Chapter 491: Finally Making a Move on Honor of Kings

Chapter 491: Finally Making a Move on the Game

Penguin Games moved with swift efficiency, driven largely by their eagerness to seal the deal. On the third day after Meng Fan returned to Hangzhou, the local head arrived with a legal team, ironing out the details and adding supplementary clauses.

Penguin Games showed considerable urgency, but Meng Fan wasn’t one to exploit the moment with exorbitant demands, sticking to the foundation they’d previously agreed upon. Of course, at a certain level of cooperation, it’s rare for one party’s eagerness to lead the other to hike up the price.

Once the contract was signed, Penguin Games made an official announcement immediately—not just on their website, but through in-game push notifications as well. Weibo was, naturally, an indispensable battleground, and the image they posted was of the male lead from *The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas*.

Whether it was because this matter involved Meng Fan, the announcement even mimicked his style, calling on netizens to submit skill names, skin names, and even character design details.

Of course, this was just Penguin Games’ way of generating buzz. In reality, the studio had already begun character modeling the moment they confirmed the collaboration with Meng Fan. Skills and such were already in place; they even had preliminary models undergoing internal testing. In short, Tianmei had been preparing for this long before, just waiting for the contract.

Their goal was to launch this character as quickly as possible, so they pushed back several other heroes originally slated for release. They aimed to finalize the remaining character settings within half a month, complete internal server testing within a week, and guarantee the hero’s launch within two months at the latest!

If they could time the release with the New Year’s event, that would be the best outcome!

After Penguin Games’ announcement went out, they didn’t need to hire streamers or big influencers to help—it naturally became a trending topic, and not just one, but two, with one quickly shooting to number one. This was practically standard procedure. Over the past year, any news involving Meng Fan was bound to trend, and in the last six months, it would surge to the top with no one able to stop it.

The trending topic that hit number one wasn’t #ShanHaiNongYao#, but #IronGodFinallyMakesAMoveOnTheGame#.

When people thought of Meng Fan, their first reaction was usually related to sports—the Olympic five-gold medalist. That title was too formidable; few in human history had ever earned it. Then there were many other impressions, but overall, one thing about Meng Fan was that people could never quite pin down what he actually did—he was a crossover artist!

Not just across sports disciplines, but from the entertainment world to sports and back again, always busy.

By now, Meng Fan had shone in quite a few fields in the public eye, and now he’d added another—esports.

The use of the word “finally” in the trending topic #IronGodFinallyMakesAMoveOnEsports# was actually tied to the famous internet-addicted youth, Shi Shiwu. After all, the two had been getting close lately, and Shi Shiwu would regularly drag Meng Fan into ranked games, even streaming them.

It wasn’t just MOBAs; they also played battle royale and occasionally League of Legends.

To be honest, Meng Fan hadn’t played much of these three games. The total number of sessions probably didn’t exceed the rounds of *Honor of Kings* he’d played with Zhang Zhouwei and the others—Meng Fan’s favorite was still rhythm games, with shooters coming second. So at first, he got plenty of “mockery” from watching netizens, but then they saw just how crucial hand speed was in esports.

Yes, everyone knew esports demanded extremely high hand speed, but they also knew that relying solely on hand speed wouldn’t get you far—you needed awareness and strategy to reach a certain level. But Meng Fan was different; he truly used only hand speed to play these three unfamiliar games to an astonishing degree. Some even thought that with just his hand speed and no strategy, he could reach the level of a professional player, even dominate them. At any rate, after a few rounds against Meng Fan, Shi Shiwu ended up on his team.

If asked which of the three games Meng Fan liked best, it would probably be the battle royale—the one he played best. He and Shi Shiwu had probably played over thirty rounds together, with a terrifyingly high win rate. At first, they’d win a chicken dinner every three games on average, but later, after getting sick of winning, they started messing around with various stats.

The funniest part was when Meng Fan tried to be a bush camper. Well, as you can imagine, with his overwhelming presence, being a bush camper was impossible.

Of course, that was assuming Meng Fan wasn’t wearing a hat. If he put on a hat, the game’s backend system would probably overlook him entirely.

And now, Meng Fan had finally made a move on *Honor of Kings*. Though he wasn’t playing it, this was still a god-tier operation.

As for Penguin Games’ call for submissions, netizens were surprisingly enthusiastic. Even though they knew the ideas might not be adopted, they treated it as a bit of fun. They not only designed skills for the male lead of *The Strange Man of Mountains and Seas*, but some bored folks even came up with skills for Meng Fan himself.

For example, a passive called [Tiger Pounce], triggering a displacement skill after a basic attack that deals damage to enemies, activating every five seconds. Another skill called [Iron Tower Man], boosting defense, granting immunity to control, and reflecting some damage. An ultimate called [Iron God, Slow Down], increasing his own movement and attack speed while reducing those of nearby enemies for three seconds, ending with a finishing blow (dealing 12% true damage based on the target’s missing health).

These were the relatively “serious” ones. There were plenty of silly ones too—after all, it was all just for fun.

While the topic was trending at number one, Meng Fan was actually playing the game. Zhang Zhouwei had gotten a batch of accounts with all heroes, skins, and runes, and forcibly bound one to Meng Fan’s WeChat. Then he dragged in Chen Daqiang, Xing Tage, and Shi Shiwu, who had come today to put the finishing touches on Meng Fan’s album, and they happily started a ranked game.

Shi Shiwu noticed Zhang Zhouwei’s account name was “ArthurHandMePaper” and asked curiously. When he heard that Zhang Zhouwei’s girlfriend was called “AnQilaShit,” he was utterly amazed! Then he saw another pair of names, ZhenJi*Big and ZhenJi*Small, and was left speechless, feeling the game was unplayable.

Shi Shiwu rarely played MOBA mobile games, but as an internet-addicted youth with a focused nature, he took gaming seriously. So this time, he played—

Jin Xiaowen had something to do and arrived very late. He thought things would be mostly wrapped up by the time he got there, but he couldn’t find anyone in the recording studio. When he called, the call was hung up directly. Curious, he went to the nearby Damei Studio, and before he even entered, he heard the sound of “Pentakill” from inside, followed by Zhang Zhouwei’s exaggerated shout—

“Holy crap! Cai Wenji got a pentakill! Are you insane? A support taking kills—negative review!”

(End of chapter)