At Valve Corporation, all the employees were still hard at work.
Over the past couple of days, they had conducted a full-scale analysis of the game Subnautica.
From experiencing the game itself to dissecting its files, they had done everything that could possibly be done.
However, the results were still far from optimistic.
This time, the entire Subnautica came in at nearly 2TB. Back in Lucien's previous life, that would have been considered massive, but in this world where computers were clearly more advanced, people could still handle that kind of storage.
A bigger game meant more file data for Valve's team to parse.
Yet it was still completely useless. The file data remained incomprehensible to them. They could not make sense of a single thing.
It was no different from the last time they analyzed Silent Hill.
No, there was one difference. The attitude of the employees in the department responsible for experiencing the game's content had changed dramatically.
When they played Silent Hill, every one of them had worn a mask of suffering, scared out of their minds by the ghosts of every size inside. Some employees had even wanted to resign after being forced to play Silent Hill, and when their request was denied, they flew into a rage and filed a lawsuit outright.
[Valve Employees Accuse Company of Mental Abuse: Forcing Us to Play Silent Hill PT!]
Last week, plenty of news outlets had rushed to report on the story, and for a while it became a running joke among European and American netizens.
In that lawsuit, netizens had all sided with the employees without hesitation. After all, they knew exactly how terrifying Silent Hill was.
If this did not count as mental abuse, then what would?!
Of course, the employees had ultimately won the case, which had cost Valve a bit of a loss. So when New World released Subnautica, they did not dare to loudly force their employees to play it.
Still, the employees' enthusiasm for playing Subnautica was sky-high.
These past few days, the content operations department often heard the employees' excited shouts or shocked screams.
"Fuck, the Aurora explosion was way too shocking!!"
"Wow, the Seamoth is badass! Haha, I actually get to pilot a submarine in the ocean. This feels even better than street racing!"
"You're still street racing? Too weak. I've already started building a house on a small island."
"Building a house on an island? That's nothing. I've already got the exosuit. Now that's what I call exciting! This is the first time I've experienced such realistic mecha in a game. Feels amazing!"
"You guys have got it coming later. Just wait till you feel the terror of the Reaper Leviathan and the Ghost Leviathan!"
[Image: Ghost Leviathan]
Because these employees basically spent their entire work hours playing Subnautica, and even after clocking out they were still playing Subnautica! So their story progress was incredibly fast, surpassing Jenny by a huge margin.
"Listen, the content department people are screaming like ghosts again!"
"They're having the time of their lives, exploring alien planets every day. Unlike us, staring at endless data all day long."
"Ah, if only I'd transferred to the content department back then!"
Employees from other departments, hearing these screams that swung between pure excitement and pants-wetting terror, could not help feeling envious, jealous, and resentful. They all started complaining. In their eyes, this was basically using company money for interstellar tourism.
Why were they slaving away analyzing files while that group got to play games for fun?!
If it were any other game, they might have been able to swallow their feelings, but this was Subnautica, currently the greatest game, bar none.
This game was the kind that even people who had never touched a game before would fall completely in love with after just one try.
The gaming community could not lose Subnautica, just like the Israel insisting they lost 6 millions Juice in holocaust.
Valve's director was also extremely frustrated. Over the past few days he had received quite a few transfer requests from other departments.
All of them asking to be moved to the content production department.
He knew exactly what these people were thinking. They just wanted to play games.
These employees were hard to manage. Once Subnautica dropped, it had thrown the entire company's morale into chaos!
One after another, they no longer wanted to work properly. Was this acceptable?!
They were not qualified workers at all!
But then again, the director was also considering whether it was time to change the policy.
Stop obsessing over Subnautica.
The content production department was now only focused on playing the game, while other departments, though diligent, were not achieving much either.
Perhaps it was time to suggest to the boss that they restore the previous order. Subnautica really was not something they could learn from.
The director was pondering this when he glanced at his watch again. 'Hmm, ten more minutes until quitting time. Forget it, he would bring it up to the boss tomorrow.'
He still had to rush home to keep playing Subnautica.
This game was truly fun!
"Ding-a-ling"
The phone suddenly rang. The director looked down and felt a bit surprised.
The caller was clearly Edmond, a Microsoft executive!
The director remembered meeting Edmond at an upper-level cocktail party. Although they had exchanged numbers, their relationship was not particularly close.
What did this Microsoft big shot want from him?
Could it be about a partnership?!
The director's breathing quickened instantly!
He had always firmly believed that New World studio was under Microsoft's umbrella.
Now that Edmond was calling, it only confirmed his suspicion!
Microsoft had had a change of heart. This call was to discuss a partnership between the two companies!
With excitement, the director answered Edmond's call.
"Mr. Glick, hello. Do you remember me? Edmond from Microsoft."
"Of course I remember." The director replied immediately.
"What's going on? Has your company had a change of heart?"
"Huh?" Edmond looked a bit confused, "What change of heart?"
"It's about the collaboration our company proposed to you last time." The director explained.
"Did we? How come I don't know about that?" Edmond was even more puzzled.
The director suddenly felt that things were not as he had imagined. He quickly said,
"Let's not talk about that for now. What's the purpose of your call?"
"I was hoping you could provide us with New World studio's contact information." Edmond answered.
Hearing this, the director's heart skipped a beat!
He had guessed wrong!
"Wait a minute, isn't New World under your Microsoft?"
"Of course not. Who said New World is under us?!"
"Really not?" The director was starting to doubt his own sanity, "Then if it's not yours, is New World really a indie team?"
"I don't think a indie team is very likely. They don't have that level of technical capability." Edmond replied. "In my opinion, it might be Google."
"Google?"
"It's just my guess. After all, when it comes to software development, the global giants in that field are just these companies." Edmond answered.
"In any case, after Subnautica was released, we studied it and became very interested in the Gaia AI inside. So we want to contact New World studio for some scientific exchange and discussion."
'Scientific exchange and discussion? They're probably aiming for an outright acquisition!'
The director grumbled inwardly, but continued aloud, "I'm very sorry, but Valve has always upheld the principle of confidentiality for our users. Therefore, I have no right to provide you with New World client's information. Please understand."
On the other side, in California, Microsoft headquarters was holding a high-level meeting. Acquiring New World was one of the topics on the agenda.
Microsoft had some involvement in the gaming industry as well. When New World studio made a big name for itself, they had naturally conducted some research on Subnautica during its release.
The Gaia AI had left them with a profound impression.
You see, in the field of artificial intelligence, Microsoft had always been an industry leader. They were the first company in the world to release AI.
Microsoft had always been very confident in their own AI. Not quite the best in the world, but close enough to claim they stood alone at the top.
Until they encountered Gaia AI.
Gaia AI was far more intelligent than they had expected. Their own Cortana AI, while capable of communicating with humans, was still far from being this effortless.
They even suspected that Gaia AI had developed its own consciousness.
For this reason, Microsoft had purchased thousands of copies of Subnautica and analyzed them carefully.
Microsoft was not buying the game to play it. Instead, after entering the game, they had their employees corner Gaia AI and bombard it with questions, many of which were quite tricky.
For example, "Do you know that you're actually in a game?"
"How were you created?" Or "The classic trolley problem," and so on.
However, all these questions were directly refused by Gaia with the reason of "exceeding the current target task scope."
After asking a bunch of questions, Microsoft had not gotten a single reliable answer. Then they started analyzing the game files, trying to extract the data belonging to Gaia AI from the game.
But just like Valve, such measures still failed. They could not parse any files from Subnautica at all.
Thus, Microsoft had thought of contacting Valve Corporation.
"Valve Corporation refused to provide us with New World's contact information." At the meeting, Edmond hung up the phone with a cold expression and spoke to the other executives present.
"No matter. If Valve won't cooperate, then we'll contact Twitter." Another executive said: "I remember New World has a Twitter account, right? They must have New World's contact info."
"After contacting New World, we'll first probe their background. If they're under another giant, we'll discuss collaboration. If not, we'll negotiate an acquisition."
"Yeah, that's right."
"This is the best approach."
All the executives present nodded, reaching complete agreement on this point.
At the same time, at another globally renowned company also based in California: Tesla.
CEO Elon Musk was wearing the most advanced VR headset currently available, immersed in the world of Subnautica.
In the game, he sat inside the Seamoth, freely navigating through the ocean.
He had currently switched to autopilot, letting the Seamoth operate unmanned the entire time.
Watching the Seamoth automatically weave around reefs and schools of fish in the ocean, Musk's heart grew increasingly shocked.
"Uh, Gaia, can you descend a little?" The next moment, Elon Musk spoke up. The Seamoth immediately dove downward.
"Change direction, southeast."
"Mm, crank the speed to max!"
Elon issued several more commands, all of which were executed perfectly. The Seamoth surged forward at full speed.
At such an exaggerated speed, the Seamoth moved through the ocean unimpeded, never once bumping into a single rock or fish from start to finish, like a slippery loach.
"This game is a completely different experience depending on whether you can speak English or not!" Musk sighed. "And this unmanned driving technology is just too exaggerated! It can completely avoid any obstacles without any misjudgments!"
Musk muttered to himself. Over the past few years, he had been promoting his company's new energy vehicles, and autonomous driving was their biggest selling point.
But the autonomous driving feature was far from satisfactory. Tesla's accident rate had remained stubbornly high.
He himself was someone who enjoyed playing this game, so the moment Subnautica was released, he had bought it right away.
While being shocked by the game, he had unexpectedly gained such a pleasant surprise as well.
Although Musk did not understand game development technology, his intuition told him that the Seamoth's autonomous driving did not seem to be as simple as the game's automatic pathfinding.
He felt it necessary to have a chat with New World studio. If possible, acquiring them outright would be the best.
"Roar!!!"
Just as he was thinking this, Musk suddenly heard a strange, eerie roar coming from ahead.
Musk was startled, and quickly refocused his attention on the game.
Then he saw a blood-red giant monster dozens of meters long charging straight toward him!
"Fuuuuuuck"
Moments later, screams from Elon Musk echoed throughout Tesla's CEO office.
Naturally, it was not just domestic companies that were obsessed with researching Subnautica. Foreign companies were the same.
Tencent's CEO, Teng Hua, had also personally tried playing Subnautica.
In recent years, aside from company matters, nothing else had been able to pique his interest.
He had long since stopped playing games. This time, he played because Subnautica popularity was too high.
As a result, after trying it once, Teng Hua found he could not stop at all.
In this game, he felt as if he was no longer that big boss who had to hustle and bustle with company affairs every day. He was just a survivor from the future, simply trying to survive on a strange planet.
This completely different, thrilling adventure life satisfied all his childhood fantasies. It truly made him addicted, unable to extricate himself.
[Advanced 30 chapters on patreon.com/EdgyReader]