Chapter 1154: The Death Loop of Sound
Lin Xue groped her way through a pitch-black cave, terrified, but not so terrified that she couldn't move. It wasn't that kind of fear.
In traditional horror games, the player's field of view is restricted. The smaller the range, the stronger the fear. For example, a normal person's field of view in an open area might be a hundred meters, but in a cave or building, due to structural limitations, it might shrink to a few meters. In darkness, it could be reduced to just one or two meters, or even complete blackness.
Darkness represents the unknown and danger, so the smaller the field of view, the greater the player's inner fear.
But this game was different. Although the surroundings were pitch black, the player could still see everything around them—just through this "bat's-eye view."
On one hand, the darkness amplified the player's fear; on the other hand, the fact that everything was visible somewhat alleviated that fear.
So, under the combination of these two sensations, Lin Xue wasn't as scared as she might have been.
But this brought up another issue: the player's sensitivity to sound became extremely acute.
As everyone knows, when a person's vision is impaired, their hearing becomes sharper. For example, many blind people have hearing and touch far superior to normal individuals.
At this moment, Lin Xue was in such a state. Surrounded by darkness, with only a bunch of white wireframes, her hearing became incredibly keen due to the visual limitation.
The cave was very quiet, so every tiny sound pierced her nerves.
When the protagonist stepped onto a metal platform, crisp footsteps echoed. When walking through water, there was a splashing sound. And to scout the path, the protagonist had to constantly clap, cough, and talk, making these sounds especially prominent in the silent cave.
This created a problem: to see farther, you had to make louder sounds, but louder sounds brought a stronger sense of insecurity to the player.
Put yourself in that situation. If you were walking through a strange, dark environment, not knowing where enemies might be, any normal person would move cautiously, trying not to make a sound to avoid being noticed.
Shouting in the dark goes against human survival instincts, but in this game, to see everything clearly, the player had no choice but to do it.
The cave was a winding path, but fortunately, there were no forks—it was a straight line.
Still, every time she passed a corner or had to crouch to get past an obstacle, Lin Xue felt her muscles tense up and her hair stand on end.
After about two more minutes of walking, passing countless turns, a sharp scream came from ahead again.
This sound was like a baby's cry in a horror movie—piercing, high-pitched, and long-lasting. In such a silent environment, it was pure mental pollution.
And worse, every time this scream came, the surrounding white wireframes turned red, giving a very strong sense of crisis.
Lin Xue could judge the monster's position from the source of the red sound waves. It was getting closer and closer.
"I feel like I'm about to lose it... but I suddenly understand why this game is called a low-budget horror game. The budget really is low..."
Lin Xue remarked that she had never seen a game save so much on costs...
Because aside from the initial scene, the main levels were all in this pitch-black environment. They didn't even need to make textures—just outline everything with white lines and call it a day...
Other horror games, to create a terrifying atmosphere, often required complex scenes and monsters, with realistic blood, limbs, and organs.
This game didn't need any of that. Everything was just outlines, yet it was still especially scary...
Continuing deeper, Lin Xue finally saw the monster's true form.
"Oh my god, what is this? So disgusting. Mom, I want to go home..."
Lin Xue didn't dare speak loudly. She observed the terrifying monster from a distance.
Its voice sounded like a baby's, and its appearance was also like a baby's. But it was a deformed baby, maintaining an infant's body shape with a large head, yet standing about one and a half meters tall.
Moreover, its head and body were covered in deformed tumors or bumps. Lin Xue couldn't tell what they were, since everything she saw was just outlines. But regardless, the monster's sound, appearance, and movements only gave one feeling: disgust.
The monster was separated from Lin Xue by an iron fence. Lin Xue tiptoed, trying to go around it, but she couldn't. Because as soon as she stopped making sounds, the surroundings would immediately plunge into darkness.
So, Lin Xue had to keep clapping and moving forward. Every time she clapped, the baby monster would let out a scream and frantically run around searching for her location. Fortunately, the iron fence kept it from getting through.
The clapping and screaming alternated, creating a bizarre harmony.
After confirming multiple times that the monster couldn't get through, Lin Xue gritted her teeth, enduring the mental pollution of the screams, and continued forward.
Suddenly, Lin Xue spotted a woman's shoe on the ground. But just as she bent down to pick it up, the floorboard beneath her suddenly collapsed!
Lin Xue screamed in fright and fell to the ground.
Fortunately, the drop wasn't too high. Lin Xue got up and looked back up.
There was no way back up.
"Well, this is all standard horror game stuff. Stay calm, stay calm..."
Lin Xue comforted herself as she continued forward.
But this time, she realized she had fallen into the baby monster's lair...
This time, there was no fence separating them. The baby monster was just four or five meters ahead of her, constantly screaming and emitting red sound waves.
Lin Xue panicked. She wanted to quickly take the path on the right to avoid the monster, but she wasn't paying attention and stepped into a puddle.
"Splash! Splash!"
The sound of Lin Xue walking through the water was loud. The baby monster immediately screamed and lunged at her!
Lin Xue screamed in terror, which only revealed her position further. The baby monster pounced directly, grabbing her arm!
Lin Xue felt her left hand being grabbed and screamed loudly, but the baby monster lunged at her, and her screen turned completely blood-red.
After respawning, Lin Xue could still feel her legs trembling.
"That scared me to death... Wait, this game seems to be stuck in a death loop. If I don't make sounds, I can't see the path. If I make sounds, I attract the monster, and it one-shots me..."
Lin Xue was panicking. After dying once, she understood that this game was like Outlast—the player had no means of fighting back and could only use wits to outmaneuver the monsters.
But how could she lure the monster away?
Lin Xue cautiously groped forward. Suddenly, she noticed a rock on the ground.
Recommended reading: Urban Godly Master Lao Shi's New Book: