Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 67 Some Suggestions (Added, Happy New Year Everyone!)

Chapter 67: Chapter 67 Some Suggestions (Added, Happy New Year Everyone!)

So, is there at least some fun to be had as a Flame Thief?

After all, stealing materials in a perilous place and dodging mighty monsters does sound a bit playable.

But Gu Fan circled back to review the Flame Thief-related settings, and soon realized he had still overestimated Lilith’s humanity.

Firstly, the Divine Realm is extremely dangerous, and the angels’ senses are incredibly sharp—once a player is caught, it’s an instant kill.

If a player dies, the items they’ve picked up will drop right where they died, rendering all their previous efforts futile.

These elements are basically on par with top-tier horror games, which most normal players would find very hard to handle.

Furthermore, Lilith had also considered that there are some humans who like horror games and have a natural proclivity for boldness.

So, she added another rule: the identities of the Flame Thief and the Manual Laborer would switch!

Every so often, the system would randomly select players and bestow upon them the "Flame Thief" identity, roughly 1/3 of the total player count.

During the time players acted as "Flame Thieves," the system would score their behavior, with players who gathered resources, actively explored, and outwitted the monsters getting a higher score.

And the next time "Flame Thieves" were chosen, those high-scoring players wouldn’t get picked at all and could only serve as "Manual Laborers."

And what if a player was particularly cowardly? If they kept playing passively, hiding in corners to pass the time, or acting recklessly and getting themselves killed, then the system would consistently select them as "Flame Thieves."

Thus ensuring that those players who were brave and suited to be Flame Thieves would always be the ones serving as Manual Laborers under the Corvée System; while those who were timid and couldn’t handle horror games would be constantly scared out of their wits in the Divine Realm.

It was a case of delivering the most distasteful gameplay to the least suitable players.

Of course, if it were a lone wolf player, they would have to switch roles between Flame Thief and Manual Laborer on their own.

But that wouldn’t make much difference since lone wolf players playing such a game was akin to voluntarily imprisoning themselves.

Below that were some details of the design draft.

For instance, the types of materials players could steal from the Divine Realm included various stones, wood, tools, seeds, and so on.

And the most nonsensical part might be the player profession setup.

The design draft had previously stated that there were two identities players could possess, "Flame Thief" and "Manual Laborer," representing the division of labor in the game.

But in addition to that, players could also choose from three different professions, each with unique skills.

It sounded quite nice, but a look at these skills would reveal that unique brand of "Hell humor" that belonged to Lilith.

The three professions were: Warrior, Mimic, and Jester.

The Warrior’s skill was "Capture," which allowed the player to grapple with small monsters and even carry them around in hand.

However, the useless aspect of this skill was that small monsters in the game were not much of a threat to players, who could easily kill these creatures with a pickaxe head or a shovel.

The Mimic’s skill was "Imitate," which allowed the player to select a character and imitate their actions for a period of time.

As for the Jester—an occupation that Gu Fan found to be the most absurd—its skill was "Laughing." The specific effect was to issue a variety of different types of laughter.

The "Laughing" skill was random and out of player control, designed to inspire those around them to speed up.

But the particularly tricky part of this skill was that many monsters in the Divine Realm had highly sensitive hearing, coupled with instant-kill abilities. So essentially, the Jester was like a ticking time bomb that could wipe out an entire group in no time.

These three professions’ skills weren’t entirely useless, but they did make different ways for players to die a bit more varied.

One can imagine that when players realized the true nature of these skills, a substantial amount of negative emotions would inevitably erupt.

"How about it? Isn’t the game design pretty good?"

Lilith seemed very proud. Every time she finished designing a game, she was brimming with confidence, feeling like she was an absolute genius.

But after being proud for a while, she still asked, "Do you have any better ideas?"

After careful thought, Gu Fan replied, "I can’t say I have a better idea. I’m just a programmer who codes. I’m not really an expert on game design."

"Your design is already quite sophisticated.

"However, there are a few minor suggestions you might consider."

Lilith was very pleased with Gu Fan’s attitude, "Hmm, go on."

Gu Fan pointed to the part of the design plan related to "construction," "Although it’s unlikely to continuously generate negative emotions through a game, I think it’s possible to extend players’ gaming time, making them produce more negative emotions before they quit the game."

Lilith raised an eyebrow, "Oh? Let’s hear it!"

Clearly, she was quite curious about it.

Prometheus, the game, outright doesn’t allow players to build anything; they can only monotonously move bricks, which is an obvious fact.

Even if some players are duped into the game by the label "survival construction game," they will quickly uncover the truth and then bolt at light speed.

How can they be made to stick around longer?

Gu Fan cleared his throat, "Quite simple, we just need to dangle a carrot in front of them like internet giants!

"When players first enter the game as Manual Laborers, we’ll arrange for a Supervisor to proclaim to them: ’As long as you work hard moving bricks, one day you can become like me, a Supervisor, or even an Architect, designing buildings yourself and having the Manual Laborers build them for you.’

"We can’t expect to deceive players forever, but if we can deceive them for a while, that’s still good.

"As long as players stay in the game a bit longer, we’ll reap more negative emotions."

Lilith’s eyes brightened, "Good suggestion! Any more?"

Gu Fan then looked at the "Monster" category.

In the game Prometheus, Lilith’s monster design could be described as quite monotonous and could even be said to be perfunctory.

The monsters in the Divine Realm were basically various Angels, differing only in appearance and the number of wings.

Gu Fan pointed at several Angels, "And, isn’t the design of the monsters a bit too conservative?"

Lilith was stunned, "Conservative?

"Most monsters already kill players with a single hit, is that conservative?

"Could they possibly blow up the player’s console with a punch?"

Gu Fan shook his head, "That’s not necessary. These monsters are already powerful in terms of combat ability, you could even say they are overkill. What I mean is, aren’t these monsters’ appearances too conservative?

"Look at these Angels, each clad in glittering armor, with spotless white wings, a bit too dashing. How can such monsters cause sufficient psychological harm to players?"

Lilith seemed somewhat puzzled, "Then what do you suggest?"

Gu Fan briefly described, "Let’s take the most typical image of an ’Angel’ for instance. I think it should be like this.

"It’s a huge irregular mass of wings in the style of Cthulhu, with a humanoid entity inside it that feeds on sound waves. Any noise in its vicinity would cause it to grow, and after reaching a certain size, the humanoid inside would appear and rapidly move through the Divine Realm, killing everyone it sees."

Lilith furrowed her brows, "A huge mass of irregular wings? Like a big head of cabbage?"

Gu Fan cleared his throat again, "It should be more terrifying than that."

Lilith seemed to make an effort to imagine this form, then asked, "Anything else?"

Gu Fan continued, "There can be many other types of monsters.

"The ’Angel’ just mentioned is the most powerful monster in the Divine Realm, and there are some that are relatively less powerful.

"For example, the ’Gazing Statue,’ a huge stone statue carved with strange Angels, which can move at an extremely high speed and only stops when being watched. Once the viewer looks away, it instantly kills the player.

"The ’Medusa Statue,’ a huge stone statue with a Medusa’s head carved on it, also moves at high speed, and players who continuously gaze at it will gradually turn to stone.

"The ’Holy Spirit Cupid,’ a terrifying winged cherub that hops around in the air and can be seen by only one player. If a player spots it three times, it will shoot an arrow at them and then seek a new target. Once it shoots arrows at two players, both will be instantly killed.

"Then there’s the ’Heaven Hound,’ a massive hunting dog ablaze with Holy Light, which will pounce and devour players upon hearing a sound; the ’Heaven’s Guardian,’ a movable suit of empty armor that wields a Divine Staff, using it to instantly kill players with Holy Light upon detection; the ’Heavenly Hunter,’ looking like ordinary humans who’ve been granted access to the Divine Realm, they could also be seen as irregulars, and armed with swords and bows and arrows, they will hunt down players..."