Chapter 87 Bug Magnet

August 15th, Wednesday.

Yan Qi continued working with the testing team to find bugs and submit them to the development team for modification.

Many bugs had already been fixed, but the number of newly discovered bugs showed no sign of decreasing!

It was undeniably discouraging.

It felt like bailing water out of a leaky boat; the more you bailed, the more water came in!

It was only Yan Qi's optimistic nature that allowed him to endure.

Logically, after *Blade of Empire* was completed, a small group of players had been arranged for testing. While there were bugs, they weren't so severe as to render the game unplayable, right?

But now, bugs were popping up inexplicably, as if all the previous work had been for nothing.

It was like solving a math problem, only to realize you'd made up an implied condition, resulting in a large chunk of missing steps that had to be filled in.

It was difficult to maintain a good attitude under such circumstances.

However, Yan Qi believed that there were only so many bugs, and it was better to find them sooner rather than later. If the bugs couldn't be fixed in time, then the release could be delayed. They'd already been developing it for several months; what was a few more weeks?

Yan Qi, as the boss, even personally played the game repeatedly, submitting any new bugs he found to the development team, keeping a close eye on the progress.

After finding a few more bugs, Yan Qi decided to take a break.

He opened his phone and saw that someone had invited him to a new group chat.

"Hmm? 'Chaolu Games Platform Developer Exchange Group'?"

"...Did they really need to create a group for this? Seems a bit redundant, doesn't it?"

Seeing the group name, Yan Qi felt it was a bit much.

He hadn't heard of a game platform creating a group specifically to pull in all the cooperating game developers!

Most game companies focused solely on their own games and weren't particularly concerned with the situations of other game companies. The game platform only needed to communicate with the game manufacturers separately, so why create a group to bring everyone together?

But then Yan Qi thought, it wouldn't hurt to join the group and get to know some other companies in the industry.

The group was created by an obvious alternate account. Yan Qi guessed it must be an employee of the Chaolu Games Platform.

He was right. Li Yada had created the group using an alternate account, mainly to prevent leaks.

Yan Qi didn't overthink it, as it was quite common to use alternate accounts for work. Many people kept their work and personal accounts separate, using the work account to add business partners.

He glanced at the group's member list. So far, there were only a dozen or so people, but more were being invited.

The group owner, with the ID "Chaolu Platform Staff," spoke first.

"Hello everyone! Thank you for your trust in the Chaolu Games Platform. The purpose of this group is to share platform updates with you in a timely manner, strengthen communication, and also allow everyone to engage in some daily experience exchange and sharing within the group."

"Currently, the Chaolu Games Platform's program is basically complete, and the cloud servers have all been arranged. We expect to start trial operations before the end of this weekend. Games with bugs fixed can message me privately to arrange for online release. Don't worry if you haven't finished fixing them yet, as it's still in the trial operation phase."

"In short, keep up the good work, everyone!"

They also sent a "striving" emoji at the end.

Yan Qi was a little surprised. The Chaolu Games Platform was quite efficient.

Due to the world's technological advancements, game development and other program development were relatively fast, but it was still not easy to create a game platform in such a short period of time.

It seemed that the Chaolu Games Platform's technical team was also a relatively mature team.

Moreover, this behavior of building a communication group made Yan Qi feel quite warm.

After all, other game platforms basically didn't chat with developers; they were all serious about business. Some large platforms were particularly arrogant, often ignoring small game companies.

Soon, someone in the group replied.

"Ah, this, are we starting trial operations this weekend? I feel like we'll never finish fixing our bugs!"

"Not only can we not finish fixing them, but we even have a hard time reproducing those bugs..."

"+1, same here, I'm about to throw up from finding bugs!"

Hearing that trial operations were starting this weekend, these companies were clearly unable to remain calm.

During the trial operation, although there wouldn't be too many players, the platform would have few games, and the games that were launched would basically get good recommendation spots.

So, participating in the trial operation had many benefits.

But the problem was, the bugs just couldn't be fixed!

Many companies didn't even know how to reproduce the bugs they had already triggered. "Fixing all the bugs" sounded simple, but actually doing it seemed a distant prospect.

Of course, the Chaolu Games Platform's condition wasn't "fix all the bugs," but rather "Tang-zongjian doesn't encounter more than three bugs in half an hour of playing."

Many game companies therefore harbored some wishful thinking. After fixing a dozen or so bugs, they would bring their games back, only to be taught a harsh lesson by reality.

Now, many people highly suspected that the gap between the conditions "Tang-zongjian doesn't encounter more than three bugs in half an hour of playing" and "fix all the bugs" might be much smaller than everyone imagined, or might not even exist.

It was fine without this group, but after joining the group, everyone realized they were all in the same boat!

All suffering from the torment of bugs.

Yan Qi silently watched the chat logs and suddenly realized that his situation might not be an isolated case.

And... it seemed that no one had yet discovered that this building was actually a feng shui treasure trove?

Seeing that these colleagues were all suffering from bugs, Yan Qi felt that he should do something to help them.

Although he couldn't reduce the number of bugs, he could speed up the process of finding them!

Moreover, there seemed to be quite a few vacant spots in this office building, so it would be no problem to have a few more companies.

Thinking of this, Yan Qi replied in the group: "If you're finding it difficult to reproduce bugs, I have a rather metaphysical solution. Just come to this building where the Chaolu Games Platform is located to find bugs. This place seems to be a feng shui treasure trove, greatly increasing the probability of finding bugs!"

As soon as Yan Qi's message was sent, he received a barrage of question marks.

"?"

"Bro, you're so funny, choosing a location to find bugs?"

"This isn't metaphysics, it's just self-deception..."

"Ah, could it be that a building property management worker has snuck into the group?"

"Oh no, it seems like too many bugs and too much pressure to fix them has driven the kid crazy, and he's started hallucinating!"

"Dude, believe in science. The probability of bugs appearing is the same everywhere. Someone who makes games can't not understand such simple probability knowledge, right?"

No one believed him at all.

This was also within Yan Qi's expectations, after all, what he said was too bizarre. If he hadn't repeatedly tested it and found it effective, he wouldn't have believed it himself.

"Why would I lie to you?"

"I've already moved my entire testing team over here. Look. [Picture]"

"You can also try it out. Just send two testers with your game; there's no loss anyway."

Yan Qi didn't say much more, after all, this was indeed completely metaphysical, and it wasn't always effective.

It seemed to not work on weekends.

He only saw that these companies were all suffering from bugs, so he felt compassion and wanted to help them.

If they didn't believe him, then so be it.

Anyway, it wasn't his problem if these companies couldn't fix their bugs and their games couldn't be launched.

"Still think it's absurd..."

"I'm quite close to here. Fine, I'll take a trip over there. If I can't find any bugs, you have to treat me to a meal!"

"Well, everyone's in Jingzhou, so it's a good opportunity to meet up and get together. I'll go take a look too."

"Can someone send a location?"

Obviously, most people still thought it was absurd and didn't believe it at all.

But after all, the group consisted of small companies that were all in the Jingzhou game circle, and it was good to know more people, as they might be able to help each other in the future. So, several company leaders who were nearby discussed it and decided to bring their games over again.

If they couldn't find any bugs, they'd just treat it as a meetup.

...

Yan Qi stopped looking at the group and continued searching for bugs.

More than half an hour later, the leaders who had spoken in the group arrived one after another.

Among them were game company bosses, as well as the main designers and testing team leaders, who came directly to the address Yan Qi had given.

After exchanging greetings, Yan Qi led them to the workstation he had just rented last week.

The testing teams were still working hard.

"Goodness, President Yan, you really moved your testing team over here?"

"I don't know what to say."

"President Yan, you don't have to be superstitious to this extent, right? I thought you were just joking before, but now it seems that your problem is much more serious than just making jokes..."

Although these people had come, they still didn't believe at all that bugs could be tested in this place.

Yan Qi was too lazy to explain anything: "You'll know when you run your own games."

The group was skeptical, and each found a place to sit down nearby, then took out their phones to start running their own games.

Currently, the vast majority of games on the Chaolu Games Platform were mobile games. Because the barrier to entry for mobile game production was relatively low, and now it was the booming period of mobile games with a large number of players, making mobile games was the best choice for these start-up companies.

Those willing to cooperate with the Chaolu Games Platform were basically small local game companies in Jingzhou, so they were mostly making mobile games.

The representatives of the various companies didn't believe in this kind of metaphysics at all.

However, after opening their own games and running them for a few minutes, their expressions all changed.

From disdain to shock, then from shock to surprise, and finally to confusion.

Because they found that the game's bugs really did appear frequently!

Even bugs that had only appeared once by chance and had never been reproduced were encountered again!

Although they didn't deliberately keep statistics, it felt like the probability had clearly increased a lot!

But this feeling of shock and surprise soon turned into confusion.

Long-held materialism and scientific concepts were being challenged at this moment...

At first, everyone thought Yan Qi was joking, just telling a not-very-funny joke.

After arriving, everyone realized that the situation was even more serious. Yan Qi wasn't joking; he really thought so and had even moved the testing team over!

So, everyone began to worry about Yan Qi's mental state.

And now, everyone found that the severity of the situation had completely exceeded their ability to understand.

Because what Yan Qi said was actually true!

Many people still couldn't accept this fact. After closing the game process, they calmed down for a few minutes and then reopened the game to experience it again.

As a result, they still encountered a bunch of bugs, and they weren't even the same bugs as before!

Everyone couldn't help but look at each other, feeling that their worldview had been completely overturned.

"Is there really such a thing as a feng shui treasure trove?"

"The probability of triggering bugs that hadn't been reproduced before has clearly increased here!"

"I'm going to call our company's testing director and have him bring two testers over here!"

"I'm going to find the building property management and see if there are any other workstations available..."

"Wait a minute, everyone, don't rush. I think that in the spirit of scientific, rigorous, and conscientious testing, we should first try other floors to find out which floor in this building has the best effect. If there's a floor with a better effect than this one, wouldn't it be better for us to directly rent that floor?"