A new game in the fan-made section, titled "Dazai's Trans-dimensional Plea for Help," stirred up a frenzy among players.
"The only miracle in the myriad of worlds, Dazai Osamu, holding a book, is planning a brilliant usurpation. Now, the future leader, Dazai, is severely understaffed and requires several enthusiastic individuals to rush to Yokohama to help complete his grand plan. Click below to sign up enthusiastically~"
"The world's first Virtual game."
"Casual, high-freedom role-playing."
"———Sign-up Link———"
At first glance, both the game's title and description seemed typical of a fan project. But what caused the uproar was its bold claim of being a Virtual game.
"Laughable! Who are they trying to fool? Technology isn't that advanced yet, and they dare claim Virtual games?"
Furious, many rushed to the company's official website—yes, a small fan-made game even had an official site.
But the moment they clicked in, they were stunned by the model on the homepage. Could a human really look that handsome?
"What's the meaning of putting a cosplay photo as the homepage banner for a fan-made game?"
When they realized the model was Dazai Osamu from the Dark Era, both those familiar with Bungo Stray Dogs and those who weren't fell silent.
Game Forum
1st Floor [OP] Refused Dazai Many Times
"Have you guys seen that Virtual game? Who's the coser on the homepage?"
"Wuwuwu, the moment I saw him I was shocked. He looks so much like Dazai—exactly as I'd imagined him. How can someone look like Dazai Osamu?!!!"
"Here are the screenshots I took. Does anyone recognize him?"
——[Image]——
2nd Floor Riceball_lover
"Wait—did someone just walk out of Bungo Stray Dogs?"
"How many Dazais can you eat looking like that?"
5th Floor Six Eyes
"Is he the game's promotional cosplayer? Let me crawl over to see the beauty."
11th Floor Chaldea Master
"You're telling me that's a cosplayer? Looking like that?"
"This is Dazai himself (confirmed)."
20th Floor unlucky Byte
"Watson ! Three minutes! Get me all the information on this company!!!"
23rd Floor So You Play Genshin Impact Too
"Just came back from the official website. Turns out the company modeled him digitally. He's not a Cosplayer. There's even a promotional animation you can watch."
——[Link]——
Rather than a mere game trailer, the so-called promotional animation looked more like a high-budget special effects film.
A black-haired young man—Dazai—stood before a mirror. Bandages scattered across the floor, his missing left eye lending him a sickly, gloomy air.
Beside the video, small text appeared:
[He, Dazai Osamu, paid a heavy price to reclaim humanity's future.]
The camera zoomed in on his empty eye socket before cutting to Dazai in a sleek black suit. He strolled leisurely through a hail of bullets, always wearing a mocking smile.
[He, Dazai Osamu, was forced onto the battlefield himself due to a lack of subordinates.]
What followed was a quickly fleeting sequence of clips.
An uncle in a white lab coat, holding the hand of a delicately dressed and adorable blonde loli, was leisurely strolling on the street.
At this moment, the narration chimed in: "Time is running out for humanity."
A white-haired man with a broom-like hairstyle and an eye patch sat casually on the railing of a dilapidated building's top floor, casually tossing out an energy ball that instantly killed the ugly Cursed Spirits swarming towards him.
"Our enemies are not just these kawaaiiii Cursed Spirits."
A long-haired silver-haired man in a long black trench coat leaned against a wall, smoking. As if sensing someone watching him, he coldly glared at the camera with a raised eye.
"There are also those who are human like us."
Finally, the screen went black.
"[Terrifying enemies, a boss who relentlessly pushes himself, and a world on the brink of destruction. Mr. Dazai, physically and mentally exhausted, sends out a plea for help to all of you.]"
"Dazai's Trans-dimensional Plea for Help."
At that point, whether the game was truly Virtual no longer mattered.
The trailer was only forty seconds long, yet left everyone begging for more.
44th Floor Mi4da, What Number Is This?"Forty seconds? Bad review!"
62nd Floor Riceball_lover"Wait—was that uncle and loli Alice and Mori Ougai? And I swear I saw Gojo Satoru and Gin. How many series did they mash together? And is this really animation or live-action?"
77th Floor Hawaii Flight Instructor"So… no one's going to tell me what series Dazai is from?"—"Bungo Stray Dogs. But judging by the promo, this is Leader Dazai from the 'IF' timeline novel. You can read it if you want to catch up."
94th Floor Rimuru Is My Wife"If they're this good at making animations, why waste it on a game?"
118th Floor Chuya's Little Wife"This is Leader Dazai before he takes power, right? Wuwuwu, he's too handsome. My rebellious tears are flowing."
147th Floor Chaldea Master"I still don't buy the whole 'holographic technology' thing. But for this animation? I don't care—I'm in."
181st Floor Rotating Assault Blue Lancer"Dazai reclaiming humanity's future? Is he Chaldea's last Master now? And him having no subordinates makes me laugh, even if it's tragic."
196th Floor [OP] Refused Dazai Many Times"Even if the story feels shaky, I'll happily rush in and be Mr. Dazai's bulletproof vest."
216th Floor Edogawa Shinichi"So our mission is to help Leader Dazai seize power? Got it. I'll rush Mori Ougai first."
241st Floor Bald Cape Hero"Someone did an in-depth analysis of the company. Bottom line: Yokohama Diversified might actually be developing Virtual tech. Their stores are popping up in major cities, with rumors about selling game capsules."
Amidst this heated atmosphere, the game's official website finally updated its homepage announcement.
It began with polite thanks for people's affection, then admitted that Virtual technology did exist. They would draw five lucky players from the reservation list to receive a free game capsule, and these five players would enter the game for internal beta testing.
At the same time, the pre-sale link for the game capsule was also opened.
As soon as the announcement was made, the forum instantly became lively again.
1st Floor [OP] Chaldea Master"Did you see the price? 88,000?! Why not just rob me?"
27th Floor Rotating Assault Blue Lancer"Scam company. Disperse, disperse."
56th Floor King"Still worth reserving a slot. What if you win?"
178th Floor Ultimate Being's Loincloth"No way—100 capsules sold out in one minute?!"
215th Floor Bald Cape Hero"You all call it a scam, yet bought them faster than anyone. Anime fans are too easy to fleece."
347th Floor [OP] Chaldea Master"Let's wait for the slap in the face."
444th Floor Mi4da, What Number Is This?
"Finally, the lottery results are out! One of them is a game streamer, and he said he's going to live stream the entire game process for us!"
Unlucky Byte was an ordinary game streamer. The basic operation for game streamers is to jump on new games as soon as they come out, and this time it was a virtual game.
Who wouldn't be tempted by a virtual game?
Who would dare say they hadn't imagined themselves in a virtual game while reading novels or watching anime about them?
When the official team released the pre-sale link for the game capsule, he successfully snatched one with his twenty years of single-hand speed.
But what he didn't expect was that he, who was usually a lottery jinx, actually won! The! Prize! This time!
Although he knew that the wool came from the sheep, the moment the game capsule was delivered to his hands, Unlucky Byte still shed tears of emotion. This was his first time winning a prize.
The game capsule was heavy and large. The delivery man saw that he couldn't move it alone and kindly helped him carry the game capsule into his home.
Looking at the tightly wrapped giant box, he suppressed the urge to tear it open and explore its contents. He opened his live stream and confidently changed his stream's name.
"[Lucky Byte's Game Capsule Unboxing]"
Key point: Lucky.
He leaned forward, skillfully adjusted the focus, and then greeted the camera.
"Good afternoon, everyone. This is streamer Lucky Byte. You can just call me Byte. A holographic game was released the other day, right? The game's official team drew five lucky players, gave them game capsules, and invited them to participate in the game's internal beta."
"As you know, I've transformed from unlucky to lucky this time! I won this official website's 88,000-yuan game capsule. From now on, you can call me Lucky Byte. Here, I also want to thank the official daddy for the game capsule." Saying this, Byte pointed the camera at the giant delivery box.
"This is the game capsule I just received, still unopened. Now I'm going to do a simple unboxing." After fixing the camera, he took out scissors and began to unpackage the delivery, taking breaks to answer questions from people in the bullet chat.
[First wave of good luck—]
[Fast forward to the official launch of the game.]
[When is the game's internal beta? I can't wait to see the slap in the face. Now any random company dares to do Virtual games.]
[I'm still quite excited about Virtual technology. Don't you guys look forward to that kind of black technology when you watch sci-fi movies?]
[Please, Second Life, Virtual games are super cool, aren't they? I'm super looking forward to it.]
After layers of packaging were removed, a pile of parts and an installation manual were revealed.
Byte began to assemble the game capsule according to the steps in the manual.
"Speaking of which, have you all seen the promotional animation?"
"From the promotional animation, this game combines many series. I wonder if the plot will be too stiff."
[It's labeled as a casual game, so don't expect too much from the plot.]
[It doesn't matter if the plot is a bit weak, as long as the modeling is good, at least at the same level as the promotional animation, right?]
[I've had a question for a long time: Does this game have copyright?]
"The game team said the test channel will open at 9 AM tomorrow, and you can log in at 8 AM to customize your character and complete some basic pre-game settings." After more than half an hour of assembly, Byte finally had the game capsule mostly put together.
He let out a sigh of relief. Unlike the incredibly cool, dazzling, and advanced-tech filled image he had in his mind, the assembled game capsule looked like an oval advanced egg. Below was a bed, and above was a glass lid. Aside from a bunch of miscellaneous wires, it looked very much like a space floatation tank.
[Laughable, did they just send a bed to fool people because there's no advanced technology?]
[Why does this bed have a lid? Aren't they afraid of suffocating?]
[What are those wires for?]
"Hmm... let me see. This wire is the power cord, this is the induction device, these patches need to be attached to the limbs and the brain..." Although slightly different from what he imagined, Byte wasn't disappointed.
He connected all these wires according to the instructions, and when the power was turned on, the power light at the very top of the game capsule lit up, indicating that the machine was functioning normally.
"Although everyone is still skeptical about the existence of Virtual games, I believe some people, like me, are full of anticipation for this game. I'm just asking, who doesn't want to get close to their 2D waifu?"
[Yes! I'm super looking forward to getting close to Dazai—]
[Picking up the Dazai from the promotional animation and doing a hundred-meter dash.]
[You all hug Dazai, then Alice is mine!]
[Alice is my wife!]
[Everyone is Mori Ougai.]
"Today's unboxing live stream ends here. I'll be live on time at 8 AM tomorrow. See you tomorrow." Keeping an eye on the time, mindful of tomorrow morning's game internal beta, Byte was careful not to accidentally stay up all night.