I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 184 - 85: The Exciting Match Day! The First Round Champion is Decided!_2

Chapter 184: Chapter 85: The Exciting Match Day! The First Round Champion is Decided!_2

An individual’s strength is minuscule, but when gamers come together, their bustling discussions always yield something new.

The speedrun techniques gradually evolved from the first civilian record of 3 hours and 16 minutes.

It was rapidly reduced to a 2-hour run.

Then, once again optimized, it was shortened to 1 hour and 40 minutes.

On the day the entry-level competition officially began, the fastest theoretical speed developed through relentless research even reached 1 hour and 30 minutes!

This fiery enthusiasm soon spread to the Number One Player Company.

Initially, only a handful of junior employees knew about this, but after discussions and sharing.

Now, all employees at the company were aware that the first round of entry-level speedruns for "Hollow" would commence that afternoon.

Seeing the game they worked on so passionately embraced by the player community, with competitions even organized out of love for it, filled the staff with a sense of fulfillment and recognition.

Even though it was closing time, aside from the employees who left early due to other commitments, and the ever-busy Mr. Ke who would shut himself in his office, steeped in work.

Almost all the employees were gathered in the conference hall.

Fixated on the big screen.

"Here it comes!"

"Damn! I’m so excited! A friend of mine entered this entry-level run. Let’s see how he performs."

"I heard that the higher-ups at Thunderbolt even chipped in 200,000 as a bonus to motivate the runners, that’s free publicity! They’re actively promoting our game... Awesome!"

"Ah, what a pity. We should have invited Mr. Ke to watch. He’s the creator of the game, and seeing so many players striving so hard in the world he crafted would have made him proud."

"Better not disturb Mr. Ke," Gou Chehua shook his head: "I’ve been to his office these past couple days and I always see him dozing off at times, he must be exhausted."

Hearing this, the employees also expressed their understanding.

"Mr. Ke has designed so many great games in less than a year. Only when a game launches does he get a bit of a break."

"Let him rest, let him rest."

Soon, amid great anticipation.

The first-ever speedrun competition for "Hollow" began!

By the end of the registration for the entry-level participants, there were a total of over 500.

Since Little Grey’s streaming room could only show 50 people’s screens at a time.

He planned to split the first round into nine sessions over three days to get it done.

At that moment on the screen, Little Grey briefly introduced the rules of the competition.

The speedrun challenge had no extra restrictions; it all depended on the difficulty of the enhancement items released by Designer Ke.

The only requirement was to speedrun.

You could skip all skills, not even fight the most difficult boss, Radiance. It’s all about focusing on speed.

As Little Grey gave the signal on the YY channel.

The timer in the bottom right corner of the stream also started ticking away.

The 50 contestants nearly synchronized as they maneuvered the Knight, charging towards the Holy Nest!

This scene was playfully mocked by countless comments.

"Radiance’s most dreaded episode."

"Radiance: ’The seal is finally about to break; a mere vessel is no concern. Let me see what else in these ruins dare defy me... WTF? 50 vessels???’"

"Radiance probably wants to dive back into its vessel and seal itself for another 500 years after seeing this commotion."

Before long, as the competition progressed.

The 50 players started in sync but began to diverge in diversity after just over ten minutes.

The first difficulty level only halved the attack damage and didn’t forbid Amulets or lock the health cap.

So each player chose different paths, each with their preferred playstyle.

Some burly men flipped directly to the "Wrath of the Dead" Amulet right in the first level.

This Amulet increased weapon damage by 175% when only one bar of health was left.

Not only did it negate the debuff from the first difficulty level, but it also slightly increased the damage.

Expert players with it moved as if dancing on the blade’s edge, breezing through levels like slicing melons and chopping vegetables.

But aside from the burly ones, there were also goofballs among the contestants.

As if they had come specifically to entertain the masses.

Some even took to exploring and sightseeing from the start, engaging NPCs in serious dialogue as if playing the game for the first time.

Even more outrageous were players who treated every minor monster as a formidable enemy, tentatively kiting and testing them out.

This naturally incited raucous laughter from the viewers.

"I can’t take it anymore, hahaha! How could there be such goofballs in a competition?"

"Just talk about his kiting, will you! The limit! No damage!"

"As long as it’s cool, it’s all good."

As the competition entered the mid-phase, more than half were eliminated from the 50 streaming rooms.

Some gave up on their own accord, while others met their demise in overambitious maneuvers.

But anyway, once on the stage, there’s no second chance.

All the way to the end of the match.

The time had passed 1 hour and 35 minutes.

At this point, only eight players remained in contention.

And six of them were somewhat behind.

Only two were left, entering the final boss "Hollow Knight’s" lair at the same time.

Since the speedrunning rule was simply to finish, triggering the ending was enough.

Therefore, the fastest way was to cut down the predecessor, Hollow Knight, without activating the hidden conditions to fight Radiance.