us. Is there a problem with the graduation project?”

Professor Lin was very direct: “Tell me honestly, is this game made by yourselves? Who came up with the creative idea?”

Xie Yunfan said: “It’s an original work by our team.”

Ji Yan supplemented: “Professor, the creative idea was come up with by Yunfan!”

Professor Lin sized up Xie Yunfan thoughtfully: “Did you really think of it yourself? You didn’t find someone else to teach you, or spend money to buy it?”

Xie Yunfan’s expression was calm: “I thought of it, I didn’t spend money to buy it.”

Professor Lin was somewhat confused: “I remember you used to fail subjects frequently, and you skipped my class many times! If you have this ability, how could you not even pass the simplest exams?”

Xie Yunfan said ashamedly: “I was indeed ignorant in the past. Last year, a situation occurred in my family. The game my brother made was taken down, and the company went bankrupt. Only then did I wake up and want to study hard to help my family. During this period, I’ve caught up on a lot of knowledge, and I will retake the subjects I failed before.”

This explanation of his actually made sense. University students were young, and sometimes their brains turning the corner happened in just an instant.

Professor Lin asked: “Your brother, is he Xie Xinghe who made Fighting Master? I have indeed heard people mention this matter.”

Xie Yunfan nodded: “Yes.”

That made sense then. Although his brother’s game was taken down, it was, after all, a holographic game invested with several hundred million. His brother had experience making large-scale games; learning from him might have brightened his mind.

Professor Lin believed that this game was Xie Yunfan’s work. He patted Xie Yunfan’s shoulder and said with gratification: “This mini-game you guys made, I’ve carefully read the design concept and personally played it. It is indeed very good!”

Xie Yunfan breathed a sigh of relief: “Thank you for the affirmation, Professor.”

Professor Lin said: “I’ve decided to recommend you guys to participate in the national competition. Works recommended by the school can directly skip the preliminary review and enter the semi-finals!”

The few classmates’ eyes widened one after another.

Participate in a competition? Could they really do it?

Xie Yunfan said very calmly: “Professor, there’s no need to give us the school’s recommendation quota. I believe in the quality of the game Soul of Music; we can pass the preliminary review even participating freely. Give the quota to a team that needs it more.”

Professor Lin looked at him somewhat surprised. A school recommendation was equivalent to a “direct pass to the semi-finals.” Among 40 universities, each one only had one recommendation quota, and many students would compete for it.

Xie Yunfan actually dared to give up the guaranteed pass?

It seemed he had super confidence in this game!

However, the completion quality of this game was comparable to commercial games produced by professional studios. Placed among the immature works of university students, it was simply somewhat… a dimensional strike (overwhelmingly superior).

Professor Lin sighed with emotion: “Since you have so much confidence, then I’ll give the recommendation quota to another team. Perhaps our Rong City University can have two graduation project works enter the finals this year.”

Xie Yunfan thought the same.

The graduation project works the school could present each year were actually not many. There was no need for him to compete with other classmates for this recommendation quota. Having more works go to the competition was also a good thing for the school.

Professor Lin said: “The degree of completion of your graduation project work is very high. Next, optimize the details a bit more and prepare for the competition during the winter vacation!”

Ji Yan bowed excitedly: “Thank you, Professor!”

After leaving the office, the few of them still felt as if they were in a dream.

As the leader of the university’s graduation project review team, Professor Lin rarely praised students proactively. This time, not only did he praise their game for being made well, but he also proactively offered to recommend them for the competition? Being praised by the teacher actually made them a bit dizzy.

Ji Yan’s face flushed red with joy: “Why do I feel like we’re about to take off? Hahaha, is it just my illusion!”

Xu Kairan put his arm around his shoulder and said: “It’s not an illusion. Even Professor Lin praised it, which means we indeed did a good job!”

Zhou Shiyue said softly: “Thanks to Yunfan’s creative idea. If you asked me, I wouldn’t be able to think of what game to make even if all my brain cells died.”

Yan Ke wasn’t a design department student, so she didn’t come along today. Zhou Shiyue PM’d her to tell her this good news, and she excitedly sent a row of exclamation marks in the group.

Xie Yunfan said: “Stay calm. You’re this excited just participating in a competition; if we win an award, are you guys going to pass out~”

Yan Ke: “Calling the ambulance in advance! A national competition… I’ve never participated in such a large-scale competition before, I might really pass out from excitement.”

Zhang Zizheng: “I’m starting to get nervous right now, what do I do?”

Ji Yan: “Look at how little promise you guys show! We don’t have to go on stage to speak anyway, what’s there to be nervous about?”

Xie Yunfan: “Who said we don’t have to speak?”

Everyone paused.

Xie Yunfan said: “If we enter the finals, we need to go on stage to explain the game’s design concepts, demonstrate the game’s operation, and face on-the-spot questions from the judges.”

Everyone: “…”

Xie Yunfan turned back to look at everyone: “Ji Yan, make a PPT template introducing the game for me, I’ll fill in the content. Shiyue, polish the text. Ah-Zheng, you’ll go up with me when the time comes; I’ll be in charge of speaking, and you’ll be in charge of demonstrating.”

Hearing his arrangements, the few of them instantly became nervous.

A national competition, that wasn’t a joke. The completion degree of their game was very high, but with so many universities and so many student works nationwide, if they wanted to stand out from the crowd and harvest an award, they definitely had to prepare earnestly.

Everyone quickly rallied their spirits and began dividing the labor to prepare for the competition’s presentation.

---

In early December, Rong City University’s official website published an announcement.

“The graduation project work God of Battle by Liao Meng’s team from the Game Design major has been recommended and sent by the school to participate in this year’s National College Student Game Design Competition. The public notice period is 3 days. Classmates with objections may raise them to the school’s expert review team.”

Once this news was published, it instantly sparked heated discussions among alumni.

“Liao Meng, seems to be the top student in the design department who gets scholarships every year?”

“The monitor of Class 1, quite formidable. He finished his graduation project so early!”

“God of Battle? Looking at the game name, it should be the combat genre, right?”

“Really want to play it! Can download channels be opened?”

“Upstairs, competition works cannot be downloaded in advance. If it enters the finals, there will be a public demonstration; remember to watch the live broadcast then!”

“I’m not trying to shoot down Senior Brother Liao, but our school’s graduation project works are just accompanying runners every year and have never won an award. The big awards in the game industry are basically all taken by Imperial Capital University and South City Tech.”

“Can’t be helped, those schools have innate advantages. Many students from Imperial Capital University can go intern at Cool Play. South Tech’s internship base is Wings of Dream. Interning at a large company for half a year definitely broadens one’s mindset a lot, right?”

“Sigh, our school has an innate disadvantage. Even entering the finals is very hard; winning an award is basically hopeless.”

Xie Yunfan swiped through the comments on the forum, frowning slightly.

Rong City University’s Game Design major couldn’t even make it into the top ten nationwide rankings. Every year there were works participating in the competition, and every year they were cannon fodder acting as accompanying runners.

It couldn’t be helped; the school itself wasn’t a key university, and the admission scores were nearly 50 points lower than key institutions. Plus, the school hadn’t signed cooperation agreements with large game companies and had no dedicated internship bases. Students all found places to intern themselves, so their level naturally couldn’t compare with students from prestigious schools.

It was very normal that everyone wasn’t optimistic about Liao Meng’s team.

However, Xie Yunfan didn’t think so.

He didn’t have much contact with this person Liao Meng, but he was the class monitor after all, had good relations with people in the class, and Xie Yunfan had also heard classmates mention this person’s experiences.

Liao Meng’s hometown was in the Imperial Capital, and it was said he frequently ranked first during high school. Unfortunately, his parents had an accident before the college entrance examination (gaokao), and he underperformed, which was why he got into Rong City University. If he had performed normally, his grades would solidly put him in a key university.

This was also the reason why he got scholarships every year at Rong City University. His grades had always been very good, and he was indeed a well-deserved “top student.”

Xie Yunfan was quite looking forward to seeing what kind of game he would make.

In the following time, Xie Yunfan was constantly reviewing for his make-up exams.

By the time the semester ended, he had passed most of the courses he had previously failed, with only two left to wait for next year’s final clearance exams before graduation.

On January 10th, the school let out for winter vacation. The preliminary review results of the Game Design Competition also came out.

The preliminary review was a system review, only looking at the game’s degree of completion. The system gave Soul of Music a score of 95, which was quite high.

When the secondary review started, expert judges would give the scores.

The competition’s judging panel was composed of professors from universities nationwide. All games would have the participants’ names and schools erased, letting the judges personally test-play and score them. The two highest and two lowest scores would be removed, and the average score would finally be taken.

Even if a professor from a certain school recognized their own student’s work, if they gave a score too high, it would be removed. Since it was a national tournament meant to discover talent in game design, the rules were extremely fair and just.

The secondary review took 10 days, and the results wouldn’t come out until January 20th. In the end, 15 games would be selected to enter the offline grand finals.

With the winter vacation having started, the students all returned home. But on January 20th, everyone in the Graduation Project Squad woke up bright and early, guarding their computers to refresh the official website.

Facing the official website’s interface, Ji Yan clasped his hands together and continuously chanted a spell: “Please, let us pass, let us pass!”

Zhang Zizheng wasn’t playing games today; his hands were shaking when he refreshed the page. Who could understand! This was even more nerve-wracking than waiting for college entrance exam results!

At 9 AM, the official website page finally updated—

[List of Finalists for the 10th National College Student Game Design Competition Announced]

Imperial Capital University, Zhou Jiajia Team’s work Happy Child
South City University of Technology, Xu Rui Team’s work Zookeeper
…
Rong City University, Liao Meng Team’s work God of Battle.
Rong City University, Xie Yunfan Team’s work Soul of Music.

Seeing the familiar names, Ji Yan slapped his thigh hard: “Damn, we really passed!” He slapped too hard, almost hurting himself to the point of tears, but immediately following, he wondered, “The class monitor and his team’s work also passed?”

Zhang Zizheng’s hands shook with excitement when he sent a message in the group: “Family, we made it to the finals! Look at the official website quick!”

Zhou Shiyue: “Saw it, that’s awesome!”

Yan Ke: “I also refreshed the webpage, congratulations everyone! Yunfan is awesome!”

Xie Yunfan sent a message: “@AllMembers, everyone has worked hard recently. Let’s perform well in the finals.”

Everyone was in high spirits: “Received!”

Meanwhile, Rong City University’s school forum also exploded.

Someone posted: “Good news! This year, two works from Rong City University have entered the grand finals of the National College Student Game Competition.”

This post sparked massive discussions among students.

“Damn, senior brothers and sisters are formidable. In past years, at most one got in, and sometimes none. This year two got in directly, is this making history?”

“Senior Brother Liao Fan is the top student of the design department, it’s normal for him to enter the finals. Congratulations Senior Brother Liao.”

“Xie Yunfan? I remember he kept skipping class, how did he pass the secondary review… I can’t believe it!”

“Holy crap, no way! Xie Yunfan’s team also got in? Shocked.jpg! He used to always go drink at the bars near the school, I’ve run into him several times.”

“Is there some inside story to Xie Yunfan being able to enter the finals? Any design department classmates want to talk about it?”

“A design department student using an alt account to say a word: Xie Yunfan is at the bottom of our class in grades. We don’t know what the situation is either…”

Voices of doubt grew more and more numerous.

At this time, people from Liao Meng’s team were also discussing in their group chat: “What’s going on? Xie Yunfan also got in?” “No way, what kind of trick could he pull off with a rhythm game?”

Liao Meng said calmly: “Since they could enter the finals, it means they passed the expert judges’ secondary review scoring. The secondary reviews are all blind evaluations, and the judging panel is formed by professors from so many schools nationwide. What’s there to doubt?”

“That makes sense. But Class Monitor, don’t you think it’s weird? Xie Yunfan has always failed subjects and skipped classes, not studying properly. How could he make a game that can enter the national finals?”

“Grades do not represent everything.” Liao Meng also said this sentence to himself. Back then, underperforming in the college entrance exam, scoring nearly 80 points lower than usual, and failing to get into a key university had always been a regret in his heart.

Could grades evaluate a person?

Game design looked at imagination and creative ideas. Classmates who only knew how to take exams truly couldn’t compare to classmates with bright minds when it came to making games.

He hated the most those high school classmates who gossiped behind his back and even took pleasure in his misfortune because he failed the college entrance exam.

Therefore, he also wouldn’t judge a person by their grades.

Liao Meng said: “Everyone focus on preparing for the competition, no need to consider anything else.”

“Understood, Class Monitor!”

That afternoon, the counselor of Rong City University’s design department pulled the students from both teams into a group chat, and Professor Lin was also there.

The counselor said: “Congratulations to all classmates for entering the grand finals of the Design Competition! This time, Professor Lin will personally lead the teams to participate. Everyone PM me your ID numbers and phone numbers, the school will uniformly arrange tickets and accommodation.”

Everyone PM’d their information over one after another.

Xie Yunfan asked: “Teacher, I want to go to the Imperial Capital early, is that okay?”

The counselor wondered: “You’re not going with everyone?”

Xie Yunfan: “Mhm, I have some personal matters and want to head over early. The official competition is on February 2nd, I’ll come report in on the evening of the 1st.”

The counselor said: “That’s fine, you must come on time though.”

Xie Yunfan: “No problem.”

His message made Ji Yan extremely curious, gossiping privately with his roommates: “What personal matters does Yunfan have? Is he going to meet that master senior of his?”

“Probably! The massive improvement he made during his half-year leave of absence definitely had guidance from a master behind it.”

“Secretly going to meet a master, and not bringing us. Yunfan’s master friend is definitely super awesome.”

The more the few of them guessed, the more outrageous it became.

Of course Xie Yunfan wasn’t meeting any “master senior”; he was going to see Luo Hang, his brother, and the Ghost Realm planning team.

Early the next morning, he flew directly to the Imperial Capital.

Luo Hang personally drove to pick him up. Xie Yunfan put his luggage in the car and asked: “President Luo, how is my brother?”

Luo Hang smiled: “Don’t worry, your brother has been in a very good mood recently.”

“So, Fighting Master is progressing smoothly?”

“Mhm, there have been quite a few numerical modifications, and we also added characters, maps, and different fighting modes. We are making the online multiplayer servers, which require multiple tests.”

Luo Hang took Xie Yunfan directly to the Qihang Building, arriving at the office area on the 13th floor. Seeing Xie Yunfan appear, the people of the Ghost Realm planning team were all very excited.

Chu Yue originally wanted to go to Rong City like Ning Sha, but since Yangfan Studio hadn’t officially started working yet, Xie Yunfan had him stay at Qihang to help out first.

Seeing Xie Yunfan, he ran over and joked: “Boss! Are you abandoning me!”

Xie Yunfan smiled and patted his shoulder: “Didn’t I come to pick you up right here? You’ll go back to Rong City with me next week.”

Chu Yue: “Received!”

The others also said happily: “Director Xie, long time no see, you’ve gotten even more handsome!” “Is this coming to inspect the work?”

Xie Yunfan said: “I had matters in the Imperial Capital, so I came to visit everyone. You’ve all worked hard, I brought you some food.”

He distributed the pile of snacks and fruits he had bought to everyone.

After not seeing him for a while, Qihang’s team still respected him just the same; after all, everyone knew the reason Ghost Realm was able to succeed.

In the evening, Xie Xinghe took his brother to his own residence, praising Qihang non-stop: “I have to say, this kid Luo Hang has some skills. He’s personally overseeing Fighting Master and has changed a lot of gameplay. I even feel this game can become a massive hit!”

“He directly made it into a competitive game, added a lot of weapons and skills, and there’s also a ranked match system. Who knows, maybe when the game matures later on, we can even host tournaments.”

“Luo Hang is indeed quite talented, and he respects me very much too. I serve as a game consultant on the planning team and enjoy VIP treatment at Qihang, hehe.”

“Don’t have to clock in for work, it’s so sweet!”

Seeing his brother this happy, Xie Yunfan was also happy for him, saying: “It’s truly great that this game could gain a new lease on life.”

Xie Xinghe wiped his face and said: “Indeed, you and Luo Hang take more of the credit. By the way, how is your competition going?”

Xie Yunfan said: “There are five judges at the finals, we still have to see their preferences. But with the quality of my game right there, winning an award shouldn’t be a problem.”

Xie Xinghe patted his brother’s shoulder: “You can do it! Should I go to the venue to cheer for you?”

Xie Yunfan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Don’t. There will be many people from the school there; it would be too weird if you went to be a cheerleader. If you sit down there, I’ll actually be nervous.”

Xie Xinghe: “Alright then, I’ll watch the live broadcast then.”

The grand finals of the game competition would be broadcast live the entire time.

Since it was winter vacation right now, most game design students nationwide, and even big shots in the gaming field, would be watching this live broadcast.

Xie Xinghe believed his brother would definitely become famous in one battle.