Zhu Yao/Lang Xi: ...
Yu Nan chuckled awkwardly, "I just..."
Lang Xi: "No one is questioning you. We know you're genuinely afraid even at this level."
Yu Nan fell silent, listlessly released her hand, and obediently sat back down next to Zhu Yao.
"Actually, if you're scared, you can hide behind me..." Zhu Yao cautiously probed Yu Nan, "I'm fine with what happened just now..."
“Yu Nan, if you’re scared, you can sit in the back. I can give you my seat,” Lang Xi added fuel to the fire. “Or you can go out and I’ll play games with Miss Zhu. Anyway, I can help her break down games.”
Yu Nan gritted her teeth, "This is my house, if anyone should leave, it's you!"
Zhu Yao walked into the room, and the rat appeared again. Yu Nan didn't shout or jump up; she just trembled slightly before quickly suppressing it.
"Young Master Yu, aren't you afraid?"
Yu Nan turned her head away and ignored Lang Xi.
There was a report card on the table. The average grades were very poor, with three Ds and one C. He had even missed the physical education test. However, his art and music grades were ridiculously high.
Zhu Yao was able to sketch out the protagonist's image—a lame, one-sided in his studies, a frail artist living in an empty house infested with rats.
Going up the stairs, the walls on both sides were covered with paintings, one of which looked like a rotting smile.
Pushing open a door upstairs, I entered the room to find a red carpet and orange lights, making the temperature seem higher.
Suddenly, the gramophone started playing records. Zhu Yao began searching the cabinets in the room. When she reached the second wardrobe, a pile of empty wine bottles lay scattered on the floor. The gramophone stopped abruptly, and a clap of thunder sounded outside the window.
Zhu Yao gasped, not because of the scary atmosphere in the game, but because Yu Nan's grip on her arm was too tight and it hurt a little.
"Someone counted, and there are exactly thirty bottles of wine on the ground," Lang Xi suddenly said.
Zhu Yao recalled the shopping list she had seen in the kitchen, which stated that thirty bottles of wine had been purchased.
"The details of the game design are right here. Players may not know it if they don't count them, but as a producer, you have to match the clues one by one."
Yu Nan remained silent. She had never played this kind of horror game before, so having Lang Xi, who had done in-depth research and live-streamed it, explain it would be advantageous for Zhu Yao.
A little annoyed…
The mirror in the room was broken, and Zhu Yao could not see the protagonist's face; there was only a blurry gray mist.
'A fire broke out at Galaxy Mall, trapping ten people…'
'She's a rising star in the music industry…'
Perhaps the protagonist was burned in the fire? Or perhaps it was the protagonist's wife who was burned?
There was a piano next to the stairs on the second floor. Zhu Yao tentatively pressed a key, and a clear piano sound rang out. The next second, the piano board slammed down heavily, making a loud "bang".
There was an eerie eye-like pattern on the soundboard, tinged with a maroon color. The rain intensified, and thunder rumbled again.
Yu Nan gripped her even tighter.
As I walked away from the piano toward the house across the street, I heard the sound of something falling behind me, and lightning occasionally tore through the orange-yellow light inside.
After Zhu Yao entered the room, she turned on all the lights. She heard the sound of something falling behind her again, but when she turned around, there was nothing there.
It was as if something was following her, playing a prank.
'Let's make it a little special, you promised!'
Above the table directly opposite the room hangs a painting of a man glaring menacingly at the outside. As soon as you enter the room, you can look up and meet the gaze of this gorilla-like man.
'My dear friend, I know you're in a difficult situation, so I've agreed to let you illustrate the unimportant manuscript of "Little Red Riding Hood," but please don't include your crazy nightmares in children's bedtime stories! I absolutely will not use that manuscript, and I already regret paying you the advance. Please cheer up!'
The illustration depicts a gray wolf with a gaping maw, looking at a tiny red figure dressed in red, barely reaching its knees.
Everything seemed to be foreshadowing... the protagonist had gone mad...
Chapter 34 Layers of Fear
Inside, the campfire crackled, lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain poured down. The background music played quietly, giving the warm-toned space an eerie atmosphere.
Zhu Yao moved the controller and found several more illustrations: a gray wolf and shadows, a red Little Red Riding Hood and blood. A perfectly good fairy tale was drawn in a dark and violent way.
The scene lingers on the gray wolf holding Little Red Riding Hood in one hand, tilting his head back to drink the blood from her severed neck. The blood splatters onto the gray wolf's legs, forming the shape of an upside-down umbrella.
At that moment, a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder struck, and the ladder next to the table collapsed, scattering books on the ground with a loud thud.
Yu Nan: "The game is just about thunder or falling objects that scare people. After being scared a few times, I'm not afraid at all now."
Lang Xi: "Guess why it's called Layers of Fear, and guess which layer we're on now."
Yu Nan wailed, "Let me confirm, this game only relies on atmosphere to scare people, there won't be any chases or confrontations, right?"
"No," Lang Xi confirmed Yu Nan's words, "but it's not as simple as just losing something."
Yu Nan shrank her neck and hid behind Zhu Yao, as if having someone between her and the screen would make her unafraid of ghosts and gods.
"Miss Zhu, would you like to try to guess the game?"
Ignoring Yu Nan, Lang Xi turned her attention to Zhu Yao, who had remained silent.
Zhu Yao had been listening to the two joking around in silence, but now that Lang Dao'er was going to test her, she had no choice but to speak up.
"Perhaps... the musician wife was disfigured, the painter husband couldn't paint and gradually suffered a mental breakdown, eventually leading to family conflicts? There are probably children involved; I saw the report card shows a strong emphasis on music and art, so maybe the parents' parenting was a complete failure... It might also be related to a rat infestation... There's a dog collar, so there's probably a dog in the house that's already dead... The wife is probably dead too..."
"The game's plot should be: A fire disfigures the wife, causing the painter to go insane and ultimately leading to the separation of his wife and children."
Having only played for a short time, Zhu Yao hadn't obtained any useful information and could only sort through the fragmented clues she had just received.
Lang Xi: "I'm not asking you to deduce the game's plot based on clues, but to deduce the gameplay and then the real plot and the producer's purpose."
Yu Nan turned her head and glared at Lang Xi with displeasure. "How long has she been playing? To speculate on the game, you definitely need to start with the early clues. Besides, Zhu Yao has a strong ability to predict the plot, you just haven't seen it!"
It's worth noting that Zhu Yao had already figured out the whole story halfway through playing "To the Moon".
Lang Xi deflated, leaning back. "What I mean is, to speculate on the game's levels and gameplay and resonate with the producer's ideas, rather than guessing the plot."
Wolf Blade's inner thoughts: Just keep protecting her...
"To become a pro gamer, you need to be able to figure out where the developers want to set traps, make things difficult for players, place Easter eggs, and express something as soon as you get the game."
Seeing Yu Nan's bewildered expression, Lang Xi patted Yu Nan's shoulder understandingly, "It's okay if the game planner doesn't know how to play games, but don't mislead Miss Zhu. Miss Zhu's gaming talent is much higher than yours."
Was this...being teased by Wolf Blade?
Yu Nan was a little annoyed, but she didn't retort to Lang Xi, since Lang Xi's guidance was a great benefit to Zhu Yao.
Since Yu Nan couldn't provide guidance, she naturally wouldn't stop others from guiding Zhu Yao.
Zhu Yao recalled the content about game disassembly that she saw in the video—game disassembly should be approached from the producer's perspective.
When making a game, first clarify the game's positioning and genre, then the inspiration, world view, and background setting, followed by the game's details and levels, and finally consider the player's gaming experience.
Game analysis also starts with the game's positioning, then analyzes the game system, and speculates on the producer's intentions and core purpose.
Good players can see through the core of a game, quickly identify the main storyline and underlying themes from the details, and even guess how the developers want players to play the game.
Layers of Fear is clearly a first-person horror puzzle game. The creators' goal is for players to uncover the tragedy of the painter's family by finding clues...
Zhu Yao felt something flash through her mind, and she murmured, "No..."
Lang Xi responded with a curious "Hmm?"
"Since it's a first-person horror puzzle game, the truth is definitely not as simple as everyone can guess at the beginning. Otherwise, the story would be too thin and easy to see through. Relying solely on art and atmosphere, an old-fashioned game wouldn't receive rave reviews."
Zhu Yao became more and more convinced of her previous idea as she spoke, "In terms of the plot, it is definitely not that the painter went insane because of his wife's burns. This doesn't make sense logically. The wife's burns and the painter's mental breakdown are at least not causally related."
"I guess the fire wasn't the trigger, but rather a catalyst for the plot. It accelerated the tragedy and was the breaking point of the conflict. And the reason why 'Layers of Fear' is so layered is that it becomes more and more distorted as it goes on."
"And all of this gradual distortion is to make players feel immersed and gradually enter the painter's 'abnormal' state. If I'm not mistaken, the later plot will make players do abnormal things as a 'mentally deranged painter' to increase the sense of immersion."
"Players are not just explorers of the past, but also participants in crazy actions."
"pretty!"
Lang Xi clapped her hands. "Yu Nan, take note."
Yu Nan wasn't annoyed. Zhu Yao had agreed to join her studio anyway, and she was proud of Zhu Yao's abilities.
Zhu Yao entered the room on the second floor, which was a pink bedroom with small and exquisite tables and chairs, and a children's bed.
This should be the bedroom of the protagonist's daughter.
There was also a childish doodle on the table, depicting a family of three. Although it was a simple line drawing, it was very lifelike.
The "mother's" face was smeared with green crayon, the "father's" mouth was downturned, and he looked stern and unhappy. The "child's" eyes were blank.
After leaving the note, Zhu Yao arrived at the painter's studio. Lightning illuminated the room as if it were daytime, and the rain was so heavy that it almost drowned the world. The chandelier in the center of the studio was swaying in mid-air, as if a naughty little devil was swinging on it.
Clearly... no window was open, and no external force was applied to the chandelier.
The lightning cast a flickering shadow on the ground, and Zhu Yao saw paint scattered everywhere, with three large boxes on the ground.
Two boxes were filled with empty wine bottles, and one box contained a clump of paintbrushes stuck together with fuel, suggesting that the paintbrush's owner hadn't painted in a long time.
Zhu Yao picked up a piece of paper
'confused,
You brought this on yourself.
Self-inflicted
Finish it.
A piercing sound, like fingernails scraping a blackboard, rang out, and the curtain of the drawing board slid down, revealing a blank sheet of paper.
No, the drawing paper wasn't blank. There was grayish-blue paint underneath, and a little orange-red pigment stuck to it, like blood slowly flowing down and drying on the paper.
A line of sharp black characters appeared on the wall in front of me: 'This time, finish it correctly.'
"This time? Is there another one like last time?"
Zhu Yao keenly grasped the key words; the meaning of "layers" was probably about to emerge, perhaps related to reincarnation or cycles.
Pushing open the studio door, the scene outside changed. The once spacious living room had been transformed into a narrow, cramped corridor with several doors embedded in the walls.
Zhu Yao casually pushed open a door and entered a room with windows on three sides and curtains as rough as tree bark. One window was open, and Zhu Yao leaned closer and could see sharp black characters on the opposite wall through the raindrops.
'It's just not there yet'