Brother Liu entered the third floor of the maze: Iron Tree Hell.

The giant iron tree in the center of the maze was covered in hanging corpses. Rusted branches filled every corner of the maze, thrashing rapidly like a dark cloud of clawing demons.

As the player advanced through the maze, they had to dodge the attacking branches in a timely manner.

The branches attacked from high and low, whipping around agilely. Low-altitude attacks required jumping to dodge, while high-altitude attacks required crouching. Reactions had to be fast; otherwise, getting scraped by a branch was all too easy…

Brother Liu’s fingers could barely keep up.

“Fam, the branches in the Iron Tree Hell are flying everywhere, and that tree in the middle is covered in corpses. I reasonably suspect that if a branch even scrapes me, I’ll be hung up on the iron tree too, right?”

Just as he finished speaking, a branch suddenly swept past overhead. He had jumped to dodge a branch aimed at his feet, only to crash headfirst into the one in the air…

Sure enough, he was hung up on the iron tree.

Black Impermanence: “You look terrible hanging from that tree.”

Brother Liu: “…”

The viewers in the chat were dying of laughter.

[Brother Liu died again, again, and again?]

[I usually see you play shooting games pretty well, why do you look so stupid in a maze?]

[The streamer jumped up to give them a free kill!]

[Dying of laughter, hung upside down by a branch. Just how many ways to die are there in this maze?]

Brother Liu forcibly suppressed the urge to smash his phone, took a deep breath, and continued exploring the Iron Tree Hell.

At the three-way intersection just now, there were branch attacks from both above and below. If he didn’t jump, but crouched and sprinted to slide, could he make it?

Brother Liu boldly tried it out. As a result, right after crouching, his feet were suddenly entangled by branches on the ground, and his body was dragged all the way to the center of hell. The familiar agonizing scream echoed in his ears.

Hung up again…

Black Impermanence: “Those two eyeballs under your eyebrows, aren’t they for looking at the road?”

“Fuck!” Brother Liu flushed red with anger. “This Iron Tree Hell is so psychopathic! Branches attacking from up, down, left, right, no blind spots! Is this fucking clearable for a human?!”

It didn’t make sense!

There were branches above and below. Whether you jumped or crouched, you couldn’t dodge the attacks. A maze wouldn’t have such an “unsolvable” situation.

How exactly was he supposed to get past? Brother Liu drank some water, frowning in deep thought.

[Do you need to use an item?]

A message in the chat reminded him. Brother Liu immediately opened his item backpack. Currently, he only had two items: [Man-Eating Tongue] and [Giant Scissors].

“I get it! These scissors… can they cut those branches?” Brother Liu instantly perked up. He equipped the scissors in slot 1, sprinted, and charged into the maze.

Arriving at the intersection again and seeing the branches above and below, Brother Liu decisively used the scissors while jumping.

The branch overhead was successfully snipped off!

“Guessed right! The scissors obtained in the second level can cut thinner branches in the third level. Take the intersection just now, for example. You have to observe the timing of the branches’ movement. Left hand jumps, right hand uses scissors, done simultaneously to cut the top one off! Being off by even 1 second means failure. It really tests your operational skills.”

“Good thing my skills are top-notch,” Brother Liu said smugly. “Actually, it’s not that hard!”

[Starting to show off already? Careful, you might get slapped in the face.]

[The setup is so interesting! So what’s the tongue from the first level used for?]

[Is there an item for every level? Looking forward to the rest!]

Having discovered the mechanics of the Iron Tree Hell, Brother Liu happily continued forward.

There were two main difficulties in this floor. The first was that the player’s reaction had to be fast enough—crouching to cut a branch, or jumping to cut a branch. They had to observe the thickness of the branch in advance to determine the method of passing, and constantly monitor the cooldown times of skills and items.

The second was the maze path. This was a classic circular maze where the camera constantly rotated, making it easy for players to get dizzy and lose their sense of direction. Even with his excellent sense of direction and drawing a map as he went, Brother Liu almost got lost a few times.

Bringing out the hand speed he used in the final circles of shooter games, Brother Liu sprinted, jumped, crouched, slid, and snipped branches, leaving a trail of sparks and lightning. After running into dead ends more than ten times and dying and restarting more than ten times… at 5:00 AM, he finally cleared the Iron Tree Hell.

Brother Liu rubbed his sore wrists and sighed, “Fam, I feel like victory is in sight! The next floor is very likely the exit of the maze. Let’s just clear it before going to sleep.”

At 5:00 AM, the number of viewers in the live stream was dwindling, but the chat was still very lively. Watching him die over and over had completely woken everyone up.

[Hurry to the next floor! When will the tongue be useful?]

[So excited to see what hell the fourth floor is!]

Brother Liu clicked into the next floor.

Mirror of Retribution Hell.

The large number of mirrors appearing in the corridor gave him a sudden, ominous premonition.

He carefully walked into the maze. Having barely passed two corridors, an eerie smiling face suddenly appeared in the mirror ahead, and he was instantly sucked into it.

The screen went black, a direct Game Over.

Brother Liu: “Got it! See a smiling face, hide and walk away!”

This time he deliberately avoided the mirrors with smiling faces. As a result, a crying face sucked him in. What broke him even more was that as he was sucked in by the crying face, the entire maze suddenly rotated. None of the paths he had memorized matched anymore, and he had no idea where he had been spun to!

“A rotating maze?! Meeting a smiling face means instant death, and a crying face forcefully sucks you in and rotates the maze once?! How the fuck am I supposed to clear this, ahhhhh!” Brother Liu was breaking down.

[Didn’t you say victory was in sight?]

[Didn’t you just say in the Iron Tree Hell that it wasn’t that hard?]

[Hahahaha, Underworld Maze, also known as ‘The Streamer’s Journey of Suffering and Hardship.’]

Brother Liu: “…”

Don’t say it, the more you say it, the more it hurts!

In the blink of an eye, it was 6:00 AM. Sucked in by a crying face once again, the maze completely rotated. Looking at the entirely unfamiliar paths before him, Brother Liu suffered a complete breakdown.

Mommy! Why did I choose Nightmare Mode?!

Brother Liu said shamelessly, “Fam, I’m going to sleep first. Bye-bye, we’ll continue tomorrow night!”

[Hahaha, is this a walk of shame offline?]

[Goodbye Little Brother Liu, predicting you still won’t be able to clear it tomorrow.]

As he closed the stream, Brother Liu said, “You guys haven’t learned anything else, but you picked up Black Impermanence’s mocking pretty quickly! Tomorrow, I’ll definitely clear it to show you!”

---

The next afternoon, when Brother Liu woke up and checked his live stream channel, he was instantly shocked.

He had actually gained 100,000 followers?!

Yesterday, he was so busy grinding the maze that he hadn’t noticed the change in his follower count at all. Gaining 100,000 followers overnight—this speed was terrifying, more than he had gained in the past three months combined…

Brother Liu excitedly contacted Xie Yunfan: “Boss, the live stream effect for your game is too good! The viewers love watching it! It’s just a bit difficult; Nightmare Mode really tests operational skills!”

Xie Yunfan asked, “Which floor did you reach last night?”

Brother Liu replied, “I ground for 8 hours straight and reached the fourth floor! Almost cleared the game, hehe!”

Xie Yunfan sent a smiling emoji: “Keep it up ^^”

Cleared? You’re thinking too simply. How could Nightmare Difficulty be cleared in two days?

This maze has many “surprises” waiting for you.

At 8:00 PM, Brother Liu sat back down at his computer, connected his live stream camera, opened his phone, cleared his throat, and said, “Fam, I’m back! Today we continue playing Underworld Maze.”

“Last night I ground to the fourth floor, the Mirror of Retribution Hell. I even dreamt of those crying and smiling faces. I get it now, Nightmare Mode means to give players actual nightmares, right?”

Xie Yunfan was also watching the live stream.

The correct way to navigate the Mirror of Retribution Hell was actually to specifically look for the mirrors with crying faces.

Every time a crying face mirror rotated, it would unlock a fog-covered area of the maze. Only by constantly rotating and unlocking the complete maze paths could one find the correct route.

Having slept, Brother Liu had clearly figured it out as well. He was much more cautious navigating the Mirror of Retribution Hell today. Drawing his map patiently while walking the maze, he found the exit in just 1 hour.

Brother Liu said excitedly, “Alright, on to the next floor!”

Fifth floor: Steamer Hell.

As Brother Liu entered the Steamer Hell, a “Heat Meter” appeared in the top right corner of the player character, and a timer with red text on a black background appeared in the middle of the screen. The moment he stepped into the maze, the timer started counting down.

Brother Liu paused. “Is this a timed level? A 30-minute countdown?!”

29:59:40

The numbers on the timer kept ticking down.

With no time to think, Brother Liu hurriedly charged into hell: “Fuck, it really is timed!”

As he ran through hell, the “Heat Meter” next to his avatar also continuously increased.

Scattered throughout the maze of the Steamer Hell were steamed human corpses. The air was filled with white steam, severely impairing the player’s vision. A slight lack of attention and you would take the wrong path, like walking in a dense fog.

A maze was hard enough as it was.

Walking a maze in dense fog was even harder!

With a 30-minute time limit, unless you chose every path correctly without backtracking, it was impossible.

Brother Liu didn’t know the correct path for this floor. Affected by the vast white steam, he walked into dead ends several times. The higher the heat meter above his head, the slower his movement speed became. Once the heat meter reached 100 points, the player would completely lose consciousness and fall into a giant steamer.

“You’ve been steamed alive.”

“Next time, lie belly up; you’ll cook faster.”

Brother Liu couldn’t help but complain, “Do you think you’re steaming buns?!”

[Hahaha, well-done Brother Liu]

[Is it tasty?]

[Might be good dipped in some soy sauce?]

[This live stream is gradually getting psychopathic…]

Brother Liu glanced at the chat, laughing through his tears, and returned to the entrance of the Steamer Hell.

Second attempt: took the wrong path, steamed alive…

Third attempt: took the wrong path, steamed alive…

He couldn’t even remember how many times he had been cooked.

He finally mapped out most of the dead ends and made it deep into the maze. Just as he was about to find the exit, time ran out. Failed.

Brother Liu: “Fuck fuck fuck!”

Will the stream get banned if the streamer swears?

Compared to the heart-pounding thrills of the previous levels, this level required repeatedly searching for paths in the fog, coupled with the heat meter and the time limit, making it a true test of a player’s meticulousness and patience.

Two hours later, he finally found the exit with only 30 seconds left on the countdown.

The time was already 11:00 PM.

Brother Liu slammed his hand on the desk: “I passed it, fam! Timed levels are usually the final level, right? Am I almost at the end?”

As soon as he spoke, the bird’s-eye view of a new scene appeared on the screen.

Sixth floor: Copper Pillar Hell.

Brother Liu’s words instantly caught in his throat: “There’s a sixth floor?!”

[Hahaha, the despairing streamer.]

[Why does this maze never end? Exactly how many floors are there?]

Watching the stream, Xie Yunfan thought to himself: Below the sixth floor… there are twelve more floors.

He realized that this game was truly suited for live streaming. The enthusiasm of the viewers in the chat was sky-high; they all wanted to see how the streamer would die next.

Underworld Maze, also known as: The Journey of Suffering and Hardship of a Gaming Streamer.

Brother Liu’s live stream had already become the source of joy for many viewers.