Meanwhile.

In a tiny one-bedroom rental, childish singing echoed from the bathroom—Shen Miaomiao was clearly in a great mood.

After all, based on the data summary from just yesterday, the YiYou X2 sold over 30,000 units on its first day in China, and more than 10,000 overseas. That totaled over 46,000 units sold—an excellent result.

But!

That was just the first day.

In theory, the YiYou X2's sales would gradually decline over the next two weeks. Even if it didn’t drop at all—say it somehow kept up 46,000 units per day—that’d still just amount to 690,000 units over 15 days.

Now, according to the sales stats from Huayu Entertainment, Titanfall had sold over 25,000 copies on day one, giving it a platform share of around 54%.

Meaning—

In the best-case scenario—

Which means me—

Shen Miaomiao!

—will get a 90-million-yuan loss statement. Based on the 11x rebate rule, I’d get back 990 million in rebate funds.

Nearly a billion!!

Get-rich-quick moment!

Miaomiao wins!

Every time she thought about it, she couldn't help but grin to herself.

She rinsed the soap suds off her face, shut the tap, dried off, then picked up her tube of Yumeijing. As she hummed a children’s song, she squeezed out a little cream and gently rubbed it over her face.

"Little Swallow, pretty clothes, you come here every spring..."

Patting her soft, smooth cheeks, she grabbed her phone and scrolled through Weibo’s trending topics, looking for something fun—

"I asked the swallow, why do you come... and the swallow said—"

“Holy sht, what the hll?!”

That wasn't part of the song—the shriek came from Shen Miaomiao herself.

Because right there, in the “Entertainment & Gaming” section of Weibo’s trending board, at #18, was:

#Titanfall (Hot Topic)#

Not good!

Her heart nearly skipped a beat!

Right now, the last thing she wanted to see was any news about Titanfall going viral!

Because!

Titanfall was already hot enough!

It had blown way past what a 170 million yuan investment game should be doing!

If someone fanned the flames even more now?

The consequences could be catastrophic!

With that thought, Shen Miaomiao immediately tapped into the topic to investigate—

And promptly burst out laughing!

Turned out, the trending post was a scene that had just taken place in Tuanzi’s livestream.

Amid Tuanzi’s furious scream of “That bstard Gu Sheng, I’ll never forgive you!”*—the screen was overflowing with bullet comments and joy.

The reason for her shriek?

Had Shen Miaomiao cracking up.

Too ridiculous!

What the h*ll was wrong with Gu? Why would he model himself into the game—as the main villain, no less!

Such chaotic evil energy!

She tapped open the comments below. By then, thousands of people had already joined in:

“The King of Absurdity lives up to his name.”

“Sheng-ge really has some acting chops—don’t forget he shot his own game’s promo.”

“All I wanna do is beat the s**t outta that b*stard.”

“Calling him 'Dog Sheng' is clunky—how about 'Old Bastard Gu'? (big brain moment)”

“It’s only fair you have to kill your own NPC. (lol)”

“I don’t get it, but I’m shocked and watching it on loop, trying to figure out what mental state he was in when he made this decision.”

“His mental state’s been stable—stably insane.”

“Seriously, who in their right mind puts themselves in a game as the big bad boss?”

“I bet anything this f***er won’t die at the end. No way he’d let himself get killed off.”

“Makes sense though. Judging by the story so far, he’s just a merc leader—there’s definitely a bigger boss.”

“Honestly though, he looks pretty badass. (even if he totally deserves to die)…”

The more Shen Miaomiao read, the harder she laughed. Giggles bubbled up non-stop.

This kind of joke didn’t affect the game’s sales. Even if it did, the impact was minimal—it was just abstract chaos, after all.

Still, she was curious what was going through Gu Sheng’s head when he made that choice, so she sent him a message—

Ding-dong.

Gu Sheng was watching the stream when his chat app started blowing up with notifications.

He switched tabs—

Shen Miaomiao had spammed his inbox:

[Little Nezha]: You asleep? What’re you up to? Knock knock knock—is anyone home? Hellooooo??

He had her nickname saved as “Little Nezha.”

Gu Sheng chuckled:

[Sam]: One ping is enough. I’m watching the stream. What’s up?

[Little Nezha]: Admiring your villainous self, are we?

Gu Sheng blinked at that:

[Sam]: How’d you know? You didn’t even finish reading page one of my design doc.

[Little Nezha]: You’re trending, big bro! You’re literally blowing up on Weibo! The King of Abstract!

Gu Sheng opened Weibo, only to find 99+ mentions flooding his notifications.

He laughed:

[Sam]: Reactions are pretty wild, huh. I guess no one’s done this kind of thing before.

[Little Nezha]: So what were you thinking back then? Can I interview you, the legendary Old Bastard Gu? (sparkly eyes)

What was he thinking?

Her question made Gu Sheng pause and smirk.

What else?

If only she could see the emotion value stats skyrocketing in his system—his motive would be crystal clear!

Exactly.

The real reason he modeled himself into the game?

To spike the players’ emotion values.

And later, near the game’s final act, as one of the big bads, he had a very important mission to complete personally.

He was sure by then, players would be even more emotionally charged!

But!

He couldn’t exactly explain all that to Little Nezha, so he just replied:

[Sam]: Sounded fun.

[Little Nezha]: Just for fun?

[Sam]: Yup. Just for fun.

[Little Nezha]: Then next time let me join in too. I wanna be an NPC!

Tch.

That message made Gu Sheng raise an eyebrow.

Holy sh*t, that’s actually a great idea!

Come to think of it, there was a top-tier game that would be perfect for adding both him and Little Nezha into the mix.

And if that game was played in a sensory pod? The experience would be off the charts!

Now that sounded fun!

He grinned.

[Sam]: Deal. Not only will I add you in, I’ll play it with you too.

[Shen Miaomiao]: Yay~! (excited kitty)

After that brief chat, Gu Sheng said goodnight to her and returned to the stream.

He knew—what was coming next would deliver another emotional punch to the players.

Grrrhh…

Dai Xiaomei opened her eyes again—it was already bright outside.

A low growl and sharp pain jolted her fully awake. She looked down from where she lay on the cold ground—

And saw an alien creature, the size of a full-grown cheetah, its body covered in spiked armor-like skin, gnawing at her pant leg.

Hunter Beast. A natural predator native to the planet Typhon. Highly aggressive and dangerously fierce.

In that moment, woman and beast locked eyes.

“Motherf**er! What kinda rabid dog—get the hll off me!”

Dai Xiaomei flinched and instinctively kicked the beast square in the face!

That only made it angrier.

With a roar, the creature lunged at her neck like a berserk hound!

Bang bang bang—!

The sound of machine gunfire rang out. The Hunter Beast was instantly torn into a splatter of meat and blood!

“Ugh—gross…”

Dai Xiaomei groaned in disgust, wiping the beast blood off her face as she sat up slowly.

Not far away, the massive Titan also began to rise. But after just two steps, it stumbled and fell to one knee due to power failure.

“BT! Teacher Ras!”

Dai Xiaomei’s eyes lit up. The one who had just saved her—was none other than BT-7274!

BT wasn’t destroyed! Lastimosa wasn’t dead!

Delighted, she scrambled to her feet and ran over to BT.

But the next second—

Clunk—

BT’s cockpit opened, and Lastimosa’s body rolled out like a ragdoll, thudding heavily onto the ground.

She froze. Then quickly rushed over to his side:

“...I… What do I do? Teacher Ras…”

“Are you okay, sir…?”

Crunch.

Before she could finish, Lastimosa removed his Titan pilot helmet.

His face was covered in blood, one eye completely bloodshot. He was barely breathing.

“Ugh… BT…”

He cut her off with a rasping voice:

“Transfer authorization… to new pilot… Link to… Bravo Tango–7274…”

“No no no no—”

She knew what he meant.

There were only two of them here. With Lastimosa severely wounded and initiating the transfer, that meant—she was to inherit his mantle.

She was about to become a Titan Pilot.

A mission at death’s door.

But she didn’t want it.

She wanted to become a Titan Pilot, to have her own Titan—but not like this.

“I… I can’t do this, Teacher Ras…”

She panicked. Her hands tried to stop the bleeding but she didn’t even know where to begin:

“I’m just a rifleman—I haven’t even trained for piloting yet…”

“Cooper… Cooper, listen…”

Before she could finish, Lastimosa grabbed her hand.

Blood bubbled at his lips, his breath labored, pupils unfocused.

“I believe in you, kid… Take care of BT for me…”

He turned his fading gaze toward his old friend one last time, then squeezed her hand again:

“The path to becoming a true Titan Pilot… is a long one…”

“But I believe you will…”

“Deserve it.”

And with that—

Lastimosa breathed his last.

At that moment, everyone finally understood the origin of Cooper’s final words in the trailer:

“Deserved and earned.”

Foreshadowing complete.

The winds of Typhon carried the scent of smoke still lingering in the air.

Dai Xiaomei felt a storm of emotion rush through her. She took a deep breath and raised her head.

Lastimosa’s hand in hers grew cold, but the warmth of the training ground burned even hotter in her chest—

“You were the first to call me teacher. I wasn’t supposed to train you… but I saw potential in you…”

“Let’s begin—run, kid…”

“Hahaha, failure’s part of the game. Now get back up…”

“For a world without metal and smoke. For a world of peace and prosperity…”

“The kid’s got promise. Trust him. He can do it…”

“The path to becoming a Pilot is long. But I know—you’ll deserve it.”

Yes, this was a game.

You could call it just a fantasy world. Just a way to kill time.

But for me, it was home to my soul.

This game might be fake.

But within this fake game—I once had a real teacher.

He guided me, encouraged me, protected me. He taught me the cruelty of war, and the price of peace.

This was a world built from ones and zeroes, cold and calculated.

But the emotions within were burning hot and real.

Maybe I’ll meet more people, learn more things, understand more truths.

But I will never forget—

Once, there was a brave veteran Titan Pilot from Harmony named Captain Lastimosa.

He told me the road to success was long. That when lost, I must remember my purpose. That medals meant nothing—

What mattered was that it was deserved and earned.

Clack.

With the last stone laid, Dai Xiaomei finished building a small mound—the grave of Lastimosa.

He would rest here forever. On the planet he fought for.

On the stone marker she placed behind it, her makeshift epitaph read:

“A legendary Titan Pilot, my teacher forever—Captain Lastimosa.”

Dai Xiaomei didn’t know how to salute. As a greenhorn rifleman, even now as an acting pilot, she had no clue how the Resistance saluted their dead.

So she simply held Lastimosa’s helmet in her hands, and bowed before the simple, rough grave:

“I’ll become a true Titan Pilot—deserved and earned.”

This was Gu Sheng’s special design. Though the game was single-player, at this humble grave, players could view messages left by others.

Even though the game had only just launched, Captain Lastimosa’s grave already had over a thousand messages—

“Instead of lamenting the journey, I’ll just get moving. Sweet dreams. I’ll take it from here…”

“I’ll take good care of BT. And I believe BT will look after me too…”

“Once I become a true Pilot, I’ll return to the training ground to see you…”

“I’ll take care of myself. Wish me luck…”

“Goodbye, Captain Lastimosa…”

“Goodnight, teacher…”

Reading these, Dai Xiaomei was silent for a long time.

Meanwhile, the livestream chat exploded with comments—

“Ugh… this part really hit me…”

“Crap, got Titan fluid in my eyes…”

“When those four words hit—‘deserved and earned’—goosebumps.”

“Who the hell hides a twist like that in the trailer?”

“Starting off with a gut-punch, huh? Classic Old Bastard Gu…”

“Just a minute ago they were joking around in training…”

“The kicker is that Old Bastard Gu gave Teacher Ras advanced AI—he could actually talk, not just follow scripts.”

“Sigh—”

“That ‘take care of BT’ line really got me. Teacher Ras still worried about him.”

“Honestly, he cared about them both. His old Titan buddy, and his newly trained successor.”

“Guys please… stop… I’m crying…”

“You better not be lying, troll…”

“The old hag looks like she’s crying but secretly she’s overjoyed.”

“Old hag be like: ‘Guess what? I got my own Titan now too!’”

“Us old Pilots start every morning with this kind of drama—dead serious…”

“D*mn it, I was all sad five minutes ago.”

“You heartless f***s…”

“He’s gone now, no point crying. Focus on the mission—fix the Titan, find Old Bastard Gu, and kill him.”

“What is this, Liam Neeson?”

“...Okay that made me laugh…”

Yes, Lastimosa’s death made many players grieve.

But it also brought the game vividly to life with emotional depth.

With heavy hearts, players said farewell to Captain Lastimosa—and prepared to hunt down Old Bastard Gu for revenge.

Seeing the outpouring of support in the chat, Dai Xiaomei quickly wiped her eyes, steeled herself—

And rose again.

“Alright! Okay then! Bros!”

She slammed the helmet onto her head. The UI booted up. She synced with BT-7274, locking in the nearest battery location:

“First order of business: find three batteries and get BT back online!”

“The Typhon stage is set—got the guts, then step up!”

“For Teacher Ras! For Harmony! For killing Old Bastard Gu!”

“Let’s f***ing GO!”

The journey begins.

From that moment on, countless newly minted Titan Pilots took up Lastimosa’s mantle and embarked on their own path—to become a true Titan Pilot, one who truly deserved and earned the title.

On the quest to retrieve the three batteries, they leapt over jagged canyon gaps with their jump kits, silently assassinated IMC soldiers using their cloaking devices.

Along the way, they learned: Sam, though their archenemy, was merely the leader of a mercenary group called the Apex Mercs.

The real threat—the one seeking the Ark—was General Marder and the IMC Corporation.

No one had yet seen what the Ark truly looked like, but based on scraps of intel overheard from IMC soldiers, it was an ancient energy core with the ability to manipulate time.

And the IMC had already found it.

They planned to weaponize it—to obliterate Harmony, home of the Resistance.

They had to be stopped.

Lastimosa had died trying.

Now, all the new Pilots bonded with BT would carry on his mission.

Wall-running, air-dashing, darting through jungle canopies and the twisted ruins of crashed starships—

The Titan Pilot’s legendary combat prowess was on full display.

And then—

Clack!

Hiss—!!!

As Ayin slammed the last battery into BT’s waist, the 40-ton steel colossus powered up once again!

[BT]: Power levels at maximum. Pilot, we must initiate neural link immediately. Radar indicates incoming IMC reinforcements.

That warm, firm electronic voice rang out—BT had returned, reborn like a warrior from the flames, hefting his massive machine gun with mechanical grace.

“Holy sh*t HAHAHAHA—!!”

Ayin couldn’t contain his excitement. He stared in awe at the majestic war machine before him, a masterpiece of battlefield engineering:

“Dmn, this thing’s f**ing awesome! How’d they even invent something like this?!”

The real Titan now stood before him.

As the cockpit opened invitingly, Ayin leapt up, turned to glance once more at the distant grave mound, and took a deep breath—

“Alright… let’s do this!”

Then he turned and slid into the pilot seat.

Hiss… clunk!

The hatch sealed shut.

In the darkness, the left UI screen lit up with electronic protocol. BT’s voice echoed in sync—

Protocol One: Link to Titan—Rifleman Jack Cooper, you are now the acting pilot of BT-7274.

Protocol Two: Uphold the mission—rendezvous with Major Anderson.

Hiss… scanning… enemy forces approaching…

Outside the Titan, gunfire broke out—IMC troops had arrived and were opening fire on them.

At that moment, the final protocol was spoken by BT in his calm and resolute voice:

Protocol Three: Protect the Pilot.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com