With three parts curiosity and seven parts doubt, Chen Sha found “Sea Fortress” in the official game store, downloaded it, and registered.

What surprised him was that this game’s file size was not small—even larger than “Bullet Hole” and far exceeding “Counter-Strike.”

However, Chen Sha didn’t think too much about it, since there were plenty of terrible games with large file sizes.

Previously, a certain domestic game had been so poorly optimized that even the best graphics cards on the market couldn’t handle its garbage visuals, creating the legend of “Titan’s Fall.”

So, a large file size and high configuration requirements didn’t necessarily mean anything; what mattered was the actual content of the game.

Soon, Chen Sha entered the game.

His first reaction was, It looked… not bad?

The game visuals were much better than he had imagined!

Originally, Chen Sha thought this would be an unreliable garbage game, and he didn’t have much hope, just wanting to see what an epic weapon selling for 888 yuan looked like.

However, his first impression of the game was quite good!

Although there was no opening CG, both the login interface and scene UI looked great, not inferior to “Bullet Hole.”

Chen Sha first found the store.

What caught his eye was the legendary epic weapon, a Rainbow Dazzling Fire Qilin!

At first glance, it had the common shape of an AK, except that extensive modifications had been made to its appearance:

The entire gun body was gleaming with gold, while the barrel had a dazzling coating that diffused toward the main body of the gun, like a colorful rainbow rippling out, extremely eye-catching.

Under the barrel was a uniquely shaped golden bayonet, which, according to the store, was called the “Qilin Dagger.”;

At the connection between the barrel and the gun body was a huge Qilin head;

The Qilin’s large mouth was open, perfectly swallowing the gun barrel and bayonet;

The Qilin’s eyes were blood-red, and as the gun moved, there would be a red dot flashing effect, making people feel as if this Qilin were alive;

The Qilin’s fur displayed the color and texture of flames, and it also floated like rippling water.

Beyond that, the magazine, grip, stock, and other positions had all been modified to some extent. While retaining the original shape of the AK, they had exaggerated dimensions or unique design treatments, making a strong impression!

Chen Sha was dumbfounded.

How cool was this???

He was a die-hard player of “Counter-Strike,” and had also extensively played “Bullet Hole” during testing.

But both “Counter-Strike” and “Bullet Hole” had maximized the realism of actual firearms.

For a gun like the AK, at most, they would only change the paint job, and the basic shape wouldn’t change much.

They were afraid of being criticized by military game enthusiasts.

In contrast, “Sea Fortress” was extremely bold with these modifications!

Of course, strictly speaking, this Fire Qilin looked a bit too flashy.

The exaggerated shape, bold modifications, and over-the-top effects… all made Chen Sha feel somewhat instinctively uncomfortable when he first saw it.

This was because Chen Sha had played FPS games for so many years and was already accustomed to the appearance of the AK. When the art style suddenly changed from realism to fantasy, it was normal to feel a bit uncomfortable.

But he had to admit, this weapon was cool!

And it looked cooler the more he looked at it!

Chen Sha stared at the effects on the Fire Qilin for a long time, especially how the fire-red fur on the Qilin’s head floated like flame textures, with a breathing effect, combined with the dazzling coating on the gun body itself…

Once he accepted this design, it unexpectedly felt quite appealing.

Then he looked at the price.

A genuine 888 yuan apiece!

Chen Sha couldn’t help but exclaim, “Impressive!”

Daring to set the price of a single weapon so high, this designer was truly impressive! Such incredible audacity!

Normally, in-game purchase pricing would increase step by step, gradually testing the psychological limits of players.

Like in “Q-Cute Three Kingdoms,” the initial spending ceiling in the game wasn’t very high. Later, when many players reached this spending limit, “Q-Cute Three Kingdoms” added some new payment options, progressively pushing up the nobility system and spending ceiling.

Games like “Sea Fortress” that started with a price tag of 888 were too rare!

Chen Sha browsed the store again and suddenly noticed an issue.

In the store, there were no tabs, no item slots!

Because in the entire store, only this one item was being sold!

This was also the only payment point in the “Sea Fortress” game.

In other words, apart from the 888-yuan Fire Qilin, “Sea Fortress” didn’t sell anything else!

Of course, there were some other guns in the game, which could be found in the “Arsenal” function.

Here, their specific attributes and acquisition methods were marked.

There were various methods of acquisition: some were unlocked by completing the story mode, some were unlocked after completing certain achievements, and others could be purchased with in-game tokens.

The in-game tokens were obtained through daily activities and battles. Although they couldn’t be acquired unlimitedly or in unlimited quantities, they weren’t difficult to obtain.

Chen Sha was surprised to find that, apart from the Fire Qilin, in the vast arsenal, not a single weapon could be obtained through recharging!

Chen Sha scratched the back of his head, completely unable to understand what kind of payment mechanism this game had.

Was this Fire Qilin really that good? Worth 888?

He carefully looked at the description of the Fire Qilin.

The guns in the game were divided into four levels: Common, Elite, Hero, and Epic.

Compared to the lower-level Hero weapons, Epic weapons were only slightly better in various attributes.

If he didn’t look carefully, Chen Sha could hardly notice the difference in attributes between the Epic Fire Qilin and the Hero-level AK.

The same principle applied to other levels; each level of the same weapon had a small increase in attributes, but it wasn’t obvious.

In addition, Epic weapons had some special effects.

Player experience gain increased by 200%. (Experience affected player level, and level didn’t have much use; every level-up would just give some game currency, and level might be a restriction condition for certain functions.)

Experience gain for players in the same room increased by 50%.

Game currency gain for players in the same room increased by 30%.

When a player died, the weapon dropped as a Common AK, but if the player actively threw away the weapon, it would still drop as a Fire Qilin.

The Fire Qilin’s reload speed and weapon switch speed were slightly faster, and the magazine capacity was a bit larger.

Besides these, nothing else!

There were indeed some slight advantages, but they weren’t obvious, far from creating a dominating effect.

Because this was an FPS game, a headshot with a Common-level AK was an instant kill, and a headshot with the Fire Qilin was also an instant kill—no difference!

The Fire Qilin did reload faster and switch weapons faster, but maybe only by 0.0x seconds.

Or when shooting through walls or at feet, the Fire Qilin’s damage might be slightly higher than the Common AK’s.

In Chen Sha’s view, the Fire Qilin did have a slight, weak advantage in attributes over other weapons, but this advantage was by no means worth spending 888 yuan on!

Chen Sha didn’t know how to define this game anymore…

Could you call it user-friendly? A weapon daring to sell for 888 couldn’t be described as user-friendly in any way!

Could you call it exploitative? Apart from the Fire Qilin, this game was thoroughly free, and even spending 888 to buy the Fire Qilin didn’t create any actual numerical domination!

Chen Sha felt that the designer who created this payment model could win an award for most confusing human behavior. It was truly… completely inscrutable!