[Loved Trope] The main character is smart and makes smart decisions, but those smart decisions are still foiled
The Lost Man (The Exit 8): The Lost Man realises that they need to spot anomalies in order to escape the looping subway station, so decides to take pictures of various parts of the subway to memorise it. However, after the section loops again, all the photos they took are corrupted.
d3rLord3 (Searching for a world that doesn’t exist): d3rLord3 becomes aware pretty quickly that something supernatural is occurring in the game they’re playing, and lays various traps throughout to detect when the thing following him is near, including backup traps to attempt to catch it off guard. However, the thing following them is also smart, resetting some of their traps, and in the end, they ultimately wind up seeing what is believed to be The King in Yellow and can only leave a warning for the next person who would pick up the game not to turn Left at the crossroads he saw it at.
Dicksalot (Serverblight): Dicksalot manages to survive various encounters with the Serverblight through the fact that they learned that throwing yourself into a killbox allows you to escape the game and avoid being assimilated by the Serverblight. They use this knowledge to try and save other players when the Blight infects any new servers, but eventually, the Blight learns and adapts to the strategy, and begins blocking off these areas in earlier entries in the series, and leaving blighted players to camp the areas that acted as killboxes.
d3rLord3 (Searching for a world that doesn’t exist): d3rLord3 becomes aware pretty quickly that something supernatural is occurring in the game they’re playing, and lays various traps throughout to detect when the thing following him is near, including backup traps to attempt to catch it off guard. However, the thing following them is also smart, resetting some of their traps, and in the end, they ultimately wind up seeing what is believed to be The King in Yellow and can only leave a warning for the next person who would pick up the game not to turn Left at the crossroads he saw it at.
Dicksalot (Serverblight): Dicksalot manages to survive various encounters with the Serverblight through the fact that they learned that throwing yourself into a killbox allows you to escape the game and avoid being assimilated by the Serverblight. They use this knowledge to try and save other players when the Blight infects any new servers, but eventually, the Blight learns and adapts to the strategy, and begins blocking off these areas in earlier entries in the series, and leaving blighted players to camp the areas that acted as killboxes.
