"Is no one upping the bid?"

Xiao Jie felt a pang of regret. He hadn’t anticipated that no one else would bid after his impulsive offer of five thousand yuan.

Oh no, he felt he’d been the fool...

The thought of spending so much money on a "celebrity" account, without even knowing what’s inside, made Xiao Jie feel regretful.

Better log in and take a look!

It was, after all, an account played by Ba. There should be some surprises in the garage, right? It couldn’t possibly be that there’s not even an old people’s scooter in Ba’s account, right?

"Damn! There really isn’t!"

After entering the game and finding that while the garage was full of cars, there really wasn’t an old people’s scooter, Xiao Jie was speechless.

He wished he could slap himself.

Why did he foolishly bid for this account? Now it’s a loss! Five thousand yuan down the drain, and the blind box was empty, not even a rare old people’s scooter in sight.

With a splitting headache, Xiao Jie told a friend, who also played "Speeding Frenzy," about the situation.

He was hoping for some consolation, but upon seeing the garage, his friend’s eyes nearly popped out.

"Whoa! A Huiba S1 prototype car?"

"What on earth, where did you get this? This model, there are only two in the entire game, right?"

"Is this... a Celestial Plus prototype car? Oh my goodness, where did you buy this account? How come the garage has so many collectible vehicles?"

The more his friend looked, the more shocked he became, exclaiming at the incredulity of it.

The garage was filled with dozens of cars. Although they seemed nondescript and not very valuable, in reality, each was a rare, even priceless, "collectible-class" vehicle.

"Huh? That amazing?"

Xiao Jie was dumbfounded. He had thought these cars looked unassuming, but they were actually so outstanding?

What exactly are prototype cars?

And what are test vehicles?

With his friend’s explanation, Xiao Jie finally understood just how outrageous Ba’s account was.

Thanks to an excellent physics engine and highly realistic vehicle collision system, many car manufacturers had set up R&D centers within "Speeding Frenzy."

As a result, many prototype and test vehicles existed in the game.

These cars couldn’t be bought and were treasures of various car companies. How could they be released to regular players? Even if one or two were occasionally leaked, they would be bought by other car companies at high prices to be dismantled and studied.

"This is Ba’s account..."

"Then it’s no big deal!"

The friend initially wanted to ask who was so powerful to obtain so many prototype and test cars. But upon hearing Xiao Jie’s words, he was speechless.

Ba? Oh, that makes sense. Things others couldn’t get, for Ba, it was never a problem.

"You hit it big!"

Upon learning that Xiao Jie had bought the account for only five thousand yuan, his friend said enviously, "Every car in there, although outdated, has high collection value and is worth at least thousands each."

Dozens of cars meant hundreds of thousands!

For only five thousand yuan, Xiao Jie had gotten a garage worth hundreds of thousands. His friend expressed genuine jealousy.

"See if there’s anything else?"

"Let me take a look..."

Hearing his friend’s suggestion, Xiao Jie also thought the account had exploration potential, so he started to sift through, looking for anything of value.

As he was browsing, he accidentally opened the friend list and was shocked to find only one friend in it—and the avatar seemed to be a girl?

Should he click and have a look?

Chat records and the like wouldn’t usually interest Xiao Jie, but this was gossip about Ba, and he was really curious!

...

"Oh no!"

Upon learning that the Celestial Peace Pavilion was online and had successfully completed several transactions, Chen Ba suddenly remembered something and asked nervously, "Has my account been sold?"

"Which account are you talking about?"

"’Speeding Frenzy’! My ’Speeding Frenzy’ game character..."

Upon hearing this, Yang Dong nodded and said, "Yes, it’s been sold! For five thousand yuan, why?"

"Was there any deletion of personal information on that account?"

"What do you mean by..."

Yang Dong was puzzled. What deletion of personal information? Doesn’t the sale of a game character include all the items of that character?

"The friend list!"

Chen Ba said through gritted teeth, "And the private chat records. Aren’t they still on the server?"

"Yes!"

Yang Dong nodded and said, "All those transfer with the character, so they naturally stay... Wait a minute! Do you have something you’re hiding on your account?"

Chen Ba remained silent.

Something to hide? Of course, there was. He’d had a virtual romance in "Speeding Frenzy," leaving behind some embarrassing flirty chat records.

Delete them, delete everything!

Chen Ba didn’t want his flirty nature exposed, nor did he want everyone laughing at him, so he promptly erased all personal information tied to his account from the server.

However, Xiao Jie had already taken screenshots and uploaded this embarrassing history to the Tianba Community... 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

"Ba, my condolences!"

Lu, suppressing a laugh, said, "Who hasn’t used cheesy pick-up lines before? Besides, chatting up people with a secondary account, no one would know it was you!"

"Now everyone knows!"

Chen Ba, with an expressionless face, asked, "Can you delete the post for me? And mute all those mocking me?"

"That’s not appropriate, is it?"

"Our Tianba Community prides itself on operating by the book. They’re only teasing your cheesy pick-up lines, not committing any grave wrongs, no need to delete posts or mute them!"

Lu strongly disagreed, "Besides, I think it’s not a big deal. You should’ve guessed there’d come a day when disguises would be exposed, given that you used a second account to flirt!"

Chen Ba: "..."

Laughing so loudly, do you not want your salary for this month?

Glaring at Lu, Chen Ba waved his hand dismissively, "Enough about me. Did you get in touch with the person I asked you to contact?"

"You mean... the up-and-coming bestselling author specializing in suspense and horror?"

"Exactly!"

Chen Ba asked, "What did they say? Are they willing to take on our project?"

"No contact yet!"

Lu’s face fell, as if struck by a major blow, "I’ve only made one call, had a brief chat, and they seemed uninterested."

Tianba Studio wanted to create a horror game, with the script and storyline being crucial.

For this reason, Chen Ba specifically asked Lu to reach out to a new generational bestselling author in the horror-suspense genre, hoping they would pen a short horror story.

But clearly, the author wasn’t very interested.

Offering more money could solve the problem, but the price quoted by Tianba Studio was already quite high. Offering more? Might as well write it ourselves!

"If they’re not interested, forget it."

Chen Ba let out a breath and said, "Without external help, let’s write our own story. For a horror game, the main part is creating the atmosphere. If the story is a bit lacking, so be it."

He had come to understand.

Outside help was costly, far too costly to be worth it. Better to tackle it on his own rather than pay extra.

What’s so difficult about a horror game?

The story’s merit isn’t crucial; what matters is cultivating a tense, creepy atmosphere throughout the game. That would suffice.

"Here’s what I’m thinking..."

Chen Ba had prepared himself well for the likelihood of no outside help, and he already had a rough idea in mind.

"The story starts in a remote village. The protagonist hails from there, orphaned and raised by the village. The villagers pooled their resources to send him to college, from which he left for seven years."

"After graduating and working hard, the protagonist achieved some success and decided to return home to visit the folks back in the village..."

The small village, isolated, lacked electricity and internet, with only winding paths leading in.

This set the stage for a horror story: a protagonist returns to the village, senses something amiss, and starts investigating, slowly uncovering the bizarre truth about the village.

He only provided the general framework.

As for the specific gameplay elements, what was eerie about the small village, and what the protagonist would encounter, all needed elaboration over time.