Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

The old gamers of Tengda were really fortunate. Other games companies were basically indifferent to the old gamers. The old games would not be updated at all. They were just waiting to die of old age.

On the other hand, Tengda would not give up no matter how old the game was. As long as old players persevered, they would be able to get new content!

It was ridiculous.

Qiao Liang could not help but feel curious as he sighed. There were Easter eggs in the update announcements of the two games.

"Not bad. I don't have much to do recently. I can play in the afternoon and see what new content the downloadable content of these games are."

Qiao Liang packed the cutlery of Fish-Catching Take-Out and placed it at the door for the delivery men to collect them. Then, he turned on his computer to purchase the downloadable content of the two games, preparing to play them in the afternoon.

"The downloadable content for The Lonely Desert Road is five times more expensive than the original? Amazing."

Qiao Liang immediately purchased the downloadable content for both games and began to download the downloadable content.

First, he looked at the downloadable content for The Lonely Desert Road, which was priced at five yuan.

The main content of this update should be connected to the internet and various random scenarios. There would be more art resources and gameplay content than the original game itself. Thus, the downloadable content had increased.

He could play 'The Lonely Desert Team' with his friends in the online game mode. However, Qiao Liang was not optimistic about this gameplay because he really did not want to drive for another eight hours. What's more, he did not think that he would be able to find a friend who would be willing to drive with him for eight hours.

However, the official platform must have taken this into consideration as well. That was why they added some other changes: they could randomly match the netizens to solve the problem of no one driving together; they could use voice chat to solve the boring problem of driving on the road; they could wait for the netizens to rescue the car from its anchors; they could solve the problem of starting over once they failed and making the players feel frustrated.

"This change is actually not bad." Qiao Liang nodded slightly, expressing his approval of the official change.

On the surface, these changes seemed to go against the original intention of The Lonely Desert Road. After all, this game was meant to torture gamers. One of the important reasons why it became popular was that there could not be a single mistake in eight hours of driving. Otherwise, they would have to start all over again. This stimulated gamers' masochism and curiosity.

If not for the harsh conditions, this simple game would not have stood out and become popular because of Qiao Liang's video.

However, it was no longer necessary to maintain such difficulty.

That was because The Lonely Desert Road had become an antique game. Players who were willing to buy it had already bought it. It was no longer possible to expect new players to be tortured and fall into the pit.

Since that was the case, he might as well change the harsh gameplay and find other entertainment for the old players.

The new gamers could choose not to switch to the internet mode if they wanted to be tortured. It was still as difficult as before. If they felt that they could not persevere, they could switch to the internet mode with other gamers. They would be able to get a ride even if they were to break down. That would be much friendlier.

Qiao Liang was very reluctant to play it one more time but he still pulled a few people from his fan group and opened The Lonely Desert Road's internet mode.

That was because he wanted to see the so-called Traveler Bao Xu's Easter egg.

Surprisingly, he could really find people in the fan group who were willing to drive with him. Soon, the team was full. There were eight people in total. Each of them chose different car skins to form a motorcade. They formed a long line on the lonely desert road. One moment, they formed an S shape and the next moment… Sorry, they did not do that because there was only one road.

They followed the established road as he joked around.

However, the more he drove, the fewer cars there were.

That was because once they lost focus, the car would fall into the desert and break down. They could only take the latter car and "revive" an hour later. At first, there were eight cars, then there were seven, and then six…

Some people made mistakes while driving because they were not focused, while others simply drove into the desert because they were too lazy to drive, waiting to take someone else's car.

Of course, different cars could bring different passengers. In the most extreme case, there might be no space for the motorcade. Then, they could only wait for the cars behind them to pass by before they could get a ride.

Everyone was talking and laughing. Suddenly, they felt that the game was not that torturous anymore.

After driving for a while, the "mirage" of the downloadable content appeared.

Both sides were still deserts, but different scenery could be seen in the desert. There were European cities, desert pyramids, oases, tropical rainforests, etc…

Qiao Liang now knew why it cost five yuan, it was to make these scenes.

After driving for a while more, a tanned man carrying a travel bag appeared on the road. He was standing by the side of the road, and there was a broken down car beside him, which meant that he was not a player.

Qiao Liang's eyes lit up. "That should be Traveler Bao Xu. Quick, pick him up. There should be an Easter egg!"

After 'Bao Xu' got into the car, he exchanged a few pleasantries with everyone and expressed his gratitude to them for allowing him to hitch a ride.

After that, every time he saw a new mirage, Bao Xu would say a few lines. His tone was filled with vicissitudes.

"This is Honduras. I once came here on a ship and encountered a storm and huge waves. My ship seemed to be about to be thrown into the sky and into the abyss. No wonder Columbus called this place 'the bottomless abyss'. It made a deep impression on me…"

"This is Namibia. On one side is a vast desert, and on the other is a vast sea. In front of it is a cave landscape that has been eroded by sandstorms and is as bumpy as the surface of the moon…"

"This is Dominican…"

Every time they passed by a mirage, 'Bao Xu' would sigh and reminisce about his thrilling and memorable journey in this place.

Qiao Liang could not help but feel emotional. "Not bad. he can even be a tour guide in this game."

Traveler Bao Xu had always been a hero in GOG. Many players knew about this employee's travel story, but they did not know the details behind it.

Qiao Liang naturally knew about it as Boss Pei's best friend.

In fact, Bao Xu had only been to a portion of these places. There were too many scenic spots in this world after all. When Wang Xiaobin was creating the downloadable content, he had only decided on these scenic spots based on the resources available online.

Obviously, the creator treated Traveller Bao Xu as a meme. In the setting, he was a mysterious adventurer who had traveled to every corner of the world.

Of course, everyone felt that Bao Xu had this potential. He was still so young after all. If he were to travel for a month every six months on average, it would only be a matter of time before he traveled to all the famous places in the world.

After driving for about two hours, Bao Xu said, "Alright, I'll get off now. Thank you for letting me ride. I've prepared a gift for you. I hope we'll meet again if fate allows it."

Qiao Liang: "Oh? This should be the Easter egg!"

The system notification showed that he had obtained a new car skin and unlocked a new scene. Qiao Liang quickly exited the game to check.

Qiao Liang realized that he had obtained the skin of a new car. It was a mini spacecraft with a sci-fi feel to it. It was about the size of a sports car, but it had a pair of mini spacecraft wings. It had no wheels and was floating in the air.

Qiao Liang opened the scene page again. There were various scenes that players had activated in the game.

One of the new scenes was on the surface of a dark red planet filled with sand. All sorts of large and small craters could be seen around it. It looked like an outer space scene from a sci-fi movie.

There seemed to be some huge caves in the distance. The caves were pitch black, as if some terrifying creatures were stirring within.

"Eh, this is the Easter egg buried in the game? Does this mean that Boss Pei's next game is a science fiction genre?"

"This spacecraft and setting seem to be quite fitting for The Lonely Desert Road."

Qiao Liang carefully observed the spacecraft and the new setting and realized that there seemed to be no other information in it. It seemed to be a message that Tengda's next new game should be a sci-fi theme.

However, it was unclear what type of game it was exactly.

"Alright, alright. Now that I have the skins and scenes, I can go and see Game Designer's downloadable content."

Everyone scattered at Qiao Liang's command.

"Boss Pei is so crafty. He knows that The Lonely Desert Road sells for cheap and that there are many old gamers, so he purposely lowered the difficulty of the game. He even added cool new cars and new scenes. Players who are slightly more interested would spend five yuan to match the netizens to play, look at the new scene, and promote the new game…"

Qiao Liang sighed as he opened Game Designer.