Curse of the Gods!

When he finally managed to find the passage to the next level, he missed the time again.

Completion time: 4m16s.

Brother Yin: ...

"He's really impressive!" Brother Yin didn't know whether to praise or criticize. He even had a hunch that if he started a new game again, the map would change once more.

The 2-minute time limit seemed designed to challenge perfectionists and those with OCD.

"This time, let's continue with the rest of the game. After we become familiar with its mechanics, we can consider attempting the 30 enemies without damage and the 2-minute door again."

Brother Yin immediately chose to give up. The game was still new, and there was no need to waste too much time on insignificant matters during the first playthrough.

Many missed elements in this game would attract players to continue playing and gradually complete everything to achieve perfection.

He controlled his character to jump down the stairs ahead, and there, he saw a massive container filled with strange fluids.

The cultivation containers were connected by numerous pipelines, and the dim environment was lit by a few burning candles.

In front of the large container stood a person wearing a blue cloak and carrying a blue syringe on his back.

The syringe was bound to the person's body with iron chains, and something seemed to be inside.

A light blue circular object kept twisting inside the syringe, resembling the cells collected throughout the game.

"Hehe, look who's here... You can call me the Collector. Perhaps I'm the only good person you'll meet here. As long as you give me the cells you plunder from enemies, I can provide you with some very useful things... If you find blueprints, I might even offer you some more... experimental things."

Then, a trade interface popped up.

On the right side of the interface displayed the number of cells he possessed, while the left side showed the items he could exchange for. However, besides health potions, there didn't seem to be any other worthwhile unlockables.

After a few random clicks, he used up all his cells.

As he left the Collector's door, he encountered a mutant merchant.

This merchant didn't require cells but wanted gold coins.

He had three types of mutations: red, green, and purple.

"Wow, the game system is indeed rich. Once I get more familiar with it, everyone can try playing. Although I've only cleared one level, I don't think the game should have major problems," Brother Yin nodded with affirmation.

He quickly entered the next level, "The Path of the Guilty."

A corpse hung from the gallows, and in this world filled with iron chains and cages, everything appeared eerily harmonious.

The serene countryside scenery that should have been pleasant in the forest was now filled with an aura of sin.

The environment here wasn't as gloomy as the sewer. This area seemed to be part of the outside world, with backgrounds full of iron chains and tree branches hanging with iron cages like birdcages.

But everyone knew that these things were not actual birdcages.

As soon as he emerged, he encountered several monsters. Unlike before, these monsters had more diverse forms.

Moreover, these game monsters had a transparent pink protective barrier around them.

With one swing, his blade was bounced back, and the monsters inside the shield were unharmed.

On the translucent pink barrier surrounding these monsters were faint, pink electric currents leading in one direction.

Brother Yin ran towards the electric currents, pursued relentlessly by the monsters behind him. He saw an orange puppet continuously emitting shield energy toward the monsters.

After several strikes, he finally shattered the orange puppet, and the shields around the monsters quickly disappeared.

"It does make the game more interesting," Brother Yin's lips curled into a subtle smile. As he discovered new and intriguing settings in the game, he began to feel some excitement.

However, he then noticed the armored warrior wielding a cleaver. The warrior managed to cross platforms to attack him.

A group of monsters swarmed towards him.

In an inescapable platform, monsters from both the front and back launched simultaneous attacks.

"D* mn it, guys, can't you come one at a time?" Brother Yin frantically retaliated, but in the process of evading, he inadvertently alerted a giant moth hanging above another platform.

This time, the monsters from all directions instantly surrounded him.

It wasn't that he didn't want to evade, but he simply couldn't avoid it.

Monsters from a distance threw bombs, and there were bouncing attacks, monsters carrying cleavers, the giant moth overhead...

All of this overwhelmed Brother Yin.

His limited HP was rapidly decreasing, soon reaching critical levels.

"Oh my, these things have no honor!" Brother Yin yelled continuously, but his shouts couldn't make these small monsters stop their attacks.

As he saw his health bar deplete and the screen darken, Brother Yin didn't think much. In his view, he had only just cleared the second level, so even if he died and respawned, it would only take him back to "The Path of the Guilty."

When the screen lit up again, he saw the familiar beheading platform, the familiar giant corpse, and the familiar prisoner's cell. He was dumbfounded.

Starting from the first level after dying?

No way, right? Is this how it messes with people's mentality?

At first, he thought it couldn't be true. But when he remembered that this game was made by the same studio that created "Get Over It", he couldn't help but shudder.

——Tsk.

Other studios might not be able to make such a tricky thing, but this studio certainly could.

He reopened the game's homepage and stared at the row of horrifying words in the game description.

Always facing danger, death is always imminent, no checkpoints, only slaughter, death, learning, repetition!

"I'm f*cked..." Brother Yin was completely dumbfounded, "It really makes me start from the beginning..."

Seeing his bewildered appearance, the pain the others went through when playing "Get Over It" resurfaced.

"Forget it, I'm getting high blood pressure just listening to this..."

"I thought 'repetition' was just a joke, but when I saw it actually repeating, I felt like my blood pressure was surging!"

"Guys, stop talking about it. I've already repeated it twice. I was planning to give up, but the game is actually quite enjoyable!"

"When I played, I saw an item behind a door and thought, why not just break the door since I've been breaking doors all along? So I broke it, but it turns out I got cursed by the gods..."

Sacrificing gold coins to take an item or forcibly taking it behind a door would incur the gods' curse.

While cursed, taking any damage (including poison damage) would cause instant death.