Pessimism

**Pessimism** is a solo Hard Demon, created, verified and published by AtomicC, which current resides on the ACOld account. It was uploaded on May 16th, 2021, and was featured the same day. This level, similar to Another One of Those, is a circles level, and uses an entirely grey colour palette, which, alongside the name, is supposed to give the level a dark and sad atmosphere. The gameplay structure is like AtomicC's other Modern Circles levels (Another One of Those, Optimism and Intercept), having mostly basic circles level gameplay, with a buffer part in the middle of the wave, using other gamemodes, such as Icon and UFO, and also a postdrop.

## Gameplay

#### **0%-33%**

The level begins with a 1x speed mini icon part, featuring columnar structures, some of which the player can land on, and the rest of which kill the player if they touch them. It's structuring is almost identical to the first part seen in Midnight Slaughter. At 8%, the player enters a normal sized ball part, with many sloped structures, made of dark bevel blocks, with pulsing decorative blocks inside the structures, and a background effect of tile blocks moving in a wavy pattern. At 14%, the player enters a block maze, made with black connector blocks, with the real blocks being marked with black invisible blocks. At 17%, the player enters a 2x speed ship, with completely sloped structures, much like most other circles ships, At 28%, the player enters an auto icon section, with gravity portals and pads. The auto section ends at 32%, with a red pad and a 2x speed portal, transitioning the player into the drop. It's possible to get a coin in the ball, by skipping the yellow pad at 11% and landing on some fake ground spikes on both the top and bottom of the screen. This causes the player to collect both a key and a coin at 12%, and puts them under the main route, the key replaces the yellow orb at 13% with a green orb, allowing them to enter back into the normal route and continue the ball part like normal.

**33%-57%**

The drop begins with a 3x speed wave, with slope structures made of bevel and metal slopes stacked on top of one another, which continuously flash different shades of grey in a single direction. The whole drop (33%-82%) also has a background effect of steep slopes and connector slopes, which both flash the same colours as the blocks, the background also pulses in the drop, however it can't be seen unless the player selects the 'Lag Remover' option at 1%. Up until 45%, the wave has frequent speed changes, and two size changes, and at 45%, the player enters a 4x speed normal size wave dual. The dual ends at 49%, and the 4x speed wave continues until 54%, where the player hits a 1x speed portal. The wave continues on until 57%.

**57%-68%**

The player hits an icon portal, and hits a red pad, and enters 3x speed at 58%. The icon part utilises sloped gameplay and orbs. At 63%, the player hits a mini portal, and the structuring becomes flat, with multiple platforms for the player to traverse. The icon part ends at 68%. It's possible to obtain a coin at 66%, by falling off of the 5th flat platform, and hitting an invisible blue pad, which makes the player land on and fall off of a slope, which takes them to a blue pad below the screen, putting them back on the main route.

**68%-82%**

The second wave begins with a short corridor, until 69%, in which the player hits a 3x speed portal, which remains until 79% and the wave continues. At 75%, the player runs into a "warcrime structure", a term coined by NagromX due to his hate for this type of structure, At 79%, the player hits a 1x speed portal, and enters a 3-block-wide corridor which lasts for the rest of the wave.

**82%-100%**

At 82%, the wave ends, and the player enters the postdrop, where the music, deco and gameplay change significantly. The part begins with an icon, still at 1x speed, and sloped gameplay, with structures made of black invisible and connector slopes, on top of 1.0 grid slopes. Acting as both a background effect, and ground spikes that move up and down according to the player, are words that scroll across the screen reading "Hopeless", "Failure" and "Worthless". At 89%, the words at the bottom of the screen slowly move down until theyre out of sight, and at 90%, the words in the background start to fade. At 91%, the player enters a 0.5x speed ship, where the structuring remains the same, and the ground spikes become solid. There are background effects of black slopes which move up and down, and slowly scroll across the screen, as well as grey question marks surrounded by circles, At 96%, the ship ends, and the player enters a 1x speed icon, where they hit both a pink and yellow pad, before hitting the ground and having to jump over a triple spike at 98%. At 99%, the level ends, with end text with the level's name, "Pessimism", on a box of grey brick blocks. It's possible to obtain a coin at 94%, by flying above the sixth structure in the ship, as supposed to below it.

## Trivia

* The level is free to copy.
* The level contains 31,768 objects.
* The level is 1 minute and 24 seconds long.
* Before the Great Cycron Purge, this level's ID was 266.
* On May 22nd, it was placed at #14 on the Cycron Demonlist.
* A misconception is that this level was made to be a sequel to Another One of Those by AtomicC, due to their similarities in length, gameplay and deco. AtomicC has confirmed that the two levels are not related to eachother.
* The level was made as a prequel to the now purged level, Optimism by AtomicC.