I Just Want Players to Save Money, They Insist on Giving Me!
Chapter 515 - 170: May you travel far and wide, and still return as a youth!_1

Chapter 515: Chapter 170: May you travel far and wide, and still return as a youth!_1

As Mario, transformed into a power cable, made his way to the second country, Waterfall Country.

The art style shifted to blue skies, white clouds, and lush grass.

True to the country’s name, there were countless waterfalls of all sizes, cascading down the rugged mountains. As the camera panned around, the majestic landscape was fully displayed.

Ma Yang maneuvered Mario around.

The country wasn’t very large, taking roughly two minutes to circle the ground area. Although there were higher platforms and mountain peaks, for now, he didn’t know how to get up there.

Soon, following Kepi’s direction, he found a broken spaceship half-buried underground.

The spaceship was hidden in plain sight.

But judging by its rust-streaked appearance, it was hard to associate it with ’flight.’

However, Kepi informed the players that by collecting moons filled with magical power, they could repair the spaceship as its core driving force.

"Still sticking to the fairy tale style all the way, huh?" muttered Ma Yang to himself.

Children aren’t overly concerned with logic—you only need to mention ’magic’ or ’miraculous’ to them.

Then, in a child’s mind, such things become omnipotent, capable of achieving anything.

And when Ma Yang actually began searching for the hidden moons in order to repair the spaceship.

He realized.

The boundless fantasy of this game was only now beginning to unleash its charm.

This time, in addition to Gold Coin, the game also introduced Purple Coin and moon, two higher-tier collectibles.

Purple Coin could be used to buy unique outfits and decorations at the local shop.

And the moon was the key item for fixing/upgrading the spaceship.

Compared to Gold Coin, these two were much more hidden.

It was only after wandering around for quite a while that Ma Yang discovered three Purple Coins right behind his starting point.

Upon reaching Waterfall Country via the power cable, the initial camera angle was designed to face forward, plus there were too many new and unknown things to explore.

So the player’s first instinct would be to run forward.

But the cunning designer placed a small platform behind them at the edge of the cliff, a step lower than where the player stands, not visible from the normal camera angle.

If you didn’t approach the edge of the cliff, who would discover that something was hidden there?

After Ma Yang collected the three Purple Coins, he received the corresponding collection prompt.

3/50

Does that mean there were 50 Purple Coins hidden within this diminutive Country of Waterfalls?

"Wow, that many?" Ma Yang was shocked.

He had just arrived and had toured around Waterfall Country quite thoroughly.

Beyond the few noticeable high platforms or the distant places where Purple Coins were clearly seen suspended in mid-air.

At other times, there wasn’t a glimpse of any Purple Coin or moon.

Only after collecting the first batch of Purple Coins did he learn there were 47 more hidden within this miniaturized Country of Waterfalls.

Instantly, Ma Yang’s competitive desire was ignited!

Nothing more.

I’m playing a children’s game, and with my adult insight, it took me half a day to find just three collectibles?

If I don’t make a thorough collection of them all, wouldn’t I seem inferior to a child?

However, after another round, Ma Yang started to feel somewhat embarrassed.

It seems... I might really be worse than a child?

In the five minutes that had just passed.

Ma Yang had only managed to collect an additional four Purple Coins.

These four he found by following the same trick as before, walking along and checking the edges of the floating platforms upon Waterfall Country’s cliffside.

And he noticed that the designer used the same approach to hide four more on those little platforms, and he caught them all in one go.

Beyond that, there was no more.

Of course, it wasn’t that Ma Yang hadn’t seen any Purple Coins.

He saw some, but either the platforms were too high to reach by jumping.

Or they were embedded in hard rocks, which couldn’t be broken with the force of his hat.

Or they were simply floating in mid-air, over places without any ground.

This made Ma Yang fall into thought.

"Now I’m really wondering, is this game for children supposed to be this difficult?"

It wasn’t difficult in the conventional sense.

It was more like a brain-teaser, one where I recognize all the words, but when put together in a sentence, I just can’t figure out the answer."

"Not right... Could it be that I’m approaching this the wrong way?" Ma Yang pondered where the issue lay.

Soon, he realized.

His way of thinking was somewhat...

Too much like an adult?

For instance, there was a waterfall raging in front of him, and the game designers had laid a cobblestone path through it.

He would naturally follow that path.

Because adults know that if you jump into the water beneath a waterfall, you’ll be swept away by the torrent.

Then there’s a mountain ahead; it’s a dead end.

There’s a narrow path beside it, but logically, it’s too narrow for a person to walk on, and one might fall to their death.

Therefore, Ma Yang would assume it was there to add a touch of realism to the cliffs.

Purple Coins floating in mid-air, with no standing place underneath—Ma Yang’s first thought is ’Is this a bug in the game?’

Rather than ’Is there a way to get them?’

Ultimately, it’s the years of living in society that have made my thinking too realistic, too rigid.