Seeing A Yin completely lose it, the viewers in the livestream went wild with laughter—
"Hahahahaha, this trap is so evil."
"The built-in chat messages are seriously absurd."
"Click to check the designer's mental state."
"You can't clear this level at all, hahahaha."
"The monkey's completely broken."
"I seriously can't take it anymore. Dying once per minute on average—who could handle that?"
"This one hour made him angrier than an entire year."
"Lmao, I thought the boss's stream was just for show, so I bought the game myself."
"How was it? Tell us so we can have a laugh too?"
"My only advice is not to use a new controller or keyboard when playing."
"Otherwise you'll feel bad when you smash it, right..."
"Get out of my computer, I'm dying laughing."
"An absolute masterpiece!!!"
"I'm laughing my way to riches..."
Looking at the screen filled with laughter in the chat—
Then at A Yin, the streamer, who was panting heavily and clearly furious—
Shen Miaomiao silently raised a question mark in her heart.
There was a saying online: "When I type a question mark, it doesn't mean I have a problem. It means I think you have a problem."
She truly couldn't understand it. This game was obviously so inhumane, with levels designed specifically to stop players from clearing them.
Why were people still willing to spend over sixty lives trying to beat it? And if they hadn't been enraged beyond endurance in the end, they would have kept playing?
Were gamers really all masochists?
Shen Miaomiao didn't quite understand.
So, she decided to learn through practice.
After getting up and turning on her computer, Shen Miaomiao quickly bought Gu Sheng's Mario Bros. and installed it.
It had sold so many copies already anyway. One more two-yuan sale wouldn't make a difference.
After entering the game, Shen Miaomiao first took a quick look at the controls.
The controls were extremely simple: move left and right, sprint, and jump.
"Doesn't look that hard. It's even easier than Carrot Fantasy..."
Muttering to herself, Shen Miaomiao started the game.
However, ten minutes later—
"...Gu Sheng, you really deserved to dieeeee!!!"
At that moment, Shen Miaomiao had completely lost her cute, ladylike image. She gripped the two halves of a keyboard in her hands, baring her teeth with veins bulging at her temples, looking every bit like a violent young woman!
This guy deserved to be sentenced!
Drag him out and shoot him for ten minutes!
She finally understood why A Yin had lost it so badly!
Because this game wasn't merely "hard"!
Shen Miaomiao had played some difficult games before.
But unlike those games that deliberately piled on enemies and obstacles to artificially raise the difficulty—
Mario Bros. was, from an intellectual standpoint, a complete and utter dimensionality reduction attack by Gu Sheng against every player!
Only those who had played it could feel that the seemingly casual, funny trap designs all had underlying logic!
They were linked together, one after another!
To give a simple example—
In the middle of the first level, you would pass a short set of downward steps.
Following the steps down and moving forward a short distance, you would reach a pipe. The terrain formed a U-shape overall.
It looked peaceful, without even a single small enemy.
In reality, it was filled with hidden danger.
The moment you went down those steps and reached the edge of the pipe, preparing to jump up, you would discover that Gu Sheng had placed an entire row of invisible blocks above your head.
Once you went down the steps, you could never jump back up. You would be stuck there on the spot and could only restart!
And that wasn't even the most outrageous part.
Generally speaking, even a gaming idiot like Shen Miaomiao could figure out how this trap worked after falling into it twice.
So the third time she came through, Shen Miaomiao got smarter:
"This lady just won't go down that path!"
"It's not that far anyway. I'll just sprint and make a big jump straight onto the pipe!"
Shen Miaomiao had thought it through nicely.
But she had underestimated just how hellish Gu Sheng could be.
She thought a sprinting jump would carry her over, never realizing that Gu Sheng had already set up a second layer of invisible blocks, calculated the position, and waited for her like a hunter by a tree stump!
Shen Miaomiao had just put all her strength into a huge jump—
The next second, she took a brutal slam straight to the face!
The second layer of hidden blocks would smack her back down, sending her right back into that unbearable groove!
Shen Miaomiao truly broke down.
A game designer who didn't study programming languages, but military strategy instead!
Every move she made, every judgment she formed about the level, was entirely within Gu Sheng's control!
He was like a calculating psychopath who stood on the high ground of intellect, laughing at the players who lost it, mocking their innocence while showing off his own intelligence.
Gu Sheng should be grateful that the country had a complete criminal code.
That was Shen Miaomiao's assessment.
Mario Bros. became popular.
As a top streamer in Shark Live Platform's gaming section, A Yin's influence truly was enormous.
Coupled with the explosively entertaining stream—
Almost overnight, Mario Bros. swept through the entire game streaming scene.
It brought torment to countless streamers, laughter to countless viewers, and material to countless gaming media accounts.
"At the same time, our game sales have naturally risen steadily."
In the conference room of Golden Wind Game Company—
Chief secretary Chu Qingzhou sat below Shen Miaomiao and reported the game's sales figures, looking exceptionally excited.
"As of now, our company's first game, Mario Bros., has sold 7,822 copies, for total sales revenue of 15,644 yuan."
"Of those, more than 5,000 copies were sold on the first day alone, accomplishing the feat of recovering our costs within twenty-four hours! Let's give ourselves a hand!"
Clap clap—
Applause broke out.
Since Golden Wind was still in its early stages—
Aside from the cleaner, the company only had chief secretary Chu Qingzhou, director Gu Sheng, and a young female finance director.
So the applause seemed somewhat sparse.
That was because, aside from Chu Qingzhou and the finance director clapping with particular enthusiasm, Gu Sheng, as the main contributor, naturally couldn't exactly applaud himself wildly.
As for Shen Miaomiao...
Listening to those strings of numbers, she felt like she was about to have a heart attack.
And Gu Sheng had even caused her to lose a keyboard.
How could she possibly be in the mood to applaud that bastard!
That was all money!!!
Shen Miaomiao wailed inwardly, drooping miserably.
Originally, the profit she could have earned was far more than this measly ten thousand or so yuan!
Who would have thought that this damned game would recover its costs overnight and render her system useless on the spot!
However, seemingly failing to notice that her boss was in low spirits, the excited Chu Qingzhou drove the knife in even deeper after announcing the first-day sales:
"Based on our projections, we estimate conservatively that by this Sunday, Mario Bros. will reach 29,000 sales in its first week, with total sales revenue of 58,000 yuan and roughly six times profit!"
Pff—please stop, Sister Chuchu—
Shen Miaomiao clutched her chest, nearly coughing up blood.
I could have made ten times profit in one day...
Feeling that she would truly suffer a heart attack if she listened any longer, Shen Miaomiao hurriedly stopped Chu Qingzhou.
"Alright, Sister Chuchu. Let's stop discussing Mario Bros.'s profits for now."
Shen Miaomiao tried her best to keep her face from looking so dark.
"A strong start is certainly worth celebrating, but we can't become complacent."
"The success of a small game is only the first step toward reaching the pinnacle of gaming. So, today's meeting will mainly discuss the direction of our next game's development."
Hearing that, everyone looked at one another.
Actually, logically speaking, Gu Sheng should have had the final say in this matter, since he was the game director.
But considering how absurd the game he wanted to develop was, Gu Sheng found himself unable to bring it up.
So Chu Qingzhou raised her hand.
"How about this, CEO Shen? Let me share my humble opinion on our next development plan first, just to get the discussion started."
"Given Mario Bros.'s current popularity, my personal suggestion is—make a sequel."
However—
Before Chu Qingzhou could finish speaking—
Voices of objection came simultaneously from the seats at both ends of the conference room:
"No."
"Not advisable."
Before you continue