“When will the new video be released? I can’t wait anymore…”

“Stop pushing, it’s in progress. Has your Qiao Laoshi ever lied to you?”

“Every time we ask, it’s always ‘in progress, in progress.’ In progress my ass! I wonder if Qiao Laoshi can even complete this game.”

“Fake fan? Qiao was invited by the officials to experience the game a long time ago. Rumor has it he’s already completed it. He just has an agreement with the officials not to leak the game’s content.”

“Damn, just talking about this game makes me angry. I’ve been playing for four days and still can’t get past the Yellow Springs Road.”

“Getting stuck at Yellow Springs Road is truly noobish. I’m stuck at Meng Po.”

“You can beat Meng Po if you play defensively, right? Meeting the Judge afterward is when you learn what it means to be human. He can kill you to the point where you question your life.”

The fans were all discussing the game’s content and sharing their experiences.

Relatively speaking, the atmosphere in Qiao Laoshi’s fan group was decent. There wasn’t a heated argument about the game’s difficulty.

Perhaps because most of Qiao Laoshi’s followers were hardcore gamers who had more patience than casual players.

“Sigh, it seems this game isn’t suitable for players with poor skills. Watching you all play, I’m envious as someone with poor gaming skills.”

“It depends on how you play. You can find joy in suffering in this game. I also have poor skills, so I plan to ignore these monsters, run and activate the Buddha statues, and see how far I can get.”

“No way, you haven’t even completed the game yet, and you’re already thinking about speedrunning?”

“It’s not speedrunning, just entertaining myself. Anyway, I can’t beat any of the small monsters, lol.”

Some carefree players were trying fancy playing styles.

Qiao Liang posted in the group: “While playing the game, everyone can pay a little attention to the storyline content. If there’s suitable material, I’ll include it in the video.”

As an excellent video creator, Qiao Liang always believed in the power of the masses.

There was so much interesting content in the game that one person alone couldn’t find everything. Sometimes, silly netizens could provide a lot of inspiration.

“Caught Qiao!”

“Is Qiao crowdsourcing for his video again?”

“You’re asking the wrong people. We’re still being tortured by the small monsters in the graveyard, dying over and over. Who has the mind to study the game’s storyline?”

“…I remember this game has an official novel, right? Why don’t you check that out?”

Qiao Laoshi was surprised.

Official novel?

I’ve never heard of it.

He quickly asked: “Where’s the official novel? It’s not fan fiction, is it?”

The group member quickly replied: “It should be the official novel. Go to this website www.zhongdian.com.”

“Do you know TPDb? It’s reportedly an internal rating website of Tenda, and it has a Zhongdian Chinese website. The homepage of Zhongdian Chinese Web features the novel ‘Turn Back to Shore,’ so it should be the official novel.”

Qiao Liang couldn’t help but marvel.

Is that so?

These silly netizens have their ways.

Qiao Liang hurriedly clicked on the website, and it was true!

The cover recommendation on the homepage was prominently “Turn Back to Shore.”

And after clicking in and taking a peek, much of the content was highly consistent with the game, including characters like the old monk and the scholar from the starting village, who all appeared in the book.

However, the stories in the book were quite fragmented. Rather than a novel, it was more like a collection of game plot settings.

Although it was a bit difficult to read, with poor storyline continuity making it hard to read smoothly, Qiao Liang was very happy.

Because it further confirmed that this was indeed the official novel for “Turn Back to Shore”!

This way, many plot mysteries in the game could be clarified!

“Thanks, bro, big help!”

Qiao Liang sent a “fist salute” emoji in the group, closed the chat window at lightning speed, and began reading the official novel of “Turn Back to Shore.”

The first chapter was published in July, and the earliest comment appeared in late July.

This further convinced Qiao Liang that this book was the official novel.

Because in July, “Turn Back to Shore” hadn’t been in development for very long.

It couldn’t be that some author just happened to have the same idea as Tenda and wrote such a book, right? That’s impossible.

It must have been written by someone inside Tenda!

After reading for five minutes, Qiao Liang frequently frowned.

Not because the book was poorly written, but because he was disgusted by the comments!

There were too many haters, especially bad in the first chapter.

The situation improved a lot in the second and third chapters, probably because many readers had left.

“What the hell is this writing?”

“The author is completely self-indulgent? Poisonous.”

“Why is this book still featured on the website’s homepage? Connection?”

“Incomprehensible, negative points, get out!”

“Huh, no wonder this website doesn’t catch on. With garbage books like this, who would read?”

And so on.

These comments were written before the release of the game “Turn Back to Shore.” Most people were judging the book by the standards of ordinary web novels, so naturally, they couldn’t get into it.

However, Qiao Liang read with great interest because much of the content in the official novel was very valuable to him.

Some content verified his guesses, some negated his guesses, and some details could guide him to discover more details in the game.

“This is another buried work.”

“Although the story itself isn’t good and doesn’t qualify as a web novel, when viewed alongside the game, it suddenly becomes different.”

“Is this website also created by President Pei?”

“Strange, why does President Pei always like to play this kind of strategy of suppression before promotion? Could it be some unique preference?”

“Or does he like the feeling of a roller coaster, watching his games and websites fail at first, then reversing the situation and bringing them back to life through some special means?”

“Don’t understand.”

“Maybe that’s what makes a business genius.”

The book had quite a lot of content, and various storylines were quite fragmented. Some content wasn’t even included in the game.

Qiao Liang guessed that the storyline was probably written by many people together, but the game only used a small portion of the content. The remaining content was at most included as easter eggs or small details, and some wasn’t used at all.

“Strange, this old monk has quite a lot of scenes.”

Qiao Liang noticed that in the original work, this old monk had quite a strong presence.

According to his understanding of the game, there was no Buddha in this world, only broken Buddha statues, symbolizing the legendary era of the decline of Dharma.

Probably because President Pei simply wanted to incorporate Buddhist content as one of the elements into the game, integrating some elements from traditional culture.

Apart from those Buddha statues along the path that served as save points, the only Buddhist elements that appeared were this broken temple outside the village and the old monk inside.

In the game, this old monk was very weak, and his only purpose was to drop items after being killed.

But in the official novel’s setting, this old monk had a quite tragic storyline, and his combat power after losing his sanity was very strong. He should have been one of those elite monsters that were difficult to deal with.

Qiao Liang scratched his head, a bit confused.

“Did the design team make a mistake? Why is it different from what’s written in the official novel?”

“Indeed, making him an elite monster would make more sense.”

“This old monk has a separate model after all. Although he’s thin, he’s more imposing than ordinary small monsters, with unique attack animations, and his model is very detailed…”

“Yet, he turned out to be such a weak monster, which doesn’t make much sense.”

Qiao Liang re-entered the game. This was a new account created after the game’s release, now on the second playthrough, just arriving near the town.

Finding this old monk, he saved the game and began to mess around with him.

Killing him with different skills.

Trying to lure him out of the temple.

Deliberately dying.

But no matter what he tried, no special events occurred.

“Could it be that this old monk shouldn’t be killed? Do I need to obtain some special prerequisite plot item somewhere?”

Qiao Liang fell into deep confusion.

After many attempts without any clues, Qiao Liang decided to mobilize the masses and ask the players in the group to help try.

“Can everyone check if there’s any hidden plot that can be triggered with the old monk in the broken temple? Try various methods, I feel something is off.”

Qiao Liang didn’t have high hopes; he just casually asked.

“The old monk? I killed him long ago.”

“I killed him, too. He’s too fragile, dies with just a touch.”

“I haven’t reached there yet…”

“I can try, but I might not be able to beat him… I ran straight here, no items or good weapons…”

Qiao Liang remembered the last player who spoke.

This was the player who previously said he wanted to try not killing any monsters and see how far he could run.

Qiao Liang didn’t take it seriously. After all, it was possible that there was an error in the official novel, or for some reason, the game’s balance was adjusted, turning the old monk who was originally planned to be an elite monster into a tool.

A few minutes later.

“Qiao! Qiao, look quickly! What weapon is this?!!”

“[Image]”

“[Image]”

“[Image]”

Probably because he was excited, this player sent three images at once.

Qiao Liang was startled and opened the first image.

A golden Zen staff!

He was a bit confused because he had seen and used the Zen staff before. It wasn’t good, with low attack power, and was particularly inconvenient to use.

But the Zen staff that the old monk previously dropped didn’t glow.

This zen staff, however, emitted a golden light, looking flashy and imposing on the back, clearly different from other weapons!

The next two images showed the weapon’s name and description.

“Salvation”

“Buddha says: See that all five aggregates are empty, crossing all suffering.”

Qiao Liang was stunned, then overjoyed.

There was a hidden storyline?!

He quickly typed: “How did you trigger this?”

The player in the group: “I’m not too sure either! I happened to run over and activate the nearby Buddha statue, and I just wanted to check it out. But I had no equipment or good weapons, so I couldn’t beat this old monk at all. Every time I saw him, I was chased and killed.”

“After dying several times, I found that this old monk had become an NPC! I went over to talk to him, and he babbled a bunch of stuff, then gave me this weapon.”

“Damn, this weapon is awesome!”

The excitement was palpable.

Qiao Liang was even more puzzled: “Why? How come it doesn’t work for me? I also died several times, but nothing triggered. Is it because I’m on my second playthrough, so I can’t trigger this hidden storyline?”

The player in the group: “That’s possible.”

Qiao Liang instantly became unsettled.

Big news!

How could there be such an amazing hidden weapon in this game?

He would start a new save file right away and try dying in the first playthrough!

Carefully recalling the whole process of discovering this weapon, Qiao Liang couldn’t help but marvel at how deeply it was hidden, as if the designer had deliberately hidden it, not wanting players to find it!