Chapter 48 : Let’s start a new game!

After that, for a while, I diligently built a wall around my rating score, maintaining my top rank in The Hundred.

This way, even if I split my attention with other games and neglected SoulFrame, I wouldn’t lose my first-place spot.

[SeongWon’s The Hundred rating score screenshot, 1st place]

[SeongWon, this crazy rating score]

I think she could go AFK for a month and still not lose 1st place lol

– Fact) If you don’t play for a month, you get demoted for inactivity
└Read the room
└lol so true
– She’s really determined to finish 1st, huh lol
└But is that even possible?
└At this point, if she just gets one win every two weeks, she’s 1st
└If she doesn’t play, the lower ranks will just fight amongst themselves and lose points to each other lol so true
–Her score’s going to Mars lol

[SeongWon has to finish 1st]

[Screaming Pepe the Frog image]

So SeongWon can appear at the Pachichik year-end awards ceremony, reveal her super awesome donation 1st place ultimate pretty girl face, and win the grand prize, becoming the universe’s strongest gaming genius goddess.

[Happy Pepe the Frog image]

Of course, there’s no way the ultimate pretty girl soul genius SeongWon won’t get 1st place, so this worry is meaningless, but still.

–Where the hell did this freaking template come from again?
└This guy is a persistent poster lol; He does this on SoulPro Gallery and Star Gallery too, he’s crazy
└And if anyone posts a comment he doesn’t like, like the two above, he posts poop pics in the gallery lol. Good luck
└Oh shit
└Just ignore him, you idiots

[So what’s SeongWon’s next game?]

[Bear thumbs-up image]

It’s good that SeongWon gives us awesome fun content, but I hate that idiots are flooding the gallery and ruining it.
Just now, there were so many poop pics;
I wish he’d ruin other galleries.

–I don’t know
└Judging by the atmosphere, I think it’s Black Ops?
└Black Ops has a big player base, so it’s highly likely
└Ah; please don’t bring terrorists into our gallery;
–I wish she’d play Eternal Return
└Go donate and request it; she usually listens
└I’m not wasting money donating to a female streamer.
└Idiot
└SeongWon donates all that money to children’s charities, so what are you talking about ‘female streamer’? Do you have a brain?
└I’m the one who needs charity, what donation are you talking about?
└lollollollollollollollollollol
└Can’t argue with the unfortunate lol;

CEO Cha approached me as I scrolled through the community forums on my smartphone.

“Chairman, I think it’s time to start the next game. The overall atmosphere isn’t bad.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I think it’s time to take the next step.”

That’s right.

The next step.

It’s time to challenge a new game genre, ‘FPS games’.

* * *

Actually, the term ‘FPS game’ is a bit problematic.

FPS stands for First Person Shooter, but it’s hard to apply the concept of ‘first-person’ accurately in virtual reality.

Depending on the interpretation, you could call it first-person, but it’s not like old PC games where you just see your hands and feet. You actually become the character you’re controlling, so is it the same thing?

It’s quite a complex and headache-inducing issue. So, ordinary people, who dislike headaches, just call it FPS.

‘Well, it’s familiar, right?’

It’s the common usage of a proper noun.

Like calling clownfish Nemo, or calling canned processed meat Spam.

So, any game involving shooting is FPS.

‘What can you do if that’s what people call it?’

And ‘Black Ops’ is a virtual reality FPS game from World War, a company famous for being an FPS powerhouse since the PC era.

Naturally, they made a good game!

A reasonably realistic battlefield!

Reasonably realistic weapon and equipment settings!

Reasonably realistic characters, too!

…The reason why adverbs like ‘reasonably’ are attached to every description is because there’s already a terrible precedent: V-BAT.

‘People dislike ‘realistic’ games more than you’d think.’

Even I, upon starting V-BAT, felt the absurdity of getting bombed and dying right at the beginning, making me laugh in disbelief. Would others be any different?

Thinking realistically, it’s entirely possible.

But this is virtual reality, you know? It’s not reality.

…There are also violence censorship regulations.

Anyway.

Black Ops, having overcome all these hurdles, was a globally popular game. It was quite popular even in Korea, known as the barren land of FPS, so that says it all.

“Hmm…”

I looked around in the Black Ops game lobby.

“It feels a bit more ‘real’ than SoulFrame.”

The lobby I was in resembled a spacious office. There was a wide glass wall behind me, and I could see soldiers moving beyond it. When I went to take a closer look, I realized it wasn’t just a simple repeating video, but a scene created entirely with AI dummies.

As expected of a famous game. The details are good.

[Your Highness~]
[Your HighnessYour Highness~]
[Oh, it’s Black Ops!!!!!!]
[It’s Black Ops]
[Play a fighting game…]
[I said I’ll switch genres, so I’ll play fighting games, wait]
[Ah; Not playing SoulFrame today?]
[Black Ops! Black Ops! Black Ops! Black Ops!]
[Oh SeongWon, how can you play such an evil shooter game, please come back to our SoulFrame quickly!]
[Old man;;;;]
[What are you saying, disrespecting the world-famous game Black Ops????]

A bustling chat.

Viewership also dipped slightly.

They say there’s a lot of noise when a single-game streamer transitions to variety gaming, and it certainly seemed true. I lightly clapped my hands to get the viewers’ attention.

“As I said before, we’ll be doing variety gaming from now on. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’m abandoning SoulFrame. I have to finish 1st in the season.”

[Of courseOf course]
[As expected, the Goddess knows what’s up]
[Gangho’s fried]
[I am an AI communist robot, please correct me]
[lollollol]

“So, the game we’ll be playing from today…”

[It’s Black Ops today, right? Black Ops, right? You’re not going to suddenly be like ‘Actually, it was SoulFrame all along~ Surprise Party~’, right?]
[What kind of format is that?]
[It’s a TAS reference, so I won’t say]
[Why are you using TAS slang here;]
[The communist robot is merciful, so he’ll let it slide]

“Is Black Ops. More accurately, it’s more like exploring the game. This isn’t my first time playing an FPS game, but it’s my first time playing Black Ops.”

[What’s the first game you played?]
[SeongWon’s first experience has already been taken……]
└Chat messages with serious sexual harassment content will be banned immediately. 30-minute chat ban for serious sexual harassment.
[V-BAT, I think]
[? How do you know?]
[She’s mentioned it before]
[That game sucks]
[V-BAT isn’t a bad game, it’s not even a game lollollollollollollollol]

Hmm, there’s a friend insulting V-BAT.

“Hmm, there’s a bad Thumbs-up member talking badly. I’ll spin the purge roulette.”

After sending the bad Thumbs-up member, who insulted V-BAT by saying it wasn’t a game, to the gulag, I slowly looked over Black Ops’ game systems. I had already heard about it in a report from TS Media, but seeing it myself felt different.

“There are three modes.”

Black Ops is basically based on three game modes: Time Attack, Competitive, and Battle Royale.

The most popular genre among them is, of course, Battle Royale.

Time Attack is content that hardcore players dive into to break records, and Competitive is mainly used for professional matches.

Of course, Competitive is well-made and has a decent demand, but it still falls short of Battle Royale’s status.

Most Black Ops users enjoy Battle Royale.

[Is it Battle Royale?]
[Of course she’ll do Battle Royale, she has the SoulFrame spirit]
[Battle go go go go go go go go]
[Why play Black Ops if you’re not going to do Battle Royale?]
[Battle Royale]
[Ugh, she needs to finish the tutorial first]
[Oh, right]
[SeongWon, aren’t you doing the tutorial?]

“Ah, I haven’t touched anything yet. This is the first time I’ve installed and launched Black Ops today.”

[This place has bad preparation;;]
[Doing it together from the start……]
[Actually, it was all a big picture for the Thumbs-up members]
[Really, to do everything together with us]
[Heeung]

At the enthusiastic support from the viewers, I nodded. Hmm, sending support to SeongWon. That’s kind of funny.

‘I’ll make a note of it and use it on CEO Cha.’

I’ve recently picked up the hobby of finding funny jokes like this.

Seeing CEO Cha chuckle and enjoy the jokes I tell makes it clear that they’re good jokes. He doesn’t seem to be forcing a laugh, so they must be genuinely funny.

I should collect a bunch and share them with the viewers later.

“Okay, then let’s start with the tutorial.”

[Good]
[Check your equipment first]
[Does the gaming genius SeongWon not know that?]
[lollollollollollol]
[Let’s go]
[Battle Royale, let’s go]
[Go go go go go go]
[Let’s go]

I turned on the hologram device to check the equipment I currently possessed.

Black Ops presents itself as a near-future FPS.

There’s a high chance that political issues would arise if it were based on a real modern war. So, they just vaguely set it in some point in the future.

Well, I understand that the game company has to be cautious since there have been so many wars in modern times involving so many countries.

Anyway.

According to the setting, the main character in Black Ops is a member of a private mercenary group belonging to a giant megacorp, taking on requests from various countries to engage in black operations, hence the name Black Ops.

“Hmm, I guess it’s because Black Ops is set in the near future. There are a lot of interesting pieces of equipment.”

A reconnaissance drone launched from the wrist, a strength-enhancing exoskeleton, a small laser cutter, and so on.

‘There’s a lot of cool stuff.’

But even this isn’t much, apparently.

[No, the basic equipment isn’t that good]
[Yeah, since they’re a corporate private mercenary group, they can’t use any real military supplies. You need to unlock military supplies to use the really good stuff]
[Really, isn’t it too realistic?]
[Corporations that can’t use military supplies = real life]
[V-BAT is the realistic one lollollol]
[Shhh]
[The near-future setting itself is unrealistic lol]

“Oh, really?”

If they can’t use military supplies because they’re a corporation, then that means there’s even more amazing stuff in the military supplies, right?

“Let’s start the tutorial right away.”

My anticipation grew naturally.