Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 54 Grand Tutor, what’s with your health at 74?

Chapter 54: Chapter 54 Grand Tutor, what’s with your health at 74?

Chen Tingquan’s lips twitched slightly, his face nearly contorted with anger.

He almost wanted to quit the game on the spot.

It was bad enough that the crappy game made players sick, but now there were bugs too! I didn’t even want to support the Han Dynasty anymore; I just wanted to live until the year 250, but just as I was about to succeed thanks to some good luck, I was thwarted by a bug!

Wait a minute, bugs?

A lightbulb went off in Chen Tingquan’s head as he considered another possibility.

"Eh? If ’Warding off the Star’ can work on Sima Yi, does that mean all the Wolong Strategies could be given to NPCs using the Brocade Bag?"

"Brocade buddies, I’ve just had a very bold idea!"

Chen Tingquan’s gaze swept over the seven different Wolong Strategies: "Observing Stars," "Brocade Bag," "Personal Farming," "Verbal Combat," "Fire Attack," "Empty Fort," "Warding off the Star."

Among them, a Brocade Bag can’t encapsulate another Brocade Bag, and Personal Farming, Verbal Combat, Fire Attack, Empty Fort, and Warding off the Star are all purely positive buffs.

At first glance, the operation of "giving other NPCs Wolong Strategies" seemed to have no significant impact on the game itself.

After all, Wolong Strategies are basically beneficial effects, and this behavior is equivalent to aiding the enemy.

Just like Chen Tingquan’s mistaken action just now, he wasted one "Wolong Strategy" of his own, and even increased Sima Yi’s lifespan, which seemed like a loss in every aspect.

But there is one very special Wolong Strategy among them: "Observing Stars"!

Its effect allows a player to continuously observe a targeted general’s data and detailed status for 1 year.

It includes not only the general’s Seven-dimensional attributes but also their favored and hated generals and even personal history.

Chen Tingquan suddenly wondered what would happen if he gave other NPCs the effect of "Observing Stars"?

In any other game, nothing would probably happen because clearly, the game mechanics wouldn’t support it.

But "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" might be different!

The AI of the NPCs here is advanced, often exhibiting personal thoughts. Moreover, the AI is based on fake-AI technology, meaning it learns and makes decisions autonomously based on the information obtained.

So, on a whim, Chen Tingquan decided to give it a try!

A new turn came, and it was the year 247. There had been a shift in Wei Kingdom: Sima Yi was recalled to Luoyang, and Sima Shi replaced him as the commander of the front army, continuing the standoff against Zhuge Liang.

The reason for his recall was partly due to Sima Yi’s advancing age. Even someone as resilient as him could die on the front lines at any moment, so Sima Shi was to replace him as the commander; meanwhile, there were power struggles within Wei Kingdom. Emperor Ming of Wei, Cao Rui, had died, and the influence of the Great General Cao Shuang began to clash with that of Sima Yi.

In the original history, Zhuge Liang died in 234 at the Wuzhang Plains, and after that, Sima Yi suppressed Gongsun Yuan’s rebellion in Liaodong in 238 and repelled Wu Kingdom’s invasion in 241.

However, Cao Shuang had been trying to weaken Sima Yi’s power, to usurp his military authority, leading to the Gaoping Tomb incident later on.

According to the game storyline at this point, after returning to Luoyang, Sima Yi would be bedridden, and Sima Shi would continue to serve as the front army commander and confront Zhuge Liang controlled by Chen Tingquan until around 255, when Sima Shi would also die of a sudden illness.

Sima Yi was likely to die in 252 (after all, ’Warding off the Star’ added a year to his life), and if Zhuge Liang stayed alive, the Gaoping Tomb incident might not happen at all.

If Chen Tingquan could rely on "Warding off the Star" to let Zhuge Liang survive past 255, only then might he have a chance to launch a major counterattack amidst Wei Kingdom’s internal turmoil.

But now, after discovering this bug, Chen Tingquan’s decision-making began to change.

...

In the new turn, Chen Tingquan decisively chose "Brocade Bag" + "Observing Stars," using up two Wolong Strategies at once.

This time, the target of the "Brocade Bag" was no longer Sima Yi.

Chen Tingquan dragged the map, locating Cao Shuang who was in Luoyang.

At this moment, Emperor Ming of Wei, Cao Rui, had passed away, and the throne was succeeded by the young Emperor Cao Fang, only seven years old. Before his death, Cao Rui had appointed Cao Shuang as the Great General with the imperial insignia, serving alongside Sima Yi as the regents entrusted with the care of the young emperor. And after Emperor Cao Fang’s succession, Cao Shuang additionally became the Attendant Central and was renamed Marquis of Wu’an.

Thus, Cao Shuang was the actual power holder of Wei Kingdom at that time.

And in real history, the target of Sima Yi’s Gaoping Tomb coup was precisely Cao Shuang.

The story of "Sima Yi faking illness to trick Cao Shuang" is well known to many: to avoid Cao Shuang’s edge and make himself seem non-threatening, Sima Yi pretended to be sick and stayed in bed.

Cao Shuang sent his confidant Li Sheng to spy on Sima Yi. In response, Sima Yi deliberately had two servant girls help him stand up, pretending to hold his clothes, which then fell to the ground; when he drank porridge, it spilled from the corner of his mouth onto his chest; he even pretended to have dementia and memory loss, misspeaking the name of the place Li Sheng was to visit.

After this masterful performance, Cao Shuang completely let down his guard, convinced that Sima Yi would not live much longer.

The next year, in the first month, while Cao Fang and Cao Shuang were at the Gaoping Tomb offering sacrifices to their ancestors, Sima Yi launched the Gaoping Tomb coup, dealing with Cao Shuang and ultimately completing all the preparatory work for usurpation.

If Chen Tingquan did nothing, all of this was likely to happen anyway.

Because "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon," this game, in many key nodes and the overall framework, still roughly corresponds with history.

Once Zhuge Liang’s lifespan ran out, the game would automatically end.

But with this bug, everything changed!

Chen Tingquan chose Cao Shuang and then used a Brocade Bag to apply the "Observing Stars" effect on him!

[You used the Wolong Strategy "Brocade Bag" on Cao Shuang!]

[You used the Wolong Strategy "Observing Stars" on Cao Shuang!]

[Cao Shuang obtained the special effect "Observing Stars" through the "Brocade Bag"!]

He immediately exhausted both "Brocade Bag" and "Observing Stars" from the Wolong Strategy, and as for the third Wolong Strategy, he naturally continued to use "Warding off the Star" on himself.

After doing all this, Chen Tingquan waited patiently.

The other powers were still taking their turns as usual, and at Wuzhang Plains, Zhuge Liang was still confronting Sima Shi as though nothing had happened.

The screen was flooded with question marks from the barrage comments.

"What’s the situation? Nothing’s happening?"

"I don’t understand what the host is doing? Why would you give an NPC the ability to observe stars?"

"??"

But Chen Tingquan did not give up, and he still looked at the prompt on the screen, saying with anticipation, "Don’t rush, let the bullet fly for a moment."

Soon, the audience noticed that this time the situation was indeed different because a string of events suddenly appeared on the turn summary panel for both Luoyang and Wuzhang Plains!

[Spring of 247]

[Luoyang - Cao Shuang has placed Sima Yi and Sima Zhao under house arrest!]

[Luoyang - Cao Shuang has placed Empress Dowager Guo under house arrest in Yongning Palace!]

[Wuzhang Plains - Cao Shuang has recalled Sima Shi!]

[Wuzhang Plains - Cao Shuang has dispatched General Who Conquers the West, Xiahou Xuan, to take command of the army!]

These series of events had the audience in the live broadcast room completely flabbergasted.

"What’s going on? How did Cao Shuang put Sima Yi under house arrest? The script isn’t supposed to be written like this, right?"

"Change of personnel? It’s not Sima Shi anymore? Xiahou Xuan seems pretty weak, does this mean we can continue the northern expedition?"

"What the heck happened!"

Many viewers were still confused at this point. If Wei Kingdom didn’t switch out Sima Yi or Sima Shi, father and son, they would be able to hold out against the players until 255, at which point the players were likely to fail.

But why was Sima Shi replaced?

Clearly, this was related to the event "Cao Shuang places Sima Yi under house arrest" in Luoyang, but why would Cao Shuang suddenly decide to put Sima Yi under house arrest?

Does this game’s AI play so wildly?

Chen Tingquan was also astonished. Although he had vaguely guessed something might happen after he made this move, he hadn’t anticipated such an optimistic outcome!

He quickly opened the details of the event "Luoyang - Cao Shuang has placed Sima Yi and Sima Zhao under house arrest!"

To everyone’s surprise, this event actually triggered a dialogue!

All plot and dialogue in "Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon" are AI-generated, so the conditions for triggering them are unknown, and the content of the dialogue after triggering is quite random.

Most players would simply choose to skip over this kind of event, since it’s all AI-generated dialogue, what’s there to see?

But this time, the content of the dialogue had everyone unable to keep a straight face.

[Triggered the event "Cao Shuang’s visit"!]

[Cao Shuang visits the bedridden Sima Yi.]

[Sima Yi has the maids help him sit up in bed, and as he drinks porridge, it drips down his chin onto his chest.]

[Cao Shuang: Grand Tutor, stop pretending. With your health at 74 and loyalty at 13, do you think you can fool me?]

[Sima Yi (shocked): Great General, what do you mean by that?]

[Cao Shuang: You old rascal, hating military generals with me being the top of your list; do you still have the gall to ask me what I mean? And your life events, what happened at the Gaoping Tomb Incident? What is this about "successfully subjugated Cao Shuang and reclaimed power in the year 249"?]

[Sima Yi: ...]

[Luoyang - Cao Shuang has placed Sima Yi and Sima Zhao under house arrest!]

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