Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 462 - 445: Surely I Can’t Be the Only One Suffering in the World?

Chapter 462: Chapter 445: Surely I Can’t Be the Only One Suffering in the World?

Zhuge Jun respawned by the gas lamp, scratching his head in bewilderment.

"Something’s not right, I didn’t GP (Guard Point) that?"

It must be said that this boss’s damage output in the early phase was indeed high, and according to the mechanics of "Blood of Lies," if a player took damage during an action, there would be an additional damage multiplier.

For example, taking damage while attacking or during a dodge roll would hurt more than it would in a neutral state.

Although the multiplier wasn’t very high, when combined with other damage buffs, it couldn’t be ignored.

This boss was a large-type boss, which meant its attack frequency was lower compared to the small-type bosses and humanoid bosses, so each hit dealt more damage; and Zhuge Jun at that moment was using a human protagonist, inherently squishier than a puppet protagonist.

With all these factors combined, a single failed GP directly cost him 1/3 of his health.

What was worse, Zhuge Jun had also sustained part break damage from the boss.

He wanted to continue the fight, but to his horror, he discovered that his legs seemed to have suffered severe damage from being knocked back, leaving him limping.

This further reduced his mobility, and his previously nimble footwork had become noticeably weak.

Of course, Nitiandang was rather merciful, given that this was only an early-stage boss, so if Zhuge Jun had a change of heart and chose to use the traditional method of stealing hits with dodges, there might still be a chance for redemption.

But Zhuge Jun thought, since his leg was already lame, why not just continue to stand in place and GP?

As a result, he failed the second GP as well, just in time to meet the boss’s silky smooth combo, which sent him back to the gas lamp.

"That’s odd, why did I fail the GP twice?"

"Is it bad hand feel? But I think my timing was fine?"

"Oh! I get it, it’s the weapon’s fault!

"I used to use the Sword Spear, but now I’m using Sword and Shield. The GP actions of these two weapons are different, so the GP timing frames must also be different, which explains why I missed."

Zhuge Jun quickly came up with a reasonable explanation for himself.

So, what to do next?

The Puppet Craftsman did have Sword Spears for sale, but they were a little pricey, and given that it was still early in the game, the crystals dropped by monsters weren’t abundant; buying that weapon might require at least ten minutes of grinding on small mobs.

And it wasn’t very cost-effective to make the purchase now, as the same amount of money could have gotten him three to five levels.

So, after a moment’s hesitation, Zhuge Jun decided not to buy it yet.

"No big deal, I’ll just switch up the playstyle!

"Although GP is attractive, from the characteristics of the weapons, Sword and Shield is clearly a weapon that excels in both offense and defense. I can guess what the designers were thinking when they created this weapon.

"When the boss goes berserk with its attacks, players should use the one-handed stance, lift the shield with the left hand for defense, and then use the one-handed sword to sneak in attacks when possible. Then, as soon as there’s a successful part break or an appropriate opening, switch to a two-handed stance and output heavily.

"OK, let’s try the effect of lifting the shield."

Zhuge Jun adjusted his mindset and faced the boss once more.

Three minutes later, he respawned at the gas lamp again.

"That’s not right, how come the shield seems to have no effect?"

"Not sure, let’s check again."

Zhuge Jun tried twice more, and when he came back to respawning at the gas lamp, he started to realise something.

"Damn it! I’ve been had!

"This Sword and Shield is completely useless!

"For a shield that looks so reliable, it doesn’t even have 100% Physical Defense, what kind of joke weapon is this!!"

Zhuge Jun was speechless. Holding up the shield against the boss, sure the damage was reduced, but not by much, right?

Normally, getting hit would cost about a third to a quarter of his health, but now? He lost about a sixth, and half of that was Anemia.

Which means, if Zhuge Jun struck back immediately, hitting the boss would allow him to absorb back the health denoted by the Anemia.

Although it did seem to reduce the health lost compared to before, Zhuge Jun still couldn’t accept it, not in any aspect!

First off, this thing didn’t offer 100% Physical Defense?

The so-called 100% Physical Defense means a shield in blocking the enemy’s physical attacks, can nullify the damage completely. Of course, even if the attack is blocked, stamina would still be depleted, and if the attacks included magical elements, the shield’s damage reduction wouldn’t reach 100%.

But regardless, being able to nullify physical damage in most high-difficulty games is usually a given setting.

If a shield could only block 70% or 80% of physical damage, most players would be disinclined to use it, since taking damage while blocking is frequent during level progression and minor damage can accumulate, insidiously depleting health.

Instead of that, it’d be better to honestly dodge or reposition and take the initiative in combat.

Secondly, although the shield did provide Anemia, and it seemed enticing to absorb it back, it didn’t mean much in practice.

In this game, taking a hit always resulted in Anemia, even without a shield; just hitting the enemy was usually enough to reclaim the Anemia.

Lastly, and most ridiculously, blocking damage with the shield could even result in part breaks on oneself!

The shield is mounted on the left arm, so as the monster keeps attacking, the Puppet Prosthesis also accumulates damage.

Within "Blood of Lies," there are several different levels of part destruction. Initially, it just results in performance degradation and an increase in subsequent injury, but in the most severe cases, it can lead to complete destruction of the part and loss of function.

Zhuge Jun found that the damage to his left arm was getting higher as he kept blocking, until finally, he couldn’t lift the shield at all.

Previously, Zhuge Jun had studied this humorous "defense" skill, naively thinking that the left arm was easily damaged because it was just being used to block directly, and that if a shield was employed, everything would get better.

But now it seemed he had been overly optimistic. After equipping the shield, there was indeed some change in damage reduction, but it was far from a substantial change!

Of course, Zhuge Jun could choose to block some attacks with the shield and dodge others. This would prolong the durability of the left arm as much as possible, allowing him to last longer.

But then, the question arose: if he was going to dodge, why not just dodge everything?

"This sucks!"

At this point, Zhuge Jun felt like he had eaten something disgusting, full of regret. Why did he even choose the Sword and Shield in the first place?

Weren’t the Sword Spear and Dual Swords more appealing?

He even considered deleting his account and starting over.

However, after much thought, Zhuge Jun decided to persevere. After all, redoing this segment would take at least an hour at its fastest, and farming some minor monsters to buy back the Sword Spear would definitely take less time than that.

With this in mind, Zhuge Jun found a place with relatively more experience points and began to farm minor monsters.

It must be said that the Sword and Shield weren’t bad for farming minor monsters. After switching to the two-handed stance, it was just one heavy attack that knocked these early-stage monsters down. The overall efficiency wasn’t too bad.

After farming for about fifteen minutes, he finally saved up enough money.

He returned to the hotel, found the Puppet Craftsman, and despite the urge to upgrade with these crystals, he repurchased the Sword Spear.

He had considered buying Dual Swords, but after giving it some thought, he decided against it. What if the feel was different and he didn’t acclimate to the GP? Wouldn’t that be even worse?

Better to play it safe and choose the Sword Spear to smoothly push through the process. He could always take his time to explore other weapons later.

After obtaining the Sword Spear, Zhuge Jun felt he was back in the game.

He tried it out on a couple of minor monsters, and the movement patterns were no different from what he was accustomed to.

"Wait for it, I’m about to G you!"

Zhuge Jun, bursting with excitement, once again engaged in an intense battle with the boss.

However, three minutes later, he was back next to the gas lamp, starting to question his life choices.

"Something’s wrong. Something is very wrong..."

Zhuge Jun scratched his head. He had everything timed right there, yet he still failed!

"Could it be because I’ve used the Sword and Shield for a while, changing my feel for the controller? Am I no longer familiar with the GP operations?

"Can’t be, right?"

Zhuge Jun was baffled. He felt his movements were fine, the boss’s movements weren’t much of an issue, and it seemed like there was no problem when watching others play, but he just couldn’t hit the GP.

After three more tries, the result was still him getting picked up and beat, and in the process, he only managed to succeed at GP once, which only added to his frustration.

If he hadn’t succeeded even once, Zhuge Jun would have definitely thought the game was bugged, but having succeeded just once, what did that mean?

With no other options, Zhuge Jun opened up the live streaming platform again; he wanted to see how the streamers were playing.

First up was Wang Dawei, who had advanced rapidly in the game and arrived at a place Zhuge Jun had never seen before.

It seemed that even the later bosses couldn’t stop him.

This left Zhuge Jun speechless. Was he really worse than Wang Dawei?

He promptly closed the stream, partly to avoid spoilers, and partly to keep from going over the edge.

He opened another streamer’s channel. Great, they were further along than him too.

In the end, with no other options left, Zhuge Jun rummaged through the live streams and finally clicked into a female streamer’s channel.

This female streamer, Ning Meng, was the type that could be considered an abstract artist of streaming. Not particularly pretty, bro-like with her viewers, but her streams were entertaining. Most importantly, she was genuinely bad at games, even considered quite low-skilled among female gamers.

For that reason, her stream was always crowded with an audience of ill intent, eagerly recommending her highly challenging games, eager to see her struggle.

And now was no exception.

Ning Meng had also gone to an event the previous month, so she hadn’t streamed much, just running brief outdoor streams in the afternoon to placate her viewers and report that she was safe, not abducted to a foreign country or anything.

As soon as she got back and "Blood of Lies" was officially released, she was all set up for it.

Her regular viewers obviously had sinister motives, pushing a girl who had just returned from a lovely vacation straight into the terrifying world of "Blood of Lies" to suffer—a delightful thought indeed!

Zhuge Jun didn’t think too much about it; he just wanted to find some confidence from the female streamer.

It couldn’t be that I was the only one suffering through the game, right?