33: Chapter 33: A Depressing Plot

The post's opening didn't analyze any gameplay tips; instead, it immediately displayed several screenshots of the most common items in the game.

"Everyone, while you were cheering because you got an item that increases your maximum health, did you ever zoom in to see what those items actually were?"

"[Breakfast], [Lunch], [Dinner]... In the game, they give Isaac an extra red heart. But if you look closely at the crude textures, they are clearly cans of [Dog Food] filled with spoiled meat!"

"And those stat-boosting weapons. Did you think they were divine artifacts?"

"[Wooden Spoon], [Belt], [Wire Hanger]... Everyone, in a normal household, how could these things become 'weapons' in a child's eyes?"

"There is only one answer—these are all instruments of torture used by his religiously fanatical mother to whip and abuse him!"

Seeing this, the smile on PD's face, sitting in front of his computer, instantly froze.

He recalled how he had unhesitatingly picked up those Belts and hangers just now in the game to increase his shot speed and movement speed.

At the time, he just thought it was game parody, but thinking about it now, a bone-chilling coldness rushed from his spine straight to his head!

The post's analysis continued, becoming increasingly suffocating.

"Let's look at the monsters in the game. Why are they all headless corpses, deformed lumps of flesh, and weeping children?"

"In Western psychology, children who suffer long-term abuse and brainwashing develop extreme [Self-Loathing]."

"His mother told him, 'You were born sinful; you are a filthy monster.' So, in Isaac's subconscious, those hideous monsters are actually the 'himself' he imagined!"

"Then there's the final boss—[Mom's Leg]. Many people find it funny; why is the final boss just a single leg wearing a high heel?"

"Try to put yourself in the perspective of a child only a few years old, trembling in a corner. When an enraged adult rushes over to beat you, isn't the only thing you can see that giant leg stomping down like a mountain?!"

As the "Research Demon" meticulously deconstructed the game, the brains of the Blue Star players, which had been hyped up by the power-trip gameplay, felt as though they had been doused with a bucket of ice water, turning stone cold.

They finally began to realize that the seemingly childish, even "hellish" art style of The Binding of Isaac, filled with filth and grime, wasn't because Chaldea lacked the money for 3D!

It was the producer, Gu Yi, who had very deliberately used the perspective of [Crayon Sketches] drawn by a child in extreme terror to show the players this distorted world!

But this wasn't even the most hopeless part.

At the end of the post, an extremely blurry screenshot of a game-clear CG was shared.

"Did you think that by defeating Mom, Isaac escaped to safety?"

"Please look closely at the hints in the opening animation and the ending. In the opening animation, Isaac jumps into a trapdoor under the rug when his mother raises a kitchen knife."

"But in the real world, how could an ordinary house have a massive maze spanning dozens of floors, filled with monsters and leading straight to Hell?"

"The truth is—there is no Basement in reality."

"Locked in his room and facing an enraged mother, Isaac hid inside a small, airtight [Toy Box] to escape reality."

"This so-called dungeon adventure, the tears used as bullets, the transformation into a demon and the Lord of the Flies... it was all a long and desperate deathbed hallucination caused by hypoxia as Isaac [suffocated to death] inside that airless Toy Box!"

"As for the nine-lived cat, Guppy, it was Isaac's only playmate in life, but it was heartlessly killed by his fanatical mother."

"Isaac secretly hid its corpse. So, in his hallucinations, when Isaac gathers all the cat's parts, he can briefly become his best friend and gain that false 'invincibility.'"

"When you clear the entire game, in the real Toy Box, that weeping child has already stopped breathing due to suffocation."

As the last word met their eyes, the entire internet fell silent.

Gone was the previous clamor, gone was the previous frenzy; only a scalp-tingling, even nauseating sense of oppression tightly gripped the throats of millions of players.

In the Shark Stream Room, PD sat blankly in his chair, staring at the child curled into a ball on the main menu after his victory.

For some reason, his eyes suddenly felt a bit sore.

The previous thrill of a power trip—wiping the screen and killing the final boss in three seconds—completely changed its flavor in his heart.

He recalled how he had desperately traded health just to complete the "Guppy set."

He thought he had become a god. But in reality, he was just experiencing the pathetic defense mechanism of an abused child before death.

"This is..."

PD took a deep breath, his voice trembling slightly. "This isn't some casual stress-relief game at all."

After a brief moment of silence, the public opinion on the internet underwent a second, even more terrifying explosion!

"I'm sorry, I even mocked the art style for looking like crap before... It turns out I'm the clown who didn't understand anything!"

"Heavens, using the most cheerful BGM and the most satisfying power-trip mechanics to tell such an oppressive and hopeless tragedy of a dysfunctional family! What is Father Gu's heart even made of?!"

"It was bad enough handing out knives in FGO, but releasing a cheap little game and making players' hearts ache like this! He truly deserves the title 'Warrior of Love'!"

In just one night, with its bottomless and terrifyingly deep plot, The Binding of Isaac once again dominated the global trending charts.

Those major companies that had previously hired internet trolls to bash the crude art style of Isaac, such as Tianpeng Interactive Entertainment, were now being devoured by this tide of public opinion, unable to even lift their heads.

Copy it? How could they copy this?!

You can copy the top-down shooter mechanics, but can you copy a script and depth that makes the spine chill and the soul tremble?!

...

Tianhai City, 120th floor of the Global Financial Center.

Operations Director Old Zhang looked at the sales of Isaac, which had already surpassed ten million, and the comments online that unanimously revered Gu Yi as a god; he was in a dreamlike state, as if floating in the clouds.

"President Gu... you really are a god."

Gu Yi smiled slightly and didn't explain.

This was Isaac, hailed as the 'god-tier ceiling of indie games' in his previous life. Using it against this Blue Star, which was still stuck in the 'one hit, level 999' era, was simply a dimensional reduction strike of the highest order.

"Alright, Old Zhang. Everyone has had enough of the 'dessert' during the dead period."

"Since they think things are comfortable now, let's give them some real intensity." Gu Yi lightly swiped his finger across the virtual screen.

"Go post the teaser."

Gu Yi looked at the screen, the smile on his face gradually fading, replaced by an extreme coldness.

"[Sixth Singularity: The Sacred Round Table Realm - Camelot], released today."

"Let the Masters of Blue Star face the scorching sun hanging in the sky and feel what a true [Wall of Sighs] is."