Chapter 513: His story is coming to an end... |
"Big Bro... Euro Emperor..."
"...Cousin got blown up by a teapot..."
Hearing the faint voice from afar, inside the ship's cabin, a still shaken Ayin quickly got up and ran towards the door.
Euro Emperor was gone too.
No idea how he vanished.
Originally, after entering the building, Ayin and Euro Emperor had been walking along just fine, even hitting a stroke of incredible luck by finding a toy horn worth 75 bucks.
But for some reason, Euro Emperor kept saying he felt like something was following them.
If just one person felt that way, it might be paranoia, nothing to worry about.
But the creepy thing was, Ayin also kept feeling like someone was behind them.
But then!
Just as the two reached the entrance of an alley, Ayin accidentally scanned a large axle inside worth 45 bucks.
Saying "I'll grab it," he went in, but before he could even lift it!
Suddenly, from behind, a scream rang out!
"Big Bro! There's some—!"
The scream was cut off abruptly!
And by the time Ayin turned back, a mere two seconds later, Euro Emperor was already gone.
Not only was the person gone, but even the corpse had vanished.
By the faint, dim light, only a trail of dragged bloodstains could be seen, stretching deep into the darker corridor.
The pitch-black building, the gloomy, cold environment, the eerie, dangerous atmosphere.
A companion who was just walking beside you moments ago, gone without a trace—alive or dead—in the blink of an eye.
Forget Ayin.
Even a Predator would shiver.
Ayin sprinted all the way back, not even bothering with the large axle, just fleeing back to the ship.
And just as he got back!
He heard Ah Lin's voice from afar, shouting something about Cousin getting blown up by a teapot.
"What's going on—?! Ah Lin! Ah Lin—!!!"
By now, the sky was pitch black; time had unknowingly reached 9:30 PM.
Outside, the night was dark, cold winds blowing intermittently, chilling to the bone.
Ayin hurried a few steps to the gangplank at the ship's stern, waving towards Ah Lin who was running over carrying a cola crate:
"Hurry—! Ah Lin! Let's go! Euro Emperor's dead—!"
"Cousin's dead too—! Hah—hah—hah—"
Ah Lin was gasping for breath, seeing the gangplank ahead, staggering as he tried to climb up:
"Go go go! This crate's worth 45! Once we take off we'll..."
However!
Before he could finish!
Suddenly!
Ah Lin felt a dull thud from behind him!
Rumble—
And then!
The boss who had been standing on the gangplank to greet him froze in place as if petrified.
"Boss?"
Ah Lin thought Ayin had disconnected, tentatively calling out softly.
Then, he saw Ayin place his left hand on his hip, extend his right index finger, making a pointing gesture, signaling him to look behind.
Puzzled, Ah Lin turned to look behind him: "What...?"
A giant, easily as tall as two ships stacked together, now stood behind him like a silent mountain, its massive shadow enveloping him.
"I—"
Roar—rumble—!!!
The next second!
The giant's deafening roar erupted!
Its huge claw grabbed Ah Lin, lifting him high into its abyssal maw!
Ah Lin's scream, like a dog whose tail got stepped on, shrill and terrified, pierced through the cold night air across the livestream chat—
"Big Bro—!!!"
"Big Bro Tatakae—! Slash its neck—!!!"
Crunch!
A burst of blood mist exploded, spreading through the dark night.
And by now, the livestream chat had exploded—
'Great bit hahahahahahahaha...'
'Tatakae! Big Bro!'
'Tatakae is too damn funny hahahahaha... I'm laughing my ass off...'
'Not to mention anything else, the boss's height does match the platoon leader's...'
'Hey—! What kind of talk is that!'
'"Wolf-like Team Spirit"'
'This damn game is too entertaining...'
'Couldn't have imagined it'd be this funny before clicking...'
'The memes are too dense, just this one clip could make four or five video edits...'
'Hahahahahahahaha damn this weird-ass game is so bizarre...'
'Absurd and abstract'
'I'm gonna laugh till I puke'
'Too effective, feels like it's gonna be a hit...'
......
Indeed!
Just as the viewers said!
With its abstract art style and all sorts of bizarre extremes, *Lethal Company* quickly became a super-hit that no one expected!
In a single week!
Global total sales: 6.9 million copies!
When the news came, Shen Miaomiao was dumbfounded!
She knew Old Gu and the others were tinkering with this small game; she'd even created a record for it in the system.
But she hadn't been counting on it to lose money.
After all, while the game was cheap at just 10 bucks, its cost was also low, less than 7 million.
But still!
Even if she didn't expect you to lose money, the sales of this damn game are too insane!
Nearly 7 million copies in a single week?!
You have to understand!
The last game of theirs that broke the 7 million weekly sales barrier was called *Plants vs. Zombies*.
That was a game released on both mobile and PC, creating an industry legend thanks to the massive device base.
And now, such a game released solely on the motion-sensing pod platform also has such terrifying sales, truly deeply surprising.
Regarding this, Gu Sheng's explanation was—
[This game's unique mechanics make it both playable and watchable.]
And such a trait first gives it the ability to explode in popularity among game streamers.
Believe it, whether it's game streamers, from domestic to international, from small streamers to big ones.
To retain as many viewers as possible and create traffic, entertainment value is essential.
Why did *Sekiro* and *Dark Souls*, despite not being trendy genres at the time, dominate livestream platforms domestically and abroad for weeks on end?
One fundamental reason is the "suffering" attribute of these two games, which brought livestream entertainment value.
Who doesn't like watching streamers suffer and break down?
Therefore.
*Lethal Company*, filled with all sorts of surprises, where almost every step is taken on uncertainty, becoming a hit is almost an inevitable result of industry selection.
As Cousin said: The entertainment value of this damn game is too dense.
And on top of that!
Compared to games like *Sekiro* and *Dark Souls*, *Lethal Company* has one more attribute: "easy to pick up."
Compared to the Souls-like game experience of "watching others suffer and laughing gleefully, but crying miserably when suffering yourself,"
The livestream viewing experience of *Lethal Company* and the experience of buying and playing it yourself are completely consistent.
The various unexpected situations you see streamers encounter in their livestreams, you can also experience in your own playthrough.
The effect might even be more explosive than the streamers' broadcasts.
It can be said that this *Lethal Company* is a game entirely built for entertainment value.
Whoever plays it has content.
After all—
[...its bizarre monsters and environmental settings make the entire gameplay process filled with all sorts of uncertainties.]
Regarding this, Xu Xiaolin, chief editor of game reviews at *Daily Gaming News*, analyzed and commented in the review column—
[Unlike conventional games that focus design on the protagonist, the playability of *Lethal Company* mainly comes from the bizarre, mechanically diverse hostile creatures in the game,]
[There are giant dogs that attack based on sound, hoarding bugs that collect items, little dark inmates that stalk and attack opportunistically, springheads that can only be slowed by staring, and even a little girl in red only visible to the player being chased...]
[When many monsters with different mechanics appear randomly in pitch-black darkness where you can't see your hand in front of your face, the game's unpredictability and chaos level become obvious,]
[Yes, *Lethal Company* is never a simple game,]
[Underneath its "simple," rough game design appearance lies Golden Wind's transcendent understanding of gameplay,]
[And this, however, is just a project Golden Wind completed in a mere half-month with only three people during their spare time from the Higashitsu Gaming Festival project,]
[Perhaps to some extent, the production difficulty of *Lethal Company* is far less than 3S-level masterpieces like *Dark Souls* and *Call of Duty*,]
[But the clever ideas and wonderful concepts in its game design are a flash of inspiration difficult to replicate.]
[*Daily Gaming News* Score: 9.9/10]
[Comment: Great skill appears effortless; a cleverly conceived work that is simple yet not crude.]
Opening score: nine point nine!
A work with a production cost of only seven hundred thousand dollars!
Yet it received the treatment of a chief editor column review from *Daily Gaming News*, and a 9.9/10 score!
You have to understand!
In the past four years, although Golden Wind frequently produced masterpieces, works that achieved such stunning opening scores were still few and far between!
Look at the games Golden Wind previously released that opened with a 9.9—*APEX*, *Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice*, *Call of Duty: Modern Warfare*!
Each one is a masterpiece with investments in the hundreds of millions!
And among this hall of "half-step masterpieces," *Lethal Company* stands among them with a mere seven million investment!
The heat brought by such an opening score is no less than the discussion frenzy triggered back when *To the Moon* entered the ranks of "perfect-score masterpieces" with a million-dollar investment!
Even for a period after, players almost forgot that Golden Wind still had to participate in the Higashitsu Gaming Festival.
The entire gaming community was swept up in a discussion frenzy about *Lethal Company*, with clips from various streamers' broadcasts flying everywhere.
Until!
October 15th!
Exactly one month left until the Higashitsu Gaming Festival opens!
Komera released the first trailer for *Silent Hill: Ascension*, and simultaneously, the official trailer for this "world's first interactive streaming media motion-sensing game"!
"...A brief carnival is just a painkiller with limited effect; the real test cannot be influenced by a mere small game costing less than ten million..."
"It's time to return to the main topic, Golden Wind..."
Neon, Higashitsu.
Komera Headquarters.
As Seiichi Nakamura waved his hand with confidence.
The official trailer for *Silent Hill: Ascension* was released, unveiling the curtain on the destined showdown.
.......
Fog.
Light and shadow.
A desolate town.
A lonely figure walking down a long, dark street.
In the unsettling town, a woman leads her child, hurrying along, glancing back from time to time.
[What is your name?]
In the voiceover, someone asks the woman, the tone filled with indifference and routine.
More like an interrogation than an inquiry.
[Astrid Johnson]
[Alright, first question—did you kill your son?]
Accompanied by thick fog and heavy, eerie music.
The woman and child's footsteps gradually fade into the dense mist.
The sky darkens, Silent Hill's classic ash drifts through the deep fog...
"Wow... still feels quite Silent Hill-ish..."
As the official trailer was released, players who came to watch upon hearing the news also began discussing in the chat barrage—
'This fog and ash have a *Silent Hill 1* feel'
'Rather than *Silent Hill 1*, it feels more like it originates from *PT*'
'True, this setting was originally lifted from Sam's *PT* proposal, Komera has used it for two consecutive titles'
'But come to think of it, actually looking back now, *Silent Hill 1*'s quality was still pretty decent, at least better than that reboot'
'If you compare it that way, then indeed'
'Can't help it, back then *Silent Hill 1* was competing against *PT* and *Escape*, both are T0-level horror games even now, *Silent Hill* losing wasn't unfair'
'Why don't you mention how abstract *Silent Hill 1*'s plot was, the murderer's redemption arc back then fed so many people a pile of crap?'
'Hopefully this installment's plot can be more human, don't pull such abstract plots again?'
'At least this trailer opening looks... seems quite the real deal?'
'Hard to say, let's see more...'
....
And now, on screen, as logos like [KOMINA] and [Nakamurai Studio] fade away,
The camera angle also slowly descends from a room resembling a small chapel.
A Latina woman in a polka-dot shirt, voice tense and apologetic:
[I did everything right]
[Following every word the book guided, every incision's position...]
[But... what I saw... was something entirely new... something we've never seen... incomprehensible...]
And as the woman's voice falls!
The pace of the entire trailer suddenly accelerates!
A massive, twisted black shadow sweeps past the window, leaving a dark gloom.
A monster wrapped in wire stumbles out from the darkness, staggering forward.
A faceless black monster wanders around a farm, a headless monstrous dog weaves through eerie dense woods.
[Dream] [Interlayer] [Plague] [Source]...
One obscure term after another is spoken by different people, intertwining.
Finally!
A blonde woman embraces her daughter in the thick, dense fog: "I believe, inside you there is no..."
Then the perspective shifts, the scene returns to the boy from the very beginning of the trailer:
"Then what if I do...?"
[*Silent Hill: Ascension*]
[November 15th]
[Coming Soon]
"Hiss—"
The trailer ends here.
But the chill left for the players lingers.
Not that this trailer is particularly terrifying, scary, or horrifying,
But after the KOMINA logo appeared, the entire trailer's tone made players deeply uneasy—
'There's a... ominous feeling...'
'The opening had a good vibe, but why does it feel a bit weird after the perspective shift?'
'Know why it feels weird? Because—'
'Hahahahahahahaha damn! This meme is so spot-on!'
'Oh! Right right right! Indeed! There are way too many normal people here! Feels like a company team-building event chosen in Silent Hill! The original sense of loneliness and horror is gone!'
'No wife travels alone (doge)'
'Probably because of the dual narrative, seems the mother-son side is one narrative, the chapel side is another'
'But there are also a bit too many people, men, women, old, young, black, white, even Latin and Asian... (awkward laugh)'
'Don't ask, just correctness'
'Maybe it'll bring some different effect? After all, this Silent Hill is touted as a revolutionary work, seems Komera's ambitions are quite big'
'That's also true, hard to say, after all Golden Wind's entry this time is also a bit abstract, surprisingly not a realistic 3S'
'True, this clash between Golden Wind and Komera feels like picking the best among the worst'
'One is company team-building in Silent Hill, the other is an adult fairy tale cartoon, both a bit abstract...'
....
"So it's really not very optimistic, okay."
At the same time.
Neon streamer Hideki's livestream.
Having just watched the *Ascension* trailer, Hideki awkwardly grimaced:
"If following the usual script, Golden Wind participating with a game of *Escape* or *Resident Evil* caliber,"
"Then I could directly announce popping the champagne,"
"Komera can't compete at all,"
"But the current situation... listen..."
Hideki opened his mouth.
After thinking for a long while, he barely managed to say:
"At least Golden Wind's trailer... is more detailed, right."
As a standard "Golden Wind stan"!
Hideki racked his brains, seemingly only able to find some ground for Golden Wind's *Village Of Shadows* in terms of detail.
And naturally, this statement sparked a wave of deliberately provocative comments in the livestream chat—
'Stop embarrassing yourself with the praise, okay? GW's entry this time is purely for fun, obviously also crap, streamer can't whitewash it so don't force it'
'Looks even worse than *Ascension*, *Village Of Shadows* is clearly a pretentious, childish fairy tale, don't know what the streamer is whitewashing'
'Can't praise it, so don't force it'
'Even a Golden Wind stan can't cook without rice this time, can't even find an angle to praise'
'Because Golden Wind's main entry this time is just crap, holding cutting-edge technology but arrogant, wanting to test the market's tolerance'
'Simply put, they didn't take Komera seriously, indeed after growing big and strong, everyone inevitably makes the mistake of underestimating the enemy'
'The situation reversed, now GW is the villain, I actually hope Komera can counterattack GW fiercely'
'Let the Golden Wind stans quiet down a bit, don't let people like the streamer who find angles to force praise keep jumping around'
'If I were the streamer, I'd just play dead, directly ignore Komera's trailer, then the praise would feel more justified'
......
For a time, the entire livestream chat was filled with attacks on Hideki and ruthless sarcasm towards Golden Wind.
Which also indirectly proved Hideki's status as "Neon's number one motion-sensing game streamer."
Otherwise, there wouldn't be so many people camping in his livestream, just waiting for him to slip up in his words to fiercely stir up such drama.
"Uh... ah... I..."
Facing the explosive barrage of drama, Hideki was momentarily at a loss for words.
No angle!
Admittedly, Komera's *Ascension* trailer has quite an ominous flavor.
But it's undeniable that ever since Golden Wind released the *Village Of Shadows* trailer two months ago, Little Yellow's reputation hasn't been great either!
It's only during this period, with the "half-step deification" of the small game *Lethal Company*, that players' attention was slightly diverted, allowing Golden Wind's reputation to recover a little.
But once the focus returns to the "Higashitsu Gaming Festival"!
Players' attention will still return to the topic of "Golden Wind's arrogant fun project"!
A full two months of public opinion fermenting and Golden Wind's silent non-response have long made this topic an objective fact tacitly accepted by tens of thousands of players in the gaming circle!
In other words!
Now!
The drama side has the right!
Even a staunch "Golden Wind believer" like Hideki couldn't find a reason to counterattack.
Scratching his head, Hideki was truly at a loss against such widespread drama, even somewhat stammering and flustered.
But just as he was about to explain a little!
Ding dong—!
Suddenly.
In the lower right corner of Hideki's livestream screen, an official Twitter release notification popped up—
["Golden Wind V" has posted new content!]
[Please click to view the main text—]
[Golden Wind V: His story comes to a close.....]