30: Chapter 30 The Eternal Kingdom, Hallownest!

Xinglan Live Streaming Platform.

There was one minute left until midnight.

Brother Bao's stream had 60 million viewers, and the screen was densely packed with scrolling bullet comments, all counting down.

"Brothers, are you ready!" Brother Bao slapped his thigh, his voice booming. "Old Thief Ye wants to disgust us with his new game and get back at us. Today, let's show him what a hardcore player is! After we beat it, we're all going to rate it 'Very Simple'!"

The bullet comments scrolled by in unison: "Received."

Time hit exactly midnight.

The Xinghai Steam Platform page refreshed.

hollow knight, priced at 50 Star Coins.

Brother Bao clicked buy without hesitation, downloaded it, and entered the game.

There was no long opening CG, no complex background introduction.

A cold-toned scene lit up.

In a dark underground tunnel, a little knight wearing a white bone mask and a tattered cloak landed on the ground.

Brother Bao pressed the directional keys to test the controls.

"Jump, slash." Brother Bao curled his lip. "These controls are too basic. A fifty-dollar game, just as expected, it's a rough, unfinished product. Watch how I beat this in one life."

The Knight walked down the tunnel.

Visibility was extremely limited; all around were pitch-black rock walls.

A few minutes later, The Knight jumped down a high platform and arrived at a dilapidated underground village.

A few dim streetlights swayed.

Standing beside a bench was a hunched old bug.

Brother Bao walked over and pressed the interaction key.

A dialogue box popped up.

"Are you also here to explore this underground world?" The Elder Bug sighed. "Below this lies a great kingdom. It is called Hallownest. Once, countless bugs traveled there, seeking wealth, glory, or answers. But now, only the walking dead remain there."

A few sparse lines of dialogue, accompanied by desolate background music.

The bullet comments in the stream quieted for a moment.

The epic feeling brought by this fragmented narrative made players accustomed to straightforward plots feel a sense of novelty.

"Pretty good at being mysterious." Brother Bao controlled The Knight to jump into the dry well in the center of the village. "Watch me go down and flip this so-called Hallownest upside down!"

At the bottom of the dry well was a vast area called the "Forgotten Crossroads."

Brother Bao controlled The Knight to rush forward.

He slashed a few wandering husk monsters to death and turned left and right along the tunnel.

Ten minutes later.

Brother Bao stopped in place and scratched his head.

"That's not right. How did I loop back to this stone tablet?" Brother Bao glanced at the top right corner of the screen. "Where is the mini-map? Where is the quest guide?"

He pressed every button on the controller, but no map interface popped up.

The entire area had no route markers, there were too many forks, and every tunnel looked about the same.

The bullet comments started gloating.

"Brother Bao is lost!"

"This game doesn't even give a map? We have to rely on our brains to memorize the route?"

"Old Thief Ye is messing with our heads!"

Brother Bao didn't believe it and stubbornly wandered around.

For a whole hour.

He was dizzy from wandering around in this intricate underground area.

Just as Brother Bao was about to throw his controller, a leisurely humming sound came through his headphones.

"There's an NPC!" Brother Bao's eyes lit up, and he followed the sound.

In a corner, he found a bug wearing glasses who was drawing a map.

The map maker, Cornifer.

Brother Bao spent thirty Geo (in-game currency) to buy a rough sketch.

He couldn't wait to open the map.

A rough area map appeared on the screen.

But after one look, Brother Bao cursed out loud: "Where am I? Why isn't my location on the map!"

The bullet comments laughed like crazy.

"Hahahaha! Bought the map but don't know where you are!"

Brother Bao returned to Dirtmouth village in a huff, spent money at the shop to buy a charm called "Wayward Compass," and after equipping it, a small dot finally appeared on the map to represent himself.

"This game's settings are too anti-human!" Brother Bao gulped down some water. "You have to take up an equipment slot just to see the map!"

Complaining aside, with the map, the exploration progress finally moved forward.

Brother Bao controlled The Knight to a jumping challenge filled with spikes.

The platform was very narrow.

Brother Bao jumped, made a mistake, and hit the spikes.

The screen flickered.

The five mask-shaped health bars in the top left corner shattered by one.

"Only five health points?" Brother Bao widened his eyes. "This margin of error is too low!"

He panicked and tried to jump back to a safe platform.

A flying bug bumped into him.

The Knight fell off the platform, taking continuous damage.

Accompanied by a shattering sound effect, The Knight fell to the ground.

The screen turned black.

Brother Bao was teleported back to the last bench he sat on.

He glanced at the top right corner.

The three hundred-plus Geo he had worked so hard to save had all turned to zero!

"Where is my money!" Brother Bao jumped up abruptly and roared into the microphone, "Where is the money I spent over an hour earning!"

The bullet comments scrolled rapidly.

"Holy sh*t! Death means dropping all your coins?"

"This punishment mechanism is too harsh!"

Brother Bao gritted his teeth and controlled The Knight to run back to where he just died.

As soon as he jumped onto the platform, he saw a black ghost floating in mid-air.

It looked exactly like the main character, only pitch black.

"What is this?" Brother Bao walked closer.

The black ghost rushed over and slashed at the main character.

Health deducted!

"It's attacking me too!" Brother Bao scrambled to fight back.

After a few slashes, the ghost shattered, and the Geo in the top right corner finally recovered.

Brother Bao let out a long breath and slumped back into his chair.

"Brothers, this game is a bit evil." Brother Bao wiped the sweat from his forehead. "You lose money when you die, and you have to run back to your corpse. And you have to fight your own soul to get it back. Old Thief Ye is truly black-hearted."

After regrouping, Brother Bao continued deeper.

On the right side of the Crossroads, he pushed open a rusty iron door.

The iron door slammed shut.

In the center of the arena stood a huge bug.

It held a thick wooden club in its hand.

It turned around and let out a roar.

Elite monster, Husk Guard.

"Finally encountered a boss!" Brother Bao's spirits lifted, and he sat up straight. "Watch how I handle this!"

Brother Bao controlled The Knight to rush up and slash twice.

The Husk Guard raised its club and smashed it onto the ground.

Brother Bao reacted half a beat too slow and didn't dodge.

Bang!

The screen shook violently.

Brother Bao glanced at the health bar, his eyes almost popping out.

"Two health points! It takes two health points off with one smash!" Brother Bao yelled. "I only have five health points total, I'll die if I get hit three times!"

He panicked and retreated, wanting to heal.

The healing mechanism in the game required Soul (energy accumulated by attacking enemies), and it required standing still for two seconds to channel.

Brother Bao had just stood still to start channeling.

The Husk Guard jumped over and smashed him into pieces with one club strike.

The screen turned black.

"How do you fight this!" Brother Bao pounded the table. "Its attack wind-up is so short, the damage is so high, and it doesn't give me time to heal!"

The audience in the stream was also shocked by this perverted damage.

"A fifty-dollar game with this much intensity?"

"This attack frequency is just unreasonable."

Brother Bao refused to admit defeat.

He ran to his corpse, picked up his money, and fought again.

Died.

Ran to his corpse, fought again.

Died.

For two whole hours, Brother Bao died over twenty times in front of this monster that didn't even have a name.

He had completely lost the arrogance he had at the start of the stream.

His eyes were red, and he was covered in sweat.

"Greed for hits leads to death... cannot be greedy..." Brother Bao muttered to himself.

The twenty-fifth challenge.

Brother Bao was extremely focused.

Slash once, retreat.

Wait for the monster to smash the ground, then go up and slash once.

Slowly grind it down.

Finally, the Husk Guard let out a wail, and its huge body fell to the ground.

Geo scattered all over the floor.

"I did it!" Brother Bao threw down the controller, jumped up from his gaming chair, and roared at the camera, "I beat it! What kind of trash boss, didn't I just take it down!"

The bullet comments were all "Brother Bao is awesome."

Just then, a golden bullet comment floated across the screen.

"Brother Bao, stop bragging. Little Zhou, the customer service rep from Silver Horn Studio, has started streaming. He just said that what you're fighting isn't a boss at all, it's just an elite mob."

Brother Bao froze.

He immediately tabbed out of the game and clicked into the homepage of the Xinglan Live Streaming Platform.

Silver Horn Studio's official stream.

The number of online viewers exceeded three million.

Little Zhou sat in front of the computer, looking at the screen with an expressionless face.

On the screen was that huge Husk Guard.

"Many players have reported that this monster is very hard to beat." Little Zhou pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, his tone calm. "Actually, this is just an elite monster, very simple."

Very simple.

These four words coming from his mouth had massive lethality.

Little Zhou's left hand was on the keyboard, his right hand on the mouse.

"Its attack pattern is very simple, only a ground smash and a jump." Little Zhou explained while operating. "We don't need to grind it one slash at a time. Watch closely."

The Knight on the screen rushed towards the monster's club.

Just as the club was about to hit his head, The Knight suddenly jumped up.

In mid-air, The Knight slashed downwards with his sword.

The nail hit the club.

The crisp sound of metal clashing rang through the stream.

The Knight used the recoil to bounce up again in mid-air.

"This is called Down-strike." Little Zhou explained. "Down-strike can reset your mid-air dash and double jump, while simultaneously dealing damage to the monster."

For the next minute, millions of viewers saw a scene they would never forget.

The Knight never touched the ground the entire time.

He kept Down-striking on the Husk Guard's head and club, like dancing on the tip of a blade.

The monster was played for a fool, unable to even touch the edge of The Knight's cloak.

With one final spell attack, the monster fell.

Flawless victory.

Time taken: forty-five seconds.

The entire stream fell silent.

Brother Bao opened his mouth wide, watching Little Zhou's operation, unable to speak for a long time.

The "Boss" he had grinded for two hours and died over twenty times to beat had only lasted forty-five seconds in someone else's hands.

Little Zhou turned his head to look at the camera.

"hollow knight is not a mindless hack-and-slash game." Little Zhou repeated the lines Ye Fei gave him. "Every sword swing, every jump, requires precise calculation. Death is not scary; every death is accumulating experience. Once you master the rhythm, this underground kingdom is yours to roam."

After the bullet comments paused for a few seconds, they completely exploded.

"Holy sh*t! Down-strike! You can play like this!"

"This move is so cool!"

"I was wondering why this game was so hard, it turns out we were playing it the wrong way!"

"This combat depth, selling it for fifty bucks is a loss!"

Brother Bao sat in his chair, his expression shifting.

He thought this game was intentionally torturing people.

But Little Zhou's demonstration made him understand that this game has a very high skill ceiling and a logically consistent combat system.

It wasn't making things difficult for you.

It was teaching you how to become a true knight.

Brother Bao took a deep breath and grabbed the controller again.

"Brothers." Brother Bao's eyes changed; the previous arrogance was gone, replaced by an extremely intense fighting spirit. "I played too uglily just now. I'm going back to practice Down-strike. I'm not ending the stream today until I map out this entire area!"

The trend across the internet turned completely at this moment.

Players who were originally planning to leave bad reviews and spam "Very Simple" to disgust Ye Fei were all attracted by this hardcore combat system and the grand underground worldview.

They no longer complained about the death penalty.

They started discussing on the forums how to deal with different monsters and how to plan their map exploration routes.

The rebellious psychology was completely crushed by the extreme sense of frustration and the subsequent desire for conquest.