Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 478 - 461: Two Bad Endings

Chapter 478: Chapter 461: Two Bad Endings

Although the Lie Hunter had grown stronger, by now the players who had made it this far were completely familiar with his tactics, and even some new tricks were not enough to stop them.

Thus, the first batch of players came before the final boss.

In the cathedral, through the incomplete heart of an Ancient God, players faced the Ancient God casting its gaze upon Charlton City.

According to the relevant documents, this Ancient God should be Ilonak.

Ilonak is extensively mentioned in the records of the Deep Sea School. The Unclean Blood was originally derived from it and it is also the deity worshipped by the Healing Church.

Its appearance vaguely retains some humanoid traces, but it was larger and more terrifying, covered with various deep-sea features including dense tentacles and wriggling arms, enough to make one fearful just by looking.

But those who could arrive here so quickly were no ordinary players; they were either top experts or cheaters, and soon, Ilonak lay slain by the players’ blades.

Thus, after the official release of "Blood of Lies", players finally achieved the two endings of the game.

However, both endings were bad endings!

...

At this point, the most popular starting option was still the human start, as most people preferred attractive characters or could not be bothered to create custom faces.

After defeating the Ancient God Ilonak, players ultimately entered the "Servant Ending."

In this ending, after defeating Ilonak, the player removed their mask, and compared to the original normal, handsome human face, it had completely transformed into an Ancient God Face.

Twisted, swollen, uncomfortable to behold.

Just when players thought everything was over, the character’s body suddenly underwent a terrifying transformation, his eyes bursting open in agony.

Meanwhile, the originally silent cathedral suddenly echoed with footsteps, suggesting something approaching, but a quick pan of the camera revealed nothing.

Then the screen plunged into darkness.

After a seemingly long wait, the camera moved to the outskirts of Charlton City, where a rescue team had finally cleared a route connecting Charlton City to the outside and began their rescue attempts.

Everything here seemed to have settled; everywhere were destroyed buildings and decayed corpses, the formerly bustling Charlton City had turned into a Purgatory.

The rescue team finally entered Charlton City and reached the Claridge Hotel, which was the most intact, hoping to find survivors there.

It seemed as though a massacre had occurred here, as the walls were covered in bloodstains, but strangely, no bodies could be seen.

And indeed, there were survivors.

The survivor NPCs who had previously helped the players were all still there.

However, they behaved oddly, their movements eerie and inexplicable. Additionally, they all wore special headscarves covering their eyes.

When the rescue team reached the deepest corner of the hotel, in front of a large floor-to-ceiling window, a figure was leaning on a rocker, seemingly gazing at the pitch-black night beyond the window.

"Sir, can you tell us what exactly happened here?"

The rescue man mustered his courage and asked.

At that moment, the figure on the rocking chair gently grabbed a hunter weapon beside him.

...

Not long after achieving the human "Servant Ending," players who started as dolls also reached an ending.

This ending was indeed different from the human ending; from the achievements in the game, its name was "Heartless Ending."

Similarly, after defeating the Ancient God Ilonak, strange footsteps echoed in the quiet cathedral.

By then, the player had completed all the puppet modifications, turning the originally ugly god-like face into a handsome puppet face.

The character, full of perplexity, turned around when suddenly, he seemed to be struck by some invisible force.

But he immediately stood back up, totally unaffected.

The camera shifted, and the unseen force seemed to have shifted targets, moving quickly towards the entrance of the cathedral, where the Puppet Craftsman Jim, who had been aiding players in body modifications, appeared.

This attack was also ineffective.

Instead, Jim pulled out some special device. The invisible entity seemed to sense the danger and nearly flew out of the cathedral.

Then, Jim pulled out a special metallic heart and crushed it fiercely.

The player-controlled character instantly knelt down, clutching his chest, seemingly enduring great pain.

But soon, he slowly stood up, his face devoid of all expressions, seeming to have become a true doll.

After the screen went black, the rescue team still entered Charlton City.

Only now, all the survivors in the hotel had turned into dolls, only able to stiffly and mechanically utter some specific phrases.

The rescue personnel came to a floor-to-ceiling window of the hotel, through which they could clearly see that the Doll Workshop Area seemed to have resumed operations, busily producing something.

This time, the person in the deep room of the hotel was no longer the player-controlled protagonist, but the Puppet Craftsman Jim.

He casually opened the delicate mechanism box on the table and put on a pair of specially made mechanical gloves, with numerous golden threads faintly visible, seemingly extending towards an unknown room behind the rescue team.

By the time the rescue team looked back, they realized that the character controlled by the player was holding a butcher’s knife and, under the control of the golden threads, was slowly walking towards them.

...

After triggering these two endings, the players were a bit overwhelmed.

What the hell is this!

Why go through all this effort to reach two endings, and both are bad endings?

What? How do you know these are bad endings? Anyone with eyes can see it!

The first ending is a bit harder to understand, but the achievement name gives some clue.

The so-called "Servant," or "Juan Clan," in layman’s terms, is "Ancient God’s dog."

Of course, in different works, the concepts of "God" and "Juan Clan" might differ, but no matter how you look at it, "Juan Clan" is definitely not a compliment.

In the first ending, although the players defeated the Ancient God Ilonak who had been watching Charlton City all along, everything was not over, because another Ancient God took advantage of the situation and controlled the player to become a Juan Clan member.

As for which Ancient God that was? It wasn’t quite clear yet; players might have to go through some texts in the game to figure it out, as most haven’t delved deep into the plot yet.

But currently, it appeared that this Ancient God had the feature of "invisibility," and from how the players later stared into the starry sky, it was quite possible there was a link with the Ancient God representing the constellations from the Starry Sky School.

So why couldn’t the player resist?

Keep in mind; after defeating the flesh constructs and Ilonak, the player had, after all, defeated two Ancient Gods, so why couldn’t they fight this one?

The last outcome was simply too awful. Clearly, after returning to the hotel, the player killed all the NPCs and turned them all into Juan Clan members of this invisible Ancient God.

The next part of the plot wasn’t hard to guess—it must involve killing the rescue team and then spreading the disaster further, letting the whole world feel a small "Charlton City shock."

The second ending might seem slightly better at first glance but upon closer inspection, it was the same crap!

In this ending, the player had completed a thorough puppet transformation, taking a completely different extreme path from the first ending.

This kind of puppet transformation had one advantage—the invisible Ancient God couldn’t control the player, turn them into a Juan Clan member, and ultimately had to give up descending.

However, was the Puppet Craftsman Jim, who had been helping the player upgrade and enhance limbs, actually a schemer?

He clearly had backdoors while transforming the player’s body, easily erasing the player’s thoughts, destroying the memories the player had hardly recovered, and turned the player into a killing machine entirely obedient to him.

Puppet Craftsman Jim was obviously ambitious; he not only transformed himself and the player into puppets but also did the same for all other NPCs in the hotel.

He restarted the Puppet Workshop, working overtime to produce, and once Charlton City connected with the outside world, it was time for an army of dolls to conquer the world.

To sum up these two endings in three words, it’s just frustrating!

Both shared a commonality—players went through so much suffering and hustling, only to end up dressing others in robes of success. Either controlled by Ancient Gods or by a schemer.

Not cool!

So I suffer through all the hardships, face all the battles, and just when it’s time to enjoy the fruits, Ancient Gods and schemers come out to pick the sweet rewards, right?

Is this still fair?

The key here is that the game didn’t give me any choice. How was I supposed to know about another Ancient God? How was I supposed to know that Puppet Craftsman Jim was a major villain?

He looked all kind and compassionate while upgrading and modifying my puppet prostheses!

Usually, even if NPCs in games are bad, there should be some hints. Like that previous Bazi, although also a bad NPC, you could tell from his tone and wording.

All puppet craftsmen in this city are crooks, aren’t they?

Players who triggered these two endings initially wanted to start a fuss.

But then, it never started.

Because just as they prepared to storm Nitiandang online, they discovered that the issue with the endings was already answered.

Because the second unpacking video came out!

Unpacking must be done bit by bit, as there’s a lot in there, and the unpackers can only release as much as they see. Therefore, in the first session, probably to avoid too many spoilers, only a few questions that netizens cared about were answered, not addressing the endings.

But this session’s video announced: "Blood of Lies" has five different endings!

This news quickly suppressed the rising public opinion.

Five endings, huh? Then it’s okay.

Based on common sense, if there were only two or three endings, having two bad ones would be unacceptable.

But if there are five, with three good endings and two bad ones, that seems more acceptable, right?

Although the unpacking video didn’t specify what these endings were and how to achieve them, since other endings exist, why not try to trigger them?

Play out all the endings; if there’s not a single good one, there’s still time to complain later.