Chapter 165: It's Not That I Can't... But at Least I Shouldn't
After crossing the basement door that marked a new cycle of reincarnation, Leo was silent as he looked at the scene. The hallway was still the same, but something had changed.
Originally, it was dimly lit, but at least you could still see something. Now, except for a light at the door, all the lights in the distance were off.
"This is the price I paid for holding a flashlight?" Leo looked at his flashlight, then the dark hallway in front of him, swallowing silently.
The radio, previously silent, came on again, broadcasting the initial news of the massacre. The sound was intermittent, accompanied by a buzz that, in contrast to the darkness, seemed even more unsettling.
"It's nothing, it's just getting darker," Leo reassured himself as he cautiously moved forward.
Slowly advancing, apart from the buzzing of the radio, there seemed to be nothing else. But the footsteps seemed a little different. But Leo did not dwell on it for the moment. Instead, he quietly mumbled core values, hoping to dispel the fear he felt.
Upon reaching the corner of the hallway, Leo breathed a sigh of relief; his nerves relaxed a little. There was a light, albeit dim, near the radio in front of him. He looked at the bathroom door; it was now tightly closed. Leo tried to open it, but he couldn't. The baby's crying and the ghost's groaning had disappeared.
Upon approaching the radio, he noticed something different on the table. A large X crossed out the woman's body in the owner's original wedding photo. On it was written the message: "[Dig her up!]"
Seeing this, Leo reached out and touched the photo. As his finger touched the woman's right eye, he extracted a piece of the photo. Observing the photo, the still-smiling black hole, with one eye missing, Leo swallowed silently. The scene was truly chilling.
Just as he was about to continue, the radio, which had been loudly buzzing with static electricity, began to play more loudly.
"Don't touch the dial of that phone, we're about to begin!" "Also, don't trust the tap water."
With those two words, the radio buzzed again. "Don't touch the dial of that phone, don't trust the tap water!"
As for the phone, wasn't there one in that closet around the corner? Why couldn't you touch it?
Upon hearing these words from the radio, Leo instinctively turned to check the phone behind him. But as he turned, he immediately understood why he couldn't touch it. The moment he turned, a pale figure suddenly lunged at him.
At that very instant, the game's camera shook violently and a pale face moved closer to him. This time, he finally saw the true face of the ghost he had so longed for.
The man's face was the image of a devastating defeat. His right eye was sunken in, clearly having been cruelly gouged out. Almost three-quarters of his left eye was taken up by the white of the eye, as if he had suffered an inhumane form of torture similar to suffocation. A mouthful of yellowish teeth oozed a pus-like liquid. The two men were practically face-to-face.
The sudden impact, combined with the accumulated tension and suppressed fear, erupted in a single explosion.
"Ah..."
It no longer mattered whether it was the staff who had cut it or the self-protection mechanism of the game camera. What mattered was that he was finally free!
The game camera immediately opened and Leo emerged. He staggered for a moment. A nearby staff member quickly held him.
"I'm fine, my legs are just a little weak," Leo whispered.
"Just adjust. It's just a game. Breathe easily," the staff member reassured him.
Meanwhile, Ethan and Nick, completely oblivious to Leo's recent experience, exchanged a look of terror. They knew Leo's abilities perfectly.
'So, what had scared him so much?'
"Let me rest. I'm feeling overwhelmed." Leo looked at the crowd and the huge room, almost wanting to cry.
Who knew how much mental pressure the game's narrow environment had put on him.
Then he looked at the time on the wall and was stunned. 20 minutes? After all those days that seemed like years of playing, only twenty minutes had passed?!
"Leo, what aspects and factors of this demo test made you feel uncomfortable?" At that moment, a staff member came over and asked as usual.
As he spoke, Leo, still trying to regain his composure, couldn't help but remember his previous experience in the game. After a moment of hesitation, he said: "I... I feel uncomfortable everywhere."
The staff member replied: "????".
Seeing the staff member's bewildered expression, Leo, sitting in his chair, felt a little helpless. This was his true experience. The realistic visual feedback, the subtle feedback from the sound effects and lighting, combined with the game's smooth pace, made him feel truly uncomfortable from every angle.
After Leo's words, the staff member wrote "pending" in a small notebook and then told Ethan and Nick: "Who will test first?"
Ethan and Nick exchanged a glance and, as colleagues, raised their hands at the same time. Rock, paper, scissors!
As they decided who would be the second to experience the Silent Hill PT beta with the most traditional method, a group of video game designers sat in a well-lit room, with the giant screen turned off.
Many designers had an unpleasant look, some even a little pale. They all gave strange looks to Alex, who sat quietly beside them.
'Who knows what they would have experienced in those twenty minutes!'.
At first they thought they were experts and had seen every imaginable horror game, but Silent Hill PT, this simple demo, stunned them. So many people, and they were just watching, not playing. And more importantly, it wasn't 3D or VR, it was just a giant screen.
Even so, the game's atmosphere surprised some.
"Alex, how long did the demo last? Approximately how much was shown? What was the proportion of scary content?" Mark asked, making all the designers present uneasy.
"Approximately one-third of the content. Although it's a DEMO, I have made the gameplay and content relatively complete. It's just that the puzzle content is a bit arbitrary. If you don't play it several times and study it carefully, it's still difficult to get through."
"As for the horror content, this backstab scene is just an appetizer. I didn't introduce many scary elements in this DEMO, and the backstab scene is not the central point. The real focus is on the plot and scene atmosphere of the game. There are several other key points later. After all, this is provided to the game department to test the functions of the virtual reality equipment and facilitate later improvements," Alex explained.
Upon hearing Alex's words and thinking about the scene from that moment, everyone was speechless.
'This is just an appetizer?'
After holding back for a long time, Mark finally took a deep breath and told Alex seriously: "Alex, it's not that we game developers can't be realistic when creating games, but at least we shouldn't!"
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