As the two scientists talked, Eric could finally access the game's control screen.
The simple, slightly sarcastic dialogue stood out. When they walked up to the squirrel, the back-and-forth between the male and female doctors continued.
"This game's attention to detail is really solid. The writing too—it's all very sharp, just like Undertale. Every little thing counts," Eric said as he played.
For example, when they passed a signpost, they joked about whether it'd get stolen out here in the mountains.
The dialogue had a bit of humor, and it made Eric, as a streamer, feel a bit sidelined—
This kind of banter? That's usually his job!
If the game's already doing all the snark, what's left for him to say?
"Is this more of a story-driven game? Feels a bit slow," Eric commented.
Aside from moving around and a few simple conversations, the only moment that stood out was when they moved what looked like a rock.
Nothing else really happened.
Even Undertale had some simple bullet-dodging battle scenes.
The only thing that really stood out here was the music.
From Mirror to Undertale to this one, To the Moon, the soundtrack had always been great.
As for the visuals—Lucas did make some upgrades compared to the RPG Maker pixel art of his previous life.
But still, it was just okay—not amazing by any means.
While Eric was thinking this, the two doctors, Neil and Eva, arrived at their destination: a large mansion.
After they knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman answered. Her name was Lily, according to the intro.
She was the one who looked after an elderly man named Johnny.
The two kids playing the piano earlier were her daughter and son.
After a quick intro, Lily led the two doctors upstairs.
Meanwhile, back in the living room, the two kids started arguing over who got to play piano, then ended up sitting side by side and playing together.
It was the same tune that played right before the car crash.
Was that the game's main theme?
That's what Eric guessed.
As the doctors Neil and Eva kept bickering, Lily and another doctor filled them in on the main character, Johnny.
Johnny was bedridden, in a deep coma—alive only in the most technical sense.
According to the doctor, he only had two or three days left.
And Johnny's final wish was simple: to go to the moon.
Why he wanted that, though, Lily didn't know.
Even though she took care of him, Johnny never really talked to anyone. He was a very odd man.
"Damn, the old guy's got some wild dreams! He wants to go to the moon? So the whole point of this game is to figure out why he wants to go, and then help him make it happen?"
"A puzzle game, huh? Now we're talking! Brain games are my thing!"
Eric slapped his leg after going over what they'd figured out so far.
He talked to the caretaker, Lily, and got a clue—basically, they need to find certain key memories from Johnny, then use those to enter his mind and change things to help him fulfill his wish.
Since a person's memory spans a whole lifetime, you can't just scan it all at once with the machine, so they need to find memory anchors.
Eric left the female doctor tinkering with the machine, while he controlled the male doctor to wander around the house.
"Damn, this old guy's loaded! This house is huge!"
"But seriously, the guy's lucky he ran into me. Wants to go to the moon? Heck, if you wanted Mars, I'd get you there too!"
Eric kept chatting as he had the male doctor walk around. On the first floor, he tried talking to two kids, hoping they'd show him around so he could dig up some clues. But the little brats told him to get them a candy cane first.
"Man, these two are something else. Whatever, I'm not gonna argue with kids."
He headed into the kitchen and saw the candy cane on a high shelf. But the character couldn't reach it, so Eric had to drag over a chair to stand on.
"Don't get it twisted. I could totally reach that shelf! It's the game's doctor who's too short—not me!"
"I'm 190 cm, man! No way I can't reach a cabinet. What a joke!"
Seeing the chat messages flying by in his livestream, Eric twitched a bit, but didn't stop his banter.
190 cm meant he could dunk if he had to!
He gave the candy cane to the two kids and got some useful clues from them.
Apparently, Johnny used to go to the basement often when he was still active. Also, the piano piece the kids were playing was one Johnny used to play when he was healthy.
Following their lead, Eric found his way into a small room in the basement.
It was pitch dark, with only a lamp nearby.
But the second Eric turned it on, the music in the game suddenly changed.
It turned creepy, eerie, and tense. The dim lighting didn't help, and the whole room was filled with paper rabbits made out of colorful paper.
"What the hell? Why'd this suddenly turn into a horror game?!"
It caught him totally off guard. The shift in mood made Eric's skin crawl.
The room wasn't that big—it looked like some kind of storage space.
The floor was piled with folded paper rabbits. On the table near the door sat a platypus plush toy.
It wasn't straight-up horror.
But it definitely gave off a lot of psychological pressure.
Even the chat was blowing up.
"This vibe just got super spooky!"
"Don't tell me this turns into a horror game…"
"Spam the chat, y'all—I'm scared!"
"Why are you guys acting like babies? It's broad daylight!"
Eric glanced at the overly dramatic chat and took a deep breath to steady himself, then started searching the room.
The platypus plush could be picked up—looked like an important item.
As for the game, yeah, the vibe was off.
But he had already checked—there was no horror tag on it.
It was only labeled as adventure and story-driven.
No need to panic. Even if it was horror, so what?
He was 190 cm and built like an athlete. Was he really gonna let some game scare him?
"Alright, alright, look at you scaredy-cats!"
"Let's keep going and see what this game's really hiding—why does the old man want to go to the moon? What's up with all these paper rabbits? We'll figure it all out soon."
Eric chatted with the livestream viewers a bit more and went back to moving the story forward.
(End of this chapter)
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Let's do a challenge: for every 100 Power Stones, I'll release one bonus chapter.
Now, give me your Power Stones! (said in the most polite tone possible)
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Read +40 advanced chapters on my patre*n
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