147 Pink Eye-row

The long yellow-blue line finally dissipated completely as the blue arrow on its tail reached the top of the screen. In the meantime, other arrows started to infest the bottom, like ants when their nest was destroyed.

Zhou Lei prepared himself for the onslaught of arrows that was about to appear, and with a greater speed as well.

'No matter.' He brushed off the increased speed as a small matter. After all, only a second would be needed for him to adapt to the speed adjustment.

What's more, Zhou Lei adjusted his mindset as well. He thought of these pesky arrows as enemies - those that would threaten to kill him, in the same way that it would threaten to destroy his ongoing combo or his chances of getting a perfect score. Only if he parried their attacks, as in, stepping on the plates of the machine, would he be able to live another day.

His eyes flared up as he stared at the rising arrows. '...What did I ever do to you, arrows?!'

Zhou Lei was now filled with unending hatred for the objects in the arcade game. His fists clenched, and veins started popping out of his arms, although they weren't visible as they were covered by his black jacket.

The intensity in his eyes spread across the large room, which an unnaturally large amount of people occupied. One of those people was Lin Guiying, who was caught in a trance watching her friend do so well in the game.

All of the people felt the intense emotions coming from the handsome youth, sending a chill through their spines. Lin Guiying was no exception, being in a situation no better than the rest.

'This intensity, it's familiar... Hou Heng?'

Hou Heng, the popular celebrity, went through her mind. The thought disappeared as fast as it came. She shook her head. 'He wouldn't have enough time to mentor anyone, I would think. But why is it so familiar...?'

As Lin Guiying continued to ponder about why watching Zhou Lei would invoke the same feelings within her as watching Hou Heng, Zhou Lei continued to annihilate the arrows seamlessly, and he seemed to do it with relative ease and without effort as well.

It only took him about a second to adapt to the increased speed of the arrows, and that made the spectators admire him more.

'Look at our fanclub leader! Not only is his handsomeness otherworldly, he also had this hidden skill up his sleeves! No other can match up to him...!' The admiration levels of Zhou Lei's fellow fanclub members reached new heights...

A couple of arrows here and there were no match for Zhou Lei's ferocity. He would stomp the arrow plate as soon as those pitiful arrows reached the top. In fact, his stomp was a little too hard...

"You better lose yourself in the-! De. Spa. Ghetti~"

The final part of the song was playing. Zhou Lei could feel the adrenaline rush through him.

How did he finish this in one go, when he anticipated to finish it after ten or so tries? Was it just because his prior preparation and practice were enough, or did the huge crowd pressure him into performing beyond his previous peak?

As the song begun its final stretch, a new arrow appeared. Zhou Lei's eye caught its movements, and he squinted.

"Despaghetti" was the hardest song in the history of DDR, not only because of the crushing amount of arrows that it dispensed at your face, but also because of a lone type of arrow that contributed so much to a person's hardships when they got into the last part of the song. So much so, that all of the people capable enough to reach this part of the song were destroyed just by this type of arrow.

It was quite ironic then that the arrow was of a pink shade, a color usually known for the sweet and tender feelings it gave to the one that saw it, as opposed to the rage inducing properties of the arrow. No wonder the creators of the game didn't put this arrow in any other level - this arrow elevated the difficulty to such extreme levels!

The reason why this pink arrow was held with considerable contempt was because, unlike any other arrow, it came from the top. That's right, it descended.

Along with the multiple arrows that assaulted the player from the bottom, they now had to pay attention to the ones coming from the top! What blasphemy! What madness!

As soon as the pink arrows showed themselves, a set of arrows, similar to the ones on top, appeared on the bottom of the screen. That was where the pink arrows were supposed to land before utter annihilation. However, there was a twist.

The direction of the pink arrows on screen were deceiving. For example, an arrow pointed towards the right would naturally be destroyed by pressing the right plate, right? Wrong!

Instead of using the right plate like normal, one had to use the opposite arrow, which is the left plate. The fact that it came from the top and creeped towards the bottom would be enough to confuse the hell out of any players, but the creators had to go and crank the difficulty even further.

But that's not all. The pink arrows were treated as normal arrows in the case of other types, which meant that other types of arrows could also be pink, and come from the top! The long yellow-blue arrow would now be an annoying pink-pink arrow!

Still, that's not all. Zhou Lei had the audacity to turn on the double screen mode, so instead of him pressing the left plate for the right arrow, he needed to take into account that the opposite rule counted for the side of the screen as well! That meant that for a right arrow on the left screen, the plate that needed to be pressed was the left plate on the right screen!

Zhou Lei grit his teeth. 'I went and did it. I fucked up, didn't I?'

His brain could only take so much stress before collapsing completely...