Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Boss Pei had changed a little of the game’s content?

Li Yada was a little taken aback.

Based on her impression of Boss Pei, he rarely personally made changes to games. If he wanted to change something, he would normally speak to Lu Mingliang; and the latter would perfect the changes requested.

Why did Boss Pei make the changes personally this time? Did he not trust me?

Li Yada thought for a while. This doesn’t make sense; if Boss Pei didn’t trust me, how could he have made me the chief planner?

Having some misgivings, Li Yada returned to her workspace and looked at the altered portions of the game.

Not much had been changed. The modifications had mainly centered on one weapon.

One ordinary filler staff had been strengthened and had a new glowing effect. Besides that, a special mission and way to obtain this enhanced weapon had been added.

Li Yada took a good look at the weapon named ‘Pudu’.

From its stats, this was a rather formidable weapon in the early stage of the game; it was overkill. However, its ordinary attack speed was still the same and as it required a rather lengthy swing to execute each strike, it was rather cumbersome.

Of course, during the design phase for this weapon, just like other two-handed heavy weapons; they all had leap-attack settings. A faster attack could be executed after a series of moves were made.

That meant that if a skilled gamer got his hands on this weapon, it would greatly reduce the difficulty of the battles in the early stages of the game.

At the same time, this weapon had severe limitations as well. If it was used for game content beyond that of the six realms of rebirth and existence ending, it was not evidently superior to other weapons. Furthermore, during a player’s second try with this weapon, it would lose its special enhancements.

Li Yada was a little perplexed.

Why did Boss Pei specially create this weapon? Was it because Boss Pei couldn’t advance in the game and had created a backdoor for himself?

Err, that didn’t make sense.

If Boss Pei felt that the game was too difficult, why didn’t he just lower the difficulty level? Furthermore, as a designer, Boss Pei did not need to finish the entire game.

Hence, she could eliminate this line of reasoning; there must be another reason.

Could it be that this action had greater meaning behind it?

Li Yada thought about it deeper. The game’s present difficulty level was indeed very hard for ordinary players. Those ordinary little monsters at the start of the game could kill gamers within two moves, that meant that a majority of players had to try their best to not get hit at all.

Although they would soon obtain items that could replenish their health-compared to how fast a player would lose health, these items were a little inadequate.

At the end of the day, players’ movements and actions had to be superb.

In that case, is this weapon of Boss Pei’s considered a bonus to newbie players? Less-experienced players that obtained this weapon could at the very least complete one ending of the game and reach one conclusion? Or perhaps, this was the benevolent side of Boss Pei?

This is possible.

In that case… why was it so well-hidden?

Li Yada noticed that the staff-dropping old monk’s stats had been decimated by Boss Pei; the old monk was not even as strong as a small monster.

He was also situated on the outskirts of a town. Most players who reached this place would have experienced many hardships along the way and killed many monsters; they had no reason to stop and deal with the monk.

Even if they accidentally perished, they couldn’t possibly do so consecutively six times, right?

Unless it was done intentionally, it was hard to think about what type of gamer would die at the hands of this monk six times.

Furthermore, killing this monk would allow one to obtain an ordinary staff and some beads. These could be used to get the weapons’ collector and early-stage weapons exhaustion bonuses; this would be very attractive to players.

All in all, ‘Pudu’ had been so deeply embedded in the game; probably 99.99% of players would not be able to get their hands on it!

If this weapon was Boss Pei showing his benevolence, why did he hide it at this place that was not easily discoverable? Li Yada was deep in thought.

According to Senior Bao Xu’s thinking, anything that wasn’t logical had great meaning. At present, this weapon was indeed very illogical!

“Why is it after dying six times, that during the seventh time the old monk would suddenly become a friendly NPC? What did the numbers mean?”

Li Yada went on the Qiandu search engine to search for some clues.

Although the search results all varied and Li Yada couldn’t be sure which saying Boss Pei had adhered to, she more or less could guess at the significance behind the numbers.

Of course, high-level Buddhist teachings were beyond Li Yada, beyond the Qiandu search engine, and also beyond players. Some concrete meanings had to be understandable at a shallow level so that they would be acceptable to players.

‘Seven’ and ‘nine’ were more important numbers in Buddhist teachings. For example, the ‘nine’ in the ‘Ninth-Grade Lotus Throne’ signified a great success.

‘Seven’ had many more meanings. It also meant great success, though some viewed this number to mean small successes.

Besides these interpretations, legend had it that when Buddha himself was born in this world, he could walk immediately and walked seven steps. The first six steps represented the six realms of existence while the seventh step represented enlightenment. Hence, ‘seven’ could also be used to signify transcendence.

“Dying seven times; did that mean achieving success? That shouldn’t be the case. Strictly speaking, players had to die six times. In that case… the six deaths represented the six realms of rebirth and existence while the seventh represented enlightenment?

“That’s why those that wielded this weapon could only use it to reach the six realms of rebirth and existence ending?”

Li Yada consolidated all her deductions and thought that this was the most logical explanation.

Six deaths represented the six realms of rebirth and existence. This also meant that players could gain access to the six realms of rebirth and existence earlier. When gamers met the old monk for the seventh time and received ‘Pudu’, they would officially reach the six realms of rebirth and existence ending.

Not only could they directly skip from the Road to the Underworld to face the six realms of rebirth and existence boss, but this weapon had also been specifically customized for this boss.

It was expected that players would have two differing reactions.

The first would be being overjoyed at obtaining ‘Pudu’ and relying on this weapon’s high attacking strength to engage in some easy battles, happily reaching the six realms of rebirth and existence ending.

The second would be deciding to give up on ‘Pudu’ and use their own efforts to battle and search for other endings.

After all, the original setting of the game was to make the six realms of rebirth and existence ending a false conclusion, with the protagonist thinking that he had managed to flee from a hopeless world. However, in the actual fact, they had once again entered into rebirth.

Using ‘Pudu’ to get to this ending would also be more ironic!

Choosing ‘Pudu’ would mean that players have chosen escapism; they didn’t dare to face tougher challenges and only aimed at self-preservation. Giving up ‘Pudu’ and taking up ordinary weapons to face tougher enemies and more difficult battles would allow one to truly be set free from pain and suffering!

Thinking about this, Li Yada wanted to shout out her praise.

Come to think of it, the original game setting had not been wrong; it just lacked a little depth.

According to it, this old monk in the ruined temple was but just a filler; whether a player attacked the monk or not had no effect on future gameplay. The six realms of rebirth and existence ending also didn’t differ that much to players when compared to other endings.

However, now that Boss Pei had made these changes, everything had been changed.

The addition of this super-weapon ‘Pudu’ directly placed two tough choices in front of all players: did they want to remain in their comfort zone and get to a false ending and deceive themselves, or did they want to step out of their comfort zone and endure hardships to search for the truths of this world?

This way, players would have a deeper impression of the different endings in the game; they would then be more immersed and captivated by the game!