CHAPTER 60: CHAPTER 60: SO THIS IS A BOSS DEVELOPMENT GAME?

EDITOR: DRAGON BOAT TRANSLATION

In "Over My Dead Body," all Demons are not born from nothing; they arise from specific origins.

Although "Demons and Ghosts" are often mentioned collectively in the game, there are actually slight differences between these categories, which together form the game’s monster system.

Demons (representing the *Yao* category) are primarily animals and plants mutated by Spiritual Energy, such as the ’Scavenging Earth Wolf,’ ’Fear Wolf,’ ’Starving Vulture,’ and ’Crazy Vines.’ These are commonly found in the ’?’ scenes along roads.

’Demon’ (representing the *Mo* category) specifically refers to humans. Some humans, after consuming rare fruits or strengthening themselves by comprehending Spiritual Energy, may proceed to slaughter living beings, becoming Devil Heads who refine bones from corpses and hearts for artifacts. These Devil Heads are malevolent towards all Living Beings—especially towards Spirits. They are rare but typically appear as mini-bosses.

’Ghost’ (representing the *Gui* category) explicitly refers to reanimated corpses or the resentful spirits of the dead. They are the most common monsters in the game and the primary targets in "Slayer of Monsters and Demons" missions.

’Strange Creature’ (representing the *Guai* category) refers to inanimate objects that gain sentience through the resurgence of Spiritual Energy. Many Spirits fall into this category. Most Strange Creatures do not harm humans; however, like the human-origin Demons (the *Mo* type), if they become enemies, they are at least boss-level.

For example, there’s the ’Azure Dragon Crescent Blade’ after Guan Yu was killed in 220 AD. In previous game saves Ren Suo played, he could encounter it in ’?’ scenes upon reaching the Eastern Wu territory.

Upon encounter, the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade would attack immediately, inflicting area-of-effect damage across the entire map with an Attack rating of 100, and it also possessed a single-target fourfold critical hit.

Ren Suo strongly suspected that the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade could be negotiated with, perhaps even teamed up with or utilized.

Similar to how obtaining the ’Goddess Jade Pendant’ from Cao Zhi unlocked the Spiritual Exchange option with Mi Fei, he believed it should be possible to acquire a Token from someone to unlock the Azure Dragon Crescent Blade’s storyline mission. However, Ren Suo had not yet found it.

The Demons Li Shuanghe mentioned now almost perfectly matched the description of a ’Starved Ghost’ Ren Suo had seen in the ’Family Secret Records.’

The ’Family Secret Records’ is essentially a compilation of intelligence gathered from the player’s experiences in the game, heavily linked to the character’s ’Scouting’ Attribute.

Moreover, the ’Family Secret Records’ is shared across all game saves. As long as you learn a monster’s weaknesses and attack patterns in any save file, its detailed Attributes will automatically be displayed in new save files.

Among these, the ’Starved Ghost’ is a persistent roadside monster found throughout the early, middle, and late stages of the game, meaning players could encounter them at any time while traveling.

"’Starved Ghost: The Fear of Hunger and the desire for Satiety burn like Fiery Flames within their internal organs. The more intensely these flames burn, the denser the Spiritual Energy they attract.’"

"’Appearance: Indistinguishable from ordinary people, but with extremely sharp nails and teeth, and their abdomen is completely decayed.’"

"’Habits: They prefer to move at night and will attack any animal. After killing an animal, they immediately devour the raw corpse. However, no matter how much they eat, the flesh will fall out from their ruptured abdomens. They then pick up the fallen flesh and stuff it back into their mouths to continue eating. Once they have eaten for a long enough time, they will feel full and, like a normal person, find a place to sleep for three to five days. When the Desire for food strikes again, they repeat this cycle.’"

"’Origin: Common people who died of starvation; the chance of mutation is directly proportional to the duration of their starvation.’"

"’Standard Attributes: Attack 1, Defense 0, Move 0, Scouting 0, Healing 0.’"

"’Note: Please show Compassion and grant them the Blessing of liberation.’"

The most significant difference between Starved Ghosts and most other Ghosts is that their mutation rate is entirely unrelated to their Physical Condition.

Other Ghosts, such as the Hulao Pass Ghost Soldiers or the Wicked Ghosts of Yiling, generally have higher mutation rates if their original Physical Condition was better. Even those who become Typhoid Corpse Ghosts due to epidemics are mostly young and robust men.

However, Starved Ghosts are predominantly elderly people and women.

In the chaotic era of the Three Kingdoms, those who were tortured by starvation to the brink of death, and ultimately perished, were mostly such people.

This was because men could often scrape by with a meal by joining the army, only to later spill their blood on some battlefield for a warlord’s ambition.

As for young boys and girls, even if they starved to death, the suffering they endured was often insufficient to make them mutate and seek revenge on society, as their mutation rate is directly proportional to the duration of their Hunger.

In the chaotic era of the Three Kingdoms, during the Late Eastern Han Dynasty, endless locust plagues, floods, and droughts were rampant. For thousands of miles, no rooster crowed, and white bones lay exposed in the fields. Consequently, Starved Ghosts were an almost ubiquitous presence throughout the Central Plains.

Had it been any other Demons or Ghosts, Ren Suo might not have recognized them at first glance, but he had seen the specific illustration for the Starved Ghost far too many times...

Chen Kun continued discussing details with Li Shuanghe, but Ren Suo was no longer interested in listening, feeling somewhat conflicted.

Half an hour later, Yao Fei emerged with Wu Jianming. Wu Jianming seemed to have regained his Calmness, his previous state replaced by a determined expression. I wonder what kind of special counseling Yao Fei gave him, Ren Suo mused.

Yao Fei said to Wu Jianming, "After you go back, think carefully about my advice." Then she turned to look at Ren Suo and Chen Kun.

Yao Fei continued, "I’ll leave him in your care now. Please ensure his safe return. Although the higher-ups have issued orders to the media, there are always some people desperate for fame who might try to leak stories for attention."

"Don’t stop along the way, just go straight back."

Chen Kun said, "No problem."

Li Shuanghe took the initiative, "I’ll take you downstairs."

The five of them descended the stairs. As they were parting ways at the building’s entrance, Li Shuanghe said, "Let’s exchange contact information so we can discuss that... thing later."

"Oh, oh, oh, that thing, right," Chen Kun immediately replied. Their conversation sounded so much like an undercover drug dealer rendezvous that Ren Suo grimaced.

I originally assumed everyone in the Tactical Bureau was a group of honest and steadfast Cultivators,

he thought. Then, I realized my partner wasn’t like that. Not long ago, I found out Tactical Team Three wasn’t either. And now, it seems Tactical Team Two is probably the same...

Ren Suo thought for a moment, then walked over to the quiet and reserved-looking Fang Jun and asked in a low voice, "Um, have you still not found the Demon’s True Form?"

Fang Jun gently shook his head.

"I think you should pay more attention to the local homeless people,"

Ren Suo continued, "People with claws like that are usually rare. If they frequented public places, they’d be easily recognized. But if it’s a disheveled homeless person, one who just lies around on the streets all day and doesn’t move much..."

Fang Jun was slightly startled. He mulled it over and felt there was some logic to it. Just as he was about to thank Ren Suo, he saw that Ren Suo and his companions had already gotten into their car and driven off.

"What’s wrong?" Li Shuanghe asked, seeing Fang Jun standing still.

"It’s nothing, I was just thinking..." Fang Jun said. "That kid from earlier... he might actually be good enough to join our Tactical Team Two."

"You mean the one who was practically drooling over the Captain?"

"Yes, yes, that one..."

After finishing his day’s work, Ren Suo returned home and collapsed weakly onto the sofa.

Today’s haul was pretty good, he thought. I got a Key, and I learned some information about the Demons.

Previously, when I played the game, I didn’t think too deeply about it. I just assumed the Demons were monsters specific to "Over My Dead Body."

But thinking about it now, "Over My Dead Body" is actually quite similar to reality!

In reality, Spiritual Energy is resurging globally; in the game, Spirit Veins are reviving in the Three Kingdoms era.

In reality, Cultivators and Awakeners are emerging; in the game, Cultivator families are returning to the Martial World.

So, if Demons and Ghosts appear in the game, isn’t it perfectly normal for them to appear in reality too?

With this thought, Ren Suo turned on his Mini-World Game Console and loaded his save file from the year 265 in "Over My Dead Body!"

This was the save from the final year of his most recent playthrough, where Ren Suo had to defeat the most powerful Demon legion in the chaotic Three Kingdoms era—

The remnants of Shu Han!

Previously, when the Ren Family Cultivators were clearing out Demons in their strongholds at Yiling and the Wuzhang Plains, they hadn’t encountered Liu Bei or Zhuge Liang. Ren Suo had assumed the game’s difficulty had been slightly lowered, sparing players from facing these two bosses, who were, by any measure, outrageously overpowered.

However, in the year 263, when the state of Shu Han fell and Jiang Wei died serving his country, Ren Suo finally realized—Expecting this game’s difficulty to decrease is as pointless as expecting life to treat me kindly. It’s just not going to happen!

The bodies of those two great figures had merely been exceptionally well-preserved by Shu Han!

When Shu Han fell and its national destiny scattered, the pent-up indignation and Resentment, fully ignited by Jiang Wei’s martyrdom, caused these two formidable Cultivators (formidable compared to ordinary people, not to the Ren Family Cultivators) to absorb the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth and the collective Resentment of the populace, and climb out of their coffins!

In addition, all the high ministers who had dedicated their lives to Shu Han and died in service were also resurrected.

Liu Bei’s renowned White-Feathered Elite Troops were reassembled, transformed into a terrifying army of White-Feathered Corpse Soldiers!

If it were only that, Ren Suo might have tried to muddle through the last few remaining years just to see the endgame cutscene.

Even if the remnants of Shu Han slaughtered all the Spirits I know, it wouldn’t matter—the Ren Family Cultivators can still hold out for these last few years!

But the problem was—the remnants of Shu Han were different from other Ghost Soldiers.

Their leaders still possessed human-like consciousness and Wisdom.

They departed from the Shu Region and, without committing any atrocities along the way, began a direct forced march towards the Ren Family’s main base!

This is the first time I’ve ever seen this kind of strategy, Ren Suo thought.

Players navigating through winding, convoluted mazes to Charge at the boss—that’s the normal game progression!

Since when do bosses themselves come Charging over to gang up on the players?!

What the hell—are the Ren Family Cultivators the actual final bosses in this scenario?