Gathering Material in an Infinite Game

Amid flashes of lightning and peals of thunder, a white ghostly figure crawled out of a painting, and the participants screamed and fled.

"This is so cliched. Put it in a game and players will just ask if I'm paying homage to a classic."

Lu Yousheng stroked his chin as he examined the long-haired female ghost before him. With his other hand, he patted Li Wei beside him. "I think we should change her makeup. It'd be better if her face was just one mouth full of fangs. What do you think?"

Li Wei gave him a deadpan look. "Are we seriously not running, buddy?"

Lu Yousheng produced another picture frame. "Don't rush me. Let me see what happens if the two of them crawl toward each other."

Lu Yousheng was a horror game designer. Three of his proposals had already been rejected in a row, all on the grounds that the atmosphere wasn't scary enough and the immersion was too weak.

So he went to his buddy Li Wei. "You can't sleep every night, so that infinite world must be terrifying, right? Can you take me with you? I want to do some research."

Then Li Wei realized that his buddy, who had read and watched countless horror stories, seemed to have unlocked a plot cheat in the infinite world.

Lu Yousheng said, "I've just consumed a lot of stories. I know all the tropes, so it's easy to guess what's going to happen. So, is there a place where players can leave feedback? I want to tell the Lord God that this instance is trash."

Li Wei had a small problem lately: his buddy Lu Yousheng wanted to visit the infinite world, and Li Wei was afraid his friend would get killed in there.

After careful consideration, Li Wei went to the Lord God. "I want to buy a cheat."

The Lord God said, "You're only one instance's worth of points away from getting out. Why buy a cheat? Go away and stop causing trouble!"

Li Wei said, "It's not for me. I'm buying it for my buddy."

The Lord God said, "How about you trade all your points and items for a 'Fantasy Killer'?"

Li Wei said, "There's really an offer like that? But you can't tell my buddy I bought it!"

The Lord God looked puzzled. "And you two are still friends?"

Li Wei declared righteously, "Of course! We're the kind of best friends who grew up sharing a pair of pants!"

Meanwhile, Lu Yousheng had no idea what was going on. He was still happily thinking, I can finally experience real terror and come up with a new game proposal. Yay!

A straight guy's friendship.

Today, I'm still working hard to write a funny infinite-world story.

Theme: Keep moving forward bravely in the face of adversity.