Chapter 639 Zhenyu, the Punisher of Hell

June 11th, Monday.

Tengda Games Department.

Hu Xianbin and Min Jingchao were racking their brains, seriously conceiving the content of the new DLC "Eternal Reincarnation" for *Rebirth from Despair*.

Ever since the meeting with President Pei last Monday, the designers at Tengda Games had been bursting with inspiration, eager to turn their ideas for the DLC into reality.

However, a week had passed, and this state of overflowing inspiration had become a torment for everyone.

Having inspiration but not being able to start production immediately was frustrating.

It was agonizing!

Like an author who has come up with a brilliant idea but can't write it down immediately, instead having to repeatedly consider, polish, and perfect it for two months without writing a single word of the main text. Not everyone can endure this kind of torment.

The designers in the games department felt the same way.

They could only do some minor preparatory work, such as brainstorming game mechanics and making minor modifications to some art resources.

But they couldn't formally plan the project, do specific design, or start formal development.

As for why, President Pei hadn't explained it clearly. Everyone speculated that it was to allow them to accumulate inspiration, build up their knowledge, and avoid rushing things, so as not to ruin this good idea.

While understandable, it was still very frustrating.

Hu Xianbin and Min Jingchao were in a similar state.

Hu Xianbin had previously developed *Mission and Choice*. After the game was released, it had stabilized, and there were no plans for a large DLC or sequel. So Hu Xianbin spent most of his time thinking about *Eternal Reincarnation*.

As for Min Jingchao, the various regions of GOG were about to hold the Spring Split finals, and the game version was very stable, so there was no need to update it for the time being.

Min Jingchao had nothing else to do and was very interested in the *Eternal Reincarnation* DLC, so he helped with the design and conception of the gameplay.

The more they conceived, the more they wanted to create the DLC immediately.

Especially with this unique combat mechanism, just imagining it made them feel that it would be very exciting!

Of course, that was in the hands of an expert.

But President Pei's orders couldn't be violated. If President Pei said they couldn't start formal development, then they definitely couldn't.

Hu Xianbin said with some worry, "This feeling of being bursting with inspiration but not being able to formally develop it is too uncomfortable!"

"President Pei's intention in telling us to wait two months before formally developing it is good. He wants us to accumulate our inspiration and prepare fully before starting production."

"But... do we need to accumulate for two months? That's too long!"

"In terms of the size of this DLC, we could barely make a rough version in two months. After all, the main scenes and monsters haven't changed much, and many art resources can be reused. Even with testing and tuning, three months should be enough."

"It's a bit abnormal."

Min Jingchao nodded, "It does feel a bit strange. This pace is a bit too slow."

If Pei Qian heard their conversation, he would definitely scoff and say, "What do you know!"

It had nothing to do with being slow or not. The reason for delaying it by two months was simply to coincide with the settlement cycle!

Because the previous game projects and developments were all within the settlement cycle, they could be developed at a normal pace.

But the *Eternal Reincarnation* DLC was special. It happened to be at the end of the settlement cycle. If they developed it now, it would take three months to be safe, which would delay the settlement.

That's why he decided to delay the development by two months, to avoid the settlement cycle.

But Hu Xianbin and Min Jingchao didn't know this. They felt that something was amiss. Considering the Tengda spirit interpretation rule of "there must be a deep meaning behind President Pei's unreasonable behavior," they naturally had doubts.

Before, they had been bursting with inspiration and seriously conceiving the design plan, so this doubt was temporarily buried in their hearts.

But now, the design plan was almost finished, and they couldn't write the formal design plan or start production.

In this agonizing state, the doubt resurfaced and was hard to ignore.

They both fell silent, thinking.

Hu Xianbin frowned and said, "Do you think President Pei deliberately gave us such a long period of free time, deliberately not letting us start making the *Eternal Reincarnation* DLC, to imply that there are other things we can do?"

Min Jingchao nodded, "I think there's a possibility."

"Then what other things are there? What work can be completed in two months and is slightly related to *Eternal Reincarnation*?" Hu Xianbin racked his brains, but still had no clue.

Suddenly, Min Jingchao had a flash of inspiration, "Hey, I've got it!"

"Can we release a new hero for GOG?"

"Two months is enough time for us to release a new hero, and this new hero can use the combat mechanism in *Eternal Reincarnation*."

"Since the birth of the popular new hero Feng Zhi Mo Ke (Wind Messenger)·Ruan, GOG hasn't had a new hero who can show off and is popular for a long time."

"The few new heroes that have come out have all been well-received and balanced, but none have been as popular as Feng Zhi Mo Ke·Ruan."

"In these two months, we can design a new hero 'Zhenyu (Punisher of Hell)' for GOG while accumulating inspiration for *Eternal Reincarnation* and preparing for the early stages."

"Then, we can release the new hero Zhenyu first, and then use this new hero to promote and warm up *Eternal Reincarnation*. Wouldn't that rhythm be much more perfect?"

Hu Xianbin suddenly realized, "That's right, it makes much more sense that way!"

"If President Pei is determined to have us do something in these two months, that's probably it!"

They considered it and felt that this was indeed the most likely option.

Moreover, they were idle anyway, so wouldn't making a new hero be just right?

Originally, Min Jingchao had planned to release the news of the new hero Zhenyu at the GPL Spring Split finals, but after the two discussed it, they decided against it.

The GPL Spring Split finals were this weekend, which was a bit late compared to the normal Spring Split schedule. After all, it was already June, and the Summer Split was about to start.

But this was mainly to accommodate the time of other regions.

Other regions were established later, so the league started later. Unifying the time of each region and starting the Summer Split at about the same time would ensure that the Summer Split schedule in each region would be completed when the second Global Invitational Tournament was held.

The Spring Split finals were a good opportunity to promote the new hero, but considering two issues: First, there was absolutely no time to make a promotional video in a week, and it would be boring to release only text information without video material; second, President Pei had requested that no information on the Linggan Class copyright development could be leaked within a month and a half, and this new hero should also be considered part of the copyright development in the strict sense.

Therefore, they abandoned this plan.

However, a month and a half later, the Summer Split of GOG in major regions around the world would begin.

They could announce the news of the new hero when the Summer Split started!

With a goal, Min Jingchao and Hu Xianbin were motivated again.

Those inspirations and the unique mechanism they had settled on for *Eternal Reincarnation* could be used in the design of the new GOG hero. They would work hard to develop another hero as popular as Feng Zhi Mo Ke·Ruan!

...

With the joint efforts of the two, the design plan for the new hero was quickly completed.

This was obviously due to the inspiration that President Pei's original idea gave them, as well as the accumulation of constantly conceiving and designing the gameplay over the past week.

The new hero was called "Zhenyu (Punisher of Hell)," and his position was a physical assassin.

His passive skill was "Tuning Breath," which was similar to the Qi (breath) value mechanism in *Eternal Reincarnation*.

Zhenyu didn't have a mana bar or an energy bar, but a stamina bar instead. Both releasing skills and ordinary attacks would consume stamina.

In addition, there would be a circular aura effect under Zhenyu's feet, which would expand and contract at a certain frequency. This circle was the Qi value, expanding representing inhalation, and contracting representing exhalation.

When the circle expanded to its maximum range, it was the best state to attack or release skills. Frequently attacking under this condition would have a Tuning Breath effect, allowing Zhenyu's stamina to recover faster, his movement speed to increase slightly, and his parry chance to increase.

Conversely, if he attacked or released skills at the wrong time, Zhenyu would automatically adjust his breathing to adapt to the attack frequency. But the side effect was that the Qi value would gradually become disordered.

The state of the Qi value would be indicated by the color of the halo under his feet, which would be the normal white at first, disordered to yellow or even red, and smooth to green, just like in *Eternal Reincarnation*.

If the halo under Zhenyu's feet was green and his stamina bar was full, then it was best not to fight him head-on.

Zhenyu's first and second skills were "Perfect Parry" and "Sidestep Flash."

This mechanism corresponded to the mechanism in *Eternal Reincarnation* where the protagonist pushed the joystick to perform a perfect parry or dodge when confronting the enemy's attack.

These two skills were somewhat different.

Perfect Parry had a short cooldown time, no displacement effect, and didn't consume much stamina. However, it had a certain chance of failure, requiring the mouse pointer to point in the correct direction and the skill to be used at the right time to trigger a perfect parry. Otherwise, it would be an imperfect parry or even a failed parry.

Whether the parry was perfect would affect the damage received by the hero, the change in Qi value, the stamina consumption, and the skill cooldown time.

Sidestep Flash had a longer cooldown time, a short-range displacement effect, and consumed more stamina, but it was much easier to operate than Parry and was more friendly to the disabled.

The difficulty of parrying could be simply divided into three types: enemy heroes' normal attacks were relatively easy to parry; ordinary skills other than ultimates were more difficult; and ultimates were the most difficult to parry. To succeed, you not only needed skill, but also good luck.

Considering that the pre-casting time and flying speed of each hero's skills were different, whether the parry could be successful would greatly test the player's reaction and operation.

And once the parry failed, it would be like taking the skill with your face, and the consequences would be very serious.

These two skills, combined with the Qi value setting, were the key to whether Zhenyu, the Punisher of Hell, could show off.

The third skill was "Weapon Change." According to the setting, Zhenyu was a Martial God who was proficient in all kinds of weapons, so he could freely switch between different weapon types.

Because it shouldn't be made too complicated, Min Jingchao designed three weapon modes.

One was dual-wielding two-handed weapons. In this mode, the attack pre-casting became longer, the attack distance became larger, the attack power increased slightly, and the sweeping attack had an AoE effect, but the attack speed obviously decreased.

The second was holding a sword in one hand. In this mode, the attack distance, attack speed, and attack power were moderate, but it would slightly improve the blocking effect.

The third was dual-wielding daggers. The attack distance was the shortest, the attack power was the lowest, but the attack frequency was extremely high, and it could produce additional critical hit effects when attacking the enemy from behind.

When choosing different weapon modes, the current state of the Qi value and the impact of equipment had to be considered. For example, if you wanted to play a reaping assassin style, you could equip attack speed and critical hit equipment and focus on daggers, while if you wanted to play a semi-meat warrior style, you could focus on two-handed weapons.

But you couldn't use one weapon to the end. In order to encourage players to change weapons more, each time you switched weapons, you would have a short-term damage increase and a slight increase in the Parry success rate buff.

The setting was also easy to explain: because enemies would figure out the routine if you used the same weapon for a long time, but changing weapons and changing the attack routine would catch the enemy off guard, which could add damage.

The ultimate move was "Martial God Awakening," which had both passive and active effects.

The passive effect was that when continuously fighting enemies, each successful parry or attack could weaken the enemy's Qi, which was manifested as a ring under the enemy's feet, presenting four colors: green, white, yellow, and red.

The more disordered the enemy's Qi, the slower the movement speed and the more damage they would take. When the Qi was in a red disordered state and the health was below 8%, Zhenyu's damage would directly trigger the kill effect.

But the prerequisite was that you had to continuously attack. If you failed to continuously suppress the enemy's Qi value, then the enemy's Qi value would gradually improve until it returned to green and disappeared.

There was also another passive effect called Demonic Transformation. When players frequently used parry but kept failing and the number of deaths kept accumulating, Zhenyu would enter the Demonic Transformation state. At this time, his Parry skill success rate would be increased, and there would even be a certain chance of triggering an automatic parry effect.

The active effect of the ultimate move was to enter the Martial God Awakening state, which greatly enhanced the effect of weakening the enemy's Qi, slowed down the enemy's Qi value recovery, and increased the kill line to 12%. After killing one person, this effect would increase for a small amount of time. In other words, it was easier to reap the battlefield.

But this kill effect was not a brainless kill. It had to disrupt the Qi value to kill, so it wouldn't be too invincible.

Overall, this was a very difficult hero to operate.

Its game mechanism was very worthy of research. If you could play it well, it would be a strong choice whether you were dueling or reaping the battlefield.

But the conditions for playing it well were very harsh.

You needed to attack or release skills at the right Qi value, accurately release each parry skill according to the different skills of different heroes, correctly choose parry and dodge, think about what weapon you mainly played and match equipment, adapt to the rhythm of the three weapon modes, and correctly choose whether to split push or participate in team fights.

Playing by experts and playing by noobs were not the same hero at all.

But interestingly, even if a noob kept feeding with this hero, they could guarantee the bottom line through the Demonic Transformation state, allowing this hero to still eat skills through the parry effect, and wouldn't become pure trash after feeding a few times like Feng Zhi Mo Ke·Ruan, leaving only happiness.

In terms of balance, this hero was completely different in high-end games and competitions compared to low-end games.

In low-end games, the vast majority of people couldn't play it well, so you didn't have to worry about him being too strong, and you didn't have to worry about him being too bad with the Demonic Transformation mechanism.

In high-end games and competitions, enemies could disrupt his Qi value and weapon switching settings to make targeted responses. And although Zhenyu's parry looked strong, if the parry failed, he might be instantly killed. High returns were accompanied by high risks.

It was normal for professional players to not be able to show off with him, but if they did show off, the viewing experience would definitely explode.

Min Jingchao even had a premonition that the hero Zhenyu might form a happy duo with Feng Zhi Mo Ke·Ruan in the future, comparing who was happier.

But in any case, even if the hero Zhenyu was feeding, he would be much more useful than the happy Ruan male.

This could be considered a meritorious deed of the designer!