Chapter 273 - Deep and Meaningful (1/2)

Zhao Lei looked at the time and discovered that it only took him ten minutes to complete the game.

This included him running around in circles, as well as some meaningless clicking around.

Moreover, the controls were incredibly simple. There wasn’t any combat or monsters. The whole game was just walking around and clicking.

Considering the various choices the player had to make, the game was clearly a puzzle game.

Meaning that the game was probably about exploring different paths to reach different endings.

After figuring that out, Zhao Lei felt that he knew what he should do next.

He should try out different options.

—

The game started for the second time.

According to the hints, Stanley should exit his office to look for his colleagues in the meeting room. But Zhao Lei got an idea, what if he doesn’t go out? What if he closes the door??

They clicked on the door of his office, and the door closed with it.

“But Stanley simply couldn’t handle the pressure. What if he had to make a decision? What if a crucial outcome fell under his responsibility? He had never been trained for that! No, this couldn’t go any way except badly.

“The right thing to do now, Stanley thought to himself, is to wait. Nothing will hurt me. Nothing will break me. In here, I can be happy, forever. I will be happy.”

Zhao Lei was incredibly confused.

Am I locked in here?

He walked around then clicked on the door to try to leave, but it was all in vain. HE also discovered something incredibly interesting. The clock on the wall that previously didn’t move started moving, as though reminding Stanley that time was passing.

“But the one thing he knew, for sure, beyond any doubt, was that if he waited long enough, the answers would come. Eventually, some day, they would arrive. Soon…

“Very soon now, this will end. He will be spoken to. He will be told what to do. Now it’s just a little bit closer. Now it’s even closer. Here it comes..

The narration ended abruptly and his screen went black. Zhao Lei couldn’t guess what had happened to Stanley.

The game ended, turns out that was another ending.

Zhao Lei realised that the endings he got were quite simple, but were quite meaningful.

It was just like the name of the game described, The Stanley Parable. Parables are succinct, didactic stories, in prose or verse, that illustrates one or more instructive lessons or principles.

Evidently, it would only take a few minutes to reach a seemingly perfect ‘freedom ending’ if they followed the narrator. But Zhao Lei felt that this ‘freedom ending’ may as well be called ‘deception ending’ as Stanley followed what the narrator said without exploring anything else in the world.

What did the two endings represent?

Perish in silence because of shutting oneself in because of a lack of courage?

Or, following instructions to complete a journey, to tell a lie to themselves?

Zhao Lei thought that the game was quite interesting and started exploring different paths that were presented to him.

The game started once again.

This time, Zhao Lei thought of the button in the facility power room.

There were two buttons in front of them when he powered off the mind control facility, one was labeled ‘off’, the other ‘on’. What would happen if he pressed ‘on’?

As Zhao Lei was familiar with the game already, he quickly followed the narration to reach the facility power room.