After the opening CG, the official storyline segment began.

After playing the beginning for a short while, Qiao Liang immediately discovered that his understanding of this game was slightly—no, massively—off the mark.

“Ghost General 2” was completely designed following the workflow of action games.

Whether it was the cutscenes, character modeling, map design, game mechanics… all these details showed shadows of action games like “Look Back to Shore.”

The only difference was that this was a fighting game, with fighting game perspectives and combat systems.

Many of the combat tutorials that action games typically place at the beginning had been transformed into fighting game system tutorials, teaching players how to move, jump, perform combos, and so on.

But it was different from action games like “Look Back to Shore” in that under certain circumstances, players could go into “dynasty warriors” mode.

For instance, during map traversal, large numbers of minions would frequently surge from all directions, and at this point, players could control their generals to activate grass-cutting mode. With one slash, numerous minions would fall like chives being harvested, which was extremely satisfying.

Even when generals sidestepped, they would simultaneously release fan-shaped attack skills that could directly hit minions on their flanks, sending them tumbling in all directions, as if cutting through no man’s land!

This sidestep was executed by double-tapping the up or down direction key—moving into or out of the screen—and holding after the double-tap for continuous movement. This feature was clearly inspired by some of the latest fighting games but had been modified according to the characteristics and requirements of “Ghost General 2.”

When pressing the right direction key to move forward, the general would always head toward the next key node, which might be an enemy general, a special map mechanism, or a mission objective.

This was equivalent to adding a new dimension to the traditional fighting game plane, transforming the entire battlefield from two dimensions to three.

It had to be said that after playing so many high-difficulty action games, playing a grass-cutting game was still quite interesting!

Moreover, due to this special level map design, players could experience both 2D side-scrolling level content and 3D action game level content, giving it a unique flavor.

When it came to boss battles, grass-cutting was no longer an option.

Players had two ways to clear these stages. The first was to confront the boss head-on and fight to the bitter end. The second was to seek out special map mechanisms in the battlefield to strengthen their own general or weaken the enemy general. In short, using technique was one approach, but using wisdom was another.

The game’s difficulty could be described as moderately balanced. For someone like Qiao Liang who hadn’t played many action games, in easy combo mode, as long as he found the map mechanisms for boss battles, he could clear the stage after dying a few times.

For fighting game experts who wanted to pursue higher difficulty challenges, they could try using standard combo mode to directly confront bosses, just like in the game promotion video that Cai Hong had made.

Plus, this recommended combo mode wasn’t extremely simplified—it wasn’t a system that automatically chained combos by frantically pressing A. Players still needed to perform some simple combo motions; mindlessly pressing A wouldn’t work.

There were also two other aspects worthy of praise: the generals’ skills and the game’s background story!

Previously, although “Ghost General 1” had shown some performance in these two areas, it was relatively weak since it was a card game.

Generals only had one skill, and the level storylines in the game were all very rudimentary, often glossed over in a single sentence.

In “Ghost General 2,” however, each general had over ten different skills, large and small. For example, Zhuge Liang, apart from regular light and heavy attacks, also had skills such as “Borrowing the East Wind,” “Kongming Lanterns,” “Wooden Ox and Flowing Horse,” “Zhuge Repeating Crossbow,” and other different abilities that perfectly aligned with his character design!

In terms of storyline, each level of “Ghost General 2” was adapted from familiar historical stories and romanticized tales, well-integrated into the historical background. For instance, Kongming’s “Borrowing the East Wind” made Qiao Liang exclaim, “I can’t believe this is possible.”

After completing the first level, Qiao Liang, feeling satisfied, prepared to take a break and checked the danmu comments.

He was surprised to find that the activity in the danmu had actually decreased.

When he first started streaming, there were many people in the livestream room with very dense danmu comments, all joking about the “pigeon spirit” finally streaming, saying all the bamboo shoots in the mountains had been claimed.

But now, after Qiao Liang had been playing the game for a while, the number of people in the livestream room had actually shrunk.

And the content of the danmu discussions was a bit strange too. Only half the people were discussing “Ghost General 2,” while there were also some… rather irritating comments.

Obviously, quite a few viewers hadn’t caught the first wave of “bamboo shoot claiming” when the stream just started, and had only arrived recently.

They were late, but not too late, because there were still bamboo shoots left to claim.

“Wow, how did Old Qiao suddenly become so diligent today? Starting to play games to collect material?”

“Do you even need to ask? He must be feeling the pressure. He went on a suffering trip for two months, and during that time, Tenda released two games. Old Qiao didn’t get to piggyback on either of them. For Old Qiao, this is practically like cutting his flesh. The pigeon spirit is feeling the pain, so of course he has to work overtime!”

“If Old Qiao doesn’t work harder, he’s going to be surpassed by Uncle Tian! Look at the video Uncle Tian made for ‘Real Estate Agent Simulator,’ it’s so good! Incisive and thorough analysis, not only explaining the game content well but also analyzing the pros and cons of the industry in reality! Combined with AEEIS’s voice and excellent video editing skills, it’s perfect!”

“Sorry, Old Qiao, I’m Team Uncle Tian now, I can’t go back!”

“Hurry up and make videos, Old Qiao, otherwise your title as Tenda’s official UP may change hands.”

Seeing these comments, Qiao Liang was absolutely furious.

You fans are simply the worst, coming in waves after waves?

And each time claiming bamboo shoots from a different angle?

It’s like rubbing salt in wounds, but the first wave uses table salt and the second wave uses sea salt?

Not only is the damage severe, but the insult is extreme!

But what could he do? These were all his daddy fans, his meal tickets. Even if there was a mistake, it was the son’s fault. He could only endure it.

Qiao Liang patiently explained: “Look, look, isn’t this narrow-minded of you?”

“As an excellent UP and Tenda’s puzzle solver, I, Qiao, would absolutely never have such narrow-minded thoughts.”

“Excellent UPs are constantly emerging, and good video content is becoming more and more abundant. Even when discussing the same thing, there will definitely be different perspectives. For the audience, being able to understand issues more comprehensively is obviously a good thing!”

“Everyone is competing fairly based on real skill. Whoever creates better content will gain more fans.”

“Although I, Qiao, was fortunate to have started a bit earlier and achieved some minor, insignificant success, I can’t just rest on my laurels, can I? If you’re trying to sow discord between me and other UPs, that’s wishful thinking! I, Old Qiao, am not that kind of person!”

This righteous statement made the fans in the livestream room cheer with emotion.

However, although Qiao Liang claimed not to care, in reality, he was inwardly drawing circles of resentment toward Meng Chang.

I told you to imitate, not to surpass!

Uncle Tian was Meng Chang, Qiao Liang knew this. Even using AEEIS’s voice to make videos was Qiao Liang’s idea for Meng Chang.

At the time, due to the Morning Dew gaming platform issue, although Qiao Liang had also made videos, the details weren’t done properly, so he gave the interpretation opportunity to Meng Chang.

Qiao Liang had originally thought that since Meng Chang had a regular job, he would only make videos occasionally to explain Tenda’s industries, and couldn’t possibly pose a threat to him.

But now he found out he was wrong.

Meng Chang was making videos while working, yet his output was not at all less than his own…

This time, Qiao Liang was forced to go on a suffering trip, and Uncle Tian, without a rival, was dominating the internet!

Just that video interpreting “Real Estate Agent Simulator” had been featured on the AiLiDao website’s homepage for several days, reaching the top three on the rankings, with explosive popularity.

What was more infuriating was that Qiao Liang had previously shared Uncle Tian’s content, and many fans had followed that path.

Qiao Liang’s own videos were updated too slowly; unable to see new videos from him, people went to watch Uncle Tian’s videos instead, objectively accomplishing a perfect traffic diversion.

In short, while Qiao Liang was saying “I’m actually fine” out loud, he was absolutely furious inside.

Who could have imagined that Meng Chang, in addition to his serious work, would have so much time to make videos? And make them so well that they constituted a real threat to him!

But there was nothing he could do; after all, Meng Chang was Mr. Pei’s man, so getting angry was useless.

He could only push himself harder, make more videos, and reclaim the attention.

Looking again at the danmu discussing “Ghost General 2,” Qiao Liang basically understood why the livestream’s popularity had decreased.

Because the fighting game genre naturally had a deterrent effect on players.

Many people saw that Qiao Liang was streaming, came in to chat a bit, then saw he was playing a fighting game and left directly.

It wasn’t specifically aimed at “Ghost General 2″—they simply weren’t interested in fighting games!

Plus, everyone had already seen the practical gameplay videos of “Ghost General 2” before. Getting hit once and losing so much health—it clearly looked like a suffering game.

Suffering in action games was one thing, but suffering in fighting games? Many people weren’t interested.

No wonder Tenda had invested so much promotional resources in “Ghost General 2,” yet it only resulted in players becoming vaguely familiar with it, without achieving much promotional effect.

“I’ve found that these people have huge misconceptions about ‘Ghost General 2’!”

“This game isn’t at all what they think it is.”

“Actually, this game could easily have been made into an action game like ‘Look Back to Shore.’ How lucrative would an action game be?”

“But Mr. Pei still insisted on making it a fighting game. Why?”

“Obviously, there’s deeper meaning here that most players haven’t understood.”

“Heh, but it doesn’t matter, because I, Teacher Qiao, am back!”

“During my suffering trip, Mr. Pei released two games, neither of which had anything to do with me. But as soon as I come back, I happen to catch the release of ‘Ghost General 2’! Is this a coincidence, or is it a hint?”

“Never mind, anyway, I’m definitely making a video this time, and I won’t let Uncle Tian have it!”

Qiao Liang suddenly felt his body filled with motivation—time to grind!