On June 18th, Age of Discovery launched simultaneously worldwide. On the following night, posts discussing the new game’s first-day revenue began appearing online.

Holographic game revenue is tracked by professional statistical platforms. The new game released by Coolplay this time broke 100 million in revenue in the Huaguo region alone, and the hashtag #AgeOfDiscoveryRevenueBreaks100Million even trended on the hot search list.

Breaking 100 million in revenue on launch day was absolutely a phenomenal, massive hit rarely seen in years!

Many industry peers turned their attention to the upcoming open beta of The Cases of Di Renjie, while players watching the drama unfold also anticipated the results of the clash between the two games.

In this head-on corporate war between Coolplay and Qihang, who would emerge as the final winner?

Some people believed: “After all, Age of Discovery is a classic mobile game with countless loyal players. It will definitely instantly crush the opposing new game to avenge the hype stolen by Ghost Realm back in the day.”

Others felt: “Yangfan Studio’s games often innovate in gameplay, so maybe they will become a dark horse once again!”

Players debated passionately online.

Unexpectedly, on the night of June 19th, the news #CoolplayServerCrashed suddenly dropped out of nowhere to top the hot search list.

Due to the massive influx of players, the server Coolplay used for data processing suddenly crashed, and countless players currently in the game were forcibly kicked offline.

Holographic games are immersive experiences. Many players were out at sea fighting monsters at the time, and the sudden crash scared quite a few of them.

Countless players were cursing the official developers in the Weibo super topic.

“If your technology isn’t mature, don’t serve it up to embarrass yourselves, okay?”

“A holographic game suddenly crashing scares people to death!”

“The screen froze right at the moment a sea monster’s tentacle was about to wrap around me, and then my vision suddenly went black. I thought I died! It gave me psychological trauma…”

Amidst the complaints from countless players, Coolplay issued an official statement:

“Dear players, due to an unknown hacker attack on Coolplay headquarters’ data servers, a network failure occurred. Our engineers are currently conducting emergency maintenance. At present, bulk data has been migrated to backup servers, and players can log in normally.

We deeply apologize for this failure. All players who logged into the game on the 19th will receive a compensation gift pack. Please check your mailboxes…”

As soon as this announcement came out, public opinion completely exploded.

“A hacker attack? Real or fake?”

“Could it have been done by a certain game that’s about to launch soon?”

“If Qihang did this, aren’t their methods a bit too sinister? Can we not have such a disgusting corporate war?”

“Yangfan Studio must be feeling guilty, thinking their new game can’t beat the other, so they went and hacked Coolplay’s servers?”

It was truly a case of minding their own business, only for the blame to fall squarely on their heads.

Luo Hang was just about to contact Xie Yunfan when Xie Yunfan’s call coincidentally came through, his voice very calm: “Boss Luo, did you see the news about Coolplay’s server crashing?”

Luo Hang: “Yeah, I saw it.”

Xie Yunfan said: “Either Coolplay is directing and acting in their own play, having their server accidentally crash and using it as an excuse to throw dirty water on us. Or, someone really attacked their servers, wanting to make our two companies fight.”

Luo Hang joked: “Haven’t you considered that I might have done it?”

Xie Yunfan said straightforwardly: “You’re not that kind of person.”

Luo Hang smiled slightly: “I’m more inclined to believe that Coolplay’s servers really were attacked. With their company’s technology, having done stress tests recently, such a failure shouldn’t have occurred.”

Xie Yunfan agreed: “So we have to be careful too. When the game launches tomorrow, prepare backup plans in advance. If you sense anything wrong, start the backup servers immediately.”

Luo Hang: “Don’t worry, I’ll pull an all-nighter tonight to keep an eye on the operations team.”

Xie Yunfan hadn’t worked overtime in a long time. Hearing Luo Hang say this, he also grew nervous: “Should I stay and work overtime with you?”

Luo Hang said: “No need, you don’t understand the data processing issues of holographic gaming pods anyway. Go back to sleep early; leave the servers to me.”

Xie Yunfan hesitated for a moment: “Alright, thanks for your hard work then.”

He truly couldn’t help with matters regarding the holographic gaming pods, and staying back to work overtime might just distract Luo Hang, so Xie Yunfan had no choice but to go home and rest.

At noon the next day, The Cases of Di Renjie launched right on time at 12 o’clock.

Many players had pre-booked their gaming pods, just waiting to log in immediately after startup.

However, exactly at 12 o’clock, the moment players logged into the game, they noticed the network latency in the top right corner spiking into the red, and their controls had no response.

Players were stuck and unable to move, temporarily bewildered.

Fortunately, the network latency lasted for less than half a minute before turning into a “smooth” green signal. Most people assumed it was just too many players flooding in at once for the new game launch, so they didn’t overthink it and continued playing.

At the same time, the official Weibo accounts for Qihang Games, Yangfan Studio, and The Cases of Di Renjie all issued an announcement—

“We are very sorry, players. Due to our server room suffering an unknown hacker attack, a network failure occurred upon server opening, temporarily making logins and controls unavailable.

The fault has now been fixed, and we have issued compensation to all affected players, which can be claimed in your personal space. We wish everyone a happy gaming experience.”

Players: “???”

Another hacker attack and server failure?

No wonder the network latency spiked red and characters couldn’t move.

The two major game giants in the industry issuing announcements back-to-back about suffering hacker attacks; was this a corporate war where they traded blows, attacking each other’s servers?

Qihang attacked Coolplay yesterday, and Coolplay took revenge today?

Netizens watching the drama online commented: “This wave is a case of injuring the enemy by a thousand and losing eight hundred oneself. Nobody gained any advantage!”

“The two big companies have completely thrown away their dignity. Is this necessary?”

“Sending hackers at each other is going too far! You guys are fighting fiercely, but the unlucky ones are us players getting scared out of our wits…”

All the players believed that Coolplay and Qihang were attacking each other’s servers and buying water armies to step on the opposing game.

The methods used in game company corporate wars were as numerous as hairs on a cow, but this time the commotion was a bit too big, even involving hackers…

A Direct Call

At noon on the 20th, at Coolplay’s Magic City headquarters.

Feng Shiming suddenly received an unexpected call. It was actually Luo Hang? He pressed the answer button in confusion, forcing a polite smile as he said: “Boss Luo, long time no see. What made you suddenly think to call me?”

Luo Hang said calmly: “Boss Feng, I’ll be straight with you. Coolplay’s servers being attacked had nothing to do with us. I imagine Qihang’s servers being attacked wasn’t your doing either, right?”

Feng Shiming raised an eyebrow slightly: “What is Boss Luo implying?”

Luo Hang said: “Someone wants us to fight so they can reap the benefits as a fisherman. I hope Boss Feng won’t fall for it.”

Feng Shiming: “……”

He had actually considered this possibility because this young man Luo Hang had always done things open and aboveboard; he didn’t seem like the type to use such dirty tricks.

It actually looked more like the methods of Wings of Dream’s President Tang!

Luo Hang continued: “This time, although our games’ release dates clashed, their genres are completely different, and the player bases don’t conflict. This is clearly a situation where we can both win, so I hope we can reduce internal friction.”

As the bosses of the largest game companies in the country, the two had exchanged contact information out of politeness at a gaming gala but had never contacted each other privately.

Feng Shiming didn’t expect Luo Hang to call him so openly and honestly. He was silent for a moment before saying: “Does Boss Luo mean you won’t target our game, and you want my side to stop stepping on your new release as well?”

Luo Hang said: “Exactly. Perhaps there will be opportunities for everyone to cooperate in the future. There’s no need to completely tear our faces over games of different genres, wouldn’t you agree?”

Feng Shiming smiled slightly: “Boss Luo makes a lot of sense.”

This young man was quite direct. Who ever heard of corporate rivals calling each other directly to say, “Let’s stop fighting”?

However, he quite admired Luo Hang’s personality.

Back then, the reason Ghost Realm and Vampire Legend 2 fought so fiercely was mainly because their genres were identical—both were horror-themed holographic single-player adventure games, with a player overlap rate of over 80%.

This time, the two games had different themes.

Coolplay offered an adventure game focused on hot-blooded combat; Qihang offered a role-playing game focused on plot and suspense. Different types of games could absolutely achieve a “win-win” scenario.

Feng Shiming said: “Thank you for the reminder, Boss Luo. We both know who’s playing tricks behind the scenes. Not falling for it is the best choice.”

Luo Hang: “Yes, you carry on with your work, Boss Feng. We’ll meet again if there’s a chance.”

After hanging up the phone, Luo Hang met the eyes of Xie Yunfan, who was sitting on the sofa. He couldn’t help but rub his nose awkwardly and said: “Do you think my approach of directly calling him was a bit reckless?”

Xie Yunfan shook his head: “No, I actually think you’re very decisive.”

Luo Hang asked in surprise: “Really? It’s rare for top executives to call each other directly. Doing this actually breaks the rules.”

Xie Yunfan smiled: “Where do all these rules come from? Being able to solve the problem is what’s most important.”

He stood up, walked over to Luo Hang, and said earnestly: “I understand your mindset. Holographic games are still in the developmental stage, and the market potential is huge. Currently, Huaguo has a population of over a billion, but the number of gaming pods owned is less than 50 million. Rather than fighting internally to snatch this small piece of cake, it’s better to seriously make games and make the cake bigger.”

Luo Hang nodded, looking at him as he said: “I actually really want to unite with friendly competitors to drive down the price of holographic gaming pods, so every household can afford them, just like computers. Once the holographic market expands to that level, looking back at our current competition, wouldn’t it seem ridiculous?”

Just like there being a massive mountain in the distance, yet a few ants are fighting madly over a small pile of dirt… isn’t that ridiculous?

Xie Yunfan agreed: “That is indeed true. I hope our industry peers have a long-term vision like yours. This time, there’s a high probability that Wings of Dream is playing tricks behind the scenes, trying to make our two companies fight.”

Luo Hang said: “That’s why I don’t want to wage a corporate war with Coolplay and let Wings of Dream reap the benefits. Steadily making good games is more important than anything else.”

Attacking each other’s servers—if this kind of trick is used once, there will be a second time. Once the servers on both sides constantly drop offline, affecting the players’ gaming experience, it will only ruin the reputation of holographic networking, ultimately ending in mutual destruction.

Coolplay’s boss, Feng Shiming, was a smart man. Luo Hang believed he could weigh the pros and cons.

For holographic networking games, the two companies had thrown in over a billion just to break through the technical bottlenecks. They couldn’t let it be destroyed in a day due to internal fighting.

Wings of Dream never expected Coolplay and Qihang to privately declare a truce. Unaware that they had already been exposed, they continued to fan the flames online.

Neither Coolplay nor Qihang paid them any attention.

Both official Weibo accounts were minding their own business, promoting their games, completely ignoring the various smear campaigns online.

On the night of June 20th, the launch day data for The Cases of Di Renjie finally came out—one day after launch, revenue broke 100 million!

The data bloggers online who analyzed game revenues were stunned.

“This is a situation rarely seen in years! Two games launched one after another, and both broke 100 million in revenue on their first day?”

“Age of Discovery has IP influence, plus Coolplay’s awesome technology, so its popularity was expected. But why is The Cases of Di Renjie so popular?”

“Can someone tell me what kind of game The Cases of Di Renjie is?”

Many people online raised questions.

In the Weibo super topic for The Cases of Di Renjie, there were only massive amounts of comments from players saying “fun” and “so thrilling,” without any analysis involving the game’s plot.

The strategy forum section was directly closed, and surprisingly, not a single streamer across major platforms was streaming this game?

So, what kind of game was this exactly?

It was so mysterious!

Many passersby had their curiosity piqued and opened The Cases of Di Renjie one after another. With such high first-day revenue, it at least proved the game’s quality was decent!

Experiencing the Mystery Game

As a streamer who loved playing new games, Brother Liu also immediately experienced Age of Discovery upon its launch. The combat was well-done, and he streamed it for two days, spending every day running dungeons with novel settings next door.

On June 20th, the launch day of The Cases of Di Renjie, he had originally planned to stream the new game. However, the officials suddenly issued a notice stating that the internal streaming channels for this game were canceled and streaming was not allowed.

Brother Liu was bewildered: “Holy crap, what game doesn’t allow streaming?”

The viewers who frequently hung out in his stream were also very puzzled: “This game is so mysterious. You can’t even see discussions about its gameplay online.”

“It’s so weird. Everyone who’s played it says it’s fun, but they won’t say exactly how it’s played. This kind of talk sounds just like hired water armies.”

“Brother Liu, are you going to go experience it?”

Brother Liu hesitated for a moment and said: “Once I finish this dungeon, I’ll go experience the new game tonight.”

Meng Tu didn’t have much interest in naval combat games. Instead, she booked a Qihang gaming pod right away and left a comment in her streaming channel: “Family, I’m going to play The Cases of Di Renjie. Wait for me to come back and tell you all if it’s fun!”

Not allowing streaming was indeed quite unfriendly to streamers. But many streamers still carried their curiosity and went to experience the new game anyway.

Meng Tu logged into the game and filled out her personal profile.

Then, she saw a Non-Disclosure Agreement pop up before her eyes.

Meng Tu: “??”

Holy crap, having to sign an NDA for an open beta? What kind of game was this exactly? It was unbelievably strict!

She became even more curious and quickly signed her name to enter the game.

She found herself in a long corridor. As she walked forward, a system prompt sounded in her ears—

“Welcome to the holographic murder mystery game, The Cases of Di Renjie.

Here, you will travel through time and space, entering different script scenarios and playing different characters. You need to remember your character profile and plot details to complete various tasks.

Your starting points are 100, which unlocks level-one scripts.

We look forward to your wonderful performance.”

After hearing the system prompt, Meng Tu instantly got excited: “Script scenarios? Looks like it’s another role-playing game, similar to Palace Storm?”

She quickly pressed “Next” and then arrived in a room.

System: “This is the transit hub. Here, you can select the script you wish to enter. Newcomers are advised to choose beginner scripts to familiarize themselves with the gameplay.”

System: “Scripts follow a buy-out charging model; each script only requires a one-time payment. If you re-enter a script after clearing it, you will no longer earn points.”

This design was understandable; it was to prevent players who already knew the plot from repeatedly entering a script just to farm points.

A one-time buyout payment was also quite friendly!

A wall appeared before her. On the wall hung many pictures resembling movie promotional posters, with names and synopses written beside them.

There were over twenty posters, leaving Meng Tu dazzled.

The difficulties were divided into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Her current points were 100, so she could only unlock beginner scripts.

There were two beginner scripts.

Meng Tu stepped forward to carefully read the posters.

The first was The Fortune Inn. The poster depicted a three-story inn situated in the wilderness. The synopsis read: “A group of travelers arrives at an inn in the desolate wilderness during a rainstorm. What story will unfold here?”

Player count: Six people.

Difficulty rating: Two stars.

Horror level: Two stars.

Meng Tu continued to look at the next one, Red Maple Villa. The poster showed a villa planted full of maple trees. The synopsis read: “This villa has been abandoned for a long time, unoccupied for ten years. Rumor has it that people died here, an entire family surnamed Ye was massacred, and vengeful ghosts always appear in the dead of night.”

Player count: Six people.

Difficulty rating: Three stars.

Horror level: Four stars.

Reading this, Meng Tu felt her scalp tingle.

A massacre, and ghost hauntings in the middle of the night? It sounded terrifying. She decided to play the slightly easier one first to calm her nerves.

Meng Tu selected The Fortune Inn and clicked enter.

System: Matching players for the same session, please wait…

A moment later, the scene before Meng Tu’s eyes flashed, and six identical system avatars appeared at the top of the screen. These were likely the matched players.

System: All players, please draw your identity tags.

A bamboo drawing cylinder appeared in front of her. Meng Tu picked it up and shook it gently. A bamboo stick fell to the ground, and an identity profile unfurled on the screen.

You are Chen Lu, female, 20 years old. Because both your parents passed away, you came to Qingshan Town to seek refuge with your second uncle. You heard your second uncle opened an inn called “The Fortune Inn.”

Subsequent plot details await unlocking.

Meng Tu was a bit puzzled. Was she playing the niece of the innkeeper? She wondered what plot would unfold next.

System: Please confirm you have read and understood the character profile, then press next.

She pressed the button in front of her.

System: Waiting for other players to prepare. Countdown: 10, 9…

The moment the countdown reached 0, Meng Tu’s vision suddenly flashed. Following that, she found herself in a desolate mountainous wilderness.

The environments in holographic games were incredibly realistic.

It was getting dark. Walking alone in the wilderness was already a bit scary, and just then, two bolts of lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, illuminating the solitary inn ahead. Immediately after, a muffled thunderclap sounded in her ears—

A torrential downpour arrived, instantly soaking Meng Tu like a drowned rat.

Meng Tu: “Holy crap! Does getting rained on need to be this realistic?”

She hurriedly sprinted frantically toward the inn.

The sky gradually darkened. Two lanterns hanging in front of the inn swung wildly in the storm and were quickly blown out.

Another bolt of lightning flashed. The four large characters for “The Fortune Inn” were illuminated extremely clearly by the white light, and a large patch of paint was missing from the middle of the character for “Fortune.”

Shivering in the heavy rain, Meng Tu quickly stepped up and slammed on the door: “Is anyone there? Please open the door!”

After a moment, a middle-aged man came to open the door. He looked at Meng Tu, froze for a moment, and then said: “Are you… Little Lu?”

Meng Tu immediately nodded: “Second Uncle?”

The middle-aged man looked at her with a face full of smiles: “It’s been a few years, and you’ve grown so big? Quick, come inside.”

Meng Tu hurriedly walked into the inn.

After a moment, someone else knocked on the door outside. The innkeeper ran to open it, and a group of three people arrived.

Not long after, there was another series of knocks…

Meng Tu sat in the corner, carefully observing these guests.

Were they all players? A group of three, a group of two, and the last person to enter wore a bamboo hat that obscured their face, making it impossible to tell their gender.

The number of people didn’t seem right…

The sound of the pouring rain outside reached her ears, mixed with lightning and thunder.

It was now completely dark. The lighting inside was very dim as a group of people sat in the inn’s lobby, looking at each other in dismay.

The waiter took the initiative to step forward and ask if everyone wanted to eat. Someone ordered noodles, while others stated they were “just looking for lodging.”

The innkeeper spoke up unprompted: “The rain is heavy outside. Prepare hot water for the guests and arrange their lodging as soon as possible.”

The waiter replied: “Understood, boss. Guests, please follow me!”

The group immediately headed upstairs.

Meng Tu did a rough count… including herself, there were three women and four men.

Weren’t there six players when entering the game just now? Among the people coming for lodging tonight, there were clearly NPCs too!

She quietly followed everyone else upstairs.

The waiter helped arrange lodging for everyone. The inn had a total of three floors: the first floor was for dining, while the second and third floors were for lodging.

There were standard rooms, as well as premium rooms with better environments.

The four guest rooms on the second floor had their doors marked “Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding,” while the third floor was marked “Tian, Di, Xuan, Huang.”

Meng Tu was assigned to the best room on the third floor, marked “Tian.”

The rain still hadn’t stopped. After entering the room, Meng Tu carefully observed her surroundings. The next moment, she heard a system prompt sound in her ears: “It is late at night. Please go to sleep.”

Meng Tu only felt a wave of drowsiness hit her, and she quickly fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, upon waking up, she heard the system prompt: “Good morning, Chen Lu. You feel very hungry after waking up and want to go downstairs to find something to eat.”

Meng Tu found this system quite interesting. It guided players on how to act, so newcomers wouldn’t be completely lost when first playing the game.

She went downstairs following the system prompt and sat in the middle of the lobby.

Five people were sitting downstairs. The group of three, consisting of two men and one woman, sat next to her. The group of two, a man and a woman, sat at a table by the window. The person wearing the bamboo hat from last night hadn’t come down.

The waiter was serving everyone food.

Suddenly, the girl by the window screamed: “Ahhhh—” The girl’s face was pale, and her finger trembled as she pointed out the window: “There, there’s a person over there!”

Several people rushed to the window and looked out.

They saw a man lying under a tree, his eyes wide open, staring fixedly in the direction of the inn—wasn’t this the innkeeper?

System: “Task updated. Please find the real killer who murdered the innkeeper. The killer may be right beside you.”

Meng Tu broke out in goosebumps and almost blurted out a “Holy crap.”

So this was a “murder mystery”?

The killer is right beside me; is it really this thrilling?