Game Development: Starting by Healing the Players
Chapter 52: The Desperate Basement
As they played the game, Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai continued bickering with each other.
Although it sounded like they were arguing, this was actually just their normal way of interacting.
The regular viewers in the livestream chat were already familiar with it.
And, admittedly, having someone beside him made Sun Yixie feel a little more at ease.
But that feeling of relaxation quickly disappeared when Sun Yixie entered the dark and cramped basement.
Earlier, there hadn't been many truly dark areas.
But this basement was completely different.
It was pitch-black. There were occasional patches of light, but even those were extremely dim, making visibility practically nonexistent.
To see where he was going, he had to use his handheld camera and rely on its night-vision mode.
Although Sun Yixie had mentally prepared himself for this, knowing that the game would eventually require him to use the camera's night vision, he still felt somewhat nervous when the moment actually arrived.
"What the hell is this?"
"Turn on two air pumps and the main switch, then restart the generator! What the hell is this?!"
Sun Yixie stared at the newly appeared objective, and a feeling of despair began to grow inside him.
The basement was already oppressive enough in complete darkness, but now he had to search through this complicated, pitch-black maze for air pumps and then turn on the generator's main switch?
Was this even something a human being could do?
Why had he bragged about being able to play this?
Why had he agreed to play a horror game in the first place?
For the first time, Sun Yixie felt a little regret.
But once words were spoken, they couldn't be taken back. There was no way he could simply quit now.
After all, Sun Yixie was the kind of person who, once he said he would do something, almost never backed down unless he genuinely couldn't handle it.
"For fuck's sake, for fuck's sake. There's nothing to be afraid of!"
Sun Yixie encouraged himself and slowly began feeling his way through the basement.
Relying on his instincts, he headed left.
He hadn't gone very far when he opened a door and found an air pump inside the room.
The dim room contained the air-pump switch, along with a row of lockers.
"Now that's some good luck!"
Seeing the air pump right in front of him, Sun Yixie was delighted.
That meant he'd already completed one-third of the objective!
The livestream chat immediately started filling with comments as well.
"Brother Sun, what kind of luck is this?"
"He found one already? I was hoping to watch Brother Sun hyperventilate for a while."
"Isn't this pretty normal? There were arrows on the walls earlier pointing the way. Brother Sun just didn't notice them."
"See the lockers next to him? I have a feeling that fat guy from earlier might come in later."
"Probably not, right? That fat guy is so huge. How would he even squeeze in here?"
As the viewers discussed it, Sun Yixie also noticed the lockers beside him.
"So when I turn on this air pump, a monster might appear, and this locker is where I'm supposed to hide?"
Looking at the air-pump switch and the locker beside it, Sun Yixie thought for a moment.
In the end, he still pulled the switch.
After all, if he didn't turn on the air pump, there was no way to progress through the game.
With a dull creak, the switch was activated.
Sun Yixie immediately hid inside the nearby locker.
About ten seconds later, the sound of something slamming into a door came through his headphones.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It slammed against the door several times.
Then came the sharp crack of splintering wood, followed by heavy, muffled footsteps.
The footsteps were getting closer and closer to the room.
Sun Yixie remained hidden inside the locker without turning off his camera.
He leaned back against his chair and pulled the hood of his down jacket a little tighter around his head.
Then he saw it.
A psychiatric patient walked into the room, carrying a wooden plank that looked somewhat like a club or a makeshift spiked weapon.
Under the camera's night-vision mode, the man's appearance was exceptionally grotesque and terrifying.
He paced back and forth across the room.
From his movements, it was obvious that his body was constantly twitching in an irregular, spasmodic rhythm, giving him an extremely eerie appearance.
Under the night vision, his wrinkled skin appeared unnaturally pale, almost washed out.
His two eyes looked like a pair of tiny light bulbs, making him particularly creepy.
"I'm a genius. Good thing I hid in the locker beforehand."
Sun Yixie breathed a sigh of relief and congratulated himself on his own cleverness.
But the next moment, his heart suddenly jumped into his throat.
The monster had begun checking the lockers.
The sound of him opening the locker beside Sun Yixie came through his headphones.
Sun Yixie immediately became so frightened that he didn't even dare breathe.
Fortunately, the psychiatric patient only checked two lockers before muttering something under his breath and leaving the room.
"For fuck's sake, this is getting more and more dangerous."
Sun Yixie swallowed nervously.
His situation was clearly getting worse.
Not only did he have to search for switches in this pitch-black environment, but he also had to watch out for a boss that could appear at any moment.
After waiting for around ten seconds and making sure the monster wasn't coming back, Sun Yixie finally climbed out of the locker.
In the darkness, Sun Yixie noticed that right beside the air pump he had just activated was another door.
There was an arrow pointing toward it as well.
After opening the door and looking inside, sure enough, there was another air pump.
The only difference was that there were no lockers in this room for him to hide in.
"For fuck's sake! What am I supposed to do now?!"
Looking at the scene in front of him, Sun Yixie began to panic and glanced at the livestream chat.
However, since this was a newly released horror game, the viewers in the livestream obviously weren't exactly experts either. Most of the suggestions they gave sounded completely unreliable.
Of course, it was also possible that some of them knew what to do but simply weren't telling him.
At this point, Huang Donglai, sitting beside him, offered a suggestion.
"Oh, come on, Brother Sun. Isn't this simple?"
"The fact that there's a locker means there's a monster. If there's no locker, doesn't that mean there isn't a monster?"
"Besides, just go inside, turn on the air pump, and close the door behind you. The monster bangs on doors, doesn't it? That way, you'll at least have some warning and can mentally prepare yourself when it comes."
Huang Donglai, who was wearing headphones and listening to cheerful music, offered his advice.
As for why he was wearing headphones, the main reason was that he was actually a little scared too.
By wearing headphones, he couldn't hear the game's music. And rather than watching the main screen directly, he was watching the secondary monitor displaying the livestream chat.
That greatly reduced the sense of fear.
"Brother Huang, now that you put it that way, it actually kind of makes sense."
Sun Yixie thought about it for a moment and felt that Huang Donglai's reasoning did indeed seem somewhat logical.
Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't quite right.
He just couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was.
But given the dangerous situation he was in, Sun Yixie didn't have time to think too much about it.
He decided to follow Huang Donglai's suggestion.
After all, when you thought about it, it really did sound pretty reasonable.