Chapter 62 - There is Actually a Story Mode?

In that case, Lin Wan has given me preferential treatment when he said that he will try his best to gift me a Red Kilin?

After all, the market price for the Red Kilin was 888 yuan…

However, Chen Sha shook his head shortly after and threw that absurd thought out of his head.

How could the Red Kilin cost 888 yuan? It was just a bunch of f*cking codes in the game. Why would anyone possibly buy it?

If no one bought it, wouldn’t that make the Red Kilin worthless?

Yeah. As long as no one bought the Red Kilin, this game would be very fair for all players.

Chen Sha really didn’t get the intentions of this game. He had seen FPS games like Counter Strike which did not have any in-game purchases and only profited from selling the game itself. He had also seen FPS games like Bullet Hole which were free to download but included premium systems that encouraged players to spend money to climb up the premium ranks.

However, he had never seen a game like Ocean Stronghold.

Driven by curiosity, Chen Sha exited the in-game shop and explored the other features of the game.

“There are many new combat modes in the game. Apparition mode and biochemical mode? Never heard of such things.

“What the heck? Why is there even a story mode?”

Chen Sha was pleasantly surprised when he saw the apparition mode and biochemical mode. However, those game modes didn’t shock him.

After all, it was not unusual for combat FPS games to come up with innovative game modes.

Then again, Chen Sha was stunned when he saw the story mode.

Be it Counter Strike or any other domestic FPS game producers, never had anyone come up with a story mode!

Creating a plot within FPS games was something that took a lot of effort but yielded less than satisfactory outcomes. Most domestic game producers were not able to accomplish that!

Some of the more renowned games included plots, but they were often huge projects that required huge amounts of investments. They were a completely different concept as compared to ordinary FPS games!

Sun Strike Studios had spent so much time on Bullet Hole to perfect every aspect of the game. Yet, they did not include a story mode either.

One reason was that Zhou Muyan felt that it wasn’t necessary. Secondly, he wasn’t confident enough to do it!

Why would Ocean Stronghold, which did not have much fame, dare to include a story mode when Sun Strike Studios didn’t even dare to do so in Bullet Hole?

That spurred Chen Sha’s interest.

He did not close the game as he had expected but instead decided to try out the story mode.

He was prepared to be bored and disgusted by it.

…

…

Entering story mode.

Blank screen.

Slightly long blank screen time.

Chen Sha almost thought that there was a bug with the game. However, soon after, sounds were heard from his earphones.

“Is he dead?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s barely alive. However, there is no way he will live after contracting the G Virus.”

“Let’s throw him here then.”

The voices were in English and had a native accent. Luckily, there were subtitles on the black screen.

The screen seemed to have jolted in the dark, signifying that the protagonist had been thrown aside.

Afterward, the footsteps slowly faded.

The screen was still pitch-black. However, specks of light seemed to appear in the distance. It looked similar to the field of vision of an ordinary person who closed their eyes in the day⁠⁠: their eyes could sense the light rays as they seeped past the eyelids.

More sounds blared in Chen Sha’s earphones.

There were heavy breathing sounds and soft groans which were most probably that of the protagonist.

There were noisy rustles that probably came from something crawling or limping.

Muffled sounds were produced in the back of the throat, which sounded like a tattered and torn box bellow—that was the standard growl of zombies. Those growls sounded intermittently from somewhere far away.

Very soon, two arcs appeared on the screen. Blurry images could be seen from the area enclosed by the arcs—that was to duplicate the view of the protagonist when he opened his eyes.

After several blinks, the protagonist’s vision returned to normal. Chen Sha could finally see the graphics of the game clearly.

The first thing that appeared before his eyes was a hand. The hand was pale, and its veins popped. It was the hand of a dead person!

Both the protagonist and Chen Sha were shocked.

The protagonist struggled to stand up. When doing so, he saw an even scarier scene. He was not on a soft bed but was instead lying on a pile of dead corpses!

Each corpse looked different. Some of them were severely mangled and looked gruesome. They were enough to make anyone puke out the dinner they had the night before. Some were still relatively intact. There weren’t even any obvious external wounds. Their only abnormal characteristics were their pale skin and popped veins.

Some had started to rot. Abnormal flesh grew on the corpses. They were mutating!

Pools of fresh blood had dried and coagulated. These corpses seemed to cling onto one another and seemed inseparable.

At that moment, the protagonist was about to become one of them!

The protagonist was at the border of the corpse pile. It was apparent that the people who carried him here did not want to go near the corpse pile, hence simply throwing him there casually.

After some giddiness, the protagonist fell from the corpse pile onto the ground. He rested for a while, recovered some energy, and finally managed to stand up.

By then, Chen Sha discovered that he had gained control over the protagonist and could freely manipulate the protagonist’s vision and movements.

Some simple instructions appeared on the screen. Chen Sha could observe his surroundings by moving the mouse, and he could move in all directions using the WASD buttons.

That was the basic PC control scheme for FPS games. Taking into account that some players might not have played this type of game before, Ocean Stronghold had very detailed guidelines for them. It seemed to be emulating overseas Triple-A games.

Under the first-person perspective, Chen Sha had completely regarded himself as a character in the game.

The surroundings were dark, and yet he could tell that the protagonist was inside a building that seemed similar to a military base.

There were originally some chairs, a huge conference table, and some military computers; and yet they had all been discarded and thrown aside casually. There were also many corpses piled on the furniture.

When Chen Sha looked at the biggest corpse pile, he wasn’t sure if he was seeing things. He seemed to have seen an exposed arm buried underneath the corpse pile struggle and move slightly.

That scene made Chen Sha feel a little uneasy. He started to look for an exit.

There were a total of three exits which all had green lights shining above them. One of the lights had the word ‘EXIT’ written on it. The lights in the room were not lit. The protagonist had relied on the light from the exits to observe the situation in the room.

Chen Sha controlled the protagonist and walked to the nearest door.

The protagonist moved slowly. Occasionally, his vision would turn blurry. His right hand swayed along with his movements, but his left hand stayed on his abdomen. Clearly, he wasn’t feeling well.

When he reached the first door, he tried pushing it open but failed. It seemed as though the door was locked or that something was blocking the door from the other side.

He came to the second door. There was a digital lock on it. He needed an access card to unlock the door.

Chen Sha then controlled the protagonist again. With heavy steps, the protagonist approached the corpse pile again and walked towards the third door which was the furthest among the three.

Looking from afar, the door seemed to be partially open and accessible.

The surroundings seemed to quiet down. Only the protagonist’s breathing sounds and footsteps could be heard.

At that moment, a corpse suddenly lunged at him from the middle of the corpse pile and grabbed the protagonist by his right leg. It stretched its mouth wide open and bit on the leg!

The protagonist screamed in agony. The sides of the display turned red. It meant that the protagonist was being attacked!