Chapter 1: Fate: The Big Order
"Recharge 100,000 Blue Star Coins to unlock VIP15 exclusive privileges and obtain the ultimate divine pet 'Golden Hell Dragon,' featuring full-map kills and every strike dealing fiery damage!"
"Are you still worried about not being able to defeat the boss? Click 'Auto-pathfinding' and 'Auto-battle' in the top right corner to free your hands and let you dominate the entire server even while you sleep!"
Listening to the emotionless, synthesized female voice ringing in his ears, Kirito abruptly ripped off the holographic immersive VR headset he was wearing, panting heavily.
"What kind of absolute garbage is this?!"
Kirito rubbed his throbbing temples, looking at the somewhat unfamiliar, cluttered rental apartment before him, as the two memories in his mind finally merged completely.
He had transmigrated.
This was a parallel world known as "Blue Star."
The technology tree of this world was developed in a very peculiar way; in terms of neural interfacing and VR virtual reality technology, it had reached the perfect stage of 100% realistic immersion.
However, in terms of the "Ninth Art"—game design philosophy—it seemed to still be stuck in the most primitive and crude "pay-to-win web game" era of Kirito's previous life.
Players here had never even heard of concepts like "ACGN," "tower defense," or "Soulslike parrying."
The games dominating the market all wore extremely exquisite and realistic 3D skins, but inside, they were all "pay-to-win trash" like *Hegemony* or *Immortal Venerable*, featuring automatic monster grinding and VIP level competitions.
"A waste of natural resources! Simply a waste of natural resources!"
As a veteran indie game producer from his past life, Kirito slapped his thigh in distress.
With such an invincible VR physics engine, they actually used it to make "auto-pathfinding" and "999 damage per strike" games?
Was the brain of every game designer in this parallel world filled with paste?
There were no grand, epic narrative performances, no adrenaline-pumping operational battles, and certainly no deep bonds that would make one willing to grind or shed tears for a character.
"The players of this world have such unrefined tastes."
Kirito sighed.
The original owner shared his name and was also a stubborn indie game producer.
Unable to stand those "pay-to-win trash" games, he borrowed a sum of money to try and make a "game with a soul."
However, because his coding skills were too poor and the outsourced art team ran off, the game he had spent two years on ended up stillborn, and he himself died suddenly at his computer from sheer frustration, which allowed Kirito to take over his body.
Now, not only had the original owner left behind not a single cent, but he also faced a debt of 100,000 the following month.
Ding—!
Just as Kirito was thinking about whether to pack up and run or find a job in an electronics factory, a crisp notification sound exploded in his mind.
[Detected that the host's soul fusion is complete.]
[Ninth Art · Emotion Collection System has been bound!]
Kirito's eyes lit up; web novels never lied to him.
The standard cheat for a transmigrator had arrived!
"System, introduce your functions."
[This system is dedicated to spreading true game culture throughout the multiverse.]
[As long as the games produced by the host can trigger intense emotional fluctuations in players (including but not limited to: shock, fanaticism, anger, sadness, breaking defenses, etc.), you can collect Emotion Points.]
[Emotion Points can be used in the system store to redeem top-tier game design documents, art assets, hall-of-fame original soundtrack libraries, and cross-era underlying physics code from your previous life.]
[Given that the host's current assets are negative, a novice support gift pack is now being issued. Do you wish to open it?]
"Does this even need asking? Open it immediately!"
Kirito didn't hesitate.
[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining: 1 Custom Game Generation Authorization.]
[Note: For this generation authorization, the system will automatically complete all art assets, soundtracks, and VR adaptation code. Please input the game concept and core gameplay you wish to create.]
Looking at the virtual light screen appearing before him, the corners of Kirito's mouth curled up wildly.
What did it mean to have a pillow delivered just as you were getting sleepy?
This meant he only needed to be a "Lead Designer," proposing concepts and changes, and the system would turn into the perfect cyber-employee, instantly creating the finished product!
In this world where game culture was as barren as a desert, to become an overnight hit, he needed a strong dose of medicine.
Not only did he need to deliver a dimensionality-reduction strike visually, but he also had to completely shatter their decadent concept that "you can clear the game brainlessly if you pay."
Countless names flashed through Kirito's mind. *Red Dead Redemption*, *Sekiro*, *Bloodborne*...
No, while these were great, the entry barrier for the audience was too high.
As the first game to open up the market, establish "ACGN gacha faith," and incidentally make crazy money to pay off debts, one name was absolutely the best choice.
"System, the game I want to make is named—'Fate/Grand Order'!"
Kirito's eyes burned with intensity, his hands typing rapidly on the virtual light screen as he began to input the core outline of the modified game.
"However, I don't want the tense and exciting command card combat of the original version."
"Change the core gameplay to 3D immersive hardcore tower defense!"
"Introduce the [Deployment Cost] mechanism from *Arknights*, packaged here as 'Magic Consumption (Cost)'."
"No matter how much money you've spent, if you don't have enough magic at the start, you can just let your five-star characters sit on the sidelines!"
"Add [Class Positioning]: Lancer as Vanguard, low cost to deploy and kill to recover magic; Saber as Guard, to block and tank damage; Archer for high-ground sniping and anti-air specialization; Caster for pure magic damage against large shields..."
As Kirito typed, he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
He could already imagine the expressions of those wealthy "whales" in this world who were used to full-screen instant kills at the start. When they pulled a fully maxed-out five-star character but couldn't deploy it, and were finally bitten to death by a group of the lowest-level skeletons rushing into their base, their expressions of broken defenses and collapse would be priceless.
Not to mention, the most terrifying aspect of the *FGO* IP was never the gameplay, but that breathtakingly grand Type-Moon worldview, as well as the invincible script!
From the First Singularity to the Seventh Singularity, from the burning Fuyuki City to the Holy Round Table Realm, and then to the Absolute Demonic Beast Front.
When these players from another world who had never tasted refined grain experienced the great hero Arash's "Stella (Meteor Streak)" that tore through the sky in VR...
Kirito stroked his chin: "Wouldn't the Emotion Points explode instantly?"
[Ding! Game architecture received.]
[Integrating *FGO* art library... Reconstructing 3D tower defense combat models... Importing god-tier soundtrack packs from Yuki Kajiura and Hiroyuki Sawano...]
[Game generation complete! Currently unlocked up to 'Prologue: Singularity F · Burning Fuyuki City'.]
A hard drive icon flowing with golden light appeared in Kirito's system space.
Such high efficiency.
Kirito rubbed his hands and skillfully opened the largest official game distribution platform on Blue Star—[Global Network].
Registered an indie producer account.
Filled in the studio name: [Chaldea].
Then, Kirito did not directly upload the game, but instead extracted a three-minute CG trailer from the art assets generated by the system and selected "Publish."
The marketing in this world was extremely crude; whether a game was good or not depended entirely on how much traffic you bought. But Kirito didn't plan to spend a single cent.
True Ninth Art, in this fishpond full of trashy reskinned games, even dropping a single dragon scale would be enough to set off a monstrous wave!
In the trailer's description, Kirito typed two lines:
"Humanity's epic has already been burned to ashes, and the future has turned into a sea of fire."
"You, as the final Master, will summon the Heroic Spirits of the past and present to reverse the end of the world."
"The first 3D epic hardcore strategy game, 'Fate/Grand Order,' please look forward to it."
"PS: This game extremely tests your intelligence and strategy; those with slow reflexes or brainless pay-to-win players should enter with caution."
Click, upload!
After finishing all this, Kirito stretched comfortably and leaned back in his chair.
"The bait has been cast; now let's see which big fish bites first."