"The game was literally trying to kill them." Well... that's... the point...
They had barely rested just after killing a Boss, and now there was a Lord in front of them. Lords were a rank higher than Chieftains. The game was literally trying to kill them.
It's mostly told from the Simon's pov, so it's his internal monologue.
We are currently the leaders. We have mastered the base concept and even entered alpha testing! We, the Telenaughts (corny name, I know), are those who have been blessed with the privilege of conducting the tests, and we will eventually be the first ones to enter human testing!
I think that it's a little early to say whether or not it has potential (I'm still working out most of it myself, after all), but I definitely appreciate the positivity.