Chapter 236 ‘Pudu’

Pei Qian did a holistic analysis of all the weapon types.

Although he wanted to change a weapon’s stats, he wanted as much as possible to retain the weapon’s original stats. After altering the weapon, it still had to match with the weapon’s unique features and appearance.

If not, this game would be crude.

Pei Qian took a look at all the weapons.

He had wanted to choose a single-handed sword. However, after thinking for a moment, while single-handed swords were useful; he couldn’t change the attacking strength too much. Also, as the attacking distance was short, it was more dangerous.

Finally, Pei Qian’s glance was concentrated on longer weapons. He saw a less popular weapon; a staff.

Pei Qian searched the weapon’s ID and realized that it was actually an ordinary tool in a ruined temple.

After walking out of the newbie village and heading to a nearby town, this ruined temple was situated near the latter. A crazed old monk was inside the temple; he could be considered to be a miniboss.

After defeating the crazed old monk, this staff would be left behind. The ruined temple also had a treasure chest with damaged Buddha beads.

These Buddha beads were a special weapon in the early stage of the game. It could temporarily control monsters and could be used as a revival item after certain intervals. It was considered a rather important early-stage weapon.

Furthermore, the staff’s stats weren’t very strong. It would be seen as a mere ordinary weapon in the early-stage design of the game.

This was also very ordinary. The game had tens of weapons; some naturally were more useful while others weren’t. It was hard to create a perfect balance.

This staff was the more trashy type of weapon that was just there to fill a quota.

“I’ll choose you!”

By choosing a less popular weapon that had a weaker sense of presence, Pei Qian’s changes to the game could be done at the bare minimum without being easily found out.

Pei Qian did not change the existing staff’s stats but had created a separate new weapon that copied the state of the original staff. He then greatly elevated the basic attack and leveled-up attacking stats of the new staff.

He then examined the staff’s attacking moves.

They were more or less as expected. Normal attacks were horizontal sweeps that were rather cumbersome and slow. However, leap-attacks and dodge-attacks were smashing moves that attacked faster.

Subsequently, Pei Qian also arranged the procedure to obtain this staff.

Pei Qian did not intend to make it that complicated. If he created a new setting or made the mission overly complicated, he had to custom-made a whole new plot; and that would have to involve the entire project team.

Hence, Pei Qian thought for a while and decided to use the existing game design to hide this weapon.

According to the original settings, this ruined temple was just a filler scene near a town; players could choose to enter and battle or not. The crazed monk’s strength would be between that of elite monsters and minibosses.

If this monk could be defeated, the staff would be dropped; and damaged Buddha beads could be obtained from the treasure chest.

Pei Qian then stealthily changed the old monk’s settings.

He made the monk’s holistic battle strength much weaker; he became even weaker than an ordinary little monster.

This change was reasonable. After all, the monk was already so old; and it wasn’t that appropriate for it to have a miniboss’ strength. He should be weak and frail.

Whoever could find their way here would have already undergone bloodbaths in the newbie village and in the town nearby. They would naturally be extremely wary of such NPCs and would definitely be cautious in striking.

Of course, even if players didn’t make a move, this old monk was in anoffensive mode and would proactively attack players.

If gamers killed the old monk, they would obtain the ordinary staff and Buddha beads as per normal.

As the Buddha beads were very useful while the staff was a special weapon, most players would definitely kill the old monk; they wouldn’t pay any attention to anything else.

Pei Qian decided to add a feature to this old monk. As long as players died six times cumulatively at the hands of this monk—the seventh time they were revived and came here, this old monk would become a friendly NPC and would not proactively attack them anymore.

This feature could be explainable as well. As players repeatedly died, the old monk managed to recover a little of his mental faculties from their perished souls.

Of course, players could still attack him; if they killed the monk, they would still get the ordinary reward.

However, if they started to talk to the monk, the old monk would say a few words along the lines of how the Degenerate Age was impending and the Buddha Dharma was about to be wiped out-how he was at his wit’s end but still had remnant powers of the Buddha himself. As long as the protagonist could enter the six realms of rebirth and existence, he could then leave behind all suffering and pain.

At this moment, the old monk would shine with divine light; the Buddha beads in the treasure chest and the staff in his hands would become a new weapon named ‘Pudu’. That would be the duplicated and enhanced weapon Pei Qian had made.

‘Pudu’ didn’t look very different from the ordinary staff. The head of the staff just had an additional golden glow that was the divine Buddha light.

After obtaining this weapon, players would not only have their attacking strength elevated, but they could also directly go across the Bridge of Forgetfulness from the Road to the Underworld; passing the Three-Life Stone and reaching the six realms of rebirth and existence. These gamers would be able to skip to the conclusion of rebirth.

According to the game’s settings, the six realms of rebirth and existence was actually a false ending

At the start of the game in the village, there was an old man. Players needed to kill this old man in order to follow his soul and be connected to the Road to the Underworld. However, after gaining a few clues here and there, players would be able to ascertain that this old man was the player themselves after rebirth.

According to these settings-during a player’s second try of the game, this old man would take the appearance, accessories, and weapons of the player during his first try of the game. The only difference was the player’s appearance would be rather gaunt and shriveled.

Hence, if one held onto ‘Pudu’, this old man’s weapon would also be ‘Pudu’ except without the special effects and attributes, becoming an ordinary staff again.

Besides this, ‘Pudu’ could only be used to pass through the six realms of rebirth and existence. If a player went to fight other endings’ bosses, the weapon would lose its efficiency and turn into an ordinary weapon.

During the second try of the game, this weapon would also not be allowed to level up.

As Pei Qian’s aim was to speedily complete one of the game’s endings, he only wanted this weapon to serve its purpose; that was all.

Pei Qian wasn’t a sucker for pain and agony; he didn’t want to go and try other endings and also didn’t want to play so many times.

Pei Qian busied himself for one afternoon and finally used his own crude way to make all the necessary alterations.

These changes actually weren’t complicated; it wasn’t hard to change them using the game editor. However, as Pei Qian hadn’t used the game editor for a long time, this effort took a considerable amount of time.

After making the revisions, Pei Qian took a quick look at his work.

He also didn’t need to check too much in detail. If there really were bugs, others would definitely help Boss Pei to resolve them.

Pei Qian confirmed the changes and went to look for Li Yada.

“I have made some changes to the game content. They don’t affect the game significantly, and you don’t have to pay much attention to it. Also, there’s no particular need to broadcast these changes.”

These changes naturally would be picked up by the design team. Li Yada being the chief planner couldn’t possibly be so dumb as not to notice that an additional weapon had been added.

Since they would definitely notice this, Pei Qian decided to inform them directly.

Furthermore, as it was Boss Pei’s request, the design team would definitely help Boss Pei to keep this secret.