I created the myth of the Great Old Ones.

With this in mind, Xu Duzhong opened Lu Ban's video.

In an instant, a large number of comments flooded the screen.

Congratulations on discovering the station's prized possession!

Has anyone beat this game? Could you share a walkthrough?

[Friendly reminder: High-energy content ahead]

Is this uploader always up to something this bizarre? I've been watching this video on repeat for three hours straight.

[I came back from the forty-sixth ending; the later plot was amazing, but I still couldn't beat it.]

"Is it an adventure/mystery genre?"

After the initial introduction, Xu Duzhong transformed into a detective named Trist, who was Lu Ban's companion in the video. The two were sitting in a carriage surrounded by thick fog when they heard the coachman say that he needed to go to the toilet.

The video slowed down here, and Xu Duzhong saw that options appeared in the corner of the video.

Follow the coachman

[Stay where you are and observe]

"Nonsense, of course we'll follow him. There's definitely something wrong with the plot that keeps triggering like this."

Xu Duzhong chose to "follow the coachman".

The camera pans forward, showing Xu Duzhong following the coachman into the thick fog.

He saw the coachman urinating there, and the fog thickened, obscuring the coachman's figure.

In the blink of an eye, the coachman who had been standing right in front of Xu Duzhong disappeared.

"!"

In the video, Trist immediately turned around, but couldn't find any trace of the carriage.

In that deep fog, everything quickly dimmed.

Curiosity can kill you; sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

[Bad end: 01]

"Grass!"

Xu Duzhong never expected that he would enter the death phase in less than two minutes.

"Why do we die even if we follow them? Shouldn't we be exploring in a situation like this?"

He started the video again.

As always, he decided to stay where he was and watch this time.

But when the coachman went to the toilet, the previous option did not appear!

"Holy crap, is this what random selection looks like?"

Xu Duzhong saw the coachman suddenly disappear into the fog and imagined that he might have disappeared in the same way. There was something seriously wrong with the fog!

He obediently stayed in the carriage, and at that moment, the scene slowed down again.

[Let Lu Ban drive]

[Driving myself]

Xu Duzhong thought for a moment and decided that he should stay behind to observe the situation, or it would be better to let Lu Ban drive.

He chose the former.

The carriage began to move through the fog, but its speed did not decrease at all.

Xu Duzhong saw something flash by in the fog, but he couldn't see it clearly, so he immediately paused the video.

Then you can see that in the white mist, some broken stone pillars are faintly visible, forming a ferocious appearance.

"Where was this filmed?"

While Xu Duzhong was still wondering, he saw the camera jolt violently, the carriage overturn, and his vision turn red.

Trust is a good thing, but first you need to confirm whether the other party has a carriage driver's license.

[Bad end: 04]

"???"

So it turns out this uploader just doesn't know how to drive a horse-drawn carriage?

Xu Duzhong felt that this video was a bit of a tactic to mess with people's minds.

Moreover, it jumps directly from the first bad ending 1 to the fourth bad ending. Where did the second and third bad endings in between go?

Is this some kind of interactive video version of a thousand ways to die?

He didn't rush to reopen it, but instead checked the video comments.

Interactive videos, to put it simply, don't have that many branching paths; there are probably only three or four endings in total. If you fast-forward fast enough, many people can find the correct ending strategy in no time.

Although spoilers are not good, Xu Duzhong, whose mindset had been messed up, still wanted to see how this lousy video would end.

Anyway, this video has been released for two days, so it should have been thoroughly explored by now.

But when Xu Duzhong saw the video comments, he was stunned.

[Damn, has anyone gotten the true ending? I've been playing for two days, tried every possible option, but I still died in the end.]

[This is truly a random selection; I tried twice with the exact same choices, but for some reason, the results were completely different towards the end!]

I strongly suspect that the uploader didn't actually create a true ending. He's always liked to pull off bizarre stunts, so maybe this time even the ending is still in the underworld and he hasn't come back.

My friend and I discussed a few key points. First, never go to places where you shouldn't be courting death. Second, when it's time to explore, be bold and explore. Finally, we don't know what constitutes courting death and what constitutes exploration.

He flipped through several pages, looking at the most popular replies with many likes, before realizing a fact.

Two days after the video was released, not a single person has achieved the real ending?

Chapter 083 A Thousand Ways to Die

"impossible!"

Xu Duzhong found it unbelievable.

For a normal game, someone would definitely have completed it and provided a walkthrough within a day of its release. But for interactive video games, which don't require any gameplay, they should have been completed in no time.

How is it possible that no one has gotten the true ending in two days?

Xu Duzhong didn't believe it, so he immediately searched for the video "[Auspicious Day]" online.

The result was that I found the highly-rated answers in the "Do you understand?" section.

"...The complexity of this video is unimaginable. Although the total length may only be a little over an hour, the branching paths it contains far exceed the typical 15 to 20 hours of gameplay for a single-player game. And this is only the part that players have already explored. It's hard to imagine how much effort [Still Motion] has put into it during the period without updates, because just filming the footage for this video alone took at least a month..."

Nobody has actually completed the game; only people who haven't completed it are praising this video.

After reading several answers, Xu Duzhong opened the video again and tried one of the options suggested by someone that could reliably advance to the later stages.

But the third one was different.

When the carriage stopped again, there were no options to "get out and check" or "stay in the carriage"; only "use the lamp" and "continue onward" were available.

Xu Duzhong thought for a moment and chose to use a lamp to illuminate the area.

He saw the light pierce through the thick fog, revealing a bizarrely shaped monster with a fish head and a human body in front of the carriage.

The slow emergence of that thing from the mist sent chills down Xu Duzhong's spine.

"Is this thing real, or just a prop?"

He unconsciously put himself in their shoes.

Interactive videos, especially suspenseful ones, are highly interactive and engaging, making it easy for viewers to immerse themselves in the experience. Combined with the immersive environment of a dormitory and the realistic lighting, Xu Duzhong felt even more present in the scene.

Moreover, the video seemed to possess some kind of magic, drawing his attention.

After examining the stone statue, he drove the carriage around to continue forward. However, less than a minute later, Xu Duzhong saw the stone statue again in the dark fog ahead.

It's exactly the same as the one I saw before.

"Being trapped in a maze?"

He chose to examine the statue and continue forward, but surprisingly, he soon repeated the same thing.

Unconvinced, Xu Duzhong repeated the exercise three or four times before the screen suddenly went dark.

[You, trapped in an endless cycle, may need to find a way out.]

[Bad end: 27]

At this moment, Xu Duzhong realized that he had unknowingly strayed from the game guide he was originally looking at. It was as if he had made a plan after summer vacation, planning to get up at eight o'clock every day, study for four hours, exercise for three hours, and play for two hours, and had even posted the plan on the wall. But when he woke up the next morning, he found that lunch was already prepared. It was as if some inexplicable force had taken away his attention.

Xu Duzhong even felt that the video might have used some psychological techniques to give him this illusion.

He went to the bathroom to wash his face, cleared his head, and went back to continue pushing the videos.

This time, Xu Duzhong didn't directly look for a strategy guide. Instead, he first looked at the experiences summarized by others and some gameplay videos.

Then, he returned to the carriage shrouded in mist.

An hour later, Xu Duzhong breathed a sigh of relief. After seeing the strange-looking person with bulging, fish-like eyes, he was finally able to leave the fog and head towards the dry water town.

Only then did he realize that his palms were sweaty and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. He was more nervous than when he was taking the advanced mathematics exam.

Xu Duzhong knew that this interactive video had no save function, and every choice would lead to an unknown result. If he made a mistake, he might have to start all over again.

Some students might ask, "Can't interactive videos jump to the previous video node? Isn't that a natural way to save data?"

Xu Duzhong initially thought so too, as did everyone who watched the video. However, people later discovered that the random option in the video title seemed to be truly random; even with the exact same operation, going back to the previous point didn't necessarily restore the previous state.

The video seems to have its own will, circumventing any attempts by viewers to take shortcuts.

Xu Duzhong was extremely cautious, not even checking QQ or WeChat, focusing solely on exploring the virtual town of Kushui.

He now felt as if he had truly become Drizzt, adventuring with Lu Ban in this eerie town.

The two entered the dry town, and Xu Duzhong breathed a slight sigh of relief. According to the plot description, they could pass the level after attending the wedding, so they were at least halfway there.

Just as Xu Duzhong was catching his breath, he suddenly felt a breeze blowing behind him while wearing headphones.