Chapter 965: Chapter 529: Pretty Embarrassing Chapter 965: Chapter 529: Pretty Embarrassing Playing a game with bugs was hardly an exception.

Every player had encountered this issue. When playing games created by other players in “Nebula,” they all experienced a variety of bugs.

Some discovered that the insides of mechas in mecha-themed games were actually fleshy bodies, turning a proper mecha combat fantasy into an ancient god’s descent.

Others randomly embarked on romance storylines while playing a nursing home simulator, finding the bashful blushing of octogenarians downright unbearable.

A perfectly normal farming game was swamped with pixelation; even eating a watermelon required censorship, making it look no different from a perverted cannibal.

Suddenly, the boss became the target of public criticism, swamped by a flood of complaints in his inbox, puzzling him as much as the players.

Hey, why are you all coming at me?

Because I’m easy to bully?

Reading the emails from players one by one, the boss, puzzled, asked, “Unlucky to the core, why are they all spraying me?”

“Who else would they spray but you!” Unlucky said derisively while anonymously sending harsh emails to the boss.

“Go spray Fang Cheng Studio; with such obvious bugs, shouldn’t they be the primary ones responsible?”

Unlucky glanced over the email for a while, corrected a few typos, and then hit send before saying, “Games from Fang Cheng Studio don’t have bugs, only features.”

“…Aren’t you all being a bit blind? Excessive adoration is the prelude to destruction.”

“We’ll save the philosophical issues for another time. Let me analyze the players’ mindset. First of all, let’s be clear: Fang Cheng Studio’s games don’t have bugs.”

“You’ve already said that once. Fine, go on.”

Unlucky continued, averting the murderous look in their eyes, “When the game presents an unacceptable issue, there must be a scapegoat. But since the first point stands, Fang Cheng Studio can’t be the one at fault. Plus, after Fang Cheng Studio has been quiet for a year, everyone’s scared that being too loud might cause them to vanish again–what then?”

“Does this really sound like the players’ thoughts? Are you all being a bit too lenient with your favorite game studios?”

“Shut up. So, there must be a scapegoat, and it has to be you.”

The boss thought for a moment and then slammed his hand on the table, “That makes sense! What do you think I should do now?”

Unlucky looked at the boss and felt they really chose the wrong mentor back then.

How did they not realize that the other person was an idiot?

The guy was obviously quite dense.

With a disdainful glance, Unlucky said, “I have three strategies, top, middle, and bottom. Which do you want to hear?”

“What’s the top strategy?”

“Find the root of the problem and solve it. If handled properly, you’ll gain unparalleled prestige, become the commander for this and the next instance, and experiment with the various bizarre economic systems you’ve conceived.”

The boss pondered, liking the idea.

But he also knew the difficulty of the problem was substantial–it would require a lot of time and manpower, not very feasible on his own.

So, he asked, “Then what’s the middle strategy?”

“Contact Fang Cheng Studio, see what their attitude is, and solve the problem together.”

The boss glanced at Fang Cheng EX, who was still discussing the Dao with Zhiyi Heavenly Lord, sensing his obvious indifferent attitude.

It didn’t matter.

The boss didn’t understand where this carefree attitude came from. If it were his project that had issues, he’d be too anxious to sleep, hair falling out in clumps until the issue was resolved.

But looking at Fang Cheng now, he radiated a “play if you like, leave if you don’t” vibe, making the boss sigh at the capriciousness of a genius–so nonchalant about everything.

Plus, the guy was a potential big spender, so hands were tied.

After all, it was tough being an associate professor of economics these days.

Sighing, he said to Unlucky, “And the bottom strategy is…”

“Just off yourself.”

“That’s too extreme!”

After the quip, the boss realized he actually had only one path.

To solve the problem.

Looking at Fang Cheng, still engrossed in his discussion, he pulled up his contacts to start rallying people, quickly summoning his right-hand Black Tech.

Although Black Tech was one of Wu Wei’s people, this guru didn’t care who was in command; playing games enjoyably was the priority.

To the boss, Black Tech and Fang Cheng were cut from the same cloth, the type to recklessly pursue their passions.

After being called into the office, Black Tech showed no surprise and told the boss, “I figured you’d be coming for me about now.”

“Well…”

“I’ve tallied up the situation on the forums. The bug outbreak isn’t an isolated incident; it’s the same for everyone.”

“So, we…”

“I inquired with some game developers, and they confirmed that there were absolutely no such settings in their games, thus ruling out the possibility of an Easter egg. Moreover, they had Photonic People check on their games and found that both the code and game settings had no issues.”

“Is there any…”

“We also conducted tests under closed conditions and investigated by going through one breakpoint at a time. We even repeatedly reviewed the system logs, but the cause of the issue remained elusive.”

The boss glared at the Black Tech, a seemingly harmless smile on his face that was actually quite annoying.

The other party had thoroughly investigated the issue; all his questions had been impeccably cleared up, making him feel especially useless.

I am a graduate advisor, after all!

Why does everyone make me seem like an idiot?

Feeling powerless, the boss lowered his head and asked, “Then, what do you think is the situation?”

“If I were to speculate, we must be under attack.”

This statement piqued the boss’s interest, and Black Tech took out the information he had prepared, saying to the boss, “We have now moved out of the periphery of the original Land of Dao Certification and entered a new area, which I call the Shadow Zone.”

“Why the Shadow Zone?” the boss asked curiously.

“Because this area was once the ruins of a massive battlefield. Numerous civilizations clashed in a grand battle here, with countless fallen civilizations. After the grand battle, many civilizations went into hiding, lying in wait like snipers, coldly taking potshots at any passing civilization. So, we must have been hit by such an attack.”

The boss put his own thoughts aside and pondered.

He recognized the capability of Black Tech. If the other party surmised that the attack was from an unknown civilization, then this possibility was actually quite high.

Still, he asked with some doubts, “Would any civilization really do such a thing?”

“It’s quite possible, and some civilizations might even rely on this to regain their strength.”

“Then I have another question, if that’s the case, why was our game attacked, but we were fine?”

Black Tech remained silent for a while and then shook his head, “I don’t know, but there must be something they need in the game. My suggestion is to leave it be for now and see how things go before making the next move.”

Black Tech’s proposal was like conservative treatment, but the boss felt there might not be any other options.

In the following days, the bug situation grew even worse.

Previously, it had only been some misalignments in the game’s graphics or errors in numerical changes, and some discrepancies in the voiceovers.

But as time passed, the bug situation became more severe and players even summarized several different versions.

Black Hole: After the game loaded, instead of the normal game screen, a massive black hole appeared, absorbing all entities within the game. An eternal picture formed on the surface of the black hole, indistinguishable from a real black hole.

Dissolution: All animals and plants in the game suddenly dissolved into a pool of liquid at a certain moment. Watching a pile of viscous liquid utter “I love you” drove some people’s san values to shatter.

Big Explosion: Every item, including the air, instantly turned into a bomb, and the screen was nothing but explosion after explosion for hours on end.

Ghosts: All objects turned semi-transparent and could pass through walls, monsters that were terrifying and could instantly kill players appeared, accompanied by explosive sound effects and frightening visuals, catching players off guard.

Because of these bizarre bugs, the boss was bombarded.

Numbly deleting these emails, the boss had completely given up.

Moreover, witnessing the endless bugs in Game Inn, he even developed a perverse pleasure, almost hoping for more bugs to appear.

Come on, keep the complaints coming.

After all, no matter how bad you chew me out, you’ll still have to deal with these bugs!

Seeing the boss becoming gradually deranged, the person plagued by bad luck felt a bit of pity.

Originally, when she disclosed the three strategies, she had hidden one.

It was intended as a form of revenge against the boss, but seeing him so deflated and not deflecting blame, she actually felt sorry for him.

So, after hesitating for a few days, she finally mustered the courage and said to the boss, “Boss, I just thought of a strategy.”

“What is it?” the boss asked with eyes as dead as a fish.

“You’ve held game events and accumulated a lot of karma. Then, you can burn that karma to request help from powerful beings to check on it.”

One sentence woke the dreamer; the suggestion from the cursed individual sparked the boss’s realization of the bright point, and he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Why didn’t you say so earlier!”

“I only just thought of it,” the cursed one said with a guilty conscience.

“Well done! I’ll call for help right away!”

The boss immediately spent a great deal of karma to forcibly invoke a divine being.

He spent twice the usual amount of karma just to invite the most capable being to handle the issue.

And as the boss looked up with anticipation, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Zhiyi Heavenly Lord suddenly vanishing from his side and then appearing before him.

How should one put it…

It was pretty awkward.