Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 47 I’m Only an Eight-Year-Old Child!

Chapter 47: Chapter 47 I’m Only an Eight-Year-Old Child!

Chen Tingquan believed that he had completely understood it.

"So, this game essentially simplifies the operation, mainly focusing on whether players can make correct choices! The key is to choose the right ’Wolong Strategy’, and then keep recruiting wise officials and brave generals, expanding your sphere of influence, gradually accumulating strength, and ultimately saving the Han Dynasty!"

"Good, let me see what choices I should make in the first round."

Each round starts with the player’s action, followed by the NPCs’ actions.

At this point, Chen Tingquan realized that the only person he could control was the 8-year-old Zhuge Liang, and furthermore, the city of Yuzhang was not even under Zhuge Liang’s jurisdiction, so all actions related to ’internal affairs’ and ’military’ were greyed out.

It seemed he could only choose three ’Wolong Strategies’ to implement.

After considering for a moment, Chen Tingquan quickly made his choices.

"Alright, let’s choose ’Personal Farming’, ’Brocade Bag’... and ’Observing Stars’!"

The effect of Personal Farming was to significantly increase the farmland yield and food production within the sphere of influence.

The effect of the Brocade Bag was to enhance someone’s internal or military capabilities by offering them a strategy. Chen Tingquan chose to use the Brocade Bag on the current Prefect of Yuzhang, Zhuge Xuan, enhancing his internal governance ability.

Don’t ask why Zhuge Xuan would take advice from an eight-year-old child—the answer is game mechanics!

Obviously, in this modified version of the Three Kingdoms, the ’Wolong Strategy’ is simply a causality weapon, extremely powerful.

As a result, Yuzhang’s food production for the round would be impressive.

But the choice of the third ’Wolong Strategy’ was a bit perplexing, as Verbal Combat, Fire Attack, Empty Fort, and Rangxing were four skills that were clearly only useful after the battle had started.

After much thought, he still chose the seemingly useless ’Observing Stars’.

The effect of Observing Stars was to continuously check the data and detailed status of any generals encountered over the course of one year. As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated," so it’s always right to prepare for a rainy day.

After Chen Tingquan made his decisions, the other forces also took action, completing a turn.

Chen Tingquan noticed that many forces were moving towards Luoyang, which meant that the coalition against Dong Zhuo that occurred around 190 AD was about to happen soon.

"Strange, the game clearly stated ’each character has their own thoughts and objectives, and significant events may differ from history,’ but key major events seem to be happening anyway."

"It seems that even though these NPCs are controlled by AI, they still have a certain intrinsic behavior logic."

"It might be that in the current AI calculations, fighting against Dong Zhuo is still the top priority for these NPCs, so the event is happening regardless."

"Hm? Why didn’t Yuan Shu go? Is this what the system refers to as ’randomness’?"

Chen Tingquan found that quite a few lords were heading to fight against Dong Zhuo, but Yuan Shu, who should have been eager to participate, did not go. Instead, he led troops south from Nanyang.

But Chen Tingquan didn’t think too much of it, as his main task was still to get to grips with the basic gameplay of this game.

He verified each of the three ’Wolong Strategies’ one by one.

’Personal Farming’ and ’Brocade Bag’ indeed had good effects, greatly increasing the grain production of the entire Yuzhang. It was clear that the number of farmers planting and harvesting around the town had increased, and the grain warehouse on the town interface was filled up, with the granary numbers also increasing significantly.

But the problem was... could these grains be put to use?

Chen Tingquan couldn’t help but feel perplexed, as he currently had no control over Yuzhang, and according to the course of history, it wouldn’t take long for the Eastern Han government to appoint someone in place of Zhuge Xuan, after which Zhuge Liang would have to follow Zhuge Xuan to join Liu Biao in Jingzhou.

By then, would he be able to take the grains grown through the ’Wolong Strategy’ with him?

Chen Tingquan scratched his head, feeling faced with a conundrum.

He had thought that entering the game and starting his own operations would be straightforward, but now, without his own territory, what was he supposed to do?

"Forget it, let’s leave it for now and see the effect of Observing Stars."

Chen Tingquan, not thinking too much of it, clicked on the various towns around him to check the attributes of these generals.

An attribute panel that was originally invisible was now completely exposed under the effect of ’Observing Stars’.

In the game ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon,’ there are a total of seven different attributes for generals: martial prowess, intelligence, command, governance, loyalty, health, and charm.

These attributes are similar to many other Three Kingdoms strategy games and aren’t difficult to understand.

Among them, the ones to pay special attention to are command and governance. The former affects the number of troops one can lead, and if the command value is not high enough, leading large armies into battle could have disastrous consequences. Governance mainly affects internal affairs, and assigning a general with low governance to manage a town could be counterproductive, even if the right strategy has been chosen.

Chen Tingquan casually opened up Yuan Shu’s attribute chart.

[Martial 65, Intelligence 61, Command 37, Politics 16, Loyalty 9, Health 66, Charisma 39]

Chen Tingquan almost burst out laughing when he saw this attribute chart.

"It’s so like you, Yuan Gonglu. These attributes fit my stereotype of you perfectly," he said.

Although as a lord, loyalty attribute is not really useful, this mere 9 points of loyalty still made for great entertainment.

Chen Tingquan continued to read and discovered that below the heptagonal attribute chart there were two key pieces of information: "Favored Generals" and "Disliked Generals".

[Favored Generals: -]

[Disliked Generals: Zhuge Liang, Yuan Shao, Cao Cao]

Chen Tingquan was taken aback when he saw this.

Then he exclaimed in disbelief, "Wait a minute! Hang on, how can I, Zhuge Liang, merely an 8-year-old child, be ranked ahead of those two guys?"

...

Chen Tingquan didn’t know what to say for a moment.

This was ridiculous!

In Yuan Shu’s list of disliked generals, it made sense to find Yuan Shao and Cao Cao.

But disliking Zhuge Liang? What’s with that? Zhuge Liang is just an eight-year-old kid!

And to be disliked even more than Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, what sort of nonsense is this?

Chen Tingquan then realized something even more horrifying: Could it be that Yuan Shu’s inexplicable march southward was aimed at me?

Upon careful consideration, although this speculation seemed far-fetched, after all other possibilities had been ruled out, the remaining option, no matter how preposterous, had to be the truth!

He surely couldn’t be coming here as a tourist, could he?

Chen Tingquan fell silent for a long while, then spoke to the camera, "Dear viewers, I am now playing as Zhuge Liang, but I’ve encountered a problem.

"In the year 190 AD, this was supposed to be the time when the eighteen warlords gathered their forces against Dong Zhuo. But for some reason, Yuan Shu tore up the script, leading his tens of thousands of troops out of Nanyang, straight towards Yuzhang, and his target is me, who am only eight years old.

"Fellow viewers, what do you think I should do now?"

Many "highly constructive" comments quickly floated by.

"I’m dying of laughter, this game doesn’t follow any rules!"

"No hope left, just wait for your doom!"

"I suggest you just run away!"

"An eight-year-old kid run for what? Maybe you should try being like Mengde, cutting your beard and discarding your robe to see if you can cutely get through!"

"How about hugging Liu Biao’s thigh for help? He can’t just stand by and watch you die, right?"

"Didn’t the game tell you from the start? What’s this phase called? ’Crouching Dragon Not Employed’! It means you, just an eight-year-old kid, should keep a low profile and stop causing trouble. If you insist on taking action, then of course you’re inviting retribution."

"Quickly use your invincible Wolong Strategy to think of a solution!"

Chen Tingquan silently sighed, "Alright, I guess I’ll have to try the Wolong Strategy now!"

Because each turn was three months, Chen Tingquan didn’t have much time. He had to make a decision quickly; otherwise, it would be too late by the time Yuan Shu arrived at his doorstep.

Albeit Yuan Shu was considered one of the weaker warlords among the coalition, he still had the advantage in number and provisions. How could Chen Tingquan challenge him?

After some deliberation, Chen Tingquan selected his next three moves in the Wolong Strategy.

First was "Brocade Bag", giving the Governor of Yuzhang, Zhuge Xuan, a "Defend" military tactic, hoping he would last a bit longer in the defense of the city.

The next two Brocade Bags were "Empty Fort" and "Verbal Combat", hoping to double-secure his safety.

In such a dire situation, he should forget about farming for now. After all, the food he farmed might not even be taken with him; it’s more important to save his own life first!

Soon, Yuan Shu’s army arrived at the city gates.

And Zhuge Xuan indeed lived up to expectations by... surrendering at the first sight of the enemy!