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    Chapter 120: I Will Become a Qualified Pilot, Deservedly So

    Meanwhile.

    In a tiny one-bedroom apartment, Shen Miao Miao’s slightly childish singing drifted out from the bathroom.

    Clearly, she was in a good mood.

    Based on the aggregated data from yesterday, ArtTour X2 had sold over 30,000 units domestically and over 10,000 units overseas on its first day, achieving a very impressive result.

    But!

    This was the first day.

    Theoretically, ArtTour X2’s sales would decline normally over the next two weeks.

    Even if it didn’t decline and sold 46,000 units per day, the total sales over 15 days would be 690,000 units.

    According to Huayun Digital’s game sales statistics, Titanfall sold over 25,000 copies on its first day, with a platform share of around 54%.

    In other words.

    Under the most ideal scenario.

    By the end of the fifteen-day period, based on platform share, Titanfall could sell around 370,000 copies, with a total sales revenue of about 73 million. Even if it reached 80 million!

    Then I!

    Shen Miao Miao!

    Would get a receipt for a loss of 90 million, and based on an 11x return, I would receive a total of 990 million in return.

    Nearly a billion!

    Rich!

    Wonderful!

    Every time she thought about it, she couldn’t help but steal a smile.

    Washing the soap suds off her face, Shen Miao Miao turned off the faucet, wiped her face, then picked up the U-Meijing (a popular Chinese brand of skin cream) beside the washbasin, humming a nursery rhyme as she squeezed out a little and applied it evenly on her face.

    “Little swallow, wearing colorful clothes, comes here every spring,”

    Patting her smooth and tender face, Shen Miao Miao picked up her phone, scrolling through Weibo’s hot searches to see what entertainment was going on lately:

    “I asked the swallow why you came, the swallow said—”

    “What the…”

    The swallow didn’t say that at the time, this was Shen Miao Miao’s own exclamation.

    She saw!

    On Weibo’s “Entertainment Games” section, the 18th entry was clearly marked #Titanfall (Hot)!

    Bad news!

    Shen Miao Miao even felt her heartbeat skip a beat!

    Right now, she was most afraid of seeing any news about TTF exploding!

    Because!

    Titanfall was already popular enough!

    It had already gone beyond the category of a 170 million investment game!

    If someone else fanned the flames at this point?

    The consequences would be unimaginable!

    Thinking this, Shen Miao Miao quickly clicked in to check!

    Then, she couldn’t help but laugh!

    It turned out that the news that had made it to the hot searches was something that had just happened in Tuanzi’s livestream.

    Amidst Tuanzi’s scream of “You dog thief Gu Sheng, I will never share the same sky with you,” countless bullet screens filled the screen, the entire livestream was filled with a joyful atmosphere!

    The reason that made Tuanzi let out this angry roar, was even more hilarious to Shen Miao Miao!

    So silly!

    What on earth was wrong with Old Gu? Why did he put his own model into the game, and even as a big villain!

    This was too much of a dark sense of humor!

    Clicking on the comments section below, she saw thousands of comments already:

    ‘Abstract King, living up to his name’

    ‘Shengzi Ge has some acting skills, after all, he’s also shot game promotional videos before’

    ‘Right now, I just want to kick this dog thief’s ass’

    ‘Gu dog thief is a bit mouthful, let’s call him Old Gu Thief (smart)’

    ‘Killing your own NPC is reasonable, right? (dog head)’

    ‘I don’t understand, but I’m deeply shocked and have watched it repeatedly, trying to understand Old Gu’s mental state when he made this decision’

    ‘Old Gu’s mental state has always been stable, steadily abstract’

    ‘Indeed, who is a good person that makes games and then puts themselves as the main villain?’

    ‘Boldly predict, this bastard will definitely not die in the end, Old Gu won’t let himself die’

    ‘It’s also reasonable, based on the current plot, Old Gu is just the boss of a mercenary army, there’s a bigger mastermind behind him’

    ‘But Old Gu’s image is actually pretty handsome (although he really should die)…’

    The more Shen Miao Miao read, the funnier it became, she couldn’t stop giggling.

    This kind of meme wouldn’t affect the game’s sales, even if it did, it would be negligible, after all, it was just an abstract whim.

    However, she was also curious about Old Gu’s mental state at the time, so she chose to personally send a message to Gu Sheng to ask—

    Ding dong.

    Gu Sheng was watching the livestream, when he suddenly heard the chat software buzzing frantically, so he switched screens.

    He saw a string of messages from Shen Miao Miao jumping in the chat box—

    【Little Nezha: Asleep? What are you doing? Calling, calling! Knock, knock, knock—is anyone home? Hello, hello?】

    Little Nezha was the nickname Gu Sheng had given Shen Miao Miao.

    Gu Sheng smiled:

    【Sam: One call is enough, I’m watching the livestream, what’s up?】

    【Little Nezha: Admiring your majestic villainous boss persona?】

    Seeing Little Nezha’s message, Gu Sheng was a bit surprised:

    【Sam: How did you know? You haven’t even finished reading the first page of my planning document, have you?】

    【Little Nezha: Hot search! Big brother, you’re on Weibo’s hot searches! Abstract King!】

    Upon hearing this, Gu Sheng logged onto Weibo and saw that his messages were filled with 99+ @ mentions.

    He couldn’t help but chuckle:

    【Sam: The response is quite enthusiastic, maybe because no one has ever done this before】

    【Little Nezha: Then how did you think of it? Can I interview you? The famous Old Gu Thief? (starry eyes)】

    How did he think of it?

    Shen Miao Miao’s question made Gu Sheng grin, he paused slightly.

    How else could he have thought of it!

    If Shen Miao Miao could see the crazy surge in emotion points in his system, his motivation would be very obvious!

    Right!

    The reason why Gu Sheng put himself in the game was to stimulate the players’ emotional points!

    And, in the final stages of the game, he, as one of the main villains, has a very important task to complete personally!

    He believed that the players’ emotions would explode even more at that time!

    However!

    Gu Sheng couldn’t tell Little Nezha all this, so he casually replied:

    【Sam: It’s fun】

    【Little Nezha: Just purely fun?】

    【Sam: It’s just purely fun】

    【Little Nezha: Then next time you play, take me with you, okay? I want to be an NPC too】

    Whoa!

    Seeing this message, Gu Sheng couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

    What a great idea!

    Tell you what, he did have a top-tier game that was perfect for putting both himself and Little Nezha in the game.

    Moreover, if that game was put into a sensory pod, the effect would be even better!

    Interesting!

    Thinking about this, Gu Sheng nodded vigorously!

    【Sam: Okay, I’ll not only put you in, I’ll take you to play together】

    【Shen Miao Miao: Yay! (cat waiting expectantly)】

    After a brief chat, Gu Sheng said goodnight to Little Nezha.

    Then, he switched the screen back to the livestream.

    Because he knew that the next plot would be a small harvest of the players’ emotional points.

    Ugh, roar—

    Dai Xiao Mei opened her eyes again, and the sky was already bright.

    A low growl accompanied by a stinging pain in her leg, making her jump.

    Lying on the cold ground, she looked down.

    She saw a creature the size of an adult leopard, covered in spikes and armor, was biting at her trousers.

    Hunt Beast, a natural creature living on Typhon, extremely aggressive and very fierce.

    In an instant, the two looked at each other.

    “What the heck is that dog!”

    Dai Xiao Mei jumped, instinctively kicking the Hunt Beast!

    Naturally, this kick angered the Hunt Beast!

    A roar, the Hunt Beast attacked Dai Xiao Mei like a mad dog!

    Just as it was about to reach her!

    Bang bang bang—

    The sound of machine guns rang out, the Hunt Beast was instantly torn apart!

    “Oh—”

    Dai Xiao Mei groaned in disgust, having been splashed with beast blood, she slowly sat up.

    She saw the giant Titan not far away slowly standing up like her, but after taking two steps, it fell to its knees with a thud due to lack of power.

    “BT! Instructor Lasstimossa!”

    Dai Xiao Mei was overjoyed, because the one who had just saved her was none other than BT-7274!

    BT wasn’t broken! Lasstimossa wasn’t dead!

    As she shouted, Dai Xiao Mei happily got up, and ran towards BT in three steps and two.

    But the next second.

    Shhh—

    BT’s cockpit opened, Lasstimossa’s body rolled out, like a sack of rags, thudding heavily to the ground.

    Dai Xiao Mei couldn’t help but stop, and hurried to the Instructor’s side:

    “…I… what should I do… Instructor…”

    “Instructor, are you okay…”

    Crack!

    Before she could finish, Lasstimossa opened his Iron Pilot helmet.

    She saw that his nose and mouth were full of blood, one eyeball was completely bloodshot, and his whole person was weak.

    “Uh… BT…”

    Interrupting Dai Xiao Mei, Lasstimossa tried to make a sound:

    “Transfer authorization to new Pilot… connect… BravoTango-7274…”

    “No no no no no…”

    Dai Xiao Mei knew what the Instructor meant.

    There was only herself and the Instructor here, now, the Instructor was seriously injured, and he transferred the authorization, which meant that she would inherit her Instructor’s mantle and become the new Iron Pilot. Appointed in a time of crisis!

    But Dai Xiao Mei didn’t want to accept it.

    She wanted to be an Iron Pilot, to have her own Titan, but not in this way.

    “I… I can’t, Instructor…”

    Dai Xiao Mei was at a loss, her hands wanted to help the Instructor stop the bleeding, but she didn’t know how to do it:

    “I’m just a rifleman, I haven’t been trained to drive a Titan yet…”

    “Cooper, Cooper listen to me…”

    Before he could finish, Lasstimossa grabbed her hand.

    At this moment, his mouth was already starting to foam, he was gasping for breath, his pupils were gradually dilating.

    “I have faith in you, kid… take care of BT for me…”

    He spoke, Lasstimossa slowly turned his blurry eyes, looking at his old friend one last time, then he squeezed Dai Xiao Mei’s hand:

    “The road to becoming a true Iron Pilot… is long…”

    “But I believe you can…”

    “Deservedly so.”

    With that, Lasstimossa breathed his last.

    At this moment! Everyone finally understood the meaning of Cooper’s last line in the promotional video, “Deservedly so”!

    Foreshadowing recovered!

    The Typhon wind blew, carrying the scent of lingering smoke.

    Dai Xiao Mei felt a complex emotion welling up in her heart, she took a deep breath and looked up.

    Lasstimossa’s hand, which she was tightly holding, was gradually turning cold, but the feelings in the training ground were becoming more intense—

    “You’re the first one to call me Instructor, actually, I shouldn’t have trained you, but I felt you had potential…”

    “Let’s get started, run kid…”

    “Hahaha, failure is always inevitable, now is the time to get up…”

    “For a world without metal and smoke, for a peaceful and prosperous world…”

    “This kid is a good prospect, believe him, he can do it…”

    “The road to becoming an Iron Pilot is long, but I believe you can deserve it…”

    Yes, this is a game.

    You can say it’s just a virtual world, you can say it’s just a pastime in your spare time.

    But it is the refuge of my heart, and it is the haven where my soul rests.

    The game is fake.

    But in this fake game, I once had a true teacher.

    He patiently taught me, encouraged me, and protected me. He told me about the cruelty and ruthlessness of war, and also told me how hard-won peace is.

    This is a cold world built from code made of 0s and 1s.

    But the feelings in this cold world are warm and passionate.

    Maybe, I will meet more people in the future, learn more things, and understand more truths.

    But I will never forget.

    There was once a brave Iron Pilot veteran from Harmony, named Lasstimossa.

    He told me that the path to success is long, and when I’m lost, I shouldn’t forget my original intention, it doesn’t matter how much glory I have, what matters is to—deserve it.

    Thud.

    As Dai Xiao Mei finished laying the last stone, Lasstimossa’s small grave was finished.

    Lasstimossa was buried here forever, buried on the planet he fought for.

    And on a small stone tablet behind the grave, there was an epitaph that Dai Xiao Mei carved for him:

    【A Legendary Iron Pilot, My Forever Instructor – Captain Lasstimossa.】

    Dai Xiao Mei wouldn’t salute, even as a newcomer, a rifleman who was now the acting Iron Pilot, she didn’t know what the IMC’s salute was like.

    So, she could only hold Lasstimossa’s Iron Pilot helmet in her hand, bowed to the messy and low grave:

    “I will become a true Iron Pilot, deservedly so.”

    This was a special design by Gu Sheng, although the game was single-player, but at this small grave, players could see other people’s messages.

    The game had only been released recently, but there were already thousands of messages on Lasstimossa’s grave—

    ‘Instead of lamenting the difficulty of the road, it’s better to set off immediately, have a good dream, I’ll take over from here…’

    ‘I’ll take care of BT, I believe BT will also take care of me…’

    ‘When I become a true Iron Pilot, I’ll come back to the training ground to see you…’

    ‘I’ll take care of myself, good luck to me…’

    ‘Goodbye, Captain Lasstimossa…’

    ‘Good night, Instructor…’

    Looking at all these messages, Dai Xiao Mei was speechless for a long time.

    And in the livestream, countless bullet screens came flooding in—

    ‘Sigh… I’m still a little sad’

    ‘Damn, I got Titan in my eyes’

    ‘Those four words, “Deservedly So”, give me goosebumps’

    ‘Who would bury foreshadowing in the promotional video?’

    ‘Just a one-hit kill, right? You really are a good one, Old Gu Thief’

    ‘Before, we were laughing and joking in the training ground’

    ‘The key is that Old Gu seems to have given Instructor Lasstimossa a high-level AI, he can talk instead of just being a simple script’

    ‘Sigh——’

    ‘Taking care of BT touched me, Instructor Lasstimossa still can’t let go of BT’

    ‘He can’t let go of both, one is his old Titan friend, and the other is the acting Iron Pilot he trained himself’

    ‘Hey, why are you guys doing this——Don’t say it, please——’

    ‘You little black dog, you better be’

    ‘The old lady seems to be crying sadly, but actually her heart is already overjoyed’

    ‘Old lady: Guess what? I have my own Titan too!’

    ‘Our old Iron Pilots have this every morning, it’s so genuine…’

    ‘Grass, I was actually quite sad’

    ‘You guys are real bastards…’

    ‘Now that he’s gone, don’t be sad anymore, the top priority now is to quickly repair the Titan, find Old Gu Thief and then kill him’

    ‘What’s Liam Neeson’

    ‘I laughed out loud…’

    Indeed, the death of Lasstimossa made many players feel sad, but at the same time, this extreme character development made the game seem alive.

    The players were filled with righteous indignation, after bidding farewell to Lasstimossa, they were about to set out on a journey to seek revenge against Old Gu Thief.

    Seeing the encouraging bullet screens in the livestream, Dai Xiao Mei, after a brief adjustment, regained her spirits!

    “Good! Okay! Brothers!”

    Putting on the Iron Pilot helmet, a UI interface started, Dai Xiao Mei connected with BT-7274, locking onto the nearest battery:

    “Now, our top priority is to find three batteries, first get the power back on for BT,”

    “Typhon’s grand stage, come if you dare,”

    “For Instructor Lasstimossa! For Harmony! To kill the Old Thief!”

    “I’m coming, motherfuckers!”

    Set out on the journey!

    At this moment, countless newly promoted Iron Pilots inherited Lasstimossa’s mantle, and set out on a journey to become a true Iron Pilot, deservedly so.

    On the way to find the three batteries, they used jump jets to cross the gaps between the valleys, and used stealth to eliminate one IMC soldier after another.

    Along the way, they learned that although Sam was their enemy, he was only the leader of a mercenary army called Apex.

    The one who really wanted to seize the “Ark” was the IMC Group led by General Mad.

    Although they hadn’t seen what the Ark actually looked like, they could tell from the IMC soldiers’ brief conversations that it was an ancient energy core with the power to manipulate time.

    And now the IMC had found it, and were preparing to turn it into a weapon, to completely destroy Harmony—the home of the rebellion.

    They had to stop him.

    Lasstimossa came for this purpose.

    And now, the newly promoted Iron Pilots who inherited all of BT’s capabilities, would continue to carry out this mission.

    Walking on the walls, walking in the air, the players crossed ravines and jungles, walking through the labyrinthine interior of the crashed spaceship.

    The Iron Pilot’s one-against-ten combat capability was fully demonstrated at this moment.

    Finally!

    Crack!

    Shhh——!!!

    As A Yin inserted the last battery into BT’s waist, the 40-ton steel behemoth stood up again!

    【BT: Full power, Pilot, we need to establish neural connection immediately, my radar shows IMC support troops are on their way】

    A gentle and firm electronic synthetic voice sounded, BT was like a resurrected warrior, raising its huge machine gun rifle.

    “What the hahahahahaha—”

    Looking at the majestic and mighty, war-machine aesthetic-emitting giant manned mech, Lao Da couldn’t help but let out a joyful cheer:

    “This is so awesome, you know how they figured this thing out!”

    A true Titan, was right in front of them.

    Looking at the cockpit opening towards him, A Yin jumped up, glanced back at the grave not far away, and took a deep breath:

    “Whew——Okay!”

    He said, then turned around and sat in the cockpit!

    Shhh, click!

    The hatch closed!

    In the darkness, the UI interface on the left appeared with an electronic protocol, BT’s voice sounded simultaneously—

    【Protocol 1: Connect Pilot – Rifleman Jack Cooper, you are now confirmed as the acting Pilot of BT-7274】

    【Protocol 2: Uphold mission – Rendezvous with Major Anderson】

    【Shhh… Detecting enemy forces approaching…】

    Outside the mech, gunshots rang out, the IMC soldiers had arrived to reinforce, firing at them.

    At this moment, the last protocol appeared in BT’s calm and powerful voice—

    【Protocol 3: Protect Pilot】

    (End of Chapter)

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