Why Did It Suddenly Get So Ghostly?

As the two PhDs—one male, one female—bantered, Dong Zhen found himself entering the operable interface.

The dialogue was simple yet tinged with sarcasm, and even when he approached a squirrel, he could still catch the two doctors bickering.

"This game's details are pretty solid, the dialogue's all meticulous, just like Undertale—super fine-grained," Dong Zhen remarked as he controlled the game character, offering his commentary.

For instance, when they came across a signpost, the characters would quip about whether it'd get stolen if left out in the mountains.

The dialogue was a bit funny, and it also made him, as a streamer, feel a little out of a job.

Because this kind of banter was usually his gig.

Damn, if the game's already done all the riffing, what's left for him to say?

"A narrative-driven game? Seems a bit flat, huh?" Dong Zhen wondered.

Aside from moving a rock-like object in the middle, the entire gameplay loop—walking around and simple dialogue—didn't seem to have anything special.

Even Undertale had simple bullet-hell combat mechanics.

The one saving grace was the game's music.

From Magic Mirror to Undertale and now this To the Moon, the soundtrack was top-notch.

As for the visuals, Chen Xu's To the Moon had made some improvements over the pixel art of the original RPG Maker style from the previous life.

But it was still just passable at best, nowhere near outstanding.

As Dong Zhen mused to himself, the two doctors, Neil and Eva, arrived at their destination—a large mansion.

They knocked, and a middle-aged woman opened the door. According to the introduction, her name was Lily.

She was the one who usually cared for the old man named Johnny, and the two kids playing piano in the room earlier were her daughter and son.

After saying that, Lily led the two doctors upstairs.

Downstairs in the living room, the two kids squabbled over who got to play the piano first, then sat side by side and began to play.

It was the same piano piece from before the doctors' car crash.

The game's theme song?

Dong Zhen guessed.

Amid Eva and Neil's bickering, Lily and the doctor explained the situation of the game's protagonist, Johnny.

Johnny was now bedridden, mostly unconscious, with only vital signs indicating he was still alive.

According to the doctor, he only had about two or three days left.

As for Johnny's dying wish, it was: to go to the moon.

But why he wanted to go to the moon, Lily, his caretaker, said she didn't know. Although Johnny was her employer, he barely spoke to anyone and was considered a very odd man.

"Damn, this old man's got some wild dreams! Wants to go to the moon, huh? So the main content of this game is to figure out why the old guy wants to go to the moon, and then help him fulfill that wish?"

"A puzzle game? This damn thing is finally my jam! Brain games—I'm good at those!"

Based on the info he'd gathered so far, Dong Zhen slapped his thigh.

After talking to Lily, he got a clue: they needed to use some key items from Johnny's life to enter his memories, then alter them to help him achieve his wish.

Since a person's memories span a lifetime, the machine couldn't scan them all at once, so they needed a medium.

He chose to have the female doctor handle the machine while he controlled the male doctor to wander around the house.

"Damn, this old guy's loaded! Big house!"

"But gotta say, the old man hit the jackpot meeting me. Going to the moon? Hell, you wanna go to Mars, I'll get you there!"

As he spoke, Dong Zhen steered the male doctor around, chatting with the two kids downstairs, trying to get them to give him a tour of the house to find useful clues. But the little griefers demanded he fetch them a lollipop cane first.

"These two brats are such a pain. Whatever, I'm an adult, I won't stoop to their level."

He went to the kitchen, where the doctor spotted the candy cane on a shelf. But since he was too short to reach it, he had to move a stool over and stand on it.

"Don't you dare say I can't reach it. The in-game doctor can't reach it—that's not me!"

"I'm a six-foot-four giant, you think I can't reach a cabinet? You kidding me?"

Seeing the chat comments, Dong Zhen's mouth twitched, but he held his ground.

He said he was six-foot-four, and six-foot-four he was—tall enough to dunk!

He handed the lollipop cane to the two griefers and got some clues from them.

When Johnny could still move around, he apparently often went to the basement, and the piano piece the kids played was one Johnny used to play all the time when he was healthy.

Guided by the kids, Dong Zhen went down to the basement and into a small room.

It was pitch black, with a desk lamp nearby.

But the moment Dong Zhen flicked the light on, the game's music shifted instantly.

Eerie, ominous, unsettling—paired with the dim yellow glow and the room filled entirely with origami rabbits made from colored paper.

"This damn thing just turned into a horror game out of nowhere!"

Without any warning, the sudden shift in atmosphere sent chills down Dong Zhen's spine.

The room wasn't all that big—it looked like a storage warehouse.

The floor was piled high with hand-folded paper rabbits, and on the table near the door sat a platypus doll.

As for scary? Not really.

But the psychological pressure was real!

Even the live-stream chat was scrolling nonstop.

"This atmosphere suddenly feels so morbid!"

"Please don't tell me this is a horror game."

"Brothers, spam those comments—I'm scared!"

"What are you guys, a bunch of sissies? It's broad daylight, scared of what?"

Glancing at the overly dramatic chat, Dong Zhen steadied his mindset and searched the room.

That platypus doll could be taken—it looked like a key item.

As for the game, even if the atmosphere was pretty grim, he'd checked earlier—it wasn't tagged as a horror game.

Just adventure and story.

No sweat, no sweat. Even if it were a horror game, so what?

A guy like him, six-foot-three, built to dunk—could he really get scared by a game?

"Alright, look at you cowards."

"Let's not waste time. Let's keep going and see what this game's really about—why the old man wants to go to the moon, what the secret of the paper rabbits is. We'll uncover it all."

Dong Zhen chatted a bit with the live-stream chat and kept pushing the game's story forward.

Thanks to 'Bookfriend20201218105428738' for the 400 tip.