75: Chapter 75 Endless Mode: The Only God!

One evening.

Ye Qing was staring blankly at his computer screen.

He was originally a small streamer on Bilibili, with a follower count just barely over two thousand.

He usually streamed indie games and niche single-player titles, occasionally playing competitive games. His entertainment value was average, but because his skills were quite refined, he managed to attract some loyal fans, allowing him to survive on streaming.

During the first half of last year.

By chance, Ye Qing happened to purchase and stream Spark Games' new title, Slay the Spire.

From then on, his popularity stabilized thanks to that game. The number of 'Captains' in his stream remained steady at around fifty, providing him with a stable income that wasn't too low.

He thought this kind of life would continue indefinitely—delivering takeout by day and streaming games by night—until he got married or something similar.

But he never expected that the sudden emergence of another game would intervene and completely change Ye Qing's life!

And that game happened to be the third title produced by the developers of Slay the Spire, Spark Games—Plants vs. Zombies!

Relying on his already impressive technical foundation and the fortunate experience of traveling to Magic City to participate in the internal PVZ playtest.

Ye Qing's streaming career, which had been lukewarm, became unstoppable on the day PVZ was released.

The popularity of his stream soared, the number of Captains surpassed three hundred, and his follower count skyrocketed. After streaming Plants vs. Zombies for just over half a month, Ye Qing leaped to become one of the hottest rookie streamers in the Bilibili console gaming section!

And all of this.

Was obviously something the old Ye Qing wouldn't have even dared to dream of.

The experiences of these short two weeks were so exaggerated it felt like a dream! It was so wonderful that every night before starting his stream, Ye Qing would silently feel an unspeakable, sincere gratitude toward that company far away in Magic City and that gentle, beautiful young lady.

After about ten minutes or so, he noticed it was time for his usual streaming slot.

Ye Qing finally composed his intense emotions, opened Steam while starting the stream, found [Plants vs. Zombies]—which he had played for nearly a hundred hours—and clicked start.

As the game's startup screen appeared, Ye Qing's stream title changed to:

"Pushing the Pool Endless Leaderboard! Veteran Plants vs. Zombies player, aiming for Round 160 today!"

Within minutes of starting, hundreds of people flooded into the stream. The bullet chat scrolled rapidly; a small portion were familiar faces, but most were fans who had joined during the past half-month because of PVZ.

"Hubby, I'm here! Did you miss me?!"

"Streamer, please turn on the camera, I've already taken off my pants!"

"How many rounds today? Didn't you reach Round 149 last time? You were so close to breaking 150!"

"Streamer, I tried setting up that eight-cob slow build you showed yesterday, and I cleared Round 80 easily. Fucking legendary!"

Ye Qing glanced at the chat and said somewhat speechlessly:

"I'll try for Round 160 today. After Round 150, the density of Giga-gargantuars doubles. My previous eight-cob micro was a bit shaky; once the rhythm breaks, the Giga-gargantuars rush to the front row to smash Pumpkins, and I can't even keep up with the repairs."

"However, Spark released a small patch today that changed the Gatling Pea. I want to try a new strategy."

As he spoke, he clicked into the game, but instead of going straight into Pool Endless Mode as usual, he first opened the Almanac and said:

"After this update, Gatling Pea has been buffed from firing four peas at a time to six. The fire rate is the same, so total damage has increased by half. The sun cost has also been adjusted from 250 to 300, which is a slight buff overall."

"How many? Six? Isn't that damage going to be insane?!"

"300 sun is a bit expensive. Plus the 200 for the Repeater, the total cost is 500. Isn't that hard to get out in the early stages of Endless Mode?"

"But the damage is too ridiculous. It should be better for dealing with Giga-gargantuars. You have to build it no matter the cost!"

"Qing-ge, are you planning to replace the eight-cob build with a Gatling build?"

Ye Qing shook his head in denial:

"Not replace, but complement. The core of the eight-cob build is the cycle rhythm of the Cob Cannons; 8 cannons can perfectly time a seamless volley. No matter how fierce the Gatling Pea is, it can't replace the large-scale area damage of the Cob Cannons."

"I want to try swapping the two cannons on the side lanes for a Gatling plus Torchwood combo based on the eight-cob build, to see if I can use the Gatling's single-target damage to fill the gaps in the cannon cycle."

He skillfully entered the game and began setting up his defense.

Ye Qing played the first few waves much slower than usual.

After all, in the start of Endless, you have to prioritize filling the board with Sunflowers to build up the economy. A set of Repeater + Gatling + Torchwood costs 500 sun; it can't be set up as quickly as Cob Cannons. You have to take it steady in the early stages and not get greedy with damage."

By the tenth round, Ye Qing's formation was essentially complete.

Unlike a traditional eight-cob build, he kept six Cob Cannons in the back positions of the land lanes, while the pool lanes were filled with Sunflowers and Winter Melons to apply slow to all zombies on the field.

The two cannons originally on the side lanes of the eight-cob build were replaced by him with a 'Gatling + Torchwood' combo.

A wave of zombies emerged from the right. Just as the Ordinary Zombies entered the Gatling Pea's range, the Gatling Pea opened fire.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Six peas passed through the Torchwood in front, instantly turning into six fire peas. Each one carried a small amount of area damage, draining the health of the Ordinary Zombies bunched up behind as well.

The first few Ordinary Zombies in front were practically insta-killed; they didn't even have time to react.

"Holy shit, this damage is just fucking ridiculous!"

"Six fire peas... this DPS is too terrifying. If they hadn't increased the cost, wouldn't the Gatling be god-tier?"

"Can the Zomboni even stop this? Maybe the zombie brothers should just run; the scene is too cruel, I can't bear to watch..."

Before the words even finished, a Zomboni came crunching in from the right.

As soon as it entered the Gatling's range, it was focused down by a dense volley of fire peas.

The fire peas hit the Zomboni with exaggerated damage. The Zomboni's health dropped visibly to the naked eye; before it could even crush the defensive plants in the third column, it exploded into fragments on the spot, emitting black smoke.

The already dense bullet chat instantly boiled over upon seeing this scene:

"Why even play Endless Mode? Just steamroll it!"

"Plants vs. Zombies? I think it's more like Plants Bullying Zombies!"

"Spark's buff this time is too ruthless. Brothers who haven't played yet, hurry up and enjoy it. I feel like it'll be nerfed back sooner or later!"

"I feel like Gatling Pea is going to be the meta answer."

"I declare, from now on, Gatling is the one and only God of Endless Mode!!!"

Ye Qing caught the bullet chat out of the corner of his eye and originally felt the same way, but he soon couldn't help but frown as he discovered a new problem.