Chapter 137: Only the Storm Can Topple the Greatwood? FNNDP! (Seventh Update, Subscription Request)

Chapter 137: Only the Storm Can Topple the Greatwood? FNNDP! (Seventh Update, Subscription Request)

On Shark TV, a streamer named Mr. Qin—affectionately called Old Qin by his fans—was live streaming.

Naturally, the game he was playing was Dark Souls.

Right after the game had just launched, he got his hands on it.

At first, like most regular players, he was overwhelmed by the game’s treacherous traps and brutally high difficulty.

However, compared to most streamers, he clearly belonged to the more technically capable group.

He was among the first batch of players to clear Dark Souls.

Besides streaming, he also produced strategy guide videos on video websites.

In his own words, the purpose of these guides was to help all ordinary players clear the game.

His guide videos offered incredibly detailed explanations of Dark Souls, covering everything from boss fights and elite mobs to map levels, earning him high view counts on video websites.

But then, for some reason, he suddenly stopped.

"I'm not slacking, not at all! I'm not that kind of person who just coasts by. It's being made, it's being made! The next episode of the guide will be out soon," Old Qin said while entering the Dark Souls game interface.

"You all know how guides work—they're meant to help rookies better understand Dark Souls, and help players with weaker technical capabilities clear the game smoothly. That's the whole point. But making a guide for Dark Souls is quite complex, so new episodes come out a bit slowly. All I can say is, it's coming soon." As he spoke, Old Qin opened Dark Souls.

Since random mode doesn't coexist with the normal mode, he needed to create a new save file.

Old Qin expertly created a new save and glanced at the character creation screen.

There wasn't much difference from before—still choosing character class, origin, and burial gifts.

After some thought, Old Qin chose Knight as his starting class. The biggest advantage was that, regardless of luck, he'd at least have a usable set of equipment.

Of course, choosing Deprived also had its perks—balanced stats that could be maximized early with the right items, allowing for the quickest early-game combat prowess.

With good luck, Deprived could actually be the better class in this mode.

As for burial gifts, Old Qin decided on the Fire Gem.

At the very least, it guaranteed a minimum margin for error.

As for something like the Life Ring?

Dead is still dead.

After quickly customizing his character's face, Old Qin entered the game and immediately skipped the opening cutscene.

After all, he’d seen it countless times.

After skipping, instead of the usual game interface, several options appeared before him.

[Randomize Items Only] [Randomize Bosses Only] [Randomize All Enemies] [Randomize Items and Bosses Only] [Fully Randomize]

"If we're randomizing, might as well go all the way!" Without hesitation, Old Qin selected Fully Randomize.

Shortly after confirming, a knight crawled out from a coffin.

But Old Qin noticed something—the "souls" counter in the bottom right wasn't 0, like in the original.

It showed he started with 30,000 souls—enough to level up 15 times in-game.

Combined with the update’s new setting he’d read about—being able to level up at bonfires instead of only with the Fire Keeper—it was clearly designed to give players a bit more margin for error at the start.

"But honestly, these souls feel more like a burden now!"

Old Qin didn’t move forward immediately. Waking up in the Cemetery of Ash, he looked utterly speechless.

The bullet comments in the live stream room exploded with laughter.

Directly ahead to the right, the Hollow that normally served as a practice dummy had become a towering Black Knight.

Similarly, the Hollow standing in front of the fountain-like Estus Flask—what players called the "pulse for focus"—had turned into a chubby Winged Knight.

If it came down to a 1v1, Old Qin believed that with his technical capabilities and the Knight’s starting damage, he could definitely fight.

But here’s the catch—he could win, but not by standing still. He’d need space for positioning.

Now? These two were standing way too close, and unlike the sleeping Hollows in the original, they were fully alert. Any attack would immediately draw aggro from the other.

Starting with a 1v2 against a Winged Knight and a Black Knight wielding a Great Sword? Who could survive that?!

Old Qin led the Black Knight in a circle, then rolled to create distance and dashed down the narrow path to the right of the starting area.

At the dead end, the base game had a +200 souls item called "Discarded Corpse’s Soul."

Since all items were randomized, main story items like the Estus Flask would still be Estus Flasks, but this soul item might not.

"Give me a weapon! A weapon! Exile Great Machete, Dark Sword, Black Knight Great Sword—heck, even a decent straight sword would do!" With the Black Knight closing in fast, Old Qin didn’t waste time praying or doing any fancy poses—he simply rolled on the ground.

Item picked up: Broken Straight Sword!

"What the hell is this!?" Old Qin was speechless.

This was the first item he got? How was he supposed to play with this?

The stream’s bullet comments burst into laughter: "Haha, didn’t you ask for a straight sword?"

"It is a weapon! And technically, it is a straight sword—no error here!"

"You didn’t pray before gacha pull—no sincerity, that’s why!"

Reading the comments, Old Qin’s lips twitched. "It’s fine, I still have chances. There are plenty of items to collect in the Cemetery of Ash."

As he spoke, Old Qin rolled several times to dodge the pursuing Black Knight and continued forward.

He didn’t bother picking up the Estus Flask near Fatty.

Further ahead, in random enemy mode, the enemies in the Cemetery of Ash were incredibly diverse.

Jailers from the underground prison, Mimics standing upright, Lothric Knights, and regular sewer rats.

Most of them were not to be trifled with.

Sticking to his strategy of avoiding fights when possible, Old Qin ran toward the Crystal Lizard’s cave.

In a first playthrough, there was still one soul to pick up there.

If he encountered a weak enemy, he’d make them regret it.

Ignoring the in-game message on the ground that read "Turn back," Old Qin passed through the path and entered the Crystal Lizard’s cave.

Inside the normally spacious cave, a Huge in Size monster was crouched motionless.

The Stray Demon from the broken bridge atop Farron Keep.

"No way in hell!"

After checking the terrain and the position of the glowing item on the ground, Old Qin immediately turned back.

Using expert-level rolling, Old Qin reached the first bonfire.

But he didn’t level up immediately—he continued onward.

There were still two collectible items: the original Fire Pot and a Shard of the Demon’s Great Hammer.

However, on the path to collect the Fire Pot, seeing a Lothric Spear Knight and a Great Axe Snake-Man blocking the way, Old Qin fell silent again.

"It’s okay… I still have one last hope."

He sprinted to the cliff’s edge, pressed space, and jumped onto the coffin.

That’s when Old Qin noticed the ground was covered in in-game messages. Earlier, while being chased by the Black Knight, he hadn’t paid attention.

"Can I see other players’ in-game messages even in random mode?" Curious, Old Qin opened one.

[Black Knight Shield] [Wolf Rider Shield] [Exile Great Machete] [Red Tear Ring] [Bloodthirsty] [Soul of the Nameless King]

So many Lucky Kings!?

Looking at the information left by other players, clearly these were items they’d obtained.

This made Old Qin hopeful—what would he get?

He didn’t pick anything up immediately. Instead, he spun in place a few times, placed a resting pose from lighting a bonfire, and then picked up the item on the ground.

Fading Soul!

"I'm disgusted! You might as well have given me the original Shard of the Demon’s Great Hammer!" Old Qin was devastated.

This mode was just too cruel to Africans! Was this item even usable?

Looking at the souls counter in the corner, Old Qin immediately returned to the previous bonfire and spent all his souls on skill point allocation.

Then, with only his health remaining, he went back to the Stray Demon to pick up the item.

Boulder’s Soul.

Seeing this, Old Qin finally let out a sigh of relief.

At least it wasn’t completely useless junk.

Next, Old Qin went to the Fire Pot location to pick up the randomized item.

Battle Axe +4.

The starting weapon for the Warrior class—and it was already upgraded to +4!

"I hit the jackpot! This is huge! Not only did I get an axe, but also a bunch of upgrade materials! I can feel it—my luck is turning around!"

"Let’s go! Let’s check out the BOSS. As they say, bitter before sweet. I have a feeling this first boss might be super easy! Old Demon of the Abyss, Greatwood, Ice Dog—bring any of them on!"

Respawned at the bonfire, Old Qin equipped the newly obtained +4 Battle Axe, his previous frown replaced with determination.

But after pushing open the BOSS room door, he fell silent.

This boss was indeed very weak in the original game—but now?

‘The Lonely Sovereign of the Profaned Capital—Yhorm the Giant’

The boss’s name and health bar appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Only the storm can topple the Greatwood!"

"Only the storm can topple the Greatwood!"

Old Qin glanced at the stream—every single bullet comment on screen was repeating that line. It was the official in-game message left for players facing this boss in the original game.

Because Yhorm the Giant was essentially a story kill boss—defeated easily with the unique weapon ‘Storm Ruler’—his difficulty was practically bottom-tier, competing only with High Lord Wolnir for last place.

But now? Where was he supposed to get the ‘Storm Ruler’!?

"Do you want to be a coward for the rest of your life, or do you want to be a hero just once, even if it means being crushed to pieces?"

Staring at the flood of bullet comments, Old Qin fell into silence, then took a deep breath and made a decision.

Instead of following the comments’ advice to exit the game and start a new save, he switched his battle axe to two-handed mode, activated the weapon art War Cry, then switched back to one-handed and charged forward bravely.

‘Foot-trimming Technician No. 33, Mr. Qin, at your service!’

One axe swing dealt over 50 damage. Old Qin was completely focused.

This might have been the hardest Dark Souls fight he’d ever had.

But one thing gave him relief—although Yhorm the Giant had insane defense and health, his attack power seemed balanced.

Each hit only took off three-quarters of Old Qin’s health.

This gave him some margin for error. If it were a one-hit kill, it would’ve been impossible.

Even so, with only three Estus Flasks, the fight was extremely difficult.

One swing after another, Old Qin meticulously trimmed Yhorm’s toenails.

Ten minutes… twenty minutes…

In the second phase, Yhorm’s attacks became fiercer.

But each one was perfectly avoided with rolling.

Yhorm’s health steadily decreased.

The durability of Old Qin’s battle axe was nearly halved.

Victory was within sight.

Seeing Yhorm’s health bar reduced to a sliver, Old Qin’s spirits soared.

Though the weather had turned cold, the clothes of the man sitting before the computer were soaked with sweat.

"Who else!? Who else!?"

With a passionate roar, Yhorm the Giant crashed to the ground.

[Lord of Cinder’s Kindling]

The quest item Lord of Cinder’s Kindling was automatically obtained.

After Yhorm’s corpse vanished, a white glow remained on the ground—instead of Yhorm’s soul directly entering the inventory like in the original.

With the successful defeat of Yhorm the Giant, the bullet comments in Old Qin’s stream went wild.

‘666666!’

‘Brother Qin is so strong!’

‘NB! An axe can topple the Greatwood too!’

‘A true badass, daring to face the giant’s sacred feet!’

‘The badass is you!?’

Reading the stream’s flood of praise and gifts, Old Qin exhaled deeply. The intense battle had brought him back to the feeling he had when he first played Dark Souls.

"Only the storm can topple the Greatwood? FNNDP!"

Looking at the white glow on the ground, Old Qin scoffed.

"Now comes the joyful, blissful lucky draw segment!"

With a wide grin, Old Qin stepped forward to pick up the item.

Dung Pie!

Seeing the item pop up on screen.

‘Click Sound!’

It was as if something shattered inside Old Qin’s ears.

He hadn’t been broken by Yhorm the Giant.

But now, he could no longer bear this cruel reality.

"I… I’ll just restart with a new save."

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