Chapter 63 - #63: Because it’s there...

Chapter 63: Chapter #63: Because it’s there...

"You’re literally running for your life while your own soul chases you down." Silver gripped his controller tighter, the plastic slick with sweat from his palms.

Ever since Madeline’s dark side manifested in Chapter Two, the shadowy figure had been stalking her every move like a relentless parasite.

Even though Badeline simply followed the exact path the player took, the screen was rapidly filling up with trailing purple-red shadows and an ominous mist.

If that dark reflection touched you even once, it was instant death.

Right now, there were five or six distinct shadows tailing him in a chaotic conga line of death. The threat of annihilation was constantly breathing down his neck.

"This Chapter is straight-up a horror game! It’s actually terrifying!" Silver yelled.

Even though it was mechanically just a chase sequence, he felt a suffocating cocktail of hope and despair twisting his gut.

It was the absolute dread of being dragged back down right when you were inches from your goal.

Every time he could clearly see the exit of a screen, the dark figures swarmed behind him, flawlessly retracing his every jump and dash.

The faster and more frantically he tried to run, the more chaotic and unpredictable his pursuers’ movements seemed to become.

Initially, he had completely panicked at the sight of the entity chasing him.

But once he realized Badeline strictly mirrored his own route, he understood the true test.

He needed to maintain a flawless sense of rhythm, patience, and precision amidst the sheer speed and tension.

But with his adrenaline constantly spiking, staying calm under the pressure of an intense, high-stakes pursuit was incredibly difficult.

The pacing in Chapter Two was blistering.

The moment the background music kicked in, a driving, supernatural drumbeat set the tempo!

Despite the chaotic visuals, the gameplay loop started to feel genuinely intoxicating.

The synth track wasn’t aggressively fast like other hardcore platformers; it was urgent, yet incredibly structured.

There was a profound sense of flow hidden beneath the anxiety.

Backed by that specific BGM, Silver found that no matter how many times he died, he couldn’t actually feel angry.

As the dark reflection killed him for the dozenth time, Silver let out a breathless laugh. "I finally understand why that tip at the start of the Chapter told us to only grab strawberries if we really wanted to."

"I’m fighting for my absolute life right now, how the hell am I supposed to care about a pixelated strawberry?!" He just wanted to clear the level and escape the living nightmare of being hunted by his own mind.

His stream chat was equally stressed out.

[

ConsolePeasant: my brain is actually melting

Toxic_Timmy: bro I felt my scalp tingling just watching that

PraiseTheSun_99: !!!

NoobSlayer: she’s literally killing herself!

GamerDad88: STOP PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM HER

]

Just as the tension and despair hit an absolute peak, Silver launched himself into the next screen.

He dashed through a glowing, star-filled space block, caring only about putting as much distance between himself and the shadows as possible.

By the time he caught his breath and realized where he was, the dark side had vanished without a trace.

Walking through the quiet, starry void, Madeline approached a lonely, glowing payphone.

The sheer atmospheric immersion of Ethan’s level design was undeniable.

Silver’s heart was still pounding from the endless chase, his chest tight with the isolating terror of fighting a battle no one else could see or understand.

Picking up the receiver, that lingering dread formed a heart-wrenching contrast with the warm, gentle concern of the ensuing phone call.

[Mom: What a surprise! Madeline, how is your trip?]

[Madeline: It’s okay. I’m just a little overwhelmed.]

Madeline gripped the receiver, her pixelated eyes conveying a deep, timid confusion.

She had absolutely no idea how to explain the horrifying, supernatural things she had just survived.

[Mom: Oh no, did you have another panic attack?]

[Mom: Honey, just take a deep breath. I’m right here.]

[Mom: Tell me what’s going on.]

Even though the dialogue was entirely conveyed through the muffled, synth-babble voices of the characters, the pure, unconditional warmth of her mother’s care radiated through the screen.

The scene slowly faded to black, and Chapter Two officially ended.

Sitting at his desk, Silver felt a sudden, unexpected sting behind his eyes.

In that quiet moment, he felt an overwhelming urge to call his own mother, to vent about his inner struggles and just hear a comforting voice on the other end of the line.

As Chapter Three faded in, a cheerful postcard bearing a string of encouraging text appeared on screen.

[Be proud of your death count! The more you die, the more you’re learning. Keep going!]

The players who had been secretly agonizing over their massive death tallies felt a sudden knot loosen in their chests.

In modern gaming culture, a high death count usually meant you were just an absolute scrub. No one ever considered it a badge of honor.

But the penalty for failure in Celeste was practically zero.

One miscalculated jump just meant an instant reset to the current screen, allowing the player to seamlessly throw themselves back into the meat grinder.

Despite the brutal obstacles, the rhythmic trial-and-error inevitably hammered the precise muscle memory into the player’s hands.

"The music doesn’t restart when you die," Ruby murmured to her stream.

She had been stuck on the exact same screen for twenty minutes, and she had just noticed the brilliant audio design.

While discussing the subtle mechanic with her viewers, a specific comment in her chat caught her eye.

It summarized the game’s entire philosophy perfectly.

[Death doesn’t mean starting over. It’s just part of the process.]

At its core, the game was constantly asking the player a single, profound question. Why do you want to climb this mountain?

Most people would immediately reach for the famous George Mallory quote to answer: "Because it’s there."

[TN: George Herbert Leigh-Mallory was an English mountaineer who participated in the first three British Mount Everest expeditions from the early to mid-1920s.]

But conquering Celeste Mountain was pure, agonizing pain.

From the relentless pursuit of Badeline to the frantic, anxiety-inducing chase sequence with the ghostly hotel manager, Mr. Oshiro, the portrayal of suffering was incredibly raw.

It was a level of emotional realism that made anyone who had ever battled their own demons feel profoundly understood, while simultaneously dragging those painful memories right to the surface.

At the very beginning of the game, when the cackling old woman at the trailhead had warned her that the mountain might be too difficult, Madeline had stubbornly shot back, "I think I’ll be fine."

It was the classic, desperate self-justification of someone drowning in depression.

’Look at me.’

’I’m trying to do something other than hurt and cry.’

When a person lost the will to live, it was simply because they couldn’t find enough reasons to stick around.

But the tiny, seemingly insignificant goals that anchored them to the world could be anything.

It could be as massive as wanting to make a million dollars, or as small as wanting to buy a nice outfit, or simply wanting to survive until the next summer.

Those fragile thoughts were like loose straws floating in the open ocean, drifting endlessly with the current.

But holding onto those straws gave them a reason to survive, adding just a tiny bit of leverage to an otherwise precarious existence.

Of course, that survival didn’t come without a brutal cost.

The price of Madeline’s tenacious climb was facing her deepest psychological traumas head-on and being literally hunted by her own darkest thoughts.

Just like the protagonist of any great adventure, she died again and again, only to be reborn on that endless, upward path.

Sitting quietly in the Sprout Studio office, Yor watched the various streamers battle their way up the mountain.

Her personal favorite sections of the game were still Chapters Six and Seven.

As for the rapidly inflating death counters?

Yor just smiled.

Dying in this game wasn’t a punishment at all.

To die meant you were actually trying.

( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°)

?? Let’s go for 500+ Power Stones! Let’s see if we can do it. ??

Also, if anyone can guess my birthday this month, I’ll release a bonus Chapter!

Here’s a clue: the date has something to do with one of the Presidents of the United States.

Let’s see if anyone can figure it out. ??

You can support me at patreon.com/Chaos_King and read 25! Yes, 25 advanced Chapters.