Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 447 - 430 Where is my GP?

Chapter 447: Chapter 430 Where is my GP?

Very quickly, the mannequin dressed up front noticed the approaching enemy and advanced with the candlestick in hand.

This long candlestick could practically be considered a mini Trident, with sharp points at the front designed for holding candles, covered in blood.

Qiu Qinghong confidently moved forward, first bouncing in place twice, then pressing the dodge key.

He found that different weapon forms affected the dodge differently. When switched to Light Weapon forms, the character’s dodge became a step, noticeably speeding up and appearing lighter, but at the cost of a shorter dodge distance and fewer Invincibility Frames.

When switched to a two-handed Heavy Weapon form, the character’s dodge became a roll; though the action took longer and seemed clumsier, both the dodge distance and Invincibility Frames increased.

Moreover, whether jumping or dodging, following up with an attack would grant a special attack action.

Such as Jumping Slash, Stepping Side Slash, Rolling Stab, Running Attack, and so on.

Qiu Qinghong wasn’t too surprised; after all, "Blood of Lies" was, at the very least, a detail-rich action game, and these moves were basically essential, not counting for any particularly large bonus points.

Before him, the mannequin held the candlestick with both hands, readying a Thrust.

Simultaneously, her body began to creak, somewhat like winding up a clockwork toy, maintaining the pose for a powerful Thrust, with the tip of the candlestick aiming at Qiu Qinghong.

"Good, GP!"

The thought flashed through Qiu Qinghong’s mind, thoroughly planned.

If both Transform Slashes had GP’s Invincibility Frames, then wouldn’t it be easy to just spam Transform Slash and clash weapons with the enemy? If he got lucky and timed it right, he could attack the opponent without taking damage upon GP’s trigger, a perfect 100-point operation. And even if he didn’t get lucky, as long as his actions were faster, he might be able to interrupt the enemy’s move with the force of the Transform Slash, and the chances were high that he would come out ahead.

Thus, Qiu Qinghong planned to use the Transform Slash from Light Weapon to Heavy Weapon, extending the spear shaft during the swing to land a horizontal or vertical strike on the mannequin.

In any action game, the vertical slash was often considered the best action module, which is why the legend of "New Year Greetings Swordsmanship" was often circulated in the streets.

Both sides struck simultaneously!

However, the mannequin’s attack hit Qiu Qinghong first.

After winding up fully, her weapon seemed to flicker with a hint of light, and once the spring mechanism was fully wound, it made an unmistakable clicking sound. Then, holding the candlestick with both hands, she plunged into a triple thrust at Qiu Qinghong!

Qiu Qinghong’s Transform Slash visibly had a wind-up before the attack; his weapon hadn’t even reached above his head when he was struck by the candlestick.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft! Pfft!"

The sound effects of consecutive hits played as large quantities of blood burst from the character, his body impaled.

Qiu Qinghong’s Transform Slash was naturally interrupted immediately; although the weapon did transform into its long-handled state, it didn’t come close to touching the opponent.

"Ah!"

Qiu Qinghong hastily rolled to dodge, and upon checking his Blood Bar, he found that not only had he lost a large chunk of health, but there was also lighter red, slightly yellow Anemia steadily decreasing on the bar.

"How does such an ordinary Poke come with a bleeding effect?"

Qiu Qinghong was somewhat surprised by the opponent’s strength, especially since the mannequin’s Stab seemed quite irrational and disrespectful of martial ethics.

If it were a normal human’s Thrust, the move would be traceable; when the hands reel back to charge, players only need to dodge based on intuition to likely avoid subsequent attacks.

Because once the attack motion reaches its peak, it would definitely finish the full set of moves in a regular timing, even if there were fast and slow strikes, it wouldn’t be too severe.

But mannequins were different; their way of exerting force was unlike Humans, relying on a spring mechanism to build up energy, so reaching a motion’s peak was just the beginning of accumulating power. As for when the buildup would be complete? That seemed purely based on guesswork.

Moreover, once the power was fully accumulated, the execution of the motion became incredibly fast, catching one off guard, and impossible to dodge purely based on reaction.

It felt as if the severity of fast and slow strikes was significant.

However, it was only the first hit, and Qiu Qinghong felt he might have been too careless. The character he controlled had nearly all the mechanics unlocked and had as many as 10 Blood Medicines. He immediately consumed one and advanced again.

"Hmm, it must be an issue of timing for the GP.

"Transform Slash from Light Weapon to Heavy Weapon has a longer wind-up, and the timing for GP comes later. The opponent is using a weapon similar to a spear with quick attack speed, so beating them in terms of speed is definitely not likely.

"Since that’s the case, use the Transform Slash from Heavy Weapon to Light Weapon!"

Qiu Qinghong had tried it before; the Transform Slash from Heavy Weapon to Light Weapon was a Poke that retracted the long handle during the motion, both the wind-up before the attack and the GP timing were more convenient.

The mannequin still repeated a motion similar to before, the candlestick Poke!

And Qiu Qinghong also used Transform Slash to make a poking motion!

"Clang!"

This time it was Qiu Qinghong who moved first. As the mannequin was still charging up, the long spear form of Qiu Qinghong’s greatsword had already pierced her, making a dull thud against the mannequin’s body.

However, there was little to no reaction!

In other games, this attack could likely make the enemy bleed and the whole body unavoidably hit and slightly pushed back; after all, this is the natural reaction when a life form is pierced.

Yet there was no sign of any blood from the mannequin; this thrust seemed to have left a negligible dent in her body, and a hole in her fancy clothes, but the mannequin merely swayed slightly, not letting the hit affect her original motion in the slightest, and like before, once the spring was fully loaded, she lunged forward!

"Spurt!"

Qiu Qinghong was stabbed again!

Although it turned into a trade of wounds, Qiu Qinghong was clearly at a disadvantage, not only were his subsequent attack actions completely interrupted, but his health also plummeted.

What’s worse, the rate of bleeding seemed to have accelerated!

At first, Qiu Qinghong thought it was just his imagination, but after staring at the Blood Bar of Anemia for a while, he realized that the speed of health drop indeed changed significantly.

"Wait, where’s my GP?"

Qiu Qinghong quickly stepped back to create distance while recalling the events in his mind.

Then he remembered, his GP action was clearly initiated before the puppet’s attack action, so it didn’t take effect at all.

"This Invincibility Frame of GP is too short, isn’t it!"

"All right, I’ve thought too much, GP should be used only against the monster’s moves that I am very familiar with, trying to rely on guesswork is indeed unrealistic.

"It’s better to rely on dodging or blocking honestly."

Qiu Qinghong once again drank a bottle of Blood Medicine, used Transform Slash to extend his weapon, and prepared to honestly engage in turn-based combat with the puppet.

Observing the opponent’s attack actions, he carefully maintained distance, first dodging the enemy’s attacks, and then looking for opportunities to counterattack.

No matter what kind of high-difficulty game it is, adopting such a strategy is generally correct, and ’Blood of Lies’ is likely no exception.

The puppet stabbed at him once more, and this time Qiu Qinghong decisively dodged.

Very good, he managed to dodge the first strike with a stepping motion.

Qiu Qinghong didn’t let his guard down since he knew it was a triple stab, so he immediately pressed the dodge key again, attempting to step aside.

The second strike was also dodged, no problem.

However, something was off with the third strike, because the puppet’s triple stab had a slight pause. Normally it wasn’t so noticeable, but if the player tried to dodge consecutively, that pause could catch the player’s step-back recovery motion.

"Pfft!"

"Ah!" In some disarray, Qiu Qinghong instinctively pressed the stepping key once more, but his character seemed to still be stuck in the previous hit reaction and did not dodge as he had hoped.

At that moment, the puppet’s attack sequence seemed to have some kind of remarkable derivative, following the triple stabs with a swift Upward Thrust!

If Qiu Qinghong’s character could have dodged immediately, he might have avoided it, but luck wasn’t on his side. There was a long Hit Stiffness, and so the Upward Thrust hit him squarely!

"Puff!"

Another muffled sound, but this time the bleeding seemed excessive, the sharp end of the chandelier pinpointed Qiu Qinghong’s controlled character’s head in an Upward Thrust action, picking him up and sending him flying on the spot.

And the Blood Bar bottomed out directly!

On the screen appeared a huge artistic English word, "LIE"! Moments later, the ’L’ in the word gradually transformed, turning into ’D’, and the whole word became "DIE".

Subsequently, the scene rapidly rewound as if a movie had hit the fast rewind button, the puppet went through the motions of a Poke in reverse, and the character stood up from the ground quickly moving backwards, returning to the initial position in front of the street light.

Qiu Qinghong scratched his head, looking at Wei Chengjie with confusion, "Didn’t I still have so much health? How did I get killed instantly?

"And about that post-hit stiffness being so long, that’s not scientific, right?"

Clearly, Qiu Qinghong had just been beaten without any chance to fight back, which made him feel very dissatisfied.

Wei Chengjie cleared his throat and explained, "The instakill was because a Body Break was triggered.

"The puppet’s Upward Thrust attack hit the character’s head. According to the game mechanics, when the head sustains a certain amount of damage and is completely destroyed, it will directly trigger a fatal blow, meaning no matter how much health is left, you would die on the spot.

"Wearing a helmet could make it slightly better.

"As for the ’Hit Stiffness’ you mentioned, strictly speaking, that should not be Hit Stiffness but a special ’Cowardice’ state, which is also a hidden mechanic in ’Blood of Lies’."

Qiu Qinghong looked puzzled, "A Cowardice state?"

Wei Chengjie nodded, "Yes, to give a simple analogy, in the real world, if two people are fighting and one is slashing wildly while the other is already wounded, it would be almost impossible to dodge as if unwounded, cleanly and efficiently.

"You can only try to defend in a panic.

"’Blood of Lies’ works the same way, when a character in Human form is hit, the stiffness from the hit won’t last long, but after getting out of that stiffness, there will be a Cowardice state.

"During Cowardice, human mobility is compromised, you run much slower, and you can’t step or roll. You can only use the weapon in your hands for defense.

"After defending against subsequent enemy attacks and getting some time to breathe, you can get back to the original pace."

Qiu Qinghong astutely caught the key point, "You just said, ’in Human form’? Does that mean there are no such states for non-human forms?"

Wei Chengjie nodded, "Yes, if you are in puppet form, there is no cowardice mechanism."

Qiu Qinghong glanced at the puppet that had hung him out to dry, then thought about his own frail self.

Could it be that the only option is to join if you can’t beat them?

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