Why the bug I wrote became a core gameplay mechanic?!
Chapter 68 Lost Ones

Chapter 68: Chapter 68 Lost Ones

Gu Fan listed several different types of monsters in succession.

Lilith was stunned, "But there’s nothing like that in Heaven!"

Gu Fan let out a soft sigh, "We’re making a game, not a promotional video for Heaven. This is all artistic liberty, which is very normal!

"You from Hell and Heaven have this kind of relationship, still considering saving face for them?"

Lilith showed an expression of agreement, "Huh? What you’re saying makes sense!

"Michael has calculated against me like this, I don’t need to save face for him! We must smear them harshly!

"Your suggestion is very good, angels in the human world should show this kind of ugly true colors!

"Besides, I never said this was Heaven, it’s just the Divine Realm, hehe!"

"Any other suggestions?"

Lilith looked at Gu Fan expectantly.

Gu Fan’s brow furrowed as he pretended to rack his brains, finally squeezing out another idea from his mind.

"I think the game’s networking mechanism could also use some tweaking."

Lilith flipped through the design plan, "Really? I think this networking scheme is already perfect.

"This game supports up to 16 players online, and in the Divine Realm, a maximum of five ’Flame Thieves’ can appear at the same time.

"Plus, I’ve written the refresh rules for the Flame Thieves very clearly."

Gu Fan shook his head, "The rules are clear, but there’s a problem: the more a game has this kind of online play, the faster players will drop off!

"Think about it, this game is so deterring that even if players can gather sixteen people to play together, they’ll definitely run off quickly.

"Ten will leave the first day, and by the second day, not a single one remains.

"People, you know, are prone to follow the crowd.

"For those games that are very addicting, this might not be a big issue, but for ’Prometheus’, player attrition is very fatal."

Lilith was curious, "But what can we do about it?

"Let me think... add some AI bots to the game?

"But bots can be easily spotted by players.

"Do you have a better idea?"

Gu Fan said, "Here’s what I think.

"When players leave the game, we can leave a ’Cyber Tombstone’ for them.

"After these players quit the game, their characters will turn into ragged-clothed dried-up corpses, retaining their character name and general appearance, to continue as Manual Laborers doing those simple jobs.

"We can also add an official setting, calling them ’Lost Ones’."

Lilith was somewhat puzzled, "But how is that different from what I said? Isn’t it still adding some bots to the game?"

Gu Fan shook his head, "No, although they’re both bots, there’s a difference.

"If they’re just ordinary bots, players don’t really feel anything for them.

"But if it’s a bot with a friend’s ID and wearing your friend’s Equipment, then it holds some special significance for players.

"They might reminisce the days they played with their friends, which could encourage players to keep on for a bit longer in the game.

"Or when they see these friends still doing Manual Labor, it might dull some of their frustration, making them think, ’He’s worse off than me.’

"Players might even suspect whether this ’Cyber Tombstone’ might have some new hidden gameplay. After exploring and finding there isn’t, not only will they experience the negative emotion but it may also make them stick around for a short while longer!"

Lilith contemplated, "Hmm... that does make some sense.

"But it seems like this would only affect the players who are Manual Laborers. What about the players who play as Flame Thieves?"

Gu Fan said, "We’ll just let the Flame Thief players encounter the Lost Ones.

"In the Divine Realm, the ’Lost Ones’ monsters might randomly appear, wearing the Equipment of the player’s teammates, looking nearly identical, and even emitting voice lines once spoken by teammates.

"Upon encountering players, these Lost Ones will pounce on them, infecting the players into new Lost Ones, and then move everything the players carried away!"

"If you feel that these Lost Ones are not powerful enough or don’t pose a significant threat to players, we could let them fuse with the remaining armor of the ’Heaven’s Guardians’!"

"That way, we can also generate another wave of negative emotions, why wouldn’t we do that?"

Lilith couldn’t help but slam the table and exclaim, "Great idea! Just imagine, in an environment teeming with danger, a voice that sounds like a teammate’s echoes, but the realization that the teammate is actually dead would surely give the players quite a scare!"

Gu Fan added, "However, being both ’Lost Ones,’ we need to set a rule to determine whether they appear inside or outside the Divine Realm."

Lilith retorted, "Why limit them? I want it all!

"Just allow the same ’Lost One’ to appear both inside and outside the Divine Realm, those outside can serve as Manual Laborers, and those inside as monsters.

"After all, we can just give any explanation in the world setting! Just say... The Divine Realm is fraught with dangers, and angels will turn the bodies of the ’Flame Thieves’ they kill into ’Lost Ones,’ who will remain in the Divine Realm forever...

"While the Flame Thieves will resurrect infinitely through the ’Divine Fire Altar’ in the Divine Realm, with each death making the Divine Realm increasingly dangerous, and the Lost Ones becoming an overwhelming disaster...

"Hehehe, just thinking about it is fun!"

Lilith could already picture the scene of players in the Divine Realm being besieged by the ’zombie’ Lost Ones.

She stood up happily, pacing around the living room.

"Okay, then I’ll go and revise the design plan. If all goes well, we can start development immediately!

"Oh, there’s another thing I need you to handle.

"Those little gifts!"

When Lilith mentioned "little gifts," her expression twisted into something quite grim, as if recalling some unpleasant memories from Chen Tingquan’s live stream.

"Damn it, my initial thought was to identify threatening targets among the players to keep a close watch on them, but who would have expected so many to beat the game!

"I’ll remember that Chen Tingquan, hmph, he better not fall into my hands in the future!"

Lilith said this through gritted teeth.

Clearly, Lilith conducted this survey after the game’s ending because she thought few people would actually clear the game.

If some did manage to clear it, they would be considered dangerous elements to watch closely. With a few small gifts, their personal information could be baited out, setting up arrangements in advance whether by soft or hard measures.

What she didn’t expect was a bug in the game, leading to way too many people clearing it!

The gameplay process of ’Destiny of the Sleeping Dragon’ wasn’t long to begin with; playing normally, a session would last at most an hour.

Once players learned about the "Strategic Dragon Synergy" bug, anyone who played seriously a few times could clear it, with at least seventy percent of players managing to do so.

There were too many players who had cleared it, and the law does not punish the masses!

There’s no point in keeping a close watch now.

Even though the number of players who actually provided contact information and addresses wasn’t high, it was nearly thirty percent of all players, not a small number at all.

Lilith only made a point to remember the biggest troublemaker, Chen Tingquan.

Gu Fan asked somewhat nervously, "President Li, what do you plan to ’thank’ him with? Can a one-day tour to Hell be arranged? If he really goes down and learns more, Chen Tingquan’s ability to appraise treasures should significantly improve.

"Especially for those foreign relics, he should be able to tell whether they are genuine or fakes with just one glance."

At this mention, Lilith visibly deflated a bit.

"As much as I’d like to send him to Hell as a guest, but... it’s a bit difficult to arrange. Our influence from Hell on the Human World is limited, at most I can only make him have a nightmare now.

"And even that might get discovered by angels, which could affect our grand plans for Hell.

"So, let him off for now!"

In his mind, Gu Fan chuckled, thinking things were just as he had guessed.

Previously, when Instructor Ding found two critical bugs in a row, Lilith hadn’t been able to do much to him, which showed that Hell Demons are indeed under strict limitations in the Human World.

If one were to do anything excessive, angels wouldn’t just stand by and watch!

But then he thought, why is it that when demons cut me off and forced me into a contract, no one intervened... Could it be that transmigrators have no rights at all!

Lilith sighed quietly, "Or should we just default on those gifts? Although I can’t collect the negative emotions produced in this way, it would still be satisfying to some extent!"

Gu Fan nearly sprayed out a mouthful of blood, hastily persuading, "That’s inappropriate!

"President Li, our Transcendent Heaven Gaming Company is still a legitimate company after all, and we should keep our promises to players.

"If we default now, what if our next game is boycotted by players, and they all refuse to play? Then the negative emotions collected by ’Prometheus’ will be reduced, won’t they!"

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