The festival had begun.
Dawn had barely broken, yet the festival atmosphere was already in full swing.
Alto had already arrived at the contestants' area.
The entire plaza had been transformed into a venue.
At the center of the venue stood a massive projection device, an apparatus that could transmit dream world visuals into the real world in real-time.
Large crowds had already gathered at the venue.
The competition format involved nine judges conducting initial screening of the works.
Every three judges formed a group, and any work receiving more than two votes would advance to the next round.
This round was just to filter out shoddy, poorly-crafted works with incomplete rule systems, so the judges would only give them a cursory look.
Ensuring no defective products entered the second round.
Works that advanced to the second round would receive their own exhibition booth.
Players entering the venue could experience the dreams at their corresponding booths.
Each player held a recommendation ticket to vote for their favorite work.
Finally, in the third round, rankings would be determined by combining the votes with the judges' scores.
The event would continue until evening.
On the central platform, a beautiful female elf held a voice amplification artifact, explaining the competition rules.
Alto sat calmly in the contestants' section, quietly waiting.
He was extremely confident in Plants vs Zombies, so he wasn't worried in the slightest.
The projection device lit up, and the judges began scoring the works.
The first segment had no standout moments, with the presented works all fleeting and forgettable.
A quick glance at the work's description, type, and designer, then a trial run, followed by using special methods to observe the underlying architecture of the entire work.
Soon it was his work's turn.
An elderly elf picked up the Moonstone engraved with Plants vs Zombies and directly activated it.
Without even properly examining it, his brow furrowed slightly.
So small. Clearly, just an ordinary person's work. The dream space was still in its most primitive version. These kinds of works were mostly opportunistic, delusional, crude attempts.
In his experience, initial spaces simply couldn't generate anything worthwhile. At best, they'd create a small scene to use as background decoration.
This work was even more crude. The surrounding space was completely void.
In the middle of the flat ground was just something resembling a table.
He didn't even have the interest to look further. Was this simulating eating? Or playing cards on a table?
"Hmph."
Direct rejection. X.
"No way..."
Alto had been quite happy watching his work take the stage.
But when he saw that the old man directly rejected it without even properly looking, he was stunned.
Talk about dying before achieving glory. Talk about getting knocked down right out of the gate.
Alto, who'd been brimming with confidence, now felt his heart sink like ice.
Are you kidding me?!
Is this a joke?!
He didn't even enter the game interface before getting rejected. That old dog must be screwing with him.
How did such an unprofessional person become a judge?
But right now, being upset was useless. He couldn't exactly rush on stage and beat someone up.
Frustrated as he was, the competition had to continue.
He could only hope the next judges would be a bit more conscientious.
Next came the second judge.
A gracefully elegant female elf, exuding a languid air, clearly someone accustomed to high status.
Melissa picked up the Moonstone and began operating it.
A flat area appeared before her, with a stone platform in the center carved with beautiful patterns.
"Plants vs Zombies! Hm? Strange name."
She found the scene overly simple, and the name also left her somewhat puzzled.
However, out of professional duty, she stepped forward, intending to observe more carefully.
This was just an initial dream space, so there couldn't be much content. If there were no highlights, she'd reject it directly as well.
On the sandbox, as Melissa approached, the fog dispersed.
Looking closely, she realized this wasn't a simple table, but a sandbox-like platform.
A control crystal orb slowly rose, accompanied by upbeat music playing in sync.
"Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo!"
Within the sandbox, the Plants vs Zombies login interface appeared.
On the left was an extremely cartoonish tree, on the right a large stone tablet with text reading:
[Start Adventure Mode]
[Mini-Games]
[Puzzle Mode]
[Survival Mode]
Only the first option was lit up; the other options were all grayed out.
Then a prompt appeared with basic operation instructions.
Since the controls differed from PC, Alto worried about compatibility issues, so he'd included simple operational tutorials.
She was somewhat surprised. Could it be?
Following the prompts, she clicked on Adventure Mode.
"MUAHAHAHAHA!"
A withered hand suddenly burst from the ground.
The sudden, horrifying laughter startled her.
The scene was once again covered in fog, blanketing the entire sandbox. As the fog cleared, the official game interface appeared.
On the left was a cartoonish house, in the middle a garden clearing.
The game officially began.
Don't let the zombies reach your house!
'Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo...'
'There's a zombie on your lawn...'
The first few levels were basically tutorials, so there was no difficulty.
This was Melissa's first time experiencing this type of setup, so she unconsciously became immersed.
The first level had only one lawn row. As the game started, the first zombie appeared.
Looking at this cutesy little zombie, it is simultaneously horrifying yet somewhat comical.
Then the game prompted her to plant a Peashooter.
At the same time, sunshine began falling from the sky, warm little light orbs dropping into the sandbox.
For a moment, she was somewhat flustered.
She collected sunshine while hastily operating the card, beginning to plant crops. An adorable Peashooter appeared on the lawn.
'What kind of strange plant is this? It looks like a plant monster.'
Then it began spitting peas one after another, attacking the zombie. After just a few hits, the zombie died.
One Peashooter required one hundred sun.
In no time, she'd collected enough, then planted another Peashooter.
Before long, all five zombies from the first level were eliminated, and a new card dropped on the ground.
Sunflower.
Clicking the description: Sunflowers produce sun.
She felt a bit excited. This unprecedented experience made her extremely curious about the content ahead.
The first few levels had basically no difficulty. Before she knew it, she'd reached the fifth level. The fifth level featured Plants vs Zombies' first mini-game.
Wall-nut Bowling.
This level didn't require collecting sun. The conveyor belt would continuously send Wall-nut cards.
A red line appeared on the left side of the garden's middle. She needed to throw Wall-nut bowling balls to defeat the zombies.
Just as she was getting into it, a voice interrupted her.
This made her a bit annoyed.
"Ahem, Melissa, is there some kind of problem?"
To the left, a middle-aged elf looked at Melissa with some confusion.
Melissa suddenly remembered she was still in the middle of judging.
She'd already spent too much time on this work.
Mainly because this game was too interesting. With limited dream world construction resources, it had taken a completely different approach. She had to admit this designer had exceptional talent.
She had a premonition that this work might become the dark horse of this competition.
She glanced at the dream world's designer.
Alto.