The festival began.
Dawn had barely broken, yet the festive atmosphere already flooded the square.
By now Li Mo had arrived in the contestants' area.
The entire plaza had been transformed into a venue.
At its center stood a huge projection artifact that could broadcast images from the Dream World to the real world in real time.
A huge crowd had already gathered.
In this competition, a panel of nine judges would carry out the first round of screening.
The judges were divided into groups of three; any entry that received more than two votes would advance to the next round.
This round only weeded out shoddy works and those with incomplete rules, so the judges would merely give each piece a cursory look.
It simply ensured no defective products slipped into the second round.
Entries that made it to the second round would be granted their own display booths.
Players entering the venue could experience the dreams at the corresponding booths.
Every player held one recommendation ticket that could be cast for the work they liked best.
Finally, the third round would rank the entries based on combined judges' scores.
The event would last until nightfall.
On the central dais a beautiful elven woman was using a voice-amplifying artifact to explain the rules.
Li Mo sat calmly in the contestants' area, waiting quietly.
He had complete confidence in plants vs. zombies, so he wasn't worried in the least.
At that moment the projection artifact lit up and the judges began scoring the works.
The first segment offered nothing eye-catching; the pieces shown were all flashes in the pan.
They would skim the description, genre, and designer, run a quick test, then use a special method to inspect the piece's underlying framework.
Soon it was his turn.
An elderly elf picked up the moonstone engraved with plants vs. zombies and activated it.
Before he had even looked properly, his brows creased slightly.
So small—clearly the work of an ordinary person. The dream space was still in its most primitive form; such pieces were usually half-baked, clumsy efforts born of wishful thinking.
In his experience, an initial space simply couldn't produce anything decent; at best you might get a tiny scene usable as a background.
This piece was even worse: the surrounding space was nothing but void.
In the center, on level ground, stood something like a table.
He lost interest at a glance—was this supposed to simulate eating or perhaps a card game on a table?
'Hmph.'
He crossed it out with an X.
'Rejected.'
Li Mo had been delighted when his piece came up.
But seeing the old man dismiss it without a proper look, he was dumbstruck.
Talk about dying before the battle even begins—an utter slap in the face.
His once unshakable confidence now felt ice-cold.
Are you kidding me!
Is this some kind of joke!
The game interface hadn't even loaded and it was already X-ed out—was that old geezer deliberately messing with him?
How did someone so unprofessional become a judge?
Yet there was nothing he could do; he couldn't rush onstage and punch the guy.
Furious as he was, the contest had to continue.
He could only hope the next judges would be more conscientious.
The next judge stepped up.
A lithe, graceful elven woman with a languid air about her—clearly someone long accustomed to high position.
Melissa took the moonstone and began.
A flat expanse appeared before her; in its center stood a stone platform carved with elegant patterns.
'plants vs. zombies? Strange name.'
The scene seemed far too simple, and the name left her momentarily stunned.
Out of professionalism she stepped closer for a better look.
This was only an initial dream space, so it couldn't contain much; if nothing impressed her she would cross it out too.
As Melissa approached the sandbox, the fog lifted.
She saw now that it wasn't a simple table but a sandbox-like platform.
An orb of control rose slowly, and cheerful music started playing.
'Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo!'
Inside the sandbox the plants vs. zombies login screen appeared.
On the left stood a cartoonish tree; on the right, a large stone tablet with the options:
[Start Adventure]
[Mini-Games]
[Puzzle Mode]
[Survival Mode]
Only the first option was lit; the rest were dark.
A prompt then introduced the basic controls.
Since the controls differed from PC, Li Mo had added a brief tutorial to avoid confusion.
Intrigued, she wondered…
Following the prompt, she clicked Adventure Mode.
'Hahahahaha!'
A withered arm burst from the soil.
The sudden creepy laugh startled her.
Fog rolled across the sandbox, then cleared to reveal the actual game interface.
On the left sat a cartoon-style house; in the middle lay a garden plot.
The game officially began.
Don't let the zombies reach your house!
'Doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo…'
'Brains… brains…'
The early levels were basically tutorials, so they posed no real challenge.
This was Melissa's first encounter with such a concept, and she quickly became absorbed.
Level 1 had only one lane; as it started, the first zombie appeared.
The cute, chibi-style zombie looked both spooky and silly.
The game prompted her to plant a peashooter.
At the same time sunlight began falling from the sky—warm little orbs dropping into the sandbox.
For a moment she was flustered.
She collected sunlight while dragging cards, planting a lovely peashooter on the lawn.
'What a weird plant—looks like some kind of plant Demonic Beast.'
It spat peas one by one, attacking the zombie and soon knocking it down.
A peashooter cost a hundred sun.
She quickly gathered enough and planted another.
Before long all five zombies in level 1 were defeated, and a new card dropped:
sunflower.
Its description said it could produce sunlight.
Excited, she found the experience completely novel and craved to see what came next.
The next few levels were easy, and before she knew it she reached level 5—the first mini-game in plants vs. zombies.
Wall-nut Bowling.
This level required no sun collection; a conveyor kept feeding Wall-nut cards.
A red line appeared on the left side of the garden; she had to roll Wall-nuts like bowling balls to knock down zombies.
Just as she was getting into it, a voice interrupted her.
Annoyed, she frowned.
'Ahem, Melissa, is something wrong?'
To her left a middle-aged elf was looking at her in puzzlement.
Only then did Melissa remember she was still in the middle of judging.
She had spent far too much time on this piece.
The game was simply too engaging; under the Dream World's limited resources the designer had found a brilliant alternative—undeniably talented.
She had a hunch this entry might become the dark horse of the contest.
She glanced at the designer of this Dream World:
Li Mo.