“Huh? It’s already started.”

The electric kettle hadn’t finished boiling, but Qiao Liang ignored it for now and entered the game.

The game had no introduction—no opening animation, no various options—it directly entered the scene.

In the vast desert, a winding road extended into the distance.

The game’s viewpoint was from inside the car, with a simple instruction interface. The controls were divided into keyboard and controller options, completely consistent with mainstream racing games on the market.

Qiao Liang looked at the graphics and controls, feeling they were acceptable.

After all, this used a template, so while the ceiling wasn’t high, the floor wouldn’t be too low either.

Qiao Liang grabbed a controller from beside him, connected it to the computer, and started the game.

The car started.

Qiao Liang drove along the desert highway.

The current time in the game was morning; the sun had just risen not long ago, and the light wasn’t too harsh yet.

Sand constantly swirled in the desert, and in the distance, he could see waves of sandstorms that affected the game’s visibility, sometimes making it very low.

The desert highway wound forward, not in a straight line, but turning every certain distance.

“Click.” The electric kettle had boiled.

Qiao Liang, meanwhile, was driving and lost in thought.

What am I doing?

What should I be doing?

What does this game want me to do?

He had been driving for three minutes and had indeed made several turns, but…

Besides that, he hadn’t seen anything interesting.

Driving, turning, watching sandstorms approaching from a distance—beyond this, the game had nothing else.

There weren’t even any other cars passing on this desert highway!

Qiao Liang wanted to prepare his noodles first and instinctively pressed the menu button.

There was no response.

Qiao Liang: “????”

In other games, pressing this button would pause, but in this game, pressing it had absolutely no effect!

Thinking the game might have a bug and didn’t support controllers, he pressed the ESC key, space bar, and enter key on the keyboard in succession…

Still no response!

This game couldn’t be paused!

Qiao Liang was completely shocked.

During his moment of shock, he wasn’t paying attention to the car’s direction and missed a turn, driving off the road with the tires sinking into the sand.

【Game Over】.

Eight simple letters appeared on the screen.

Qiao Liang’s mouth fell open, his entire being stunned.

This game refreshed his understanding of terrible games!

No, strictly speaking, this didn’t quite qualify as a “terrible game.”

“Terrible games” were often the result of insufficient skill or funding from the creators, objective capability gaps that forced compromises in certain aspects, giving players a sense of shoddy workmanship.

But this game wasn’t like that.

It seemed like it was deliberately annoying people!

Otherwise, why wouldn’t it even have a pause function, and why would it go straight to Game Over after each failure, without any save points?!

“Wait, this game seems somewhat interesting…”

“If I make a critique video about it, it might go viral?”

Qiao Liang quickly poured hot water on his noodles, then ate while researching the game’s name and description.

‘Lonely Desert Highway.’ It specifically emphasized ‘lonely’!”

“A driving simulation journey for contemplating life… hmm, indeed, I am contemplating life. This description didn’t lie to me at all…”

“Looking at it this way, this game is truly full of malice!”

“The company that developed this game is called Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd. Never heard of it. This seems to be their only game.”

“Tsk…”

After finishing his instant noodles, Qiao Liang picked up the controller again.

But this time, he opened his video recording software, preparing to record his entire gaming process.

…

Three hours later.

Qiao Liang’s concentration slipped slightly; he missed a turn, the car sank into the sand, and the game ended.

“Ah!”

“Damn, damn, damn…!!!”

Qiao Liang nearly smashed his controller on the desk in anger. Three hours!

For a full three hours, he had done nothing but drive in the desert, and now the merciless Game Over on the screen announced his failure.

Three precious hours of his life were gone, creating no value except consuming electricity.

And the recorded video was useless too. After three full hours of recording, only the last few seconds could be used, which could be edited into a failure compilation.

Qiao Liang threw his controller onto the computer desk and stood up to calm himself.

He didn’t smash the controller because of poverty.

After all, this controller cost over two hundred yuan, and if it broke, Qiao Liang would be too heartbroken.

“Phew…”

“Stay calm.”

“This is all for work.”

“Good, this game has successfully provoked my anger, which is a very good quality for a garbage game.”

Qiao Liang quickly regained his composure.

As a content creator specializing in trashing garbage games, what storms hadn’t he weathered? He should be able to handle this small situation completely.

But Qiao Liang also realized that completing this game would not be a simple task.

It was a challenge!

So, Qiao Liang called for food delivery.

Fortunately, the game ended early; if it had been later, they wouldn’t have delivered anymore.

During this time, Qiao Liang lay down on his bed and took a nap, recovering his energy.

After waking up and eating, Qiao Liang placed a large cup of water on the table, preparing for a long battle.

He had somewhat figured out this game.

Was this game difficult? No.

Anyone with hands could complete it—that’s not an exaggeration.

There were no sharp turns, no police cars rushing over to cause trouble, and not even any speed requirements for the player.

The only difficulty was time!

He hadn’t finished the entire course in three hours, and who knew how much farther it extended.

Players would habitually accelerate to finish quickly, running at the vehicle’s top speed, but this required focused concentration; otherwise, they might not be able to turn in time at curves.

Once you drove off the track, you had to start over from the beginning.

If you wanted to be more cautious, you’d drive slower, but this would make the game even longer.

“This is infuriating, truly infuriating!”

Qiao Liang felt his desire for challenge and critique rise to unprecedented levels.

If he could make a critique video of this game, just the title alone would attract many clicks!

Gritting his teeth, Qiao Liang continued to enter the game and fight on.

…

More than eight hours later.

Late night.

“Holy crap!”

“I did it! I did it! I freaking completed it!”

Qiao Liang almost wanted to cry; he had finally seen the finish line!

It was just a very common finish line, seemingly using generic art resources found in many racing games, but to Qiao Liang at this moment, that black-and-white checkered finish line on the ground was so endearing.

He was practically moved to tears!

He held the controller and stood up from his computer chair.

His back ached, his hands were cramping, and his eyes could barely stay open from staying up so late.

But, for a full eight hours, he had persevered!

It had all been meaningful!

Qiao Liang moved himself to tears—what kind of spirit was this!

At the moment of crossing the finish line, Qiao Liang felt like a racing god had possessed him!

At that moment, he was the coolest guy on the track.

However, right after that, the screen went black, and a line of text appeared.

“Congratulations, you’ve successfully wasted 8 precious hours of your life!”