“Ah!”
Qiao Liang was startled. His gaze involuntarily turned toward that suddenly appearing black garment edge, but at the same time, the entire mirror surface suddenly shattered with a “crack”!
This time Qiao Liang was truly frightened, involuntarily leaning backward so far that he almost fell onto the bed behind him, chair and all.
Looking at the screen again, the mirror inside had broken, revealing pitch blackness behind the mirror’s surface.
A line of bright red, bloody text appeared in the lower right corner: 10:00.
This line of bloody text quickly changed to 9:59, seemingly indicating that he would have to wait ten minutes before trying this game again.
Qiao Liang was slightly shocked, but quickly regained his composure.
“It seems this step is purely a test of psychological quality. The eyes must stare motionlessly at the center position of the mirror without looking around, otherwise it immediately fails…”
“Alright, I’ll work hard to train myself and aim to succeed in one attempt after ten minutes!”
Qiao Liang was instantly filled with motivation because he realized that once he passed this test, all the puzzles set by Mr. Pei should be successfully solved!
…
One hour later.
Qiao Liang stared fixedly at himself in the mirror, while a blood-covered ghost floating in the air had already reached out its bloody hand, seemingly about to touch his neck…
Qiao Liang felt his heart pounding rapidly, but still gritted his teeth and stared fixedly at his own eyes in the mirror, using his will to force his eyeballs to remain completely still.
The terrifying ghost kept circling the edges of the mirror, constantly trying various actions to attract Qiao Liang’s attention.
Finally, it seemed to completely lose patience, suddenly appearing in the center of the entire screen, opening its bloody mouth wide and letting out a shriek toward Qiao Liang!
Qiao Liang was very clever not to turn on the speakers, so he couldn’t hear the sound, but just the sudden, high-impact image on the screen was enough to make his heart rate dramatically accelerate!
But then, a vortex suddenly appeared in the mirror, sucking in the ghost!
The ghost seemed to struggle continuously, but it was completely futile, and it quickly disappeared into the mirror.
A line of bloody text appeared on the mirror: “Congratulations, the first guest of the Thrilling Lodge!”
After clicking the mouse once, the program exited, and the purchase button on the “BE QUIET” page, which had been dim all along, lit up, meaning Qiao Liang could finally spend money to buy the game!
Qiao Liang was moved to tears.
It was so difficult!
These days, do one have to go through eighty-one hardships just to buy a game?
But it was all worth it, after all, he was the first player of “BE QUIET”!
“I’ll share this news with everyone immediately!”
Qiao Liang opened his fan group and excitedly told his fans about the solution to the final puzzle step.
…
Meanwhile, Pei Qian sat silently in his office for a long time before slowly uttering two words.
“Damn it…”
Looking at the conspicuous number 1 in the “BE QUIET” purchase figures on the backend, Pei Qian felt a chill in his heart.
It had been solved after all…
The puzzle that he originally thought could last for a month had only lasted until the 11th, not even half a month!
“Sigh, my previous estimate was a bit too optimistic. It’s indeed unlikely to keep players stuck for a month with puzzles of this difficulty.”
“But it’s not completely useless, so that’s something.”
Pei Qian knew very well that since the first purchaser had appeared, it meant the puzzle had been completely solved. As long as these people shared their experience, more and more people would receive invitations and gain purchasing opportunities.
But even so, there was still a purchase barrier!
Pei Qian, in the backend, set the prices of “Lonely Desert Highway” and “Game Producer” to “free,” then silently observed the subsequent changes in sales.
His series of operations was already the optimal solution under the system’s strict limitations.
To put it simply, the difficulty of the public puzzle-solving was different from the difficulty barrier for everyone purchasing the game.
Finding clues in various games and solving puzzles involved all players. Once someone solved one step, everyone could continue researching the next step, so this difficulty could naturally be set higher.
And after knowing the puzzle-solving method, the game itself still had a purchase barrier.
Players had to drive a while in “Lonely Desert Highway,” personally reach the “Lost Everything” ending in “Game Producer,” then go to the TPDb website to search for “Thrilling Lodge,” enter their account and password, obtain a dynamic code to input into the game’s bloody handprint, and finally complete the eye-tracking mirror challenge to purchase the game.
This was the highest barrier the system allowed; it couldn’t be higher.
Of course, Pei Qian had nothing to be dissatisfied about. This barrier could already help him filter out a large number of players.
And Pei Qian craftily made “Lonely Desert Highway” and “Game Producer” free, seemingly to create convenient conditions for players, but actually to earn less money.
Pei Qian found that the system now allowed games to be completely free, but the conditions required were quite strict.
It must be a single-player game.
It must have been officially on sale for more than 10 months.
Last month’s income must have dropped to within one-fifth of the income from the second month of release.