Chapter 18: The Sky Collapses Again at the Start!

Instructor Ding quickly realized that he was always tripping up in the most unimaginable ways.

For example, even if he successfully lifted the stone and jumped to the edge of the opposite platform, Sisyphus would still lose balance and fall if the system judged that the area he stepped on wasn't large enough.

Or, even if he was walking on a straight log bridge, Sisyphus would still inexplicably veer off the straight path and slip down with one misstep.

There were many similar situations, and without a doubt, they made the players feel "sick".

These missteps, strictly speaking, were not the player's operational errors; they would not occur in other games.

In other games, as long as the character jumped to the edge of the opposite side, even if they only stepped on it with one foot, they could still stand firmly; as long as they walked, it would definitely be a straight line, without any inexplicable deviation.

So after getting used to this operational logic, coming to "Sisyphus" could make one particularly uncomfortable.

From a storyline perspective, this was reasonable.

After all, Sisyphus, carrying a huge stone, not stabilizing upon landing and causing the rock to roll was quite normal, right? Not being able to see the road ahead while pushing the stone and therefore not walking in a straight line was also reasonable, right?

But within the game, these issues indeed severely affected the player's experience.

Another half-hour passed.

Instructor Ding eventually navigated the first layer of the outskirts of Purgatory without much incident and arrived at the level of those "who died suddenly and repented at the end."

Compared to the previous level's "trash mountain," the theme of this layer was a bit more brutal, with scenes of various accidents everywhere, including palaces and houses collapsed due to earthquakes, all sorts of deadly weapons, and some areas were even engulfed in raging flames.

Instructor Ding continued to push the boulder forward, very cautiously.

Because he knew that not all the scenes in the game were meaningless backdrops. For instance, the searing magma, sharp blades, piles of rubble, etc., once touched, could potentially result in different degrees of punishment.

Take "rubble" for instance: stepping on it while pushing the stone would only slow down movement speed; but if you jumped on it while carrying the stone, Sisyphus would throw the ball down due to the intense pain, causing the boulder to roll away and wasting all previous efforts.

Finally, after repeatedly taking up the challenge for an hour, Instructor Ding arrived at the edge of the cliff on this layer.

Before him was a very narrow path where one step to the right would mean a bottomless abyss, oh no, I mean one step to the right would literally be "going home to check it out."

"OK guys, our livestream time for today is almost up, we should reach the next level after crossing this path.

"Wipe out? Guys, it's impossible to wipe out here, and I'm putting my word on it, okay."

Instructor Ding had reason to be confident, as there seemed to be no particularly dangerous traps or obstacles on this narrow path. It even seemed wider than some log bridges he had encountered before. With a little care, passing through should be no problem.

After adjusting his breathing slightly, he pushed the boulder forward.

However, just as he set foot on this cliff-side path, some sounds came through his headphones.

It seemed to be the roar of a Giant Dragon, accompanied by the sound of wings flapping. Judging from the direction of the sound, it was flying this way from the right rear.

"You've got to be kidding me?"

Instructor Ding instantly had a bad feeling and hurriedly turned his viewpoint to look towards the right rear.

There was indeed a Giant Dragon!

This Giant Dragon appeared to have flown out of a huge cave in the lowermost mountain. It was enormous in size, and its black scales were interspaced with flames of Hellfire burning fiercely. It looked overwhelmingly oppressive.

"Cut it out, I can't handle it if that thing comes at me!

"It can't be, it can't be, it's probably just there to set the mood. Such an awesome dragon can't be here just to mess with me, that would be bullying!"

As the Giant Dragon drew closer, Instructor Ding became somewhat relieved because the dragon was too large. If it really flew over and hit him, it would have to be part of the plot, intentionally upsetting by the game developers.

As expected, the Giant Dragon's target was not Sisyphus at the edge of the cliff.

It flew past Sisyphus, continuing to flap its wings, appearing to spiral upward.

With the Giant Dragon flapping its wings, a visible gust of wind blew over, shaking the boulder violently.

"That's a relief, it really isn't coming for me!" exclaimed Instructor Ding, patting his chest. "Nice, this effect is quite spectacular."

He was reassured and continued to press the "W" key, pushing the boulder forward.

However, the next second, something unexpected happened.

The Infernal Great Dragon had already flown by, but the next wing beat sent another powerful gust of wind his way!

Originally, Sisyphus standing still was fine, but now as he was moving while pushing the stone, he could no longer keep it steady.

"No!!!!!"

Instructor Ding screamed in horror as he watched the boulder wobble violently and then slip from his grasp under the strong wind!

At that moment, the viewers in the live stream seemed to hear four words echoing in their minds: "I'm free at last!"

The boulder started rolling rapidly, first hitting the rock wall on the left side of the road, then bouncing back, rolling down towards the cliff on the right!

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The boulder continued to collide and bounce between the cliffs before finally crashing down to the seashore below.

The next second, Sisyphus was teleported back to the boulder's side.

He sighed deeply, slightly annoyed he shook his head, but eventually, he stood up again, placing his hands on the boulder once more.

Instructor Ding, too, in the camera view, stared blankly at his computer screen, his whole being as if frozen in time, his expression and demeanor almost perfectly in sync with the game's Sisyphus.

It goes without saying that this game has an explosive sense of immersion for the players and an explosive entertainment effect for the viewers.

After a long silence, Instructor Ding silently moved the camera away and lit himself a cigarette.

But one has to admit, as a top streamer, he indeed possesses a great deal of professional quality; Instructor Ding's emotional regulation ability is quite strong.

"Ah, alright guys, after another hour and a half of struggle, we've made significant progress, we're back where we started.

"That's it for 'Sisyphus' today, I'm getting overwhelmed, I need to go shoot some guns to vent my negative emotions...

"How to rate this game?

"Uh... well, the same old phrase, the client daddy must be right, it must be that I haven't found the right way to play this game, I love to speak the truth."

After saying this, Instructor Ding quickly turned off 'Sisyphus' and casually started playing an FPS game.

...

Seeing this scene, Lilith couldn't help but laugh out again.

Gu Fan couldn't help but feel that Instructor Ding was indeed a Meal-Getting Immortal; even in such frustration, he still managed to say good things about the game, insisting that "the client daddy must be right." The professionalism was admirable!

As for why he knew Instructor Ding was actually angry?

Obviously, the prompt that floated across Gu Fan's field of view said it all.

[From Ding Qiang: Negative Emotions +30!]

[From Ding Qiang: Negative Emotions +17!]

[From Ding Qiang: Negative Emotions +86!]

[Negative emotions acquired by 'Sisyphus': 734819!]

Clearly, compared to "Infernal Trajectory," 'Sisyphus' has made significant progress both in terms of negative emotions gathered from single players and in the total amount of negative emotions acquired.

When playing "Infernal Trajectory," the negative emotions generated by Ding Qiang's unexplained headshot was only 5 points.

Because being headshot was an instance of short pain; death came too quickly, leaving the player no time to ponder or do anything about it.

But 'Sisyphus' was different; it was a long pain.

Players had to endure the torment of poor character performance at all times, continuously generating negative emotions, and they also experienced a surge of negative emotions when the boulder tumbled down the cliff!

And what about the positive emotions generated by this game? Minuscule by comparison.

Perhaps after much hardship, when a player finally overcomes a certain threshold, it could generate a bit of positive emotion. But compared to the countless times they've broken down and had their defenses shattered, these positive feelings seemed rather insignificant.

Gu Fan then looked at the backend data of the game.

Up to this point, the game had approximately 1.8 million effective clicks and 210,000 "live humans."

In other words, 210,000 people had downloaded the game and played for at least a little while.

But so far, the sales of the game were 229.

Absurdly low!

Based on the data, the initial 2-hour surge of 'Sisyphus' had clearly double the interest compared to 'Infernal Trajectory,' with almost double the click-through rate and just slightly more than twice the number of actual downloads and players.

But the sales of the game had just reached half of those of 'Infernal Trajectory'!

It was an instance of "the apprentice surpassing the master" in an unfavorable way.

The vast majority of people quit the game and gave up on purchasing within the two-hour trial period, even completely grinding away the little interest they had in the game.

One could only say, this was an even more preposterous catastrophic start than 'Infernal Trajectory'!