[The golden finger logic is unchanged, but the setting has been adjusted]
After a friend practically forced it on him, Yi Que downloaded the game. But when he tried to launch it, a message said a vital plugin was missing, making the game impossible to run. Forcing it to start might even spread a virus.
He happily forgot all about it and left it in a corner.
When he opened his eyes again, he had entered the game. The System had just issued the main quest, [Stop the Family from Heading for Ruin], when it got stuck repeating [ ... Loading failed].
Yi Que tried hard to remember. He'd forgotten the beginning and the middle. Anyway, this seemed to be a horror game!
The strange family he now belonged to had made a name for itself in all sorts of fields, including archaeology, folklore, science, investigation, and the arts. Its members were all talented.
In reality, according to his friend, they were a cursed bloodline and the source of all evil. They wielded sinister powers, worshipped everything beyond comprehension, summoned terrifying creatures, and dragged anyone who tried to save them into the abyss.
They awaited the world's final hour, when everything would descend into ruin and nothingness. They were, supposedly, the maddest family of all.
And he was the useless youngest son, disliked by his entire family.
Yi Que quietly curled himself into a ball. Haha, I'm doomed!
But soon, he realized something was wrong.
For instance, one night at dinner, everyone suddenly froze in terror and held their breath, saying they'd heard a horrifying whistle. He hadn't heard a thing.
And then there was the time they went into the woods to look for his uncle, who was sleepwalking. The others suddenly stared wide-eyed at something ahead of them. Some screamed, while others went mad. But when he looked, there was nothing there.
After enough of these incidents, Yi Que finally understood.
There was no such thing as the supernatural. This was a realistic, compassionate story about the hardships of living with mental illness, told through the lives of one family!
Now he had an idea for the quest. He'd let himself go and, of course, win them over with love!
The whole family: ...
The whole family: Forget it. What can you expect from a deaf-and-blind guy with zero inspiration?
Then his eldest brother, whom he'd only ever seen in photos, appeared. Yi Que's eyes widened in shock, and he asked in a trembling voice, "This is all a misunderstanding, right ... You aren't really dead, are you?"
Gu Xiao, with 100+ inspiration, was a legendary investigator known as the "Messenger of the Stars." He could sense every noisy truth that could neither be seen nor heard.
After a bizarre life beyond the imagination of ordinary people, he had died and come back to life, only to be swallowed by the clamor of the old house and nearly pass out.
Then Yi Que appeared, and all the chaotic sounds and sights vanished in an instant. For the first time in his life, Gu Xiao felt clarity. There was only one person before him, like an anchor.
So, under the hopeful gaze of his family, Gu Xiao fell silent for a moment before saying, "Yes."
The whole family: ...
The whole family: You fell for him on your first day back! You're even worse than we are!
**
Everything Is Madness is a plot-driven Lovecraftian horror game.
Players take on the role of a member of a mad family, tasked with saving it. Yet time and again, they experience the despair of failure amid encounters with things beyond comprehension, until they return to madness along with all creation. It perfectly captures humanity's smallness and helplessness when faced with the unknown in Lovecraftian fiction ...
Yeah, right! Hurry up and get rid of that cheating bug player! (The System roars.)
Theme: What is lacking can also be a gift.
