Chapter 237 "Pu Du"

Considered all kinds of weapons comprehensively.

If Pei Qian wanted to change the weapon stats, he still had to do it as much as possible based on the basic stats of the weapon itself, and the changes had to match the weapon's appearance.

Otherwise, the game would be shoddily made.

Pei Qian's eyes scanned the existing weapons.

He originally wanted to choose a one-handed sword, but on second thought, although one-handed swords were easy to use, their attack power couldn't be adjusted too high, and their attack range was too short, which was relatively dangerous.

In the end, Pei Qian's eyes focused on long weapons, and he saw a relatively unpopular weapon: a Zen staff.

Pei Qian searched for the ID of this weapon and found that it was originally an ordinary item in a dilapidated temple.

After leaving the novice village and heading to the nearby town, this dilapidated temple existed as a scene outside the town, with a mad old monk inside, considered a mini-boss.

After defeating this mad old monk, this Zen staff would drop, and there was also a treasure chest in the dilapidated temple, containing a string of damaged prayer beads.

The prayer beads were a special item in the early game that could cause monsters to be briefly controlled, and could revive the player after a certain period, making them a fairly important item in the early stages.

The stats of the Zen staff weren't very strong. It was clear that the initial design was merely intended to be a common collectible weapon.

This was normal. There were at least a dozen weapons in the game, and some would be good, some would be bad; it was difficult to achieve perfect balance.

And this Zen staff was one of those relatively garbage, filler weapons.

"You're the one!"

Choosing a niche weapon with a relatively weak presence would minimize changes to the game, making it less likely to be discovered.

Pei Qian didn't change the stats of the existing item, but instead created a new item entry, copied the original Zen staff data into it unchanged, and then significantly increased the base attack and upgraded attack stats.

Then, he looked at the Zen staff's attack methods.

The attack methods were similar to what he had expected. The normal attack was a horizontal swing, which was relatively clumsy and slow, but the jump attack and flash attack were ground slams, and the attack actions would be much faster.

After that, Pei Qian had to arrange the specific way to obtain this Zen staff.

Pei Qian didn't plan to make it too complicated. If he had to create new scenes or overly complex tasks, he would have to customize them and get the entire project team to do it together.

So, after thinking for a while, Pei Qian used the existing mechanism to hide this weapon.

According to the original setting, this dilapidated temple was just a supplement to the town scene. Players could choose to fight or not, and the mad old monk inside had strength between an elite monster and a mini-boss.

If defeated, he would drop the Zen staff, and the treasure chest would contain a string of broken prayer beads as a quest item.

Pei Qian slightly changed the setting of this old monk.

First, he comprehensively weakened the old monk's combat power, turning him into a monster weaker than ordinary mobs.

This change was reasonable from the perspective of the plot. After all, the old monk was so old, it wasn't appropriate for him to have the strength of a mini-boss; he should be old and frail.

All players who could get here had been baptized by the bloody storms of the novice village and the town, and they would definitely have a natural vigilance against similar NPCs, and would definitely attack subconsciously.

Of course, even if the player didn't attack, the old monk was still in a hostile state and would actively attack the player.

If the player killed the old monk, they would obtain the ordinary version of the Zen staff and prayer beads, according to the original setting.

Because the prayer beads were very useful, and the Zen staff was a special weapon, most people would kill the old monk and wouldn't realize other operations.

Pei Qian planned to add a setting to the old monk: as long as the player died six times at the hands of the old monk, the seventh time they came, the old monk would become a friendly NPC and would no longer actively attack the player.

As for the setting, it was also easy to explain. Because the player repeatedly died, the old monk obtained a certain amount of the player's three souls and seven spirits from the repeated deaths, so he regained some sanity.

Of course, the player could still attack him, and the rewards would be the same as before.

But if the player talked to the old monk at this time, the old monk would say a line, roughly meaning that the end of the Dharma Age was coming, the Buddha Dharma was about to be destroyed, and there was no way out, but the power of the Buddha still remained. As long as the protagonist could re-enter the Six Paths of Reincarnation, they could escape the sea of suffering.

At this time, a ray of Buddha light flashed on the old monk, and the prayer beads in the treasure chest and the Zen staff in the old monk's hand would turn into a new weapon, "Pudu" (Salvation), which was the new weapon Pei Qian copied.

"Pudu" didn't have much change compared to the ordinary Zen staff, except that a glittering golden special effect, that is, the Buddha light, was added to the head of the staff.

After taking this weapon, the player could not only gain an increase in combat power, but also directly skip the Naihe Bridge, the Three Lives Stone, and other scenes from the Road to the Underworld, and arrive at the Six Paths of Reincarnation, triggering the Reincarnation ending in advance.

According to the game's setting, the Six Paths of Reincarnation ending was a fake ending.

In the initial village of the game, there was an old man. The player needed to kill this old man in order to follow his soul's guidance and embark on the Road to the Underworld. However, through some clues, such as the description of the dropped items, it could be determined that this old man was the player himself after reincarnation.

According to the setting, the old man's image in the second playthrough would become the player's character image when they cleared the first playthrough, including the clothing, weapons, and so on, except that the person became thin and withered.

Therefore, if the player cleared the game with "Pudu", the old man would be holding "Pudu," but without the special effects, it would become an ordinary Zen staff.

In addition, the "Pudu" weapon could only be used to clear the Six Paths of Reincarnation ending. If used to fight the bosses of other endings, its output efficiency would decrease and become the same as ordinary weapons.

Moreover, in the second playthrough, this weapon could not be upgraded.

Because Pei Qian's goal was only to clear one of the endings as quickly as possible to complete the game, this weapon only needed to fulfill its historical mission.

Pei Qian wasn't a masochist, he didn't want to play other endings, and he didn't want to play multiple playthroughs.

Pei Qian was busy all afternoon and finally completed these changes with clumsy methods.

These changes were not complicated, and they were not difficult to change with the editor, but Pei Qian hadn't touched the editor for a long time, so it took a little more time.

After the changes, Pei Qian briefly checked them.

There was no need to check too carefully. If there were any bugs, others would definitely fix them for President Pei.

Pei Qian submitted all the changes and then found Li Yada.

"I've made a few slight changes to the game content. It won't have a big impact on the game itself. Don't worry too much about it, and don't publicize it."

These changes would definitely be discovered by the design team. Li Yada, as the main planner, couldn't be so stupid that she wouldn't see that there was an extra weapon in the item list.

Since they would definitely see it, Pei Qian might as well tell them openly.

Moreover, since President Pei requested it, the design team would definitely keep it a secret for President Pei.