Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 48: Consider the head but not the buttocks

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Consider the head but not the buttocks

In the game, Zhuge Xuan originally lacked military talent, and what’s more, at this moment Yuzhang hardly had any soldiers at all, the most crucial point being that Yuan Shu was still officially Zhuge Xuan’s superior...

Layer upon layer of debuff was stacked up, winning this battle would be a miracle!

Even though Chen Tingquan had already used three Wolong Strategies, a clever woman cannot cook without rice, and these strategies evidently still required some basic conditions. The power disparity between the two sides couldn’t be too vast.

When the round ended, a new interface popped up on the game screen to summarize the major events of the round.

[189 Year, Summer]

[Luoyang - Dong Zhuo deposes Emperor Liu Bian, enthrones King of Chenliu Liu Xie as emperor.]

[Xuzhou - Tao Qian quells the Yellow Turban rebellion, becomes the Governor of Xuzhou.]

[Pingyuan - Liu Bei is promoted to administer of Gaotang County.]

[Chenliu - Cao Cao calls upon the heroes of the land to crusade against Dong Zhuo.]

[Yuzhang - Yuan Shu’s forces approach, Yuzhang surrenders without a fight.]

The first half of this interface summarized major events occurring in various cities, displayed with specific icons. Moving the mouse over them would show detailed descriptions.

The latter half of the interface, however, directly related to the player.

[You have activated Wolong Strategy "Empty Fort"!]

[Because Yuzhang surrendered without a fight, "Empty Fort" did not take effect!]

[You have activated Wolong Strategy "Verbal Combat"!]

[Yuan Shu’s hatred for you is too high, "Verbal Combat" efficacy rate is 26%!]

["Verbal Combat" did not take effect!]

[You have been captured by Yuan Shu!]

[As "Destiny’s Chosen," you were killed by Yuan Shu! Game over!]

Chen Tingquan stared at the abruptly halted game screen, his expression somewhat vacant.

Is it over, just like that?

I, a great Sleeping Dragon, perished before even setting out at the tender age of eight?

This is way too early, isn’t it?

Yuan Shu is really a brute, isn’t he? Not even sparing an eight-year-old child, is he even human?

The barrage of chats is rolling in laughter, this unexpected twist has caught everyone by surprise.

"An eight-year-old Sleeping Dragon dies before his time. Is this the distortion of humanity or the degeneration of morality?"

"Cause of death: Ah, why did Yuan Shu come south?"

"This game really doesn’t play by the rules!"

"Yuan Shu even saw through the Empty Fort? Good sir, Yuan Shu ＞ Sima Yi!"

"Empty Fort is just to fool the likes of Sima Yi who overthinks things. When facing a straightforward guy like Yuan Shu it’s straight-up useless, which is quite logical indeed!"

The live comments are having a field day, but for Chen Tingquan, the person involved, it’s not funny at all!

He furrowed his brows and began to contemplate the gameplay seriously.

Clearly, he had oversimplified the game!

From the very start, the game had made it clear to the players that it wasn’t a typical historical strategy game, it’s called Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon, and naturally, the gameplay differed from other strategy games, which meant it couldn’t be approached with the standard mindset of strategic games.

Moreover, the game’s background story also mentions that the core setting revolves around "Destiny’s Chosen" and "Demons."

Demons will stop at nothing to kill the Destiny’s Chosen, Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, and what players must do is find every possible way to survive.

"Okay, my friends, I get it. The reason I died so fast in the first game is that I didn’t understand the gameplay. I shouldn’t have wasted the first turn on something like farming, which was utterly useless.

"The initial goal of the game is just one, and that is to stay alive!

"There won’t be any problems this time!"

Chen Tingquan cheered up and started the game over.

This time, he began to explore a new way of playing, and that was to "hang on" as best as he could!

Chen Tingquan found out that the Zhuge Liang he controlled could move freely between cities, but obviously, it wasn’t as a warlord leading troops into battle, but rather in the guise of ordinary travelers or merchants.

With that realization, things became simple: Can’t fight back? Can’t hide?

Run away!

Don’t ask why an eight-year-old child could run around in such a chaotic world. He was Destiny’s Chosen, he was Zhuge Liang. So what if he was a little more badass than your average kid? It made perfect sense!

And Observing Stars had become a godlike skill that Chen Tingquan had to use once every year.

Of course, the primary purpose of this skill wasn’t to check the attributes of these generals.

Although the seven-dimensional data charts of these generals made it clearer to see their strength, Chen Tingquan carefully observed and discovered that these data were very similar to those in many Three Kingdoms strategy games.

As an old player of Three Kingdoms games, Chen Tingquan could vaguely remember these approximate data, so it wasn’t of much use to him.

The reason he kept Observing Stars was mainly to check the "Despised Generals" column!

Chen Tingquan realized this column could also be regarded as the threat value of the generals towards himself.

If the first entry in the Despised Generals column was Zhuge Liang, that city was absolutely off-limits. Going there would be like walking into a trap.

But as long as the first entry in the Despised Generals wasn’t Zhuge Liang, but someone else, it meant that he could coexist peacefully for a while, at least until Zhuge Liang’s hatred value rose to the highest due to some reason.

Chen Tingquan couldn’t help but marvel at how "Observing Stars" truly deserved to be the first Wolong Strategy, extremely powerful and worthy of its name!

Indeed, Zhuge Liang had successfully survived being eight years old and also managed to live past ten.

Time had moved from 189 AD to 194 AD.

During this period, Chen Tingquan had basically been hiding here and there, hopping between cities around Yuzhang, switching from Liu Biao’s territory to Sun Jian’s depending on the situation, avoiding all sorts of generals who wanted to harm Destiny’s Chosen.

It might have been a bit wretched, but at least he survived.

In the meantime, Chen Tingquan had been pondering a critical question: how exactly was he supposed to win this game?

This young Zhuge Liang had no way to raise his own forces, aiming to become a sovereign was absolutely impossible. But to say joining an existing faction? When he met Liu Biao and Sun Jian, there wasn’t even an option to join them.

Was he only allowed to join Liu Bei?

But at this point, Liu Bei himself was nothing more than a mercenary, lacking any territory, could he even count as a sovereign?

Moreover, Liu Bei was too far away. At this time, Liu Bei was mostly active in the north, initially mixing in with Gongsun Zan, and later temporarily attaching himself to Tao Qian. These places were too far from where Zhuge Liang was.

How was Zhuge Liang supposed to get there?

It seemed not impossible to just make the journey on foot, but it was somewhat dangerous because if he encountered some shortsighted general along the way who suddenly raised Zhuge Liang’s hatred value to the top spot, it would be completely over.

And even if he found Liu Bei, what then? Did the game allow taking direct control over Liu Bei’s forces?

This left Chen Tingquan quite conflicted.

However, just as he was considering whether or not to let Zhuge Liang go find Liu Bei, an unexpected situation occurred again!

Liu Bei was killed by Cao Cao!

...

This matter was kind of ridiculous.

The general trend of the world in this round of the game was more or less consistent with actual history.

After the campaign against Dong Zhuo, the state entered a phase of warlord separatism. In 192 AD, Yuan Shao eliminated Gongsun Zan, and although this battle didn’t happen at Jieqiao, the ultimate outcome was largely the same.

By 193 AD, Cao Cao began his campaign against Tao Qian in Xuzhou.

Chen Tingquan found that even though the NPCs in this world had their own thoughts and could behave in ways that differed from history, the historical framework was still intact, and no major deviations had occurred.

This might be because the developers wrote a script in the backend, giving AI behavior certain priorities, following historical events to target specific enemies; it could also be because these AI were quite intelligent, making relatively similar decisions to historical figures once fed enough data.

Chen Tingquan then just watched the drama unfold for amusement.

But unexpectedly, the drama unfolded right in his own backyard.

In 194 AD, during Cao Cao’s second campaign against Tao Qian, Liu Bei and Tao Qian’s general, Cao Bao, attempted to intercept Cao Cao and were defeated.

Normally, according to history, Cao Cao would not have been relentless in pursuing Liu Bei, as his real targets were Xuzhou and Tao Qian. Therefore, Cao Cao continued to besiege Xuzhou. It was at this time that Lü Bu launched a surprise attack on Cao Cao’s Yanzhou, forcing Cao Cao to retreat from Xuzhou.

However, in the game, Cao Cao played out of turn!

After defeating Liu Bei, he directly chased after Liu Bei and outright killed him!

[ "Destiny’s Chosen" Liu Bei has been killed by Cao Cao! Game over! ]

Looking at the prompt on the screen, Chen Tingquan almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

"Buddies, what the hell is this!

"I can keep Zhuge Liang safe, but how can I protect Liu Bei when he is so far away from me!

"Can’t you let someone enjoy the game?!"

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