“So this is it.”
A comprehensive gaming site, “Stem.”
It’s a site that gathers all kinds of games, offering everything from indie developer games to AAA blockbusters.
Among them, one game stood out — Chain Roller.
Thanks to its popularity among streamers, it was ranking high in the download charts.
I clicked the purchase button and, while waiting for the download, browsed through other games.
“There aren’t many PC games here.”
In the popular games section, PC games were nowhere to be seen.
Only a few classic titles held a small presence.
Instead, the space was dominated by what they called VR games.
“So VR games are the mainstream now.”
It wasn’t just bodies that had changed.
As bodies changed, the world itself had subtly shifted from the one I used to live in.
The biggest difference here was undoubtedly the dominance of VR games.
Unlike the old world, which hadn’t fully moved past PC games, VR games ruled this one.
“Did only this technology advance here?”
It wasn’t just swinging swords to the beat while wearing a VR headset.
If it had been that simple, VR games wouldn’t have replaced PC games so completely.
They said you could enter a fully immersive virtual reality and play the game directly, though I hadn’t tried it yet, so I wasn’t sure.
Because of that, games played with monitors and keyboards were considered, at best, classic retro games — and at worst, old-fashioned relics.
“I’d give it a shot if it were a bit cheaper.”
The price of a VR capsule.
It varied by model, but most new devices cost as much as a small car.
Given how cutting-edge the technology was, the high price made sense — but my current financial situation made it absolutely out of reach.
Well, it’s not something I need right away anyway.
My goal right now is to check my gaming skills.
“Skill-checking games like ‘pot games’ are better for that.”
There’s a reason why these games are called the ultimate test of a streamer’s gaming ability.
Unlike RPGs, where your stats depend on how much money you spend, these games require pure, unfiltered player skill.
[Download complete]
The download for Chain Roller was finished.
When I hit the launch button, three bald men wearing roller skates appeared.
After getting a good look at their unnecessarily intense character models, I checked out the play modes.
“Three-player mode… and there’s a single-player mode too?”
If I just wanted to test my skills, the single-player mode would be more suitable — no unpredictable teammates to worry about.
But I chose the three-player mode.
“That’s the core of the game, after all.”
Chain Roller was designed with three-player mode as its foundation.
The game’s very name suggests it — and from the start screen, the three bald characters are visibly chained together.
The single-player mode was more of an optional feature, meant for veterans aiming to set high scores after mastering the game.
In other words, if I wanted to experience the game the way it was meant to be played, three-player mode was the way to go.
“Why are the main characters always bald in these games?”
Even pot games, the original kings of frustration games, were like this.
When I entered the three-player mode, I found myself in a waiting room.
Despite the game’s hype on YouTube, there weren’t that many active rooms.
After all, this game was more fun to watch than to actually play.
Most of the current players were likely people who had seen streamers play and decided to give it a try — the so-called “try-before-you-buy” crowd.
“Hopefully, I don’t get matched with someone totally clueless.”
Since it’s a three-player co-op game, having an inexperienced teammate would ramp up the difficulty significantly.
I wanted to team up with someone who at least had a decent grasp of the game.
“‘Gaming Genius Rydel’?”
One room name caught my eye.
Was it just a gimmick, or was this person truly a master of the game?
Either way, if they were confident enough to call themselves a gaming genius, they must have some skills.
Without much thought, I joined the room called “Gaming Genius Rydel.”
***
“AAAAHHH! Does this change every time you start a new game?!”
“Delbung #3,” restarting the game with a new member, “Silver-haired,” alongside Rydel.
As she looked up at the map, Rydel clutched her head in frustration.
Everything had changed.
The obstacles, the course they had to run — everything was different from before.
The familiar early-stage course they’d repeated and practiced for four hours had transformed into a completely new layout.
“TEEEEEEEEEEE”
“Delbung! You fell for it again!”
“Legendary situation unfolding!”
“Guess another four hours of practice incoming?”
“The map changes every time you reopen the room.”
“Everything resets!?”
Panicking, Rydel quickly opened the wiki and searched for Chain Roller.
Sure enough — just as the viewers had said — Chain Roller generated a brand-new map every time a room was created.
“A map generator using cutting-edge AI technology… Why the hell would they put this kind of advanced tech into such a cursed game…?”
Rydel slumped over her desk in despair.
Every time you start the game, the entire map and its obstacles reset to something completely different.
As if it were a tradition among developers of “pot games” — those infamously frustrating games — the creator of Chain Roller seemed to have poured all their passion and talent into tormenting players.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me this sooner!? You guys knew, didn’t you?!”
To keep the gameplay fresh and genuine, Rydel had avoided guides and even gameplay videos.
But her viewers had likely seen other streamers play this game before.
They must have known about the map resets from the start.
And yet — despite the flood of chat messages — not a single person had warned her.
“Telling you would’ve spoiled the fun!”
“We had no choice!”
“You told us not to spoil anything!”
“Can’t believe you really didn’t look up anything beforehand.”
“This is why we love Rydel’s authenticity.”
If nothing else, Rydel’s viewers always showed incredible unity when it came to messing with her.
Their tight-knit camaraderie was enough to bring tears to her eyes.
“Well, no helping it now. Caffeine fully charged — let’s do this!”
Even as she sighed deeply, Rydel forced her energy back up.
“I’ve been through worse trolling than this.”
Sure, the whole map-reset thing was a huge setback.
But as a full-time streamer, it was her job to shake it off and keep going.
Getting too discouraged would only ruin the fun — both for her audience and for herself.
“So we’re really starting completely from scratch, huh?”
“LMAO what if she never clears this?”
“Is this gonna turn into an all-nighter?”
“I was hoping to watch the clear before bed… guess not.”
“I bet she still won’t clear it by the time I leave for work tomorrow.”
“Shoutout to the unemployed folks who don’t have work tomorrow!”
“No, it’s fine! Thank you, dear developers, for giving me the chance to play this amazing game even longer!”
“I swear I can hear her gritting her teeth…”
“I see the veins popping on her forehead.”
“She’s gonna start rage-banning people soon.”
Still, the real problem was figuring out how to move forward.
The original course had flaming pillars erupting from the ground.
At first, those flames had sent her flying countless times — but after memorizing their positions and getting used to the timing, she’d finally managed to get through it.
But with the new room, everything had been reset.
Now, more than twenty floating metal spheres were drifting ahead of them.
It was a pattern she’d never seen before, and she had no idea how to tackle it.
“Let’s start by observing the pattern first. I’ll go ahead, so follow my lead—Wait, Silver-haired?!”
Before Rydel could even finish her sentence, “Silver-haired” had already sprinted ahead.
“Silver-haired, hold on! Listen to me— Oh, screw it. I’m going too!”
With Silver-haired making a reckless dash toward the obstacles, Rydel and Delbung #3 had no choice but to follow.
“Maybe they’re not one of my viewers? Or they turned off my stream?”
Rydel had naturally assumed that both of her teammates were her viewers.
That’s why she’d been giving instructions through her streaming mic instead of typing in chat.
Unlike Delbung #3 — whose username clearly showed they were a regular viewer — Silver-haired was completely ignoring her directions and charging straight ahead.
“I don’t think Silver-haired is one of the stream participants.”
“Isn’t this just a random player? You can’t password-protect rooms in this game.”
“But who the hell would willingly play this cursed game if they weren’t a viewer?”
“Are they trolling?”
“Maybe they’re just a hardcore fan of terrible games.”
“So it’s just a random player who joined because I couldn’t lock the room?”
If they weren’t intentionally trolling, then that was the only reasonable explanation.
But honestly, Silver-haired hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
They’d just joined a public game — and it just happened to be Rydel’s room.
“Alright, even if they’re a random, it’s fine. Let’s just try to— GAH!”
Before Rydel could even finish speaking, a huge iron ball slammed into her.
Thud!
With a heavy sound, Rydel’s bald character was sent flying backward.
“I think… this pattern is random?”
After a few more tries, Rydel’s mouth hung slightly open in disbelief.
More than 20 iron balls floated in the air, bouncing around.
But they weren’t following any fixed pattern.
They tracked the player’s character, twisting their paths in unpredictable ways and rushing at them from unexpected angles.
Some came straight on, some attacked offbeat — it was absolute chaos.
“This is ridiculous.”
Rydel gritted her teeth.
Even for a “pot game” — those notoriously frustrating, physics-based games — this course’s difficulty was absurd for an opening stage.
“The balls are literally following the player?”
“Wow, the bad luck is real…”
“Isn’t this a late-stage pattern? What’s it doing here?”
“Just remake the room.”
Should I?
Rydel considered it.
Watching Delbung #3 get smacked around by the iron balls, their skill level didn’t seem all that great either.
And on top of that, “Silver-haired” didn’t even seem like one of her viewers.
Maybe it would be better to just cut losses and restart quickly.
“Okay, one more try — and if this doesn’t work, I’ll remake the room.”
Determined to wrap things up properly, Rydel focused and made a serious attempt to get through the obstacles.
But then.
“Huh?”
Even though she dodged all the visible iron balls perfectly, one suddenly shot out from a blind spot and rushed toward her character.
She was definitely about to get hit.
Or… she should have been.
“What?”
Just before the iron ball made contact, the chain attached to her character suddenly pulled taut.
Her body was yanked forward in mid-air, and the iron ball barely grazed the top of her bald head as it sailed past.
[Silver-haired: Oh, I just noticed you can pull the chain;;]
[Silver-haired: I’ll help you out.]
Both the audience and Rydel herself had been so focused on the iron balls that they’d forgotten one thing:”Silver-haired” had rushed ahead from the very start — yet their character had never been hit once.
“Wha—?”
While Rydel was still too stunned to react, more iron balls came flying at her.
She was definitely going to get hit this time—But then Silver-haired yanked the chain again, pulling Rydel’s character sideways and helping her dodge yet another ball — perfectly.
Rydel’s mouth hung open in shock.
It felt like she was using some kind of cheat.
Without her doing anything, her character kept dodging every iron ball as if on its own.
“What’s going on??”
“Is this a bug?”
“You can pull the chains? I thought people only used that to troll!”
“For real, it’s hard enough dodging on your own — and this guy’s pulling the chain to force perfect dodges??”
“Meanwhile, Silver-haired still hasn’t been hit even once…”
[Silver-haired: Just hold down the forward movement key.]
[Silver-haired: I’ll carry you.]
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.