Hope Bursts Forth from the Ashes!

"He said he'd beat one for us?" Yinzi was so angry he nearly laughed. That guy had made it sound far too easy.

Listening to him, it sounded as if beating this Husk Guard was a very simple matter.

Yinzi, a game streamer with extensive gaming experience, had still lost his first life to this enormous bug.

At that moment, the most common comment scrolling through the chat was, "What games can a game designer even play?"

Being able to make games did not necessarily mean being able to play them. This had already become common knowledge among players.

Otherwise, players would not rage at the damn developers while gaming, saying they did not understand games or players.

The one streaming was Xiao Zhou, the employee from Sprout Studio who had won the previous drawing. After explaining things to players last time, he had come to enjoy communicating with players after a game was finished, so he applied to take on the task.

Of course, it was absolutely not because of the extra pay.

Facing the camera, he still looked a little shy.

He had already picked up his controller and guided his little knight to where the Husk Guard stood.

The massive Husk Guard stood proudly in the passageway, like a mighty general.

The instant it spotted the little knight, it swung its enormous club.

Yet Xiao Zhou merely stood there without moving.

"That's way too dumb. Dodge already!" Yinzi could not help complaining when he saw him standing still.

The massive club slammed down, kicking up dust and chunks of stone. The little knight stood before the Husk Guard, tilting its head slightly upward to look at the giant several times taller than itself.

It stood just outside the attack's range—not one step too far, not one step too close.

The Husk Guard withdrew its attack, and the little knight calmly stepped forward, raising the Nail in its hand.

Again and again, the masked little vessel struck. Its eyes were blank and hollow, yet even against an enemy as towering as a mountain, it showed neither retreat nor fear.

Neither the shockwaves rising from the ground nor the club crashing down from overhead

could make that little knight lose its composure.

When the final white-glowing Nail struck the Husk Guard, Geo exploded across the ground. White light insects filled the air, gathering the scattered Geo and swarming toward the little knight.

Only then did everyone seem to understand why this game was called Hollow Knight.

The character in his hands was what truly deserved to be called a knight. The characters in everyone else's hands were more like reckless brutes.

Yinzi exited Xiao Zhou's stream and returned to his own game.

Before this, he had already heard countless fans complain that the Husk Guard was too difficult.

All the monsters they had encountered along the way had been crawling bugs and little mosquitoes.

Then, out of nowhere, a massive monster appeared. One hit from its club took away two health masks, so everyone naturally treated it as a boss.

After getting hit, they would hide in corners to secretly heal, then get beaten into a frantic mess and flee for their lives. Some had even discovered that the Husk Guard's huge body could not pass a low wall, so they would trap it in the corridor behind the wall and slash it madly whenever it approached.

Everyone had been tortured several times before barely managing to beat it, and now he was telling them it was only an elite monster?

A very simple elite monster?

Easy for him to say. Why didn't he beat one, then?

If he had not watched the stream, Yinzi could hardly have imagined that it really was just an elite monster—really that easy?

The viewers who watched the stream felt their blood surge and rush to their heads.

But the more it was like this, the more it ignited the players' desire to conquer it. They hoped they could do the same, facing monsters with such effortless grace, coming and going like the wind.

Having company employees stream demonstrations was also part of Ethan Vale's plan. The people of this world had never experienced games from the Castlevania series.

Perhaps, with time and the praise of players who had cleared the game, everyone would eventually come to appreciate the charm of Soulslike games.

But Ethan Vale hoped to speed up that process.

Sure enough, after Xiao Zhou demonstrated it once, players were quickly drawn into the game. As they played, they needed to expand into new areas according to the gaps shown on the map.

And the game's map was much larger than everyone had imagined.

Every regional map connected to other unknown regions, and each map had its own background music.

As they continued exploring, players also gradually began to understand the world's backstory.

And upon entering a new area, following the singing to find the map merchant became one of the game's pleasures.

The map system that had previously drawn criticism was no longer an issue after playing for a while.

Most players no longer even needed a map to get where they wanted to go or know where they were.

On the day of release, the game's online rate was 100 percent. By the next day, it had dropped to only 50 percent, which meant that most players had already abandoned the game.

"A game design genius? These numbers aren't good. I told you, blindly pursuing difficulty wouldn't work." Teng Feng looked over the survey data submitted by his employees.

During this period, they had also held meetings to discuss whether they should follow Ethan Vale's lead and make similarly difficult games.

After all, with such an outstanding example before them, players seemed to enjoy the feeling of being unable to beat something.

But Hollow Knight's online rate made them abandon the idea.

Every stage of the game had corresponding achievements. According to the latest survey data, only 60 percent of players had completed the third-stage achievement.

The completion rate for the fourth achievement was only 40 percent.

"This also proves that his design failed." Teng Feng shook his head. Player retention was simply too low. They still preferred the pay-to-win route.

Because as long as players spent money, they would not easily abandon a game.

"He clearly had such a solid player base, yet he blindly pursued difficulty and drove players away. It's really too foolish."

Teng Feng's words quickly reached Ethan Vale's ears. Sprout Studio was also filled with concern. They had personally helped Ethan Vale design this game, so they naturally understood its replayability and quality.

But the numbers were real. Those dismal figures were heartbreaking to look at.

The early maps, elite monsters, and bosses were all far too discouraging.

The lack of early guidance and harsh death penalty made this game, which only grew better with time, feel like prison during its opening hours.

Song Shan told Ethan Vale about everyone's concerns and wanted to ask whether there was another solution.

Ethan Vale remained very calm in the face of Song Shan's worries about the game's future.

He said it would be fine in a couple of days.

And reality turned out exactly as Ethan Vale said. It was fine after a couple of days.

Hollow Knight was a radiant story of hope bursting forth from the ashes, and so was reality.