Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 52 Rangxing Extends Life

Chapter 52: Chapter 52 Rangxing Extends Life

In the evening, Gu Fan returned home and had just finished his takeout when Lilith arrived on time.

She seemed very happy, expertly grabbed snacks and drinks, and settled into her massage chair, continuing to watch streamers play "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon".

So far, although the internet was filled with criticism, many streamers were still tirelessly playing.

The reason was simple.

They were stubborn, wanting to prove that there must be some undiscovered way to beat the game!

By now, the reputation of "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" as a "cyber swindle" had spread all over the net, making many aware that the game seemingly didn’t intend for players to achieve the "Aid the Han Dynasty" objective.

This indeed discouraged a large number of players, but at the same time, it piqued the curiosity of many others.

If you could be the first player to beat "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon", wouldn’t the traffic be overwhelming?

Therefore, there was still a group of players silently toiling away and contributing in the game, searching for that glimmer of hope amidst the impossible code.

Instructor Ding was clearly one of them.

He started his stream exceptionally early today, jumping straight into playing "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon".

The title of his stream was changed to something quite sensational: "Today I’m challenging to beat ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’! I won’t end the stream until I beat it!"

Indeed, this title brought him huge popularity. Although he started streaming two hours earlier than usual, the intensity of viewership had almost reached its usual peak.

Of course, most people came for the entertainment.

"Wow, this guy is playing for keeps!"

"Brothers, be ready to call 120 at any moment, don’t let him play his electronic pet to death."

"Instructor, it’s good that you want to entertain, but could you please not die inside my phone? If I recycle my phone after it has witnessed a virtual death, I’ll lose value on it."

"Strange, why is the Instructor so persistent? Didn’t he get tormented over and over again by the old thief Sima Yi yesterday?"

"Are you sure there’s no promotion fee from Nitiandang this time? Why do I feel like he’s putting in more effort than when he was paid before?"

"Maybe it’s love begetting hate! Probably the Instructor wants to prove that he is the best game promoter and that Nitiandang made a mistake not hiring him."

"Is this the professional dedication of the Meal-Getting Immortal?"

On the screen, Instructor Ding seemed fully prepared, with an attitude that signaled he would not rest until he beat the game.

This scene made Lilith laugh so hard she had to hold her belly.

"Hahaha... I just love this naive yet stubborn side of you humans!

"I’ve got my entertainment for tonight!

"But humans truly are strange creatures. If I had known he would promote the game for me without pay, I wouldn’t have paid him in the first place.

"Better to spend that money on buying some live players on the game platform."

Obviously, Lilith was getting cocky.

When she watched the live stream yesterday, she was all nerves, afraid of any problems and barely daring to laugh loudly even when negative emotions were accruing.

Not daring to pop the champagne at halftime.

But today was different.

After a night and a day of struggling, players still hadn’t found a way to beat "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon", nor had they found any special bugs like in the previous three games.

This boosted Lilith’s confidence tremendously; she felt that "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" was certainly secure!

That’s why she could watch Instructor Ding’s live stream with such ease.

Lilith and Instructor Ding, one inside the screen and one outside, both seemed full of confidence, but it remained to be seen who would have the last laugh in this "I won’t end the stream until I beat the game" contest.

...

In the blink of an eye, four hours passed.

Instructor Ding had been streaming since a little past six, and it was already past ten.

During this time, he had restarted the game six or seven times, but the result was still the same as last night, with no progress at all!

"Guys, I don’t believe it! There must be a way to beat this game!"

Instructor Ding checked the time: "It’s fine, I made sure to get a good sleep in the afternoon before coming, we still have ten hours to grind it out with it.

"Nitiandang is my favorite game company, they couldn’t possibly just make such a mediocre game! There must be some special rule buried in the game, it’s just that I haven’t discovered it yet!"

Lilith lay on her massage chair, comfortably munching through three big bags of chips and harvesting plenty of negative emotions. She looked thoroughly satisfied.

"Oh no, Instructor Ding wouldn’t actually die from exhaustion during the live stream, right? That would be awful.

"He should probably take a break.

"Let’s switch to another broadcaster to see, let him rest for a bit, and we can come back later to continue watching him."

Lilith said as she pressed the remote, and entered Chen Ting Quan’s live stream room again.

Gu Fan chuckled inwardly, thinking that in this world, probably no one hoped more for Instructor Ding to drop dead than you!

If he truly did and went to Hell, Lilith probably wouldn’t even know how to arrange things for him.

Of course, it wasn’t certain that he would go to Hell, and Gu Fan didn’t know whether Instructor Ding had listened to his earlier advice to accumulate good deeds and virtue.

Lilith switched over to Chen Ting Quan’s channel.

Since 9 o’clock in the evening, Chen Ting Quan’s negative emotion indicators had also been continuously updating, clearly showing that he was still persistently playing the game.

Tired of watching Instructor Ding get crushed, Lilith wanted to change things up.

However, as soon as she laid eyes on Chen Ting Quan’s game screen, Lilith, who had been very relaxed, tensed up!

She sat up halfway from her massage chair, the smile vanished from her face, replaced by a frown as she stared at the year displayed in the top right corner of the live broadcast screen.

[The summer of the year 247]!

Although Lilith was a Hell Demon and didn’t understand much about the history of the Three Kingdoms in the East, she had crammed some basic knowledge during the game development process and knew that "Autumn Wind over Wuzhang Plains" happened in the year 234.

So how did Chen Ting Quan get to the year 247??

This was like giving Zhuge Liang an extra ten years of life!

Could it be that he really might manage to beat the game?

Lilith immediately grew anxious and watched the live stream intently for a while.

But soon, she relaxed again, patting her chest lightly: "Phew, that’s a relief, it scared me. I almost thought there was another bug...

"It seems it’s just the normal game mechanics he’s struggling with, so that’s nothing to worry about."

She calmed down, lay back in her massage chair, and opened a new bag of chips.

On the surface, Chen Ting Quan seemed to be doing much better than Instructor Ding.

Instructor Ding was still floundering like a headless fly; even though he had declared he wouldn’t stop streaming until he beat the game, he still hadn’t found any leads, just purely relying on luck.

But Chen Ting Quan, who was well-versed in history, indeed a clever man, had found a breakthrough after a day of reflection!

Or at least, what he thought was a breakthrough.

And that breakthrough was the much-dismissed "Warding off the Star" by many players!

Actually, when he wasn’t live streaming during the day, Chen Ting Quan had searched online for guides and read through other people’s experiences, but it was obvious that this was all in vain.

However, the "Warding off the Star" operation that many players brought up gave him a path to breaking the deadlock.

The reason most players thought "Warding off the Star" was useless was mainly for two reasons.

First, it took up one use of the Wolong Strategy, making the already challenging game even harder.

Second, its success rate was low, being successful only once in six or seven tries, and even if it succeeded, it only prolonged life for a year.

Therefore, most players only dabbled in it and did not delve into it deeply.

But Chen Ting Quan was somewhat stubborn; he persisted with the "Warding off the Star" strategy and, believe it or not, actually made some headway.

He successfully extended Zhuge Liang’s life span by ten years, allowing him to live until the year 247!

The reason he was able to do this was that he had been playing the fourth stage repeatedly, figuring out a rough optimal solution for each turn’s domestic and military strategies, which allowed him to squeeze in an opportunity to use "Warding off the Star."

Especially later on, when facing off against Sima Yi at Wuzhang Plains, he just farmed the land in place, just like Zhuge Liang did; if Sima Yi didn’t attack, Chen Ting Quan didn’t need to think too hard and could just mindlessly use "Warding off the Star" to prolong his life.

With this understanding of the game mechanics and a bit of luck, Chen Ting Quan successfully performed "Warding off the Star" ten times and prolonged Zhuge Liang’s life to the year 247.

This achievement excited both him and his live stream audience and also made Lilith quite nervous.

But soon, Chen Ting Quan realized that even so, he still couldn’t beat the game.

Because Sima Yi was too tenacious a survivor!

[The winter of the year 247]

[Wuzhang Plains - Zhuge Liang has passed away from illness!]

[With both "Destiny’s Chosen" Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang deceased, the goal of "Aid the Han Dynasty" was not accomplished, game over!]