Chapter 1051: Suffering
After wandering through Yharnam for a long time, witnessing the bonfire gathering, knocking on many doors, and even crawling into the sewers to see plenty of werewolves, Old Qin had quite the experience.
Logically speaking, a new player would easily die encountering these things for the first time. Especially at the bonfire gathering, where at least a dozen monsters were clustered together. If a newbie accidentally aggroed too many, they’d be surrounded and beaten to death.
But Old Qin, having beaten *Dark Souls*, was already familiar with all sorts of tricks and patterns. As long as he played cautiously, he pushed forward without running into too many major setbacks.
Old Qin’s first impression was that *Bloodborne*’s level design still carried on the style of *Dark Souls*—enemies were placed cleverly, with clear layering.
The entire Yharnam was divided into many layers. Old Qin was almost dizzy from wandering and still hadn’t found the next lantern.
In the sewers, Old Qin picked up a set of Hunter’s attire and decisively put it on. He tested it to see if carrying too many items would affect his rolling and movement, and found that it didn’t.
“Hmm, that’s pretty reasonable too. There’s no heavy armor anyway; everything worn is just paper, and paper has no weight…”
In the sewers, Old Qin discovered a very peculiar spot. Three sides were walls, and the walls had no patterns at all, looking very plain.
“I feel like there’s definitely an illusory wall here.”
“Alright, sorry for the intrusion.”
Old Qin knocked on each wall around him but found no illusory wall.
So he left a message at the base of the center wall: “Illusory wall ahead!”
Along the way, Old Qin noticed that many doors in Yharnam could be knocked on, but the Yharnamites inside were very unfriendly.
“Despicable outsider, trying to trick me into opening the door on the night of the hunt? How insidious!”
“Despicable outsider, who would open the door for you on the night of the hunt? Get lost!”
Old Qin was speechless: “What the hell, ‘despicable outsider’? Fine, I’m an outsider, but where am I despicable? Explain that to me.”
“By the way, where the hell have I ended up? So mysterious. This game’s map is way too open.”
“It’s back to that endless exploration from *Dark Souls*—walking for ages without knowing where you are, then getting killed by a monster and starting all over.”
“Huh? Wait, I feel like something’s off. It feels like I’m about to run into a boss fight…”
Ahead was a large bridge, and he could vaguely see that the gate on the other side was tightly shut. There wasn’t a single minor monster around.
“Come out!” Old Qin said tentatively.
Then he saw a massive beast leap from behind the gate on the opposite side, crashing heavily onto the bridge. It even made Old Qin feel the ground beneath his feet shake violently.
“Holy crap, it actually came out! Cleric Beast? Wow, its left arm is so thick, its fur is so long. Are you Yang Guo? This must be the boss shown in the trailer earlier. It seems pretty easy to beat.”
Old Qin slashed at the beast’s hind leg, and a number floated out from beneath the boss’s long health bar: 29.
Six minutes later, Old Qin woke up again in the dream.
“What the hell is this! I take back what I said about the cane being strong. This damn thing only does 29 damage per hit to the boss. How many years will it take to kill it?”
“Hey? This doll… it’s alive?”
Old Qin was surprised to find that the discarded doll that had been lying in the flower bed was now alive and could even be spoken to.
“Isn’t this the Fire Keeper from *Dark Souls*? Why didn’t it activate earlier? I’ve already lost all my Blood Echoes, and now it activates…”
What Old Qin didn’t know was that the doll came to life because he had gained 1 point of Insight.
Insight in *Bloodborne* is different from Humanity in *Dark Souls*. The higher the Insight, the more the character can see supernatural phenomena beyond human understanding, bringing them closer to the truth of this world.
Or, to put it simply and crudely: In Lovecraftian stories like *Bloodborne*, all humans are essentially nearsighted, seeing things blurry, but they live happily.
Insight is like giving them glasses with increasingly strong prescriptions. The higher the Insight, the more real the world they see becomes. But this reality often completely contradicts human cognition, causing Sanity to plummet and even driving people insane.
As for where this 1 point of Insight came from?
It was from Old Qin seeing the boss earlier, which gave him a point of Insight.
Actually, Old Qin had picked up an item called [Madman’s Knowledge] earlier, which could also grant Insight when used. But most new players don’t know that the Insight stat affects the doll, a key upgrade NPC. So most players can only upgrade after defeating the Cleric Beast.
Before that, they have to do what Old Qin did—use an unupgraded, basic weapon and a level 1 character to tough it out against the Cleric Beast. If they die once, and their blood vials and Molotovs don’t replenish, they’re likely in for a streak of suffering…
This is actually one of *Bloodborne*’s malicious design choices.
On the ground next to the doll, Old Qin found two items: [Beckoning Bell] and [Silence Blank].
“Uh, this should be the item for summoning NPCs. So this game also has a mechanic for summoning NPCs to help fight bosses, right? Let me check.”
After teleporting to the lantern, Old Qin headed toward the boss through a shortcut he had already opened.
Then, halfway there, he saw a very conspicuous note: “If you need assistance, ring the Beckoning Bell.”
Old Qin rang the bell at the spot where the note was, waited two seconds, and nothing happened.
He turned around and hadn’t taken two steps when he saw a figure in a hat and Hunter’s attire following him from behind.
“Holy shit?” Old Qin was startled and quickly dodged forward, only to see this big guy charging straight at the minor monsters ahead.
“Whoa, who is this? He’s so reckless. Feels like an NPC? Hello?”
Old Qin tried talking to this guy, but he got no response.
This NPC wielded a Hunter Axe in his right hand and a Blunderbuss in his left. He was very burly and also wore a full set of Hunter’s attire.
“Alright, summoning this guy cost me 1 point of Insight, even though I don’t know what Insight does. Might as well just go fight the boss.”
Passing through the white fog gate again, Old Qin watched as this big guy charged straight at the boss, swinging his axe and going toe-to-toe.
Old Qin tried to sneak in a stab, only to get swatted back by the boss’s palm.
“This guy is so tough. When will I be as awesome as you? Nothing to say, I’ll just slack off.”
Old Qin quietly pulled out Oil Urns and Molotovs from behind, turning himself into a grenadier.
In less than two minutes, a bold line appeared in Old Qin’s vision: Prey Slaughtered!
“Holy crap, these Oil Urns are insane. But this guy is even more insane, just cornering the boss and grinding it down.”
“One minute of Oil Urn plus Molotov output equals two hours of poking with the cane. This weapon is way too weak. Next time I see someone using it, I’ll ask them: ‘Are you a staff user?’”
The barrage comments all chimed in: “Embarrassing!”
“It’s clearly the NPC who’s tough! That guy soloed the boss without breaking a sweat!”
“So embarrassing, letting the NPC fight up front while Qin just slacks off the whole time!”
“Heh, despicable outsider!”