Chapter 162 : Chapter 162
Chapter :162
Come to think of it, there wasn't anything wrong with this guess.
The people of that village were indeed wiped out by Isabel and her people. Strictly speaking, they were on the same side as the starter village.
Yan Yunqing heard the players' conversation clearly and secretly grumbled a few things in his heart.
But it didn't matter. Yan Yunqing had already anticipated that the players would overthink this matter. After all, a normal player wouldn't have thought that the reason they entered the starter village late was because the NPCs had found the wrong spawn point and built the starter village in the wrong location.
This sounded too ridiculous, but who told this Return Journey game studio to be so ridiculous?
The closed beta players were already online, but there was no starter village, no guide NPC. What were they supposed to do?
To put it bluntly, both the starter village and the guide NPC were simple ways for the game company to inform players of the basic rules of the game when they came online. At the same time, it was also a subtle form of restraint and regulation.
It would be fine in other games; players could understand the basic rules of the game after playing for a while.
But Return Journey was different. On the other side of this game was a real world, which couldn't withstand the wanton destruction of unrestrained players who couldn't truly die.
Otherwise, this world might very well turn into another version of Gotham.
Every player could become the Joker and then play Return Journey like GTA.
That wouldn't do.
There could only be one Joker in this world.
Yan Yunqing thought to himself.
He watched from afar as those players gathered together to discuss the hidden quest. He wasn't sweating profusely like the other NPCs. On his way here, he had already thought about what to do next.
He would beat them at their own game.
Since the players believed that this starter village had a hidden quest, then he would really create a hidden quest for them.
He could even use the players' hands to find the remaining spawn points and the players who had been captured by unknown forces.
Yan Yunqing opened his NPC panel and looked at the new sections that had appeared: [Issue Quest] and [Create NPC Identity]. "Just in time to try out this new feature."
He turned around, found a mirror, and began to create his new alternate identity.
The new identity was a mysterious mage, who needed to look inconspicuous but would be noticed by players at a glance.
A black magic robe with complex magic patterns on it, mysterious and dangerous.
Yan Yunqing thought for a moment and simply created the appearance of the Demon King from his memory.
Long black hair cascaded down his back, and his dark red eyes concealed a dangerous message. His facial features, which were not stunning on their own, were very comfortable to look at when combined... and there was a faint, indescribable feeling about them.
Divinity? Demonic ？
It was difficult to define, but this face alone radiated a pressure that was hard to ignore just from its appearance.
Yan Yunqing himself was stunned for a moment when he looked at it.
He reached out and tapped the reflection in the mirror, sighing sincerely: "No wonder everyone calls him the Demon King. With a face like that, it's really hard to be seen as a righteous character."
Especially the bloodthirsty side that was inadvertently revealed, which gave Yan Yunqing himself goosebumps, like some super villain in a movie or TV show who would kill people with a smile.
I woke up with a start. The yandere was actually me.
Yan Yunqing pressed his temples and softened the facial features of this face, then put on the magic robe and pulled up the hood.
When all his facial features were covered, leaving only the black hair scattered under the hood, Yan Yunqing's special aura was completely concealed, and he became low-key.
Yan Yunqing observed it from several angles and confirmed that no matter which angle he looked from, he could not see the face under the magic robe's hood, while he himself could see everything in front of him clearly, as if there was a layer of one-way glass. He nodded in satisfaction.
[Concealing Magic Robe (Purple)]
Description: A black magic robe. When you want to hide your identity and pretend to be a big shot at an auction house, it will be your unique choice. When you wear the hood, any unit with a level lower than (73+20) cannot use the [Appraise] skill on you and cannot see through your appearance under the hood. 『You are now free to show off.』
Yan Yunqing glanced at this description and then closed it with a cold face.
This magic robe was an item he had gotten a while ago when he was cleaning out his backpack and, while he was at it, opened all the boxes he had accumulated.
He didn't know if it was a case of quantity leading to a qualitative change, but he got quite a few good things this time. This concealing magic robe was one of them. Anyone whose level was not more than twenty levels higher than his would have their [Appraise] skill fail against him, and it could also hide his appearance well. It was indeed a very useful item.
It's just that the description was a bit annoying. What did it mean by "now he could show off freely"? And going to an auction house to show off, did it think he was some brainless, OP protagonist from a certain web novel platform?
Was he that bored?
He should find some time to go and blow up the Augreer family's auction house again.
Yan Yunqing entered the name of his new alternate identity—【Nolan】.
【New identity generating...】
【『Nolan』 identity card has been created.】
An alternate identity of 『Nolan』 was added to Yan Yunqing's NPC panel. He also created and saved the 『Joker』 alternate identity at the same time, so he wouldn't have to switch alternate identities by changing presets every time.
After changing into Nolan's alternate identity, everything was ready.
He just had to wait a few more days for the players' levels to rise, and then he could go and fool the players.
***
[Rin]: Do you guys have any clues over there?
[destin]: Nothing found. What about Mianmian and Anan?
[Nan Su]: I'm in a house in the northwest of the village, and I haven't found any useful clues either. At most, I can see that a fierce battle did take place here. Several houses in this village have been destroyed, and there are still a lot of bloodstains...
[Computer Sleepy Cat: I'm in the south. A few houses here have been smashed through, as if something huge fell on the roof and crushed the house. It looks like what those villagers said is true, as if some ferocious beast had really attacked.
[Computer Sleepy Cat]: Hmm, but I didn't find any bodies or severed limbs. Could it be that they were censored by the game?
[destin]: Mianmian, I'm also in the south. I saw the house you mentioned. Wait for me, I'm coming to find you!
[Rin]: Do you guys think this village really has a hidden plot? We've been looking for so long and haven't found any useful clues...
[Nan Su]: According to conventional logic, all the previous plots have already hinted that there's something strange about this village being wiped out by a demonic beast attack. There should be a related quest. Perhaps the clues are well-hidden. Should we search more carefully?
If other players from Romunik were to come, they would find that the four players searching for clues in the village were the more famous female players in their starter village.
These four players were roommates from the same university. The four of them had a very good relationship, and since all four were very interested in games, they often played games together. On the day the closed beta spots for Return Journey were opened, the four of them had stayed up all night together for their final project. Nan Su, who noticed the opening of the closed beta spots first, immediately called her other three roommates to register together.
The four of them were thus lucky enough to get the closed beta spots, and they were also lucky enough to be assigned to the same starter village.
Their luck didn't end there. Because they had stayed up all night the day before to finish their big project, none of the four of them were able to log into the game on time. By the time they entered the game, the problem with the Romunik starter village had already been solved, and they played along with the main group.
Because they logged in late, when the other players' time was up and they were kicked offline, they were still in the game, and they were very lucky to pick up a chain quest.
In this way, they were lucky enough to level up to level ten. The four of them became the first in the Romunik starter village to reach level ten and have the authority to temporarily leave the starter village.
This was why they were able to search for clues in this village.
However, none of the four of them were veteran gamers. Among them, only Nan Su had experience with large-scale online games. The other three all felt helpless when it came to finding clues.
Even Nan Su felt the strain. Return Journey was different from the online games she had played in the past. There were no game text prompts, and any item in this game world could be interacted with, which made finding clues extremely difficult.
Vaguely sensing that her other three roommates and friends were thinking of giving up, Nan Su also hesitated, wondering whether to continue searching for the clues to this so-called hidden quest.
What if they searched for a long time only to find that it was all in vain and there was no hidden quest at all? They would have wasted too much time. After all, besides her, the other three came to play Return Journey to relax.
They couldn't put the cart before the horse, right?
Just as the four of them were about to return empty-handed, Rin suddenly grabbed Nan Su's wrist, pointed in a direction, and lowered her voice, "Is there someone standing over there?"
Nan Su: "Hmm? It should be another player. Although we got a chain quest and leveled up faster, being the first to leave the starter village, those professional players basically play for the full eight hours every day. Their leveling speed won't be much slower than ours..."
As she spoke, Nan Su looked in the direction Rin was pointing and only then discovered a black figure standing in the distance, mostly obscured by the dilapidated house. It was faint and hard to spot if one wasn't looking carefully.
That was definitely not the figure of a player!
Rin shrank behind Nan Su, "That doesn't look like a player... so dark, could it be a ghost?"
Nan Su: "...The game doesn't seem to have the species of ghost, only undead."
Rin grabbed Nan Su's sleeve and shivered, "Isn't that even scarier?!"
An undead who died unjustly appeared in a village that was suspected to have been completely slaughtered by human hands? This sounded like an upgraded version of some island country's horror movie.
Rin was willing to call it "The Village of Grudges." Of course, it would be better if she wasn't the stubborn reporter in "The Village of Grudges" who insisted on coming to explore or investigate the truth.
She always felt that this identity would definitely end badly.
Nan Su hesitated: "It's not necessarily an undead. It could also be an NPC or something... Aren't undead usually monster units? We haven't even encountered a demonic beast at our level, so we probably won't encounter an undead, right?"
But she said this with great uncertainty. After all, the game Return Journey was really different from those games with text and plotlines in the past.
"Should we go and take a look?" Nan Su suggested.
Rin shook her head repeatedly: "In horror movies, the characters who are too curious are always the first to die!"
Nan Su: "...We're in a game now. We can be resurrected even if we die."
Rin was stunned: "Oh, right!"
She scratched her cheek, "It's all this game's fault for being too realistic. For a moment, I forgot this was a game."
Nan Su: "So, are we going? Maybe it's related to the hidden quest?"
Rin hesitated: "But doesn't resurrection in the game require a two-day CD..."
She looked at Nan Su, then at the black shadow, closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, "Okay, I'll go with you to take a look. But we have to tell Mianmian and A'Ming first. I'll send them a message."
As she spoke, Rin opened the party chat panel.
[Rin]: [computer sleepy cat][destin], Mianmian, A'Ming, Anan and I encountered a black shadow at coordinates. We don't know if it's a clue. We're going to check it out. If we die, you guys should run back to the starter village immediately.
[destin]: Roger, do you need me and Mianmian to go with you to check the situation?
[Rin]: T-T No need, we're not sure if it's a clue. If it's a high-level monster and you guys come over too, we'll all be wiped out.
[computer sleepy cat]: Okay, then A'Ming and I will continue to search for clues here.
After instructing her companions, Rin closed the chat panel, glanced at the expectant Nan Su, and finally compromised, "Alright, alright, let's go! If we really run into an undead, I'll just consider it as dying for love with you!"
She acted as if she was about to bravely sacrifice herself, which almost made Nan Su laugh. "It's not that exaggerated. There won't be any danger here."
"Let's go, let's go!"
The two girls stealthily walked towards the black figure. Anyone who didn't know would have thought they were going to steal something.
Yan Yunqing, who was tired of standing in place and posing, yawned. The hood covered his entire face, so from the outside, no one could tell that he was so bored that he had yawned. They only felt that this person whose face could not be seen was very mysterious.
Even his back looked somewhat mournful, as if he was mourning for the lives that had died here, facing this dilapidated village.
This was the scene that the two players who had quietly approached saw.
Rin lowered her voice, "That seems to be a person?"
Nan Su also lowered her voice: "I can't see the face clearly, but that clothing should be a magic robe."
Although there were no mages in the starter village, the magic robes in Western fantasy games were all similar. Moreover, the runes on the other party's robe, which seemed to be faintly glowing, made it easy to recognize them as magic runes.
Nan Su quietly threw a [Probe] at the black figure in the magic robe. This was a skill given to every player when they reached level 1. It could be used on any unit, had a 3s CD, and the mana cost was negligible, so it could basically be considered as non-existent.
This skill was very useful. For some ordinary NPCs, it could directly detect their identity and level. However, for a mysterious NPC who appeared here and looked very mysterious, Nan Su had no hope that the [Probe] skill would succeed.
As expected, the next second, the skill panel gave feedback [Probe failed]. A symbol [???] appeared above the mysterious person's head. Both their level and name identity were displayed as question marks.
The mysterious person seemed to have sensed something and turned his head slightly, "Still not coming out?"
The voice was slightly low, but it sounded a bit androgynous. Even the voice couldn't distinguish between male and female!
Rin and Nan Su exchanged glances. Nan Su had just used [Probe] on them, and the other party didn't get angry. Most importantly, although the name was all question marks, the color displayed was green, which meant that this mysterious NPC would not pose a danger to them for the time being and belonged to the friendly faction.
Only then did the two of them squeeze out of the bushes, with a few leaves still hanging from their heads.
Yan Yunqing turned around and looked at the two players through the hood, slightly surprised. He hadn't expected the players in this starter village who had reached level ten first to be two female players.
Perhaps limited by the time the closed beta spots were opened and various other objective factors, the gender ratio among the three thousand closed beta players was clearly imbalanced.
It could basically be considered 8:1, meaning that among the more than three thousand players, the number of female players was only over three hundred, less than four hundred.
When distributed among the several starter villages, the number of female players in each starter village was even smaller.
According to the ratio, the probability of female players being the first to reach level 10 and leave the starter village was not high. He hadn't expected to encounter such a small probability.
But it didn't matter. The players Yan Yunqing needed were not limited by gender. In fact, compared to the experienced male players, Yan Yunqing would prefer a player who was more detail-oriented and more invested in the plot.
This way, it would be convenient for him to perfectly convey the information he wanted to reveal.
Rin saw the mysterious person turn sideways, with one side of his hood facing their direction. A voice devoid of any emotional fluctuation sounded, "You secretly investigate me the moment we meet. What? Are you very curious about me?"
Nan Su was startled. She had never expected that the NPCs in the game could detect players' probe skills and even ask players questions. The NPCs in this game were a bit too intelligent. Could there be real people playing them?
"Um, sorry, we just saw you standing here alone and thought it was a bit strange..." Rin explained on Nan Su's behalf. "We didn't mean to probe you. We have no ill intentions."
The mysterious person snorted lightly, "If you had ill intentions, you wouldn't be standing here long ago."
Rin shrank her neck, feeling that this NPC was a bit fierce. Did this mean he would kill people at the slightest disagreement?
Both of them felt a cold gaze fall upon them. After a light scan, the mysterious person's indifferent voice continued: "If there's nothing, then leave quickly. This place is very dangerous. Children who are only level ten shouldn't be running around outside."
After speaking, the mysterious person turned to leave.
Nan Su couldn't help but take a step forward, "Your Excellency Mage, are you here for this village that was attacked by demonic beasts too?"
The mysterious person's footsteps paused, "Why do you care about this?"
The NPC actually reacted!
Nan Su was overjoyed. It seemed that this mysterious NPC really had clues about this village. Perhaps this was really a hidden quest!
Nan Su pulled Rin who was beside her, "We passed by this village a few days ago and found that all the people here had disappeared, and the village was also deserted. Someone told us that this place was attacked by demonic beasts, but we feel that the truth of the matter may be more than that."
Nan Su used a versatile statement, attempting to get more information and clues from the mysterious NPC in front of her for free. Who knew that the mysterious NPC would ask in return: "Oh? Then tell me what you have discovered."
"Huh? Uh..." Nan Su was at a loss for words, stammering and unable to speak clearly, "This..."
Yan Yunqing couldn't help but smile under the cover of his hood, not making a sound for the two players to notice.
Teasing players was really fun.
It's fun, I'll play more in the future.
"Well, we found that although there are traces of beast attacks everywhere in this village, not a single body was left behind." Nan Su recalled the strange things they had discovered while exploring the village in the chat channel before. "And, there's too little blood."
"Although there are traces of attacks everywhere, if an entire village died in a demonic beast attack, there is too little blood left here."
After all, it was a village. Even if the population was small, there should be at least dozens or even a hundred people. If so many people all died in a demonic beast attack, there should at least be a lot of blood in every household. However, when they entered the village, they found a few places with more blood, but only in those collapsed houses.
There were no obvious bloodstains in other places, which was very unusual.
Yan Yunqing raised his eyebrows, a touch of surprise appearing between his brows hidden under the hood.
He didn't expect that there were actually players who observed so carefully that they even noticed the distribution of bloodstains.
There was no other reason for this. It was simply because the main battlefield was not in this village, but in the altar built below the village.
When Isabel led her people, there weren't many people guarding the village on the ground. They were easily dealt with by the dragons, who then rushed into the underground altar and killed all the followers of the Eternal Sect.
As for the corpses, they had already been cleaned up by the aftermath team, who also faked the scene of a demonic beast attack in the village to deceive the Takuya City army that came to investigate the situation.
Isabel's actions against the Eternal Sect had not yet been made public, so it was not suitable for outsiders to know.
They were afraid that those black rats from the Eternal Sect would hide even deeper if they found out, so they always made it look like an accident after each extermination.
Of course, if the people of the Eternal Sect came to investigate with intent, they would also find that these accidents were not accidents.
However, these investigators would be targeted by the dragons who were left behind to guard the place, who would follow them to find the next stronghold and then repeat the previous actions.
To put it simply, this was entrapment.
This simple and crude method was particularly effective. Most of the strongholds that were wiped out by Isabel were found by her in this way.
I just didn't expect that players could also notice it.
Yan Yunqing pondered for a moment and said meaningfully: "You are quite clever."
Nan Su's eyes lit up, and Rin, who was standing beside her, also seemed to have sensed something and looked expectantly at Yan Yunqing, the mysterious person who was completely covered by a magic robe and was pitch black.
"Then can you tell me what exactly happened here?" Nan Su said, "Or if you have any tasks that need help, you can leave them to us!"
The dagger was revealed at the end of the map.
They had been talking to the NPC for so long, wasn't it all for that possible hidden quest?
"...A task? Heh, at your current level, what can you do to help me?" Yan Yunqing was very dedicated and always remembered his character setting. "I can only tell you that the people in this village did not all die from a demonic beast attack."
"They were killed by their own greed." Yan Yunqing said meaningfully, "If you covet something that doesn't belong to you, you must be prepared to be devoured by your own greed."
Nan Su and Rin were both stunned. They always felt that this mysterious person was alluding to something. Then they heard the mysterious person continue.
"Just like you, daring to come here at level ten to explore secrets you shouldn't know is also a form of greed."
"So, are you prepared to be devoured by greed?"
This phrasing?
Nan Su and Rin both reacted immediately. This was clearly the prerequisite dialogue for accepting a quest.
"Of course!" This time it was Rin who spoke, saying a very cool line, "If we don't even have the courage to explore the truth, why would we have run all the way here?"
Yan Yunqing almost choked. Strange, what kind of weird hot-blooded anime scene was this?
Yan Yunqing pretended to scrutinize the two players for a long time before finally speaking: "Whatever you want. It's not an easy thing to seek the truth. When you are strong enough and have figured out what exactly happened in this village, come and find me again."
【Do you want to issue a quest to [Rin] and [Nan Su]?】