Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 598 - 581: Picking Up Black Tai Sui Again

Chapter 598: Chapter 581: Picking Up Black Tai Sui Again

Soon, the Great Liang alliance forces faced utter defeat.

Vision·Lee led the Golden Country’s mechanical army onward, triumphantly advancing the battle lines to the western borders of Great Liang. Previously, regions belonging to Great Liang had just shaken off evil spirits and regained peace, only to fall into the throes of war once again.

At this point, the main storyline progression naturally involved resisting the invasion from the Golden Country while finding ways to reclaim the nation’s land.

As for mounting a counterattack against the Golden Country, sorry to say, that seemed far too remote a possibility, certainly not happening in the short term.

Zhuge Jun silently switched his team composition.

From the currently known information, there are two methods to counter the Gold Element forces: one is using the Power of the Fire Element, and the other is a combination of the Water Element and the Time Element.

The Water Element alone is ineffective against Gold, but when combined with the Time Element, it creates a special "corrosion" effect.

When the enemy’s weapons imbued with Gold Elements carry the "corrosion" effect, not only does it make each slash more painful with additional corrosive damage, but it also causes the enemy’s Gold Element enchantments to deplete rapidly.

Overall, it can be considered a type of counter; however, one must be careful to avoid enemy attacks.

Given this, among the currently available characters, Echio, boasting the highest Fire Element damage, was an obvious choice, and the Ningyun Monarch, with her Time and Wind Elements, would be selected as well.

The remaining two slots could involve support characters, such as Xi Yun or the Glacier General, to spread the Water Element to assist Ningyun Monarch, or alternatively, a healing support to increase the margin for error.

Isn’t Priestess Xie, freshly introduced, just perfect for this role?

However, for Zhuge Jun, there was something rather vexing.

Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan still couldn’t be utilized!

Forcing them into the team was possible, but the Earth Element shield offered no additional damage mitigation against Gold Elements, and should they really encounter Vision·Lee, who knows when he might unleash a powerful ultimate attack, instantly shattering the shield.

In that case, the characters Li Huanzhen and Zhao Siyuan would be half-wasted, which was rather uncomfortable, so it might be better to switch to other characters.

Additionally, what concerned Zhuge Jun more was the current point to which the storyline had developed.

Why would these mechanical beings from the Golden Country brazenly introduce a Vision·Lee? According to the setting of "Ascension," shouldn’t he be the same person as Li Huanzhen?

Of course, if one were to delve into it, the Golden Country and the Earth Country are the same place in "Ascension," yet in "Endless Fantasy Legend 2," they are depicted as neighboring countries.

With many questions in mind, Zhuge Jun began to advance the storyline of this version.

The content was quite rich; sometimes he had to rush to the front lines to put out fires, sometimes search within the Earth Country for temporarily sealed powers, and other times infiltrate deep into the Golden Country to destroy key facilities.

Overall, the area currently opened in this version of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" could be regarded as the main battlefield of this war.

For players who have yet to complete the seventy-seven "Active Father" side missions, they can use the map mechanism to freely switch between two different timelines of the Earth Country.

Inside the Golden Country, Zhuge Jun also collected some textual materials, with many settings gradually surfacing.

"So, it means...

"The storyline of ’Endless Fantasy Legend 2’ actually continues the ’Sunrise Awakening’ ending of ’Ascension’?

"Some details don’t match up, but looking at the outcome, it’s clearly that ending!"

Zhuge Jun scratched his head: "But wasn’t that ending universally acknowledged as the best?

"Now it doesn’t seem all that great?

"No, no, it should still be considered good, just from a different perspective?

"Oh no, why do I feel it’s getting confusing!"

Zhuge Jun struggled to make sense of it for a moment.

"Ascension" had a total of five different endings, including "Ruthless Purge," "Return to Nature," "New Life," "Ascension," and "Sunrise Awakening."

Previously, when players played "Ascension," they were very conflicted over the endings because no matter which of the first four endings was chosen, one world would end up good and the other bad.

For example, the "Ascension" ending, where the player continuously devoured Flesh Monsters to enhance their own power, eventually enabling ascension to the Immortal Realm and becoming the most powerful entity.

In the Immortal Cultivation World, this meant all life was transformed into flesh creatures, and all these flesh beings were absorbed by Li Huanzhen alone, turning the entire Jiangdu and even Great Liang into a land of the dead.

Whereas in the Cyber World, Vision·Lee became the overmind, the collective will of all mechanical life, or in other words, a new form of technological life.

Although the outcomes of these two worlds are essentially the same in nature, only differing in appearance—one being a fusion of flesh and the other a fusion with machines—the player’s perception greatly differed.

Because in the Immortal Cultivation World, players viewed from the human perspective, and it felt like a bad ending;

From the Cyber World’s standpoint, viewed from the mechanical perspective, it seemed like a good ending.

The first four endings of "Ascension" were generally like this, as the protagonist’s position in the two worlds was inherently opposite, hence players still felt dissatisfied no matter how hard they tried.

Until the fifth ending "Sunrise Awakening" appeared, it was considered a traditionally satisfactory conclusion.

In this ending, the flesh and blood life of the Immortal Cultivation World was eradicated, and Li Huanzhen was alive, leading an ordinary life;

Meanwhile, the intelligent machines of the Cyber World were preserved, and Li Huanzhen integrated these intelligent lives, also becoming "Skynet," evolving into a new form of technological life.

Li Huanzhen no longer suffered by traveling between two worlds, he seemed to truly split in two, happily living in both worlds.

Logically, this ending is indeed quite satisfying, and most players were pleased with it, finding it a fitting though challenging hidden conclusion.

Yet, an extremely small number of players expressed skepticism: Is this really a good ending? Doesn’t it look like the protagonist has completely lost his mind?

But most people disagreed with this notion.

After all, the world is already dark enough, and Li Huanzhen has become desperate enough, so let everyone retain a bit of a beautiful illusion.

But now, the plot of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2" clearly aligns with this ending!

On the Earth Country Daliang side, the evil spirits were cleared, the citizens returned to a peaceful and contented life, and Li Huanzhen reverted back to a normal human;

On the Water Country side, the machine intelligence became a new form of technological life and were integrated. Vision·Lee became Skynet itself.

But then comes the problem:

If the Cyber World’s Vision·Lee, with the integrated intelligent machines, comes knocking, how is Daliang’s Li Huanzhen supposed to cope?

This is the current situation in the plot of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2."

In the most extreme case, if Earth Country really couldn’t hold on, leading to the destruction of Earth Country by the Golden Country, with all humans killed and the nation ruled by mechanical life, would Li Huanzhen be the greatest criminal?

After all, he eliminated all the evils of Earth Country. If the evil spirits and the Xun Xiang Cult were still around, although the lives of the citizens would be miserable, at least they could rely on these evil spirits and various tomb guardian beasts in the burial mounds, as well as monsters like the Crane-Riding Immortal, to resist the invasion from the Golden Country.

Of course, such a thought, upon closer reflection, doesn’t really hold up, and in the plot of "Endless Fantasy Legend 2," in actuality, it was the player-controlled hero who killed the evil spirits, not Li Huanzhen.

But regardless of how you look at it, this situation has fiercely critiqued the "Sunrise Awakening" ending.

There were many people who had a vague feeling that there was something not quite right with this ending.

Now, this sense of unease seems to have received official acknowledgment.

"Exactly! The ’Sunrise Awakening’ ending has a sequel—the sequel is the invasion of Daliang by mechanical life. Li Huanzhen, deprived of the power of the evil spirits, is utterly powerless to fight back, and it’s highly likely that Daliang will fall under the mechanical horde, with all humans and other creatures dying out, and the mechanical life will use Daliang as a springboard to continue advancing into other nations!"

This is the message the official plot is now conveying to the players.

It viciously tears away the sole perfect ending’s veil of warmth in "Ascension," delivering a critical blow to the players.

And as the storyline proceeds, Zhuge Jun discovers that there’s even more to the plot’s twists.

Li Huanzhen’s role gradually intensifies!

In the following plot, all forces of Earth Country Daliang are mobilized, and Li Huanzhen naturally joins the battle immediately.

But having lost the power of the evil spirits, Li Huanzhen’s battle strength has greatly diminished. Although he can still wield his blade, use the Power of the Earth Element, and master some charms and Daoist magic, he no longer possesses those unusual divine powers.

Take the original Seeking Immortal Record, for example.

The Seeking Immortal Record itself has many different uses. For instance, its most basic function "Locust Stone" requires obtaining a secret transmission and having Black Tai Sui modify it. Given its earthy material, which corresponds to the spleen among the five visceral organs, one must reach into their body and crush the spleen to obtain ammunition for the Locust Stone.

When carrying a sufficient number of paper effigies, one can use skills by consuming these effigies. Without the effigies, one must use their own life points instead.

If you consume a real spleen, the power increases significantly, but it can only be used once.

Besides, the Seeking Immortal Record has many different functions, corresponding to various visceral organs and different body parts—the gist is that as long as one is willing to endure the pain, they can exchange it for correspondingly powerful abilities.

However, with the complete disappearance of the evil spirits, many of the Seeking Immortal Record’s amazing abilities have naturally been rendered nearly ineffective.

Li Huanzhen’s abilities now only include basic manipulation of earth elemental power, blade techniques, paper effigy substitutes, and so forth.

Those powerful moves that could be executed by consuming paper effigies or real organs are now entirely unusable.

Although Li Huanzhen is still fighting hard, the situation inevitably continues to worsen.

As for calling for reinforcements...

Where to seek help?

The Fire Country in the south and the Water Country in the north are both watching eagerly. If they see Daliang weakening, they might indeed send troops, but certainly not to save Daliang, but to divide and conquer Daliang’s territory.

As for the Wood Country in the East and the Thunder Country in the Northeast, they have their own troubles and even if they did come to provide support, it would not be significant enough to turn the tide of the battle.

Thus, the greatest pressure in the plot still falls on Li Huanzhen.