Few white-collar workers can escape China’s extreme “996” work culture, but on August 20, a regular Tuesday, gamers seem to have taken one precious day of their limited annual leave to prepare for the release of Black Myth: Wukong—gaming platform Steam showed over 1.5 million players active at the same time just hours after the game’s release.

Netizens jokingly wrote down the game’s slogan, “Confronting Destiny (直面天命 zhímiàn tiānmìng),” as their excuse for taking the day off. But this was by far not the only meme the game has inspired. Though their respite from work may have been short-lived, players identified with Sun Wukong’s tribulations and adopted the centuries-old rebellious spirit of the “Monkey King.”

As Black Myth’s characters come from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, many memes reference the book. Just as Wukong helps his master Tangseng (based on the real-life monk Xuanzang) overcome 81 trials to obtain the Buddhist sutras in India, the players also embark on an obstacle-filled journey: starting with installing the game on a device that supports it. As China’s first AAA game (an industry term for large-budget projects), Black Myth also comes with the hefty requirement of a PS5 console or a PC with a high-performing processor—items many netizens, accustomed to mobile games, lack. The hashtag “The first of the 81 trials is decompressing the game files (八十一难第一难是解压 bāshíyī nàn dì-yī nàn shì jiěyā)” has been viewed more than 45 million times on the microblogging platform Weibo at the time of writing. Many joke that it takes 500 years for the large files to decompress, referencing the amount of time Wukong was imprisoned under the Buddha’s hand as punishment for wreaking havoc in the heavens.

Netizens have also compared the challenging game to the intensity of Chinese corporate culture. Earlier this year, a popular internet meme already compared netizens to hapless “monkeys (吗喽 mālōu, a Cantonese term),” and the release of Black Myth has made them painfully aware of the difference between the invincible Monkey King, whose mantra is “My fate is determined by me, not by heaven (我命由我不由天 wǒ mìng yóu wǒ bù yóu tiān),” and corporate performing monkeys who have no choice but to reply “The boss is always right (老板说的都对 lǎobǎn shuō de dōu duì)” in every work chat. Whereas Wukong grips his golden staff—Ruyi Jingubang or 如意金箍棒—to fight off monsters, the only thing the “corporate livestock” grips is the subway handrail to work. “I’m the Monkey King in Black Myth by night, a company slave by day (晚上黑悟空，白天务黑工 wǎnshang Hēi Wùkōng, báitiān wù hēigōng ),” a meme goes.

Common people can also relate to the game’s version of Wukong, especially when he expresses his frustration with the Heavenly Court, which grants him a position as a bodhisattva at the end of the original novel. In the game’s opening monologue, Wukong rejects this offer, saying:

Likewise, low-level employees are not aiming for fame and fortune, but just to save enough money to retire. They understand that “leaders higher up don’t trust me, yet try to persuade me to keep being their monkey (上面领导信不过我，又想哄我继续当吗喽 shàngmiàn lǐngdǎo xìnbuguò wǒ, yòu xiǎng hǒng wǒ jìxù dāng mālōu).”

Lines from the game have also become puns. “Knowing your future, why would you not pay your respects (既见未来, 为何不拜 Jì jiàn wèilái, wèihé bú bài)? ” is spoken by Huang Mei, one of the bosses at the end of the first game chapter. Due to the similarity in sound between the word 拜 (bài, “to pay respects”) and “buy,” many players have used this pun to joke about their financial circumstances; specifically, about how they know they would end up purchasing the game regardless of the cost.

As of this week, Black Myth was able to sell 10 million copies worldwide. Chinese gamers hope that this attention, while simultaneously mired in controversy, can spark a larger global recognition of Chinese culture, religion, and classic literature. As the timeless appeal of Sun Wukong has shown, people in every era want to wreak a little havoc in heaven.