freenovelworld Chapter 363 Virtual Killing Intent
Chapter 363 Virtual Killing Intent
When Bronya woke up, it was already evening. The moment she got up from the sofa, she saw the captain sitting in her seat.
"Awake?" the captain asked casually.
Meanwhile, Reloaded Rabbit had already turned off its live stream and resumed its work.
"Captain, what's wrong with me?"
Bronya was still somewhat out of it at this moment, and the captain explained the whole story to her while handling his work.
"I see. I'm sorry to have worried you. It was definitely my fault for working overtime these past few days."
Bronya readily admitted her mistake, then glanced at the somewhat guilty-looking Reassembled Bunny.
"Little Rabbit, you were working today, right? You weren't just streaming the whole time, were you?"
"Of course! I strictly adhered to the time limit you set, big sister, and I didn't go over time or announce any progress on our project."
Yes, the most important reason why Heavy Bunny was able to continue her virtual YouTuber career is that her live stream content must include miHoYo games. At the same time, miHoYo's virtual YouTuber project was announced right after her debut, and Heavy Bunny was the first streamer of this project.
Nowadays, when people talk about miHoYo, they think of it more as a virtual YouTuber company than a game company.
The initial purpose of announcing this project was not only to facilitate the promotion of their own games, but also to expand their business and obtain additional R&D funds to develop the next game.
Of course, the game department is not idle either. In addition to the art team also doing the character design for virtual streamers, the other employees also take on many outsourcing projects to accumulate technical expertise.
The new game released a few days ago finally reminded people that miHoYo was originally a game company. Since Reloaded Bunny and its virtual streamers have been streaming the game these days, many players who know about it have also reported various bugs they have found through these virtual streamers.
These vulnerabilities would be reported to Bronya, and the projects in the update plan would accumulate until they eventually went completely out of control.
"Good to know. You don't need to work so hard." The captain patted Bronya's head and said, "Some things can be put in the next patch. There's no need to update everything at once."
"But I also wanted to give the players a good impression. This is the first time I've been praised by players for making a game."
"Isn't that because you always insisted that the game difficulty was not a problem? You didn't even consider your own gaming skills and those of Kiana and Heavy Bunny. The difficulty might be moderate for you, but it might not be for the average person."
"So I took your advice and handed the game testing over to professional game testers. At the same time, we also had our streamers do an internal trial. Only after a comprehensive evaluation were the difficulty curve officially determined."
"It turns out my opinion was pretty good, didn't it?"
“I’ve certainly benefited a lot,” Bronya nodded. “By the way, speaking of streamers, I wonder when our Chizha Yuehai Yuyu Cat will start streaming? Although I know you guys in the Anti-Air Section 6 are usually quite busy, Chizha Yuehai Yuyu Cat, as the second sister of the first batch, has quite a lot of popularity. The streaming department often complains to me about why Yuyu Cat hasn’t been streaming. As her manager, shouldn’t you do something about it, Captain?”
"Haha, well... I'll talk to her about it. I'll definitely find a way to get her to do a live stream tonight!"
Unfortunately, as a small company, miHoYo didn't have much funding after the failure of its first game. Taking on outsourcing and expanding into virtual YouTubers was a last resort, since the virtual YouTuber market was still in its early stages. Investing most of its limited funds in virtual YouTubers was indeed a gamble.
As it turned out, the gamble paid off. With the explosive popularity of the first batch of virtual streamers, miHoYo quickly rose to fame, not only did the initial investment pay off quickly, but the startup capital for the next game project was also earned back in no time.
However, due to limited funds at the time, most of the virtual streamers in the first season were people close to Bronya, such as Heavy Bunny, Kiana, and even Mei.
Later, Herrscher of Knowledge heard about this from somewhere and dragged Seele into the project. Of course, Herrscher of Knowledge was the most special among them because she had no sense of secrecy about the person behind the scenes.
She always comes spontaneously, never sets up a persona, and occasionally puts on a stunning 3D live stream of her idyllic rural life.
Soon, Herrscher of Knowledge's virtual streamer identity became a mere formality. However, the good news is that at least the core fans and the fans of the box were very tacitly avoiding touching on the real-world aspects. Otherwise, not only Herrscher of Knowledge's identity but also the real-world identities of other streamers in the same season would have been severely damaged.
As for those busybodies, I'm sorry to say that from the moment they discovered the real identities, they realized that these identities could not and dared not be posted online.
Then came the second and third phases, and now the fourth phase. Unbeknownst to many, miHoYo's virtual streamer project has grown bigger and bigger, and it has become the big brother in the virtual streamer field. Most of the people from the first phase have retired successfully, and apart from some necessary live broadcasts and videos to maintain their popularity, they are rarely active on the Internet anymore.
Of course, the Herrscher of Knowledge is an exception; she really has plenty of free time, and she was still continuing her stamina-based livestream just now. The Captain even secretly glanced at the livestream duration, which had already reached twenty-eight hours. Many people in the chat had already started advising the Herrscher of Knowledge to take a break, and her manager had made several phone calls.
"In short, I've already packaged the next update patch for you. You can just release it when the time comes. Let your employees rest well for the next few days. Working overtime for so many days, no matter how generous the salary or how attractive the benefits, is not good for their health. It would be bad if negative news spread that miHoYo is a company that exploits its employees."
"I...I know, I was indeed too hasty this time. We'll do as you say, Captain. But, as a condition, tonight's livestream content for Fish Cat will be our company's new game, and the update time for the new patch will also be announced at the same time, understand?"
"Yes, yes, I understand," the captain readily agreed.
"By the way, Kiana should have already bought my new game, right? After all, I sent you guys discount coupons for the new game as soon as it was released."
"Don't worry, I've already bought it for her," the captain said, giving a thumbs up.
"Okay, since this game is different from the last one, the normal difficulty is not difficult for her at all. However, I have also prepared a way out. As long as you follow certain steps on the main interface, you can activate the hidden hell mode. In the past few days, quite a few players have discovered this easter egg, but so far no one has officially completed it."
If Kiana goes live tonight, those viewers who love a good stir will probably encourage her to play on that hellish difficulty.
"It's as if you wouldn't let me keep Kiana from unlocking that difficulty level if the audience didn't mention it."
"Haha, as expected of the captain, you guessed it perfectly. Originally, this mode was intended for Kiana to release information and promote it, but she hasn't had time lately, so the players discovered the mode themselves first. Anyway, let Kiana try this mode tonight."
"Okay, judging by the time, Kiana's work should be almost finished. I need to go back and cook for her first, so I'll head back now. Of course, if you don't mind, you can come over for dinner and then show your face in Kiana's live stream."
Bronya thought for a moment and agreed to the captain's invitation. The main reason was that even if she went back to her apartment, she would eat instant noodles for convenience, and if Seele found out, she would probably get a scolding.
Instead of doing that, I might as well go to the captain's place for a free meal. I can also use work as an excuse to watch Kiana get her comeuppance firsthand.
After quickly packing up, the two returned together to the apartment where Kiana and the captain lived, while Heavy Bunny went back to the orphanage to report the itinerary to Bronya.
Upon entering the apartment, Bronya was surprised to find it surprisingly tidy, not as messy as she had imagined. After all, Kiana's bed was always a mess during her time in St. Freya, and without Mei's help to tidy it up, it would soon become a pile of clothes.
However, judging from the tidy appearance, it was probably the captain's usual way of cleaning. At this moment, the captain had already entered the kitchen to start preparing dinner, while Bronya was sitting in the living room waiting for dinner to be served.
The familiar scene instantly brought back memories of her time in St. Freya, but this memory was quickly interrupted by Kiana returning from outside.
Bronya, what brings you here?
"Well, I was forced to leave work by the captain while I was working overtime at the company, so I came over as a guest at the captain's invitation."
"I see, but I always feel like you have other motives?" Kiana looked at Bronya suspiciously.
"It's not because a certain streamer hasn't been live or updated their videos. As the boss, I naturally have to come and urge them to update. Miss Chizha Yuehaiyuyu Cat."
"No, no, no! Could you please not mention this name to me outside of the live stream?"
"Pfft, isn't this the username you chose yourself? You've had this username for so many years, why are you still shy about it now?"
"Hmm!" Kiana puffed out her cheeks and looked at Bronya.
"Okay, okay, I won't say anything more. Anyway, you have to do a live stream for me tonight. I've already thought of the content for you. First, I'll do some casual talk, and then I'll stream my new game. I'll confirm the details with you later. Let's go eat now."
After saying that, Bronya got up and walked towards the kitchen, acting as if she were completely at home, which made Kiana want to complain.
At the dinner table, Kiana recounted her experiences of the day while eating.
The scene shifts back to the morning when everyone arrived outside the HIA Club. At this time, a large number of Anti-Air Section 6 fans had already gathered at the entrance of the HIA Club.
They all came after seeing the announcement released by HIA Club. Tsukishiro Ryu skillfully received these enthusiastic fans, and then pulled Kiana, who had also finished receiving her own fans, to discuss countermeasures.
"Are we really going to walk into the enemy's trap?"
"Why not? All they want is my and Ya's combat data. If that's all, then let's give it to them. In return, we can use this opportunity to get the location information of one of their strongholds and give them a big gift. We might even be able to follow the clues and uproot them completely. Isn't that great?"
"But we may not know what methods they used or the data we have. What if we fail to find their stronghold? Wouldn't we lose both our wife and our army?"
"What else can we do? It's just hacking into HIA's new system. Don't worry, I've prepared a backup plan. Even if we don't hack into their system to get intelligence, we can still prevent them from obtaining our complete battle data."
Actually, Kiana herself had no backup plan. The reason Kiana said that was mainly to appease Tsukishiro Ryuu, nothing more.
However, Kiana was right about one thing: she did intend to use this opportunity to make a big splash at the Praise Club.
In short, after Kiana's persistent persuasion, Tsukishiro Ryu finally reluctantly agreed. Just in case, before going inside, Tsukishiro Ryu and Kiana secretly reminded the others to make sure they acted as if they knew nothing about the situation.
After all, the fact that the other party has the ability to modify the application form means that they have a highly skilled hacker or an inside agent within HIA.
To avoid alerting them, everyone should pretend they don't know about the Praise Society's presence.
Afterwards, the HIA staff introduced the advantages of the new system and how to activate it. However, the slogan required to activate the new system was somewhat embarrassing for Yuecheng Liu.
After entering the new VR system, everyone immediately began to check their physical condition. Just as the staff had said, the new system was almost 100% realistic. Not only were all the senses almost indistinguishable from reality, but even their strength was almost perfectly simulated.
Of course, this doesn't include Kiana, because the power simulation is basically based on their original combat data in the VR system. Kiana has never fully demonstrated her power in the VR system, so only a portion of her strength is simulated.
Even so, this already surpasses Hoshimi Miyabi's strength. At the same time, Kiana can sense that the program on the badges they wear in reality has started to analyze their data.
However, the analysis speed is not fast, and to speed it up, everyone needs to fight.
However, HIA staff soon announced the test project – a combat test, which required everyone to clear out the various monsters that would appear in the space to obtain relevant data.
After the staff finished their explanation, the test officially began.