Ethan's life continued on without anything worth mentioning.
Every day, he streamed for long hours—spending all his time isolated from the real world.
He had reached his late twenties, which meant his youth was already slipping away.
And although he was aware of that fact… Ethan didn't really care.
Curled up inside his safe space, he genuinely believed he would spend the rest of his days living exactly like this.
His life was like a mirror without ripples—unchanging, stagnant.
Until one day… everything was turned upside down.
On the morning of the very first day of the new year, the world woke up to unexpected news that seemed to come out of nowhere.
One of the most famous game developers in the industry announced that his new game would be released soon.
The announcement caused a massive uproar.
Not because of the game alone—but because it was accompanied by a mad declaration from the developer himself.
---
"Hello everyone. This is developer Ishizaki.
As many of you know, I have always chased the dream of creating the perfect RPG.
My relentless pursuit of that difficult ideal led me to create the Souls-like genre—loved and hated by many of you at the same time.
After years of continuous development, and numerous titles released by my studio, I am proud to announce my final game.
The ultimate challenge.
The definitive experience.
A conclusion to everything that came before it.
I am pleased to announce that my upcoming game—Ordeal—will be releasing soon.
It will be unlike anything I've made before.
A vast, richly crafted world—the largest to date.
And new blood that will change this genre forever.
The challenge will be brutal.
I assure you .. there has never been, and will never be, anything like Ordeal.
But the reward… is just as immense.
Whoever completes the game will not only gain glory—
They will gain something far greater.
I hereby declare that I will give all of my shares in my game development company to the person who succeeds in finishing the game ! .
Conquer Ordeal…
and claim the ultimate glory!"
---
That was the essence of the announcement—one that sent shockwaves through the entire gaming community.
In fact, it reached far beyond gaming itself.
All because of the final part of his historic declaration.
"Has Ishizaki completely lost his mind? Do you even realize how much his shares are worth? We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars, at the very least…"
Stunned by what he had just seen and heard, Ethan sat with his face practically glued to the screen.
The chat window flew by at terrifying speed, viewers reacting wildly to the insane announcement.
Viewers: 4,081
MrTrashKim:
This is absolute madness. Is he really planning to give up his shares to whoever clears the game?
BlackRose:
Maybe it's just a publicity stunt—to get more people to buy the game.
VenusPanties:
That makes no sense. His studio is already hugely successful with a massive fanbase. There's no reason for him to pull a stunt like this and risk destroying everything he's built over the years.
The chat box descended into total chaos.
Everyone voiced their opinions about the massive announcement made by the most famous Souls-like developer on the scene—the very man who invented the genre.
Ethan, on the other hand, remained silent.
He replayed the announcement again… and again.
"Ordeal…"
Just what kind of game would make its creator willing to hand over millions of dollars to whoever finished it?
SquareDick:
Assuming the reward is real… doesn't that mean the game will be insanely difficult? Like—unholy levels of hard.
MrTrashKim:
Wait… difficulty? If it's about difficulty, isn't our Moon the best there is?
VenusPanties:
He's right. This degenerate cleared every Souls game without taking a single hit. Aren't his chances insanely high?
BlackRose:
Just imagine if he actually does it. That would be a historic achievement!
"A historic achievement…"
Ethan read those words .. and something new lit up in his eyes.
He finally understood the sheer magnitude of the opportunity before him.
Who would've thought that these simple games he had always played… could open a door like this?
Just imagining it made his heart feel like it might burst out of his chest.
With a wide grin that bared his teeth to every viewer, Ethan stood up and declared loudly:
"I'll finish that game! even if it's the last thing I ever do! Ordeal, or whatever the hell it's called—bring it on! Give me your worst! Hahaha!"
Ethan laughed like a madman, while the viewers mocked him—crowning him the greatest masochist of all time.
Morale was sky-high.
And Ethan found himself unable to wait for the day Ordeal would finally be released.
He wasn't alone.
The entire world was anticipating that moment.
And the biggest reason was the developer's insane reward.
That alone turned Ordeal into the largest game launch in history, surpassing even titles like GTA VI.
What the developer did angered many other studios, who labeled the move as dirty and underhanded.
But their criticism changed nothing.
The moment Ordeal was released, it sold tens of millions of copies in a single day—to the point that every major platform crashed under the load.
Fortunately, Ethan received an early copy, given that he owned one of the most prominent channels dedicated to Souls-like content.
And so—
Screens lit up.
Controllers were gripped tightly.
Players took their first steps into the game described as the perfect RPG experience…
Ordeal.
The opening was unlike anything they had ever seen.
The technical and visual fidelity alone left players utterly stunned.
The game's initial story, however, felt familiar.
Ordeal told the tale of a world struck by a curse known as the Curse of Darkness.
The curse crept across the land, transforming all it touched into grotesque, filthy beings—stripping them of their humanity and turning them into monsters that looked as though they had crawled straight out of hell.
Creatures known as Night Walkers.
The curse was brought about by an entity called the Night Lord—a being who shattered the Light into fragments and plunged the entire world into darkness.
Its origins were shrouded in mystery.
No one knew where the curse had come from.
The fragments of Light scattered across the world ... And each boss in the game possessed one of them.
The player was required to defeat the bosses one after another—strengthening themselves by absorbing souls, and collecting the Fragments of Light in order to combat the curse and ultimately face the Night Lord.
That was the premise presented to the players.
A simple outline ..
before the real game began, and they found themselves stepping into its breathtaking world for the first time.
A vast, richly detailed world.
The NPCs possessed an astonishing level of intelligence—so much so that they felt like living, breathing characters rather than lifeless models driven by artificial intelligence.
Combat styles were diverse.
The game was a visual masterpiece.
Within the first hour of gameplay, players around the world became convinced of one thing:
They were witnessing the greatest RPG ever made.
But everything changed the moment the true challenge began ..
when they collided with the very first boss at the start of the game.
"YOU DIED."
That message began to repeat itself with terrifying frequency across players' screens worldwide.
Just as the NPCs felt intelligent and alive—
the bosses shared the same trait.
A highly advanced artificial intelligence allowed them to adapt to each player—changing their behavior with every attempt, remembering every previous encounter.
Bosses that once followed fixed, predictable move sets had become something else entirely.
Something far more sinister.
And that wasn't all.
They were also granted an absurd number of abilities.
Together, these factors turned the experience into a living hell ..
to the point where most players failed to defeat even the first boss, despite fighting it hundreds of times.
Only then did the world finally understand the true meaning behind the developer's words.
And the real reason he had dared to offer such a deranged reward.
Even among the best players attempting to conquer the game—
Ethan was suffering immensely.
He found himself dying over and over again every time he tried to make progress.
Overwhelmingly powerful bosses that adapted to whatever the player used against them.
A living, breathing world that punished every mistake without mercy.
An extreme—borderline absurd—difficulty that turned the entire experience into torment.
All of it forced Ethan to pause for long moments during his streams, having died so many times that he'd lost count.
The chat window fell silent as well.
His viewers were just as shocked by what they were witnessing.
Viewers: 4,120
MrTrashKim:
What the hell is this? Are you telling me this is just the first boss?
VenusPanties:
This difficulty is simply impossible. I heard the game has a massive number of bosses… If the first one is this hard, what are the later bosses even going to look like?
SquareDick:
We've been scammed, guys. That bastard Ishizaki took our money and designed a game that screws its players.
Comments continued to pour in—
all carrying the same sentiment.
Everyone who played or even watched Ordeal felt disgusted by its escalating difficulty.
Some players demanded refunds.
Social media exploded as players turned against developer Ishizaki and his studio, one after another.
What he had done was labeled the scam of the century.
With a single statement, he had convinced hundreds of millions of players to buy his game—
only for them to discover a game that could not be completed.
From the very beginning, his declaration had been nothing more than a trap—designed to attract as many people as possible and make them spend their money without hesitation on an impossible game.
And what cemented public opinion even further ..
was Ishizaki's sudden, mysterious disappearance immediately after the release of Ordeal.
In this way, the game's popularity collapsed rapidly.
Players gave up on trying to finish it.
After all, the core purpose of games was enjoyment .. and there was no enjoyment in a game that could not be beaten.
And yet—
despite everything, a considerable group of players continued to try.
Among them was Ethan.
Or The Moon You, as he called himself.
One of the most prominent among the stubborn few.
Days passed.
Then weeks.
Then months.
With each passing day, more and more players abandoned the challenge.
But Ethan continued.