This Is What It Feels Like!

Ethan Vale had no promotions or recommendations. When people opened the Steam Games platform, they could see several newly released games.

Dead Cells, made by Sprout Studio, required scrolling down quite a ways before it came into view.

It was ranked ridiculously far down.

"Priced at 48... sheesh." Silver frowned when he saw the price.

His impression of this studio was still stuck on that crude, rage-inducing little game with shabby graphics.

Judging purely by production value, a poorly textured little game like Getting over it was not worth 10 bucks.

But were graphics the most important thing in a game?

No. What every gamer cared about most was the gameplay.

On the game's homepage, the first thing that caught his eye was the four words: Dead Cells.

The game's description was also simple—danger was ever-present, death was always close at hand. No checkpoints, only kill, die, learn, repeat!

Yinzi's gaze settled on the word "repeat."

"I've got full-on PTSD now. Seeing those two words gives me goosebumps and sends chills down my back." Silver shuddered.

'Post-traumatic stress disorder, right? Honestly, I'm a little scared too.'

'I... still want to play the official version of the hammer-swinging game...'

'There's a streamer next door who reached the top in two minutes at fastest. I've watched him play. It seriously doesn't look like the same game I played.'

'Don't be fooled by how skilled he looks. His room is full of broken keyboards.'

"Wait, he's changed platforms! Let me see if he uploaded the old game." Silver seemed to remember something and quickly opened the game designer's profile.

When he saw the developer's self-introduction, he could not help laughing.

He remembered that the last time he had looked at the game creator's information, it had been an independent individual.

His name was Black Star.

But now, the game's developer had become "Sprout Studio."

Studio size: 2 people

"Now I've got two pieces of news for everyone. The good news is that the game designer hasn't been brought down by capital."

"The bad news is, after being screwed over this badly, the kid still hasn't rage-quit!"

"I'm seriously done, brothers. This kid's mentality is really something. No wonder he can make such bastard games." Silver looked at the name Sprout Studio.

Under its name sat two games.

[Getting over it], [Dead Cells]

'Designer: Mentality? You're talking to me about mentality?'

'Designer: I just got screwed over. How could it be worse than you guys rage-quitting?'

'Just yesterday, I told my friend that luckily the hammer-swinging game got taken down, or I'd definitely beat it. Now that it's back online, my friend's started nagging me to play it. What do I do? Urgent, waiting online!'

Everyone was stunned when they saw Getting over it had gone back online.

Could they take back all that big talk they had spouted?

"Ahem, ahem, ahem..." Silver could no longer hold back his laughter as he watched the barrage. When the game had been taken down, every single one of them had said it was easy as long as you had hands.

Now that the game had switched platforms and relaunched, why had everyone suddenly changed their tune?

"Just for the designer's mentality alone, I'm buying Dead Cells right now! For no other reason than to let Yogame see that what we support is great games, not those reskinned knockoffs!"

After saying that, Silver paid for it immediately. The game was not large, only 1.5 GB.

The download finished in just a few minutes.

At the new save file screen, his first impression was that the visuals were a hundred times more polished and detailed than the last game!

The moment he clicked Start Game, a distant castle rapidly zoomed in beneath the setting sun, and the scene swiftly shifted into a dark, filthy underground prison.

[Prisoner's Quarters]

[On this island, rats and stray dogs occupy the bottom rung of society, while prisoners rank even lower.]

A lump of green stuff, like filthy mud or seaweed, plopped down from a pipe overhead, then rolled forward with a wet, sticky squelch.

Sunlight shone through the window bars into the sealed prison cell built of underground stone bricks. Behind that green lump lay a huge, ruined, lifeless corpse.

The green algae rolled forward, and in the next second transformed into a little figure dressed in dark blue. A red scarf was tied around his neck, its trailing end fluttering up and down as he ran.

Silver controlled the character as he ran left and right. When he passed the platform stained with vivid red blood on the ground, three words appeared above it.

Executioner's Block.

The huge corpse behind him had been reduced to white bones, and the clothes it wore had long since decayed with the passing years.

He opened the cell door and walked outside. Not far away stood a woman in armor, holding a weapon.

Looking at Silver's character, she merely said, "You're the headless guy running around everywhere, aren't you?"

Silver looked back at the executioner's block behind him, only then realizing that the protagonist had been beheaded and lost his head from the very beginning.

"What? Not much of a talker?" The woman had received no response to her earlier words, so she asked again.

The next second, she seemed to realize it herself. "Ah, right. You can't talk."

"Coming back from the dead must be a strange experience..."

"But you've probably noticed something already, right?"

"You can't die."

"Though I don't really understand it yet either, you're not the first person this has happened to."

The armored woman kept rambling on, seemingly telling him about his origins, though even she did not know why he was immortal.

She only knew that he was a prisoner in this dungeon.

Behind the woman were two weapons.

A bow and a shield.

When he walked over to the shield, a detailed description of the weapon appeared above it. Yinzi noticed a highlighted word: "Parry!"

[Hold to absorb some damage. Tap to parry. A successful parry blocks all damage.]

"Blocks all damage? Sounds pretty damn cool." Silver looked at the monster beyond the weapon door. He tried picking up the bow, only to find that the machete in his hand had been dropped to the ground.

After hesitating for just a second, he picked his machete back up.

No matter the game, at the start, a reckless brute with a machete was always more useful than an archer with a bow.

After all, he was the top guy in the console gaming category. He had his own understanding of games.

The monster beyond the door glowed all over with a rosy crimson light. Silver rushed in with his blade, and the instant it made contact with the monster's body, the game's impact feedback thrilled him to the core.

Most action games on the market emphasized precise control feedback, strong rhythm between moves, clearly defined hit-stun for every attack, and strict movement requirements.

But as he controlled Dead Cells, Silver only felt that the controls were incredibly smooth!

He could even roll in midair!