It was supposed to be a casual game, but the Long March dungeon brought tears to everyone's eye

"Luo An, I quit!"

A young man slammed his work badge down and angrily pointed at the virtual screen.

"This isn't a game at all! No long legs, no pay-to-win gacha, no satisfying feedback! What kind of 'immersive historical experience' are you trying to create?"

"Who the hell cares about history these days? They just want to be the boss in the virtual world!"

Luo An, who was slender, sat in a swivel chair with a somewhat helpless smile.

"Ah Jie, calm down."

"This is not just a game, it's art."

"Art my ass! Can art put food on the table? I'm three months behind on rent!" Ah Jie grabbed his backpack, slammed the door behind him, and stormed out without looking back. "Go starve to death with your art, you lunatic!"

The door trembled, and dust fell in clumps.

Luo An picked up his phone, looked at his bank account balance, and sighed with a self-deprecating smile.

"250, that's quite fitting for the occasion."

Three months ago, he traveled to this parallel universe's Earth.

This place boasts advanced technology, with VR neural connectivity technology capable of achieving 99% sensory simulation, making it the "Matrix" that Earth has always dreamed of.

However, this place did not experience the Red Patriotic War, and its cultural and entertainment scene is a wasteland.

The games are all reskinned versions of pay-to-win games, softcore pornography, and mindless wish-fulfillment tropes.

People are spiritually empty, driven by profit, and their dictionary contains no word for "sacrifice," only "profit."

Luo An wanted to change something, but almost starved himself to death first.

[The host has been detected to be in dire straits and harbors a mischievous streak.]

The "Civilization Torch" game development system has been activated.

Luo An was stunned for a moment, and after confirming that he was not hallucinating, his joy was evident.

It turns out he has a cheat code!

Although it's three months late, as long as it's not three years, three years and three years after three years, good food is worth the wait!

[New player gift pack has been distributed: LV1 civilian-grade physics engine, dungeon material pack "Red Expedition (Poor Version)", and emotion collection module.]

Luo An looked at the folder on the system panel that was called "Red Expedition," which contained one of the greatest miracles on Earth—the Long March of 25,000 li.

However, in this "poor version" with only snow-capped mountains and grasslands as the subject matter, there are no grand war scenes, only extreme cold, hunger and despair.

"So... in this age of entertainment to the death, we need to give them a little bit of spiritual shock?"

Luo An couldn't help but recall the happy times he had been "friendly" to players. He opened the editor and his hands flew across the keyboard like afterimages.

Three hours later.

A promotional video for a game titled "Healing Journey: The Vow Under the Snow Mountain" was uploaded to Tomato.com, the largest online gaming platform.

At the beginning of the scene:

The ethereal piano music flowed gently.

The snow-capped mountains reflect a holy golden light under the sun, and the boundless grasslands are covered with unknown wildflowers.

Around the campfire, a group of ragged people sat together, their faces beaming with simple, warm smiles.

Although you can't see their faces clearly, the atmosphere was so warm it made you want to cry.

The text pops up:

Life's too tiring? Why not take a spontaneous trip?

[Zero barriers to entry, no in-app purchases, a purely therapeutic VR experience.]

Find yourself again here.

Tags: #scenerysimulation #healing #leisure #retirementgame

Click "Publish".

……

At the same time, "Crazy Brother," a super popular streamer on the Tomato Live platform, was idly scrolling through the list of new games.

"Brothers, all game developers these days are feeding shit."

"It's either greasy senior sisters or one-hit kills; can't we have something more original?"

Crazy Bro, sporting a head of blond hair, was spitting into the microphone.

The comments section was filled with chatter.

"Crazy Bro, go play that new Warframe 18!"

"Don't go, that's a scam to get you to spend money."

Suddenly, Kuang Ge's mouse stopped on a game with a very refreshing cover.

"The Healing Journey? Only 233GB in size? Developer... Luo An Studio?" Crazy Bro sneered.

"This is obviously a walking simulator made by some shady little workshop. They think they can get downloads with this?"

Crazy Brother's eyes darted around and he saw the "healing" label, and his wicked intentions immediately surfaced.

"Brothers, let's expose these fakes today!"

"I'll criticize every single one of these garbage games that claims to be 'healing'!"

"I want to show designers what the wickedness of society is!"

Crazy Bro clicked to download and put on that top-of-the-line VR headset worth six figures.

"Two minutes! If I don't get my satisfaction within these two minutes, I'll verbally abuse the designer until they quit the internet!"

……

The interplay of light and shadow creates a sensory experience.

When Kuang Ge opened his eyes again, the sarcastic words he had prepared were stuck in his throat.

"Holy crap..."

All I could see was white.

Pure, blinding white, an endless expanse of white.

The howling wind scraped against my eardrums, and the soft snow under my feet was uneven, with each step making a real "crunch".

"The lighting and shadows? The particle effects? The physical collisions?"

Kuang Ge reached out and caught a falling snowflake.

The snowflakes melted in his palm, and the slightly cool, damp sensation went straight to his nerves, conveying the truth.

The live stream chat was filled with question marks.

"Is this the kind of graphics a 233GB game can produce?"

"Is this a real-life scene? This is outrageous!"

"To be fair, the scenery is truly healing; the designer has some talent."

Kuang Ge snapped out of his daze and coughed twice to cover up his embarrassment.

"Well, good graphics don't necessarily mean a fun game. Walking simulators are basically just for looking at the scenery."

He looked around and found that there were more than a dozen people standing around him.

These people are dressed...it's like they crawled out of a garbage dump.

They wore worn-out, thin gray cloth uniforms, some even wrapped in sheepskin, with straw ropes tied around their feet, their faces sallow, and their lips cracked and purple.

The system notification bar faintly appeared in the lower left corner of Crazy Brother's retina.

[Identity: New Recruit]

[Current Mission: Follow the team and cross Jiajin Mountain]

Status: Healthy (Temporarily)

"Tch, so this is what an NPC is?"

"The modeling is quite detailed, but the clothes are so ugly, it ruins my mood."

Kuang Ge curled his lip and walked up to a middle-aged man carrying an iron pot on his back, who only had one left arm.

This should be a captain or something similar.

The one-armed man turned his head, his face weathered and his eyes cloudy yet revealing an indescribable tenacity.

He saw "new recruit" Crazy Brother, grinned, and revealed a set of broken, yellow teeth.

"Hey kid, what are you standing there for? Before the wind picks up, hurry up and eat something."

The one-armed man carefully pulled a dark, hard object from his pocket and handed it to Brother Kuang.

Kuang Ge frowned as he took it, and the system displayed...

[Barley dough mixed with sand (inferior quality)]

"Is this something for humans to eat?" Crazy Brother subconsciously threw the black dumpling into the snow, his face full of disgust.

"I don't eat junk food. Do you have any roast chicken? Or red wine would be nice too?"

"This is a therapeutic game, shouldn't we have a picnic?"

The air suddenly fell silent, and the one-armed man's smile froze on his face.

Several "beggars" who were tidying up their leg wraps stopped what they were doing and stared intently at the black lump in the snow.

That look wasn't anger; it was only a kind of heartache that sent chills down Crazy Brother's spine.