Old Mouse couldn't help it; sweat had seeped into his palms.
This was intense.
If the first barrier was just about avoiding pitfalls, one only needed to be careful to dodge them all to get through.
Then the second barrier became a matter of skill.
The jump couldn't be too high, or you'd hit the spikes above.
Nor could it be too low, or you'd be skewered by the spikes below.
He swallowed nervously and, after timing it carefully, executed a small leap.
Perfectly cleared the space between the spikes!
Immediately, he got excited like a triumphant general, puffing out his chest and beginning to show off, "Ah? That's it? That was easy?"
"Who's the pro here! This is what a pro looks like!"
"Not to brag, but if you guys gave it a shot, these hourglass thorns would kill you a hundred times over. Heh!"
The bullet-screen comments instantly got annoyed.
"Damn, he's pulling off his act!"
"Shit, he's so strong, it's disgusting!"
"Did he really just get past that? Baby Ke, aren't you gonna do something? Where's a trap to gross him out?"
Old Mouse glanced over the comments, smugly saying, "Conning? Guys, the direction may be messy, but you can't speak nonsense."
"What's this about conning? Is it so hard to admit that the anchor is strong?"
No sooner had Old Mouse spoken than he regretted it.
Because right after he'd jumped over the hourglass thorns, a brightly colored apple suddenly appeared on the right edge of the screen, outside of the camera's view.
At first glance, the apple was unrecognized, but at the second glance, it spelled doom.
The apples in this game had left a profound psychological shadow over Old Mouse.
One glance more and he felt fear.
What's more despairing was…
The apple was slowly moving towards kid's direction, blocking his path forward.
Slowly, at some moments, the sense of oppression becomes much stronger.
"What to do, what to do?" Old Mouse no longer dared to play it cool, his eyes frantically searching, but sadly he found no other way out.
So, there was only one path left…
Return the way he came!
Gulping down his saliva, he looked again at the cold glint of the hourglass thorns.
In the beginning, there was no pressure, no time limit; he could take his time to jump.
But now there was an apple following right behind him.
Kid didn't have much time left!
He steeled his heart, gritted his teeth.
And he charged!
Old Mouse's hands trembled as he pressed the jump key gently and simultaneously pressed the left arrow key to micro-adjust the direction.
Good news, he actually made the jump!
Bad news.
Another apple popped up on the left side.
"Why the hell is there another one!" Old Mouse's desperation in that moment was like saying a safeword only to have the other person refuse to stop.
But with nowhere else to go, he could only return through the path of the hourglass thorns once more.
As the saying goes, once or twice is okay, but not a third time.
The 'dog hole' he'd been lucky to squeeze through twice finally tripped him up on the third attempt.
Kid blew up, GAME OVER appeared on screen.
"WTF!!!! WTF!!!!" Thrice, ah thrice! Fuming, Old Mouse cursed out loud.
Dying here meant starting over from the saved game.
Such torture…
But the bullet-screen was laughing like crazy.
"Hahaha! Spot on!"
"Just asking since I don't know, is the anchor's name WTF? Why is he screaming his own name all night /Dog Head"
"Feeling good now, feeling good, that's what you get for showing off!"
"I really like one of Old Mouse's phrases: 'Is it so hard to admit that the anchor is strong'"
"It's true, I'll admit the anchor is strong, but it's the game designers who are brutally skillful at manipulation, particularly in the psychological aspect."
"Off to deal with the show-off, harming the view of my dear Baby Ke! /Pout"
Watching the screen filled with comments enjoying the chaos, Old Mouse twisted the corner of his mouth with a cold snicker and pulled out his phone.
Hmph, this was your doing.
Looks like I have no choice but to whip out my blue and green modifier!
The recharge interface, activate!
As soon as he opened the recharge pop-up, the comments expressed their displeasure.
"Hey, hey, what's this, using cheats now?"
"Exactly."
Old Mouse, thick-skinned as ever, just chuckled and said, "This game is so well made, isn't it only natural to support the author?"
"Besides, after dying two or three hundred times in one night, you guys don't have a viewing experience either, right?"
The comments collectively rolled their eyes.
"No, please, we have way too much 'viewing experience.'"
"I woke my dad up in the middle of the night with my laughter. He got out of bed and smacked me around; now I have to laugh quietly under my duvet."
"It's not fun anymore if you're paying money."
Ignoring the jeering comments, WTF... no, Old Mouse still resolutely went through with the top-up!
What else to do? Given the designer's level of craziness, Old Mouse didn't know how much more suffering awaited him in this level.
"I have to say, the game's creator is pretty conscientious; just one buck for 10 Resurrection Coins? And it's a revival right there on the spot." Old Mouse glanced at the recharge interface.
The benefits that popped up made him internally acclaim the creator's conscience.
1 buck for 10 Resurrection Coins?
He'd never seen anyone so generous in his life!
Even if he just mashed the button to resurrect all night, it probably wouldn't cost more than 20 bucks to get through this level.
But soon, he realized something was off.
In other games, 10 Resurrection Coins could be used for a while, but here in iwanna, they could be gone in just a few short minutes.
When he opened the recharge interface to top up another dollar,
Suddenly, he noticed the one-dollar option was gone…
In its place was another tier called 'Gold Level Exclusive Gift Pack.'
Upon checking the payment content, Old Mouse was stunned.
100 bucks for five Resurrection Coins?