Chapter 1 1: This Is a Mobile Game!

Carl had actually already realized it, realized that he was a character in a mobile game.

Or rather... a character in a gacha anime game?

Fine.

In truth, only about ten minutes had passed since Carl transmigrated into this... suspected sword-and-magic world.

At first, Carl thought he had arrived in some fantasy world.

Then, in the next second, a webpage interface that popped up before his eyes directly left Carl at a loss.

[The epoch-making anime game Oath will launch tomorrow! Version 1.0, "Elysium Academy," log in to receive a ten-pull!]

This vibe... was way too familiar!

Before transmigrating, Carl himself was an all-pit player who played every kind of game, and of course that included all kinds of mobile games.

From the earliest ancestor of anime mobile games, Kaku-San-Sei Million Arthur.

Then to the later Japanese server of FGO, and the domestic GGZ, Honkai Impact 3rd, Warship Girls R, Onmyoji, Punishing: Gray Raven, and so on.

All the way to the current Arknights, Reverse: 1999, Blue Archive, Genshin, Star Rail, ZZZ, Wuthering Waves....

Limbus Company, Azur Lane, all to the Almighty Goddess of Victory: Nikke.

In short, Carl had dabbled in a whole pile of mobile games on the market, and there were even several that he had played for a long time since launch.

But the more Carl played these high-quality mobile games, the more he realized what the payment model of mobile games could twist an originally fun game into.

He wondered whether Oath would also have that whole pile of mobile game problems.

And the reason Carl realized that he was a character in this mobile game... was that the academy he was currently in was called "Elysium Academy."

At the same time, the various character illustrations and model images on this mobile game's promotional page, such as the seven standard five-star characters and one limited five-star character.

All of them matched up with the eight strongest students in this academy from the original owner's memories.

Carl naturally also found his own promotional illustration among them.

But unfortunately, Carl was the lowest, most insignificant character in this mobile game, the one players would not even glance at after launch.

A three-star character.

He could also be called an N card, or an R card.

Yes, he was even one tier lower than those four-star characters who could occasionally earn the title of "budget god."

Characters of this type were basically stuffed into the gacha pool by game companies just to fill out the numbers.

After players pulled them, they would not treat them as people either.

Their only value was to be directly fed to the players' beloved limited five-star characters as experience materials... fodder.

Commonly known as fodder characters.

"Bad start."

Carl did not want to end up with the fate of being treated as fodder and eaten every day after launch.

So Carl began thinking about whether he could pull off something big and turn things around.

But first, he had to figure out what kind of world he was in, as well as what exactly was going on with this game called Oath.

Carl used this webpage tool to look up more detailed information about Oath.

After looking up all the related information...

Carl had to admit that Oath was absolutely the dream game of someone like him... a player who only used computers and phones to play games.

Because Oath could not only be played by swiping on a phone screen, or with a keyboard, mouse, or controller on a computer.

It could also be played with a gaming helmet, fully immersing oneself in the game world.

This was a game with three-platform cross-progression between mobile, PC, and gaming helmet.

The level of real-world technology in this world was far higher than Earth's.

Artificial intelligence with true self-awareness had already become reality, and full-dive online games were also the most common form of entertainment in this world.

There had even emerged an electronic data world called "Elysium" that humans could not fully interfere with, somewhat like a Skynet that had not gone to war with humanity.

Although humans could not fully interfere with it, "Elysium" had taken the initiative to cooperate with major game developers, jointly developing this virtual world into games for players to enjoy.

Oath was a "single-player open-world online game" developed based on this completely real virtual world.

Therefore, in Carl's eyes, Oath should have been the ultimate game that he, as a player, had dreamed of obtaining.

For example, a full-dive gaming experience that allowed you to truly step into this game world called "Elysium."

Every NPC in the game not only truly possessed their own emotions and memories, they could completely be said to be living people.

You could also personally touch those NPCs in the game, no longer needing to shout "wife" at those beautiful girls through a screen.

A completely free combat experience and gameplay experience, and a completely free exploration experience.

In this entire game world, there is only you, the player, only you, the savior. This is a world that belongs to you alone.

The above was the gameplay experience promoted by Oath. Forget other people.

Even Carl felt tempted watching it. This was absolutely the game of his dreams.

The best rewards in this game, which were the companions who accompanied the player on adventures, could only be obtained by drawing with a resource called Contract Stones.

The standard banner had a 200-pull hard pity, meaning that after drawing two hundred times, players could choose any one character from the standard banner to obtain.

The limited banner was slightly more conscientious, but only a tiny bit.

If it was a limited five-star character, there was a soft pity at eighty pulls.

That meant there was a 50% chance of drawing that character, and a 50% chance of drawing a standard banner character, leaving the player with a total loss.

Only 160 pulls could guarantee that character 100%.

And the most direct way to obtain Contract Stones was to spend money. In the real world, 23.40 dollars could only be exchanged for ten pulls, though it might be a bit cheaper with a first-purchase double bonus.

What if the player did not want to spend money?

That was also no problem.

Scattered in every corner of the game map were treasure chests containing Contract Stones, but after you climbed mountains and crossed ridges to find that chest and open it, it would give you at most 10 Contract Stones before telling you to get lost.

Want to save enough for the soft pity of one limited character?

Haha! Go run around every corner of the game map doing all kinds of boring puzzle mini-games and looking for treasure chests.

If you did not sleep or rest, after spending one or two days, you could probably gather enough for 80 pulls, which was over ten thousand Contract Stones.

But even after saving up eighty pulls, you still might not get the character you wanted!

Because the limited character in the banner had a 50% chance of going off-rate!

In other words, three or four days of effort in this game could all be wasted because of the 50% probability set by the game planners!

"Damn game planners! What do they take the players' time for?"

Carl rubbed the space between his brows and muttered a complaint, then continued listing the other problems with this game.

For example, the current map of the game was limited to "Elysium Academy" and the surrounding exploration areas.

If players wanted to continue exploring later areas, then they would have to wait another forty days for the game's version update!

"Why don't you just directly say, 'Our game wasn't finished, but we launched it anyway.'"

At this point, Carl roughly saw clearly what kind of game Oath was.

No matter how epoch-making Oath was...

It was still a mobile game! To be precise, it was a pay-to-win game!

"So... what are the game companies in this world doing? They have such powerful technology, and they're using it to make this kind of thing?!"

Carl quickly looked up the development history of games in this world.

Then a wave of overwhelming déjà vu swept over Carl.

Many years ago, this world had issued an "Electronic Game Ban" worldwide.

This ban prohibited individuals from developing electronic games at the legal level.

Even team development needed to pass the world government's review before release.

The original intention of the ban was probably to regulate the development of electronic games.

But the games that later passed the world government's review were all the kind of MMO online games with one slash dealing 9999 damage, open-world player PK, guilds attacking each other, and spending money making you stronger.

Because this stuff... was simply too profitable.

Oath was already a relatively conscientious type of game in this world.

After all, it was a single-player open world.

Although some rankings and PVP mechanisms existed, there was no hard requirement for players to compete with each other.

Spending money also had pity, and there would not be a situation where you spent several thousand dollars and got nothing at all.

But it was only conscientious by the tiniest bit.

"To think it can be... this similar?"

Carl glanced at the comments below Oath's comment section.

The players were all looking forward to the launch of this epoch-making anime game, and they highly praised the fact that this game's banner had pity, calling it simply conscientious!

"Have the players in this world never eaten anything good? Let's see whether you can still laugh after you lose the 50/50 three times in a row."

(To be continued.)

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