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As always, developers offered early access demos at the exhibition. Stormwind Studios released a playable preview of their Transformers game, available at the event.
Combined with the massive popularity Stormwind had accumulated from previous releases, plus the announcement that Robert Downey Jr.—the actor who plays Iron Man—would be making an appearance, they successfully attracted the majority of players visiting the exhibition.
The moment doors opened, players surged toward the Stormwind booth like a tide. Within minutes, the area was absolutely mobbed and buzzing with energy.
Beyond general visitors, swarms of media reporters also converged on the location, cameras and equipment in hand, almost bursting the exhibition hall at its seams. The area outside the entrance? Packed solid, impossible to navigate.
The Optimus Prime and Bumblebee statues in the center of the hall had finally been unveiled. The two towering Transformers were impossible to miss—their vibrant, colorful metallic paint jobs catching the light, visible from anywhere in the venue.
Players went nuts upon seeing the models. Phones came out immediately. Everyone wanted photos, gathering around, discussing excitedly. The Avengers character displays—especially the Iron Man armor—drew considerable attention too, but the Transformers were the clear stars.
Not only that, but the promotional models staffing the exhibition hall were all strikingly attractive, dressed in bright, eye-catching outfits that drew significant attention. As for the game demo zone, a long queue had already formed.
Everyone was waiting to try the Transformers preview.
"Hey, when's Mr. Iron Man showing up?" someone asked a staff member. Not the first time that question had been asked today. Probably not the fiftieth either.
"Mr. Downey will be out to meet everyone at exactly ten o'clock!" the staffer replied patiently.
Nearby, a group of young guys were trying to find the demo line.
"Is this the queue for Transformers?"
"Nope. End of the line's way back there."
"Oh my God, look at all these people!"
"Gotta be at least a hundred ahead of us. Even if each person only gets ten minutes, there's no way it'll be our turn!"
"We should've sprinted over here when the doors opened!" several young people said, disappointed.
"Holy cow, this is insane!" At the entrance of a neighboring exhibition hall, managers and staff from other developers exclaimed, staring at the completely blocked Stormwind booth.
"Even when ET Games was at their peak, we never saw anything like this!" someone nearby commented.
"Yeah, thing is—ET only had Mech Dominion as a true phenomenon. Their other stuff was popular, sure, but just popular. Look at Stormwind though: Avatar and Fast & Furious were both extremely successful releases. Death Race and The Avengers—two completely different types and genres—both became phenomenal hits. And now Transformers, announced just last night, shocked the entire world. It's obviously going to be another phenomenon. So this scene at Stormwind's booth isn't surprising at all!"
"Gotta hand it to them, Stormwind is truly impressive. A new company, only about two years old, has successively created so many IPs—and every single one is a masterpiece. It's genuinely incredible!"
"Their creative incubation is astonishing. Mobile Suit Gundam, currently blowing up in the anime world, is definitely Stormwind's next project in development. Its future potential is limitless. Transformers and Mobile Suit Gundam—I think these two super-IPs are going to completely dominate the mech genre that used to belong to ET!"
"They're formidable newcomers, that's for sure. ET's already fallen to imitating and copying the Iron Man style. Kinda sad to see, honestly!"
"Alright, let's not cry for ET. A starving elephant still weighs more than a healthy horse. Even if ET's newly launched content hasn't become massive hits, they're still printing money. We should be so lucky!"
In the exhibition hall's staff lounge, Nathan watched the somewhat chaotic scene outside and felt his stomach knot with worry.
High popularity was great. But too many people inevitably led to unexpected incidents.
Right on cue, the crowd suddenly stirred. A few young guys seemed to be having a conflict, shoving each other. Nathan immediately grabbed his walkie-talkie and called security to maintain order.
He also took several male employees out to break up the altercation. Turned out a few people had gotten into it over queuing—one person had been holding a spot, then friends showed up to cut in line. Others in the queue took exception.
Classic.
Nathan immediately gathered his staff to formulate countermeasures. They set a limit on Transformers demo slots and handed out numbered tickets to those waiting until tickets ran out. Those who received tickets didn't have to stand in line the whole time—they could visit other exhibition halls, and even if their number was called and they missed it, they could still be accommodated later.
This method proved effective. Players no longer had to wait in line constantly, and the conflicts over cutting disappeared.
However, Stormwind's booth popularity remained astronomically high. Even as other companies' booths started performances—singing, dancing, various attractions and giveaways—they still couldn't compete with Stormwind's traffic.
Even the beautiful promotional models found themselves completely outmatched by the two towering Transformers figures in the center of Stormwind's booth.
For the first time in their careers, these attractive women realized their beauty and sex appeal had been defeated by cold steel robots.
"Number thirty!" a staff member called out through a speaker.
"Here! That's me!" A guy who looked like a reporter practically leaped forward, unable to contain his excitement. He'd been waiting almost an hour—finally his turn to experience Transformers.
His name was Edgar, a reporter for a well-known American gaming publication. His mission for coming today was crystal clear: report on the Transformers content.
Though filming or recording the game experience wasn't allowed, at least after experiencing it firsthand, it would be easier to write his article and convey the game to readers through vivid description.
With eager anticipation, Edgar climbed into the VR pod and began his ten-minute experience.
The game opened with a cutscene. A group of American soldiers returning to base in helicopters, shooting the shit, chatting about missing their families back home. Normal military banter.
Captain Lennox was the squad leader and protagonist of this sequence. In the cutscene, after returning to base, he video-called his wife and their newborn daughter. Sweet moment. Humanizing. Edgar found himself smiling.
Then the helicopter that had landed—the one that appeared in the promotional video—started moving.
Metal screamed against metal. Panels shifted and rotated. The helicopter unfolded, twisted, transformed—rising into an incredibly tall robot that loomed over the entire base, a nightmare given mechanical form.
Every soldier in the cutscene froze in horror.
Then it opened fire.
The game began. Edgar, now controlling Lennox, scrambled to join the battle. He and his squad attacked the Transformer, but their firepower might as well have been water pistols against a tank.
The towering Transformer was like a god descending from the heavens. Its advanced weapons and terrifying destructive power wreaked absolute havoc. Fighter jets, helicopters, and tanks within the base were sent tumbling, engulfed in flames. Deafening explosions filled the air constantly.
Human soldiers were as insignificant as ants before it—almost completely defenseless as they were cut down by its artillery. The Transformer systematically destroyed all external communication systems and defensive weapons in the base, then began advancing toward the central area.
Soon, Lennox received an urgent alert—other hostile robots were approaching the location of their classified intelligence. Lennox immediately organized his team to intercept, only to discover it wasn't another giant robot.
It was a machine shaped like a wolf. But elephant-sized. It moved with terrifying speed and agility, also equipped with devastating weapons. It blew through their defensive perimeter like they weren't even there, soldiers dropping left and right, then quickly infiltrated the secure facility and began a frenzied slaughter inside.
Lennox and a handful of his team narrowly escaped with their lives. But the mechanical wolf had successfully breached the classified area.
At the same time, the towering Transformer nearby had almost finished demolishing the entire base and was now directly seizing the server containing their confidential files.
Lennox knew the situation was hopeless. They couldn't hold the base. Mission priority now: survive and escape. Get word out. Report what happened to their country.
So Lennox rallied the surviving team members and organized a rapid retreat. They fled across the vast desert and rocky terrain, desperately searching for any communication equipment that could contact the outside world...