A Worm Aims for a Promotion While Working from Home: A Let's Play of Worming from Home

The protagonist is a young worm returning to work for the first time in a while after a vacation. First, the tutorial teaches the basic controls. The protagonist sits on top of a work desk and operates the PC by headbutting the keyboard. To log in to the PC, it looks at the PIN code jotted down on a sticky note and moves over to the numeric keypad to enter it. The commentator jokes that these days credentials get leaked no matter how well you hide them, so this level of password management is fine.

The guide is a sticky note named "Tippy," who introduces itself in the English dialogue as a "friendly neighborhood scrap of paper." The subtitles include the word "unpaid," and the commentator picks up on this, referring to Tippy as if it were an unpaid worker. With Tippy's advice, the protagonist first answers a phone call from the boss. Speaking in English, the boss says something to the effect that there might be talk of a promotion soon, that they have been keeping a close eye on the protagonist this quarter and expect growth, and that the workplace is like a family, so the protagonist should reach out if anything comes up. The commentary explains that the protagonist, a junior analyst, is aiming for a promotion that has been "six years in the making."

The first task is data entry in a spreadsheet app. Hovering the cursor over the icon and clicking launches the app. Given the instruction "Enter 16 in cell C5," the protagonist selects the target cell with the arrow keys, then moves to the numeric keypad to enter 16. The next task, a quarterly earnings forecast, appeared to increase linearly by 40,000 each quarter, so the commentator filled in the numbers following that pattern and completed it. The commentator calls each finished file a "kill."

The protagonist closes the spreadsheet with the button at the top and opens the shopping app. Using the earnings from work, it buys a reading nook and worm-sized weights, and each piece of furniture is placed in a corner of the desk.

Sitting in the reading nook starts a minigame in which you control a worm. Since the reward trains "Money Literacy," the commentator decides to spend a while here honing their financial sense. Every 10 points earns experience, and each level-up grants one point for acquiring perks. Points can be spent on whichever abilities you like, so the commentator first chooses an ability that increases earnings from work.

Using the workout gear starts a game of Breakout. According to the commentator, as in typical Breakout games, the direction the ball bounces in this game depends on where it hits the paddle. So the commentator adjusts where the ball hits based on the layout of the remaining blocks, earning experience to raise strength. After leveling up, they open the perk tree and put points into movement speed and jump power.

After continuing to work, before they know it, it is 10 p.m. The commentator jokingly wraps up day one by saying that by going to bed early instead of idly watching silly YouTube videos, they've boosted their energy for tomorrow.

Having earned a fair amount of income from the previous day's work, the protagonist buys several new items on day two: a cheap-looking smartphone charger, a replacement for the mouse that had been slippery and hard to use, and, with the leftover money, a water dispenser. The smartphone shows a list of achievements, and unlocking achievements awards money and skins. Some had already been completed, so the commentator claimed the rewards.

The water dispenser turned out to be the kind where you turn a tap to get water. The protagonist clings to the tap to pour water into a cup, and once it is full, climbs back up the dispenser, crawls into the cup, and drinks it all. Figuring out how to handle everyday objects with a worm's body is portrayed as the core of the game's fun.

Raising Money Literacy also unlocked stock trading. Owning at least one share displays market movements, so the commentator first buys one share for $21. It was on an upward trend, so they expected it to keep rising, but the share price slowly declined, falling to around -25% from the previous day. When it turned upward from there, they bought heavily, then sold once it had risen enough, pocketing the difference as profit.

Partway through, the commentator remembers that a message had come in from the boss and opens the messaging app. It was about work, but the commentator just sends back some offhand replies. With the money gained from stocks, they buy items for comfortable reading, enjoy some reading before bed, and day two comes to an end.

On day three, having worked until noon and saved up money, the commentator splurges on an L-shaped desk. This makes it possible to hire unpaid interns, so they buy several while they're at it.

Then a call comes in from the boss, Steve. Mentioning the L-shaped desk purchase, Steve proposes, "Now that you're playing in the big leagues, let's expand your investment opportunities." By signing a simple contract, the number of stocks available for trading would increase from one to three. Steve instructs the protagonist to print the contract, sign it, scan it, and send it back, while also stressing that "it's just the usual boring legal language, so you don't need to read it." In response, the commentary explains that the next goal has become getting a printer.

Freed from chores thanks to the interns, the commentator spends this day working out from the morning onward. Meanwhile, they use the money the interns earned to buy a nice-looking coffee maker and enjoy a coffee break in the middle of the day while watching the students work without pay.

When they bring freshly brewed coffee to a sleepy intern, it turns out that coffee boosts the interns' abilities. Since pouring coffee over their heads would waste it, the commentator switches to bringing them over one at a time and dunking them into the coffee. With lines like "Don't you struggle" and "There are more waiting, so let's be efficient," the banter riffs on the idea of an exploitative workplace.

The next day, having saved up money, the commentator orders a printer and other items. The protagonist goes to the printer and operates the buttons on top to print the contract PDF. A double jump gets it up to high places in one go, and the commentator says the muscles they had been training came in handy.

The printed contract had all sorts of things written on it, but since the boss said there was no need to read it, the protagonist skips reading and goes straight to signing. Holding a pen and wriggling around randomly on the contract produces a signature. It looks like a worm crawled across the page, but the commentator says everyone's signature looks like this anyway.

Next, to scan it with the multifunction printer's scanner, the protagonist carries the contract to the document glass. It opens the document cover with a button, then uses midair control during a double jump to place the contract face down so it can be read. Pressing the button again to close the cover and then pressing the scan button completes the scan. The data is sent to the PC, so the protagonist clicks a button with the mouse to send it.

Right after sending it, a call comes in from the boss, and the conversation moves on to the promotion. The English subtitles in this part cut out frequently, but it can be made out that the interview will be done via video call so a webcam is needed, that the protagonist will also need to talk to someone else, and that since the boss has never heard a single word from the protagonist, the boss assumes the protagonist has no mouth. The commentary sums it up as "we've finally made it to the promotion interview."

Preparing for a video call requires various things, so the commentator uses their high Money Literacy to grow their money through stocks. Once it has grown to a certain extent, they hire a large number of interns, and the commentator says money no longer seems like it will be a problem. With the saved money, they gather the video call equipment, and preparations for the interview are complete.

The video call with the boss begins, and the commentator calls it the "final boss fight." Since being found out as a worm would be bad, they get through it by showing a photo of a human on the camera. The commentator's approach is that responses can just be handled haphazardly with an audio mixer.

The interview presents several challenges in sequence. The first is confirming the employee ID; the commentator finds the number written on the back of the monitor and types it into the chat before forgetting it. Next, as a data-driven company, the boss asks about the protagonist's value as a junior analyst. The commentator answers, "I work my butt off and do super important work," and the boss accepts it with "Nice."

The third question is a bit more personal: since a company in the financial industry comes with a certain lifestyle, the boss wants to make sure the protagonist is fit for the next level, and asks to be shown something recently purchased via webcam. The commentator shows off a perpetual motion machine bought for $10,000.

The final challenge is a presentation of the financial results during the protagonist's tenure. The materials are already prepared, so the commentator opens screen sharing, but partway through the PC hits a blue screen. The protagonist restarts the PC and then drops straight to the floor to shorten the recovery time. The commentator speculates that a blue screen at this timing suggests an unstable power supply to the memory.

After resuming, the commentator pushes through by insisting that the shared graph clearly shows the money has increased. The boss says "the presentation was perfect" and announces that the paperwork will begin. The protagonist becomes the company's new "Associate Financial Analyst." At the end of the call, there is also a moment where the boss lets out a scream as if so impressed they nearly fell out of their chair.

And so the protagonist passes the interview, achieves the promotion six years in the making, and the game is cleared.

The commentator praises the game as a wild one about a quirky worm crawling around, yet with a wonderfully goofy, warm world. Although it may look like a silly game, it is packed with playfulness down to the details, and they say they had a great time playing from start to finish. They also cite the casual exchanges with coworkers in the messaging app and the gimmicks hidden throughout as highlights, and end the video by recommending that viewers play it too.