Promenade of the Condemned!

Silver hacked from top to bottom, from the left side of the map to the right.

He only had two words to describe this game: buttery smooth!

Especially when the monsters ahead had clearly raised their bows, yet a single slash could still interrupt most enemies' attacks.

The light, fast melee weapons, combined with the player's nimble movement, made him feel immensely powerful.

Even while jumping through the air, he could roll to evade pursuing enemies, and while fleeing, he could still find openings to strike back.

Everything flowed like water. He felt like a master of agility.

"Holy shit, it's been ages since I played a game this damn satisfying. Though it really is a little too easy." Silver rolled his neck and flexed his finger joints.

Even though he had only played the first stage, he could already feel how rich the game's content was.

After only a brief taste, he had already seen all kinds of weapons: ranged weapons, melee weapons, grenades, deployable traps...

There were also scrolls in three different colors, each representing a different attribute...

Red scrolls represented Brutality, purple represented Tactics, and green represented Survival.

If only the scrolls had colors, Silver would have thought the game's mechanics were fairly simple. But when he discovered that weapons also came with colors, the game started getting interesting.

Overall, the possible builds available to players were incredibly diverse. It was hard to imagine this had been made by the creator of Getting over it.

People always said that pixel games' cheap, low-quality visuals were a visual disaster.

Most players had quite a bit of resistance toward pixel games. Silver used to think the same way and had held a slight prejudice against them.

But this time, he truly felt the thrill of a pixel game.

All kinds of weapons, monsters in every form, and that excellent combat feel alone let him sense how much care the developer had put into the game.

"It's really packed with content. It's worth the 48 price tag. The only downside is that it's too easy. From the start until now, I haven't died even once." Silver had already switched through several weapons, and the whole experience was insanely satisfying!

He had killed monsters to save up gold, then bought weapons from a weapon merchant.

Fighting his way through had been utterly exhilarating.

Several teleporters would even appear on a single map.

After reaching the end of one path, he could click a teleporter and choose another route still covered in black fog, sparing him the boredom and hassle of running across the map.

Along the way, he encountered scrolls of every color. After frowning and thinking carefully, Silver chose to develop evenly.

In other words, he picked a little of every color.

After later players became familiar with the game, they divided scroll selection into three schools.

Red builds cleared stages the fastest and dealt the highest damage. Even no-hit clears relied on red builds. Green builds had the strongest survivability and suited newcomers, while purple had the most effects and was the most entertaining. Many strange weapons belonged to purple builds.

At this point, he still did not know that he was playing another especially famous build: the Rainbow Faction!

Also known as the Balance Sect!

For now, he was still smugly pleased with his choice.

After clearing almost all the monsters on the map, he spotted a passageway.

The bluish-green tunnel seemed to be lit by light from the outside world.

It shone into the dark, decaying sewers.

The passage had a name above it;

[Promenade of the Condemned]

"Looks like this is the next stage. Hopefully the next one brings some challenge. This stage was way too easy." Silver could not help complaining. Though the game's combat felt incredibly satisfying, he wanted more than mere satisfaction.

While the Promenade of the Condemned loaded, the waiting screen showed a cultivation container. Within the transparent, reddish liquid, a glowing red cell seemed to be growing.

Below the image was a line of tiny text.

[Cells are rare and precious resources, almost worth trading your life for]

[Time: 8 minutes, 12 seconds, 038 milliseconds]

Time?

Silver frowned at the completion time, a bad feeling suddenly rising in his heart.

Sure enough, the moment he emerged from the passageway, the iron gate behind him slammed shut.

The entire map was dark with a faint purplish-red tint. It looked sickly, as if infected by some kind of virus.

Two wooden doors stood ahead of him on the map.

He dashed past the two doors.

Duang! Duang!

Countless crimson chains covered in curse marks instantly sealed both wooden doors.

Above the doors were two different numbers.

[2m00s] and [30]

The first condition for opening a door: reach this place within two minutes.

The second condition for opening a door: kill 30 enemies consecutively without taking any damage.

Silver: ...

He thought of the eight minutes he had spent clearing the stage. Now, those two minutes looked painfully glaring.

His face darkened, and even his expression looked a little twisted.

Thinking of what he had said earlier, the viewers in the chat burst out laughing too.

'Classic phrase: very easy.'

'Two minutes feels doable too. Seems like there's no need to kill every monster in this game.'

'Thirty monsters in a row without getting hit is a little hard, isn't it? Some of those little monsters' attacks were really hard to dodge just now. But if you don't rush, there won't be enough time.'

Seeing those two doors, Silver truly frowned.

Because while playing earlier, he had already tried his best not to take damage, but he simply could not do it.

"No, I'm starting a new save and trying again. As a perfectionist, I really won't be satisfied if I don't give it a shot!"

"Even if I can't clear that door without taking damage, I can at least get through the first two-minute door, right?"

The first stage was not difficult, so restarting did not feel mentally burdensome.

Silver did not hesitate at all. Once he said it, he did it. After all, it would only cost him two more minutes.

But after creating a new save and passing through the starting Guillotine again, he had intended to rely on his memory for a speedrun.

Yet after stepping outside, he was a little confused.

This place seemed different from when I played last time?

Time was tight, so he did not think much about it and quickly charged toward the passageway he remembered.

But the more he fought, the stranger it felt, because the map was completely different.

He had not played the previous map for long, but he still had a faint impression of it in his mind.

Still, why did it feel...

A little different?

When he reached the location he remembered, the place that was originally supposed to lead to the Promenade of the Condemned contained only a lone teleporter, one of the kind found everywhere in the game.

"Wait!" Silver finally realized.

"Fuck, this game's map is different every time!?"