Neural Cloud Drops Marriage Ring on New Year's Day — Players Roast: 'Your Sister Game Danced on ML Players' Graves, Now You're Selling Rings?'

As the New Year's bell rang in 2024, Neural Cloud (a Girls' Frontline spin-off) dropped a surprise gift on all players — a marriage ring, the ultimate Master Love (ML) symbol. Sounds sweet, right? Except its sister game GFL2: Exilium had spent the entire previous year effectively dancing on ML players' graves. To the community, this ring looked less like a love letter and more like salt rubbed in an open wound.

The original post cut straight to the bone: Is Yuzhong (Sunborn's founder and the overarching producer of the Girls' Frontline franchise) trying to milk the 'inferior ML stinky money' (ML臭钱 — a derogatory term for ML-focused gacha monetization) again? Or is Sunborn's internal management such a mess that someone is openly defying his direction? After all, GFL2 is Yuzhong's personal pet project where he calls all the shots, while Neural Cloud is managed by a separate, subordinate team.

The comment section erupted instantly. One player popped the champagne for 'Neural Cloud independence': 'I support the Neural Cloud team splitting off from Sunborn/Yunmu permanently — I want to see blood!' — implying the Neural Cloud devs have always been a different breed from the GFL2 crew and should have broken away ages ago.

The most viral comment was an instant-classic one-liner: 'Accepting a gift doesn't equal giving consent' (接受礼物不等于同意). This brilliantly repurposed a Chinese internet meme (originally about women's right to reject unwanted romantic advances) to perfectly capture how players feel about Sunborn's 'stab me in the back then hand me flowers' playbook. Someone else added: 'A bride price doesn't mean you get to marry' (给彩礼≠能结婚) — zero chill, maximum shade.

Some players broke down the business absurdity of the whole situation. Neural Cloud currently serves as Sunborn's 'revenue life-support' — the dev team is under KPI pressure and naturally needs to keep players happy. Meanwhile, GFL2, under Yuzhong's personal command, can do whatever it wants — even if it burns through Tencent's investment money, they'll just find another sucker investor. This 'good cop, bad cop' split operation has left players seriously questioning whether Sunborn has any coherent leadership at all.

One bittersweet detail emerged from the comments: Neural Cloud's vow (marriage) system prices the ring at 520 Quartz (about 26 yuan even with first-purchase bonus — not cheap). But here's the kicker — every time you open the vow shop, the first thing you see is the character Type 95. And Type 95, once a flagship character, has been 'ruined beyond recognition' in GFL2. Players joked bitterly that she's now 'only 82% new' (a reference to second-hand product conditions on Chinese resell platforms). Watching a beloved character fall this far has left veteran players genuinely heartbroken.

The core GFL2 controversy centers on the character Daiyan (黛烟) having a borderline romantic storyline with an NPC named Raymon (雷蒙), which players widely condemned as NTR (cuckold/netorare — a term borrowed from Japanese media meaning 'getting cheated on'). As one commenter put it bluntly: 'They're already releasing male characters — what's the point of giving us a ring?' After GFL2 thoroughly traumatized the ML fanbase, Neural Cloud's ring gesture just looks like trying to have your cake and eat it too.

The roasts kept coming in waves: 'Knight (a known insider) said it — this is an open scam. Tang Niu (another meme) said — accepting ≠ consenting. Yuzhong said — stock price goes up after the holiday!' — three internet memes strung together to absolutely obliterate Sunborn's credibility. Another player lamented: 'If they'd just focused on polishing Neural Cloud and GFL1 instead of opening three mines, none of this would've happened — and all three mines collapsed' — referencing how Yuzhong tried to run GFL1, Neural Cloud, and GFL2 simultaneously, and all three hit crisis mode.

Some veteran players went further, arguing that Neural Cloud itself nearly killed Sunborn and Yuzhong — and now with GFL2's reputation in shambles, the entire Girls' Frontline IP's credibility is on life support. As one commenter wrote: 'The Girls' Frontline IP is already tainted — no amount of gifts can fix it. What a waste of the time, money, and love that GFL1 and Neural Cloud players invested.'

As of this writing, the New Year's ring has become a full-blown meme in the community. Sunborn has offered zero explanation for the 'split personality' operation between Neural Cloud and GFL2. For the veterans still hanging on, this might be the most ironic New Year's gift imaginable — while GFL2's writing team dances on ML players' graves, Neural Cloud shoves a ring in your hand and says 'Happy New Year.' You truly have to hand it to Yuzhong: he's elevated the art of 'fighting yourself' to a whole new level.