082. Interactive Video

September, school starts.

Xu Duzhong, a sophomore at the School of Automation at Jiangcheng University, did not appear happy.

I was too carefree when I first started college, which resulted in me failing three subjects in the June final exams. I was in serious trouble, and I couldn't even have a peaceful summer vacation.

Fortunately, he barely passed the makeup exam. As for his GPA, he doesn't want to talk about it now.

On Friday night, the dormitory lights were left on, and all three roommates went to an internet cafe to play games and deliver APEX packages. Xu Duzhong didn't go, mainly because the counselor was keeping an eye on him. If he went to internet cafes frequently, his parents might be notified.

Of course, another reason is that there are only three of them playing together, so if there's one more person, they can only stand on the sidelines and watch the show.

Xu Duzhong would never do something as outrageous as studying in his dorm. He originally wanted to watch a movie, but then he browsed video sites and watched others squeezing blackheads for thirty minutes.

At this moment, Xu Duzhong refreshed the page and came across a video.

[[Interactive Video][The Great Wedding Day] Random options + multiple endings + Easter eggs, giving you a completely different immersive experience]

"What's so interesting about interactive videos?"

He had seen some of these types of videos when they first appeared, such as how to appease an angry girlfriend, a cat's day, and who the murderer was.

Honestly, most of these videos are very bland and uninteresting; they're basically just filler videos. He probably only watched the big, fair-skinned female Uploader on the screen for about three minutes.

Xu Duzhong was about to scroll past the next one when he saw the Uploader's name again.

[Motionless]

"Goodness."

Xu Duzhong exclaimed, "Wow!"

He had followed this content creator before, starting with his videos of the Jiangcheng Grand Theater. The reason, of course, was that he himself lived in Jiangcheng.

When Xu Duzhong first entered university, he heard many legends about Jiangcheng.

Rumors circulated that Jiangcheng University's dormitory buildings were originally ruins of an ancient battlefield, and that too many spirits were needed to suppress them with the yang energy of male students; that female students had committed suicide by love in the school's back lake, and that a woman in red could often be seen in the lakeside pavilion at night; and that the unique design of Building No. 1 led to rumors of students jumping off the building every graduation season.

It seems like they're all from Jiangcheng University, that's weird.

Anyway, Xu Duzhong was very interested in these kinds of supernatural events, which is why he paid attention to Lu Ban.

"Since it's free, I'll click in and take a look."

With this in mind, Xu Duzhong opened Lu Ban's video.

In an instant, a large number of comments flooded the screen.

Congratulations on discovering the station's prized possession!

Has anyone beat this game? Could you share a walkthrough?

[Friendly reminder: High-energy content ahead]

Is this uploader always up to this bizarre stuff? I've been watching this video on Loop for three hours straight.

[I came back from the forty-sixth ending; the later plot was amazing, but I still couldn't beat it.]

"Is it an adventure/mystery genre?"

After the Oldest One introduction, Xu Duzhong transformed into a detective named Trist, who was Lu Ban's companion in the video. The two were sitting in a carriage surrounded by thick fog when they heard the coachman say that he needed to go to the toilet.

The video slowed down here, and Xu Duzhong saw that options appeared in the corner of the video.

Follow the coachman

[Stay where you are and observe]

"Nonsense, of course we'll follow him. There's definitely something wrong with the plot that keeps triggering like this."

Xu Duzhong chose to "follow the coachman".

The camera pans forward, showing Xu Duzhong following the coachman into the thick fog.

He saw the coachman urinating there, and the fog thickened, obscuring the coachman's figure.

In Kung Fu blink of an eye, the coachman who had been standing right in front of Xu Duzhong disappeared.

"!"

In the video, Trist immediately turned around, but couldn't find any trace of the carriage.

In that deep fog, everything quickly dimmed.

Curiosity can kill you; sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

[BAD END: 01]

"Grass!"

Xu Duzhong never expected that he would enter the death phase in less than two minutes.

"Why do we die even if we follow them? Shouldn't we be exploring in a situation like this?"

He started the video again.

As always, he decided to stay where he was and watch this time.

But when the coachman went to the toilet, the previous option did not appear!

"Holy crap, is this what random selection looks like?"

Xu Duzhong saw the coachman suddenly disappear into the fog and imagined that he might have disappeared in the same way. There was something seriously wrong with the fog!

He obediently stayed in the carriage, and at that moment, the scene slowed down again.

[Let Lu Ban drive]

[Driving myself]

Xu Duzhong thought for a moment and decided that he should stay behind to observe the situation, or it would be better to let Lu Ban drive.

He chose the former.

The carriage began to move through the fog, but its speed did not decrease at all.

Xu Duzhong saw something flash by in the fog, but he couldn't see it clearly, so he immediately paused the video.

Then you can see that in the white mist, some broken stone pillars are faintly visible, forming a ferocious appearance.

"Where was this filmed?"

While Xu Duzhong was still wondering, he saw the camera jolt violently, the carriage overturn, and his vision turn red.

Trust is a good thing, but first you need to confirm whether the other party has a carriage driver's license.

[BAD END: 04]

"???"

So it turns out this uploader just doesn't know how to drive a horse-drawn carriage?

Xu Duzhong felt that this video was a bit of a tactic to mess with people's minds.

Moreover, it jumps directly from the first bad ending 1 to the fourth bad ending. Where did the second and third bad endings in between go?

Is this some kind of interactive video version of a thousand ways to die?

He didn't rush to reopen it, but instead checked the video comments.

Interactive videos, to put it simply, don't have that many branching paths; there are probably only three or four endings in total. If you fast-forward fast enough, many people can find the correct ending strategy in no time.

Although spoilers are not good, Xu Duzhong, whose mindset had been messed up, still wanted to see how this lousy video would end.

Anyway, this video has been released for two days, so it should have been thoroughly explored by now.

But when Xu Duzhong saw the video comments, he was stunned.

[Damn, has anyone gotten the true ending? I've been playing for two days, tried every possible option, but I still died in the end.]

[This is truly a random selection; I tried twice with the exact same choices, but for some reason, the results were completely different towards the end!]

I strongly suspect that the uploader didn't actually make a true ending. He always likes to do weird things, so maybe this time even the ending is in the underworld and he didn't come back.

My friend and I discussed a few key points. First, never go to places where you shouldn't be courting death. Second, when it's time to explore, be bold and explore. Finally, we don't know what constitutes courting death and what constitutes exploration.

He flipped through several pages, looking at the most popular replies with many likes, before realizing a fact.

Two days after the video was released, not a single person has achieved the real ending?

Thank you to "East of Snow City" and "Little Yin the High School Girl" for the 300-coin donation, and thank you to "Zhang He Is Coming" "Song San Who Doesn't Mess Around" and "TERRY Spirit Wing" for the 100-coin donation!