“But there’s a rumor that VachuKR is also coming this time. What’s going on with that?”
“Ah. I don’t know yet. Wicker sent an invitation, but they haven’t given a definite answer.”
It might seem a bit presumptuous.
VachuVachu KR is the industry leader.
We’re still just a tiny sparrow, nowhere near a massive Tyrannosaurus like them.
So, I’m actually relieved they might not come.
Even if Lapitz and our team jostle each other closely.
We can’t beat VachuVachu KR right now.
Those guys are building a 30 billion-won studio in Japan, casually inviting Korean branch members, and churning out quality content.
I hear they even cover full airfare for distances as far as EN, IN, etc., if the content is good enough.
How can they afford all this?
Not to mention the 3D concerts they hold with patented state-of-the-art hologram technology that drives people wild. We can only envy their technological and financial power.
Anyway, such formidable competitors are troublesome.
Personally, I see no reason to avoid them, but from a company perspective, it’s better if VachuVachu doesn’t attend.
And when VachuVachu isn’t around, we have to work even harder.
Market share! Popularity! All these metrics can’t be achieved without promotion.
“So, I’ll join that server.”
“… Really?”
“If you invite me, I’ll support the members diligently. Before the server shuts down, I’ll make sure everyone remembers their names through active promotion.”
The CEO looked at me worriedly and asked,
“But you’ve never done 64 cubics before.”
“I’ve seen a lot of it, though. I roughly know how the server works. Besides, I’m going to experience it as much as possible tonight with Maru playing 64 cubics.”
The boss let out a small laugh as he tucked his side hair behind his ear.
“Well, yeah. You do pick up games ridiculously fast…”
“So, is it you inviting me, or is it Maru?”
The boss made a troubled expression.
“You saw the last server too, so you know—I have terrible luck with special invites, right?”
“Hmm. Then I guess I’ll have to break into my savings.”
“Hey, hey, hey! Don’t say crazy things. The moment you break your savings, your head’s gonna break too.”
“But if I don’t, I might not get an invite.”
“…Well, it’ll work out somehow. There’s no way, out of the five of us, that you won’t get a single invite, right?”
I looked at the boss with doubtful eyes.
“You’re totally gonna get nothing again and start cursing right away.”
“Hey!”
* * *
The Next Day.
Invited by Maru, I once again turned on Virtual while at work.
When I placed my signboard right next to Maru’s, everyone greeted me as if they were already used to it.
– Maha
– Maha
– Maha?
– There are two Mahas lol
– Jaha~
– Jahahahahahahaha
At first, it bothered me that our greetings overlapped, but since this was our second collab, they naturally started calling me “Jaha” instead.
…Somehow, I feel like I can hear the laughter of a certain hairy pirate in the distance.
Anyway, 64 Cubics.
As I introduced before, it’s a sandbox survival game where you dig, mine minerals, gather materials, craft, refine, make armor and weapons, and fight monsters.
It offers a high level of freedom.
On average, a first-time playthrough takes around 48 hours to defeat the final boss, which is quite long.
If you want to experience all the content, you need at least three times that.
And for those who have already done everything, they bring in mods to chew on, rip apart, and savor.
There are so many players that an overwhelming number of mods exist so much so that if you take this game seriously, you’ll never run out of content.
But.
Maru is a pioneer who has already devoured all that content.
And yet, whenever he got bored, he would abandon his old world and start digging from scratch again.
At one point, people even joked that we should change his fan name from “Donggeuri” (Roundy) to “Gakhyeong-i” (Squarey), since 64 Cubics is a world made up of perfectly square blocks, each measuring 64 pixels on each side.
Anyway, Maru is my teacher.
Which means there’s no problem when it comes to learning.
[There are two ways to start. One, you begin from complete wilderness and learn the game from zero. Two, you use a parallel server to get a rough idea of what the game is about first.]
Given these choices, I naturally thought about how to make Maru’s stream more fun.
How could I make Maru stand out more?
The first option.
I had seen the game many times before but never played it myself.
But since I was invited to the server, I felt like I needed to fully understand it to properly support the other members.
“I’ll learn in the wild.”
[Hmph. I figured you’d say that, so I prepared a separate server for you.]
The wild.
In other words, barebones survival.
Playing 64 Cubics in its pure vanilla version, without any mods.
Hearing that, everyone burst into amused laughter.
– Ohoho, so this is what they call the wild, huh?
– If the API was integrated, it would’ve been even more fun. Too bad, lol.
– I can already picture about 39,515,012 moments of our manager zoning out.
This game has more surprise elements than you’d expect, haha.
Looks like everyone’s expecting me to freak out over all sorts of accidents.
But I clearly said I don’t get startled in games with weapons.
Guess no one remembers that.
Anyway, I hardly ever got stuck while progressing.
Since Maru, a pro at 64 Cubics, would explain something, and I’d go, “Oh, that’s it!” and catch on quickly.
That’s all thanks to closely monitoring Maru’s streams for a long time.
It’s my first time playing, but I’ve watched it way too many times.
[You made wooden tools, right? Now, the next step is making stone tools.]
But in the end, Maru is the expert in details.
Having a good teacher makes things so much easier to understand.
[Okay. Made the full stone set. Next is iron. For iron, we have to dig underground a bit, so we need to prepare before heading in.]
Surprisingly, there was a lot to get ready before going underground.
Maybe because this game has so many survival elements.
Packing my bag full of water, food, and all sorts of supplies, only to return with a bag stuffed with minerals it felt like that.
Speedrunners just grab wooden tools and dash underground right from the start.
But I guess that’s only for seasoned players.
So, we headed down, mined iron,
and fought off waves of monsters emerging from the darkness.
[Kyaa! There’s a zombie here! A skeleton! A witch! Why are there so many all of a sudden?!]
“I’ll take care of them.”
– Even here, all headshots, lol.
– Dongle’s hearing takes another hit today.
– No, but why are you so good at fighting? LOL.
– Wait, I figured it out—Maru’s the newbie here, right?
– Why is the newbie protecting the veteran?! Hahahaha.
– This isn’t the kind of newbie experience I was hoping for!
We smelted the iron, processed the ingots, and crafted a full set of iron armor and tools.
Then we built a system that automatically turned mined iron ore into ingots.
Mined copper, made a simple generator, connected it to wires, linked it to a waterwheel, and generated electricity.
It took four hours to reach the point where iron automatically traveled along a conveyor and turned into ingots just in time for our scheduled four-hour collab stream to end.
– Wait, four hours already passed?!
– This survival mode really is brutal.
– For real.
– No wonder people use early-game shortcut mods on servers, lol.
[Whew. Still, that was pretty fast. Total beginners usually keep dying or getting lost underground, so even reaching this point is tough for them. Jia, have you played any similar games before?]
“I haven’t, but it surprisingly suits me. Especially fighting mobs—it was fun. Probably because of the headshots.”
[…Yeah, I could tell. Anyway, should we wrap up here for today? I have a cover song recording tomorrow, so I need to sleep early… I’d love to stay up playing, but I can’t. Sorry.]
“No, this was more than enough.”
[Yeah, yeah. Honestly, as long as you can play up to this point, you won’t have any trouble adjusting to most servers.]
[Honestly, a lot of people just skip the whole process of progressing this far, so from here on, you can just play however you want. But first, try mining some diamonds. Your first diamond is always special.]
“I’ll mine some later after work when I have time. If I run into anything I don’t know, can I ask you tomorrow?”
Seeing how well I was adapting to the game, Maru got really excited.
So excited that he blurted out something he didn’t need to mention just yet.
[Of course! Ask me anytime! At this rate, you’ll have no trouble on Wicker’s server either. So, how was it today? Fun? The whole process of tech progression and growing stronger is pretty enjoyable, right?]
I was about to answer but stopped to check the chat first.
Because I hadn’t mentioned anywhere that I might be joining Wicker’s server.
– ?
– Wicker’s server?
– Is Majia playing too?
– What?
– Majia is joining Wicker’s server?!
– ???
– Is this real?
:: An anonymous supporter has donated 10,000 Clouds! ::
:: As expected, leaks always happen on Matube, lol. ::