Confused
After defeating the mini boss, another option appeared in front of Wu Shun, giving him the option of killing or sparing the boss. The mini boss was extremely ugly. Wu Shun sensed something fishy.
He paused for awhile, but it turned out to be a little too long, for the time limit went past. In the end, the military attache dashed forward and repeated stabbed the boss to death. He quipped an understated comment on that overreaction, “Such a rampaging peasant should just be killed. He’s just weak and insignificant.”
To say that this was an understatement, would be an understatement in itself. The mini boss’s blood had splattered on the military attache’s face. He had initially started off as an extremely righteous, authoritative official. At that moment, he looked demented, horrifying
Wu Shun had never approved of the “save and load file” culture in “Tales of Wuxia.” He always felt that it destroyed the sense of subst.i.tution. Besides, one required to reach a specialized savepoint before the game could be saved.
Also, the game had an “Ironman Mode”[1]. There wuold be no room for regret pills, players only had one path till the end. More achievements were available to be collected in this “mode”. With more achievements came more clothes and decorations.
Wu Shun may not be highly skilled, but he knew the nooks and crannies of this game. Of course he had opted to play in “Ironman Mode”. The NPC’s sudden intervention came as a surprise, but he could roll with it. This had brought along a bunch of robbers to kill him. It was alright to let such a character die.
He suddenly recalled the great streamer Ah Yu’s own gameplay of Tale of Wuxia 3. She had been playing as a monk, showing mercy to every single thing she met. It was almost as if she would never kill any human. It was also probably due to this reason, that she uncovered many hidden plots within the game
Well, everyone to his own style. For a sandbox game that took pride in its degree of freedom, it definitely provided the room for players to pick their own style. Wu Shun did not choose to become a Madonna, nor a human killing maniac. He chose to play according to his own will!
“To be honest, at first I had a rather good impression towards this military attache from the Kingdom of Zhao. He seemed to be the perfect, virtuous warrior. But now, my head is ringing with alarms. Something’s off. He seemed far too eager to kill that man off. I may regret trusting him so easily. That mini-boss could have told me something.”
“Veterans of Tale of Wuxia should know this. For an acceptable ending, all options must be explored and deliberated on. Proceed carelessly as your own peril you’ll get a devastating end. That’s why Zha Feng is an Old Sly.”
Wu Shun played on. Under the military attache’s lead, he finally entered the new map. A boss fight almost immediately greeted him at the entrance. It was no mini-boss, but an actual, big boss, in size and in rank. Fortunately, thanks to the a.s.sistance of an entire platoon of paladins from the Kingdom of Zhao, Wu Shun put up a good fight against the big boss. It was not a human-shaped boss, but a huge, aggressive mammoth. It would easily turn him into jelly within two to three swings. Thankfully, it was all brawn and no brains. Its size also worked against it, making it incredibly slow. As long as Wu Shun remained cautious, he would get away without a scratch. After all, he was not alone in this fight.
“I have to say, the graphics and combat mechanics of this game are really quite something. Doesn’t justify having a giant-a.s.s beast standing in the middle of the map’s entrance, though. This ain’t “Monster Abuse Human.” Ahahaha, what do you mean “Monster Hunter”? I’ve only played “Monster Abuse Human”!”
Upon entering the new map, Wu Shun paced things down and leisurely strolled about. He started off with the sidequests. There were many cities within the Kingdom of Zhao. Each city had its own notice board, and each notice board had its own list of quests and bounties, such as wanted posters, demons and monsters extermination, rescue and treatment of the needy, etc. Almost all the sidequests entailed a sad, tragic story
Wu Shun had also accepted a sideline quest from the “Chun Yang” sect. That’s right, the “Chun Yang” sect of the beautiful and gentle Yan Qingmeng. She was a big shot within the “Chun Yang” sect. They basically treated her as the “Seed of Monasticism.” She was the arch-nemesis of the evil Ye Honglian.
“That’s not good. If the beautiful, gentle Yan Qingmeng and Ye Honglian are enemies, and my adulterous history with Ye Honglian gets uncovered, all h.e.l.l might break loose. I’ll probably get some negative value on her favorability. She would hate me,” Wu Shun read her character entry and concluded bitterly.
Unsurprisingly, Wu Shun had long cleared the previous DLC. His ending wasn’t that bad. Ye Honglian had shared many wonderful, painful memories with him. They abruptly ended up forgetting each other. Well, it was just simply because he had been unable to complete some high difficulty quests, causing the two of them to eventually end up that way.
To Wu Shun, Ye Honglian was even more attractive, compared to the two heroines within the base game. He had to admit that he would not be able to let her go if she were to appear in front of him again, one day.
To male players, raiding female characters gave the game meaning. Unfortunately, the game did not provide harem systems. If only one said “I love you” to every female character, they would end up being single “Cannon Kings.”
As he cleared more sidequests, he also had a clearer insight on the hards.h.i.+ps of citizens under the ruling of a tyrant. Most importantly, those a.s.sa.s.sinated officers were all minions of the tyrant. They had played their part in laying the grounds for evil. The people only had cause to celebrate their deaths, much less mourn for them…
Wu Shun started feeling indecisive. Should he eliminate those chivalrous a.s.sa.s.sins? Anyway, he still had a main questline to complete. The game was open and diverse, so more options might make themselves available, soon enough.
Proceeding on with the quest chain only led him to more confusion. Those “chivalrous a.s.sa.s.sins” were described as ignorant fools who had been brainwashed by some single-minded conspiration fabricator, or someone behind the scenes. Once that person behind the scenes becomes king, he might be even crueler than the current king. As it stood, the current king was already the source of the Kingdom’s chaos!
The “Chun Yang” sect also considered those a.s.sa.s.sins to be pagan disciples. They shared all forms of techniques in public, so that everyone could pick them up and start training. They believed in equal power and equal right to knowledge. How could this be allowed?
Wu Shun was already confused as it was. Still, he had to be doing the right thing, increasing the favorability of the beautiful and gentle Yan Qingmeng.
But, why was her favorability meter crawling ever so slowly, even if she was generous and benevolent on the surface? As expected of a righteous Deity, slow to please
Wu Shun felt a burst of motivation coursing through his veins. Malevolence, justice they’re all the same. The beautiful and gentle Yan Qingmeng was justice. “Appearance was justice” seemed to make sense.
Soon, he found himself backed in a corner, and a nameless girl appeared!
Translation Note:
[1] Ironman Mode – Ironman Mode means a player is not allowed to use the console, not allowed to save files by themselves. There is only one auto-save file allowed, and the AI decides when to save the file. Every time when a file is saved, it will automatically overwrite the previously saved file. Therefore, Ironman Mode can be considered as “No-regret Mode.” Even if you have already noticed that you’ve done something wrong, it is impossible for you to reload the previously saved file.