With a mix of curiosity (30%) and doubt (70%), Chen Sha found Ocean Fortress in the official game store, downloaded it, and registered an account.
To his surprise, the game was quite large in size—bigger than Bullet Hole, and far larger than Counter-Terrorism Plan.
Still, he didn't read too much into it. After all, large file sizes don't guarantee quality, plenty of terrible games have massive install sizes.
He remembered one domestic game that was so poorly optimized that even the best graphics cards on the market couldn't handle its junk visuals. It went down in infamy as the "Titanfall of China."
So, high system requirements and file size meant nothing—the real test was content.
Soon, Chen Sha launched the game.
His first reaction?
Not bad at all…
The graphics were much better than expected!
Originally, Chen Sha assumed this would be some half-baked, janky mess—he wasn't expecting anything remotely decent. He only wanted to see what kind of epic weapon could possibly justify a price tag of 888 RMB.
But his first impression? Pretty positive!
Though the game lacked an opening CG, both the login screen and in-game UI looked great—on par with Bullet Hole.
He headed straight for the store.
And there it was—the legendary epic weapon: the dazzling, Rainbow Neon Fire Qilin!
At first glance, it looked like a standard AK-style rifle—but with wildly customized visual elements:
The whole gun glimmered gold, with a prismatic paint effect radiating from the muzzle, like ripples of a rainbow spreading across the body.
Under the barrel, a uniquely shaped golden bayonet—labeled in the store as the "Qilin Fang."
At the junction between barrel and body, a massive Qilin head had been sculpted.
The Qilin's mouth was wide open, as if swallowing the muzzle and bayonet whole.
Its glowing crimson eyes pulsed with red light as the weapon moved, as if the creature were alive.
The Qilin's mane flowed like flames, with animated fire textures that moved like rippling water.
The magazine, grip, and stock were also redesigned—while retaining the general shape of an AK, the proportions and aesthetic had been exaggerated and stylized to make a bold statement.
Chen Sha was stunned.
This thing is sick!
As a veteran Counter-Terrorism Plan player who had also done deep testing for Bullet Hole, he was used to realistic firearms.
Guns like the AK-47 were typically only given minor texture tweaks—the base model was rarely touched, out of respect for military enthusiasts who hated seeing guns altered too much.
But Ocean Fortress had gone full send with this custom design. It was bold. No realism, just pure rule-of-cool.
To be fair, the Fire Qilin was a little over-the-top.
Exaggerated shapes, flashy effects, outlandish aesthetics—it triggered a reflexive discomfort in Chen Sha, who'd spent years immersed in grounded, military-style FPS gameplay.
The visual style jump—from realism to fantasy—was jarring at first.
But he couldn't deny it: the thing looked damn cool.
And the more he looked, the cooler it seemed.
He stared at the special effects on the gun for a while. The animated flaming mane of the Qilin, the glowing muzzle, the reflective rainbow gradient—it all shimmered with an almost lifelike quality.
The breathing animation on the Qilin's mane in particular gave it a mesmerizing presence.
Once you accept the fantasy, it's surprisingly awesome.
Then he glanced at the price tag.
888 RMB. No discounts. One gun.
Chen Sha couldn't help but mutter, "Insane…"
Setting a price like that for one weapon—this designer had some real guts.
Unbelievable.
Normally, in-game monetization is introduced gradually—testing players' spending tolerance step by step.
Take Cute Three Kingdoms for example: at launch, the paywall was relatively mild. It wasn't until many players hit the top spending tier that the game introduced new paid content, slowly escalating the pay-to-win ceiling with features like the VIP system.
But Ocean Fortress?
It jumped straight to 888 RMB for a single item.
That kind of bold pricing is extremely rare!
Curious, Chen Sha browsed the in-game store further—and suddenly realized something odd.
There were no tabs.
No item categories.
No multi-page interface.
Because... the entire store only had one item.
The Fire Qilin.
That's right—Ocean Fortress had only one monetized item.
No battle pass.
No gacha.
No loot crates.
No cosmetic bundles.
Just. One. Gun.
Everything else in the game? Completely free.
There were plenty of other weapons available, but they could all be found in the [Armory] tab—each listed with detailed stats and clearly labeled unlock conditions.
And those conditions were pretty reasonable:
Some weapons are unlocked through story mode.
Some through achievements.
Others purchasable with in-game currency.
That in-game currency? Earned via daily activities and matches.
It wasn't infinite, but it wasn't stingy either.
The more Chen Sha looked, the more shocked he became: aside from the Fire Qilin, no other weapon required real money to obtain.
He scratched his head, completely confused by this pricing model.
Is the Fire Qilin really that good? Is it worth 888 RMB?
He carefully examined its stats.
Weapons in the game came in four tiers: Common, Elite, Heroic, and Epic.
Compared to Heroic-tier AKs, the Epic-tier Fire Qilin only had slightly better stats.
So slight, in fact, that Chen Sha had to squint to even notice a difference.
It was the same story for all weapon tiers: each level brought minor stat improvements, but nothing drastic.
As for the Fire Qilin specifically, its perks included:
+200% XP gain for the user. (XP only affects player level, which doesn't offer much aside from small coin bonuses and unlocking some features.)
+50% XP gain for teammates in the same match.
+30% coin gain for teammates.
When the player dies, the gun drops as a standard AK. Only if manually dropped will it retain its Fire Qilin appearance.
Slightly faster reload and weapon switch speeds, plus a larger magazine.
And that's it.
Yeah, there were benefits—but they were all mild.
Not game-breaking. Not pay-to-win. Not "dominate the lobby" levels of power.
It's an FPS game after all.
A headshot with a Common AK? One-shot kill.
A headshot with the Fire Qilin? Still a one-shot kill.
No difference.
Sure, maybe it reloads a fraction of a second faster.
Maybe it hits a tiny bit harder when shooting through walls or at feet.
But that's nowhere near worth 888 RMB.
So what was this game's monetization strategy?
You couldn't call it generous—not with a gun priced that high.
But it wasn't greedy either—everything else was free, and that expensive gun didn't offer a pay-to-win advantage.
Chen Sha was utterly baffled.
This monetization scheme… whoever designed it deserved a spot in the "Museum of Human Mysteries".
It was just… incomprehensible.
<+>
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