“Older Brother, what are you doing?”
One-Ear looked very confusedly at Cheng Mouren, who had his rear end sticking up and was searching for something on the grassy riverbank like a dog.
After dealing with the Ghost Armor and crossing the river, Cheng Tian did not rush Forward, but stayed in place and performed the aforementioned actions.
“I’m looking for an Easter Egg.”
Without hesitation, Cheng Tian said the reason for his actions directly without looking up.
Beside Cheng Tian, Ghost Cicada, who looked expressionless but was actually clueless, was also wriggling in the grass because Cheng Tian was doing it, so it followed suit.
Although only a temporary Trainer, a certain Bond had clearly been established between the two parties.
Under the influence of Cheng Tian’s 『Hundred Demons Night Walk』, Ghost Cicada had completely said goodbye to the previous Ghost Armor Template; at this moment, it was purely a Pokémon that had appropriated a template from the standard Worldview... and there was no going back!
Although One-Ear and Blood Scab were puzzled, based on the principle that whatever Older Brother says is correct, they also joined the search after a brief thought.
After about five minutes, Cheng Mouren felt his half-crouched Knee touch something hard hidden underneath, and immediately heard the sound of something hitting the grass right in front of his head.
“Holy crap! There really is one!”
Cheng Tian ran over in a small sprint and then found a red and white windmill quietly lying in the grass.
During the Famicom era, many games would embed Easter Eggs from other released games by the same Company, and usually finding these Easter Eggs required a little effort.
Some of these Easter Eggs were purely for giving Players bonus points, while others had functional properties.
And the “Mishi Windmill” with red blades and white fans before Cheng Tian was a functional Easter Egg... and a Negative one at that!
Speaking of mascots for veteran game Companies, many people might immediately think of Nintendo’s 《Super Mario Bros.》 fat-nosed Italian plumber Mario, 《Kirby》’s pink Demon Kirby, or Sega’s 《Sonic》 the supersonic hedgehog Sonic. Even SNK has a strange creature named “G-Mantle” wearing a “Moon Dress Mask,” whom most people are completely unfamiliar with.
But Capcom’s mascot has even lower name recognition than SNK’s.
It is neither 《Mega Man》 Mega Man, nor 《Street Fighter》 Ryu and Ken, but precisely the dangerous and Negative “Mishi Windmill” before Cheng Tian. Its origin is the robot protagonist “Mobi-chan” from the 1986 side-scrolling shooter 《Side Arms: Hype Dyne/Combination Side Arms》.
Despite being obscure, the Mishi Windmill appeared quite frequently as an Easter Egg in other works by the same Company.
The vertical scrolling shooter 《Wild Gunman/Gun.Smoke》 《1943》, the side-scrolling action game 《Knights of the Round》, the 2D Fighting game 《Super Street Fighter II》, and 《Demon World Village》, where Cheng Tian currently is, all feature the Mishi Windmill or Mobi-chan.
Moreover, Capcom already showed its tendency to be tricky at this time, which was still embedding Negative effect items that trick Players within Easter Eggs...
“Don’t touch it, I’m just confirming, and this thing is probably problematic. Just treat it as another form of Mimic.”
Cheng Tian raised his hand and directly stopped One-Ear and the others who were also approaching.
Upon hearing Cheng Tian’s last description, One-Ear almost retreated several steps, while Blood Scab immediately backed away several paces, looking warily at the windmill that wasn't emitting any dangerous Aura.
The poor child suffered a great loss against the Vampire Magician and probably wouldn't dare to casually touch Treasure Chests for a while.
The in-game trigger condition for this Mishi Windmill is to crouch down while controlling the character in the grass junction after crossing the third river channel, which immediately triggers it. Its effect is Fatal to unsuspecting Players: picking it up not only yields no positive benefit, but the remaining Strategy time for the Player's current level is instantly reduced by 30 seconds!
Just like how the Main Quest has a time limit, many Famicom and Arcade games have built-in timers; if they cannot be cleared within the specified time, the controlled character instantly dies.
Actually, Cheng Tian was just passing by, and since he had just cleared three waves of Ghost Armor and there were temporarily no Enemies, he was curious enough to stop and test it out.
The main reason, however, was related to an Instance Entry.
【Original Flavor—While adhering to certain laws of Reality, it highly restores the scene structure and related settings corresponding to the Blueprint.】
Since it is a high restoration, will some Easter Eggs that require special techniques to trigger in the game also be restored in the Instance?
Cheng Tian has now confirmed it: Yes, Easter Eggs will also be restored together.
Although it is highly likely to be a one-time thing, the mere fact that Easter Eggs can be restored already explains a lot.
At this moment, Cheng Tian and his group have probably reached about the middle position of the entire first level Scene of Demon World Village, and this level has a total of 5 Easter Eggs, 3 of which are concentrated in the first half of the Scene they have already passed.
However, even though the existence of Easter Eggs has been confirmed, Cheng Tian does not plan to go back the way they came.
On one hand, Cheng Tian is currently full of energy, having just eaten his fill, received help from Ghost Cicada, and digested a bit using the Ghost Armor; he wants to save this energy entirely for the Boss of the Level. Going back and forth would not only waste extra time but might also lead to encountering new Enemies.
On the other hand, those Easter Eggs, whether good or bad, offer nothing that can immediately form combat strength.
If there is remaining exploration time after defeating the Boss, he can return to trigger them, or he can simply wait until the next time he is fully prepared and brings the Map into a dedicated Instance.
As for the Mishi Windmill before him, Cheng Tian also plans to pick it up later if there is time after the Boss.
If touching it takes effect immediately and deducts several hours of his Main Quest time, that would be truly unreasonable.
Moreover, Cheng Tian has an idea that is somewhat Death-Seeking... He wants to try if he can use the Easter Egg to trigger a game BUG.
The Negative Mishi Windmill in the game deducts 30 seconds; when the seconds reach zero, the Player controlling Arthur instantly dies.
But if the Player picks up this Negative Windmill when less than 30 seconds remain, the time will instantly drop to zero, yet the Player can still continue the game, and the current level will no longer have a time limit.
However, at the same time, the Player’s Knight Armor will become useless; once touched by an Enemy, even while armored, they will instantly die and turn into a pile of White Bones, instead of losing armor down to just Underwear.
But even Death-Seeking must adhere to the basic law.
Finish the main business first, then come back to seek death.
Leading the two people and one insect past the Mishi Windmill, the steps Cheng Tian took visibly became lighter.