Pokémon, but cultural invasion.

After a moment, she shook her head. She was here to enjoy herself, so forgetting everything and immersing herself in the game for a whole night was the right choice.

At the same time that the Salt Stone Treasure began to move, a hissing noise came from the radio, as if it were receiving a signal.

Whether it was because the model was too old or because dust had gotten inside the machine, the sound from the radio was slightly distorted, carrying a unique charm of a bygone era.

"Hello? Hello?"

Can you hear me?

The radio resumed playing smoothly after a brief pause.

"Welcome to the most popular midday radio program in the entire Parthian region, 'Life Talk'."

Yan Shibao was startled by the radio suddenly starting to play, and after his initial surprise, he curiously went closer to it.

Lijia rubbed her ears suspiciously. Why did that voice sound so familiar?

She recalled for a moment, and Qishu's distinctive voice and tone gradually overlapped with the radio in front of her.

As a gym leader, this Padiya fellow's business scope is really wide, even including game voice acting.

I remember last time she also streamed Plants vs. Ghosts half an hour early.

Thinking about this, Lijia felt a faint sense of resistance welling up inside her.

It's not that I dislike the gym leader, it's more like a spoiled child who doesn't want anyone else to open her gift first.

Last time, they got to play the game half an hour earlier than her. This time, she got the trial access, but the other party got involved in the game's development.

Lijia gives off a feeling of "being unable to defeat her no matter how hard she tries".

"Qishu is a game developer, someone who serves the players."

After silently repeating the mantra several times, the self-deceptive hypnosis took effect.

On the screen, Yan Shibao had already picked up the radio and secured the strap on the back of the radio to his chest.

After obtaining the stone pickaxe, a new button prompt pops up.

【the climb】

In short, Lijia tried to manipulate it.

On the screen, Saltstone Treasure swung his stone pickaxe, hooked it onto the rocks on the ground, and began to move forward.

Her extensive gaming experience allowed her to quickly grasp the essentials and easily climb the protruding rock peak.

"So the gameplay of this game is to keep climbing upwards?"

Lijia recalled the snow-capped mountain in the game's opening animation; would reaching the summit mean completing the game?

Saltstone Treasure's movements are not stiff, and the operation feels extremely smooth.

Even though mountain climbing requires some skill, Lijia is confident that she can pass the test quickly.

The moment the pickaxe touched the rocky peak, a radio talk show just happened to begin.

"Setting off" often signifies the beginning of a fantastical journey. It could be a fired revolver, grinding medicine in an underground cave, an impromptu lesson during an evening study session, or even a stone pickaxe.

Climbing upwards from the lowest valley of Frostmog Mountain might allow you to experience a different kind of scenery in life.

Lijia listened to the relaxed tone of the radio; it was indeed a talk show with topics that were completely unrelated to the main topic.

At the same time, she had to admit that Qi Shu's voice, paired with the soothing background music, was not at all jarring and was a pleasure to listen to.

However, at this moment, her mind was entirely focused on the operation.

Salt Stone Treasure's stone pickaxe left afterimages as it swung up and down the steep rock face.

Lika believed she had a talent for games, and many obstacles that would stump ordinary people were nothing to her.

If Izumi Tree thinks that this simple cliff face is challenging and enjoyable, she's mistaken.

Three minutes passed, and Lijia continued to operate at a high frequency without making any mistakes.

Saltstone Treasure has climbed quite a distance, and the howling of the cold wind gradually intensifies in the headphones.

Just then, Saltstone encountered an accident while climbing over a protruding rock.

"It was a mistake."

The stone pick brushed past the upward-curving rock, failing to hook onto the protrusion and instead cutting through the air.

After a brief period of airborne suspension, the salt stone plummeted straight down under the influence of gravity.

All movement buttons are disabled, and a sense of loss of control and the feeling of weightlessness as the screen falls overwhelms you.

"One mistake shouldn't be a big deal, right?"

Lijia was staring intently at the screen when she suddenly noticed something terrifying.

She hasn't been able to find Saltstone's health bar since the start of the game.

Chapter 50 I Can Never Forgive Izumi

Health bars, as a standard feature to balance game difficulty and provide players with a thrilling experience, are fundamental to most games.

With characters having extremely thin health bars, and the ability to turn the tide of battle by performing high-difficulty maneuvers under the premise that any attack will result in death, this is a highly effective way to stimulate players' dopamine levels to surge.

Having a health bar creates a sense of crisis and attracts the player's attention.

Game videos featuring players performing incredible feats of skill and strategy to clear levels with minimal health are even more captivating.

Even in puzzle games like "Positive and Negative Pats," each character has three hearts, and losing all three means failing the level.

In Izumi's new work, Rika couldn't find any settings related to health points.

Having no health points means the character is invincible, and anyone can clear the level as long as they spend enough time.

The game suddenly loses its challenge, which is not a good design.

Lijia was secretly annoyed. Even adding a mechanism where you fail to pass a level after falling three times would be better.

In the blink of an eye, the Salt Stone Treasure was still falling.

One second... two seconds... three seconds... four seconds...

Saltstone just kept falling straight down, without any invisible walls or save points to teleport to after falling, seemingly endless, heading straight into the abyss.

Since we can't hold onto our peak, let's revisit the path we came from.

I don't know what stage this talk show has reached, but a casual remark jolted Rika out of her thoughts.

"If I keep falling, will I end up back where I started?"

As she plummeted, Lijia saw the path she had come from—a series of strangely shaped rocks.

She even remembered how she climbed over them.

"Who wants to go back to where they started? What's the difference between going back to square one and having your game data wiped?"

In an attempt to salvage her few minutes of progress, Lijia began a frantic self-rescue effort.

With a loud cracking sound from the handle, Saltstone Treasure in mid-air frantically swung the stone pickaxe in its hand.

Perhaps due to the change in terrain, Yan Shibao was very fortunate to grasp at the only straw—a dead tree growing on the cliff.

The stone pickaxe got stuck in a tree branch, and several pebbles rolled down from the tree roots and fell into the empty valley.

Oh dear, you've regressed quite a bit. This is a profound setback, a heavy blow.

The radio could be faintly heard as the host hummed along to the background music.

The music is classical music popular in the last century, with a light and lively rhythm.

Lijia, however, had no interest in appreciating it at all.

"I almost fell back to square one, all my efforts were in vain. What's the meaning of that radio humming a tune?"

She was so busy and flustered, but the only thing in the game that could be called an "NPC" offered no help whatsoever.

Although there was an element of comfort in her words, Lijia felt that she was gloating more than she was being comforted.

A small mistake rendered at least two minutes of previous work futile.

Rika sensed the creator's strong sense of wickedness.

For players, dying is just the death of their game character; they can simply try again.

But watching the cliffs you've climbed rapidly recede, your progress gradually eroded, and if this happened a few more times, it would truly shatter your resolve.

"If you think this will slow down my progress, you're wrong."

A fierce fighting spirit ignited in Lijia's eyes. She had played games with even crueler death penalties before, and she still managed to beat them in the end.

In the few seconds he pondered on the withered tree, the radio started playing again.

I know.

Starting over is harder than starting at the beginning.

If you feel tired, you can rest for a while before continuing. The mountain is right there.

It was meant to be a heartwarming encouragement, but why did it sound so different to me?

Lijia found the overly prominent radio a bit annoying, as if she had only regained her spirits because of the other person's encouragement.

Sensing the creator's wicked sense of humor, Rika played more cautiously this time.

In a mountain climbing game without a health bar, a steady and methodical approach is the only way to complete the game.

Instead of her usual listless posture lounging in the beanbag chair, Lijia sat up, her light brown eyes filled with fighting spirit.

After spending a few more minutes, Rika, now focused, easily bypassed the rock that had previously caused her to make a mistake.

The climbing speed has slowed down, but it's become more stable.

As we ascended, a thin layer of snow began to cover the yellowish-brown rock face.

Huge caves began to appear between the protruding rock peaks, and the screen would vibrate from time to time.

"What the hell?"

Lijia didn't understand what the vibration was, but considering the nature of the first half of the game, it was best to stay away from those caves.

"The gaps between the rock peaks may seem to increase the difficulty of climbing, but in reality, as long as you master the techniques, these fixed-interval sections are much easier than before."

"If I just keep this pace, soon...whoosh!"

As we passed a cave, a huge, competitive hairy crab crawled out of it.

Wielding two enormous pincers, its four legs, which swayed sideways, shook the snow-capped mountains.

Amidst the roar, the screen camera shook violently.

The sudden incident left Lijia no time to react before Saltstone was knocked away.

As she fell again, her heart seemed to skip a beat.

The sudden outburst from the competitive hairy crab startled Lijia so much that she screamed. Luckily, it was late at night and there were no staff members around, otherwise she really wouldn't know how to explain it.

This fall was not a mistake, but rather a result of the terrain on the mountain path.

No wonder the screen kept shaking; now I know what was going on.

By the time Rika received the information and realized what was happening, it was too late.

Oh, here we go again. Stay alert and don't let the competitive hairy crabs get close to you again.

"You knew all along?"

The radio, which knew the information but kept it a secret, made Rika's blood pressure rise a few degrees.

Salt Stone Treasure plummeted downwards amidst its wild waving, eventually getting stuck in a familiar withered tree branch.

It wasn't that Lijia was lucky; it was simply that this was the only place where she could barely hold on and stop the downward spiral.

【Back to where we started~ Your youthful face in my memory~】

An inopportune moment, the radio started playing music, and the host hummed along.

The melody was pleasant, but the lyrics... she seriously suspected the radio was doing it on purpose.

The thought of all her hard work over the past few minutes being wiped out overnight by a single intelligence operative made her want to cry.

"This setback won't defeat me. Knowing that the competitive hairy crab will come out of its burrow, I won't make the same mistake again."