Defeating the first boss didn't mean the end. A new underground door opened, guiding the player to jump down and begin a new adventure.
Darry was mentally prepared for this. After once again confirming that he had completely looted every room, he jumped into the underground door.
But what awaited him wasn't a new level.
Instead, the protagonist curled up on the ground in pain, eyes tightly shut, as if dreaming—reliving certain memories.
It looked like the child was about to use the bathroom when several bad kids suddenly burst the door open, exposing him to everyone's gaze and causing instant, soul-crushing humiliation.
Darry's heart clenched at the sight.
He hadn't experienced something exactly like this, but he'd gone through similar moments.
Seeing behavior so close to school bullying made him feel it deeply.
Fortunately, the scene was only a brief fragment. Soon, the next level appeared.
He shook his head, pushing away those unpleasant thoughts, and threw himself back into the game.
This time, the character's combat power was noticeably stronger.
In the previous dungeon, he had picked up several items that looked quite powerful.
As a result, fighting through this level felt much easier.
He also noticed that more coins were dropping in this area.
Of course, the monsters were stronger than before—but still well within a manageable range.
After cutting through enemies all the way, he reached the second dungeon boss.
This was a new boss. Its difficulty was roughly the same as before—nothing too troublesome as long as he stayed careful.
He cleared it smoothly, defeated the second boss, then, as usual, searched every room again before entering the next underground door.
Just like before, another short animation played—more scenes of the protagonist suffering unfairness and abuse. Watching it made Darry uncomfortable.
But that discomfort quickly transformed into a faint sense of anger as he entered the next level.
He needed an outlet. Holding all that in would be unbearable.
Games really might be the best emotional release. In the third dungeon, Darry's combat power surged again, and he played with far more ease than before. Everything felt smooth.
By the time he reached the third dungeon, he'd made major improvements—both in skill and in the items he'd acquired.
The third boss didn't pose much of a challenge either.
Then came the fourth dungeon.
Darry's confidence kept growing.
Looks like I'll clear this game pretty soon.
That's what he thought.
He'd already seen from the mid-game indicators that there were about five major stages.
Clearing them should basically mean the end.
But he quickly realized something was wrong.
When the fifth stage arrived, he noticed that the average strength of the monsters had jumped significantly compared to before.
By the time he reached the fourth dungeon, he'd even felt relaxed while playing.
Carelessness invites punishment—and it came fast. Without realizing it, minor enemies slowly chipped away his health. Then, as he frantically searched for healing items, he found none.
In the end, his character fell just outside the fifth dungeon's boss room.
He stared blankly at the "Game Over" screen.
A crude childlike drawing depicted him being killed again by something, with a note saying that next time, he'd try harder not to die to that monster. Then the game restarted.
A powerful sense of frustration flooded Darry's mind.
That's it? Just like that?
No. Absolutely not.
He'd only lost because he'd been careless. He hadn't realized that once his health drained, he might not find any healing items at all. If he'd known earlier, he would've prepared better instead of charging in recklessly.
One more time!
This time, Darry didn't even check the clock.
He'd completely forgotten that today was the start of a new Titanfall season.
All he could think about was clearing this game.
If he didn't clear it, he felt physically uncomfortable.
So he dove back into the game.
This run, he was far more experienced. He could quickly recognize enemy patterns and dodge attacks with ease.
He also noticed that the dungeon layouts were different again.
Even the crude animations showing the child's abuse had changed—these were scenes he hadn't seen before.
The amount of story content seemed larger than he'd expected. Was every run randomized?
But what was the point of randomness?
Unless you were a story-focused player willing to dig through everything just for the narrative.
But Darry wasn't a story guy. He played mainly for fun—and for collecting.
If this game had collectible elements, he'd happily keep playing.
Right now, though, he just wanted to beat the fifth boss.
Soon, he reached the fifth dungeon again.
With experience on his side, he was far more cautious this time.
And in this game, as long as you played carefully, it wasn't overwhelmingly difficult.
The fifth boss was about as hard as the others. After defeating it, he advanced to the sixth dungeon—the sixth basement.
Upon entering, a prompt indicated that this seemed to be the final stage.
Logically speaking, this should be the final boss.
Alright. Let's explore all the other rooms first.
He wanted to grab everything he could.
At this point, his loadout was completely different from before.
Earlier, he'd had an item that massively boosted attack speed, letting him shred enemies quickly.
This time, he hadn't found anything like that. Instead, he'd picked up pure damage-boosting items.
That forced him to adjust his playstyle—from fast, aggressive clearing to careful, decisive strikes.
Without realizing it, he hadn't noticed that the game was quietly encouraging him to experiment with different playstyles and sources of fun.
This time, he thoroughly cleared every room in the sixth dungeon. He was sure he'd collected everything he possibly could.
There were still some items he simply couldn't reach—clearly placed out of reach on purpose. He had no choice but to stare at them helplessly.
Finally, he returned to the boss door.
Fully prepared this time, he readied himself to challenge the final boss.
He took a shallow breath, steadied his emotions, and entered the boss room.
The moment he stepped inside the sixth dungeon's boss room, an overwhelming sense of pressure hit him.
The boss named Mother appeared before him.
This time, he had to defeat her.