Chapter 5: The Mountain and the Zither

Even Liu Liang, who had seen a lot and knew a lot, was still shocked by the game's bizarre logic at this moment.

How did it change scenes without any warning?

The difference between these two scenes was too big! It wasn't just a weak connection, it was completely unrelated!

Prisons and open fields, any normal person couldn't imagine that they would be two closely related scenes.

Of course, it seems that the game developers also knew this, so they put a painting in the prison to lay the groundwork for the scene transition, but the problem is, this kind of transition was still too abrupt!

"Calm down, calm down.

"A professional uploader must stay steady no matter what unexpected situations arise."

Liu Liang calmed himself down and continued to study the game.

Looking on the bright side, at least he had entered the next scene smoothly without having to stay in prison.

This scene seemed to be an open field, very broad, so no matter what, the freedom should be much better than that cell, right?

However, Liu Liang tried to move the mouse, only to find it completely unresponsive.

What's going on?

"Could it be... this isn't a first-person view, but a third-person view?

"I'm not someone observing this tree from a close distance, I... am the tree?

"This is a rip-off!"

Liu Liang was completely speechless. Before, in the prison, at least he could still move the mouse to change the perspective! At least he could still wander around by pressing the WASD keys!

Now, he had become a tree and the mouse was completely non-responsive!

Even more infuriating was that the game didn't have any operation tips at all; it was up to the player to figure out which key to press to move.

Liu Liang had no doubt that some players might press alt+F4 to quit the game without ever understanding how to actually play it.

"I thought I didn't have to sit in jail anymore.

"But I didn't expect to turn directly into a vegetable!"

Liu Liang could hardly suppress the burning sarcasm in his heart. He had thought sitting in the cell was bad enough, unable to do anything but roam around a small space. Now, he realized he was too naive.

Now, he had become a tree and couldn't even roam!

Liu Liang was not willing to give up. There had to be something he could do with this thing, right?

After some attempts, he finally found the only operation he could perform at this stage: when a breeze blew, he could press the A and D keys to make the tree sway gently with the wind and rotate ever so slightly.

And this operation required some finesse: You must sway with the direction of the wind, otherwise the tree itself would have no reaction and the subsequent rotational operation couldn't be performed.

Only by accurately swaying with the wind could you rotate that tiny bit and make some slight changes to the scenery in your view.

This seemingly pointless operation made Liu Liang question his life choices once again.

He really wanted to quit and give up, but when he glanced at the barrage of comments, he found that most of the audience was even more interested!

"Don't quit, Niu, keep exploring. This game seems to have a unique brain twist; there might be places that you haven't discovered!"

"That's right, Niu, as an uploader known for diligently charging through crap, you can't just give up on a trashy game so easily!"

"Stick to your principles! Who said 'No matter what kind of trashy game it is, I will always finish it'?"

Liu Liang's mouth twitched slightly, and he faintly realized that starting this game might have been a mistake.

Indeed, he had boasted in his videos before, claiming that as an excellent gaming UP, his greatest strength was persisting through any trashy game to the end.

But now, that persona was seriously dragging him down...

Liu Liang didn't mind persevering, but the problem was, he wasn't sure whether the game even had an "end" at all!

What if he stared at this tree for several hours without an end-game screen appearing? Wouldn't that be a waste of his life?

Just then, a 5-yuan paid barrage message caught his attention.

"Can't you make the tree rotate? Try spinning a circle and see what happens?"

Liu Liang's first reaction was that there were people trying to sabotage him!

You should know, in order to make the tree rotate, there must be wind in the scene, and you must also rotate with the direction of the wind, with each rotation being very slight.

Estimating the frequency of the same direction of wind, it would take at least ten to twenty minutes to spin the tree a full circle.

Twenty minutes just to spin a tree?

Do you have some serious illness!

As expected, none of my fans are up to any good; they're all instigators!

Of course, Liu Liang wanted to ignore this paid comment, but the other viewers didn't agree.

"Great idea! Spin a circle!"

"Right, spin the tree a full circle to check; maybe there's an amazing twist coming!"

Seeing that all the comments on the screen were led astray by the paid message, Liu Liang was on the verge of tears.

There were even other wealthy viewers who started to splurge on gifts, asking him to rotate the tree just once to investigate further.

Liu Liang, left with no choice, was commanded by the masters in the audience and reluctantly started to operate.

This process was incredibly boring. He had to constantly watch for any signs of wind in the scene, and the moment he heard it, he had to determine its direction by the movement of the leaves. Only then, if the direction was correct, could he press the A or D key to make the tree sway and rotate.

Just like that, his perspective slowly changed.

Well... he gradually gained a full view of the grassland.

This tree was on a hillside, with the vast sky on one side and the majestic mountain on the other. After a rotation, he indeed saw some different scenery.

To be fair, the grassland was quite detailed—the flowers and grass on the ground, the dew on the leaves, the fluttering butterflies, and the chirping of birds in the sky, as well as the occasional appearance of various small animals...

Taken by itself, this scene wouldn't be out of place even in some AAA titles.

But this made Liu Liang even angrier: You have such high-quality material, and you're using it for this kind of trash game?

What a waste!

Finally, after more than twenty minutes, Liu Liang managed to rotate the tree's perspective a full circle and returned to the initial viewpoint.

"Alright, I've rotated a full circle, and nothing happened. Are you viewers satisfied now? Okay, that's it for this game; I'm going to play something else… What the heck??"

Liu Liang originally planned to bolt without giving the viewers any chance to react. He certainly did not want to see the screen flooded with comments like "rotate three more times" a bit later.

However, before he could exit, he noticed that the screen's image had indeed changed again!

The tree started spinning on its own!

Furthermore, the camera zoomed out, and as the tree became more and more distant, the terrain that appeared flat at close range now revealed more and more undulations. Slowly, the entire mountain came into view.

Until the whole mountain was in sight.

As for the tree, it had turned into an insignificant few pixels on the mountain peak, indistinguishable within the forest.

Not only that, but the mountain itself was also slowly rotating.

The hillside was shrouded in mist, giving off a somewhat mystical vibe.

Staring at everything in front of him, Liu Liang fell into a stunned state again.

Does this game actually have a third chapter?

He really wanted to find the developer of this game, pry open their head, and see what is packed in there!

The comments were also taken by surprise. They were just goading Liu Liang to spin the tree for fun, not expecting it to actually trigger some mechanism in the game.

"Holy cow! There really was a change after rotating a full circle!"

"Awesome, I'm at a loss for words."

"I love that one sentence from the host: 'Huh?'"

"Up to this point, every operation in this game is completely beyond my expectations…"

"This time it's turned into a mountain that spins on its own? Old Ox, try if there are any other special controls?"

"I feel like this game, how to put it, has quite rich content?"

"True, it looks like a trash game at first glance. After playing for a while, it feels like it's not a trash game, but if you think about it, isn't it still a trash game?"

"Quick, Old Ox, you must be close to clearing the game, keep it up!"

Liu Liang didn't expect that a proper trash game would turn into a puzzle game?

Seriously, that troll viewer actually wasn't lying.

This game indeed featured puzzle elements, but the way puzzles were solved caught Liu Liang off guard.

But regardless, having played this far, there was no reason to give up halfway through.

Liu Liang collected his thoughts and continued to figure out how to play with the mountain.

First, he tried moving the mouse. Hmm, no response.

Then he pressed the ASDW keys.

This time, the A and D keys no longer controlled the rotation of the camera but instead produced a new operation Liu Liang had not anticipated: they played pleasant musical notes!

Not just those keys—most other keys on the keyboard could also play different notes!

A piano has 88 keys, and a typical keyboard has 108 keys. Excluding those keys involving system functions, you can make up the complete set of 88 piano keys.

Of course, which key corresponds to which note, there is no hint in the game; it's all for the player to explore.

And what about keyboards with 87 or even 61 keys?

Obviously, they're out of luck. When creating the game, Zhixing didn't consider these at all since the piano playing feature was just an extra, not any important gameplay mechanic.

After trying a few keys, Liu Liang said incredulously, "So, the game has turned into a piano simulator now?"

Software that uses a keyboard to simulate piano keys has been around for a while, and many skilled players can use a keyboard to play famous pieces of music.

For real pros, who can play tunes on old calculators, let alone a keyboard.

But included in a game?

It was Liu Liang's first encounter!

"Alright then, I guess I can't hide my identity as a piano master anymore. I'll play a piece for the viewers in the live stream!"

Liu Liang straightened his posture on the gaming chair and raised his hands ceremoniously as if starting a piano performance, gently tapping on the keyboard.

A familiar melody filled the live stream, accompanied by Liu Liang's singing voice, reminiscent of an ox bellowing.

"Two tigers, two tigers, running fast..."