Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 168 Everything Has Just Begun

Chapter 168: Chapter 168 Everything Has Just Begun

Instructor Ding originally thought that this side mission was just an insignificant little interlude, and it wouldn’t matter much whether either of them completed it.

But he quickly realized he was wrong, this was just the beginning!

The entire narrative flow of "Ascension" is relatively clear and can essentially be divided into three stages.

The first stage begins in a small village on the outskirts of the city and continues until they reach Jiangdu City, where they encounter the first powerful BOSS, "Great General".

In the first stage, players mainly familiarize themselves with the game’s mechanics, such as the transformation between the two worlds, the backstory in the narrative, the choice of NPC side missions, the collection of Seeking Immortal Record items, and so on.

The battles on the whole are quite simple, and even without mastering the Perfect Parry mechanic, as long as one dies more often or chooses the right Seeking Immortal Record items, one can barely scrape by.

Of course, in the BOSS battle with the "Great General", players will face the most daunting fight since the game began, designed to deter them. Although Zhao Siyuan can be pulled in for assistance, players will still be stuck here for several hours at the very least.

If players fail to properly master the Perfect Parry mechanic, it is even entirely impossible to win.

The second stage involves entering Jiangdu and getting the key clues for the plot to advance, heading to three critical locations: Monastery of True Words, Crane Valley, and Immortal Village, to obtain items from each.

There, players can obtain the "Relic Sword" by burning the old monk at the Monastery of True Words, the "Red Flesh Crest" by defeating the Spirit Ape and the Crane-Riding Immortal in Crane Valley, and the "Tai Sui Polymer" by defeating the Black Tai Sui matriarch in Immortal Village.

These three items will have a crucial impact on the progression of the game’s plot.

Of course, from a science fiction perspective, these three key locations will undergo corresponding changes. For example, the Monastery of True Words becomes a temple built by Mechanical Monks, a group of intelligent robots that developed consciousness under the influence of a virus AI; Crane Valley becomes a waste processing plant, which was previously filled with dangerous animals and flesh creatures and is now a playground for various powerful mechanical beasts; and Immortal Village, once the earliest site where Black Tai Sui was discovered, has become the earliest site of the AI virus outbreak and a cybernetic mental hospital.

After collecting the three key items, the players return to Jiangdu to find the Little Emperor and Zhao Siyuan, which triggers the first invasion.

From the Immortal Cultivation World perspective, this invasion occurs because Great Liang is in turmoil and its citizens are suffering, prompting the elite soldiers of the neighboring nation to attempt to swallow Great Liang; in the Cyberpunk perspective, this invasion happens because the human nations surrounding them fear the intelligent machinery crisis will affect their own machines, so under the pretext of "suppressing a mechanical rebellion," they attempt to take control of this region.

If players choose to repel this invasion, the game will move into the third stage, where players need to go to the "Upper Realm".

In the Immortal Cultivation World, the Upper Realm is depicted as the "Dwelling of the Immortals", whereas in the Cyberpunk World, the Upper Realm is a mechanical labyrinth created by a more advanced technological civilization.

Both Black Tai Sui and the special AI virus affecting all machinery originate from the Upper Realm.

After completing the battles in the third stage, players will be able to face the game’s final ending based on the items in their possession and the choices they made earlier.

The game has a total of five endings, and the ending of the Immortal Cultivation perspective corresponds completely with the Cyberpunk perspective.

The first ending is "Ruthless Purge", where if players choose to side with the invading nation and eradicate Great Liang, they will achieve this ending.

In the purge ending, the invading nation annihilates Great Liang and burns all the Black Tai Sui and Flesh Monsters. Although the protagonist plays a vital role in this, they are also eliminated in the end.

In the Immortal Cultivation World, this is considered a neutral ending. The world may have returned to normal, but the protagonist dies, and wars continue erupting, leaving the citizens still miserable.

In the Cyberpunk World, this is a rather poor bad ending because the player siding with the humans eliminates all the intelligent machines, forcing all machinery back to a state of unintelligence, exploitation, and enslavement, and the protagonist as a half-mechanical being is completely destroyed.

The second ending is "Return to Nature", where players help Great Liang resist the invasion, go to the celestial realm to obtain the antidote for the Flesh Monsters, and then choose to use the antidote to cleanse all the Flesh Monsters while also healing themselves.

In the Immortal Cultivation World, this is considered a good ending because the world regains peace, and although the neighboring nation might still wage war with Great Liang, with the protagonist and the soldiers of Liang present, the kingdom can continue to exist.

However, in the Cyberpunk World, this is similarly a rather poor bad ending because the protagonist uses this special termination program to kill all intelligent mechanical AIs, allowing them to be enslaved by humans once again.

Of course, if viewed from the human perspective, this might not seem that bad. It all depends on the player’s interpretation.

The third ending is "New Life", where during the exploration of the celestial realm, players do not use the antidote to cleanse the Flesh Monsters, but rather deliberately allow them to continue to grow.

In the Immortal Cultivation World, this is considered a bad ending because the whole world is dominated by Flesh Monsters, and every sane person dies, assimilates, and becomes insane.

But in the science fiction world, this is considered a relatively average good ending, because the intelligent machines were able to survive and develop. They took over the area, repelled the human attack, and established their own machine civilization.

The fourth ending is "Ascension." Instead of wiping out the Flesh Monsters, players continually devoured them and bolstered their own power until they achieved Ascension to the Immortal Cultivation World, becoming the most formidable being.

In the Immortal Cultivation World, this is the ultimate bad ending, as it means not only has all life been transformed into flesh life, but also all this flesh has been absorbed by the protagonist alone, turning the entire Jiangdu City into a city of the dead.

However, in the science fiction world, this is considered a good ending, because the protagonist becomes "Skynet" itself, the collective will of all mechanical beings, and emerges as a new form of technological life.

Of course, what is deemed a "good ending" or "bad ending" is just a popular view, and it doesn’t exclude the possibility that some players may consider "Ascension" to be an unequivocal good ending even within the worldview of the Immortal Cultivation World.

Beyond these, the game also has a fifth ending, which is the "Sunrise Awakening" ending.

The conditions for achieving this ending are rather strict, as they require the player to complete several side quests that seem at first glance to be unrelated to the main plot, and the player must make the right decisions.

In this ending, the flesh life of the Immortal Cultivation World is eradicated, and the intelligent machines of the science fiction world are preserved. Most importantly, the protagonist Li Huanzhen no longer suffers by traversing the two worlds; it seems he really splits into two and lives happily in both worlds at the same time.

...

So, which stage had the players reached by now?

They were still struggling in the first stage, without even a glimmer of hope for finishing the game!

Instructor Ding discovered he had more and more conflicts with Li Wenhao over side quests.

At first, these side quests only involved some narrative conflicts, and regardless of who made concessions, it seemed like there was just some minor resentment without any substantial loss.

But soon, Instructor Ding realized these side quests began to offer important items, and might even affect how the story would unfold!

And whether it was important items or the direction of the story, evidently they would only benefit the player who completed the side quests.

Needless to say, a dispute was sure to arise!

In the beginning, Instructor Ding and Li Wenhao were perhaps slightly motivated by the desire to create show effects, but soon they seriously lost their tempers over who should do a side quest, arguing incessantly.

It was like a pair of twins in a household, fighting fiercely over two gifts of different colors!

What’s more ridiculous was that the game even kept stoking the flames.

For instance, in a previous side quest, Instructor Ding let Li Wenhao complete it. In his view, it simply appeared as Li Wenhao forcibly feeding a lump of flesh to his frenzied wife, turning the husband into a Flesh Monster as well.

From Li Wenhao’s perspective, the task was already completed, with no follow-up.

But on Instructor Ding’s side, as he passed by again, the husband turned Flesh Monster would attack him like mad, and after Instructor Ding killed the monster, he would receive narrative items like "Letter From Husband to Wife" and "Wife’s Keepsake!"

Instructor Ding was badly injured, so he went back and killed the man’s wife as well, allowing the couple to reunite in the underground.

Li Wenhao was not having it. What about my two robot buddies? They were fine before, how come you killed them?

Moreover, when Li Wenhao went to the place where the couple used to be, he could also pick up narrative items like "Two Sequentially Numbered Electronic Nameplates," and "A Collected Mechanical Leg!"

Finally, the two temporarily set aside their dispute, came together in Jiangdu City, and summoned Zhao Siyuan to join them in besieging the Great General.

The battle dragged on for nearly three hours.

The Great General, skilled in archery and horsemanship as well as adept with the blade, brought different variations such as high strikes, low strikes, and thrusts during the first and second phases. In the third phase, he transformed into a powerful Flesh Monster, with his entire move logic undergoing a drastic change!

Instructor Ding, Li Wenhao, plus NPC Zhao Siyuan, three of them teamed up, but they were still repeatedly thrashed by the Great General, dead to the point of numbness!