Players' Recognition!

It had to be said, netizens were truly omnipotent. After a series of speculations, everyone felt they had uncovered the truth.

'My cousin works inside some company. According to him, that company wanted the designer to sell the copyright so they could cash in, but the designer ruthlessly refused.'

'A game platform? Isn't that a perfectly normal move?'

'I heard Shovel Your Way Up is already in production and will be released soon.'

'Not even dogs would play it.'

Some players watching the streams began protesting indignantly over the game's removal, but most players' emotions did not change much. To them, it was just a currently popular little rage game.

Like most internet celebrities, games like this only enjoyed a brief period of popularity online.

Perhaps because they already had a template to follow, Yogame moved exceptionally quickly.

In barely a week, they really did release a game.

Shovel Your Way Up

The game was still priced at ten yuan, and overall, there were not many changes from before.

The only difference was that the little person sitting in the pot had now become a variety of different characters, while the thing in their hands had become all sorts of flashy items.

There were shovels, sickles, and even rakes...

Different weapons also came with different buffs.

And all of those items required additional spending to obtain.

For example, sickles and rakes were far more stable for climbing than the hammer.

Seeing this, Ethan Vale could not help letting out a mocking laugh.

The appeal of Getting over it had never been extra lives or swapping weapons to improve yourself.

Like Hollow Knight, Celeste, Dark Souls, and other game series, every improvement had been forged through countless deaths.

Growth in skill had never come from using more convenient, more powerful weapons.

Sure enough, as soon as Yogame released Shovel Your Way Up, players who had come in droves downloaded it immediately.

Players who had already bought Getting over it could continue playing it, but those who had not bought it had no way to do so.

They claimed only streaming was banned and players were still free to play, yet the platform had taken it down.

The game had vanished from the store, with not even a way to buy it.

Even so, the internet's funny trending content during this period was still dominated by the game.

After learning it had been removed, players could only watch the videos and say with an unbearable itch, "I really want to play it. I really want to try it."

That itch persisted until the release of the new game, Shovel Your Way Up.

The same game concept, similar map models, even the tree from the "go home and take a look" segment had been perfectly recreated.

The only difference was probably that Getting over it used low-quality textures, while this one had somewhat refined original art.

'Tsk, they're not banning streams this time?' Silver bought the game, preparing to give it a try.

He looked mockingly at the chat. "This time, no one's going to come remind me that it contains violent elements."

He used the complimentary rake trial card, and climbing the mountain went incredibly smoothly.

By the time he easily reached Orange Mountain, the trial period had also ended, and the rake in his hand turned into a shovel.

Using the shovel's edges to hook onto protruding ledges on the mountain, the game was much easier than the original Getting over it.

The disappointment of going from easy to hard immediately surfaced in everyone's hearts, yet even so, it was difficult to recapture the feeling from before.

There was no longer that sensation of treading carefully with every step, of meticulously calculating the arc and force behind every swing of the hammer.

Silver played for barely ten minutes before uninstalling the game and instantly requesting a refund.

"Before I played it, I was worried. I worried that if this game surpassed the original designer's work, the original game would be buried. What then?" Silver was unusually serious during his stream.

"Haha!" He merely laughed, as if everything had been left unsaid.

"It can't even make me rage. Sure enough, it contains no violence."

After trying the new game, curious netizens could not help mocking it.

'So this is the game that made you rage and bang on your desks?'

'I thought it would be so hard. I just casually played for a bit and made it straight to the snowy mountain, okay?'

'Sigh, a game that was hyped up through marketing. Boring...'

'Good thing I only played for an hour and a half. Got my refund without a problem.'

'A bunch of people who never played the legitimate version are using the pirated version to bash the legitimate one...'

Comments like these flooded the internet.

Song Shan looked at the discussions surrounding the game. He had been sulking these past few days while the game was unavailable, because he was unwilling to accept it. He was unwilling to see Ethan Vale buried like this.

"Look at these comments, this feels so good! They took it down, they copied it, and now they're suffering the backlash, right?" Song Shan forcefully swung his fist.

"This is so satisfying!"

"Hey, why aren't you reacting?" He walked over to Ethan Vale and showed him the related content on his phone.

Ethan Vale browsed through the review section for Shovel Your Way Up, and when he saw what was inside, his eyes turned red.

Every review here said it was super difficult.

For a game, earning the players' acknowledgment and receiving the approval of "super difficult" counted as success.

It was like the highest praise between boys: 'You're pretty impressive.'

[Super difficult: The game really is hard, hahaha. You simply can't play without spending money. I'm poor, so I'd rather play that cheap, easy game that got taken down.]

[Yeah, super difficult. I'll give you the review those guys next door have been desperately begging for.]

[I just want to enjoy a game. Why do you have to make me spend money!]

[When I played 'that game,' I felt like my heart stopped for thirty seconds. Even so, I still have to give it one rating: very easy!]

Ethan Vale stared at the reviews in silence.

He could not help sighing inwardly, System, you've really suffered by following me...

"Are we still releasing our next game on Yogame?" Song Shan looked at the game in his hands, already more than halfway completed.

Ethan Vale had taken on a huge portion of the development for this game. Song Shan himself was only responsible for part of it, roughly one-fifth of the content, yet it had already left him mentally and physically exhausted.

The game had a perfect story setting, captivating levels that constantly changed, a rich weapon and equipment system, and incredibly exhilarating action gameplay.

At first, Song Shan had thought it was merely a game where collecting cells made you stronger, but after seeing the game's full setting, he realized something.

Turning in cells was itself a scam.

Every permanent upgrade in the game was motivation to keep moving forward. The process was like a snowball rolling down from a mountaintop—growing larger and larger until it became unstoppable.

Song Shan believed that once this game was released, it would amaze the world once again.

"No." Ethan Vale shook his head. He would not make the same mistake twice.

Song Shan glanced at Ethan Vale, who was still diligently making the game.

This snowball was rolling down from the mountaintop.