Wait a minute—was Lin Wan actually offering a pretty generous deal when she said she could get him a Fire Qilin for free?
After all, the Fire Qilin is priced at 888 RMB...
But Chen Sha quickly shook his head and drove that ridiculous thought out of his mind.
888 for a Fire Qilin?
Come on, it's just a bunch of code in a game—who would actually pay for that?
If no one's buying it, then the Fire Qilin is worth nothing, right?
Yeah, as long as everyone refuses to buy it, this game stays pretty fair...
Chen Sha genuinely couldn't make sense of Ocean Fortress's monetization logic.
He'd seen games like Counter-Terrorism Plan, which sold for a fixed price with zero microtransactions, and games like Bullet Hole, which were free but loaded with tiered, pay-to-progress monetization.
But this? This was something else entirely.
Driven by curiosity, Chen Sha exited the store and checked out the rest of the game's content.
"There's a bunch of versus modes... Ghost Mode? Biohazard Mode? Never seen those before."
"Wait, hold on—there's a Story Mode?!"
Seeing Ghost and Biohazard modes was a pleasant surprise, but not exactly shocking.
After all, adding new twists to versus modes is par for the course in FPS development.
But a Story Mode?
That blew his mind.
Neither Counter-Terrorism Plan nor any other domestic FPS developer had ever dared to create a proper story campaign.
Story modes in FPS games are a massive undertaking—tons of work, often thankless, and most domestic studios simply aren't capable of doing it well.
Some AAA foreign titles have solid story campaigns, sure—but those are built with enormous budgets and operate in a whole different league from standard multiplayer shooters.
Even Tianhuo Studio had poured years of polish into Bullet Hole, striving for excellence in every area—yet they didn't dare add a story mode.
Zhou Muyan himself had said:
One, it wasn't necessary.
Two, they weren't confident enough to pull it off.
And yet here comes this no-name game, Ocean Fortress, and it has one?
Now Chen Sha was really intrigued.
Instead of rage-quitting the game like he thought he would, he found himself willing to give the story mode a shot.
Even though he fully expected it to be boring or, worse, pure garbage.
[Loading Story Mode...]
Black screen.
A long black screen.
Chen Sha almost thought the game had crashed—but then, a voice came through his headphones.
"Is he dead already?"
"Dunno. Maybe still breathing. But infected with the G-virus... he's a goner either way."
"Leave him here."
The voices were in fluent English, but luckily, subtitles appeared on the black screen.
In the darkness, the screen gave a small jolt—signaling that the half-conscious protagonist had just been thrown down.
Then, the sound of footsteps fading away.
The screen remained black, but a faint light began to emerge—like the vague glow one sees when their eyes are shut on a bright day.
Light filtering through eyelids, sensed dimly by the eye.
More sound effects came through Chen Sha's headset:
Harsh, labored breathing and low groans—probably the protagonist.
A soft, rustling noise—something crawling... or shambling nearby.
A guttural, wet rasp echoed from the depths of the protagonist's throat—like a tattered bellows gasping for air.
That sound—a long, faint moan—was unmistakable: the classic groan of a zombie, distant and slow.
Soon, two curved lines appeared on the screen, blurring in and out to simulate the protagonist straining to open his eyes.
After several blinks, the blur faded. Chen Sha could now see the game clearly.
The first thing that filled the screen—
A hand.
A pale, veiny, corpse-like hand!
Both the protagonist and Chen Sha flinched.
Struggling to get up, the protagonist caught an even more horrifying sight—he wasn't lying on a bed, but on a literal mountain of corpses.
And these weren't just some conveniently placed background props.
Some bodies were mutilated beyond recognition, grotesque and stomach-turning.
Others were strangely intact—no visible wounds, but pale and pulsing with dark veins.
Still more had already begun to rot, or had grotesque mutations—alien flesh growing in unnatural ways.
A pool of blood had long since dried and congealed, binding the corpses together like some horrific sculpture.
And the protagonist?
He was just another body being added to the pile.
He lay near the edge—clearly whoever dumped him didn't want to venture too deep. They'd just tossed him in carelessly and left.
After a brief wave of nausea and dizziness, the protagonist rolled off the pile and landed with a thud.
He gasped for air, slowly regained some strength… and finally, stood up.
At this point, Chen Sha realized he now had control of the protagonist.
The camera responded to his mouse movements.
He could move with the WASD keys.
Basic FPS controls, of course.
But Ocean Fortress still took the time to provide a proper tutorial, as if expecting even total newcomers—A level of polish that reminded Chen Sha of foreign AAA titles.
Now in full first-person view, Chen Sha found himself completely immersed.
The surrounding light was dim, but he could make out his environment.
It looked like the interior of an abandoned military facility—once equipped with chairs, a large conference table, and a few command consoles, now all toppled and broken.
Even these were strewn with bodies.
And as he looked toward the central corpse mound…
He wasn't sure if it was his eyes playing tricks on him, but he could've sworn one of the outstretched hands moved.
A chill crept down his spine.
Time to find a way out.
There were three exits—each marked with a green emergency light. One even had the word "EXIT" clearly printed on it.
The room's main lighting was off. What little visibility the protagonist had came solely from the glow of the exit signs.
Chen Sha guided the protagonist toward the nearest door.
The character moved slowly. Occasionally, the vision would blur slightly.
His right arm swung as he walked, but his left hand clutched his abdomen—clearly still weak.
He tried the first door.
Locked.
Either barred from the other side or jammed shut.
He moved on to the second.
This one had an access panel—he'd need a keycard.
So Chen Sha turned the character toward the farthest exit, near the edge of the corpse mound.
From afar, this door looked slightly ajar—maybe he could get through.
The ambient noise faded to silence.
Only the protagonist's ragged breathing and the shuffle of his own footsteps remained.
And then—A zombie leapt out of the corpse pile!
It lunged and latched onto the protagonist's right leg, jaws snapping shut with terrifying force.
The protagonist let out a pained scream.
A bloody red vignette flared around the screen—he was taking damage!
<+>
If you want to see more chapter of this story and don't mind spending $5 monthly to see till the latest chapter, please go to my Patreon[1]
Latest Chapter in Patreon: Chapter 102: A Low-Key Grand Opening[2]
Link to the latest chapter: https://www.patreon.com/posts/129254813?collection=1399284[3]
https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded[4]
[1] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded
[2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/129254813?collection=1399284
[3] https://www.patreon.com/posts/129254813?collection=1399284
[4] https://www.patreon.com/collection/1399284?view=expanded