"This is so infuriating! How can people like this even exist?" Rachel was clearly angry.
After all, she had worked on Mirror too.
"He's just being sneaky, chasing clout. Doesn't matter if people hate him or support him," Anna said, trying to calm Rachel down.
"Exactly. There are people like that in every field," Lucas said with a grin.
"So, Lucas, we're just going to let this slide?" Rachel was feeling frustrated.
If they didn't fight back, it felt like they were letting soone step all over them.
But if they did respond, wouldn't that be exactly what he wanted?
"Of course not. He wants a fight? Let's give him one," Lucas chuckled, then opened his official blog and posted a ssage.
"To those so-called 'veterans'—gas are art, yes, but they're also products. Just like movies: so are artistic, and so are comrcial. Mirror never claid to be art in the first place."
"And if certain veterans insist their work is art, then maybe they should explain why their 'art' is getting such bad scores. Could it be the so-called rude younger generation just aren't buying it?"
After posting that, Lucas also updated Mirror's store description.
Mostly because his blog didn't have many followers—just over a thousand, most of whom followed him for his earlier comics.
Even though Mirror was doing well in sales, most adult ga players don't really care about the developers behind the gas.
When Anna and Rachel saw Lucas's blog post, they were both stunned.
"Lucas, didn't you say the guy was doing this on purpose? Isn't this exactly what he wants?" Rachel asked, confused.
"Well, the guy's already taken a swing at . If I don't respond, wouldn't that make look weak?" Lucas shrugged, still smiling.
Then Anna's eyes lit up: "Undertale isn't a huge ga, but if we pull so overti, we can finish enough content to get things moving!"
Lucas nodded. "Right. I've been wondering how to promote it—and now, this is free publicity. No reason not to take advantage of it."
"But yeah, we'll all need to hustle for the next few days," Lucas added.
It's just like business: when the top two fight, it's usually number three who gets taken out.
It's no different in the ga world.
The worst thing isn't being criticized—it's being ignored.
And when it ca to Undertale's quality, Lucas felt pretty confident.
......
While the three of them were diving into full-on crunch mode,
Lucas's blog post slowly started gaining attention.
Even though not many people followed his blog,
Mirror had a lot of players recently, and so of them followed the trail back to it.
Plus, Bell had already been stirring things up about Mirror, so a lot of people were quietly watching to see if Lucas would say anything.
And sure enough, he gave them sothing to talk about.
At first, Bell's post was mostly just a joke to the public—he'd done this kind of thing before.
But Lucas's direct reply made it a whole different situation.
Anyone could tell that Lucas was clearly calling out Bell.
It takes two to tango—and Lucas's clapback instantly caught the attention of tons of curious onlookers.
dia outlets quickly picked up the story, and soon even casual players were chiming in too.
Everyone had sothing to say.
"Holy crap, what's going on here?"
"They're fighting! They're actually fighting!"
"So Lucas is the creator of Mirror?"
"Hey, does this Lucas guy have so kind of background or what?"
"Nope. Why?"
"Then why are you making such a big deal out of it?"
"Haha, what Lucas said was savage."
"Not wrong, honestly. Bell The Blabbermouth made two decent gas, but calling them 'art' is a huge stretch."
"Backing Lucas all the way. What's wrong with liking adult gas? Can't wait for a sequel and so new DLC characters—!"
"I don't know… I think Bell The Blabbermouth wasn't really wrong this ti. These kinds of adult gas just aren't very respectable."
"Pfft. Easy to act high and mighty once your pants are back on! Wasn't it Bell who started this whole drama?"
After Lucas replied, the whole topic blew up even more, catching the attention of a lot of players.
Many of them took Lucas's side—Bell didn't have the best reputation in the industry, either among devs or players.
But there were still so who couldn't stand Lucas and took Bell's side instead. After all, a ga like Mirror was bound to stir controversy.
One thing was clear, though: Lucas and Bell had suddenly beco the center of attention, both among the dia and gars.
It might be an exaggeration to say the entire ga industry was focused on it, but anyone keeping an eye on the indie scene had definitely heard about what was going on.
Lucas's official social dia account gained over 100,000 followers overnight.
......
anwhile, in the FlowArts Studio office, Bell's assistant brought him up to speed on everything that had happened.
But instead of getting angry, Bell looked excited.
"Perfect! This is exactly the kind of young designer I wanted—fresh, a little famous, and full of fire! If you're young and not fired up, are you even young?" Bell said, clearly pleased.
Why did he do that interview online in the first place?
It was all for attention.
And now, look—it worked!
How long had it been since anyone jumped in to stir the pot like this?
Having soone to play off is a whole different ga than going solo.
Just look at how eager the dia are to report on this now. Before, he even bought so traffic to try and kick things off.
But it barely caused a ripple. And now?
With one reply, the traffic started pouring in on its own!
Still, he needed to add more fuel to the fire—get this buzz going even hotter.
Grinning, Bell opened his social account and posted: "So ga designers are really good at taking things out of context. I never said my ga was art—I only said I hope to one day create a ga that could be called art."
"But looking at certain people's gas… I doubt they'll ever understand what it takes to make a real ga, instead of just relying on clever little tricks."
After posting that, Bell even tagged Lucas on purpose.
But what surprised him was how fast Lucas replied—barely five minutes later, and Bell got tagged right back.
"This is sothing I should be saying too. My new ga Undertale will officially launch on July 15th. Maybe so designers can take a look and decide for themselves whether it counts as a real ga… and whether it has any artistic value."
Bell's smile froze on his face.
That move… felt very familiar.
(End of Chapter)
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