Chapter 15

Brother Bald is gone.
No, that's not right—Brother Bald just isn't streaming anymore.
The fans had been watching with great excitement, and now that the fun was over, how could they possibly accept it? They immediately began discussing, right then and there, whose stream they should invade next.

"This game can be played on PC too, right? Let's go find some PC game streamers! Those guys usually do facecam, so we can watch their expressions."
"PC game streamers, count me in! I can already tell my meme stash is about to get a big update."
"Hold on, I've got a friend who wants to see your meme stash."
"I'm that friend—just send it to me."
"Mobile gaming isn't bad either. Don't you want to see streamers who usually breeze through adventure games suddenly hit a wall with this one?"
"The way Brother Bald went from contempt to total breakdown is still echoing in my head, haha."
"Good point! I want to see those supremely confident streamers, the ones who think they've seen it all, get absolutely wrecked and change expressions on the spot!"
"That string of words just got me pumped! Mobile game streamers, here I come!"
"How can you resist the PC game meme faces? Let's go find some PC game legends!"
"Kids make choices—we want it all! Get everyone playing, and we can watch whoever we want!"

Exactly! The fans suddenly saw the light.
Why choose? If Brother Bald is gone, there are still countless Brother Balds waiting for us to mess with!

And so, fans began hopping from stream to stream across the entire Panda streaming platform.
From famous stars to the barely known, every streamer in the gaming section, no matter what they usually played, discovered their chat was suddenly flooded with one game that night.

"'Dad-Trap Adventure'? How tricky can it be? Let me see," many streamers clicked in, driven by curiosity.
Even as they entered the game, they sensed nothing amiss, except maybe from the sly tone of their fans' chat messages, warning them that this game could be quite the test of patience.

How bad could an adventure game possibly be?
They prided themselves on their skills.
They scoffed.
They sneered.
And then… before they were even halfway through, they met their doom.

From scornful confusion, to pure confusion, to shock, and finally to breakdown.

"Why did I just fall out of nowhere??"
"Why is there a brick here but I still fell through??"
"I'm jumping—wait, where did that brick come from and hit my head?!"
"Listen, there's definitely a brick above this pit waiting for me—watch me edge around it."
"I made it across? Okay, now I'm on the pipe…??? Wait, game devs, why are fish flying out of this pipe??"
"Finally made it, what the—this path is blocked, guess I have to go back… Huh? Why did a wall just appear here?? Fine, I'll just jump down—why is there another wall below?? How do I die and go back??"
"So what am I now? Alive? Dead? Developers, thank you so much!"
"Save! Where's my save?? Why can't I save here?!"

At first, everyone still remembered they were live, trying to maintain their image. Even if they lost control for a moment, they quickly tried to smooth things over.

But as the night wore on and the frustration grew, the streamers completely forgot they were broadcasting. One by one, they let go, revealing their truest tempers.
In the end, the streamers fell into two camps according to their personality.

Those with short tempers exploded on the spot, hurling profanities, smashing headsets and phones—more than one fell victim.

"What the hell, all these bricks are untouchable. How the hell am I supposed to jump over there?!"
"You can get coins in this pipe? The devs finally did something right. Okay, got the coins, let's keep going—wait, why am I falling… Damn, that cloud isn't just background?? Touching it kills you?!"
"Died again? And you show me a laughing face? What the hell are you laughing at?!"
"Calm down, calm down, anger is bad for you. Let's jump down from the pipe and test—huh? Why is there a brick above my head now? Let's try ahead, why is there another brick when I jump? Damn! There's a pit up ahead!"
"Stupid devs, you—! I'm going AFK right here! Not jumping! Let's see you get mad!"

With a resounding slam of the headset, another stream went dark.

Viewers in chat: Someone just lost it, not naming names.

The usually mild-mannered, or those who wanted to rage but lacked the vocabulary, went down another path to madness.

"Does the universe have an end? Is time infinite or finite? Where does the past disappear to? Where does the future halt? And why, oh why, did I click into this game?!"
"Who started spamming this in chat? Show yourself—I promise I won't block you!!"
"Hahaha this game is so much fun hahaha the princess is so pretty hahaha, recommended! I'm going to recommend this game to the whole world hahaha!!"
"Yes! I did it!"
"I was wrong, really wrong, I shouldn't have listened to my fans. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be playing this game. If I wasn't playing, my headset wouldn't be broken. If my headset wasn't broken, I wouldn't be over budget this month."

Some streamers even mastered the art of blaming anything but themselves.

"What a crappy keyboard! No feedback at all—can't even jump a pit!"
Never mind that just moments ago, they were praising it as their custom-built, perfectly tuned keyboard.

"That was lag! I lagged! My phone's internet is the problem—if there was no lag, I could have dodged it!"
Never mind that this is an offline single-player game.

In the end, it all boiled down to one thing: don't blame me.

That night, fans darted from stream to stream like monkeys, thoroughly satisfied: Yes, yes! This is exactly what we wanted!
Watching others play is the best!

But watching wasn't enough. Fans even started analyzing each streamer's personality based on their reactions.

This one, starts cursing after only thirty deaths—definitely the type to stress out teammates, better be careful if you ever play co-op with him.
That one, nice technique, fewer deaths than most—clearly a true pro.
This one, the faces he made when he broke down were priceless—save for memes!
And this one, must be true love! Died hundreds of times, nearly lost it, but still remembered to say goodnight and blow kisses to his girlfriend. I'll gladly take a bite of this dog food!

And so on…

By the end of the night, every streamer felt as if their true colors had been exposed.
For everyone in the gaming section—streamers and fans alike—it was a sleepless night.
The only difference: streamers tossed and turned in anger, while fans were so entertained they didn't want to sleep.

Not tired at all! In fact, they wanted more—bring on more streamers!

The next day, the highlights of Brother Bald and other streamers losing it were clipped and posted across the internet, racking up over a million views in a single day.
Countless viewers witnessed the entire process—from calm to total breakdown to smashing their phones—and laughed while growing curious about this devilish little game.

It looked brutally unfair—they wouldn't dare play it themselves. But watching others? That was pure delight.
So, for days, every streamer in the gaming section, no matter what type of game they usually played, would see their chat flooded:
"Streamer, streamer, go play 'Dad-Trap Adventure'! It's a free game, super intense!"

Some even started streaming it on their own, just for the viewership boost.

But whatever the reason, in the end, fans always got what they wanted: the look of utter defeat on their streamer’s face.
Apparently, in the aftermath, a significant number of streamers suddenly got new phones, new mice, new keyboards, and so on.
Don't ask why—just say the old ones broke, somehow.

The fans all knew. Those who know, know.

Later, the gaming streamers got wise. They shut down the chaos at the source.
If anyone spammed their chat to play "Dad-Trap Adventure," they simply ignored it. If pressed, they just said they couldn't beat it.

It was all about admitting defeat to preserve their sanity.

Soon enough, a saying spread among streamers:
"The farther you stay from 'Dad-Trap Adventure,' the happier your life will be."

But the fans, unsatisfied with such a short-lived joy, weren't ready to let it end. If the gaming section was wise to the trick, it was time to invade the lifestyle section! Or the outdoors section!
Those streamers hadn't been through the wringer yet, and were easy prey.

They arrived, curious, and left with their blood pressure through the roof.
Unlike the gamers, these streamers didn't even have basic gaming skills—what followed was a flamboyant death show, their exaggerated expressions giving the audience wave after wave of satisfaction.

Some viewers, seeing the streamers struggle so absurdly, thought the game couldn't be that hard after all. They downloaded it to try for themselves—and immediately got put in their place.
That viewer, in turn, recommended the game to all their friends.
If I'm going down, you're going with me!

Through this cycle of mutual suffering, more and more players discovered this little single-player game, and with it, the studio that developed it: Dreamweaver Studio.

At first, the studio employees were thrilled with the runaway popularity. Then, they started to panic.

"My brother called me the other day," programmer Xiao Yang complained to Jiang Qiubai during a meeting. "He asked if this was our studio's game. I said yes, and he told me I must be a monster for making something so sadistic, then pestered me for a walkthrough."

But in his eyes, pride sparkled beneath his feigned frustration.
Even if people complained, he was happy—happier than when he got paid or received a bonus!
What did it mean? It meant the game he'd helped create was a hit—so popular even those around him had heard of it.