Chapter 25 Not Suffering Anymore?

Pei Qian quietly arrived on the second floor of Touching Fish Internet Cafe, wanting to see Qiao Laoshi's current state.

After all, watching Qiao Laoshi suffer was already an important source of amusement in Pei Qian's monotonous life, and the motivation for him to continue suffering in the game *Turn Back is the Shore*.

However, Pei Qian was disappointed.

Qiao Laoshi wasn't staring blankly at the screen like last time. Instead, he was leisurely drinking a cocktail, leaning back in his chair, looking quite relaxed.

The computer screen displayed a hazy yellow color, permeated with a faint cyan mist. Pei Qian recognized it at a glance: this was the scene at the end of the Yellow Springs Road, about to reach the River of Oblivion and the Bridge of Helplessness.

"Damn, what's going on..."

"His progress is only a little bit slower than mine?"

"No... he's even faster than me!"

Pei Qian was dumbfounded.

Currently, Pei Qian had reached the entrance to the Six Paths of Reincarnation. According to the game's scene arrangement, after the River of Oblivion and the Bridge of Helplessness were the Looking-Hometown Platform and the Three-Lives Stone. Only after passing the Three-Lives Stone would you reach the Yama Palace or the Six Paths of Reincarnation.

But after Pei Qian obtained Deliverance, he had taken a shortcut, skipping the Bridge of Helplessness, the Three-Lives Stone, and other scenes, and arriving directly at the Six Paths of Reincarnation from the end of the Yellow Springs Road.

From this perspective, Qiao Laoshi had completed more of the game's content than Pei Qian.

"No, this isn't right..."

Pei Qian felt a little dizzy. He realized that he had underestimated Qiao Laoshi's ability to endure suffering and his gaming IQ!

As a gaming upgrader, Qiao Laoshi's gaming skills weren't top-notch. His previous video programs were mainly about reviews and explanations, so Pei Qian naturally assumed that Qiao Laoshi would suffer terribly in the game *Turn Back is the Shore*.

But now Pei Qian realized that he seemed to have underestimated Qiao Laoshi's level...

Come to think of it, as a player who could endure eight hours of driving, wouldn't a game like *Turn Back is the Shore* be more interesting than driving, no matter how miserably you die?

Moreover, judging from Qiao Laoshi's expression, he had learned to find joy in suffering, and even started to enjoy it...

Pei Qian felt a little flustered.

Qiao Laoshi wasn't suffering anymore, and his daily source of happiness was gone!

How could he continue to persevere in the future?

Of course, that wasn't the main reason.

More importantly, if Qiao Laoshi could reach his current progress through his own efforts and persistence, wouldn't that mean that the game's difficulty threshold wasn't high enough?

If the game's difficulty threshold wasn't high enough, it wouldn't be able to dissuade enough players, so the game's sales wouldn't be low, and it might even make money...

That would be a disaster!

Seeing Qiao Laoshi's comfortable expression, Pei Qian instantly imagined very serious consequences.

No, he couldn't just let it go!

President Pei was a person who was good at damage control. Now that he had seen the crisis, how could he sit still and wait for death?

After considering for a moment, Pei Qian had an idea.

Qiao Liang was drinking a cocktail while thinking about how to play the next section when he suddenly saw President Pei coming.

"President Pei!"

Qiao Liang was all smiles.

After the "misunderstanding was resolved," he saw President Pei as if he had seen a relative, especially warm and welcoming.

Pei Qian smiled and pulled a chair over from the side. Although he didn't feel warm towards Qiao Laoshi at all, he still tried his best to maintain his smile.

After all, he still had to squeeze more residual value from Qiao Laoshi.

From the time Qiao Laoshi arrived in Jingzhou until now, a week had passed. Deducting the weekend, the total game time was almost forty hours.

The game content of *Turn Back is the Shore* wasn't as rich as the *Souls* series. According to the initial estimate, if players were more proficient, they could complete the main storyline in about thirty hours.

If some perfectionists wanted to play all the details of the game or even brush up on achievements, then this time might be extended to fifty or sixty hours.

If the player was clumsy... then this time might be positive infinity.

Since Qiao Laoshi wasn't used to it at first, he always died and got lost repeatedly in the early stages. In addition, he was a perfectionist, so he played for forty hours and only just reached his current progress, which was about 60% of the entire game.

However, his understanding of the game should already be in place.

"How do you feel?" Pei Qian asked with a smile.

Qiao Liang perked up.

Huh? President Pei asked the same question as last time!

He clearly remembered that President Pei came to the internet cafe to see him and asked the same question. At that time, his feeling was that the game's difficulty was wrong.

But now Qiao Liang understood that there was nothing wrong with the game's difficulty at all. President Pei deliberately made the game so difficult!

During this period, Qiao Liang also slowly felt the unique charm of this high-difficulty game, so his answer would naturally be different.

"It feels great! I haven't felt this challenged when playing a game for a long time." Qiao Liang was full of energy.

Sure enough, the situation was not good...

Pei Qian's worries were confirmed. He tried hard to keep his expression calm and continued to ask: "So, how do you feel about the difficulty? If you were to rate the difficulty of each scene, how many points would you give? And what about the rating of the monsters and weapons?"

Qiao Liang was very happy. It seemed that President Pei valued my opinion very much, and even asked so meticulously!

Speaking of the game, Qiao Liang instantly became energetic and immediately opened the chatterbox.

"In terms of difficulty, I think the small village and the town are the most difficult, and the difficulty decreases a bit later on. Of course, it may also be because after coming out of the town, I have adapted to the routine of this game, so I feel that the difficulty has decreased..."

"As for the weapons, the firewood knife is the best to use in the early stage. It's flexible, has a fast attack speed, and the damage is very considerable. It can basically be used from the early stage to the middle stage; the guandao, the vertical chop is especially useful. Basically, you can kill 90% of the monsters with just the vertical chop..."

Qiao Liang didn't suspect anything and talked freely about his understanding of the game during this period.

Pei Qian silently noted it down.

In fact, he also only had a vague understanding of these weapons, but since Qiao Laoshi felt that these weapons were easy to use, then they must be really easy to use.

Qiao Liang wasn't considered an operational player. His perseverance surpassed 99% of the players, and his game IQ surpassed 70% of the players. In terms of operation, he was probably only at the upper-middle level.

In that case, targeting Qiao Laoshi was equivalent to targeting ordinary players, wasn't it?

Qiao Liang spoke freely, pointing out the landscape, and had never felt so good before.

Because in the past, he could only complain online, carving out a small space for himself in his fan group. The game developers simply ignored him.

But now, the game developer was right in front of him, and was still seriously listening to his suggestions. He definitely had to perform well!

"Well... that's about it. In short, although there are many difficulties, as long as you make good use of these strong weapons, you can still overcome them!"

Qiao Liang was still a little unsatisfied.

Pei Qian nodded: "Well, these are all good suggestions. I will definitely let them modify them properly when I get back!"

Seeing President Pei's serious expression, Qiao Liang actually felt a little flattered.

Of course, he couldn't guess how much of President Pei's words were polite. After all, when players give feedback on game problems to customer service, the most common saying from customer service is "We have received your suggestion and will forward it to the design team", but in reality, who knows if the design team will modify it.

So Qiao Liang didn't take it too seriously, but felt that President Pei's attitude was quite touching.

After all, such a successful game producer was still humbly listening to his opinions, which could be called being not ashamed to ask.

Sure enough, President Pei's success was not without reason!

...

...

Back at the company, Pei Qian's fingers flew across his computer, quickly noting down Qiao Laoshi's previous statements.

In Qiao Laoshi's feeling, the small village and the town were the most difficult.

In fact, according to the setting, the difficulty of the later scenes was constantly increasing, but Lu Mingliang and the others had overlooked a problem, which was that the players' threshold for suffering was also constantly increasing.

The monsters in the small village and town were all encountered for the first time, so they were very difficult, but after slowly adapting to the rhythm of the game, the increase in difficulty was a bit insufficient.

In that case, then continue to increase the difficulty of the next few scenes!

Also, Qiao Laoshi liked the firewood knife the most, right? Chop it!

Didn't he say that the vertical chop of the guandao was especially easy to use? Chop it!

In short, all the weapons that Qiao Laoshi felt were particularly easy to use were definitely weapons that novices could use to escape the class, chop them all.

It was definitely the kind of move that would kill them, highlighting a lack of conscience.

Anyway, it's none of President Pei's business, President Pei used an exclusive weapon.

He simply made a list and gave it directly to Li Yada.

"Adjust the balance according to this." Pei Qian said very simply.

Li Yada took the form and looked at it. The changes were really written in detail.

For weapons like the guandao, it was directly stated that only the vertical chop attack was weakened, which was very targeted.

"Okay, President Pei, I'll do it right away!"

Li Yada couldn't help but sigh, President Pei was really striving for perfection.

Recently, when he went to President Pei to report, President Pei had always been playing with "Deliverance". He didn't know when President Pei took the time to experience all the other weapons.

Sure enough, it was because he worked hard silently in places that everyone couldn't see that President Pei was able to achieve his current success.

Li Yada took the form and went to seriously ponder President Pei's design intentions.

Pei Qian sat in his chair, suddenly feeling a little guilty and feeling a little sorry for Qiao Laoshi.

Although it was to increase the difficulty, it seemed a bit too much to chop all the weapons that Qiao Laoshi used smoothly.

In that case, then invite him to dinner again to compensate him!

Qiao Laoshi made outstanding contributions to the balance changes of *Turn Back is the Shore*. To express his gratitude, invite him to Ming Yun Private Kitchen for a good meal, that's not too much, right?

Thinking of this, Pei Qian took out his phone and dialed Chef Lin's number.

"Help me book dinner for tomorrow."

On the other end of the phone, Lin Canrong was stunned for a moment: "Uh, President Pei, there are already guests booked."

"Huh?"

Pei Qian was a little surprised.

Was it the repeat customer from last time?

"Then don't book the biggest private room, just change to a small private room."

Lin Canrong coughed twice: "President Pei, all the seats are booked."

"???"

Pei Qian felt a little dizzy, and an ominous premonition enveloped his heart: "What about the day after tomorrow?"

Lin Canrong replied truthfully: "President Pei, not to mention the day after tomorrow, the schedule is already full until the week after next..."

Pei Qian fell into a daze.

What the hell?

I haven't been there for a week? What happened to Ming Yun Private Kitchen?