Chapter 1155: The Suffocating Nightmare
"Ah, I get it! I must be supposed to use this rock to smash the monster to death. Yes, that's it."
Lin Xue picked up a rock from the ground, crept quietly over to the monster, and then hurled it straight at the monster's head!
"Thud!"
Lin Xue's aim wasn't very good. The rock grazed past the monster's head and landed somewhere in the distance with a crisp sound.
The baby-like monster immediately let out a piercing shriek and dashed toward where the rock had landed!
Lin Xue stood frozen in place for two seconds: "Huh? So that's how the rock is used? Ahem, ahem, close enough, close enough..."
Lin Xue felt a wave of fear. She had thought she was supposed to smash the monster with the rock. If she had actually hit it, wouldn't that have been game over...
But thankfully, the rock lured the monster away, and Lin Xue quickly continued moving deeper inside.
After figuring out the correct way to play this game, Lin Xue's progress sped up significantly, though the process remained terrifying.
In simple terms, the gameplay involved the player using sound waves to navigate, twisting and turning through a pitch-black environment, avoiding branching paths, activating various mechanisms, and escaping the level.
Throughout the level, there were many terrifying monsters of different types, but they all shared one common trait: they located the player based on sound.
Every time the player walked, waded through water, or clapped their hands to scout ahead, these monsters would shriek and charge over, putting immense psychological pressure on the player.
At such moments, the player needed to use special methods, like throwing rocks to lure the monsters away, then seize the chance to activate mechanisms and escape.
Going head-on was hopeless; not even multiple lives would be enough to survive...
The game's scenes were divided into two types. One was realistic scenes, like the protagonist's home, office, and orphanage. These were made with real textures and models, had no monsters, and didn't require echo navigation, but they contained some collectible elements.
For instance, newspapers from that year, brochures from the orphanage, and letters from the protagonist's wife to him. These were collectible items that hinted at the game's story background to the player.
Through these scattered collectibles, players could roughly guess the male protagonist's identity and backstory.
The other type of scene was the echo-navigation scenes, like that completely dark cave.
These scenes were often cramped, narrow, and utterly devoid of any light source, forcing players to rely on echoes to see everything around them.
These scenes were filled with all kinds of monsters, and players had to move forward nervously, using sound to outwit the monsters, then proceed to the next scene.
These two types of scenes alternated constantly, keeping the player's nerves tense at times and slightly relaxed at others. Under this rhythm of tension and release, players could stay highly focused while gritting their teeth and pushing through.
"This game really knows how to ease you in. Every time I think about quitting right away, I end up playing all the way here..."
"Wait, let me throw a rock to scout ahead first... Huh?! This monster is invisible!!"
Lin Xue threw a rock and saw a red phantom almost instantly teleport to where the rock landed, then vanish!
Clearly, as the level progressed, the game's difficulty kept increasing.
The new monster was invisible, meaning it could only be seen as a fleeting afterimage when it moved; normally, there was no way to spot where it was.
Moreover, the complexity of the levels had also increased. Lin Xue not only had to constantly avoid monsters and take detours but also had to activate various intricate mechanisms.
Most of these mechanisms were valves or gates, and each activation made a harsh noise that attracted the monsters.
So Lin Xue had to frantically throw rocks to lure the monsters away in advance, calculating the distance before daring to activate those mechanisms.
What was even more frustrating was that luring monsters away with rocks carried significant risks.
Because the further into the levels, the more sensitive the monsters' hearing became. Even ordinary footsteps could attract them.
Lin Xue had to move slowly, either by tiptoeing or crouching, careful not to make any sound.
She could only rely on the surrounding sounds of dripping water and monster shrieks to gauge the environment, often throwing rocks blindly.
If she wasn't careful and threw a rock that bounced back off a wall in front of her, that would be game over...
Under this relentless mental torment, Lin Xue somehow managed to keep playing through, even surprising herself.
As the levels progressed, Lin Xue began to uncover more clues.
The male protagonist had once tried to adopt a child, but for some reason, it never went through.
His company's boss had written to him, asking why he had been distracted lately and offering him a long vacation to adjust his mood.
It seemed a major tragedy had occurred in the protagonist's home. After his vacation, his performance improved, and the company considered promoting him to chief designer.
At the same time, Lin Xue discovered a large number of antidepressants in the protagonist's home. These medications had actually been banned in the early 1990s because overuse could lead to suicidal tendencies.
Finally, after enduring a long, torturous journey through twisted and terrifying memories, the protagonist relived every bit of his past with his wife and eventually arrived at a rooftop.
On that rooftop, the protagonist's wife leaped off, leaving him forever.
At that moment, Lin Xue's screen instantly turned blue. Some program was urgently restarting, and eventually, a dialog box popped up.
Requires Manual Restart
By now, Lin Xue understood. It turned out that everything was just a virtual world.
The male protagonist and his wife were about to have a lovely baby after marriage, even starting preparations, but a miscarriage occurred due to an accident. They had wanted to adopt a child but ultimately failed. His wife committed suicide by jumping off a building because of depression, leaving the protagonist forever trapped in this nightmare.
Lin Xue chose not to restart.
This time, the protagonist woke up in a room full of servers, with a virtual reality device behind him.
This was his home, but it had been completely filled with servers.
Only a crib in the corner remained, a reminder of the warm, happy home that once was.
After his wife's death, the protagonist worked hard and earned a lot of money. He bought many servers and a virtual reality device, creating an illusory dream for himself so he could return to those happiest times.
But the dream wasn't happy, because the guilt in the protagonist's heart didn't let him off. His dream turned into a terrifying nightmare.
Decades passed, and for the first time, the protagonist emerged from this endless nightmare.
Yet, just as Lin Xue thought the protagonist had let go and accepted his wife's death, he pushed open the door and walked out.
"Wait for me... I'm coming to find you..."