167: Chapter 167 Shen Nan, an office worker's first day of gaming experience!

It was just past six in the evening.

Shen Nan, an ordinary office worker, was sitting on the subway heading home. His intense anticipation for [dave the diver] had already overflowed from his heart, impossible to hide.

It was also because of this urgent desire to play dave the diver as soon as possible that Shen Nan—who usually accumulated a whole day's worth of work fatigue and would choose to sleep and rest while taking the subway home—was different today.

Right now, he was scrolling through his phone with high spirits, absorbing all the news about Spark Games and dave the diver, trying his best to find any information related to this game across the entire internet.

To be honest.

As one of the loyal fans of Jiang Yuan and Spark Games.

Even though he had played the three games from Jiuli to deep sea mystery recently and had gained quite a bit of happiness from them.

If you asked him what game he looked forward to the most, the words "Jiang Yuan's New Work" would undoubtedly flash in his mind instantly, without a hint of hesitation.

What made him even happier was that...

Jiang Yuan and Spark Games clearly hadn't let down his intense expectations over such a long period.

Throughout the day today, no matter what app he opened, he could find overwhelming praise and acclaim for [dave the diver] from everyone.

On the Spark Game Platform, the concurrent player count for [dave the diver], while not as exaggerated and explosive as Spark's previous game [Minecraft], had still reached a staggering 670,000—a terrifying number that other domestic developers could only dream of!

Looking at this number, breaking one million sales on the first day seemed to pose no difficulty at all for the current Spark Games. Moreover, the initial positive review rate on the Spark Platform was as high as 99%, with very few negative reviews.

Looking at these statistics...

While it wasn't quite to the point of feeling a sense of shared glory.

Seeing the game he anticipated being so sought after and loved by countless players, Shen Nan felt from the bottom of his heart that his anticipation hadn't been wasted. He was already impatient to get home and experience this long-awaited game for himself!

Finally, he endured the arduous commute home.

The moment he stepped off the subway, Shen Nan burst into an amazing speed, walking briskly toward a residential complex not far from the station, not even stopping to regret why he hadn't taken a taxi back.

He got home and changed his shoes.

Shen Nan first grabbed a can of Coke from the fridge. While gulping it down, he opened his room door, sat in his computer chair, and quickly clicked the power button.

During those few seconds of booting up, he habitually pulled his phone out of his pocket to check, confirming there were no messages from family, friends, or the company to disturb him. Only then did he happily place it on the desk and start getting busy.

He had already pre-ordered and downloaded the game, so there was no need to delay; it only required a small update.

A minute later.

The moment the game's title screen finally appeared.

Shen Nan subconsciously leaned back. On his rugged face, which still bore traces of fatigue, a wide smile of intense joy clearly flashed.

He didn't know why.

Despite having played countless games, the loading screen of every new game could bring him an indescribable flutter of excitement—and among them, games produced by Jiang Yuan and Spark Games had an even stronger effect.

As for the title interface of [dave the diver], it still maintained the consistent style of Spark Games.

Pale blue waves were slowly pushing from the left of the screen to the right and then receding; the image quality looked exceptionally clear.

The protagonist of this game, Dave—a chubby middle-aged man with a round face and a beard—was standing by the sea in a diving suit, grinning at the screen. His smile looked silly, possessing a simple and honest quality.

He impatiently clicked to start a new game.

The opening plot was very straightforward.

The game protagonist, Dave, was invited by his old friend Cobra to a place called the Blue Hole. Banjo, the sushi restaurant owner, was worrying because an earthquake had destroyed the shop and he had no money for repairs.

At this moment, Cobra had a sudden inspiration and came up with an idea: Dave would be responsible for going into the sea to catch fish, and then Banjo would turn the caught fish into sushi to sell, earning money to repair the shop.

"Isn't this just paying off debt with fishing?"

Looking at the dialogue box on the screen, Shen Nan couldn't help but complain:

"This seems a bit forced, but whatever. I'm here for the diving anyway, so it doesn't matter if it's unreasonable!"

After enjoying the initial plot with a face full of smiles, it was soon time for the formal segment of entering the sea.

Shen Nan controlled the game character, Dave, and impatiently entered the azure ocean wearing a full set of equipment.

The seabed in the shallow area was very bright.

Sunlight filtered down through the water's surface, making the game graphics look somewhat dazzling and bright, as if there were global illumination.

Schools of Blue Tangs swam past him, their bright yellow tail fins particularly striking in the blue seawater. Several clownfish were hidden in the sea anemone thickets, orange and white striped, very small, wiggling as they swam.

Immersed in this game—which could definitely be considered the top of the top among indie games—Shen Nan actually forgot his mission for a moment, happily wandering through this ocean.

It wasn't until he suddenly remembered that the sushi restaurant was still waiting for him to save it.

Only then did Shen Nan hurriedly aim at the nearest fish and try clicking the left mouse button.

Whoosh!

The harpoon shot out with a whistle, grazing the tail of a parrotfish and pinning itself into the coral reef. The fish bolted instantly.

"Holy crap..."

Staring at this scene in a daze, Shen Nan felt like the fish that had already escaped was mocking him.

Refusing to believe his bad luck, he tried again, but the second shot also missed.

By the third shot, he finally hit one, but unfortunately, it was just a palm-sized Goldfish.

At that moment.

A prompt popped up in the top left corner of the screen: Weight 0.3kg, 1-Star!

"Am I really this bad?"

He silently criticized himself in his heart, then stubbornly adjusted his aim for the lead distance.

The fourth shot hit! Then the fifth, sixth, and seventh shots all hit their marks without missing.

The fish in the shallow area were generally not hard to deal with. Sea Bream and Batfish didn't swim fast; it mainly depended on accuracy. He might have just lacked focus at the start because he was tired from the day.

After a few more minutes, he had accumulated about a dozen fish in his backpack. Just as he was preparing to explore deeper, he was startled to find the oxygen bar at the top of the screen flashing red.

This was his first dive, and he hadn't had time to upgrade his equipment. The oxygen tank was at its initial capacity and couldn't dive too deep.

Though frustrated, Shen Nan had no choice but to drag his mouse with lingering interest, controlling Dave to float back to the surface.

Back on the boat, Cobra waved from the shore, asking how his harvest was.

He didn't look closely at the numbers in the dialogue box; his attention was entirely drawn to a young woman in a white lab coat nearby.

After the dialogue, he learned the girl's name was Ellie. She said she was there to do marine ecological research and asked him for help taking photos of specific fish species.

Taking photos?

He looked at the mission description with some curiosity.

Two Agar-agar plants and two Red Starfish, both of which could be found in the shallow area. She said taking photos and sending them to her could be exchanged for money and seasonings.

Upon seeing this, Shen Nan was no longer sleepy. He took a sip of the ice-cold Coke beside him and muttered with a bright smile:

"Alright then, I'm going into the water tomorrow anyway, might as well do it while I'm at it!"