“Uh….”
Streamer Rydel was at a loss for words.
Player “WokeUpSilver” stood in the middle of the flying iron ball obstacle course — and hadn’t been hit even once.
It wasn’t even like they were making any big, flashy movements.
Just light, subtle taps — yet every iron ball seemed to veer away on its own, as if they were the ones avoiding the character.
“What… is that?”
“Are they hacking?”
“Come on, who would even hack in a game like this?”
“How are they even doing that?”
“That shouldn’t be possible with the game’s momentum system.”
One of Chain Roller’s defining features is that all the bald-headed characters wear roller skates.
Because of that, the game applies momentum heavily — pressing a direction key doesn’t make you move instantly; your character slowly accelerates.
Stopping also takes time.
That momentum system was the main reason for the game’s notorious difficulty — precise control was ridiculously hard.
But the player “WokeUpSilver” was avoiding every single ball with just those light taps, moving like it was the easiest thing in the world.
I couldn’t even see where half those balls were coming from.
Rydel considered herself a pretty skilled gamer — her chat’s teasing aside.
Her reflexes and reaction speed were top-tier.
She’d played plenty of games with obstacles coming from all directions before.
I thought I could clear this — if I treated it like a 3D bullet-hell game.
But this was on a whole other level.
Even when she thought she’d perfectly memorized all 20 iron ball positions and dodged their trajectories.
A ball would suddenly fly in from her blind spot and send her character flying.
It felt like there were invisible balls attacking from nowhere.
No way… Even if the developer’s crazy, they wouldn’t make invisible obstacles, right?
At the very least, a game had to be winnable.
But no, that’s not it.
If there really were invisible balls, there’s no way “WokeUpSilver” would still be standing without taking a single hit.
The problem had to be something Rydel just wasn’t seeing.
Man… my luck is the worst.
It was no wonder her chat was calling this an “unfair stage” and begging her to restart the room.
[WokeUpSilver: Just hold the forward key.]
[WokeUpSilver: I’ll carry you.]…Whatever.
Whether this player was a hacker, a bug abuser, or just some insane expert at this cursed game — Rydel didn’t know.
But if they were offering to carry, she wasn’t about to turn it down.
Rydel shut her eyes tight and pressed the forward key.
***
“Is this supposed to be easy?”
I murmured to myself, watching the iron balls rush in from all directions.
It had seemed tricky at first, but now that I was playing, it didn’t feel difficult at all.
[Ughhhh!]
[Aaargh!]
“…Maybe it’s not that easy after all.”
Seeing Rydel and Delbung #3 get knocked away the instant they moved made me reconsider.
I couldn’t tell if I was just doing well or if they were struggling more than they should be.
Since Chain Roller was notorious for its high difficulty and randomized stages, the challenge level varied wildly.
But there was one tricky thing about this obstacle course.
There’s a hidden problem here.
It was easy to see why those two were struggling.
On the surface, it looked like there were 20 iron balls flying around.
But…There are actually 23.
Three of the balls were cleverly hidden behind the others — staying in their blind spots.
If you focused only on the 20 visible balls and dodged their paths, those hidden ones would blindside you every time.
Even I almost got hit by one of them on my first try.
But the balls aren’t that fast.
Their erratic movement was tricky, but the balls’ speed wasn’t overwhelming.
With a little focus, dodging them wasn’t hard at all.
Whoosh!
Once again, I easily dodged the barrage of incoming iron balls.
With the smallest possible movements.
The game’s momentum system made these kinds of evasions tricky — but it was all about instinct.
I could see the iron balls’ trajectories with perfect clarity, and my fingers naturally completed the evasive actions.
It felt completely natural to adjust for momentum ahead of time.
But I still couldn’t move forward.
No matter how well I played, I couldn’t advance to the next stage on my own.
[Gahhh!]
[Ughhh!]
The screams of the two bald-headed characters echoed around me.
Their bodies flailed through the air, limbs bent at unnatural angles.
Chain Roller was a three-player game by design.
All three characters were physically connected by chains — and there was a limit to how far we could separate from each other.
“There’s gotta be a way to use this…”
That chain — I remembered seeing other streamers use it strategically in their runs.
“Ah.”
One streamer had used the chain-pull feature to save falling teammates by yanking them back to safety.
It was one of the few advantages of the three-player mode — something you couldn’t do in solo play.
If I use that…I pressed the chain-pull button.
Normally, the function was meant to rescue teammates on the verge of falling.
But this button didn’t just pull forward or backward.
You could also pull to the left or right.
Pulling left would fling the connected player to the left.
Pulling right would launch them to the right.
I remembered that in the streams I’d seen, this feature was rarely used.
Sure, you could control your teammates’ movements — but misuse could easily lead to trolling.
One wrong pull, and someone would lose their balance and go flying into an obstacle.
But…Whoosh.
whoosh .
If you controlled it well, you could force your teammates to dodge incoming iron balls.
“Oh. This works.”
Grabbing Rydel’s chain with my right hand and Delbung3’s chain with my left, I started pulling them into position.
Controlling two players at once was trickier, but by twisting my body and timing the pulls, I made both of them move exactly how I wanted.
The developer’s a menace.
The range of control I had over their movement was way bigger than I’d expected.
It was so easy to manipulate their characters — it felt like the game was designed to encourage trolling.
Considering the average developer mindset for this kind of rage game… I wouldn’t even be surprised if that was intentional.
But hey — works for me.
Thanks to this feature, I could easily adjust their movements.
Which meant I could force them to dodge the iron balls, whether they realized it or not.
“Let’s give it a try.”
Two iron balls flew toward Rydel and Delbung3.
I dodged my own set of obstacles, then tugged both chains at just the right moment.
Their characters were yanked sideways, avoiding the iron balls by a hair’s breadth.
If I keep this up…By dodging for myself while controlling the other two, I could keep all of us safe.
It was a bit exhausting, but definitely manageable.
The only real problem was how unpredictable the two of them were.
If they’d just stop moving on their own, I could handle everything.
Luckily, there was a chat feature.
I took advantage of a brief opening in the iron ball barrage and quickly typed:[WokeUpSilver: Just hold the forward key.]
[WokeUpSilver: I’ll carry you.]
A moment later, Rydel started running straight ahead.
No more unnecessary movements — just following my instructions perfectly.
Delbung3 hesitated at first, clearly trying to do their own thing… but after getting smacked around a few more times, they also started running straight forward.
Way easier.
Them running forward in a straight line made my job much simpler.
If they kept trying to dodge on their own, their unpredictable movements would make it harder for me to control them.
Now that both of them were sprinting toward me, I started pulling the chains left and right — guiding them safely past every obstacle.
***
[What’s going on with Rydel’s stream?]
[This Chain Roller run is so weird… what’s with these iron ball patterns?]
The difficulty’s definitely off.
I’ve watched all 21 major streamers play this game, and I’ve never seen patterns like this.…Dude, what kind of life are you living to have watched that many streams?
(That’s not even human.)
[Did Rydel say he’s planning an all-clear stream today?]
[Guess we’re in for another 20-hour broadcast lololol]
He apparently cleared the iron ball stage already?
Wait, what?
Yeah, but someone else carried him.
No way, really?
Go watch it yourself, dude.
[There’s some insane player on Delbung’s stream right now.]
[They’re dodging all the iron ball attacks alone while carrying both Rydel and the other player. Absolute beast.]
How are they even carrying the team?
This game’s impossible if two people can’t keep up.
They’re using the chain-pull feature to make the others dodge.
Rydel’s just standing still, and the balls are all missing him somehow.
Wasn’t the chain-pull feature made just to troll teammates?
Are we sure this isn’t a hacker?
There aren’t even hacks for a game this janky.
[Rydel’s stream — that person’s movements don’t make any sense…]
[How’s it even possible to use a system made for trolling to pull off dodges like this?]
Lmao I swear this game wasn’t designed for this.
No clue, man.
Just watch the stream.
This is gonna go down in history.
[Delbung’s in emergency mode lololol]
[They cleared the iron ball stage, and now they’re in Season 2 of “Unfair Patterns” mode.]
Whoa… isn’t this that pattern even the speedrunners reset on?
Yeah, that pattern’s pure chaos.
Everyone just rage-quits after an hour.
Wait, didn’t that one guy carry the iron ball stage?
Can’t they do this too?
I didn’t see the iron ball part, but this next stage’s on another level… no way they clear this.