Brother Liu, calling himself a hardcore gamer, wasn’t just him bragging. After graduating from university, he became a full-time gaming streamer and had played at least a hundred games, if not more.

“I’ll demonstrate how to play this game for everyone in the chat!” Brother Liu said with a smile. “For a single-player maze game like this, as long as you have a decent sense of direction and functioning hands, you can clear it!”

After selecting the difficulty, the game screen flashed, and two uniquely designed NPCs appeared. Their tall hats read: “Fortune Upon Meeting” and “Peace Under Heaven.”

The white-robed NPC stuck out a long tongue, blood at the corners of his eyes, and his ghastly pale face suddenly zoomed in on the screen. Brother Liu couldn’t help but swear, “Holy shit! Scared the hell out of me!”

A row of ellipses scrolled across the chat.

[Mommy, it’s so scary Q_Q]

[Why does a maze game have this kind of art style?]

[I understand why it’s 18+. There’s no sexy stuff here, just terrifying NPCs!]

Brother Liu recovered and said, “A horror maze? Interesting! Let’s see what the NPCs say… Black and White Impermanence, the Underworld… This is the world of the dead? So, after I die, I come to this world and have to try to escape to be reincarnated?”

The world after death? The viewers’ curiosity was piqued.

It was 10:00 PM, peak online hours. For the past few days, the major streamers on the Blue Fish platform had almost exclusively been broadcasting Elf Kingdom dungeon raids. Viewers who disliked cute pet combat games couldn’t find anything they wanted to watch at a glance and could only keep scrolling down.

Then, many people were drawn in by the title, “Brother Liu Takes You Through the New Game: Underworld Maze.” More and more people clicked into Brother Liu’s live stream.

In Normal Mode, the game gave out 8 Guide Cards at the start. Nightmare Mode, of course, had no such freebies; after the dialogue with the Black and White Impermanence, the game started directly.

The screen displayed the first floor of the maze: Tongue-Ripping Hell.

“Holy shit!” Brother Liu was shocked once again. “What the hell are those things hanging on the wall? Are those bloody tongues?”

Viewers who had just joined the stream were greeted by a screen full of tongues. The timid ones were so scared they almost dropped their phones, and the chat was instantly spammed with “Holy shit!” and “WTF!”

The horror effect was maxed out!

Some viewers felt uncomfortable and immediately exited. But many people seeking entertainment stayed out of curiosity.

[What game is the streamer playing? Is it really this psychopathic?]

[For the newcomers: Brother Liu is playing a newly released single-player game, Underworld Maze.]

[A horror maze, no wonder it’s 18+! Scared the kids to death!]

“Don’t be afraid, Brother Liu will carry you! I’m currently on the first floor of the maze, called Tongue-Ripping Hell… The controls are very simple. Bottom left for walking, jumping, and sprinting. Bottom right for using items… I don’t have any items in my backpack yet.”

“Alright, enough talk, let’s enter the maze!”

Brother Liu controlled the male character, skipping forward.

He had only taken a few steps when a tongue on the wall suddenly stretched out and licked him. The health bar above the player’s head instantly emptied.

The screen went black, and the NPC Black Impermanence popped out, saying coldly, “A little ghost like you is only fit to be food for the tongues.”

Brother Liu: “!!!”

Why is he mocking me?

He had died half a minute into the game. Where was his dignity as a professional streamer?

[Hahaha, GG right at the start?]

[Why is this Black Impermanence insulting people?!]

[The first streamer in history to be licked to death by a tongue?]

[The tongues on the wall suddenly attack? Mommy, that’s so psychopathic!]

White Impermanence: “Challenge failed. Would you like to try again?”

Brother Liu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He thought he just had to find the right path to clear the maze game. He never expected the tongues on the wall to actively attack the player!

It seemed Nightmare Mode wasn’t as easy as he thought!

“Cough, I was just demonstrating what not to do. Let’s restart!”

Brother Liu chose to try again and observed the maze ahead. What was the attack pattern of these tongues? There didn’t seem to be one; he had been licked to death the moment he walked in.

Bracing himself, Brother Liu approached the corridor with walls full of tongues again.

This time, he used the sprint button on the bottom left and ran rapidly down the corridor. The tongues on both sides seemed to sense him and constantly reached out to lick him, but unfortunately for them, he ran too fast for them to connect.

This scene was too thrilling! He felt like he had become food!

Brother Liu controlled the player and sprinted all the way. However, just as he rounded a corner, two tongues from the left and right attacked the player simultaneously. He accidentally failed to dodge and died again!

Brother Liu: “…”

Black Impermanence said coldly, “They say you taste terrible. Go wash up and come back.”

Brother Liu was speechless. “Fuck! I take a shower every day, I have great hygiene, okay?!”

The chat was filled with [Hahahahahaha].

It was rare to see an NPC mock a player; it was too messing with their mental state.

[Tongues: What the hell did I just eat? Stinks to high heaven.]

[Black Impermanence told you to go wash up. Hurry up and go wash, add some dipping sauce and you’ll be more delicious~]

[First time seeing Brother Liu get rejected by an NPC?]

White Impermanence: “Challenge failed. Would you like to try again?”

Of course I’ll try again.

Brother Liu chose to try again and returned to the maze entrance.

When he first opened the game, he thought it was a simple casual game, even telling his viewers, “As long as you have hands, you can clear it.” In the end, he died twice in a row on the first level. His smile gradually disappeared, and he even felt a bit of regret.

Is Nightmare Mode too hard? Should I have chosen Normal Mode first? Too bad there was no medicine for regret in this world. The path he chose… he had to finish it, even if he had to crawl on his knees.

Brother Liu coughed lightly and tried to save face: “The first level is already this hard. As expected of Nightmare Mode!”

This time, he finally got serious, staring at his phone screen and studying it carefully. “Let’s think about how to clear this floor. The tongues on the wall should be sensor-triggered traps; they attack immediately when they sense a player. So, we can only rely on jumping, sprinting, and other maneuvers to dodge them.

“I just tried it. Jumping once moves you forward two meters, but it has a 5-second cooldown. If you encounter an area with a high density of tongues and the jump is on cooldown, you’re dead.

“Sprint doesn’t have a cooldown, so we need to combine sprinting and jumping to clear the level. This will really test operational skills and reaction speed… Let’s give it a try first!”

Brother Liu took a deep breath, gathered his spirits, and entered the Tongue-Ripping Hell once again.

As an experienced gaming streamer, his analytical approach was correct. However, the most psychopathic part of this maze was that there were no “rest areas”; once you entered a corridor, you couldn’t stop.

This was especially true at three-way intersections. Not only did he have to quickly jump to dodge tongue attacks, but he also had to immediately choose which path to take. If he wasn’t particularly familiar with the route… it was very easy to choose wrong.

Choosing the wrong path meant he had to double back, doubling the difficulty.

The first floor of the maze was designed with paths branching from one to three, and then three to nine. Every intersection had three paths, meaning there was only a one-in-three chance of guessing correctly each time.

Brother Liu must have had bad luck; he repeatedly hit dead ends and had to turn back and choose again.

After hitting a dead end five times in a row, he was on the verge of a breakdown. “Fuck, the first floor of the maze is this ridiculous?! My hands are sore from pressing the screen!”

Constantly holding down the sprint button and occasionally switching to the jump button to avoid densely attacked areas—the frequency of operations was almost on par with fighting a major boss in a game.

While concentrating on sprinting and watching the walls, he also had to think about the maze’s route. One small mistake and getting licked by a tongue meant a Game Over, not to mention getting mocked by Black Impermanence!

It was too hard!

Half an hour later… Brother Liu took the left path at a three-way intersection. Just as he turned the corner, he was attacked by a large number of tongues simultaneously. He immediately hit the “Jump” button out of reflex.

A system prompt sounded in his ear: “Skill is on cooldown.”

Brother Liu: “!!!”

He couldn’t control the urge to swear.

Black Impermanence: “With how clumsy you are, just give up.”

Brother Liu: “Fuck! I don’t believe this! Is it reasonable for the first floor to be this hard?! You shouldn’t call this Nightmare Difficulty; you should just rename it Psychopath Difficulty!”

Brother Liu: “Why is there love waiting around the corner, launching a sneak attack out of nowhere?! That’s fighting dirty!”

The live chat was completely spammed with “Hahahaha”.

[Who was it just now that said you could clear it as long as you have hands?]

[Brother Liu, where are your hands? This is only the first level, Brother Liu!]

[Brother Liu’s reputation is ruined. From now on, his name is changed to: I am Little Brother Liu.]

[Black Impermanence: You call yourself a streamer with how clumsy you are?]

[Black Impermanence: Hurry up, go wash and sleep.]

“You guys even learned Black Impermanence’s mocking, didn’t you?!” Brother Liu, with a bitter face, quickly grabbed a pen and paper. “Even though I have a great sense of direction, this maze is very unfriendly… Let’s honestly draw a map. Rote memorization. As long as I memorize which way to choose at every three-way intersection, I can clear it eventually.”

He had truly lived long enough to see everything. He had played many maze games and could quickly clear well-known ones like Tower of Dreams.

Yet today, he repeatedly crashed and burned on the very first floor of Underworld Maze.

The viewers in the chat had learned Black Impermanence’s taunts and kept laughing at him. Was he going to have to change careers from a “technical streamer” to a “comedy streamer”?

No way!

He was going to butt heads with this maze today. He refused to believe he couldn’t clear it!

With his fighting spirit high, Brother Liu drew the map while sprinting wildly through the tongue-filled maze.

Because he was unfamiliar with the route at first, the probability of choosing the wrong path was as high as two-thirds, and he died in the maze many times… he couldn’t even remember exactly how many times.

To his surprise, every time the player character died, Black Impermanence’s mocking voice lines were different.

He couldn’t help but admire it: “Just how many random mocking voice lines did this game designer set up?! So evil! You can tell this designer is rotten to the core!”

The players in the chat also felt the designer’s ideas were uniquely unconventional.

When “maze” was mentioned, everyone’s first reaction was a relaxing, casual mini-game without much difficulty. Now, watching the streamer die over and over on the first floor, many people’s interest had been piqued.

This wasn’t a simple maze; this was an “escape room + horror maze”!

The netizen “Brother Liu Super Fan” shared the live stream…

The netizen “Dou Dou” shared the live stream…

Before he knew it, Brother Liu’s live stream popularity had unexpectedly broken into the top ten on Blue Fish Live. More and more netizens clicked into the stream, drawn by the game’s bizarre art style.

Underworld Maze? The streamer makes it look interesting. Let’s download it and check it out!

At this time, Xie Yunfan was keeping an eye on Brother Liu’s live stream. Seeing the positive response in the chat, he checked the Mobile Game Producer backend.

From its launch at 8:00 PM to 11:00 PM now, downloads for Underworld Maze had finally broken 10,000!

The live stream effect was maxed out; many people had downloaded the game out of curiosity.

It seemed that choosing to promote through gaming streamers was the right strategy. Xie Yunfan took a hot shower in satisfaction and went to sleep.

Brother Liu continued to die repeatedly in the maze.

Starting at 10:00 PM and going until 12:00 AM, it took him a full two hours to finally clear the first floor of the Underworld Maze!

Brother Liu was almost moved to tears. “Who understands, fam! Clearing a maze is more satisfying than killing a world boss! I cleared the first floor, I finally fucking cleared the first floor…”

A row of “666” scrolled across the chat.

System: Cleared Level 1: Tongue-Ripping Hell. Obtained item [Man-Eating Tongue].

Brother Liu’s head was full of question marks. “Man-Eating Tongue? Is this item useful in later mazes? I’ll hold onto it for now.” He took a break, drank some water, and proceeded to the second level.

The sky, densely packed with bloody scissors, gave him a fright, but he quickly reacted: “The tongue wall in the first level attacked the player from the side. In this level, the scissors will definitely fall down and attack!”

Brother Liu adjusted his state and sprinted into the maze.

As expected, it started raining scissors directly from the sky.

One pair of scissors after another fell rapidly. He had to use a “serpentine movement pattern” to dodge them. The slightest misstep would result in his head being snipped off instantly…

The maze paths on this floor were even harder than the first floor, with many twisting and turning intersections. It was impossible to clear without drawing a map.

Brother Liu died repeatedly in the Scissors Hell…

There were too many branching paths. Sometimes, picking the wrong path meant getting his head snipped off directly!

He didn’t even know how many times his head had fallen off.

By the time Brother Liu finally cleared the second floor, it was already 3:00 AM.

System: Cleared Level 2: Scissors Hell. Obtained item [Giant Scissors].

Brother Liu wiped the cold sweat from his palms, got up to use the restroom, and returned to his computer.

Normally, he would be asleep by 2:00 AM. Today, he had unknowingly reached 3:00 AM and surprisingly wasn’t sleepy at all. This game really was incredibly addictive… it woke him right up.

Brother Liu rubbed his hands together and said, “Fam, I plan to stream all night tonight. I want to see exactly how many floors this maze has. With this psychopathic difficulty, five floors is probably about right. By the time you guys wake up tomorrow, Brother Liu will have definitely cleared the game, and I’ll send everyone a detailed walkthrough then!”