At this moment, all the viewers watching the live stream couldn't help but sigh in emotional awe, and some were even sobbing uncontrollably.
In the game, Benjamin stood where he was and let out a heavy sigh. At this moment, a mixed bag of emotions churned within his heart, incredibly complex.
In the distance, those six Sea Emperor babies were still rubbing against their mother's colossal head, seemingly making their final goodbyes.
For these children, their mother passed away the moment they were born, forcing them to become independent on their very first day of life. This was undoubtedly incredibly cruel, but for them to be born at all was already an immense stroke of luck.
After bidding farewell to their mother, the six Sea Emperor babies swam toward Benjamin. They wiggled their upper limbs and tentacles, looking remarkably cute.
The Sea Emperor babies hadn't grown enough to possess telepathic wave abilities yet, so Benjamin couldn't converse with them. However, they were well-behaved and gentle, swimming circles around Benjamin like a pack of little puppies.
Looking at the six incredibly adorable Sea Emperor babies blinking their large eyes, Benjamin instinctively wanted to reach out and give them a good rub.
However, these Sea Emperor babies looked to be roughly the same size as him. With his hand halfway in the air, Benjamin hesitated, not quite daring to touch them.
One of the Sea Emperor babies seemed to understand Benjamin's intention. It actively swam over, using its chubby, rounded head to nudge Benjamin's hand.
Seeing this scene, the viewers marveled once again.
[They so cuteee~]
[Wow, the Sea Emperor baby seems to have guessed Benjamin's thoughts! It actually approached him for a rub on its own accord!]
[Yeah, so smart!]
[Of course! After all, they're the children of the Sea Emperor. Since the mother was so intelligent, the kids naturally aren't stupid either!]
[I didn't expect we'd get to pet a baby Sea Emperor at the end. Just for this, I'm definitely clearing this game!]
[I want to pet the baby Sea Emperor too, but I don't want to watch the mother die...]
After letting Benjamin pet them for a while, the baby Sea Emperors let out another soft chirp at him, wagged their tails, and swam off toward the spatial teleportation portal.
The Sea Emperor babies were already prepared to face the new world.
Watching their retreating figures disappear into the portal one by one, a deeply gratified expression appeared on Benjamin's face.
At least he had done a good deed in this game.
"Alright, Chat, this walkthrough video is about to come to an end..." Benjamin's voiceover drifted over at this moment. "What comes next is very simple. After curing the disease, you just go disable the Precursor enforcement tower, build the rocket, and then you can board the rocket to leave this planet, bringing the game to its conclusion."
"However, I won't be demonstrating that part of the story. Consider it a bit of suspense left for everyone, so you can experience the subsequent plot for yourselves. Aside from that, because I was purely rushing to clear the game, there are still many places in the world that I haven't explored. I hope players who want to take their time exploring don't copy my style."
"Well, that's it for the video. See you next time!"
The video ended there. Unsurprisingly, Benjamin's characteristically high-quality walkthrough video went viral across the entire internet once again. Trending #1 on Youtube, pinned to the top of major video platforms, and rapidly spreading to other networks all of this had already become standard procedure.
The subsequent plot of Subnautica also ignited a heated wave of discussion on the internet once more.
[I really didn't expect it. The ending of Subnautica truly left me with a mixed of emotions. It's shocking yet funny, heartbreaking yet moving.]
[Yeah, the Sea Emperor babies were born with our help, but the mother died.]
[The death of the Sea Emperor mother genuinely made me bawl my eyes out. I cried for several minutes just watching the video!]
[Not only that, but the reason behind the Precursors' extinction is also incredibly ironic. A race with such highly advanced technology ultimately died from their own technology and arrogance!]
[The games developed by the devs are just too amazing. Whether it's the visual atmosphere or the plot, everything is top-tier!]
[The game is awesome, it just takes a heavy toll on the players!]
[I don't care anymore. I'd rather let the Sea Emperor babies stay unborn and never clear the game than see the Sea Emperor mother die. It breaks my heart too much!]
The release of Subnautica's ending could be said to have dealt a heavy blow to all the players.
The mysterious boss that everyone had been looking forward to in the early stages turned out to be nothing more than a pitiful mother who craved freedom and cared deeply for her children.
The answer the Precursors had been painstakingly seeking for so long was just one step away, only to fall apart at the final hurdle due to a ridiculous and absurd reason.
This game was clearly different from others. There was no final boss, nor any monsters that absolutely had to be defeated. It simply laid an alien planet, as vivid and genuine as the real world, right before the players, letting them experience all the joys and sorrows within it.
Without a doubt, Subnautica directly became the devs' masterpiece that solidified his legendary status.
Of course, his previous game, Silent Hill PT, was also a legendary masterpiece.
However, for a god-tier producer like New World Game Studio, achieving legendary status twice didn't matter at all. This was the collective consensus of the vast player base.
"Lucien, someone posted a completion video for Subnautica!" On the afternoon the video was released, Jenny found Lucien, who had just finished his work and returned to the villa, and spoke up excitedly.
"That fast?" Lucien raised his eyebrows in surprise, unable to help but shake his head.
"Do you wanna know who posted it?" Jenny asked again.
"Who?"
"Benjamin!"
"Him again?!" Lucien couldn't help but laugh. "This kid is pretty good, he's got potential. Looks like I'll have to crank up the difficulty for my next game. I can't let him clear it this easily."
"Let's not talk about that for now. Lucien, tell me, is there any possibility of saving the Sea Emperor mother?!" Jenny pressed impatiently instead.
Only at this moment did Lucien notice that his sister still had undried tear stains on her face, and her eyes were completely red. Had she just been crying?!
It seemed she had already watched the walkthrough video.
Lucien pondered for a moment before saying, "Sorry, the Sea Emperor mother can't be saved in the game. She's destined to die."
"Aaargh!" Hearing this, Jenny instantly broke down a bit. She grabbed Lucien's arm and shook it back and forth. "You're too heartless! How could you have the heart to write the Sea Emperor mom to die!"
"I'm just that cold-hearted. Games are just like life, they only have flavor when there's both sorrow and joy," Lucien explained, then let out a sigh. "Sigh, video game walkthroughs really shouldn't exist. It deprives players who haven't reached the subsequent plot of enjoying the fun of the unknown."
Speaking up to this point, Lucien couldn't help but shake his head.
"Players can't enjoy the fun? More like your fun of tormenting players is gone!" Jenny roasted him sharply. "With a walkthrough, at least we later players can find out exactly what conspiracies you've hidden in the game's content!"
"Having a Warper teleport players into acid, hiding a Ghost Leviathan inside a massive skull, and even designing a fire-breathing Sea Dragon Leviathan... you are truly sinister to the core!
If they didn't watch the video, who knows how many players would fall into your traps and howl from your abuse!!"
Facing this series of frantic rants from Jenny, Lucien remained expressionless, merely shrugging. "What do you know? This is called being a glutton for punishment. Don't you see that even though the entire internet is complaining about me, does any of them dare to say Subnautica isn't fun? Besides, I'll say it again: if you don't like it, don't play!"
After all, what you enjoy in a game is the sense of achievement and thrill that comes from overcoming difficulties. So, players more or less possess a bit of a masochistic streak.
Lucien grasped this point flawlessly.
Jenny was instantly left speechless, because she felt that Lucien's words were actually spot on!
After all, it could be clearly seen from the unanimous praise for Subnautica all over the internet.
"Fine, I'll admit I can't outtalk you. I'm done chatting with you. I'm going to play Subnautica myself and strive to pet the baby Sea Emperors as soon as possible!" Having said that, Jenny turned around and slipped away.
As for Lucien, he sat down on the sofa, closing his eyes to rest for a moment.
He had just gone out earlier to set up his servers.
With the help of the bank manager, Lucien successfully purchased a batch of high-end servers. Then, Lucien used the System to give them all a massive upgrade, successfully transforming them into black technology servers.
Next, Lucien bought a private garage within the residential district, temporarily placing the black technology servers inside it.
With this, the server issue was fully resolved. Next, he could officially construct the official website and launch the gaming platform belonging to New World Studio.
Whether it was the official website or the simplified gaming platform, Lucien had already built them. As of right now, he was only missing one last thing: the virtual avatar for the Gaia AI.
Gaia was to be integrated into the gaming platform to manage it and serve the players concurrently. Merely designing a bracelet avatar was naturally far from enough; he needed to give her a fully fleshed-out appearance.
Right, he had previously held a competition to design a virtual avatar for Gaia, and that event was currently in full swing. He might as well check on its status.
Lucien casually picked up the iPad Pro M4 beside him and tapped it open to take a look.
A single glance left him thoroughly startled; the submission files he had received had already reached tens of thousands!
"Wow, the players really are enthusiastic!"
Lucien marveled as he scrolled through each painting one by one. Some were drawn very crudely and simply, depicting Gaia to look almost like the female ghost in his game Silent Hill.
There were also extremely exquisite drawings that illustrated even the texture of the skin crystal clear.
Some depicted her wearing magnificent garments like an empress, while others showed her in tattered clothes, or simply wearing nothing at all. What's worse is that someone draw her with a huge round belly.
Lucien couldn't help but smile. He hadn't expected that hosting an art contest would actually net him a wave of eye candy.
Continuing to browse, the received manuscripts truly opened Lucien's eyes. Abstract, Fauvism, Impressionism... they had practically everything.
However, no matter what style it was, Lucien didn't look down on any of them. After all, these drawings were the fruit of the players' painstaking efforts, representing their love for the games he had produced.
It was just that these tens of thousands of submissions were simply too numerous for him to finish looking through alone. Lucien decided he would just browse them piece by piece, and the moment he saw one that satisfied him, he would directly make the final call and select it.
In any case, the original artwork concept wasn't actually that crucial; what mattered more was the subsequent 3D modeling.
After browsing like this for nearly an hour, a specific drawing finally caught Lucien's attention. The Gaia in this drawing had a delicate face and a pair of large, captivating ocean blue eyes, looking exceptionally gentle.
"Oh, this one isn't bad." Lucien immediately nodded. The very first moment he saw it, he felt it was quite decent.
Should I just go with this drawing?
Lucien pondered, feeling a bit hesitant because this piece was merely decent. It didn't meet the ideal criteria in Lucien's mind; not only did it fall short, but it also had a considerable gap from his ideal choice.
What was his ideal version like? It definitely needed an exquisitely perfect face, slender shoulders, a tight waist and abdomen, and it only needed to be slim in those specific areas.
Wait a minute... Lucien suddenly came to a realization. The virtual avatar of his ideals... wasn't that the Goddess of the gaming community?! She practically fulfilled every single one of his requirements, didn't she?!
Since that was the case, why not simply use Tifa as Gaia's virtual avatar?
In any case, the game Final Fantasy did not exist in this world.
The 3D animation community had suffered from crude models for far too long, and it required a person of noble aspirations like Lucien to go rescue them.
If he created Tifa at this time, it would be equivalent to saving the masses from fire and water. The perverts... erm, wait, the players would absolutely go wild with joy!
For the sake of these suffering players, Lucien finally made his decision. Alright, let's do exactly that!
[Tifa image:]
No sooner said than done, he sat down directly in front of his desktop computer and got to work.
While Lucien was busy working, other players were still roaming through the world of Subnautica.
After Benjamin produced his walkthrough video, many players began following its contents to push the game's story forward in order to see the Sea Emperor mother and the Sea Emperor babies as soon as possible.
It had to be said that with Benjamin clearing the path ahead, they genuinely felt a lot more reassured.
However, they were only pushing the plot along; none of them wanted to end the game so simply. More players were still exploring the game, and along with their exploration, even more beautiful scenery of the wondrous water world was unveiled.
For instance, PewDiePie, who had been completely obsessed with breeding fish, published a video with the title. [I Found a Tree in Subnautica... And I Even Found a Ghost Leviathan Egg!]
Pewdiepie new videos instantly drawing a massive wave of viewers to check it out.
"Chat, don't rush to clear Subnautica, because I've discovered an awesome place!"
In the video, Pewdiepie shouted. At this moment, he was piloting the Prawn Suit, advancing along the Lost River. However, unlike Benjamin, he didn't travel along the main path of the Lost River, instead entering the complex cave system off to the side.
After twisting and turning through the caves for a while, a multicolored tree that was beautiful to the absolute extreme suddenly appeared within everyone's field of vision!
This tree stood roughly forty meters tall. At the tips of its branches grew clusters of fruits that glowed in various vibrant colors like neon lights, illuminating the surrounding eerie green environment.
[Holy crap, I didn't expect such a beautiful view to exist inside such a gloomy river!]
"This tree looks so pretty! It doesn't look like the scenery inside Subnautica at all.]
[Ahem, the last time this game had scenery this beautiful was the Jellyshroom Cave, and then we got scared shitless by those crabsnakes!]
[Look over there, there's a Ghost Leviathan!]
While the viewers were marveling, they also quickly spotted a Ghost Leviathan patrolling around this extraordinarily beautiful tree.
"Chat, I've scanned it. This beautiful tree is called the Tree of Life. But I have even more explosive news to tell you, which is that on the trunk of the Tree of Life, you can find Ghost Leviathan eggs!" Pewdiepie said excitedly. "This is precisely the reason that Ghost Leviathan is guarding this spot. It's protecting its children!"
"So my purpose in coming here right now is to steal an egg! Let's first launch a decoy torpedo to make this Ghost Leviathan leave!"
Having said that, Pewdiepie launched a decoy torpedo, successfully luring away the Ghost Leviathan by the tree.
At this moment, he quickly utilized the grappling hook mode to rapidly arrive in front of the Tree of Life. Only then did the chat see clearly that, sure enough, nestled within the multicolored foliage was an egg roughly one meter in size, radiating a soft blue light.
[Does this mean we can actually breed Ghost Leviathans too?!!!]
[Yeah, and you can read 30 chapter ahead on patreon .com/EdgyReader too!]