Chapter 589: The Living Corpse Sword Saint!
After dying four times in a row, Zou Zhuo finally felt that the difficulty here must be messed up!
The monster's damage wasn't the issue; Zou Zhuo had already foreseen this outcome when he chose the Deprived class at the start. Who told you not to wear armor? Getting one-shot is normal, right?
But the main problem was that the player's own damage was way too low! At this rate of fighting the boss, was he really supposed to take over ten minutes?
Obviously, this was just a gatekeeper boss; there was no need to create such a huge difficulty for newcomers, right?
Besides, Zou Zhuo knew very well that the games Chen Mo made all had internal logic; he didn't deliberately make them hard just to torture players.
For example, while *Dark Souls* was difficult, it wasn't this kind of numerical difficulty. It required players to memorize patterns and practice mechanics; there was no way a boss would take over ten minutes to beat.
Zou Zhuo entered the room again. This time, he noticed a message on the ground that he had been ignoring: Run!
Zou Zhuo was shocked. What the hell? Was this an official hint?
Did it mean that this big-ass demon wasn't a monster he was supposed to fight right now?
While the big-ass demon was just landing, Zou Zhuo quickly searched the room and finally found an entrance lit by a torch on the left side.
To be fair, this door was pretty obvious because the entire room was very dark, and this was the only source of light.
But Zou Zhuo hadn't thought of it before! Following a normal train of thought, you'd expect to fight a boss here, but it turned out to be like *Outlast*—you had to find a way to escape first?!
Zou Zhuo felt like dying. He really should have thought of that earlier!
In fact, the original *Dark Souls* had similar designs, like the giant in the church. The first time you encounter him on the platform, he'll smash you into oblivion. You have to bypass him first and then slowly chip away at his feet later to kill him.
But in the *Dark Souls* prequel, this was a sensitive spot for the first boss. Who would have thought you were supposed to run away first?
Zou Zhuo hadn't wrapped his head around it and ended up suffering miserably here several times...
He crawled into the passage, and the gate slammed down behind him. Zou Zhuo was temporarily safe.
"Sure enough, the plot is like this..."
Zou Zhuo's heart was full of curses. "The boss's trolling skills have reached a new level!"
Continuing inward, Zou Zhuo picked up a wooden shield and a club.
"Damn it, so this is what he was waiting for? You can only pick up your starting weapons after escaping that first big-ass demon..."
Obviously, this was Chen Mo's blatant malice, but Zou Zhuo was used to it. After all, he had been baptized by *Dark Souls*...
As he played, Zou Zhuo noticed many differences between the prequel and the original.
First, there were some detail settings. In the prequel's scenes, there were many white fog gates. At first, Zou Zhuo thought passing through a white fog gate meant a boss fight, and he was nervous as hell because he didn't even have an Estus Flask yet.
But after walking through, Zou Zhuo found it was just another area.
Clearly, the white fog gate was no longer a marker for boss fights. It was just something Chen Mo used to block the player's view. Whenever the upcoming scene was particularly nasty, he'd consider putting one there.
Also, the entire scene was very dark, even darker than many of the dark areas in the original. In the prison, Zou Zhuo's visibility was only about three to five meters. The whole experience felt like playing a horror game. Add in the living corpse minions popping out from nowhere, and the gameplay experience was terrible!
Furthermore, the trolling spots were exactly the same as in the original. For example, a giant iron ball suddenly rolling down the stairs reminded him of the giant rolling ball made of bones in the Catacombs of Carthus. If you weren't paying attention, you'd get hit.
After wandering around in the dark for a long time, Zou Zhuo felt like he was lost. After searching for a while, he found that the giant iron ball had smashed open one of the walls...
Entering through the hole smashed by the giant iron ball, Zou Zhuo found a person sitting inside.
He was wearing a set of knight armor. It was the same person who had thrown down the key to the living corpse earlier.
Zou Zhuo approached cautiously and found that this person wasn't a minion but seemed to be an NPC.
"Oh, you're not a living corpse, thank goodness. I am Oscar of Astora. I was knocked down from the roof by that demon, but it's nothing serious. I just need to rest."
"I want to ask you for a favor. We are both Undead. Please accept my request and listen to me."
"Sure enough, this should be the main quest, right?" Zou Zhuo decisively chose "Yes."
Oscar continued, "This is my mission, but I am willing to share it with you because you are an Undead like me."
"There is a saying in my family: The Undead represent a mission. With this undying body, you must travel from the Undead Asylum to the land of the ancient lords, ring the Bell of Awakening, and learn the mission of the Undead."
"Let us work together toward this goal. We are both Undead with a mission."
"Also, take this. It is the Estus Flask, a treasure of the Undead. And... this key."
"Alright, I will rest here. You continue your journey for now. Perhaps we can escape the Undead Asylum together."
After saying these words, Oscar sat still, not moving an inch.
Zou Zhuo was a bit tempted to kill him, wondering if his armor and shield would drop. After all, Zou Zhuo was in a tattered state. With his current gear, he'd be embarrassed to even greet the living corpses...
After all, even the living corpse soldiers had armor and shields!
But Zou Zhuo thought it over. From Oscar's dialogue, this NPC seemed to have some follow-up story, so Zou Zhuo held back.
With his weapon and Estus Flask in hand, he continued forward. Now Zou Zhuo was finally a proper new character.
To be honest, Zou Zhuo now regretted choosing the Deprived class. He was in a living corpse state, so he couldn't see any cute, tattered girls. Also, being unarmored made getting hit by monsters really painful!
Zou Zhuo couldn't help but think, if I had chosen the Knight class, would I have suffered a lot less? Was it too late to delete the character and start over?
Going upstairs, Zou Zhuo reached a corner, and two living corpse minions wielding longswords suddenly jumped out.
"Scared me. Two living corpses dare to act up? Now I'm in my complete form. I should be able to go punish that big-ass demon. As for these minions..."
Before Zou Zhuo could finish, the two living corpses charged from the corner and started slashing wildly at him!
"Shing, shing, shing, shing...!"
The two living corpses with longswords unleashed a six-hit combo on Zou Zhuo, locking him in place and killing him instantly!
Zou Zhuo was completely dumbfounded. "What the hell is this?!"
In the first-person perspective, Zou Zhuo suffered severe psychological trauma. The speed at which these two living corpses swung their longswords was absolutely insane, and they had rushed out from the corner, immediately launching a six-hit combo!
Zou Zhuo didn't even have time to react...
Genius remembers this site's address in one second: