Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 126: Missed by a Little! (Four Updates)

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: Missed by a Little! (Four Updates)

This time, the story developed in a direction that nobody expected.

Instructor Ding would always choose a few starving people to enter the Demon Ruins, bring out Demonic Knowledge to improve his skill bar, then he would have them executed.

In doing so, he had learned Demonic Knowledge, cleared out the disaster-stricken people who were consuming food, and Xia Mi’s favorability had not decreased!

Moreover, Instructor Ding could assert himself with righteous indignation.

"Oh dear, why do these troublemakers keep running into the Demon Ruins! And they insist on looking at those forbidden knowledges!"

"Look at this, look at this, they even corrupted my good City Lord!

"Who wants these skills? Not me. I’m a righteous and kind City Lord, I’m the foster father of the Archangel, get away from me, you damn Demonic Knowledge!"

"Ah, but brothers, you can’t blame me for this. It’s not that I don’t want to seal off these Demon Ruins; there’s simply no option to completely do so in the game!"

"I can only choose to ignore it, but if troublemakers keep trying to get in, there’s nothing I can do!"

The comments were already stunned.

"Troublemaker: Amino! Do you not have any clue who wants to go in?"

"Nice going, finding a scapegoat amongst the troublemakers, right? Just don’t sleep too soundly at night!"

"You’re the real demon..."

"...All I can say is that the fake-AI really is an AI, can’t it see through such a simple act of using others to commit murder?"

"It’s reasonable, quite fitting Xia Mi’s character."

And so, Instructor Ding’s demonic skill bar kept growing; Infernal Vision, Infernal Power, Infernal Knowledge, Infernal Summoning, and Infernal Offering were activated in turn.

It’s just that Instructor Ding had never used those skills that could have an actual effect.

Because once he used them, the act would be exposed, and he would certainly break with Xia Mi directly; then shifting blame onto the troublemakers would no longer be feasible.

He couldn’t just deliver an Oscar-worthy performance at that point and scream, "Who put this money in our fridge?", oh no, he should cry out, "Who is it, who planted this Demonic Knowledge in my head?"

Even a fake-AI, no matter how foolish, couldn’t be fooled by such tactics.

The only skill Instructor Ding could actually use was something like "Demon’s Vision".

He glanced at Xia Mi.

Xia Mi’s attributes had not changed much; her health was still hanging by a thread, only enough for one last blood offering. As for the Good-Evil Value, it had reached 9 points.

That is to say, if she offered blood one more time, she could only push the Good-Evil Value down to 8 points at most, but then Xia Mi would immediately become an Angel, and any further actions would be meaningless.

"No problem! Everything is as I expected!

"All is ready; I just need to impart Demonic Knowledge to Xia Mi, deduct another 10 points from her Good-Evil Value, and I can turn this number negative!"

...

"Snap!"

Lilith subconsciously clenched the can of cola in her hand.

Clearly, her emotions had gone through a roller coaster in these few minutes!

Initially, Lilith was the strategist; when Instructor Ding was ecstatic, believing he had discovered the "reduce Good-Evil Value through blood offering" mechanism, he actually fell into Lilith’s trap.

When Instructor Ding realized that this action could only reduce at most 12 points of Good-Evil Value and could never bring it below zero, his plan almost crumbled mid-way, and Lilith reaped a wave of negative emotions.

But unexpectedly, Instructor Ding suddenly came up with an idea in this desperate situation and obtained Demonic Skills by finding a scapegoat, thereby saving his plan once again!

This was indeed something Lilith had not anticipated.

But soon, upon noticing Xia Mi’s health bar on the screen, Lilith’s mood gradually stabilized.

She picked up two chips again: "Phew, that scared me.

"I thought there was really a problem, but if I calculate carefully, it seems fine.

"Haha! Looks like luck is on my side!

"Instructor Ding, I acknowledge you as a worthy opponent. But... you can’t possibly succeed in this final step.

"Your plan seems perfect, but have you considered one thing?

"Does Xia Mi have enough health for you to use ’Hell’s Offering’ again?"

...

Obviously, Instructor Ding had also realized this issue.

The core issue here was: "Hell’s Offering" and "Demonic Knowledge" are treated as two different demonic skills!

Previously, Instructor Ding had used "Hell’s Offering" once on Xia Mi, but the problem was that Xia Mi’s health was full at that time!

And demonic skills cost health.

Using "Infernal Offering" would cause Xia Mi’s favorability and health to drop once; using "Demonic Knowledge" would cause Xia Mi’s favorability and health to drop again!

That is to say, when using "Infernal Offering", Xia Mi’s health would fall to 0 and directly trigger "Angel’s Descent".

Instructor Ding simply didn’t have time to use "Demonic Knowledge" for Xia Mi had already transformed into an angel, and thus "Demonic Knowledge" became ineffective!

"Damn it, guys, looks like there’s a loophole in my plan!

"If I had known, I should have left Xia Mi a bit more blood!

"Wait, no, that’s exactly not enough!"

Xia Mi’s initial Good-Evil Value was 20 points. By having the City Lord and Xia Mi take turns doing tasks, Xia Mi could continuously "sell blood", up to 12 times, bringing it down to 8 points at the least.

But if selling directly to death, she would become an Archangel, so Instructor Ding left once and only sold 11 times, leaving Xia Mi with a sliver of health and lowering the Good-Evil Value to 9 points.

But now he suddenly realized that using the skill "Infernal Offering" would also reduce health!

That meant this game was over; he didn’t have time to use "Demonic Knowledge", as Xia Mi had already become an angel the moment "Infernal Offering" was activated.

So for the next round of the game, in order to ensure the consecutive use of "Infernal Offering" and "Demonic Knowledge", he would still have to leave Xia Mi a bit more health.

But by doing so, Xia Mi could at most "sell blood" 10 times, with the Good-Evil Value only dropping to 10 points at most. Even with "Demonic Knowledge", it could only bring the Good-Evil Value down to 0, but not into the negatives!

And 0 is certainly not enough to trigger the bug! Because 0 represents the maximum value for being in the angel state.

That is to say, even if Instructor Ding’s entire operation was successful, he could only cultivate the most powerful angel in the game...

...

Instructor Ding fell silent, clicked the game’s pause button again, then moved away from the camera and lit himself a cigarette.

Man, this is tough!!

It was already very late, past two in the morning, and Instructor Ding’s patience was at its limit, repeating these operations in another game seemed impossible.

Furthermore, even if he restarted a game, without any mistakes, he could only press Xia Mi’s Good-Evil Value down to 0 at most. What was the point?

Create the strongest angel to up his own game?

This harsh value, like an insurmountable chasm, completely locked out all possibilities, seemingly washing away all of Instructor Ding’s previous speculation and efforts.

But Instructor Ding was not willing to give up just like that.

I have performed so many savvy maneuvers and have come this far; I’m just one step away!

The barrage viewers were also getting tired.

"Alright, Little Ding, that’s enough. Everyone sees your dedication to overtime work, let’s call it a day."

"Yeah, since it’s fundamentally impossible to get the Good-Evil Value below 0, let’s just let it be, and fight again tomorrow."

"Think about it, even if you did manage to press the Good-Evil Value into the negatives, what then? Could Xia Mi turn around and become a demon to fight the angels? Impossible, I suspect the officials didn’t even consider this feature."

"Right, I feel it’ll probably just cause a game error or something. Let’s rest."

As he looked at the full screen of comments, Instructor Ding’s expression suddenly became resolute.

"No!

"As a player, I cannot stop on the road to pushing the limits!

"I have tried countless times, but I know the opportunity only arises once or twice. I have a feeling that now might be the best chance!

"So I can’t give up, I have to try one last time!

"I have previously discovered some hidden gameplay, although they were still not enough, but at least I’ve got a bit of the designer’s thought process.

"I’m going to make one final attempt. If this attempt fails, then it will prove all my past conjectures were wrong! But if this attempt is successful, then it will prove I was right!

"And if I’m right, then the designers definitely won’t disappoint me, they will show me a completely different ending!"

Instructor Ding sat up straight again to try the ultimate maneuver.

Actually, this was a strategy that had come to him in a flash of inspiration just after he paused the game earlier; he wasn’t sure of the success rate, but he had no choice but to give it a try at this point.

Success would mean winning everything, failure would mean all was lost!

It was now dangerously close to the time of the Crusaders’ invasion, and if the Crusaders attacked, Instructor Ding’s plan could very likely be interrupted.

So he immediately controlled the City Lord to search around the city, successfully finding the Priest who had been instructing Xia Mi.

Then he chose "Infernal Offering" and used it on him!

The Priest let out a cry of pain, and his health bar noticeably dropped a large chunk.

Instructor Ding then chose "Demonic Knowledge" and used it on him as well!

Lastly, Instructor Ding selected Xia Mi’s development menu to educate her!