Chapter 13 New Game "Sisyphus

9 a.m. the next morning.

Gu Fan arrived at the café and found that Su Tong had already arrived.

"There's no need to come so early in the future; our company's working hours are from nine to five. Arriving early or staying late is unnecessary.

"After all, the company belongs to the boss, we wage earners are just making a meager salary, so if it's time to slack off, then we slack off."

Su Tong was completely baffled by these words.

At first glance, this sounded like the heartfelt advice from a veteran employee to a new recruit, but the problem was...

Wasn't Gu Fan the company's boss himself?

It seemed as if he was also just another wage earner.

Yet, judging by Gu Fan's earnest manner, it did not seem like he was making sarcastic remarks.

It was all so puzzling.

Su Tong felt that this company had a certain bizarre quality about it, with an atmosphere that was completely unlike any other game company she had interviewed with before.

"Our company is next going to develop a new game called 'Sisyphus'. Here is the design draft for the game.

"You won't need to be in charge of the game's development work. If you have nothing to do, feel free to have a look at the design document or play our company's previous game, 'Infernal Trajectory'."

As he spoke, Gu Fan placed another printed copy of the proposal onto Su Tong's table.

The game's design proposal was, of course, provided by Lilith the night before.

Gu Fan would still need to develop the game as earnestly as before, without making any changes.

Soon after, Gu Fan and Su Tong began to read the game design documents in their hands, and the café's second floor returned to silence.

As the name implies, this game was inspired by the Greek myth of "Sisyphus".

In the myth, Sisyphus was originally a king but had offended the gods. As punishment, the gods cast him into Hell and tasked him to roll a massive boulder up a hill. However, the boulder was so heavy that every time it neared the summit, it would roll back down, nullifying all previous efforts.

Thus, Sisyphus was condemned to repeat this task endlessly, an infinite cycle. The gods believed that there was no harsher punishment than this fruitless and hopeless labor.

Sisyphus was well-known in the human world, and many people have put forward their interpretations of this myth, or used it to symbolize the day-to-day, hopeless struggle of life, or to express a spirit of defiance through this tragic figure.

But regardless of interpretation, "Sisyphus's stone" itself represents a very famous form of punishment.

"Indeed, worthy of being the most knowledgeable game expert among Hell demons, Lilith is also quite smart, already learning to use what's at hand, copying the standard answers," Gu Fan couldn't help but remark.

In this game, players take on the role of Sisyphus, tasked with pushing the enormous boulder that will never reach the top of the mountain.

Only, in the game, the "mountain" is much more than that.

It is no longer a simple hill with a fixed incline but rather an enormous mountain range built from countless materials, with complex terrains and staggering heights.

And if one looks closely at the details of this mountain, they would realize that it's not a "mountain" located in Hell but rather "Purgatory" itself.

Hell and Purgatory are two completely different concepts. Hell is where the sinful are punished, while Purgatory is where sinners atone.

Clearly, in the game design of 'Sisyphus', Lilith combined the myth of Sisyphus with the notion of Purgatorial atonement, forming the fundamental world-view structure for the game.

Coincidentally, Purgatory's exterior is described as a mountain.

In 'The Divine Comedy' by Dante, Purgatory, also known as the "Cleansing Realm", floats in the southern hemisphere's ocean and is described as a huge mountain range with twelve layers, each corresponding to a specific sin.

The design document included a giant original painting that depicted the structural diagram very clearly.

At the very bottom lies the ocean and beach, with wandering souls along the shore, symbolizing those exiled, who found repentance at the eleventh hour and received God's pardon.

The path snakes up through cliffs, and the next three layers correspond to: those who repented late in life due to slothfulness, those who repented at the moment of a sudden death, and those who repented late due to being preoccupied with worldly affairs.

This place is collectively known as the "Periphery of Purgatory."

And then, after passing through the "Gate of Purgatory," further up is where the truly sinful redeem themselves, with each ascending level representing "Pride," "Envy," "Wrath," "Sloth," "Avarice," "Gluttony," and "Lust."

Each level has a corresponding representative figure, such as Guinicelli, Belacqua, Beatrice, and so on.

Each layer also has different styles and themes. For instance, in the layer of "Gluttony," in "The Divine Comedy," it is depicted that the souls of the gluttonous are very emaciated, for in life they indulged their appetites, and now they suffer from unbearable hunger.

The scene of each layer is also directly corresponding to the style of that layer.

For example, in the layer of "Gluttony," most scenes are made up of gigantic foods, and players need to push a boulder forward on these foods.

Similarly, the "Avarice" layer is full of all kinds of treasures, and as for the "Lust" layer... cough, cough, I cannot detail it, or it wouldn't pass the review.

In short, after reaching the top of the entire mountain of Purgatory, there is the earthly paradise, also known as "Eden."

In "The Divine Comedy," when Dante passed through the gates of the mountain of Purgatory, the guardian angel marked his forehead with seven letters P (the first letter of sin in Latin), and as he ascended each level of Purgatory, one letter was washed away from his forehead, symbolizing the cleansing of a sin.

And "reaching the Eden at the top of Purgatory" and "Sisyphus pushing the stone up the mountain" have many similarities, obviously, they also became the two biggest sources of inspiration for the game "Sisyphus."

What the player has to do is to play as Sisyphus, pushing the boulder up the mountain, from the lowest level of the seaside all the way to the Eden at the very top of Purgatory.

In this process, players will encounter various winding paths, and if they're not careful, the boulder may roll all the way back down to the foot of the mountain, forcing everything to start over.

Well, indeed a good method of torture.

As for the actual gameplay, it is fairly simple.

The only actions available to the player are "Move," "Push the Stone," and "Jump," of course, each of these actions will interact with the boulder in different ways.

From the outside, this is a spherical stone, but it is not as smooth as a pure sphere; it still retains some edges to ensure that it does not easily roll downwards on a moderate incline, retaining the hope of being pushed to the mountain's summit.

Its size is quite considerable, so when Sisyphus pushes this boulder forward, the visual effect is quite stunning.

However, Sisyphus is, after all, a mythical figure, and his strength far exceeds that of a normal person. In special circumstances, he could even lift this boulder up with difficulty and carry it on his shoulder.

This action can't last too long, but it allows him to leap over some obstacles and ravines.

Of course, these are just visual representations; players don't need to control Sisyphus to perform specific actions with the boulder; just completing the basic actions is sufficient.

However, compared to the usual "Move," "Carry," and "Jump" in regular games, the actions in this game will be somewhat different.

Since you are pushing a large stone, movement in this game is affected by the inertia of the boulder, characterized by: only being able to turn slightly (akin to driving a car), with a certain delay in turning; the steeper the uphill, the slower the movement; and while you can push across some small trenches directly, it takes time and there's a risk of letting go of the boulder.

Players can briefly lift and carry the boulder on their back, but they can't sustain this for too long.

Because carrying a boulder on his back, Sisyphus's jump is more dangerous than an average jump. If he doesn't land firmly on the edge, he might lose his balance and fall.

In summary, the basic gameplay of this game is very simple, and it is somewhat akin to the "Jumping game" found in some games—the biggest difference being that the player needs to push a boulder throughout the entire course, and the difficulty is higher.

And even more terrifying is that there are even monsters in the game that attack Sisyphus!

Lilith, however, did not design those numerous minor demons in the game; she went even further, tossing in a giant dragon.

This dragon is known as the "Infernal Great Dragon," and its appearance is quite fearsome; it not only has the large body and vast wings commonly seen in Western fantasy worlds, its scale armor is covered with cracks and burns with hellfire.

It does not actively attack Sisyphus, but it circles Purgatory over and over again, appearing at a nearby respawn point after Sisyphus reaches certain locations, swooping past him.

Sometimes it also randomly lands in a place, breathing hellfire onto the ground, incinerating sinners.

If the Infernal Great Dragon flies by while the player is moving or jumping, they might be blown off balance by the strong winds from the dragon's wings, causing the boulder to roll down, ruining all the hard work done so far.

Standing still can withstand the wind, but there's still a chance to be grazed by the dragon's wings or, if unfortunate enough, sprayed with hellfire, and the result is still the boulder rolling down, all progress lost.

In any case, Gu Fan has never seen the real Sisyphus, so he doesn't know exactly how difficult his challenge was.

But one thing is certain, the difficulty of this game is probably even higher than the actual difficulty of the Sisyphus myth!