Now the players are stuck in a bug, locked in the Ancestor Tree’s dark room and unable to move, but how can the character still function? That’s not logical!

Is it haunted?

With intense curiosity, Chen Ba brought Lu to the computer, once again replicating the scene where the player is trapped by the Ancestor Tree, yet the character still moves like normal.

"This isn’t human control..."

Lu couldn’t comprehend the game’s underlying code, but Chen Ba did.

The issue lies with this Ancestor Tree, which has grown abnormally large but doesn’t bear fruit!

The Ancestor Tree’s code was written by the Iron Fool System, inherently possessing some magical traits. Normally, it wouldn’t cause any mischief.

But when a player dies over a thousand times at the same spot, cultivating the Ancestor Tree to a size that can’t fit on a screen, it obviously mutates.

This mutation causes the Ancestor Tree to seize control of the character from the player.

Once the player controls the character and dies, upon revival, the Ancestor Tree has a high chance of seizing control and forcefully logging in to auto-play.

Same logic applies.

When this player-controlled character dies and is about to respawn, the perspective locks inside the Ancestor Tree as if the trapped player can also regain control of the character.

"One play, one turn each!"

Chen Ba explained, "You can think of it as this Ancestor Tree believing you’re bad at the game, so it steps in itself, and you end up locked in the dark room."

"Damn!"

Lu had never been this speechless in his life. What does it mean by the Ancestor Tree despising his skills and deciding to auto-play for him?

Even a mere AI looks down on players?

...

Due to the sudden nature of the incident, many players were yet to realize the seriousness of it. Tianba Studio suddenly released a notice.

The notice thanked the player Yao Mao for his feedback and provided reasons and explanations for the problem.

"In summary, when the Ancestor Tree is cultivated to a certain degree, it unlocks the AI hosting mode, a hidden mechanic we’ve designed to free players’ hands and reduce their burden..."

Most people paid little attention to the last section of the notice, focusing only on the first two parts.

What the heck?

Die over a thousand times near the same Ancestor Tree location, and you unlock advanced AI hosting, automatic progression mode?

Alright, alright!

Ancestor manifestation is it?

When struggling with levels and on the verge of a meltdown, just let the Ancestor play for you, freeing up your hands so you can clear the level effortlessly, that’s fantastic!

Players enthusiastically remarked that this hosting mechanism is great, Ba truly cares for the players.

Meanwhile, the only player who knew the inside story, the one who initially reported the problem to Tianba Studio, Yao Mao, wasn’t laughing at all.

Damn!

What kind of AI hosting is this?

Sure, his hands were freed, but the issue is, this wasn’t a hosting initiated by him intentionally! It was the Ancestor Tree forcefully seizing control, addicted to bad gameplay, and snatched it away.

In other words, he didn’t want any AI hosting, nor did he want to free his hands.

But this Ancestor Tree was so overbearing, insisting on seizing control, resulting in him and the Ancestor Tree each taking turns, with the loser entering the dark room.

"Isn’t this ridiculous?"

"I bought the game, I pay for the game, why do I have to take turns with it?"

Yao Mao regretted it deeply, had he known this Ancestor Tree had such a gaming addiction, he shouldn’t have cultivated it.

Now look at the mess.

He pays for the game, the internet and electricity bills are his, and the computer is his own, yet the game can only be played alternately, no chance of sneaking ahead.

In his many years in the gaming circle, Yao Mao had never encountered such a thing.

There’s a resemblance to childhood days playing Contra with classmates, snatching the controller and establishing rules for alternating lives.

"Sorry, regarding the issue you’ve reported, we are gathering information and verifying and processing it, please be patient..."

After calling Tianba Game’s customer service and learning this issue seemingly couldn’t be resolved in the near term, Yao Mao resigned to fate.

Let’s play!

It’s just sharing the game with AI, alternating lives! Anyways, the AI plays poorly, dies quickly, just bear with it.

But Yao Mao didn’t anticipate the AI’s speed of progress!

Yesterday, its gameplay was laughably clumsy, but the next day, it performed quite decently, dying even later than he did.

"Huh?"

Upon realizing the damn AI could improve, perhaps even surpass him, clearing the game first, Yao Mao broke down.

Losing to anyone but an AI is unacceptable!

What would people say? How would friends and family see him? What would Ba think?

No way, he must clear the game before the AI, can’t let the Ancestor Tree steal the lead. Otherwise, what face does he have to continue playing "Ancestor Tree"?

"Wait a minute..."

As Yao Mao strained himself to clear the game before the AI, pulling all-nighters, he suddenly realized something amiss.

Why so desperate?

The AI consciousness of the Ancestor Tree wants to clear the game, then let it be! Perhaps once it does, this farce ends?

It’s not impossible!

AIs are merely AIs, if the game is cleared and there’s no follow-up levels, does it need to progress?

Considering this, Yao Mao breathed a sigh of relief.

Not only relieved, he even saw it happening favorably, after losing control of the character, he didn’t want to reclaim it, preferring to observe what unfolds.

Fine, fine!

Let the Ancestor Tree auto-play, Yao Mao was curious to see what the AI intended to do.

Sharing similar thoughts was the entire Tianba Studio crew.

Chen Ba was testing whether the Ancestor Tree auto-play’s intensity could clear the game, what would occur post-clearance?

If not, what then? Would the AI’s operational proficiency evolve?

An unexpected answer emerged.

With players uninvolved, staying put in the dark room while the Ancestor Tree performs, it could indeed clear the game.

However, post-clearance, there was no "achievements" pop-up nor exclusive animation, all seemed calm as if nothing happened.

But this was merely a façade!

Real-time game change monitoring via the backend revealed to Chen Ba, after AI hosting cleared the game, all Ancestor Trees vanished, except the one mutated to enormous size due to the bug.

Then...

Rendered Chen Ba and Lu slack-jawed, rendered everyone present speechless, an instance shocking the entire gaming industry unfolded.

The game "Ancestor Tree" initially only contained pre-set levels, spontaneously exhibited a new level post-clearance!

"What the hell!"

Chen Ba swore to the heavens, this extra level was genuinely not his doing; he also asked Lu, this wasn’t a hidden level he designed.

What underwater Contra level?

Nonsense!

If "Ancestor Tree" truly had such hidden levels, could it evade Chen Ba, the head producer’s notice?

Precisely because he was certain no such hidden levels existed, he felt stunned since this level completely "appeared out of nowhere."

What does "appeared out of nowhere" imply?

It implies the game underwent unpredictable changes even to the head producer, unexpectedly beginning to self-generate new levels!

Alright, alright!

Little tree, you’ve matured into a full-fledged game, could you attempt to generate levels independently, update maps by yourself, and sustain yourself?

With these thoughts, Chen Ba and Lu exchanged glances.

If true, what need is there for them? What use for the game operation and maintenance team?