"After watching for so long, your hands must be itching, right?"
Back at the campfire, Zack glanced at Hannah, who was busy cleaning up grape skins beside him.
Hearing him, Hannah looked at the game screen and shot back without thinking, "My hands are itching, but my skin isn't!"
Zack sighed and went back to controlling his character, exploring further.
They entered the High Wall of Lothric. Compared to the Firelink Shrine and the Cemetery of Ash earlier, this place was way more complex.
And since there was no map, he had no clue where to go.
But there was an even bigger problem—this part of the game was basically like chopping vegetables and melons… except, well… he was the vegetable.
On the High Wall of Lothric, aside from the kneeling hollow mobs that just sat there like pilgrims and didn't fight back, pretty much every other enemy could kill him.
And the worst part? These enemies didn't just rely on brute force like the crystal lizard, the katana guy, or Iudex Gundyr.
No… these guys had no sense of honor at all.
It was common to turn a corner and get jumped by a mob with a short sword, who would chain combo him to death if his HP wasn't full.
Sometimes, a careless move would pull two or three enemies at once. When they swarmed him, it somehow felt harder than fighting Gundyr.
One enemy in particular—a dog-like hollow—was fast, agile, and hit hard.
And then there were the fire crossbow mobs hiding in wall gaps. They wouldn't move when he passed, but the moment he got into a fight below, they'd start shooting him in the back.
There were also enemies hiding behind boxes, waiting for him to turn his back so they could stab him from behind.
It was an ARPG, but Zack was getting the same paranoid feeling he had when playing Outlast—never knowing what kind of trap was waiting around the corner.
Still, if it were only these dishonorable mobs, it wouldn't be too bad.
They were mostly weak, and one-on-one they weren't hard to deal with as long as he didn't get careless.
But as Zack explored more of the High Wall, he ran into some real trouble.
On the way to a watchtower, he came across a Lothric Knight holding a sword and shield.
This guy had even appeared in the trailer—though only as a background prop to show how mobs could get parried and executed.
"Finally, an enemy who can face me head-on, one-on-one!"
Looking at the knight, Zack's eyes lit up with excitement.
"Come on, let's have a fair fight!"
Meeting in a narrow path, the brave one wins—Zack could feel his blood boiling.
After being ganged up on so many times, he was finally going to have a proper duel.
The knight clearly noticed him too, taking up a stance.
Zack advanced, the knight retreated. They tested each other's moves.
Without realizing it, Zack stepped into the dark interior of the watchtower.
Suddenly—CRASH!—a box broke behind him.
A dagger-wielding mob leapt out of nowhere and stabbed him in the back.
SPLAT!
Blood sprayed, and before he could recover, the shameless mob kicked him forward. The knight took the chance to bring his sword down in one clean strike.
Zack—dead!
"So much for one-on-one! You actually called for backup?!" Zack was completely stunned.
"You stay right there! Don't you run!" he shouted before respawning at the nearest bonfire.
Back here again, this time he played smarter. He rolled several times to dodge the knight, went into the dark watchtower, found the monster that ambushed him before, killed it, and only then turned to face the knight.
"Let's use you to practice my parry skills! Time for you to see what a true hero of fire looks like!"
Zack raised his shield, stood still to draw the knight's attention, and prepared to train his parrying.
First parry attempt—one flask down.
Second parry attempt—two flasks down.
By the third try, Zack sensed something was wrong. He gave up on parrying and decided to block first, then counterattack after the knight finished swinging.
But instead of attacking normally, the Lothric Knight bashed him with its shield.
That bash wiped out his stamina bar instantly, just like getting his health bar drained, and his character froze from exhaustion.
The knight calmly followed up with a chain of slashes, finishing him off and giving Zack another "lesson" in those three red words.
"Why do all the monsters after I beat Iudex Gundyr feel like they do the same damage as him?" Zack muttered, respawning at the bonfire.
He had thought Iudex Gundyr was supposed to be a tough fight, but the crystal lizard, the katana guy, and now this knight—each one felt ridiculously strong!
"Probably just the game's style," Hannah said beside him.
Zack was speechless.
The High Wall of Lothric was crawling with even more types of enemies.
By now, he was completely sure of one thing:
This was definitely a very hard game.
Zack even felt that traveling through the map was harder than fighting the bosses.
He could tell just by looking—these were enemies you didn't want to mess with.
Zack decided to leave the knight alone for now and explore elsewhere.
On a bridge packed with monsters, he was planning to lure them out one by one when a dragon suddenly swooped down from the sky and blasted the whole bridge with fire.
Just like the other enemies on the bridge, Zack got to see the words "You Died" once again.
After countless deaths and hard-earned experience, Zack finally made it to the watchtower room.
But something felt strange—there were no enemies inside.
And in the corner downstairs, there was even a treasure chest.
"A chest?!" Zack got closer and saw the "Open" prompt pop up on the screen, his face lighting up with joy.
Was it finally time to get some new gear?
In most ARPGs, treasure chests meant good loot.
Looking at the chest, Zack was already grinning.
He pressed the button to open it, but what happened next left him stunned.
Inside wasn't loot—it was a mouth lined with sharp teeth from top to bottom.
A long tongue and two hands shot out, grabbing his character.
"What the hell?!"
Zack jumped in his seat, nearly throwing his mouse.
The chest's fangs clamped down on his character's head.
Blood splattered everywhere as his character struggled, but the health bar drained in an instant.
After a short struggle, the character went still.
The screen faded to black, and those three blood-red words appeared in the center again.
"What the hell! The chest was a trap?!" Zack stared wide-eyed, completely dumbfounded.
But he quickly respawned at the bonfire, ready to head back—not just to recover his souls, but to get revenge.
From his past experience, enemies that relied on cheap tricks were usually pretty weak.
Back in the chest room, thirty seconds later…
The cramped room made it impossible to move around. Watching his character get grabbed by the mimic and stuffed into its mouth, Zack set down his mouse.
Patting his chest, he told himself this wasn't chickening out—this was "a gentleman's revenge can wait ten years."
Just like the earlier shortcut, or fighting the katana guy and the Lothric knight, it was all about dying a few times, learning the enemy's moves, and then beating them easily. But… it wasn't worth the trouble.
Still, the frustration in his chest made him quietly shut down his PC.
He decided that was enough for today. If he kept going, he was afraid his brand-new keyboard and mouse might end up in pieces.
Right at that moment, the phone on his desk rang.
One glance showed it was his old friend Ben.
"Zack, what are you doing for National Day? I'm screwed. Just checked into the hotel and my boss is an idiot! Who sends people on a work trip during the holidays?"
Zack replied, "Playing a game. That 'Dark Souls' we saw at the convention just came out today. Have you tried it?"
Two seconds later, Ben replied, "Not yet. Is it good? If it's not, I won't buy it."
That made Zack think back to the reason he once played Outlast, so he quickly replied, "Epic story, amazing graphics, great combat feel, and the gameplay can be summed up in four words—slice through like butter!"
That night, logging into his girlfriend Hannah's Nebula Games account, Zack even bought a copy of Dark Souls for Ben.
When he saw the reply later, he couldn't help but laugh.
"So this is your 'slice through like butter'?"
Even though it was just a text message, Zack could already picture Ben's expression through the screen.
(End of the Chapter)
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