Chapter 149 We're Just Here to Watch You Show Off Your Skills!

"Hahaha... What did I tell you? A mere Chaos difficulty damageless run, could it possibly stump this kid?"

Inside the Stardust Platform’s business building, Zhao Hong beamed with pleasure after watching Poseidon, the gatekeeping boss, get easily executed, and cast a provocative glance at Wu Qing.

"Who was the one worrying so much just a moment ago? This was just a prologue meant for practicing; the real challenges are all waiting ahead."

Wu Qing completely ignored Zhao Hong's provocative look and scoffed softly. Though somewhat surprised that the prologue had been cleared so smoothly, games only grew harder as they progressed—not to mention the prologue was merely there for players to warm up.

"Then let's just watch and see."

Zhao Hong shook his off, unbothered by Wu Qing's remark. If Wu Qing had faith in the game's difficulty, then his own confidence was placed purely in Luo Chen. Up until now, every single flag the kid had planted had yet to go wrong.

...

Regarding some of the overly censored scenes in *God of War III*, Luo Chen hadn't thought of any particularly good solutions; if worst came to worst, he would just let the screen go black for a moment.

Right... he would just claim it was a video equipment malfunction. That wouldn't have anything to do with him whatsoever.

Having defeated Poseidon, with no more obstructions in their way, Gaia the Earth Mother finally managed to carry Kratos up to the summit.

"The Hand of Death could not defeat me, and the Sisters of Fate could not stop me. As for you, do not expect to see today's sunset—I am here to exact my revenge!"

Upon reaching the peak, Kratos entered the mountaintop palace alone, drew the Blades of Athena from his back, and pointed them straight at Zeus!

Though Zeus stood alone against Kratos the God of War and Gaia the Earth Mother, as the final boss, he naturally could not be defeated right at the opening. Facing their joint assault, Zeus raised a hand to gather the surrounding storm clouds and lightning into a thunder spear in his palm, striking them both down from the mountaintop in a single blow.

At that critical moment, Gaia, who had been cast down the mountain, ruthlessly abandoned Kratos to save her own skin. Consequently, falling down Mount Olympus under the guidance of the plot, Kratos conveniently forgot the fact that he actually had wings and could glide even if he couldn't fly, plunging straight down into the Underworld.

"The *God of War* series always likes to hand you a fully maxed-out character at the start, only to forcibly strip you down to level one right after you finish the prologue. This time will naturally be no exception..."

Such scripted plot moments naturally required some explanation; Luo Chen didn't want to be misunderstood as having failed his damageless run. After Kratos fell into the River Styx, his maximum health and magic bars were forcefully depleted by half by the wandering souls within the river, and they could only be restored by collecting and sacrificing specific offerings.

"On Chaos difficulty, opening chests restores very little health and magic, enemies are far more aggressive, and their attack power is five times that of normal difficulty... Opening this chest reveals a collectible, the Gorgon Eye. Collecting three of them increases your maximum health. Of course, the amount of health doesn't really matter anyway, seeing as it's a damageless run."

Shortly after entering the Underworld, he quickly acquired the first hidden chest, which contained the health-boosting offering, the Gorgon Eye.

To save time, Luo Chen had slashed his way all the way through the Underworld without the slightest intention of saving his game from start to finish. This left quite a few viewers feeling deeply uncomfortable. Watching checkpoint after checkpoint flash by, those with obsessive-compulsive disorder declared they simply could not bear it!

In the past, whether playing games themselves or watching live streams and videos, who wouldn't eagerly save the game the moment they encountered a checkpoint? Even if a master player was extremely confident, they'd still want that peace of mind, wouldn't they?

What if something went wrong?

Then there wouldn't even be a chance to turn things around.

Especially since quite a few knowledgeable viewers knew that coming up ahead was the battle against the two Hellhounds guarding the gates of the Underworld. Whenever two high-tier enemies appeared simultaneously, the fight became an absolute headache—not to mention the battlefield was a tiny platform where dodging was exceedingly difficult.

[Big Boss Angel! A checkpoint! Another checkpoint just went by!]

[OCD viewers are saying they simply cannot handle not saving.]

[Did you really have to be this overconfident? If it crashes now, everything is completely ruined!]

...

Facing the well-intentioned reminders from numerous viewers, Luo Chen was just about to explain the reason when a wave of refuting bullet comments followed right after.

[What do you guys know? A true man clears the game in one go! No saving!]

[Didn't you hear the big boss say it's a damageless run? What more do you need saves for?]

[Exactly! Can movie protagonists ever get do-overs? Don't tell me this is a game, I'm just here to watch a movie.]

[I say we shouldn't even bother with the collectibles; just breeze right through the whole way. After all, the amount of health doesn't matter anyway, right? Since it's a damageless run anyway.]

...

"Since I promised a full collection, it wouldn't do to change it now. Besides, this is a walkthrough video, not just a showcase of my personal skill."

Luo Chen could roughly guess what these people were thinking. If he gave up collecting the offerings, some of the bosses' attacks later on in Chaos difficulty could instantly kill the player. At that point, a single mistake wouldn't just mean failing the damageless run—it would result in the protagonist's immediate death. Combined with his refusal to save, he wouldn't even have a chance at redemption; it wasn't like he could just start all over from the beginning.

Failing a damageless run could be brushed off with an excuse, but getting the protagonist killed would be too embarrassing.

[No! We are specifically here to watch you show off your skills.]

[Where can't you find a regular walkthrough?]

[We want to see a speedrun! Don't waste time picking up useless collectible items like health-boosting offerings.]

[Yeah, it's not like last time where the stream suddenly cut out halfway through, right?]

[That's true, you absolutely have to finish streaming the whole thing this time!]

...

Whether they picked up collectibles or not didn't really matter to the viewers, but the majority of them wanted to see Luo Chen stream all the way to the end. The last time, when he streamed *Assassin's Creed*, it cut off right in the middle and almost drove them crazy with frustration.

Waiting day after day for updates, those four video parts had dragged on for a full two weeks, driving them nearly to the brink of a nervous breakdown.

Even if it meant staying up all night until tomorrow, they had to finish watching this stream.

The time required to beat *God of War III* on Chaos difficulty was quite long. If they truly cleared it with a full collection, they'd probably end up playing straight into tomorrow. Luo Chen hadn't originally planned to beat the game in a single stream, but seeing the screen filled with phrases like "waiting for the clear" and the no-small number of fans planning to tip after the game was beaten, he reconsidered.

After weighing his options, Luo Chen decided he would just finish it in one go. If worst came to worst, he'd just move a bit faster; he certainly didn't want tomorrow's Stardust Platform to be flooded with protests and demands for updates.

With these thoughts in mind, Luo Chen didn't slow down his actions. Following a flurry of slaughter, Kratos finally arrived at the platform before the gates of the Underworld, where two Hellhounds stood in stern formation.

The two Hellhounds weren't particularly difficult to defeat, but the real challenge was figuring out how to slay them as quickly as possible while taking zero damage!

(PS: Why write about the Hellhounds? Because this is where damageless runs go to die... Of course, that doesn't apply to the novel.)