Gods' Curse!

By the time he finally found the passage to the next stage, he had missed the time limit again.

Clear time: 4m16s.

Silver: ...

"Damn, that's insane. He's seriously insane!" Silver no longer knew whether he was praising or cursing. He even had a feeling that if he started another save file, the map would change again.

The two-minute gate-opening limit seemed designed specifically to punish perfectionists and people with OCD.

"This time, let's keep going with the rest of the game. At least once we understand the mechanics, we can come back and consider a no-hit run with thirty kills and opening the gate within two minutes."

Silver immediately chose to give up. The game had just come out, so there was no need to waste too much time on trivial matters during the first playthrough.

As long as the game was worth continuing to play, all the things he had missed would draw players back to gradually complete them and achieve perfection.

He controlled his character as he jumped down the steps ahead. The massive containers below were filled with strange liquids.

Petri dishes were connected by countless pipes, while only a few candles burned slowly in the dim surroundings.

In front of one of the enormous containers stood someone wearing a blue cloak and carrying a blue syringe.

The syringe behind this NPC was chained to his body. Looking closely, there seemed to be something inside it.

An icy blue, round object kept wriggling, like the cells they had been collecting throughout the game.

[Hehe, look who's here...]

[You can call me The Collector. I might be the only good person you'll meet here.]

[As long as you give me the cells you've looted from your enemies, I can give you some very useful things...]

[If you find any blueprints, then perhaps I can offer you something even more... experimental.]

A trading interface then popped up.

The right side of the interface displayed the number of cells he possessed, while the left showed the items available for exchange.

But after taking a look, there did not seem to be anything worth unlocking aside from the health flask.

After casually clicking a few times, he spent every last cell he had.

After leaving The Collector's chamber, he saw another mutation merchant.

This merchant did not require cells, but gold instead.

He still offered red, green, and purple mutations.

"Damn, this game's systems really are rich. Once I've played enough and there aren't any major issues, everyone can give it a try. We've only played one stage so far, but the game shouldn't have any big problems." Silver nodded approvingly.

He quickly entered the next stage, the Promenade of the Condemned.

A corpse hung from the gallows by iron chains. In this world filled with chains and prison cages, it somehow looked perfectly fitting.

What should have been pleasant rural scenery in the forest was now steeped in an air of sin.

The environment here was not as dark as the sewers. They had reached the outside world, and the background was filled with chains everywhere. Even the branches were hung with iron cages resembling birdcages.

But everyone knew those were not actually birdcages.

The moment he emerged, he encountered several monsters. Unlike before, the monsters came in far more varied forms.

Some of the monsters even had transparent pink shields around them.

He slashed with his blade, only for it to bounce away. The monster inside the shield was completely unharmed.

A faint pink thread of electricity extended from the shields around those monsters toward a certain direction.

Silver ran in the direction of the current, with the monsters relentlessly chasing after him. He spotted an orange mannequin continuously sending shield energy toward the monsters.

He hacked at it several times before smashing the orange mannequin, and the shields around the monsters quickly disappeared as well.

"The game's definitely getting interesting." The corner of Silver's mouth curled into a subtle smile. Discovering the new mechanics in the game filled him with delight.

But then he discovered that an armored warrior holding a cleaver had actually crossed the platform to slash at him.

A horde of monsters surged toward him.

On a platform with nowhere to dodge, the monsters in front of and behind him attacked at the same time.

"Holy shit, bros, you're not coming one at a time?" Silver frantically fought back, but his attempts to evade also alerted the moths hanging from the ceiling over another platform.

This time, monsters closed in on him from every direction.

It was not that he did not want to dodge. He simply could not.

Shells thrown from afar, charging attacks, monsters wielding cleavers, moths overhead...

Silver felt like his head was about to explode from the chaos.

His already limited health was rapidly dropping, and it soon hit rock bottom.

"Ow, ow, these things have no honor!" Silver kept yelping, but his cries did not stop the minor enemies from attacking him.

Looking at the empty health bar and the darkened screen, Silver did not think much of it. In his view, he had only just entered the second stage. Even if he died and revived a hundred million times, he would at most restart from the Promenade of the Condemned.

When the screen lit up again and he saw the familiar execution platform, the familiar remains of The Giant, and the familiar Prisoner's Quarters, he was dumbfounded.

After dying, he had to start from the first stage?

No way, bro? Was this game really going to mess with players' heads like that?

His first instinct was that it was impossible. There had to be some kind of error.

But when he remembered that this game had been made by the studio behind Getting over it, he could not help drawing in a sharp breath.

—Hiss.

Other studios might not make something this evil, but this studio really might.

He reopened the game's store page and stared at the line of text in the description that sent chills down his spine.

Danger is always present, death is always imminent. No checkpoints—only killing, dying, learning, repeating!

"I'll be damned..." Silver was completely stunned. "It really wants me to start all over..."

Seeing him so devastated, everyone's pain from playing Getting over it came flooding back as well.

'Don't say any more. My blood pressure's acting up...'

'I thought the word "repeating" was just a joke. When I saw that it really meant repeating, my blood rushed straight to my head!'

'...Brothers, stop talking. I've already repeated it twice. I wanted to quit, but it's really so satisfying to play!'

'When I was playing, I saw a piece of equipment behind a door. It said I could take it by sacrificing 1,000 gold. I thought all the doors along the way could be broken anyway, so I smashed the door. Yeah, I got Gods' Curse...'

You could sacrifice gold to take the equipment, but if you broke the door and took it by force, you would receive Gods' Curse.

While cursed by the gods, taking any damage—including health loss from poison—would instantly kill you. Killing a certain number of monsters could remove the curse.

Two chapters every day. Please try not to stockpile chapters. The competition is too fierce, and game novels have too small an audience. I can't really compete with them. Just dropping by every day is already a huge support for me.

T^T