[Nice, nice!]
[Great idea PewDiePie. With this many Gasopods, you can just overwhelm the Reaper Leviathan with sheer numbers!]
↳ [Exactly, form a Gasopod boy band, maybe they can actually arm-wrestle a Reaper Leviathan!]
The viewers excitedly looked forward to it.
"Alright, let's officially put this plan into action!"
In the video, PewDiePie sprang into action, picking up the Gasopods one by one and moving them from the Alien Containment tank out into the open ocean.
Seeing this, the viewers were stunned.
[Wow, he's just grabbing them barehanded! Isn't he afraid they'll drop gas pods?!]
[PewDiePie is truly brave, actually daring to manhandle Gasopods!]
↳ [Yeah, that poison gas is terrifying. I definitely wouldn't dare play like that. It's no different from grabbing a venomous snake with your bare hands in real life!]
Anticipating the viewers' doubts, PewDiePie explained, "I don't recommend players just pick up Gasopods like I am. Because I discovered this game's pet loyalty mechanic, these Gasopods I raised have a very high loyalty toward me, so they won't attack me."
"I'll make a dedicated video later to thoroughly explain this mechanic to everyone."
Soon, PewDiePie had carried all twenty-or-so Gasopods out into the ocean. Furthermore, they didn't scatter; they just huddled together in the immediate area.
At this moment, PewDiePie swam out, and the dozen or so Gasopods immediately swarmed around him. The scene looked a bit like a flock of roosters and hens gathering around when feed is scattered. The viewers were amazed once again, if you raised these Gasopods right, they seemed quite docile!
"Alright then, we are officially heading out!" Saying that, PewDiePie boarded his Seamoth and drove off in a specific direction, with the Gasopods following closely behind.
In all of Subnautica, Reaper Leviathans weren't exclusively found near the crashed Aurora. They inhabited many areas, with about five or six of them scattered across the entire map.
And the one PewDiePie was heading for this time was a Reaper Leviathan that liked to prowl around the Kelp Forest.
He soon arrived at a Kelp Forest filled with towering Creepvines. Doing a quick ping with his sonar system, PewDiePie immediately detected a massive blip up ahead.
ROAR
At the same time, he heard the Reaper Leviathan's deafening roar.
Reaper Leviathans also possessed a biological sonar system. It quickly locked onto the human and the flock of Gasopods nearby and instantly swam right over.
"It's coming, chat! The sonar system shows the Reaper Leviathan is coming!"
PewDiePie shouted excitedly. The very next second, the Reaper Leviathan's terrifying silhouette materialized in the seawater ahead!
"It's here! Gasopods, I'm leaving this to you! Get in there and take down the Reaper Leviathan!" PewDiePie roared before turning his Seamoth around and booking it.
Naturally, the Gasopods hadn't evolved to the point of understanding PewDiePie's commands. But it didn't matter, as long as PewDiePie ran faster than them!
Just like in League of Legends, whoever runs the slowest becomes the frontline tank. Either way, the Reaper Leviathan was going to have to fight the Gasopods first.
Seeing this, the viewers immediately cracked up.
PewDiePie's assumption was spot on. The terrifying Reaper Leviathan closed the distance to the Gasopods in the blink of an eye. Without a moment of hesitation, it opened its blood-stained maw and viciously bit down on them!
It had to be said that Gaia AI's description of it was entirely accurate, it was all muscle and zero brains. Faced with a whole flock of Gasopods, the Reaper Leviathan didn't even flinch!
With a single bite, it instantly swallowed five or six Gasopods whole. Startled, the remaining Gasopods began honking in absolute panic and immediately began releasing their poison gas.
Thick, green toxic gas erupted in an instant.
The amount of gas released by a dozen Gasopods was staggering, rapidly engulfing the entire surrounding area. PewDiePie stopped fleeing and turned back to check the situation, only to find the water behind him completely dyed a sickly green.
And echoing continuously from within that green seawater were the anguished howls of the Reaper Leviathan.
However, the roars had slowly transitioned from terrifying bellows into bloodcurdling shrieks. Just listening to it made one's scalp tingle.
"I think it actually worked..." PewDiePie muttered. He waited for five minutes. Only after the toxic gas in the water had completely dissipated did he swim up to investigate.
Then, he discovered the pitiful Reaper Leviathan floating belly-up, slowly sinking into the dark depths of the ocean floor.
Even more horrifying, the Reaper Leviathan's terrifying, tank-sized head had been entirely dissolved into bare, white bone, not a single scrap of flesh remained.
As for the Gasopods, aside from the five or six that had been instantly devoured at the start, the rest were completely unharmed. They were still honking happily, seemingly having the time of their lives.
This scene completely dumbfounded the viewers.
In the video, PewDiePie couldn't help but exclaim excitedly, "It seems I still underestimated the combat power of the Gasopods! However, I guess I've also set a new record, the world's first successful Reaper Leviathan kill!"
Hearing this, the viewers in the video's comment section unanimously spammed congratulations.
Following PewDiePie's video, more and more players began to try it out for themselves.
In the eyes of the players, the Reaper Leviathan was finally no longer an insurmountable, demonic entity; it was a target that could be taken down.
An increasing number of players started breeding Gasopods and bravely challenged the Reaper Leviathans. Soon, more videos of players slaying Reaper Leviathans were posted online.
Among them, the most impressive was a player who managed to successfully kill a Reaper Leviathan using just a single Gasopod.
In the video, this player first used a Stasis Rifle to fire a massive energy sphere, freezing the Reaper Leviathan's giant head in place.
Although it only stunned the creature for two or three seconds, it was enough. In that brief window, he directly chucked a Gasopod right into the Reaper Leviathan's open mouth.
A few seconds later, the toxic gas detonated. The Gasopod and the Reaper Leviathan perished together, achieving the ultimate one-for-one trade.
Thanks to the enthusiastic experimentation of players all over the world, the Subnautica Gasopod became an overnight global sensation. It's worth mentioning that a pop idol also went viral alongside the Gasopods, gaining massive international fame.
At the same time, another segment of the player base focused their attention on the custom avatar feature launched on the New World gaming platform.
Because they realized the level of detail available for customization in this feature was truly mind-boggling.
From the strands of hair on your head to your very toenails, you could tweak absolutely everything.
As a result, crafting a truly flawless avatar required a significant amount of time and effort. Many players became completely addicted to the character creator, unable to pull themselves away.
Major forums were constantly buzzing with discussions as players gleefully posted screenshots of their customized avatars.
[Hehe, check it out! Don't I look exactly like Diddy?]
[Your Diddy is trash! My GigaChad face and body is the real masterpiece!]
[I kinda look like Epstein ngl.]
↳ [Holy crap, how did you make him look so accurate?! How'd you do it? Please share the slider data!]
↳ [What do you need the data for? Do you want to look like Epstein? is he your idol or something?]
[Are you guys stupid? Why are you trying to create male avatars? Wouldn't it be better to just swap genders and make a hot girl?]
↳ [Yeah! Think about it: if you customize yourself to look exactly like Tifa, you'd be over the moon! You could completely self-produce and self-consume!]
↳ [Damn, you just opened up an unprecedented new path!]
↳ [Wait a minute... so, if I'm a girl, and I set my avatar's gender to male, doesn't that mean I could also have a dih...]
↳ [Hehehe, I'm a guy, so if I turn into a woman, couldn't I also puh...]
[Hah... these perverts will be probably off themselves if they found out that there's]
↳ [Did you just fall asleep mid-sentence?]
↳ [Nakatulog HAHAHA]
As the players kept experimenting, their imaginations ran wild, spiraling into increasingly degenerate territory.
You have to remember, they had deeply internalized one crucial fact: this was a fully sensory VR game.
That meant New World's custom character feature was entirely different from the rest. On other platforms, even if you created a character, you could only look at it. But here... once you created it, you could feel it...
This made things incredibly precarious. In a flash, a subset of the degenerates had discovered yet another path...
Yeah, why the hell would they waste time making Leonardo DiCaprio or GigaChad?! Just make themselves tifa.
If Anon wouldn't let them interact with Tifa, they would just turn themselves into Tifa and interact with themselves!
The logic was completely flawless.
Even though it sounded just a tiny bit perverted... a man could at least give it a try, right?
With trembling hands, the players logged into the New World platform and began frantically searching the menus. However, after searching for half the day, they couldn't find a 'Gender' option anywhere.
After asking Tifa about it, the players finally discovered a tragic truth, the New World platform didn't allow players to choose their gender.
Men could only be men!
Instantly, the perverts were up in arms.
[New World Studio went too far! Why can't we choose our own gender on the platform?!]
↳ [Yeah! Even though I'm a man, I've always wanted to be a girl since I was a kid! Will the New World Studio not even give me the chance to fulfill my dream on the internet?!]
[Sigh, New World, I am so disappointed in you all! You don't think about us players at all!]
↳ [It can't be helped. The New World Studio understands us degenerates too well! Every single loophole for NSFW content has been completely plugged by them!]
↳ [Yeah, our psychology is completely in the palm of Anon's hand. Every filthy scheme we come up with gets dismantled by him!]
↳ [Anon, I curse you! May every charger you grab only work at one specific angle!]
"These guys always manage to come up with new tricks. Are they worried the New World platform isn't going to get shut down fast enough? The ESRB is watching my every move..." Lucien Sinclair muttered with a sigh, having read all of the netizens' complaints and comments. [TL/N: ESRB is a self-regulatory organization that assigns age and content ratings to video games.]
Fortunately, he was highly cautious, implementing all sorts of censorship and blockades to crush these players' messy fantasies. As it stood, in this battle of wits between the game developer and the players, he was still one step ahead.
Thinking of this, Lucien stretched his back. He could finally relax a bit.
He had finally finished grinding out Sekiro, just one day before its release date.
Otherwise, the game would have actually had to be delayed.
Game delays were very common. Some games were even delayed for years at a time. But Lucien used to be a gamer himself, so he knew exactly how much resentment those delays built up in loyal fans.
That was why he had to grit his teeth and push through.
Just then, Jenny Sinclair pushed open the study door and walked in, holding a bowl of grapes in her hands.
"Here, Luci, have some grapes!" Jenny offered enthusiastically.
"No time, I'm busy reading comments," Lucien replied. "These people comments are way too interesting, heh."
"Then I'll feed you," Jenny said, plucking a grape and holding it to Lucien's lips.
"I actually get this kind of VIP treatment?" Lucien chuckled, before asking, "But Sis, did you wash your hands? I remember you not being very hygienic..."
Jenny's smiling face instantly turned ice-cold. "I didn't wash them. In fact, I just came straight out of the bathroom, so you're just going to have to bear with it!"
Saying that, Jenny forcefully shoved the grape right into Lucien's mouth.
"Blegh!!!"
Lucien immediately made a gagging motion.
"Relax, I washed them! Look at that disgusted look on your face!" Jenny rolled her eyes, feeling utterly speechless. Then, remembering something, she plastered an infruating smile back onto her face. "So, uh, Luci, you must be tired after these past few days. Let me give you a shoulder massage..."
With that, Jenny actually walked up behind Lucien and began massaging his shoulders rhythmically.
"Today is the end of the world, isn't it?," Lucien nodded in deep satisfaction. Leaning back against the sofa, he closed his eyes. "A little harder."
Jenny obediently increased the pressure.
"So obedient... Mmm, what a qualified little maid," Lucien added.
Surprisingly, Jenny didn't get angry this time. Carefully choosing her words, she asked, "So, uh, Luci... is Sekiro finished yet?"
"How many times have you asked me that over the past few days?" Lucien grumbled. "But you asked at the right time today. Yeah, it's pretty much finished."
"Then... can I play it on stream first? You know, to give the players a better understanding of Sekiro!" Jenny immediately pitched her real motive, her true intentions finally revealed.