Let's give space a touch of Chinese horror!

Chapter 98 New Information

These words were met with widespread approval.

"It might actually be true!"

"Sister, you seem to have spotted the key point!"

"The story is indeed a good one, but—" someone asked, "How do you beat this game?"

The point of playing games is to complete them! But no matter how you look at it now, it seems like there's no way to complete this game... Even if a streamer survives until Xiao Yi's birthday, they'll soon die in the fire.

Can a game that you can't beat still be called a game?

Chronicle, who had also failed to complete the game and quit, happened to see this message. After thinking for a moment, she offered her speculation: "There must be a way to complete the game."

"Based on the clues I've gathered, the key to completing this game actually lies with Xiao Yi."

"According to the backstory, Xiaoqi's daily routine was disrupted because of his sister's death. So I suspect that clearing the game might be related to rescuing Xiaoyi."

"In other words, we can't let the food from the promotional video be the same on Xiao Yi's birthday on the 5th day of the game." As for the specific method, how to save her, we'll need everyone to continue searching for clues and figuring out a solution.

"!!!"

"So that's how it is!"

"The streamer's analysis seems quite reasonable, and it even connects to the background of the whole story!"

"Sigh, what a pity, it's just that the game in red can't be screen-recorded, otherwise I really wanted to show those haters who don't play games but shout about warped values ​​all day long! Let's see who dares to say this story has no substance!"

Chronicle had been playing for several hours and was getting a bit tired. Just as she was about to end the stream, she saw a comment in the chat: "'The game has no core'? What does that mean?"

Fans quickly explained the recent events to Chronicle, whose internet connection had been cut off.

Chronicle's brow furrowed slowly. "I understand."

She then greeted the viewers in the live stream and ended the broadcast. The fans and other viewers didn't think much of it and left the live stream as well.

They didn't expect that Chronicle would publish a long article on her personal account that very evening, which was an analysis of the background story of "reunion".

And my thoughts after experiencing the game in depth.

This long article attracted a lot of attention as soon as it was published.

There was certainly some criticism, with many people accusing Chronicle of taking money from "Reunion" to whitewash its image without even reading the content. However, because there were quite a few viewers in the live stream at the time, many people came forward to defend Chronicle, which caused the popularity of this long article to rise rapidly.

Many people were shocked by the complex background of the "reunion" story, while others were surprised that a host had pushed the "reunion" plot so far. Of course, many more were chilled to the bone by the terrifying truth behind the background story.

"Is this game really that scary?!"

"Did I download a pirated version?! Why is all I see in my 'Reunion' game is food and drinks?"

"I can vouch for Chronicle; she didn't get paid. I watched the whole thing in her livestream, and she painstakingly pieced together the clues bit by bit. Chronicle has been streaming 'Reunion' for a long time, but she only does it intermittently, so she was completely unaware of what was happening online."

"Reunion is indeed scary, but it's not the mindless, disgusting game that some people online claim it to be. It has its own core gameplay, and even the previously criticized 'cannibalism' has its own backstory."

……

The internet is gradually filled with positive reviews of "reunion" again. Fans of "reunion" who were previously silenced by criticism have resurfaced and are sharing the story, filled with the joy of being exonerated.

"While I haven't played as extensively as this streamer, anyone who has truly played 'Reunion' knows it's not just a game that's designed to scare you. Games that are only meant to scare you wouldn't have such a meticulously designed game environment!"

"I've always found the previous large-scale boycott strange. It's common knowledge that Redshirt started out making horror games. Doesn't the fact that horror games are scary prove that they're well-made? Why is it that Redshirt is criticizing 'Reunion' for only being scary? Isn't the only criterion for judging horror games whether they're scary or not?"

"Right, now that you mention it, it dawned on me. If we're really talking about the core of the story, I haven't seen any high-end core elements in those games participating in the 'Holographic Horror Game Competition'. Why are you only criticizing the woman in red? Is fire the original sin?"

……

As the discussion gained momentum, many other game streamers also saw the analysis and joined the discussion:

"I've pretty much reached this point before. I was wondering why I didn't see Xiao Yi at the birthday party, only a ball on a chair. Turns out Xiao Yi was already dead back then. No wonder I failed that time!"

"So this is what 'reunion' means!"

"I think there are several layers to 'reunion.' First, there's Xiao Yi's death, and Xiao Qi's longing to reunite with his sister; second, Xiao Qi's act of revenge, in a sense, is also sending his father and sister to 'reunite'; and finally, there are those who were tricked into coming here, and their desire to go home is also a kind of longing for reunion."

"Isn't the theme of this game quite profound? After all that commotion before, I really thought something terrible had happened."

Do you think Chronicle's proposed method for clearing the game is feasible?

"Theoretically, there's no problem, but in reality, I've been playing 'Reunion' for quite a while and have never actually met Xiao Yi."

"Didn't you say he was lying inside the house? Then he should be on the bed in the inner room. Has anyone been in the inner room?"

"I think Old Duck went to see it, but he only peeked at it secretly, and then he was hacked to death. His death was horribly gruesome."

"Did Old Duck see anything?"

"At the time, I was in his live stream, and I could only see the little boy playing with the ball on the bed. I couldn't see anything else because of the angle."

"I did sneak in once, but there was nothing inside. I remember there was only a doll lying on the bed, without a head. It gave me quite a fright when I first saw it!"

"Could it be with Xiao Qi? After all, Xiao Qi seems to be the protagonist of the story; maybe there's some other clue?"

"Xiao Qi always carries around that dirty ball... But I've played games with Xiao Qi, and that ball doesn't seem to be anything special. It's not very inflated, and most of the time it just rolls around on the ground, which is pretty boring."

"Huh? That ball is so round, I thought it was quite inflated..."

"Wait, wait, I suddenly had a guess, but it's a bit crazy—first, Xiaoqi has a headless doll, and second, Xiaoqi has a round ball. Xiaoqi plays with that dirty ball on the bed, and on Xiaoyi's birthday, she puts the ball on the table—logically speaking, a dirty ball wouldn't be placed in the middle of the swamp, right?"

"My God, you don't mean... Little Yi is inside Little Qi's ball, do you?!"

"!!!"

This explosive speculation attracted countless players, and the popularity of "Reunion" quickly rebounded. In fact, because the background story was revealed, the popularity was even higher than before "Reunion" "had an accident".

—At least, Xu Zhang was almost driven mad with anger after seeing the uproar online.

"What's going on with you guys?!"

Xu Zhang was furious in his office: "Didn't I tell you to quickly suppress the hype surrounding 'Reunion'?" He had finally managed to suppress "Reunion," how come they resurfaced without him noticing?

The employee who was reprimanded also felt wronged: "President Xu, we have been working hard, but just when we manage to suppress those trending topics, they pop up again in other places."

If this online buzz were bought by the Red-Clad and First Legion, they could easily suppress it because their target is clear. But right now, it's all spontaneous discussion among netizens. With so many netizens, even if they patrolled the internet 24/7, it wouldn't make a difference!

Upon hearing this explanation, Xu Zhang became even angrier.

They spent a lot of money buying their own game's popularity, but it didn't even reach half the current online buzz surrounding "Reunion." Now they're telling him that the buzz surrounding "Reunion" is all generated by netizens themselves, and that "New World" didn't spend any money at all!

Xu Zhang felt like he was about to explode!

Why can't they buy their way back into the trending topics and discussions? It's like all the content posted by paid trolls is being blocked!

Xu Zhang's technical team searched for a long time but couldn't find the reason, and in the end they could only helplessly attribute it to the mysterious phenomenon of trending topics.

"Never mind, never mind..." Since he couldn't suppress it anymore, Xu Zhang was too lazy to care and decided to just ignore it. "Tomorrow is the day the competition results are announced. How are your preparations going?"

"Everything is ready, Mr. Xu!" Finally getting to the point about what they had already accomplished, the employee puffed out his chest and confidently replied, "We've been repeatedly testing and refining it these past few days to ensure there won't be any problems with tomorrow's live stream—"

Before he could finish speaking, a flustered footstep rushed into the office without knocking. "Something terrible has happened, Mr. Xu!"

The employee who rushed in looked panicked and immediately delivered devastating news to Xu Zhang: "Our website has crashed!"

"What?!"

……

"Da la la la la~"

The system returned, humming a tune. "Host!"

It excitedly reported the good news to Jiangyi: "I'm back after finishing my work!"

"The 'Playworld' website actually tried to sabotage us, so I crashed their website!" As for whether it can be fixed by tomorrow, that depends on the programmers there. Anyway, they're not the ones who'll be in a mess.

After all, it was the "Play World" that attacked them first. It and its poor host were just doing their own game honestly, and they were inexplicably targeted. So now it's just "tit for tat".

Upon hearing the tinkling sound in her ear, Jiang Yi gently touched the bell on her wrist with her fingers as a form of praise.

The system was quite satisfied. It shook itself and muttered to itself, "So now I've suppressed all the buzz related to 'Play World'? With me around, they won't be able to generate any buzz at all!"

"Hey, host, what are you looking at?"

The woman in crimson robes kept turning the pages with her fingers: "I'm reading the comments online."

Many players have provided interesting analyses of the game, some even coming close to figuring out the secrets to clearing the dungeons.

Especially the game streamer called "Chronicle," whose background stories are basically no different from the real dungeon backgrounds.

Although the game's popularity was dampened recently, there are still quite a few game streamers and ordinary players who play privately without streaming. And after reading Chronicle's analysis, they clearly have a new understanding of the game and are now working hard to complete it.

Of course, Chronicle's analysis has its advantages and disadvantages. Some are attracted by the background stories revealed, while others are deterred by the fact that the background stories are too terrifying.

However, although they couldn't play "Reunion" this time, the players didn't give up. They started calling out to Jiang Yi online:

"@RedDress, Miss RedDress, could the next game please not be so scary? Waaaaah... Are there any horror games that aren't so terrifying...?"

"+1, I really want to play, but I'm also really scared."

"Speaking of which, the story backgrounds of the Red Dress game seem to be all original. Although they are very fresh, are they sometimes a bit too retro? Sometimes when I want to rebel against the NPCs, I don't have any handy weapons. I can only rush up with a stool."

Weapons...

The woman in crimson robes revealed a thoughtful expression.

The kind of weapons the players want... that's definitely not going to work. Jiangyi has played other (this era's) holographic games and knows what the players want. But the problem is, firstly, those weapons are really useless to the NPCs in her game, and secondly, those weapons are too lethal and would cause great damage to the dungeons or the game environment.

Unfortunately, many of the clues to completing her game are hidden within the environment. What if a player accidentally destroys a crucial clue... then what's the point of playing?

However, these players' suggestions also make sense. Previous horror games did have items, and she could ask the system to implement this feature, which would also be a way to give back to veteran players.

For example, points earned in "Reunion" can be redeemed and used in the next game. Players will even buy multiple copies of her games to play in order to redeem items.

That's the decision. Anyway, this feature is just a minor issue for the system.

As Jiang Yi pondered this, she opened her personal account, which she hadn't logged into for a long time, and posted a message.