GDYARVE ## Chapter 14: It's Not Over Yet!
## Chapter 14: It's Not Over Yet!
In just half an hour, the game reviewer was bombarded with criticism.
At this moment, he was still enthusiastically talking to the sponsor on the phone, boasting about how he had completed the game in half a day.
He had quickly written a review today, and the sponsor must be very satisfied, right?
In the gaming community, he had a lot of fans, more loyal than those of the creator of Getting Over It.
"Daddy Sponsor, are you satisfied with the results this time? I really played the game carefully, fearing death and having to restart," the reviewer said smugly.
"I managed to defeat the Hand of the King," he said, unable to hide his admiration.
If it weren’t for the money this time, he genuinely wanted to give the game a positive review.
When fighting the final boss, those random little items helped him a lot.
Not to mention the smooth controls, the entire battle was exhilarating.
He even wanted to try other weapon combinations to see their effects.
"Do you have the nerve to ask me for money?" The Yogame liaison, looking at the messages received, was fuming.
"We wanted a review pointing out some flaws or downsides based on actual gameplay!"
"Exactly, that's what I did," the reviewer said, confused. He had written what he genuinely thought.
The myriad of equipment, while highly combinable, seemed cumbersome for a simple game.
"Go check it out yourself. Remember, we signed an agreement that this review was your own opinion and had nothing to do with us," the liaison said and hung up.
A sense of foreboding rose in the reviewer’s heart as he quickly opened his phone to see the 99+ replies.
Oh no!
The reviewer immediately realized the review had backfired.
If what he wrote was correct or fair, most players would just glance at it without responding.
The current situation only meant he was terribly wrong, prompting so many replies.
Opening the replies, he felt faint.
Clearing the game wasn’t really clearing it?
Clearing was just the beginning of Cell 1?
Previously, to write an 'authentic player' review, he didn’t look up any information before playing.
He believed doing so would infuse his perspective with many others' ideas.
As a blank slate, he preferred to fill in the content himself when trying a new game.
The information online indicated that after defeating the Hand of the King, players received a Boss Stem Cell. At the spawn point, players could adjust the number of stem cells to alter the difficulty. Each difficulty level not only changed enemy health and damage but also added auxiliary settings to increase gameplay difficulty.
After Cell 1, there were Cells 2, 3, 4, and 5.
Every player who reached the later stages claimed the game drove them to madness, passionately discussing various mutation and weapon combinations, arguing about the best playstyles.
And what about him?
He only played Zero Cell, rushed through the story, and didn’t pay much attention.
After defeating the Hand of the King, he quickly dismissed the king and wrote a negative review.
He hurriedly deleted the review and wrote an apology, admitting he only played part of the game and didn’t notice the subsequent stages.
He thought this would put an end to it.
But then, all the companies he had previously collaborated with sent termination letters.
According to these companies, the reviewer was not rigorous enough in his game evaluations.
Sweating, the reviewer saw only one solution.
He needed to fully complete the game and write an honest player experience.
He reopened his computer, entered the game, and gulped nervously at the sight of Cell 1.
He had read what others said:
If Zero Cell was a trick to lure players in, Cell 1 was the beginning of the pain.
They still considered Cell 1 and Cell 2 to be simple until Cell 3 started.
Enemies’ health, attack, and danger moderately increased. For newcomers, this was already dangerous, with teleporting enemies and diversified foes appearing.
The healing pool now only restored one sip in the bottle, forcing players to manage their health carefully.
In Cell 4, enemies’ health, attack, and danger massively increased, approaching nightmare levels. At this difficulty, there were no healing pools; players could only buy food or potions from shops or find food.
In Cell 5, it was hell on earth. Advanced players who reached this stage constantly lamented in agony.
Here, enemies’ health, attack, and danger drastically increased, and plague ravaged the island, contaminating even some food.
Attacks caused infection, filling a gauge that, when maxed, continuously drained health until death. Drinking water or eating fresh food could reduce the infection.
As the story progressed, players learned that only by defeating the boss in Cell 5 could they uncover the game’s true ending.
Initially, players thought the green algae attached to the headless corpse was just a prisoner from the underground jail.
But as the story unfolded, they realized that green algae was our protagonist and the king in the game’s story.
In the Zero Cell ending after killing the Hand of the King, players saw a man in a purple robe with a crown sitting on the throne, motionless, with a red crystal embedded in his chest.
The infamous Philosopher’s Stone.
The revered king, skilled in both literature and martial arts, had one major flaw: arrogance.
After unifying the empire, his ambition grew, and he sought the elusive immortality.
At this time, the Collector told the king about an immortality method, and they began researching the Elixir of Life, Homunculi, and the Philosopher’s Stone...
So, the king sent people to mine red crystals in caves to craft the Philosopher’s Stone. But the caves contained not only red crystals but also toxic gas and monsters.
Mining was the most arduous task on the island. Many were crushed by rocks, suffocated by poisonous steam, or killed by strange creatures...
Uh, does everyone want a female lead? I don't really want to write a female lead, but it seems a bit of romance is needed.
(End of this chapter)