To ascend, I had no choice but to create games-Chapter 447 - 266: Incredible Miracle (Part Two)_1

Chapter 447: Chapter 266: Incredible Miracle (Part Two)_1

Hoffman’s connection to gaming could be traced back to the 1970s.

He was Prussian, but later came to the United States with his parents, where he encountered his first gaming console, “Invaders from Space.”

He still remembered it was a dreary evening, with low-hanging clouds and a stifling heat that enveloped everything like a thick film, leaving little room to breathe.

At that time, Hoffman’s father owned a small tavern, but for some reason whether it was ill-suited for the location or not, it had suffered from a lack of customers for a long time.

To save the tavern on the brink of bankruptcy, Hoffman’s father had sought various ways out, ultimately coming up with a wildly imaginative decision.

He brought in a gaming machine.

...

It was a coin-operated arcade machine, five cents per play. At first, Hoffman’s father regretted his purchase and couldn’t understand why he had spent so much money on a piece of junk.

However, once he had plugged in the power and positioned the machine in a corner of the bar, the atmosphere inside changed completely in an instant.

At the time, Hoffman was working as a waiter at the tavern, and he vividly remembered how the radio was broadcasting a baseball game that evening, with the competition reaching a fever pitch as the fourth batter had just hit what looked like a home run, and everyone was waiting for that moment which could turn everything around.

But when the arcade machine powered up and displayed its startup screen, Hoffman knew no one would care about the baseball game anymore.

Visit fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm for the best novel reading experi𝒆nce.

Everyone was gazing at the marvelous machine; the few customers present were astonished by the contraption and couldn’t believe the little spaceship on screen could be controlled.

Someone approached out of curiosity, tried it out, and after inserting a coin exclaimed in amazement, “They’re moving!”

Rows of enemies symbolizing aliens advanced methodically from above, while the player could only maneuver the small spaceship below, shooting ceaselessly from behind the shelters, and every enemy killed was met with wild cheers; the whole tavern was as lively as a festival.

The difficulty level of the game might seem low by today’s standards, but at that time it was an insurmountable challenge. Customers were frenziedly feeding it five-cent coins, and Hoffman had to open the coin box to collect the money every two hours.

A single small machine revitalized the whole tavern. Hoffman’s mother, who had been cursing her husband just the day before, led him upstairs the very next day and, the following year, gifted Hoffman with a baby brother.

But that’s not the point.

The moment he saw that arcade machine, Hoffman felt as if he had witnessed a miracle.

His eyes shining, he scrutinized every detail on the screen, not missing a thing.

Despite the simple pixels, to Hoffman, it was nothing less than an epic battle.

He even began to fantasize names for each of the fighter crafts, gave nicknames to every pilot who sacrificed themselves, and had even thought out the epitaphs for their gravestones.

Every evening after the tavern had closed, he would come downstairs alone, then play the game over and over, just for the cost of a five-cent coin.

It was his first encounter with gaming, the impact of which left a profound imprint on his mind, and directly influenced his path into the gaming industry.

After that, he studied diligently, and upon realizing that he had no talent for game development, he decisively turned to game promotion and established the Cayman Company.

Decades spent in the industry, he had witnessed Atari’s crash, Nintendo’s rise, the console wars between Sega and Sony, and the birth of one peculiar gaming console after another.

But no matter how many excellent games he saw, none could compare to “Invaders from Space” that he had once encountered.

He had thought such a profound experience would come only once in his life, but just now, he had felt it once again.

It took him two attempts to officially enter the game, but once he was in, the scenery he saw left him utterly overwhelmed.

The prairie landscape was picturesque, with a gentle, soft breeze brushing against his face, cool river water soaking his body, and herds of elephants playing around him.

As an elephant, Hoffman experienced an unprecedented sense of freedom. His aging body seemed to vanish at that moment, replaced by a massive form filled with surging vitality.

Climbing out of the gaming pod, it took Hoffman a while to wake from the dream. Then, he realized what he had just seen.

Something that could reinvent the gaming industry.

If this device hit the market, most gaming companies would have to pivot. The only hope for those unwilling to transition was the hope that the costs wouldn’t come down.

But as long as the cost of the gaming pod fell below one hundred thousand, even those resisting the change would have to pivot.

Hoffman exhausted all the praises he knew, then grabbed Gao Tianyun and asked, “This machine is truly genius, how did you do it?”

Elated by Hoffman’s praise, Gao Tianyun still said, “Mysterious Mirror and Mr. Fang are the true masterminds.”

“So you also played a part, you guys are great. Get ready, you’ll be founding a trillion-dollar industry, and you are the innovators of the gaming industry! I want to reserve an exhibition booth in advance, our girls have to be the most dazzling in the day after tomorrow’s expo.”

Watching Hoffman rush out, Mysterious Mirror asked doubtfully, “Isn’t the old man too excited? Isn’t this bad for his health? He won’t get so worked up that it causes some sort of incident, will he?”

“He won’t,” Fang Cheng said calmly, “at least not for another twenty years.”