Chapter 113
The game *Two Heads are Better*, made by developer Monster, is a two-player cooperative adventure game.
Therefore, even if the first chapter's theme and concept were horror, it was clear that it wouldn't be a proper horror game.
If a horror game instills fear in the player,
adopting a horror concept could simply mean setting it in a plausible old castle without including any startling elements.
Would you feel horror if, after school during English class, the native English teacher and kids dress up for Halloween and walk around?
Well, if the teacher played a horror movie on TV, it would be scary, but that's entirely because of the horror movie.
Even if you watched it in a normal house or room instead of a spookily decorated classroom, it would be just as scary.
Of course, that's the theoretical part, but considering the fact that the developers directly asked if they were good at horror games before, there were definitely going to be horror game elements.
Even so.
‘Pfft.’
Seo-jun barely held back the laughter that was about to burst out.
First, because the viewers didn't know that the concept was horror, him laughing and revealing the reason would be a spoiler.
Second, just.
“…….”
“Why, what!”
Because just looking at him intently like this was enough to make Tae-woo have a fit.
“Why are you grinning like that!”
A thief's own feet go numb.
Tae-woo got angry for no reason, and Seo-jun shook his head with a calm expression.
The person Tae-woo needed to explain himself to wasn't Seo-jun, now was it?
Wouldn't this reaction make the viewers more curious?
Seo-jun's gaze shifted to the left, to Tae-woo's chat window.
-Why then?
-Tae-woo, what about you, why are you shouting! LOL
-What kind of bait is there with the rat?
-Maybe you forgot to turn off the gas valve? Hehe
-Seems like he found something!
Seo-jun once again stopped himself from bursting into laughter.
“Haha, no. I thought I had forgotten something, but after thinking about it, it wasn't that.”
That seemed to be the wrong answer.
Who would believe that?
-Suspicious
-He got scared of the rat, right? LOL
-Are you a scaredy-cat?
-The rat is pretty big though
-For real, it's disgusting
-Yay. Let's get on with it already.
“Yep! We'll get on with it quickly!”
Squeak!
Another rat appeared.
It was actually so big it was disgusting.
About the size of a nutria, a little smaller than a small dog.
It seemed right to assume that their bodies had shrunk a bit.
Tae-woo kicked the newly appeared rat for no good reason.
Seo-jun spoke sternly from behind.
“I think I'll have to report you for animal cruelty.”
“That's just a scrap of data, you know?”
“Then encouraging violence...”
“Isn't the way you go around beating people with your sword violence! Huh! You're the most violent bastard in this world!”
Tae-woo responded more prickly than usual.
In contrast, Seo-jun, who was becoming more and more relaxed, thought back to the past.
‘Has this guy always been a scaredy-cat?’
Looking back, he realized that he had actually never confirmed it.
Well, indeed.
‘If we had been elementary school classmates, I might have confirmed it.’
When you're in elementary school, you go on many retreats, and inevitably do courage tests at least once.
But from middle and high school, retreats are renamed school trips and such programs almost disappear.
He had met Tae-woo in high school.
But it seems he found out today.
“Hey. Don't smile like that.”
“…….”
“I said stop smiling!”
“Alright, let's go.”
Tae-woo looked at Seo-jun with an anxious expression, wondering what that crazy guy would do next, and Seo-jun scanned the surrounding terrain where they had climbed up.
“Still a secret passage?”
Seo-jun said as he looked at the dark, tunnel-like path in front of them.
It was hard to see it as the inside of a building.
Seo-jun exercised the virtue of yielding.
“You go first.”
“Ah. This shit...”
Tae-woo frowned.
The path in front was dark like before, but not cramped. Rather, it was wide.
Not just the two of them, but five people could go in holding hands in a line.
Nevertheless, the reason he insisted on telling him to go first?
‘That bastard.’
He's clearly caught on.
Tae-woo didn't really have a tolerance for horror.
To be precise, he hadn't had the chance to test it.
The common assessment was that his MCN boss, a streamer, was an evil streamer who kept forcing horror games on his affiliated streamers.
But he hadn't recommended horror games to Tae-woo, thinking he'd just find them boring.
The reason?
‘He said that guys who smile like me and are openly dumb are surprisingly solid inside.’
The boss had a preconception that he would look uninteresting.
Tae-woo had thought so himself.
So he had lived without really playing horror games.
But now, as he entered the game and walked the dark path, Tae-woo realized.
It wasn't his first time walking a dark path.
How many games had he played so far?
It was just the difference between being aware that there would be something scary and not.
That difference simply made him speak less, made him hesitate a little, and made him jump a little more than usual.
In other words, he was quite the scaredy-cat.
Seo-jun had grasped this at once.
“Yeah, let's go.”
Tae-woo, trying hard to hide his emotions, took the lead in the cave-like passage, and Seo-jun followed.
[That secret passage, it wasn't originally planned like this, right?]
[Yeah. Why is it such a mess? Like it was half-finished.]
When a cliff appeared, the characters talked.
The secret passage, which had been damaged little by little from the start, was now so messed up that they had to jump over it.
The gap seemed to be at least 5 meters long.
Of course, with the game's jumping ability, it was enough.
“Huff!”
Tae-woo couldn't jump properly because of his nerves and fell off the cliff.
“Pfft.”
“It was a mistake.”
Tae-woo, revived, jumped and landed properly this time.
-That easy thing LOL
-Will the master also die once?
“I'm good at it.”
The next gap was so far that a normal jump couldn't reach it.
Instead, there was a mark on a crevice above where you could hook a grappling hook.
You jump, shoot the hook, and then land on the other side via the rope.
It's quite simple.
“You'll do well this time, right?”
“Of course.”
Tae-woo, determined to renew his spirit, tried to relax his body.
Even though the difficulty was such that, thanks to game assistance, you could hook it easily even if you threw it roughly.
Had he failed earlier on the cliff because it was difficult?
‘I shouldn't make it more obvious.’
For now, Seo-jun hadn't revealed that he was scared, so Tae-woo decided to hide the fact that he was weak against horror as much as possible.
Because, the moment that fact was revealed, he couldn't even estimate how many horror game collab requests would come in.
Ultimately, the reason Seo-jun kept it a secret was probably to use it to ask for something, but that might be cheaper in the end.
Tae-woo jumped first.
Ziiing!
Thud!
The hook caught well, and Tae-woo used the rope to land on the other side.
‘Yes!’
Tae-woo broke into a broad smile at the immense sense of accomplishment.
Now the tension in his body was subsiding.
Seo-jun followed.
[Then it's highly likely that the end of this secret passage isn't even the place you envisioned!]
[Probably.]
[Then shouldn't we go back?]
[Let's just go for now.]
Next, they had to cross to the other side by hooking two grappling hooks in a row.
Tae-woo succeeded without a mistake this time too.
Gradually, he gained confidence.
This is an action-adventure game, not a horror game.
Being scared is just groundless fear!
“Oh, what's this?”
“Looks like the last one.”
Something like a pirate's steering wheel welcomed them, lying flat on the ground.
The wheel was hanging from a rod connected to a groove in the ceiling above; following the groove with their eyes led to the other side.
“Looks like the same kind as that zipline pole from earlier.”
“Hook it here?”
“Yeah. You try first.”
“Why me?”
“Scared?”
Scared?
Ha, really.
Tae-woo gave a cough as if dumbfounded.
“Fine! I'll go first! Because you're a scaredy-cat!”
Seo-jun, thinking he was a truly simple guy, watched the progress.
Tae-woo took a run-up and jumped, hooking the hook onto one of the wheel's rings.
Grrrrind.
The sound of gears turning could be heard.
Tae-woo moved forward along the groove, spinning with the wheel as if riding a swing ride.
‘So it's that kind of mechanism.’
But soon enough, the wheel stopped.
It seemed to lack the force to go further.
The wheel soon began to spin in the opposite direction, returning to its original position, and Tae-woo rotated with it.
“It came back?”
“Looks like we have to do this together.”
“Yeah.”
“Then I'll go back now, so let's get ready to jump again.”
Tae-woo swung his body back and forth like on a playground swing.
Since jumping directly from where he was hanging on the wheel wouldn't reach where Seo-jun was standing, he was building momentum to leap.
Seo-jun simply suggested an easy method.
“Just let go.”
“Ha, why should I?”
“Scared?”
“No.”
Tae-woo let go.
And he respawned next to Seo-jun.
-The magic word, fuck LOL
-Tae-woo, just be scared already at this point
-It'd be less embarrassing to just be scared LOL
Fortunately, Tae-woo, who was pondering what to do, didn't see Seo-jun's chat window.
It was something to milk more out of.
“I think we'd need to hook on exactly opposite sides, forming 180 degrees, for that wheel to keep going without stopping.”
Seo-jun, who was thinking the same thing, said.
“Then I'll jump later.”
The first jumper can hook anywhere, but the second jumper has to time it well.
It looked quite difficult, and it was easier for him to do that kind of thing.
“What are you saying, I'm not scared.”
That's not it.
“You're a skill idiot.”
“Aha!”
-No way LOL
-What kind of pride LOL
-Scared?
-But it's kind of amazing
Tae-woo took a run-up and jumped.
The hook caught on the wheel, and it began to spin rapidly.
Then, Seo-jun, having timed it, soared into the air.
Clang.
The second hook caught on the wheel that was moving forward, and with renewed force, the wheel began to spin even more vigorously.
The center of gravity was balanced, and thus, having reached the end, they got off the wheel, and the wheel spun back in the opposite direction.
-Oh
-Nice
-The ride looks fun!
“That was fun.”
“Agreed.”
Seo-jun, who landed on the floor, went to where there was a green light.
There was a hole in the floor there.
Looking down the hole, he could see a ventilation duct with a hole in the middle as well.
“Let's go in.”
As soon as they entered the ventilation duct, a dreamy bell sound was heard as if the tutorial was over.
Is it horror from now on?
“The back is blocked.”
“Seems like only one direction.”
Seo-jun and Tae-woo walked straight ahead and spotted another green light.
The marked place was a gap in the ventilation duct where light was leaking out.
When Seo-jun and Tae-woo looked down, they could see the interior through the gap.
Seo-jun said.
“There are a ton of toys, everyone.”
“It's a bit grotesque.”
Inside, all sorts of toys were displayed in their packages.
It didn't seem like a display for customers.
Since they were just piled up in boxes so you could see the contents, without any display stands.
As they confirmed this, the characters' dialogue started up again.
[Huh? Isn't this where the protagonist is?]
[Are you sure?]
[I drew it and implemented it, how could I not be sure? Look at the wall over there, it's B-2 zone.]
[Really? Then why isn't the protagonist there?]
[What?]
[Look there. It's empty.]
“Where are they talking about?”
“Look closely.”
As they were intently examining the room.
Bang!
With a loud bang, something suddenly appeared right in front of them beyond the ventilation duct.
It was the head of a grotesquely shaped doll.
“Hmm. It would be the ceiling for them, but it stuck to this.”
-Oh, seriously
-Damn jumpscare, fuck LOL
-I just screamed out loud LOL
-The master is even calm here
Of course, Seo-jun was also slightly startled by the doll that suddenly popped out.
But that was as far as it went.
But Tae-woo, who should have been the noisiest, was quiet.