So he asked Xiaomeng, “Xiaomeng, can this sky aircraft carrier be built in reality?”
“No problem!” Xiaomeng nodded confidently. “Xiaomeng has complete blueprints, including the supporting large-scale dock facilities and robotic assembly lines—everything’s documented!”
It really was possible! Lin You immediately grew excited. Once he had the money, how could he not build it?!
“But Xiaomeng doesn’t have the technical blueprints for the nuclear power reactor or weapons! These core technologies are stored separately.”
Xiaomeng poured cold water on his enthusiasm, bringing Lin You back to reality.
No weapons were fine—he wasn’t planning to use it for war—but no power source was a dealbreaker.
What was the point of building a massive, flightless shell? To turn it into a science exhibition hall for visitors?
“…Actually, that might not be so bad!”
Even if it couldn’t fly, Lin You still wanted it. After all, what man could resist owning a sky aircraft carrier?
Wait, no—that wasn’t the point.
“Xiaomeng, how many blueprints and technical documents do you have?” That was the real question. If he could get his hands on a bunch of world-leading technologies, why bother making games? He could just become a tech oligarch!
“Lots and lots!” Xiaomeng nodded emphatically to drive her point home.
But before Lin You could celebrate, Xiaomeng added, “But I can’t access them right now.”
“???” So she was messing with him? “Why not?”
“Not enough computing power. The storage devices were damaged, so a lot of the complete technical data was lost. What remains is encrypted in a special format and requires massive computing power to decode.”
Hmm… bad news, but there was still hope. It was just a matter of buying supercomputers, right? Once he had the money, he’d buy two.
“And also…” Xiaomeng tilted her head guiltily. “To prevent AI rebellion, the technical data was stored separately. Even Xiaomeng’s records are incomplete. Just like how the sky aircraft carrier lacks weapon and reactor blueprints, core technologies in fields like military weapons, bio-genetic engineering, and advanced nuclear physics are missing.”
Then she added pitifully, “Not just Xiaomeng—no Artificial Intelligence was allowed to store them.”
“What about Mecha?” Lin You refused to give up.
“Yes, but no power reactor…”
Forget it. Lin You felt exhausted. Maybe once he had the money, he’d just make a giant Mecha figurine to fulfill his dream.
For now, he had to focus on the real task: making games.
“Making games shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Xiaomeng perked up instantly. “No problem! Xiaomeng is super good at it!”
As she spoke, a streak of light flashed by, and Xiaomeng was now clad in a proper set of knight armor.
With a swing of her sword, a Giant Dragon spread its wings, tearing through the clouds as it appeared above the deck. The gust from its wings scattered the drifting clouds.
“ROAR—!” With an ear-splitting cry, the dragon’s neck began glowing red, and flames were about to spew from its gaping maw onto the deck, giving Lin You a lava bath.
“Stop! Stop! Stop!” Lin You hastily called for a halt. “I get it, you’re amazing! And why does your dragon sound like it’s barking? Is it a dog?!”
“Hmph~ hmph~” Xiaomeng puffed up proudly.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Lin You cut her off. “This is impressive, no doubt, but it’s useless right now.”
A bolt of lightning struck Xiaomeng’s head, leaving her frozen in shock. “Why?!”
Lin You was too tired to comment on her habit of adding special effects whenever she got the chance.
He fell into thought. The reason was simple: you had to consider player habits and acceptance.
In his past life, there were plenty of masterful, legendary games—but would they automatically succeed and be universally loved if brought here?
Not necessarily. Even the greatest hits of his past life couldn’t claim universal appeal.
The root cause was that, for some reason, wars in this world had lasted much longer than in his previous one.
Globally, many nations and regions had engaged in intermittent conflicts spanning centuries. Technology flourished under the catalyst of war, but the service industry was severely stunted.
It wasn’t until fifteen years ago that a global coalition was formed, achieving large-scale peace.
With the end of war, nations began vigorously supporting the development of the service industry, even going so far as to declassify military technologies to boost civilian sectors.
The gaming industry rode this wave. There was no Atari era—8-bit and 16-bit consoles were skipped entirely. From the moment gaming entered the market, it was already 64-bit, and even that was quickly rendered obsolete.
Before the first legendary 64-bit game could be born, 64-bit consoles had already been phased out.
Arcades were a fleeting phenomenon, while gaming consoles and personal computers advanced at breakneck speed.
Game development couldn’t even keep up with hardware progress, leading to a chaotic, unchecked industry.
And now, it was already the era of Virtual Games.
Yet truly legendary games were few and far between.
Interestingly, the short-lived arcade scene still managed to produce a historic gaming moment: Evo moment37. But after its brief glory, it rapidly declined.
For Lin You, this was both good and bad news.
The good news? This was practically an untapped blue ocean—he could go wild.
The bad news? Players here were untrained. Many designs he found fun and intuitive might seem too novel and unapproachable to them.
He’d have to tread carefully.
“So we’ll start conservatively,” Lin You decided on the tone for his first project.
Recalling the popular games on the market, most were shooters.
That made sense. After centuries of war, a martial culture was to be expected. They might not even be fully accustomed to peace yet.
So the safest approach was: make a shooter, but with a unique twist.
For some reason, the combination of “shooter” and “unique twist” immediately brought a movie to mind—Wanted.
Also known as Assassin’s League.
This was a wildly creative film where the director invented a revolutionary shooting technique: “The barrel has no rifling. At the moment of firing, violently flick your wrist to impart a turning force on the bullet. Under inertia and this force, the bullet will fly in a curved trajectory.”
Colloquially known as: the Curved Bullet Technique!
Of course, this was utterly nonsensical in reality. But paired with bullet time, the effect was undeniably cool as hell!
Lin You wasn’t about to lecture players on logic—as long as they thought it was cool, that was enough!
Imagine personally curving a bullet’s path, watching in bullet time as it arcs through the air, hits an enemy behind cover, or even collides mid-air with another bullet, both shattering in slow motion.
Anyone who saw that would be blown away, eagerly handing over their wallet!
Players in this world might have played countless shooters, but they’d never seen anything this mind-bending! How could he not make this game and blow their minds? This time, he wouldn’t just earn money—he’d make them scream in awe!
(End of Chapter)