“…….”
Rydell’s mouth slightly parted as she stared at the monitor.
Moments earlier, Rydell, Del-boong #3, and SilverHairSilverHair had just cleared the Steel Marble Obstacle Stage.
A beat later, a gasp of disbelief escaped Rydell’s lips.
“……Wow.”
`[That was insane.]`
`[They actually cleared that…]`
`[Holy shit, was that even possible?]`
`[Now I’m just getting goosebumps.]`
The chat window, too, was awash with shock and astonishment.
Though few had witnessed it due to its low appearance rate,
The ‘Steel Marble Stage’ they had just conquered was renowned as one of Chain Roller’s most infamously unfair maps.
Over twenty massive steel marbles rolled erratically, relentlessly crashing into players.
That alone made it challenging, but the true highlight of this obstacle lay in three cunningly hidden steel marbles.
Even players with considerable skill would automatically exclaim, ‘Is this a bug?’ upon being struck by marbles flying from blind spots.
Yet, just moments ago, SilverHairSilverHair had,
grabbed Rydell and Del-boong #3 by the scruff of their necks and cleared that very ‘Steel Marble Stage.’
“I just pressed a directional key, and it cleared.”
`[Their chain control was truly insane.]`
`[I never knew that was possible with pure physical skill.]`
Controlling others by tugging on a chain naturally made delicate maneuvers impossible.
It wasn’t even a feature designed for precise control to begin with.
Nevertheless, SilverHairSilverHair manipulated it with such finesse, as if directly controlling another player’s keyboard.
In essence, it transcended mere skill; it was an act bordering on artistry.
“Anyway, SilverHair? They truly saved us. What would we have done without them?”
Snapping back to reality, Rydell softly clapped her hands.
This was a stark contrast to how she had been sighing heavily to herself just minutes prior.
As if the game wasn’t challenging enough, a course of absurd difficulty had appeared.
She had been contemplating quickly recreating the room.
However, SilverHairSilverHair’s skill far exceeded her expectations.
They had cleared a seemingly impossible stage in one swift go, with a style that felt almost like exploiting a bug.
Perhaps they were an angel sent to rescue her from this hellish ‘shit game.’
‘People will say I got carried, but…’
It was unavoidable.
Wasn’t it fundamentally wrong for an unfair stage like the Steel Marble Zone to even appear?
If her luck was truly that bad, then getting a carry from a skilled player was perfectly fine, Rydell mused.
“Anyway, since we’ve passed the unfair course, the next obstacle should definitely be manageable, right?”
Even as she spoke, Rydell’s heart remained uneasy.
‘If I fall incorrectly now, it’s over.’
Failing the very first obstacle merely sent them back to the starting point.
Even if they failed, there was no real loss.
Being the first obstacle, they could attempt it without worry.
But from now on, that wouldn’t be the case.
The moment she was hit by an obstacle and sent back to the starting point—the Primal Village—
she would have to traverse the arduous Steel Marble Stage once more.
While failure didn’t always mean a return to the Primal Village,
the worst-case scenario involved crossing that steel marble hell again.
Although SilverHairSilverHair’s lead had allowed them to ‘freeload’ their way through,
the inherent difficulty of the stage made it hard for her to relax.
As these thoughts churned in her mind, they arrived at the next stage.
“Huh…? Wait, are there usually this many traps?”
Rydell’s voice trembled ever so slightly.
Her pupils darted about, following the bizarre spectacle on the monitor.
Sections of the floor shimmered with a bluish glow, and a small sign indicated ‘Gravity Reversal Zone.’
“Those are bows, right?”
As an added bonus, countless bows were visible on both sides.
The bows automatically reloaded, endlessly unleashing a volley of arrows; they were, quite literally, infinite magazines, showing no sign of depletion.
Merely watching was enough to make one dizzy.
A Gravity Reversal Zone.
And arrows flying in from both sides.
An obstacle that seemed daunting on its own now appeared with a second, equally challenging element.
Just dodging the arrows felt comparable in difficulty to the steel marbles they had just navigated.
To make matters worse, the variable of gravity reversal was thrown into the mix.
“This looks… considerably harder.”
Though she had restarted the room, a lesson learned from four hours of gameplay was clear:
courses that looked easy were easy, and courses that looked hard were hard.
There was no twist where a seemingly difficult course actually turned out to be an easy ‘freeload.’
And the obstacle before her now looked so mind-numbingly difficult, it made anyone’s head spin just by gazing upon it.
`[Del-boong! Snap out of it!]`
`[The notorious section is here LOLOLOLOL.]`
`[Del-boong is weeping.]`
`[You really have terrible luck.]`
`[What is that?]`
`[Wow, a second hell party in a row.]`
`[This is just floating in the air and ending up like a hedgehog LOLOLOLOL.]`
The chat window scrolled rapidly.
Most of the chat consisted of viewers who had watched other streamers play Chain Roller.
‘This is doomed.’
With her accumulated streaming experience, the quick-witted Rydell instantly grasped the difficulty of this stage.
“Hah, I’ll just take a look first.”
Rydell swallowed hard and narrowed her eyes, a habit that emerged when she concentrated.
First, the blue sections on the floor.
A few small orbs floated around.
They weren’t obstacles themselves, but markers indicating a ‘Gravity Reversal Zone.’
The ‘Gravity Reversal Zone’ obstacle was simple in concept:
entering that zone would cause one’s body to float in the air.
If the anti-gravity intensified, the body would rise higher.
Conversely, if the anti-gravity weakened, the floating body would descend lower.
Observing the movement of the small orbs revealed that the anti-gravity’s intensity constantly shifted with time and location.
Seeing this, she understood why the viewers called it difficult.
Even with constant anti-gravity, it would be a headache,
but this anti-gravity wasn’t even consistent.
‘I can’t avoid it.’
To the sides lay a chasm.
Meanwhile, the entire path she needed to cross was within that blue glow.
No matter what she tried, bypassing it was impossible.
‘Somehow, I feel like I can see the ending…’
Entering that blue zone would make her float.
Then, she would be struck by countless arrows from the sides and sent flying.
While there was no death in the game, being hit would send her ricocheting at tremendous speed.
Ultimately, she would fall into the chasm and crash back into the starting point.
Repeating that about thirty times, then slamming her desk and quitting the game.
An utterly miserable ending seemed to unfold before her eyes.
‘No, there must be a timing to it.’
Even if Chain Roller was a game crafted by a deranged sadist, there were no uncleared stages.
It meant that no matter how difficult, there was always a method.
It was just hellishly difficult to find that method.
‘The floating orbs.’
The small orbs hovering above the blue zone were a hint.
The orbs weren’t floating statically; they moved up and down with time.
The arrows, too, if one watched closely, seemed to be fired according to a set timing.
‘Ugh, what can I even figure out just by looking?’
It felt like there was some timing involved, but she couldn’t grasp when it was.
`[Go go go go go go go!]`
`[You’re cooking too long.]`
`[Speedrun it go go go go!]`
“Huh?”
Amidst her thoughts, chat messages urging her to proceed quickly frequently caught her eye.
She hadn’t been stalling for long, nor had she pondered for very long.
Yet, many ‘troll-like’ messages were pestering her to go faster than she thought necessary.
Of course, such people always existed.
But what mattered was the frequency of the chat.
It wasn’t usually this abundant, was it? Rydell tilted her head and spoke.
“Guys, stop pestering me. If I get hit by an arrow, it’s 100% back to the Primal Village, you know? This stream… huh?”
Upon reflection, there was simply more chat than usual.
It felt as if the usual chat speed, which she was accustomed to, had been cranked up to 2.5x.
As she lowered her gaze,
‘Gasp.’
The viewer count had surpassed 5,000.
For Rydell’s stream, which usually averaged around 2,000 viewers, this was an exceptionally rare number.
Naturally, playing a trending game could boost viewer numbers.
Even so, a sudden influx of over double her usual viewership was unheard of.
It was an unusual occurrence.
In truth, most of these viewers had come after seeing discussions in online communities.
Chain Roller was trending at the moment,
and SilverHairSilverHair had cleared the high-difficulty Steel Marble Stage in one go.
Adding to that, the streamer Rydell had faced two consecutive ‘unfair’ courses due to her incredibly bad luck.
These two ‘hot topics’ combined had drawn in a considerable number of viewers.
Rydell, unaware of the current community buzz, naturally had no way of knowing this.
“Hmm. There are quite a few new viewers today, aren’t there? I guess there really are a lot of Chain Roller fanatics out there. Alright, I’ll try to move quickly too.”
Even as she said this, Rydell typed into the game chat.
`[Rydell: SilverHair. Have you played this course before?]`
Chatting was, in essence, the opposite of moving quickly.
Yet, the viewers’ ‘go faster’ messages significantly decreased.
Ultimately, what viewers truly wanted was for the streamer to *do* something.
Even if it wasn’t game progression but merely chatting, as long as it was related to the gameplay, they felt like ‘something was happening.’
Rydell, a streamer well-versed in this, skillfully diverted the viewers’ attention.
Indeed, the ‘go faster’ messages had sharply declined.
‘There’s no way they haven’t played it.’
SilverHairSilverHair.
They were clearly a veteran player. No, perhaps even beyond a veteran—perhaps they were crude oil, transformed into a new raw material.
Had they not been a veteran, it would have been impossible for them to easily clear the ‘Steel Marble Stage,’ with its brutal difficulty and near-zero appearance rate.
Conversely, if they were a veteran, they would undoubtedly have experienced this course, which seemed to have a higher appearance rate than the Steel Marble hell.
`[SilverHairSilverHair: First time seeing it?]`
`[SilverHairSilverHair: Seeing those orbs floating there, it looks like the gravity’s intensity is changing.]`
`[SilverHairSilverHair: Looks like it’ll be fine if we time it well?]`
“First time?”
At the unexpected declaration, Rydell tilted her head in confusion.
She couldn’t tell if they were joking or being serious.
`[Rydell: SilverHair. Is this truly your first time on this course?]`
`[SilverHairSilverHair: Yes;;]`
`[Rydell: Ah…]`
`[Rydell: After seeing you dodge those steel marbles just now, I thought you were a veteran.]`
`[Rydell: How did you dodge the steel marbles?]`
`[SilverHairSilverHair: ;;]`
`[SilverHairSilverHair: Just watch and dodge, obviously.]`
`[LOLOLOLOL]`
`[It was possible to dodge by just watching?]`
`[Even a quick glance made my head spin.]`
`[Are they a pro gamer LOLOLOLOL.]`
SilverHairSilverHair’s chat message sent Rydell’s chat window into a frenzy.
Rydell, concealing her bewilderment, spoke.
“Ahem. Well, I suppose so. SilverHair. Could you… somehow manage to dodge again this time?”
`[This time looks tough?]`
`[Considering they dodged the steel marbles just now, isn’t it possible?]`
`[That gravity reversal will trap them in the air.]`
`[Even a pro couldn’t dodge this one.]`
`[They won’t be able to dodge it with just physical skill.]`
‘This will be difficult.’
Rydell thought to herself as she read the viewers’ chat.
While the previous steel marbles were a matter of pure physical prowess,
this course had limitations even for that.
Anti-gravity.
No matter how sharp one’s senses, there was no way to dodge if one was helplessly suspended in mid-air.
As Rydell wore a troubled expression, gazing at the complex volley of arrows,
`[SilverHairSilverHair: Shall we get going?]`
SilverHairSilverHair’s chat message appeared.
