<h4>Chapter 8: Chapter 7 – Is this Even a Game?</h4>


    <strong>Trantor: </strong>Exodus Tales <strong>Editor: </strong>Exodus Tales


    <strong><i>Tranted by Coldtaco</i></strong>


    <strong><i>Edited by Aelryinth</i></strong>


    The hour for the video game experience round had ended. The emcee walked to the front of the stage.


    “Alright, the video game experience round has ended! Did you guys manage to find a game you like?


    “Let’s move onto the next stage, but first, let’s look at the results these twenty games have achieved so far. Please look at the screen.”


    The audience shifted their gaze towards ytime and the number of rmendations for the twenty games, disyed on the main screen.


    The audience let out an audible gasp.


    “What the... No way!”


    “T-that game’s so nonsensical. This is crazy!”


    “How could the gap be that big?”


    “I thought there were standards! Emcee, are there cheaters?”


    Everyone was drawn to the numbers ppyBird managed to achieve: a total ytime of 349 hours, 544 rmends!


    On the other hand, the second ce Hunter Ind only had 92 hours of ytime, with only 330 rmendations!


    The emcee was also shocked, as it was his first time seeing the numbers. He also had the same thought as the audience:<i> the numbers must be wrong!</i>


    The judges were also at a loss, finding the numbers unbelievable.


    How was this possible? There were a total of seven hundred people in the audience, meaning that they all averaged half an hour on this game!


    Five hundred and forty-four out of seven hundred people were willing to rmend the game to others. These numbers defied logic!


    Chen Mo wasn’t too surprised, as the numbers were within his calctions.


    In reality, ppyBird wasn’t some kind of alluring game; it was the exact opposite—torturous. If this game was put onto the market, the majority of yers would close it after five minutes.


    However, the target audience was in a video game designpetition, meaning that thepetition for ppyBird wasn’t mature, well-developed games, but instead disastrous entry-level games.


    The other works weren’t able to hold the audience’s attention for long. Therefore, a majority of them chose toe back to ppyBird to grind out their score. The more stubborn among them spent all their time grinding ppyBird.


    With that in mind, ppyBird achieving so much ytime was quite normal.


    The emcee held his earpiece and whispered for a few moments before raising his head and telling the audience, “I have just confirmed with the technicians, the numbers are indeed correct. These are the final scores of the twenty games.”


    There was still a lot ofmotion going on among the audience.


    Many in the audience refused to believe that ppyBird could achieve that result, especially those who felt nothing for games like this and had only yed the game for a few moments.


    However, most of the audience epted it as the truth.


    “Is this game actually that great? It looks so simple it hurts, the game mechanics are incredibly shallow. How could it be in first ce, and be that far ahead of second ce?”


    “What’s so strange about that. Just think about it, how much time did you spend on it?”


    “...at least forty minutes.”


    “I spent nearly an hour! My head is still hurting from all that grinding.”


    “Right? When I close my eyes, all I see is that stupid bird bobbing up and down, I can’t help but y...”


    “Look, there’s nearly six hundred people on the leaderboards. The top two hundred are all over twenty and many of them over forty-five. Think about how long you yed to get to twenty.”


    “Right... It was at least twenty minutes. If you didn’t get the feel for it you might not even get there at the end of the hour.”


    “Exactly, the numbers work out.”


    “But still... That’s insane...” The deniers were now starting to question their beliefs.


    The emcee lets out a cough to alert the audience, “Alright, since the technicians have confirmed the numbers, currently in first ce is ppyBird, by designer number Seven!


    “Up next is the judges evaluation round. After the evaluation is over, everyone in the audience will participate in the rmendation round after that.”


    After a pause, the emcee continued, “As a reminder, so far, ppyBird leads in both ytime and rmendations. ording to the rules, each rmendation is worth thirty minutes of ytime, meaning if Hunter Ind in second ce gets at least 128 rmendations more than ppyBird, it has a chance of taking first ce!


    “Alright, up next will be the judges’ review.”


    The emcee raised his hand, gesturing at the judges to start their reviews.


    The judges looked at one another. Then Qiu Hengyang said to Shi Huazhe, “Perhaps the eldest among us should speak first.”


    All the judges were B-grade video game designers. They weren’t working in the samepany, therefore there wasn’t any difference in position. As Shi Huazhe was the eldest, Lin Hai and Qiu Hengyang were being respectful by letting him speak first.


    Shi Huazhe paled, moving the mic closer to him, and cleared his throat.


    “Is this even a game?! I’ll be the first to disapprove of it! If this can be considered a game, then wouldn’t just anyone be able to make a game?!


    “Is a street artist who sings a pop star?!


    “Is a graffitist an artist?!


    “Hitting enter “a couple more times when writing prose, is that a modern poet?!


    “Garbage!


    Shi Huazhe was visibly angry, and he even gave the table a good hit with his knuckles.


    “First, this game has no story, the ystyle is mundane, the graphics are simple, and the controls are terrible! This thing doesn’t match the criteria of a game at all!


    “Second, this game was a cop out. It takes advantage of yers trying to beat each other’s score in order to artificially inte the ytime!


    “All the stats that you see, no matter the y time or rmendations, are all pointless! Why? It’s because it’s unorthodox!


    “Therefore, as you can tell, I’m strongly against this being in first ce!”


    After finishing, Shi Huazhe pushed away the mic, breathing heavily.


    “Yeah! Mr. Shi said it well!”


    Someone yelled out, and the audience followed it up with roaringughter.


    It was from apetitor, most likely the designer of Hunter Ind.


    Chen Mo calmly twisted open the cap of his water bottle and took a sip. Hepletely expected such a reaction from Shi Huazhe.


    Obviously, Shi Huazhe strongly disliked games like this, because he wasn’t good at them and didn’t enjoy grinding his score.


    Moreover, Chen Mo’s Super Focuser had forced him to torture himself in the game for ten whole minutes; all this pent up anger was normal.


    The emcee had obviously not expected Shi Huazhe to be so furious, and quickly changed the topic, “Alright, Mr. Shi Huazhe had expressed his opinion! Next up, Mr Lin Hai.”


    Lin Hai looked at Shi Huazhe, then back at ppyBird. Stuck between a rock and a hard ce, he hesitantly turned on his mic.


    “This game... I think Mr Shi Huazhe raises good points, the game is indeed quite shallow and has some pretty basic mechanics. In terms of quality, it doesn’t quite fit to be the champion of thispetition.


    After a pause, Lin Hai said, “However, I think if it’s able to get a result like this rtively high score in both ytime and rmends, it means that the yers think it’s worthy. Therefore, I maintain my stance: I’ll leave the final decision to the audience.”