With a heart full of inexpressible emotions.
Mò Zhī arrived at the Catacombs of Carthus and successfully buried the Conqueror of Carthus, High Lord Wolnir.
She then dispatched the last demon king in this world at the Smouldering Lake, her thoughts gradually clearing.
Returning to the Firelink Shrine, Mò Zhī placed the Lord of Cinder, the Unkindled, and the Lord of Cinder's heads upon their respective thrones.
Watching the flames ignite on the thrones, her thoughts drifted far, her voice becoming ethereal:
"Brothers, why do I feel my heart growing more sorrowful as the game progresses?"
During the conquest of High Lord Wolnir, only the stories of NPCs Sirris and Horace moved her.
She and Horace went to the Cathedral of the Deep only to find Aldrich, Saint of the Deep, had already departed, so they continued their investigation.
Then they became separated in the Catacombs of Carthus.
Mò Zhī encountered Horace, now a hollow, on her path of conquest. This fellow had died here.
Considering Sirris, she did not put Horace out of his misery. On the way back after conquering Wolnir, she saw Sirris's corpse and the Astora Straight Sword. Horace stood silently nearby.
This was the first time Mò Zhī felt that NPCs seemingly connected to the player would all meet unfortunate ends.
The world of Dark Souls was despair.
Suffocating despair.
Meanwhile, Yuria of Londor was still guiding her to become the Lord of Hollows, even asking Sirris to be her wife.
This NPC made her feel a bit terrified.
Including other NPCs, they approached the protagonist with their own agendas.
"I think Dark Souls will likely be a game with multiple endings. There's linking the fire and there's letting it fade. There's becoming the Lord of Hollows and there's choosing not to be."
"And the taste of all this can only be experienced by the player after personally feeling this world to make their choices."
Mò Zhī looked at the Fire Keeper standing serenely in the candlelight and said quietly, "If I had just arrived at the Shrine and seen the Fire Keeper's beauty and elegance, I definitely wouldn't have been able to refuse her request."
"But, now..."
Mò Zhī chuckled, preemptively shielding herself: "I'm talking about myself. This doesn't represent anyone else's viewpoint. Perhaps I'm a woman, so the Fire Keeper's status in my heart isn't as high anymore."
"In my eyes, she's just a tool to enhance my attributes. As for linking the fire, after the battle with the Unkindled, I feel that linking the fire is more like a colossal lie."
"A colossal lie left from Gwyn's era. So-called duty is merely a false covenant."
"If I can let the fire fade in the end, I will definitely choose to let it fade. This world is too desperate, and there aren't many sane people left anyway."
Mò Zhī's voice was not loud but was extraordinarily powerful.
'Support letting the fire fade. This is inherently a false fairy tale world woven by the gods.'
'Fairy tale? A dark fairy tale, right?'
'I also want to let the fire fade, but I can't bear to part with my Fire Keeper, my dear.'
'Linking the fire, linking the fire is hope. The Unkindled were corrupted by the abyss. How much credibility do you think their words have?'
'Is the streamer being too one-sided? Condemning this world to its end based on such fragmented information?'
'Next game, experience it yourself before saying such nonsense!'
.......
Regarding Mò Zhī's words, the comments showed a serious division.
Some empathized, while others found it one-sided. The two sides argued fiercely.
"Brothers, existence is reasonable. A hundred readers have a hundred Hamlets. This is the charm of the game."
Mò Zhī looked at her lovely viewers arguing endlessly, finding it somewhat amusing. "Undertale also has multiple endings, doesn't it? Games inherently have open endings; it all depends on how the player plays."
"I belong to the type of player who enjoys studying the plot. As the game progresses, I just feel the sorrow in my heart intensifying."
"There are also many players who skip the plot and jump straight through it, like Brother Monkey next door. I heard he attacked the Fire Keeper a few times right after entering the Shrine to test her damage."
Mentioning a fellow streamer on the platform, Mò Zhī felt a touch of amusement.
On Dark Souls' first day, few streamers went viral. Relying on her accumulated popularity, she was one of them, and Sister Zhou was half of one. She went viral, and then she stopped playing.
Another was the heavyweight Jie Hou, whose playstyle could be summarized in one word: charge!
Regardless of plot or NPCs, he attacked them all!
He went viral by being repeatedly beaten by the Hollowing until he broke out in tears. Jie Hou already had a certain fan base and also engaged in some gimmicks.
After some editing by the meme creators in the Bilibili's Ghost Animal section, Jie Hou became a somewhat influential big streamer in the Dark Souls community.
'Jie Hou is still hopping around in Lothric Castle. He's long fallen out of the top tier of early-game survival.'
'What's going on? Any knowledgeable brothers can explain in detail?'
'It's not that he got addicted to testing damage at the start and hacked all the NPCs. Now his Firelink Shrine is empty except for an unkillable Fire Keeper. No merchants, no Andre to enhance weapons. He's playing a trick.'
'My goodness, a ruthless person. I have to go watch.'
.......
While the audience was still passionately commenting, Mò Zhī had already walked up to the Hollowed Knight.
She had personally killed his former comrades, and she wondered how he would react.
"You killed the Lord of Cinder—that Unkindled..."
A slight emotional fluctuation appeared in Hawkwood the Deserter's voice, but it quickly subsided. "Bringing the King back to the throne, this is what it means..."
"Truly pathetic. This is what a King is."
"Indeed, pathetic. This is the ultimate fate of the King who links the fire," Mò Zhī nodded, deeply touched.
"Oh, it seems I have you to thank." Hawkwood said indifferently, "Those fellows might also be looking for a resting place..."
【Obtained: Ring of the Wolf — A ring bestowed upon the Undead Legion, the watchers of the abyss who hunt monsters must possess extraordinary swordsmanship. Wolf blood provides strength to the watchers, and this ring offers assistance.】
"Hawkwood's identity as part of the Undead Legion is confirmed. But why is he carrying a round shield?"
Mò Zhī looked at the round shield strapped to Hawkwood's back, recalling her DLC experiences, and slapped her thigh, "I get it!"
"Hawkwood is the true follower of Artorias!"
"The Undead Legion imitated Artorias, thinking he didn't use a shield, but in reality, his shield was used by his companion, Sif!"
Undead Legion of Farron: Thank you for the reminder, I've been amused.
'You understand Hawkwood.'
'Hahaha, this explanation seems to make sense!'
'I understand why Hawkwood looked down on the Undead's identity during our first meeting.'
'You understand him, do you understand me? I worked my butt off to defeat Gundyr, and this guy was taunting me. I went up and hit him twice, then I was beaten for 2 hours...'
'I can picture it, pfft!!'
.......
"That's all for today, brothers. I've been live for ten hours, even the iron man would be broken."
Mò Zhī took off her headphones. After the conversation with Hawkwood, she prepared to end the stream.
The next chapter, conquering Aldrich, would be a tough fight, and she needed to conserve her energy before battling.
Glancing at the time in the lower right corner, it was just past ten-thirty.
She had finally made it. Her sleep schedule had become regular. She no longer needed to stay up all night competing for prime-time traffic with her peers.
It felt so good!
Closing the stream, Mò Zhī looked at the dazzling data in the backend, a wave of pride washing over her.
Peak popularity reached 30 million!
Average viewership remained around 500,000!
Gift revenue in the backend exceeded 600,000!
All the sweat and tears from before were worth it!
........
Meanwhile, a large number of homeless viewers were in a panic after Mò Zhī ended her stream.
They could only search for popular streamers in the torture-style gaming section.
Currently, the torture-style gaming section primarily streamed four games—Undertale, Call of Duty, To the Moon, and Dark Souls.
The hottest was the currently trending Dark Souls. After Mò Zhī ended her stream, Jie Hou had the highest popularity.
Entering his stream, he had just cleaved a fat knight with a greataxe and was heading towards the main cathedral.
"Old sister, your 'Old Sun' has arrived!"
.......