"What?" Hearing his sister's words, Lucien's chopsticks froze in midair, his brows knitting together at once. "No way. Fake. It has to be fake!"
This news genuinely shocked him!
After all, in the difficulty Lucien had set for the game, pulling this off was insanely hard.
He had always figured it was impossible for anyone in a first playthrough.
"Doesn't seem fake, Lucien. Check out this video," Jenny said, handing him her phone.
Lucien set down his chopsticks and clicked in right away. The first thing to appear was a boy around fifteen or sixteen, smiling at the camera as he spoke.
[Hey there, fellow Subnautica players! Got some super awesome news for you. Today, with help from my sister and the god-tier backup she brought in, we actually managed to save the woman from pod two! And there's even a surprise discovery!]
[First, let's welcome our two special guests!]
With his words, a man and a woman stepped into frame, both smiling and waving at the camera.
Lucien narrowed his eyes. These two looked a little familiar, but he couldn't place them right away.
The comments from viewers below reminded him.
[Holy shit, Olympic swimming champion Katie Ledecky?!]
[And Olympic shooting champion Yusuf Dikeç?!]
[Two absolute legends!]
"..."
Seeing the two of them, Lucien fell silent. He suddenly realized that the difficulty he had designed could actually be cracked after all.
In the video, after the three quickly greeted the audience, Michael Ledecky took over like a host and continued. "Now let's see exactly how we saved the woman from pod two!"
The scene cut, and it switched into the game.
It started with Katie controlling the gameplay. The instant the game began, she dove straight into the sea and started cruising around the nearby shallows.
She spotted titanium ore, decisively mined it out with her knife, then crafted an oxygen tank so she could stay underwater longer.
Once the tank was strapped on, Katie went searching for a spouting flower.
She found one quickly, swam over, tapped it with her fin, then immediately swam away. The whole sequence flowed perfectly, showing how practiced she was!
Hiss hiss hiss.
The exploding fish came streaking out with its fuse burning, but Katie twisted like a mermaid, using her powerful technique to dodge it clean!
She still took a bit of splash damage from the explosion, but it only nicked a tiny sliver of health.
[Damn, no wonder she's an Olympic champion. That swimming speed is insane!]
[Haha, and her maneuvers are so slick!]
[I swear, even with a propulsion unit I sometimes lose a third of my health to those exploding fish. Katie did it with no gear and barely lost any?!]
[So that's the gap between us and a champion!]
Amid the peoples' awed comments, Katie moved with smooth expertise. She lured eight exploding fish into detonating one after another, successfully gathered the sulfides, and with the 3D printer working its magic, she soon crafted a fully loaded handgun.
At the same time, Katie received the distress broadcast from escape pod two. Once Gaia pinpointed the exact location, she grabbed the gun and swam straight for it.
The distance closed fast. Soon she was within thirty meters, spotting the escape pod two below ahead and the sea crocodile furiously ramming into it!
With each heavy slam, the pod's hull was caving inward, cracks spiderwebbing across the surface. The situation looked critical!
"Quick, pause the game!!" Michael voice called from outside the frame. "Sis steps out, Sir Yusuf steps in!"
"Mm-hmm!"
"Alright, here I come!!!"
Katie and Yusuf Dikeç's voices followed right after.
Katie paused the game instantly, removed her VR headset, and the waiting Yusuf took her place, entering the game.
People watching the scene burst out laughing.
[Holy crap, they actually swapped players mid-run?!]
[Haha, that cheeky move is straight-up brilliant!]
[Pfft, never thought of playing it like that!]
[Never seen this route before!]
The handover finished quickly. Once Yusuf took control, he drew the handgun at once, aimed at the sea crocodile still battering the pod, and pulled the trigger!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Yusuf fired five shots in one breath. Five bloody wounds burst across the crocodile's body!
Every single bullet hit!
Roar
The sea crocodile let out a monstrous bellow, abandoning the pod and swimming straight toward Yusuf instead!
But Yusuf remained calm under pressure. He stood his ground, kept firing wildly, and emptied the remaining twenty rounds in the magazine in one go!!!
Yusuf fired a total of twenty-five shots, and every last one struck the sea crocodile!
[Time's up! This is what a world champion brings!]
[Man, Olympic champions really aren't hype!]
[This is way too overpowered.]
After the tense, thrilling barrage, Yusuf had completely emptied the clip. Then they could see the sea crocodile in the distance stop its forward charge. Blood blooming across its body, it began sinking toward the seabed.
The sea crocodile was taken out!
"Pause the game. Sis is back in!" Michael urgent voice came from off-screen.
"OK!"
"Got it!"
The two world champions swapped back in a flash. Katie took control again and surged toward escape pod two.
Seeing this, the viewers grew excited too!
The goal was almost complete!
By now the pod had been smashed open, seawater flooding inside. Katie slipped through the breach and soon spotted a woman inside.
She was above-average looks, with a ponytail that gave her a graceful, refined air.
Her eyes were tightly shut. She had already fallen unconscious from lack of air.
The viewers were stunned at the sight.
[Holy crap, I finally saw another person in Subnautica!]
[New World was right. The woman from pod two really can be saved!]
[But damn, it wasn't easy! It actually took two world champions, and they barely made it in time! The difficulty is ridiculous!]
[Haha, guess everyone really went all out to save the pod two woman!]
[I bet the old thief himself never expected anyone to pull off a rescue. The difficulty is right there!]
[Definitely. I bet the those devs sees this video and just blanks out!]
[Only thing to say is well played. Players are supposed to match wits with the developer, especially one that loves messing with our feelings. Hitting him where it hurts feels so satisfying!]
[This time it's a huge win for the players!]
"Uh, Luc, the viewers are all roasting you," Jenny said, glancing at him.
"No need to point it out. I'm not blind. I can see the comments," Lucien replied, rolling his eyes in utter speechlessness.
These players actually dared to come at him!
It was kind of annoying, honestly.
"The rescue difficulty you designed is seriously twisted! It took two world champions to pull it off. Wait, that doesn't seem right."
Jenny was complaining when something suddenly occurred to her. "I remember when I played, dealing with that sea crocodile was pretty straightforward. Stay calm, use a few turns to kite it, then unload with the gun and it was done. Why does it look so hard in the video? They needed two champions taking turns."
"That's because the difficulties are different," Lucien explained. "I set two versions for that crocodile. Before the pod two woman dies, the crocodile has way more health, higher speed and aggression, and it doesn't have that slow-turn weakness either."
"Once the woman dies, all the crocodile's stats drop sharply. That's to make it easy for players to get revenge. When you killed the crocodile, didn't it feel really satisfying? Like finally getting payback?"
Lucien had perfectly read the players' psychology. With the pod two woman killed by the crocodile, of course they wanted revenge. So the kind-hearted and handsome Lucien decided to give them that chance.
It was his way of looking out for the players' emotions.
"Yeah, killing the crocodile really did feel great!" Jenny admitted with a nod, then sighed. "Lucien, you really thought of everything. No wonder I felt like the champions were weaker than me."
At that point she even rubbed her head a little sheepishly.
Just earlier she had briefly gotten the illusion that world champions were weak while she herself was strong.
"But I'm really curious, Luc. Let me ask you something. Why design it this way?" Jenny asked, puzzled. "Just to mess with the players?"
"Am I that kind of person?" Lucien said helplessly.
His sister put on a shocked face. "Aren't you?!"
"..."
"Fine. At least not this time," Lucien could only reply.
"Then why?" Jenny pressed.
"Keep watching the video and you'll see!" Lucien explained.
"Really?" His sister sounded half-doubting as she continued.
In the video, Katie successfully entered pod two and found the unconscious woman. But the moment she reached out and touched her, the woman suddenly burst into a cloud of bubbles and vanished from the screen.
The viewers were confused by the sight. What was going on?
The next moment the screen froze, and a dialog box popped up.
[Congratulations on completing the hidden mission: successfully rescue the survivor from escape pod two.]
[You may now enable multiplayer mode! Invite your Steam friends to play as the pod two survivor and explore this beautiful water world together!]
Seeing the prompt, the viewers finally understood.
[Whoa, so saving the pod two woman unlocks multiplayer?!]
[That's the design?!]
[Man, letting a multiplayer player take the role of the pod two woman keeps the story consistent and adds co-op in one clever stroke. The fucking devs control over the game is on another level!]
[Who said Subnautica wouldn't get multiplayer? It was already built in from the start!]
[Only thing to say is the fucking devs is way too gentle. He knew we'd be scared and set up the multiplayer option early. I'm actually crying!]
[Gentle my ass. Even if you know how, you still can't do it. It took two world champions tag-teaming for half a day just to save the pod two woman. You think you can manage that?!]
[Ah, yeah, that's true too.]
[This is worse than not opening it at all. Knowing the way but not being able to do it sucks!]
[I think I get it. Developers probably doesn't want us jumping into multiplayer too early, so they designed it this way. They got good intentions!]
Amid the viewers' heated discussion, the video reached its end. At that point Michael's excited voice came through again.
"Everyone, that's the full process of saving the woman from pod two, and we also discovered the multiplayer method. We're really thrilled and completely surprised. Here I have to say to New World Studio, you guys are awesome!"
"And Nicolas Cage, did you see that, Nicolas? I fulfilled your wish for you!"
"Tsk tsk, so that's how it is," Jenny said after finishing the video, finally understanding. "Saving the pod two woman is the way to unlock multiplayer? Lucien, your idea is seriously genius."
Jenny gave Lucien a thumbs-up, letting out a heartfelt sigh.
Lucien, however, frowned and shook his head. "Still not thoughtful enough."
He had originally planned for players to unlock multiplayer only in their second playthrough. That was why he had set such massive difficulty for rescuing the pod two woman. It was supposed to be impossible on the first run.
By the second playthrough, players would already have advanced weapons and gear, making the rescue easy.
It was meant to be an Easter egg that also fit his earlier vision.
First let players adventure alone on an alien planet, experiencing endless loneliness and harshness.
After clearing it once, unlock multiplayer so they could enjoy the thrill of teaming up with friends.
He had thought the design was pretty clever.
Who could have known it would get exposed this fast!
Lucien had been very confident. Unless players used cheats, this Easter egg could never be found in a first playthrough.
But because Subnautica ran on the unprecedented Unreal Engine, no one could make cheats for it right now anyway.
It was a true zero-cheat game.
Yet Lucien had never, ever expected this. Software cheats might not exist, but damn it, physical cheats and skill-based cheats did!
Thanks to the players' own insane real-world abilities, someone had actually managed to unlock multiplayer on their very first playthrough!
For a moment Lucien felt a storm of emotions. He pressed a hand to his forehead in defeat. "Damn it, do you have to try this hard? Playing a game and you call in two world champions? And they even take turns? That's straight-up cheating!"
"Pfft." Hearing that, his sister couldn't hold back a laugh. "I really want to take a picture of your face right now and post it on X so the people can see! They'd love to watch the developer himself break down!"
"Whose side are you on?" Lucien asked, speechless.
"Even though I'm your sister, I'm also a player," she answered seriously.
Lucien pouted. "Whatever. It doesn't matter. They found the multiplayer method, so what? Can everyone actually do it?"
No more pretending. Time to lay it all out!
Anyway, only a tiny handful of absolute monsters could unlock multiplayer on their first playthrough. All the other players could just suffer alone like they were supposed to on their first run!
[Seriously guys, pls subs on my patreon .com/EdgyReader]