Giving Interstellar Players a Horror Ghost Game Shock - Chapter 5
Liu Haitao was in a daze the entire time after leaving the game.
Even though this was just a student project, the virtual space came with built-in safety measures. Players felt deeply immersed while gaming, but upon leaving, they could clearly distinguish between the game and reality.
Still… the fear he experienced in that darkness left a lasting impression! Even now, seated in the brightly lit computer lab surrounded by people, he couldn’t stop trembling.
Li He hurriedly helped Liu Haitao sit up.
“Brother Tao, how are you feeling now?”
Liu Haitao continued staring blankly into space, his expression as if he’d been scared senseless.
Li He gritted his teeth and suddenly shouted angrily at Ye Yuxi,
“Hey, isn’t your game violating the rules? Locking someone in complete darkness like that could mess them up!”
The others also looked at Ye Yuxi with expressions ranging from condemnation to concern.
Indeed, interstellar law explicitly forbids games that use darkness or claustrophobia as core gameplay mechanics.
Ever since humanity entered the era of heightened mental sensitivity, there had been incidents where individuals developed games to push players’ psychological limits for the thrill. One infamous game, Darkroom, placed players in boundless darkness, where they had to find an exit door within three days.
But ordinary people couldn’t endure such an environment. Many players experienced severe psychological trauma during the game, with some even developing claustrophobia.
The backlash led to Darkroom’s emergency removal from circulation, followed by strict regulations banning such mechanics.
Faced with the accusatory stares of the group, Ye Yuxi sighed in exasperation.
What did this have to do with her? Liu Haitao brought this upon himself, failing before even entering the first level. Was that her fault?
Strictly speaking, game designers weren’t supposed to spoil gameplay mechanics. But watching Liu Haitao’s disastrous run, Ye Yuxi hadn’t anticipated that anyone could fail at the very first challenge.
She tried to organize her thoughts.
“Actually, under normal gameplay, players wouldn’t remain in darkness for long. The flashlight you start with—it’s a tool. As long as you keep it on while walking, you can pass through the archway without issue…”
The main storyline only begins when the player meets up with the NPCs sending messages. What kind of lousy game designer would deliberately make players fail right at the start? That would kill the game entirely.
In the programming, the archway was simply meant to set the atmosphere—there wasn’t even any danger coded in.
Who could have guessed that Liu Haitao would discard his light source at the start and then react so strongly to the dark? His mental value dropped far too quickly—if he had lasted just a little longer, he would’ve made it through.
She proceeded to explain the game’s mental value system. The maximum was 50, and it only dropped slightly when players experienced intense negative emotions. Once it fell to 15, a red warning number would appear in the player’s vision. If it reached zero, the character was deemed dead.
In her own testing, mental value always decreased gradually, bit by bit. She hadn’t expected Liu Haitao to lose five points at a time, sending him straight into critical levels.
In essence, according to her design, as long as a player either had a light source or avoided hitting the critical mental value threshold, the archway posed no threat at all.
After hearing Ye Yuxi’s explanation, Liu Haitao, whose legs were still weak, was dumbfounded.
What the heck? Did this mean he didn’t even get past the first door before dying? How was he, someone who prided himself as a gaming pro, supposed to live this down?
Ye Yuxi barely managed to stifle her laughter, maintaining a serious expression.
“But you did provide me with some valuable feedback: I might need to mark the flashlight as an essential, non-discardable tool at the start of the game…”
While her words seemed like an admission of a design flaw, they only made Liu Haitao feel even more humiliated.
The flashlight, which was literally in the character’s hand at the start, had been discarded by him. He couldn’t say a word in his defense.
Still, who could have guessed that such a minor act would lead to a death-ending? This game was ridiculous!
Ye Yuxi, guessing what he was thinking, shrugged helplessly.
“This is just the prologue, meant to ease players into the main storyline. It’s really simple! Even beginners should be able to figure it out quickly. What happened to you was purely an accident. If you don’t believe me, let Li He give it a try.”
Hearing his name, Li He straightened his back, suddenly remembering the bet they had made earlier.
“Speaking of Brother Tao’s performance just now…”
Liu Haitao, now reminded of the situation, flushed bright red.
“I-I don’t count! It wasn’t your game design that scared me—it was the dark environment!”
At this point, he was ready to throw away his pride.
“Everything that just happened doesn’t mean we lost!”
“Fine, fine.” Ye Yuxi waved him off, uninterested in arguing further. She gestured toward the recliner connected to the virtual system.
“Hurry up then.”
Li He hesitated even as he approached the equipment. Honestly, based on what he’d just witnessed, apart from the environment being a little eerie, there didn’t seem to be anything truly frightening about it.
This time, as long as he kept the flashlight with him, there shouldn’t be any scares. Surely, they could win this round, right?
The moment he entered the game, Li He turned on the flashlight.
The warm yellow glow illuminated the path through the archway, immediately easing his nerves.
Remembering Liu Haitao’s ordeal still made him uneasy, so without inspecting his surroundings too closely, he jogged quickly through the arch.
Seeing how easily Li He passed through, Liu Haitao felt even more humiliated. On the other hand, after making it through the dark arch, the upcoming killer-chase scenes seemed far less intimidating. Surely, they had this round in the bag!
Ye Yuxi glanced at the now-revived Liu Haitao, a subtle, unreadable smile playing on her lips.
She had already said it—the arch wasn’t even a real challenge. The fun was yet to come!
On the other side, Li He emerged from the archway and stepped onto May Bridge.
The bridge was wide and expansive, almost like a small park, with several pathways divided by hedges.
Streetlights were scattered along the bridge at regular intervals, providing much better lighting than in the campus area. With the absence of people, the eerie atmosphere was significantly reduced.
But Li He was stumped as soon as he arrived.
Where were the signs? How was he supposed to find the NPCs?
Meanwhile, the others watching from the outside saw him wandering along the hedge pathways, eventually circling back to the entrance of the arch.
Liu Haitao, now fully recovered, twitched at the corner of his mouth.
Great. The whole plan to nitpick Ye Yuxi’s game was backfiring. One of them had exposed his fear of the dark, and the other his lack of direction. What a disaster…
Ye Yuxi, however, opened her light-brain notepad and began jotting down notes. It seemed the game could use more improvement—like adding signposts to assist players prone to getting lost.
In the game.
After circling around for ten minutes, Li He finally realized he had been going in loops.
Cursing Ye Yuxi in his mind for designing such a large map, he turned down a previously unexplored pathway.
After another minute of walking, he descended a set of stone steps and finally came upon an open area where two men and two women stood.
Having completed the first task, Li He, now excited, quickened his pace toward the group, ready to trigger the main storyline.
However, as the scene before him became clearer, a sense of unease crept in.
The platform’s left side had a railing, providing a view of the serene lake below. On the right stood several trees, their branches entwined with red threads hung with bells, the purpose of which was unclear.
The two men and two women stood facing one another at the corners, forming a square formation.
In the center of their formation was a red circle drawn on the ground, lined with candles placed evenly around its edges.
Wait a minute—he hadn’t expected to see something even older than a flashlight in this game. Was this supposed to be a retro aesthetic?
Something felt off.
Li He couldn’t quite articulate why, but seeing these old-fashioned objects set off alarm bells in his head, sending a chill down his spine.
Even though he didn’t really know what these items were for.
As soon as he approached, the previously bored NPCs seemed to come to life.
One of them, a girl with braided hair, quickly walked over to him. A description of her appeared in his vision:
Level 23, History Major, Qiu Zi.
“Senior, you’re finally here! Didn’t we agree to meet up in ten minutes?” she complained.
Li He glanced at the time and felt a bit awkward.
Come on, NPCs shouldn’t care about details like that. Let’s just get on with the storyline!
Fortunately, Qiu Zi wasn’t really interested in holding him accountable. She soon started explaining his task.
“Well then, as we rehearsed, Senior, please step into the circle and stand properly!”
“Wait, what?!”