After restarting the game, Brother Liu stubbornly chose Nightmare Mode again: “Fall down, get right back up where you fell. I’ve almost memorized the paths for the first few floors; I’ll clear them quickly this time!”

However, things weren’t as simple as he thought. Even if he memorized the path, a slight operational error still meant death.

Black Impermanence popped out to mock: “With your skill level, you could walk in the Underworld for a year and still not get out. Do you want to call your friends to help you?”

System: Share the game to your Moments to get 1 [Reincarnation Card]. Limit one share per day. Using a Reincarnation Card allows immediate revival on the spot.

Brother Liu pressed share without hesitation.

A pop-up appeared on the screen, containing pre-written copy:

Friends, I recommend a single-player game, Underworld Maze! Super fun, super generous developer! Come play with me!

Brother Liu paused, then gave a thumbs up: “Designer, I’ll give you one word: Brilliant!”

The chat went crazy with laughter.

[Super generous developer? Designer, surely you know in your heart!]

[Grinding yourself half to death to reach the 8th level, only for Meng Po’s Soup to send you back to the start. Generous?]

[You get to experience a different way to die on every floor. How fun is that!]

[The designer is right, this is a super generous and fun game.]

[Hahaha, I think the designer is the fun one~ [Doge head saves life]]

Brother Liu looked at the chat, laughing through his tears.

This game designer was indeed a bit punchable; he’d probably become number one on the “Designer Players Most Want to Mail Blades To” list.

He didn’t change the copy and hit share directly.

Meng Tu, a gaming streamer browsing her Moments out of boredom, saw Brother Liu’s shared message and couldn’t help but DM him: “A maze game? Is it really that fun?”

Brother Liu immediately replied: “Trust me, super fun. The kind you can clear as long as you have hands. You must choose Nightmare Mode; it’s time to show off your gaming skills!”

Meng Tu: “Okay, I’ll go download it right now.”

Brother Liu couldn’t stop laughing: Next victim, please!

A moment later, on Civet TV, in streamer Meng Tu’s live room.

The girl with twin ponytails smiled as she opened the game. “Hello everyone. I heard this single-player game, Underworld Maze, is really fun. Let’s review it.”

As she opened the game, she said, “I’ve played Tower of Dreams before, another maze game. My record for clearing it is 12 hours. I’ll pull an all-nighter grinding this one tonight.”

“Every time I die, I’ll draw a red envelope. Fam in the chat, your streamer is giving out welfare!”

Brother Liu said it was a maze game you could play as long as you had hands, so she figured it would be as easy as Tower of Dreams. Giving out red envelopes to her viewers as welfare would also help boost the room’s popularity.

Meng Tu set up the red envelope amounts in the backend and started the game.

“Holy shit?!” As soon as she entered the game, she couldn’t help but swear. “This doesn’t seem like what I expected? The art style is so weird… Whatever, we’re choosing Nightmare Mode.”

Entering the first floor, she hadn’t taken a few steps before being licked to death by a tongue. Hearing the shrill female scream echoing in her ears, Meng Tu felt her scalp tingle: “Mommy! What is that?!”

The viewers took pleasure in her misfortune.

[Hahaha, dead as soon as you entered the maze?]

[What about the red envelopes we agreed on?]

[Tutu, I think you made a very wrong decision tonight.]

[Is she going to draw red envelopes until she’s bankrupt…]

Meng Tu braced herself and drew a red envelope, smiling: “The streamer keeps her word. Red envelopes dropping soon, test your hand speed and grab them! Let’s continue the maze. This floor clearly requires dodging tongues. I died at the start because I wasn’t familiar with the rules. Once I get used to them…”

A moment later, another scream rang out in the live room.

Black Impermanence said coldly: “Seeing how clumsy you are, you might as well go wash up and sleep.”

Meng Tu: “Fuck fuck fuck!”

Meng Tu: “I didn’t swear; I was just having a friendly exchange with the NPC.”

Meng Tu: “Black Impermanence is so handsome!”

[Hahaha, is the streamer going to draw another red envelope?]

[Meng Tu, name change: Money-Scattering Rabbit.]

[More like Crazy Rabbit. I think she’s going crazy.]

[Ready to grab red envelopes, Sister Tu, hurry up and send them.]

[Sitting and waiting for Tutu to go bankrupt.]

[This is a wealthy live room!]

Netizen [Meng Tu’s Wife] shared the live stream…

Netizen [Crazy Rabbit] shared the live stream…

Seeing the number of online viewers in the live room growing, Meng Tu wanted to cry.

Brother Liu, you’re so fucking ‘six’ (amazing/terrible), how dare you trick me!

No, how could she be the only one tricked? It made her look so stupid. The girl’s eyes rolled as an idea formed; she directly sent the system’s “share” from the top right corner into her group chat.

“Sharing a super fun single-player game with everyone! Come play with me!”

The group she was in was Civet TV’s “Salted Fish Group,” full of streamers who weren’t super popular but played well together. They often queued up in duos or trios for games.

During the evening peak hours, Meng Tu’s share blew up the group.

Xing Yue: “This share text looks exactly like the system default. Is it really fun?”

Meng Tu: “So fun I could die!”

Xing Yue: “Then I’ll download it and try it too. I’ve been bored these past two days and wanted to play some mini-games.”

Guo Guo Green: “I’m almost throwing up from grinding Elf Kingdom; I’ll play another game for a change.”

More and more streamers joined the live-streaming army.

Then, the sound of “Holy shit!” rose and fell across the live rooms.

Viewers on Civet Live were surprised to find many titles like “Trying out new game Underworld Maze” and “First clear of Underworld Maze” on the front page.

When viewers clicked in…

It was either the agonizing screams of player characters dying or the irritable roars of the streamers.

“I’m playing your mom!”

“Fuck, this tongue suddenly attacked me, is there any justice?!”

“Damn it, what’s going on with this maze? It’s getting more and more psychopathic the further I go!”

“Fam, save me, save me, save me!”

Accompanied by a chat full of [Hahahahahaha].

…

The new game Underworld Maze spread rapidly within the streamer circle.

It started with Brother Liu grinding for two days straight only to be sent back to the first floor, causing his live room’s popularity to surge into the top ten on the Blue Fish platform and attracting the attention of many casual viewers. Then, streamer Meng Tu scattered her wealth with red envelopes, making her live room explode with popularity, introducing a massive number of Civet TV viewers to the game.

Following that, streamer groups, gaming groups, Moments… share links for Underworld Maze appeared everywhere.

The game’s popularity began to ferment. As more and more small streamers joined in, it naturally attracted more and more casual players to download the game.

Excluding viewers who only watched streams but didn’t play games, and players who never spent money on games, the price of 15 RMB was acceptable to most paying players.

Xie Yunfan checked the backend. In just two short days, the download count for Underworld Maze had broken 100,000, with a gross revenue of 1.5 million. After deducting the platform’s cut, his pre-tax income was 1.2 million.

When developing this single-player game, the initial investment cost wasn’t high. The money was mainly spent on art and music. He wrote the main program himself, completed the 3D modeling himself, edited the special effects using the built-in software, and came up with Black Impermanence’s mocking lines himself.

He didn’t have to pay himself a salary, which saved a lot of money. Adding game development and promotional investment together, the cost of this game wouldn’t exceed 1 million.

In other words…

In just two days, he had already broken even.

From now on, every additional player who downloaded it was pure profit!

Xie Yunfan opened a private chat window and sent a message to the A-Site uploader, Black Bird: “Hello, how’s the video editing coming along?”

Black Bird replied immediately: “Boss, it’s done. Let me show you.”

Two days ago, after taking this promotional order, Black Bird immediately opened Underworld Maze, originally intending to enjoy the game. As a result, he was killed countless times by Nightmare Mode right from the start!

To make a recommendation video, he had to at least clear the game, right? In what year and month would he ever clear this Nightmare difficulty? Without hesitation, Black Bird retreated to the main menu and selected Normal Mode.

Normal Mode was relatively friendly. He ground for two days and had just cleared the game, recording a massive amount of footage, which he edited into a 10-minute recommendation video.

Black Bird felt a bit embarrassed: “I only played Normal Mode; I haven’t played Nightmare Mode yet.”

Xie Yunfan said: “It’s fine. Thanks for your hard work. I’ll transfer the final payment to you.”

The video the uploader made was pretty good, combining recommendation with some light complaining. The game’s popularity was just fermenting, so the first uploader to make a recommendation video would definitely attract traffic and further expand the game’s reach.

Xie Yunfan proactively paid Black Bird an extra 2,000. Black Bird was so thrilled he sent a row of “Thank you, Boss.”

After publishing the video, Black Bird sat restlessly in front of his computer.

He stared at the backend view count, thinking to himself: A video for this obscure little game probably won’t get many views, right? Let’s hope it’s not too pathetic. If the final view count doesn’t reach 100,000, I’ll feel bad about taking the boss’s promotional fee.

However, to his surprise, as soon as the video was published, a row of bullet comments appeared.

“It’s a guide for Underworld Maze!”

“Even though it’s Normal Mode, I finally know there are 18 levels in the Underworld, hahaha, amazing!”

“A certain streamer ground for two days and is still on the first floor, dying of laughter.”

“First guide on the internet, decisively giving it three consecutive likes to support it!”

“I only got to the 6th level in Normal Mode and wanted to wait for a guide before continuing. Finally! Thank you, Uploader, I’m going to grind the 7th level now!”

Black Bird: “???”

What was going on? Wasn’t this an obscure little game that had just launched? Why were so many bullet comments suddenly popping up, and his backend view count skyrocketing?

Many comments from high-level VIP veteran users also appeared in the comment section.

“I downloaded this game too.”

“It’s really fun, trust me everyone~”

“A super generous game, you must experience it for yourself.”

“There’s an old granny in the maze who gives you a bowl of hot soup that clears negative buffs. Everyone remember to find the granny for the soup~”

Black Bird: “…”

If I hadn’t played the game, I would have almost believed it!

Bewildered, Black Bird sent a message to Xie Yunfan: “Boss, this game seems to be really popular!”

Xie Yunfan replied: “It’s gotten some traction on live streaming platforms these past two days. Your video is the first Underworld Maze video on A-Site. Thank you for the recommendation, Uploader.”

Black Bird scratched his head and said happily: “You’re too polite, Boss. Let’s collaborate again if there’s an opportunity in the future!”

A-Site, being the largest video editing website, primarily featured various uploaders’ compilation, commentary, and recommendation videos, and it was also the place gamers liked to search for “video guides” the most.

For the past two days, Underworld Maze had been very popular on major live streaming platforms, but because the streamers were all stuck in Nightmare Mode, there wasn’t even a guide for clearing Normal Mode yet.

Many people liked to consult guides when playing games, and not being able to find one anywhere made them anxious and frustrated… Black Bird’s “Normal Mode Guide” appeared at exactly the right time!

Half an hour later, Black Bird’s video, “Recommending a New Game + Underworld Maze Normal Mode Guide,” rocketed to A-Site’s “Top Ten Trending Today” with the momentum of a rocket!

Black Bird was stunned…

Since becoming an uploader, this was his first time hitting the top ten trending list on the site!

Trending videos were automatically recommended to the homepage by the system. The view count surged, breaking a million in the blink of an eye, and the number of bullet comments and regular comments skyrocketed like crazy…

Of course, his follower count was also growing accordingly.

Black Bird slapped the table excitedly: “I think this game just made me famous!”

With the appearance of a trending video on A-Site, many players who liked to search for “game reviews” on A-Site to decide whether to play a game or not also went and downloaded Underworld Maze.

Within an hour of Black Bird’s video being published, the download count increased by 50,000, and it was still constantly growing. Every time Xie Yunfan refreshed the backend, the download numbers changed.

Clearly, more and more people were paying attention to this single-player maze game!

Xie Yunfan was not satisfied with the current results; this game could do even better. He needed to wait for the best opportunity—to make the game completely break out of its niche circle.