My Body's Broken, Meh!

"Now I finally understand why, after unifying the whole country, the king greedily wanted even more." Song Shan stared at the sales figures in the backend.

A terrifying one million sales!

In just one week, he had experienced what it meant to go from nothing to something.

With the benefits package Ethan Vale had offered him, he had already achieved more than ordinary students could in several years.

He felt like he had done nothing at all. He had merely followed the materials Ethan Vale gave him and made those things.

Those things had been like homework assigned by a teacher. With standard data, forms, and settings all laid out, he had simply made them without thinking.

"President Ye, should we pick up a car? Buy a house? Or go traveling, eat and drink our fill, and have some fun?" Song Shan teased with exceptional excitement as he followed beside Ethan Vale.

"The next step? Naturally, the next step is expanding the studio and making a new game." Ethan Vale answered without the slightest hesitation.

"A new game?" Song Shan blanked out for a moment. He truly had not considered that there would be another game. In his mind, with one million sales, Ethan Vale had already made more money than he could spend in a lifetime.

Would a normal person still want to make another game?

But the firmness in Ethan Vale's eyes told him that he would!

That very day, Ethan Vale posted a recruitment announcement on his Weibo account.

[We are very happy that everyone has enjoyed Dead Cells. Sprout Studio has decided to expand its recruitment efforts, and we hope to create more works that people will love. Those who wish to join us may send their résumés to Sprout Studio's email address. We hope we all have a bright future.]

The moment the post went up, it received countless replies from netizens.

'Résumé submitted. I hope I can make games with you. (PS: I definitely don't want to assassinate you offline.)'

'Black-hearted game developer, give me back my keyboard!'

'What does it feel like to be targeted?'

'You black-hearted bastard, what's the ending of Dead Cells? I really can't beat the later stages anymore.'

'What? A new game? This noob player who got beaten senseless in Five Cells has arrived uninvited.'

'yogame CEO Teng Feng (dark and twisted face): How can someone put the final boss in Five Cells? If you can't beat it, you don't get the ending!'

'With so many skins, can they really be obtained for free through the game? I mean, do we really not have to spend money? (doge)'

Silver looked at the comments beneath that Weibo post and felt every pore in his body open up. It was as refreshing as a sweat-drenched sauna session.

"Today, I'll show everyone a no-hit run against The Collector." Smiling, he opened the game once more.

"Thanks to Black Star for the rocket, thanks, bro." As usual, he thanked the viewers for their gifts. But the moment he finished reading the name, he froze.

"Black Star? Which Black Star?" He hurriedly opened the gift sender's profile and saw the verification badge on the profile background: Black Star, Chief Designer of Sprout Studio.

Without any hesitation, he immediately chose to connect.

Ethan Vale did not hesitate either and accepted.

"You black-hearted bastard, do you even have a conscience for making a game like this? Sure enough, you're a cold-blooded guy with no feelings!" The instant they connected, Silver began bitterly complaining.

Heaven knew how horribly these two games had tormented him. Sometimes, in the dead of night, he would think about how wonderful it would have been if he had never met this designer and never played these games.

The most remarkable thing about this game was that other overly difficult games were meant to cure players of their gaming addiction. The more players played, the less they wanted to continue.

But this game was different. Its excellent feel and incredibly rich equipment system made people desperately want to play, and keep playing.

Even if you died this time, you would still think that if you switched weapons and equipment and tried another hundred million times, you would definitely clear it.

The repeated surges of exhilaration, challenging limits, surpassing oneself, and the joy of clearing the game with perfect execution under extreme difficulty made people unable to resist becoming addicted.

If you did not reach Five Cells, you could not see the true ending.

That was why countless players died again and again, cursing their mothers each time.

Zengzi had said, "Look at my feet! Look at my hands! The poem says: 'Trembling with caution, as though standing on the edge of a deep abyss, as though treading upon thin ice.' From this day onward, I know that my body will no longer suffer harm, my disciples!"

"Look at my feet! Look at my hands, and see whether they have been damaged! The Book of Songs says: 'Be careful and cautious, as though standing by a deep abyss, as though walking on thin ice.' From this day onward, I know my body will no longer be harmed, my disciples!"

"Feelings? Hahahahahaha! Lazy laugh."

"Feelings are the cruelest thing in this world!"

"Besides, wasn't it you people who said it was very easy?" Ethan Vale finally felt as though he had vented some of his frustration.

Just as the players had been tortured to the point of losing their minds, he too had found it hard to understand in the stillness of the night. They all said the system was a cheat, so why could no system complete even its first task?

Silver was left speechless by his retort. Connected to the call, he could not say a word for a long while.

At the same time, the number of viewers in Silver's livestream skyrocketed. The moment Shark Live detected the game's designer in the stream, it immediately pushed a new notification to everyone's phones.

[Dead Cells designer spotted in Shark Live's Silver's stream. Hurry over and curse him out!]

When players saw the notification, their first reaction was disbelief. But they quickly realized that this official joke notification was real.

The moment they entered, they saw the conversation between the two and Silver's face flushed red as he finally managed to weakly say one sentence.

"It was easy to begin with!"

As he spoke, he opened the game's review page right in front of the designer. He had yet to give Dead Cells a rating.

Before him were still the same three old options.

[Very Easy] [Average] [Super Difficult]

As if sulking, he quickly moved his mouse to [Very Easy].

The livestream audience could hear the crisp click of the mouse.

—Click

[Review successful. Thank you for providing valuable feedback for the game.]

A prompt window popped up on the screen.

Seeing this, the chat burst into laughter. In this clash between designer and player, it was now impossible to say who had won or lost.

Ethan Vale fell silent.

He only wanted to complete the system's task. Was it really that difficult?

They said every transmigrator needed a cheat, yet he had a cheat that he could only look at and not use. He felt like his soul was in agony.

"I hope you'll still say that about the next game." Ethan Vale took a deep breath.

The chat found his words utterly hilarious.

'My body's broken, meh!!'