Chapter Eighteen: Xun Yu Is Already Dead—You Picked Him!

"Let me demonstrate to everyone what a world with five thousand attribute points looks like!"

"It is a realm akin to that of a god. In this city, aside from the truly invincible 'Order Guardian: Heavenly Dao Monster' you encounter after breaking the law, you can basically do whatever you want!"

As he spoke, the game’s heroine—who had a terrible attitude—was already summoned by the protagonist via a phone call.

[What do you want with me? Let me remind you, my time is extremely precious.]

The voice was cold, the words heartless.

Ever since her junior year, the heroine’s tone and attitude had always been this way; she looked at the protagonist as if he were a mere insect, from a perspective of pure superiority.

Gu Meng nodded to himself. Teacher Bu Feiyan’s "queenly" voice was still top-tier.

Such a trashy heroine—before the hidden ending, he actually hadn’t felt that she was completely unacceptable. It was all thanks to the efforts of the staff, excluding Meng Juju, who pushed the character to the absolute limits of what the Maodou studio could achieve.

Then there was the convention that the Maodou game heroines were always single-mindedly devoted to the protagonist, which led everyone, including Gu Meng, to assume that this heroine at least loved the protagonist.

The overly optimistic "simp" players might still think the heroine was just acting tsundere, until they heard in the hidden ending that she lived a chaotic private life, sleeping with six people at once, which would completely shatter their illusions.

Additionally, Gu Meng wondered about the logic: the heroine had already turned against him at school, so they should have logically broken up.

However, according to the game’s mechanics, as long as the protagonist provided the required amount of money each month, the heroine would always show up for a date if he called before the end of the month. She was quite the stickler for contractual obligations.

In truth, the plot made sense: to the heroine, money outweighed freedom.

If you paid her, she delivered. As long as the bride price was sufficient and the protagonist didn't back out, she would marry him one hundred percent of the time; there were no branching paths where she ran off with the money.

Gu Meng was well aware of one of the game's settings: if you gave the heroine an excessive amount of money in a given month, her attitude would temporarily turn friendly.

Theoretically, as long as you paid enough, the heroine would do anything.

However, game resources were balanced; in a normal playthrough, one wouldn't have that much money. At most, you could splurge once to enjoy a month of good treatment, but it required extreme micromanagement.

The cost-effectiveness was too low; with that money, it was better to treat the protagonist’s younger sister to a few good meals.

But clearly, this was no longer a normal playthrough.

Gou Tong was demonstrating exactly that: as long as you gave her an excessive amount of money, the heroine would immediately change her tune, calling the protagonist "husband" and "master."

At this point, if the protagonist chose to insult or whip the heroine, she would even praise him, saying, "Oh—hiss—well done, husband."

This simultaneously triggered the feedback of "pain inflicted on her, heartache for the protagonist."

The protagonist’s mental state value would constantly decrease. Since decreasing was equivalent to increasing in this context, various buff effects were applied.

The protagonist, who always acted like a clown in front of the "Old Days" heroine, now seemed to be filtered through a lens after this baptism of depravity, possessing stunning charisma.

While abusing the heroine, the game’s background music also became light and cheerful, signaling that the protagonist’s state was improving, becoming transcendent and saintly.

He was both an enlightened sage and a demon descended upon the mortal world.

The scene was depraved yet cruel, holy yet elegant.

At this moment, the artistry of the game had reached its peak.

The good man Xun Yu was dead—killed by Tian Wenjing. What remained alive now was the cruel "Dog Merchant"!

A world of five thousand attribute points had truly descended.

Used for manual labor, one person could do the work of a hundred!

Used for learning, any advanced skill could be picked up with ease!

Used for socializing, one could form a lifelong bond overnight!

After becoming a small-time urban superman, making money became effortless.

By giving her even more money, the heroine became a mere accessory following the protagonist around.

When dating other girls, the heroine would continue to appear. As long as the protagonist spent money to boost his charisma, he could arrange whatever activities he liked for the night; group activities were also perfectly fine.

NPCs with "queen" attributes, such as wealthy socialites at bars, would trigger strange plotlines and text sequences involving joint abuse of the heroine. Gu Meng himself hadn't known the game contained such Easter eggs.

The process could be described as an S&M simulator. Just how much content did Brother Tong cram into this?

The chat stream began to flood.

"Holy crap, so this 'pure love' game is actually this kind of game."

"I was just suspecting it was a bug... but with so many new playstyles, it definitely isn't a bug!"

"So there really is a hidden mechanism!"

"Why hide this gameplay so deep while still marketing it as a pure love story... oh, oh, I get it now."

"So why is it, exactly?"

"Those who know, know. Those who don't, don't ask. There are too many interests involved; it's no good for you if I explain. I can only say the water is very deep..."

"True, look, even the streamer doesn't dare to explain."

Gou Tong continued his demonstration. While commentating, he hinted at some inside information and personal speculation, but he didn't make his words too clear.

However, viewers familiar with the current situation at Maodou understood what Gou Tong wanted to say. The rapid development of public opinion today definitely involved paid trolls.

Gu Meng actually understood, too.

They were overthinking it. In reality, there was nothing like that; it was just normal business competition.

Before the game was released, Gu Meng had even received messages from his superiors hinting that Maodou could continue to push the boundaries as usual, or even cross them slightly.

Perhaps the authorities were also afraid that Maodou might feel oppressed by dark forces and start speaking recklessly, causing a negative impact online.

As for the meeting where he told employees they wouldn't push boundaries anymore, that was Gu Meng’s own desire to wash his hands of it and make legitimate games.

But setting that aside, Gou Tong was still demonstrating.

Ultimately, by maintaining the abuse of the heroine right at the threshold before she called the police, and squeezing her to the maximum extent for two and a half years (skipped in the video), a cutscene triggering her mental breakdown would occur.

This cutscene usually wasn't seen, as the heroine’s mental resilience was much higher than the protagonist’s.

It could probably only be triggered if, in the early freshman year, the player encountered the extremely low-probability "heroine in danger" event and the protagonist frantically used mental recovery items to avoid collapsing before the heroine did.

After her junior year, the heroine had almost no moral pressure, and it was very difficult to break her with ordinary shocks.

Only physical torture with variety and long-term, lightless imprisonment could reach that level.

According to the settings, before that could happen, the protagonist’s mental state would definitely collapse first... indeed, both the hero and heroine were broken.

Strictly speaking, this short animation was also redundant content created by Brother Tong, because it could have been merged into the protagonist’s breakdown route; once the heroine broke, the protagonist would definitely follow, so there was no need to make an extra animation.

But then again, it was free content.

After the animation, a "bad ending" that didn't unlock any new achievements triggered, and the game ended immediately.

The chat was filled with comments saying, "So this is the real good ending."

There wasn't even a "saint" claiming, "Isn't it too cruel to drive someone to depression?"

This showed how unpopular the heroine was; everyone unanimously agreed that Gou Tong had done a good job.

If you maintained a balance—only applying buffs without ruining the heroine—it became an infinite sandbox game with no ending.

The protagonist could date infinitely. While there were no eternally eighteen-year-old college girls, Qingchun City University saw new eighteen-year-old college girls every year.

The newly generated high-charisma NPCs looked great even without Maodou’s face models or built-in celebrity photos, based solely on randomly generated modeling.

They just lacked celebrity fame, but they had more freshness.

If one didn't mind the trouble, every NPC on the town and university map—including teachers, the principal, and the mayor—could be the protagonist’s partner.