Just as Carl was enthusiastically watching the drama unfold during this mobile game character money-sca... no, marketing meeting, he never expected the biggest piece of gossip to land on him.
"We have already finished arranging the initial main storyline, but we are still missing someone to play the final villain of Version 1.0."
The Headmaster spoke to all the gacha pool characters present as if going through a script.
"Isn't the final villain that Calamity-mutated beast locked in the basement? Do we still need to arrange an extra villain?" the mature five-star Arcane woman from the standard pool asked.
Carl had also read Oath's Version 1.0 script. The story was very simple. After the player encountered the beautiful girls and boys of the academy, they would investigate the spread of the Calamity Virus throughout the academy together.
The final truth was that beneath the academy existed a monster that continuously emitted Calamity mutations.
That monster was also the final boss of Version 1.0.
"According to our story plan, we need this monster's humanoid form before it goes berserk. That way, we might be able to earn a wave of the Saviors' tears and increase their immersion."
The Headmaster even hesitated slightly near the end of his sentence.
What did he mean by increasing the players' immersion? Wasn't this just some self-indulgent design the writer came up with on a whim?
What kind of genius writer wanted to make players cry within just a few hours after launch, when they had not even figured out who was who yet?
No one cares, okay?
From this decision, Carl could already faintly sense that Oath's writers seemed a little unreliable.
Then, in the next second, Carl received his own death sentence.
"Carl, you will take this role."
The Headmaster pointed toward Carl, who was hiding in the corner of the conference hall.
Huh? Me?
A mere three-star character like me is going to be the final boss?
Fine. The one actually fighting the players would be that Calamity-mutated body.
But the one drawing the players' hatred as the final boss would be Carl!
You bastard, are you trying to turn me into one of those male characters everyone hates in anime games?
That was Carl's first thought.
He had to admit, his current appearance was indeed quite suited to being a villain.
At the very least, his aura was extremely gloomy.
He fit the type of villain with a dark past, or the kind who looked handsome on the surface but was secretly a psychopathic killer.
But being a villain in an anime gacha game was different. Female villains were fine. As long as they were pretty, and if their strength after entering the gacha pool was also overtuned, players would definitely pull like crazy.
But if a male character became a villain, it was completely over.
He would absolutely become the most hated kind of existence in anime gacha games.
Even if he had plenty of internal favoritism, meaning some people inside the game company liked this character and kept giving him a lot of screen time, he still could not be saved.
He belonged to the kind of filthy existence players wanted to spit on the moment they saw him.
"Before that, I want to ask one question. Is the villain identity I'm playing that of a perpetrator, or... a victim?"
This question was extremely important.
That was, had the villain identity he was playing actually killed anyone?
If he had not killed anyone, then there was no problem. Carl had ten thousand ways to make players like him.
But if he had killed someone, especially an innocent student in the academy, forget the players, even Carl himself would find trying to redeem such a character extremely disgusting.
"A victim."
The Headmaster answered without hesitation, explaining why he had chosen Carl for the role.
"Carl, you are currently the only one without any story arrangement in Version 1.0. In the Version 1.0 story, you play a victim who has been completely eroded by the Calamity Virus and eventually transforms into a mutated body."
"After the Savior defeats the mutated body, they ultimately save you."
So that was how it was.
Although Carl really wanted to say that if it was this kind of plot, would it not be better to arrange a beautiful girl character?
Players would not feel much sense of accomplishment from saving a male character like him, right?
Imagine the player defeating a twisted monster, then rescuing a beautiful girl with soft, smooth skin from inside its body.
That kind of development could easily be used for a five-star limited character.
But Carl glanced at the disgusted and repulsed expressions of the gacha pool characters around him.
It seemed they really did not want to leave players with the impression that their true body was a twisted, mutated monster.
So asking them to play this kind of role was something they would absolutely refuse even if it killed them.
Sigh. These people really had no taste.
"Understood."
At this stage, Carl was just a worker without any players to rely on, so he had no right to refuse.
As long as he did not cross the red lines of murder or harming innocent lives, Carl did not even need a redemption arc. He could think of ten thousand ways to turn himself into a charming villain.
But for now, he really had no interest in doing that.
In fact, he did not want to participate in any of Oath's story performances at all.
To Carl, it was completely unnecessary.
To win the players' affection, he only needed to do one very simple thing.
Make a whole bunch of extremely fun games for them to play.
Once Carl had accumulated enough popularity among players and gained enough confidence, directly ignoring Oath's official team and going solo would be the best choice.
However, accepting this villain role was not all bad. At the very least, Carl now had an underground laboratory that could serve as an arcade.
"That is all for story-related matters. If none of you have any other questions, then return and prepare to welcome the Saviors tomorrow."
Seeing that it was about time, the Headmaster ended the pre-battle meeting. Before leaving, he once again reminded all the gacha pool characters present.
"Remember, your first priority is always to make the Saviors spend enough Contract Stones on you. The amount of Contract Stones spent represents how much the Saviors love you."
"The Version 1.0 banner revenue will be revealed one week after launch. The one who takes first place will certainly be the current limited character, Hasumi, but I hope the rest of you will also actively compete for second place."
"At the same time, as the current limited character, Hasumi, we have high hopes for you. We hope you can bring us a sufficiently surprising sales result."
The Headmaster's words left the gacha pool characters present completely confused.
Mainly because, in their understanding, the purpose of gathering at this academy and meeting the Saviors was to save this world from the Calamity Virus.
But for Oath's game company, they had only one goal in everything they did.
And that was making money.
The Calamity Virus, saving the world, the great Saviors, the epoch-making game, the single-player open world, and everything else.
Everything related to Oath ultimately existed only to obtain higher revenue and earn more money.
This was the underlying logic of Oath.
From the moment it was born, it was not created to make players feel that the game was fun. It was created to make players feel that the game was fun, and then make them spend more money inside it.
Sometimes, whether it was even fun was a question mark.
As for the characters players liked? If they had no commercial value, use them up and throw them away.
The story players cared about? Just do everything possible to promote the current limited character. Even using previous characters as stepping stones was fine. As for the player, the protagonist? Just act as a camera and record everything.
The various interesting gameplay systems players wanted? Do not bring up things that do not make money.
The many issues and optimizations players kept suggesting? It has already been said those things do not make money, so just pretend not to see them.
And so on.
No matter what, as a character in Oath, Carl still had one thing to say to the players who were about to arrive in this game world.
Welcome, players, to this money-first mobile game world!
(To be continued.)