Tokyo: The Player Behind the Scenes

[Difficulty: Difficult]

[Additional support players: 3 (can be refreshed 6 times)]

[Points cap: 1000]

Medium-sized, difficult.

Higashiyama Shin remained silent for a few seconds before continuing to read.

This game uses a "team system" gameplay, with three players forming a team, and a total of three teams. Each team consists of two experienced players and one new player. (If there are not enough players, the team will be left empty, but the rewards will be increased.)

Players within a team can freely exchange game information and share a spirit (i.e., each person has three lives, but a life-borrowing mechanism similar to Contra is allowed). After completing their respective levels and achieving the unique ending, the full game is unlocked.

In other words, the actual game content is composed of three smaller games plus one normal-sized game?

From the text alone, Higashiyama Shin didn't quite understand how this was done.

But you can probably imagine it.

The three players each face a different game, and to complete the game, they need to gather information from all three games and complete a historically accurate puzzle, similar to collecting three fragments in a puzzle game.

Next, the official game will begin, and this official game will most likely serve as a bridge between the three games.

New players do not have official player status and therefore cannot communicate with other players under normal circumstances. Teammates can spend 20 points to grant new players in-team communication privileges until the ending is achieved.

That's outrageous! How can you play this game without a microphone? It's practically forced sales. That's what he despises the most.

This point will be collected by "Unknown".

That's fine.

Is 20 points a bit too little?

In team-based gameplay, rankings are displayed in team format, and ranking rewards will be distributed to the team leader. Please discuss this within your team.

[Completing the game officially means the entire team achieves a clear, but in the subsequent score calculation, the rewards will be distributed based on the team's contributions.]

[After this game ends, the game system will undergo a 2.0 update, unlocking more features and gameplay. Stay tuned!]

The amount of information brought by this game refresh was unexpectedly large.

It seems his guess was correct; not only him, but the other players' premonitions were also right.

The story of that mysterious Onmyoji will come to a complete end in this game.

Similarly, the resulting disaster is estimated to be unprecedented.

However, due to the emergence of extraordinary reasons, investments from various countries have been pouring into Japan, seemingly unafraid of any extraordinary disasters.

On the contrary, many people are afraid of not being able to participate in this extraordinary process. As long as Japan hasn't sunk and Tokyo is still there, any major disaster is just a minor incident.

Therefore, the Japanese government is currently experiencing both sorrow and joy, and is in a very difficult position.

The damage caused in Kyoto last time has now been followed by a rapid influx of investment, a surge in real estate prices, and construction projects are in full swing.

In particular, the original location of the hotel was fiercely contested by several world-class conglomerates, leaving the Japanese conglomerate with no chance to even get a say in it.

Wherever a major disaster occurs, hot money flows there, and apart from the deaths, the economy grows instead of declining, completely defying economic intuition.

However, these disasters should be solvable if players unite as one.

Even if things don't go well, there's always the "divine flower" he's planned.

He was more interested in the game's 2.0 update.

First of all, players' choices should no longer be limited to Japan. Since the game has always been based on Japanese themes, it's time to switch to some Western classics to change things up.

I wonder if the PVP mode he's been looking forward to will appear.

After a moment of contemplation, he returned to reality. Instead of rushing to refresh and select players, he first arranged the entry rewards and ranking rewards.

The first entry reward was to replace the hardworking paper figures with holy spring water, giving each person two bottles – a very generous gesture.

Ranking rewards

Looking at his relatively high score and the game's difficulty, Higashiyama Shin felt it would be better to give him some high-value items.

I'd like to ask for leave tomorrow.

Chapter 209: Three Time Gates

Ranking rewards settings are complete.

First place: (Obscured by mist)

Second place: 3 random draws

Third Place: Holy Spring Water *6

Given the unprecedented difficulty and scale of the game, the first-place prize is planned to be either a bronze or silver trophy, so he himself is not yet sure what it will be.

The second-place random draw requires fifty points per draw. He only tried it once and got a toilet, so he didn't continue. He never gets carried away with card draws.

The third place winner needs no introduction; he plans to turn the Holy Spring Water into a hard currency among players, making it a "spiritual stone" in the human world.

Alright, the rewards are set up, let's start drawing players!

Let's see if we can produce an SSR-level player.

"Sixty-one, sixty-two"

After refreshing the page twice, Higashiyama Shin vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

The scores were generally lower compared to previous games.

Refresh once more.

Seventy-three points, that's the highest I've seen so far.

"He actually has player talent? I had no idea."

Shinichi Higashiyama scanned the names and selected him as the first player.

Then two more were selected, both in their early seventies, and none of them scored in the eighties.

It truly lives up to its reputation as a difficult difficulty level.

He glanced at the scores given to veteran players for the game, and found that the average scores were quite high, mostly above 80.

Higashiyama Shin suspects this is because of the game "The Pact of the Underworld," which requires combining information from several previous games to complete.

New players who haven't played the previous games and lack information will naturally have lower scores.

Perhaps once they enter the game and complete the settings with their teammates, their scores will increase.

All three players quickly accepted the invitation.

With a sudden thought, Dongshan Shenxin announced that the new game would be officially open to all players.

[Awaiting new players to confirm their nicknames. Confirmation complete, proceeding to random team formation]

Team assignments complete

Hiro, Shima, Yui;

Zhi, Sen, Tian;

Yue, Zheng, Falcon. 】

[In this round of the game, those who play passively before the team achieves the ending will be penalized.]

At the same time, players, either in the player lobby or in real life, received the game refresh information.

A small group chat automatically appeared in the private message list.

Even the player lobby has opened a squad mode. As soon as you switch, the round table will quickly switch and shrink into a triangular table. Conversations held here can only be heard by teammates.

After finishing his meal, Uesugi stayed in the player lobby and quickly finished reading the information about the new game, then clicked into the squad mode to take a look.

Suddenly, everything around them changed, and the scene quickly zoomed in, revealing a triangular table, except that the other two seats were empty.

"If the team is bound together, won't it be affected by the 'weakest link' effect? ​​However, being able to communicate should make up for a lot of that, but it still requires all three players to be available to start the game."

Based on the information, Uesugi quickly identified the real challenge of the game.

In games, especially team games, it's often not true that more people mean more power.

Communication costs and the other party's personality are also factors to consider, especially if a new player who has never been interacted with the team appears.

"It's outrageous that veteran players have to spend points to allow new players to communicate in their teams earlier!"

Uesugi was furious about this.

In this world, earning points is incredibly difficult.

After processing the information, she raised an eyebrow, opened the store, and sure enough, found the description of the newly listed "Holy Spring Water".

[Holy Spring Water: 10 points - Restores stamina, spirit, and injuries for players, and replenishes a day's worth of play attempts; for ordinary people, it can restore injuries or slightly extend lifespan.]

[Weekly purchase limit: 2/3 (Note: All players)]

Uesugi instantly understood the value of this thing; it could serve as a form of hard currency among players, in addition to points!

There are also purchase limits, so the price of 10 points definitely has room for appreciation!

Someone was even faster than her.

Quickly grab the remaining two bottles; the Holy Spring Water immediately showed as sold out.

comfortable.

Exiting squad mode, the triangular table switches to a round table, revealing the positions of other players. Currently, in the lobby, besides Uesugi, only Nobita and Iwasaki are present.

They didn't enter squad mode; instead, they carefully reviewed the instructions for the new game.

Uesugi sent private messages to the other players, and soon they logged on one after another.

Six players have gathered in the player lobby, and there are three vacant seats that already have nicknames, but they haven't been granted entry yet.

In theory, as long as the other two teammates are waiting in the game beforehand, they can start the game together.

However, such a complete lack of communication is destined to be extremely inefficient, simply a waste of time and lifespan.

"I think everyone agrees that paying points will give new players early access to team communication, right?"

Nobita spoke first, his gaze fixed on Iwasaki and Oshima.

Renault chimed in, "Of course not. It would be troublesome if we couldn't communicate. Captain Knight, our goal is the first-place reward!"

He has no need to vie for the captaincy; now is not the time to jump the gun. Besides, Nobi is unlikely to be the type to hoard the rewards.

If he were on the same team as Iwasaki, he would definitely have to agree on the profit sharing beforehand.

Thinking of this, he sent a private message to the island, telling him to be careful to secure benefits for himself.

However, in his view, such reminders would have little effect on the island's current personality.

[Island: Thank you!]

Oshima felt immense pressure about being paired with the infamous Yokai, sitting ramrod straight and avoiding looking directly at Iwasaki.

"Since everyone agrees, let's press the confirm button to pay the points," Uesugi reminded them.

Everyone pressed confirm on the virtual screen.

Soon, players in each team were able to send private messages to new players.

Immediately afterwards, Iwasaki entered squad mode without saying a word. To everyone else, this meant that a green notification appeared next to "Hiro's" nickname: Squad Mode.

"Don't worry, Hiro has great gaming talent. Following his instructions, the outcome won't be too bad. Just don't let his ideas influence you." Muramasa saw that Oshima seemed a little nervous.

"Thank you." Oshima took a deep breath, nodded, and pressed the switch to squad mode.

In a Hogwarts-like transformation, in the blink of an eye, the seat diagonally opposite him had become a humanoid black mist representing Iwasaki.

The next second, Yui's nickname lit up.

As the mist dissipated from her seat, a humanoid figure emitting a white light appeared.

After she appeared, her face, devoid of features, seemed to be looking at Oshima. Just as Oshima was about to say something, she suddenly turned to Iwasaki.

"The game can begin."

She didn't ask anything, she just said it directly.

"Um, we'd better check the basic information first," Oshima suggested tentatively.