OGP CH10
Hu Fei thought the boss had made a mistake and hurriedly sent a private message: “Boss, did you send the wrong installation package? Why is the beginning a bit scary?”
Xie Yunfan: “I didn’t send the wrong one. My maze is horror-themed ^^”
Hu Fei: “…”
A horror-themed maze?!
Maze games belonged to the “casual and puzzle” genre, usually classified as Category A during review—suitable for all ages and exempt from anti-addiction restrictions. Parents playing with their kids could even use them to develop children’s spatial reasoning skills.
The current maze games on the market leaned heavily towards a relaxing and cute art style, with the colorful, childlike Tower of Dreams as a prime example.
Hu Fei had been playing the “unfinished house” version this whole time, assuming the boss would make a casual game similar to Tower of Dreams. In the end, the boss’s thought process was wildly unconventional. After the “unfinished house” was fully decorated, it wasn’t the expected children’s dreamland, but a terrifying haunted house??
Starting right off the bat with an NPC sticking out a long tongue with blood on its mouth… this game would definitely be classified as an “unsuitable for children” Category C, right? So, is this history’s first maze game slapped with an “18+” label?
Hu Fei strongly felt that the boss’s game was going to flop hard upon release.
But since this was a “paid test,” he had to dutifully run through the maze once. With this in mind, Hu Fei opened the game interface again.
“Where am I? Who are you?” A text dialogue box appeared on the screen, phrasing the questions from the player’s perspective. As the player opened their eyes, the scene before them gradually came into focus.
A white-robed NPC with a long hanging tongue and a stern-faced, black-robed NPC stood side-by-side in front of them.
The NPCs’ art style was eerie and bizarre. The tall hats on their heads bore strange phrases like “Fortune Upon Meeting” and “Peace Under Heaven.”
“We are the Black and White Impermanence, soul-reaping emissaries from the Underworld,” White Impermanence replied with a smile, his long tongue rolling out. “Only the dead can see us!”
“This is the Underworld, a world that belongs only to the dead,” Black Impermanence said with an icy expression. “All souls of the deceased must undergo reincarnation in the Underworld before they can finally be reborn.”
“Before your journey through the Underworld begins, as friendly guiding emissaries, we have a gift for you, new little ghost.” White Impermanence waved his hand with a smile. “Catch.”
System: Acquired [Underworld Guide Card] ×8.
Description: Consumable. Upon use, White Impermanence will point out the correct path at a crossroad.
“Guide cards? Won’t this lower the difficulty?” Hu Fei was a bit puzzled. These items weren’t in the previous tests, and he hadn’t felt the maze’s paths were particularly difficult to begin with. With items, wouldn’t it be even easier to clear? He didn’t know what the boss was thinking.
Muttering to himself, Hu Fei continued tapping his phone.
The dialogue ended, and the game officially began.
The transition animation displayed a bird’s-eye view of the first floor’s maze.
Almost simultaneously, a loud “Holy shit!” erupted right next to his ear.
The power-leveler sitting beside him let out a shocked voice: “What the hell are those things hanging on the walls? Are those tongues? A whole wall of tongues, is he a psychopath?”
Another tester found it quite novel and commented, “They did say it’s an Underworld meant only for the dead. It’s only interesting if it’s a bit scary. This art style… hmm, it’s very unique.”
Looking at the wall full of tongues, Hu Fei only felt his scalp go numb.
Boss, your interior decorating style is way too different, isn’t it? Thinking about it, the cutest version was actually the completely bare ‘unfinished house’…
Ignoring his booster friends’ shouts, Hu Fei proceeded to the next step.
First Floor: Tongue-Ripping Hell.
The paths on this floor were all straight lines. Aside from the psychologically uncomfortable sight of walls covered in bleeding tongues, the maze wasn’t hard to navigate. There were some beginner prompts when the player moved—like instructions for moving forward, backward, sprinting, jumping, and using items—allowing players to quickly adapt to the controls.
The UI system is done well, and the style matches nicely, Hu Fei thought.
He planned to run through the maze once first to see what a normal clear time looked like, and then comb through every corner floor by floor to hunt for bugs.
Hu Fei quickly cleared the first floor. The transition animation showed a bird’s-eye view of the second floor. This transition design gave players a general idea of what the next environment would be, building anticipation.
Second Floor: Scissors Hell.
Giant scissors floated in the sky, bloodstained and incredibly terrifying.
Hu Fei controlled his character to walk forward. He had only taken a few steps when a pair of scissors suddenly dropped down, instantly snipping his neck in half.
The snip of the sharp blades cutting through the neck, accompanied by the player character’s scream, was utterly bloodcurdling!
“Fuck me!” This time, Hu Fei couldn’t help but yell out. “There are traps too?!”
Black Impermanence coldly mocked: “A weak little ghost, as expected. Can’t even handle this?”
White Impermanence smiled: “Oh my, it’s perfectly normal for a new little ghost to fail.”
Black Impermanence: “Do you have the guts to try again?”
System: [Try Again] [I Want to Give Up]
Hu Fei: “………”
Are you sure these NPCs’ taunts aren’t just designed to mess with the player’s mental state?
He immediately selected “Try Again” and respawned at the starting point of the floor.
There weren’t any of these traps when he tested the barebones version; as long as he walked the right path, he could clear it, which was why he thought it was so easy. Now, with various environmental hazards added in, the difficulty spiked instantly.
No wonder they gave out Guide Cards at the start!
Hu Fei seriously suspected that for beginners, 8 Guide Cards would very likely not be enough.
After restarting, Hu Fei carefully observed his surroundings. He quickly discovered the trigger pattern for the environmental traps—the shapes of the scissors in the sky varied, and only one specific type would drop down to cut off the player’s head. Therefore, he had to quickly dodge them while walking.
Hu Fei sprinted wildly through the maze.
Several times, the scissors clamped down right behind him, nearly taking his head off.
Playing a maze game was actually making him tense up. Damn, this is thrilling!
Because he had tested it so many times before, he was incredibly familiar with the paths here. He chose the right direction at every fork and soon arrived at the third floor.
Third Floor: Iron Tree Hell.
The moment he entered the scene, he saw a massive iron tree shooting into the sky right in the center. Countless human corpses hung upside down from the rusted branches, their blood dripping down with a sickening tick-tock sound.
Hu Fei: “…”
Could this get any more psychopathic?
This floor was a circular maze. He remembered clearly from his previous tests that the paths kept spiraling—large rings encompassing smaller rings, with many branching paths. The player had to walk from the outermost ring to the innermost ring to find the exit, making it very easy to get dizzy and lose your way.
Now, he finally understood why the boss had designed it this way.
In a circular maze, no matter where the player was located, they could always see this giant iron tree covered in corpses right in the center!
The tree’s branches spread outwards, reaching into almost every corner of the maze. Hu Fei accidentally stepped on a black branch, and was instantly yanked up by it, left hanging upside down on the iron tree?!
Hu Fei: “…”
Black Impermanence: “I told you, he couldn’t make it.”
White Impermanence: “How tragic. Hung up like that, his blood will slowly drain dry.”
Black Impermanence: “Next time, let’s hang him on the highest point of the iron tree as an exhibit.”
White Impermanence: “Do you want to try again?”
System: [Try Again] [I’m So Scared, I Want to Give Up]
Hu Fei: “………”
Are you two NPCs addicted to mocking the player?!
I was just a little careless… of course I’m going to try again!
Hu Fei tapped “Try Again.” This time he was much more careful, deliberately slowing his pace and constantly watching his feet for hidden iron hooks that could string the player up.
Hu Fei’s expression was dead serious, both hands gripping his phone tightly—his focus was even more intense than when he carried clients into the final circles of a battle royale match.
Hu Fei held his breath, terrified of making a mistake and getting mocked again.
He inexplicably realized that as he kept playing… he was actually getting kind of addicted?
Meanwhile, a power-leveling partner still stuck in Scissors Hell couldn’t hold back: “Motherfucker, getting my head snipped off AND getting mocked by NPCs? Why would anyone make a game this torturous?”
Another tester’s eyes lit up: “I actually think this game is super interesting! Compared to those cute mazes meant for kids, isn’t a horror maze much more challenging?”
“I just passed the second floor. Gotta say, it really is kinda addictive!”
“Little Hu is already on the third floor? How many floors does this maze have in total?”
“Eighteen.” Hu Fei, who had already reached the fourth floor, was staring at a mirror in the corridor. “Don’t interrupt my train of thought. Fuck! I accidentally got sucked into the mirror…”
Fourth Floor: Mirror of Retribution Hell.
A “mirror maze” that heavily tested one’s sense of direction.
The mirrors reflected a multitude of bizarre human faces—some grinning, some crying with faces full of tears, and some glaring coldly with wide eyes…
These eerie faces were already enough to give players the creeps. What was even more psychopathic was that if a player walked into a dead end, they would be sucked into the mirror, and the entire maze would instantly flip.
This floor didn’t have a “fail to dodge the trap and it’s Game Over” death mechanic. Instead, it constantly sucked the player into mirrors, interfering with their spatial judgment.
Every time you hit a dead end, the mirror sucked you in, and the maze inverted. Even if you were drawing a map as you walked… you had to account for how many times the mirror maze had flipped!
Even knowing the path in advance, it took Hu Fei half an hour to clear this floor. For a first-time player, getting stuck in the “Mirror of Retribution Hell” for an hour or two would be completely normal.
Hu Fei took a deep breath and proceeded to the next floor.
Addictive!
It was seriously so addictive.
The scarier and harder it got, the more it stimulated a person’s desire to conquer it.
At first, the power-levelers were still chatting and complaining, but later on, everyone was fully engrossed, their expressions growing increasingly serious.
Occasional shouts of “Holy shit!” rang out, clearly the result of getting screwed over by various traps in the maze.
Before they knew it, it was dark out. It wasn’t until the power-leveling studio manager brought up late-night snacks that their minds were suddenly pulled back to reality.
Hu Fei looked down at the time and gasped, “It’s already 12 AM?!”
The others looked at each other in bewilderment, still in a bit of a daze.
Did time really pass that fast?
They had played for 6 hours straight without even noticing.
This game had a strange magic to it—once you started, you couldn’t stop!
Even if you got repeatedly screwed over by the maze and constantly mocked by the NPCs, you just wanted to keep playing, eager to see if the next floor could be even more bizarre.
The group quickly scarfed down their late-night snacks.
Hu Fei asked, “Are you guys going to keep playing?”
Everyone answered in unison: “Of course!”
“We’re grinding all night! I don’t believe that as a 10-year veteran gamer, I can’t beat a maze!”
“That Black Impermanence keeps jumping out to mock me. Damn it, is there a boss fight? I really fucking want to beat him to death.”
“White Impermanence is a bit cuter. He just gave me a revive card.”
“By the way, did any of you run into Meng Po?”
“Meng Po? I haven’t seen her.”
“There are random NPC encounters?! What coordinates, I’m gonna go find her!”
“I met her on the seventh floor. She gave me a bowl of Meng Po Soup to drink.”
“And then?”
“Cough, go drink it yourself and you’ll find out.”
The group burst into heated discussion.
Listening to his partners’ enthusiastic chatter, Hu Fei scratched his head, thinking, The boss’s game is actually pretty incredible! He officially retracted his statement that “the game would flop.”
The guys testing it today had been cursing and playing simultaneously, completely unable to stop.
A horror maze game that took pleasure in torturing players—the style was truly too unique.
Maybe, just maybe, this game would become a dark horse!
Author’s Note:
Xie Yunfan: There are so many surprises in my maze~