Chapter 163 : Chapter 163
Chapter : 163
At the same time, a notification box popped up in front of the two players.
【[???] has issued you the quest 『Explore Hawthorne Village』. Do you accept?】
【Explore Hawthorne Village】
Description: While passing through a village destroyed by a demonic beast attack, you noticed something amiss about the village.
Amidst the questioning of the mysterious person [???], you have decided to accept the challenge from the mysterious person, explore the truth behind the deaths of the people of Hawthorne Village, and possess a certain level of ability to deal with danger.
Completion Conditions:
1. Exploration progress of Hawthorne Village reaches 80% or more.
2. Level reaches 25 or above.
Completion Time: 15 days
(Failure to complete within the specified time will be considered a quest failure. Failure penalty: Level -1.)
Completion Reward: Unknown
(This quest can be shared by a party. The completion reward will be divided according to the degree of participation in the quest.)
【Do you accept?】
Was there any need to hesitate? Of course they accepted!
Nan Su and Rin had the same reaction. The moment the panel popped up, they clicked to accept the quest without even reading the quest details clearly.
This caused the mysterious person to glance at them one more time: "Your courage is commendable."
He paused for a moment, then continued: "I await the answer you will give, Descenders."
The mysterious person turned around, and before leaving, he pretended to mention casually: "Some of your companions seem to be in danger. Perhaps you should try to find your companions."
After leaving this sentence, the mysterious person left without looking back, and there were no other hints, leaving Nan Su and Rin to look at each other in dismay.
"Was that sentence just now a quest hint?" Rin was curious. "Some of our companions are in danger. What does that mean? Ah!"
As she was speaking, she suddenly remembered something and cried out in alarm. She quickly opened the party list and tagged her two roommates' IDs.
[Rin]: [destin][Computer Sleepy Cat] Are you guys okay!
There weren't many people who could be called their companions. Their other two roommates who came with them happened to belong to the category of companions. Could it be that they were in danger because they were acting alone?
Who knew that as soon as Rin's message was sent, she received replies from the two of them in the party chat.
[destin]: What's wrong? We're fine! Are you coming to find us? [Location Coordinates] We're here!
[Computer Sleepy Cat]: Did something happen over there?
Rin was stunned to find that her two teammates who were acting alone were fine.
That was strange. The companions the mysterious person mentioned weren't Mianmian and A'Ming. Who could it be?
[Nan Su]: We encountered an NPC here, the black shadow Rin just mentioned. He gave us a quest. I think it should be the prerequisite quest for this hidden quest. It's a quest that can be shared by a group. I'll share it with you guys first.
[Nan Su]: The requirements for this quest are a bit strict. Let's discuss together how to complete this quest first!
[Nan Su]: (Share Quest)
***
Having successfully handed the quest over to the players, Yan Yunqing also put on a big act to lay the groundwork for his identity.
It would be best to create the image of a behind-the-scenes big boss in the minds of the players.
After observing the movements of the two players, Yan Yunqing brought up the map and prepared to go and find the next player to frame.
There was still one player spawn point that hadn't been found. He would issue the quest to a few more players so that they would go to the forum to look for clues and, at the same time, find the location of those players who had been captured.
After successfully framing a few more players who had come out of the starter village, and casually saying a few ambiguous words, Yan Yunqing left with his sleeves fluttering, hiding his contributions and fame.
Next, he just needed to wait for the quest to ferment among the player community. When they couldn't find any quest clues, players wouldn't be stingy about sharing a quest that could be shared by a party.
At least that way, there was still a chance of completion.
Just as Yan Yunqing had thought, the quest quickly spread among the top players.
Unknowingly, the game forum had actually opened a sub-forum specifically for "Return Journey". Even though it was just a game that had just started its closed beta, and not all three thousand closed beta players were active on the forum, a few posts a day had managed to create a dedicated section.
【I heard that the players in the Romunik starter village have received the prerequisite quest for a hidden quest. Is it true? Are there any players from Romunik who can come out and chat?】
0L: RT, OP is from Norman 01. So far, all the quests I've received are daily quests, and I haven't seen any signs of a hidden quest yet. I heard from a friend that there's a hidden quest in Romunik?
1L: What a coincidence, OP, I'm from Norman 02.
2L: A hidden quest? What kind of quest is a hidden quest? I just accepted a quest to deliver a love letter to an NPC named [Arnold]. I searched for Arnold for a long time but couldn't find him. I almost thought this NPC didn't exist in the starter village. But the next day, I found him next to the blacksmith shop. I asked him why he wasn't there yesterday, and do you know what he answered?
3L: ? What did he answer? It's really annoying to start talking and then run away halfway through!
4L: I'm from Bartovita 01, and I haven't seen a hidden quest either, but I seem to have received a series of quests here. That NPC is always speaking in riddles, and I always feel like he has some secret.
5L: So where's the 2nd floor? It's understandable to get disconnected while playing a game, but can you disappear while replying on a forum?
6L: I'm from the Freedom starter village. I think the NPCs in our starter village are also quite strange. Most of them are children, and there are very few adults. What's the situation with this starter village? Are they all left-behind children?
7L: I'm also from Freedom Village upstairs. I guess you must not have listened carefully to the information revealed when the NPCs were chatting. This village was originally composed entirely of orphans. Didn't you notice that the NPCs all have a [Children's Gang] prefix above their heads? The leader of the Children's Gang is a guy named Jeff. These children are all orphans he adopted or picked up. They used to live in that city called Freedom City. Later, something happened, and Jeff took the children out of the city to establish Freedom Village.
8L: I'm 2L. Because it was too terrifying to think about, I forgot to finish typing and sent it out. That Arnold said he stayed here all day yesterday and never left. Isn't that strange? I clearly remember searching the entire starter village three times and definitely didn't see him in that place, but he said he never left! I was about to dig three feet into the ground to find him!
9L: Did you remember wrongly? An NPC can't lie to you, can they? Does the program code have this function?
10L: It really does! Although I'm not sure if the NPC that 2L met was lying, the blacksmith uncle I met is a liar! He clearly promised to repair my weapon in the afternoon, but when I went to find him in the afternoon, he was gone. I found him drunk in the tavern! He even lied to me that he had already repaired the weapon and told me to pick it up the next day. When I went the next day, he was gone again!!!
11L: 10th floor is so pitiful.
12L: By the way, this game is so realistic. So far, I haven't found a single NPC with the same appearance. They can't possibly have created a separate model for every NPC, right? And each NPC's personality is completely different. It's so realistic that I feel like there are real people playing them behind the scenes... How many servers and computing cards would it take to build a full AI for this?
13L: Why do you all have a starter village, and I'm the only one who gets caught and thrown into a dungeon as soon as I log in? What kind of game starts with you in jail! I can't take it anymore, someone come and save me qaq
14L: The person upstairs is playing abstract, right? I've never heard of any starter village with a jail function. However, I have heard that if you harm a green-named NPC without reason, you will be caught and put in solitary confinement. In serious cases, you might even be killed by the guards of the starter village. Then, your reputation with the starter village faction will drop directly to -50, and you will be directly hated, killed on sight. I advise everyone not to attack green-named NPCs.
Especially in the early stages, not to mention the death penalty has a two-day resurrection CD, and you lose a lot of experience every time you die. The only place where you can get a lot of experience in the early stages is the starter village. If you don't want to level up by killing small animals in the wild bit by bit, don't attack green names.
15L: 14th floor knows so much, did you attack a green name and get beaten back to a blank slate by an NPC? (smirk)
16L: ...You know too much.
17L: Hahahahaha, you shouldn't say that. You should say that attacking a green name gives you an achievement, and you can trick as many people as you can. Then everyone will be in the same boat, and you won't be so miserable.
18L: By the way, are we all going off-topic? Has the OP's title been ignored? Are there any players from Romunik who can come forward and share their experience? Do you guys really have a hidden quest? How do you trigger it? Is there any difference between it and a normal quest before it's triggered?
19L: I don't know about a hidden quest, but I did encounter a strange NPC. He didn't give me any quest, just muttered something to me like 『Your companion is in danger』 and then ran away. I wanted to chase him, but that guy ran faster than a rabbit and was gone in a flash. I still haven't figured out what that sentence means.
20L: Is 19th floor from Romunik? What a coincidence, I also met the NPC you mentioned. He's strange. I'm sure I've never seen that person's appearance in the starter village before, and he said the exact same thing to me as he did to you.
21L: This really sounds like a prerequisite for a hidden quest. Do we have to figure out who the 『companion in danger』 is first to trigger the hidden quest?
22L: So the hidden quest in Romunik is this? What if the person you met is just a madman set up in the game? And his catchphrase is 『Your companion is in danger』 or something? It feels like a common setting.
23L: I'm from Romunik, and you guys have misunderstood. The hidden quest that's being talked about outside isn't about the 『Your companion is in danger』 thing.
The so-called hidden quest is about some players who, when they first logged into the game, were not directly led to the starter village, but were born in an abandoned village. After waiting for a while, the NPCs from the starter village came to guide them and also revealed a piece of information: this abandoned village was recently attacked by demonic beasts, and all the villagers died here, so the village was abandoned.
Later, some players wanted to ask the NPCs for some information about that village, but they couldn't get any information. That's when someone guessed that the abandoned village should be related to some quest, and the probability of it being a hidden quest is very high. It's just that no one has received the related quest so far.
24L: Also from Romunik. 23rd floor is right. You can only leave the starter village temporarily after reaching level 10. Many players rushed to that village as soon as they left the starter village. I haven't heard of anyone getting a related quest yet.
25L: Wow, this really sounds like a prerequisite for a hidden quest.
26L: You guys are all behind on the news. Someone has already received the related quest. It's those female players in the top 10 of the Romunik level leaderboard, [Rin] and the others. I heard it's a team-sharing type of quest, and they are looking for experienced players to join their team to study the quest together!
27L: There really is a hidden quest!
28L: Is the player who received the quest on the forum? I want to sign up to join the team! I have ten years of gaming experience, and I'm proficient in RPGs, puzzle-solving, shooting, and fighting games! Please let me join!
29L: Hey! How can someone be so shameless, recommending themselves in a forum post?
30L: Look at me too! I...
...
The "Return Journey" sub-forum was very lively. When the legendary hidden quest was mentioned, all the self-proclaimed veteran players couldn't sit still and all came forward to request to join the team.
destin saw all of this. She closed the forum, "The news of the hidden quest still got leaked."
Computer Sleepy Cat didn't seem to care: "This is normal. After all, we are indeed looking for people to cooperate with. We don't know any powerful professional players. If we want to find reliable people to complete the quest with, we can only spread the news."
"Professional players should be contacting us soon," Computer Sleepy Cat said. "Rin, you should pay more attention to the forum's backend and be careful to distinguish scammers. If you're not sure about anything, you can ask me directly."
Rin was full of energy: "I know! Don't worry, I'm very reliable!"
It was Computer Sleepy Cat's idea to release the news that they had received the hidden quest. They could of course complete this quest on their own, but they would have to play for the full duration every day.
The four of them were now third-year university students. Although their schedule was not as full as it was in their first and second years, it was still a bit difficult to be online for the full duration every day. They could only manage one of the two completion conditions.
In addition, they themselves had no experience with this type of game. The only one with experience, Nan Su, did not mainly play this type of game, so Computer Sleepy Cat came up with this method.
Find reliable professional players and share the quest with the big shots.
This way, the big shots get the hidden quest, and they get the help of the big shots, riding their coattails to complete the quest.
Nan Su hugged a chair and browsed the contents of the post: "Actually, there's one thing I'm more concerned about. Rin, when that mysterious person left, he also said to us, 『Some of your companions seem to be in danger. Perhaps you should try to find your companions.』, right?"
"I always feel that this information is very crucial. And look, there are also players from Romunik in the post who got this hint from an NPC. Is this related to our quest?"
Rin pondered: "Hmm... I really can't think of what it could be."
"So you suddenly asked me and Mianmian if we were in trouble at that time because that NPC said that?" destin was curious.
Rin propped up her face: "Yeah, the mysterious person said it when he left. I thought you guys were in danger at that time, but it turns out you were fine."
"But that mysterious person is obviously a very important NPC," Nan Su said. "In manga, the ones who don't show their faces are either the big boss behind the scenes or a key figure in the upcoming plot. And he specifically reminded us of this before he left... no matter how you think about it, it shouldn't be a casual mention, right?"
"The main storyline shouldn't be out yet, right?" destin guessed. "Maybe it's related to the main storyline?"
Indeed, a RPG game couldn't possibly not have a main storyline. The players were still at a low level now, so it was normal for the main storyline not to be out yet. Maybe this was paving the way for the main storyline!
Computer Sleepy Cat, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke: "Do you guys think that the companion in danger might be referring to this?"
As soon as she said this, the other three people in the dormitory all gathered around. Computer Sleepy Cat moved aside a little, displaying the screen behind her, and tapped the computer screen with her fingertip.
"Look at this."
【13L: Why do you all have a starter village, and I'm the only one who gets caught and thrown into a dungeon as soon as I log in? What kind of game starts with you in jail! I can't take it anymore, someone come and save me qaq】
"And this." Computer Sleepy Cat brought up a few other posts she had browsed before.
【Holy crap! Is the death penalty in Return Journey really this severe? I've been locked in a small black room for 48 hours!】
【I'm speechless, I got caught by savages as soon as I logged in.】
【Where is the starter village? Why is the game I'm playing different from yours?】
The content of these posts was very similar. They all basically said that they were killed or captured by savages as soon as they logged into the game. There was even a player who got lost in the forest and was eaten by a passing beast in one bite.
"Let's not talk about this player who was unlucky enough to be eaten by a beast for now. The previous few posts all mentioned that they encountered 'savages', and they were either killed or captured. Isn't the existence of these 'savages' very strange?" Computer Sleepy Cat said.
The three of them leaned closer. Because the game was so realistic, even though the forum had a dedicated section, new posts were constantly popping up in this section. These few posts claiming to have encountered savages had almost no replies, and most of them sank without a trace as soon as they were posted.
The one with the most replies was from a closed beta player who questioned whether the OP was a cloud player and that the content of the post was fabricated.
Because the game was played using a gaming helmet, the device did not have the function of recording videos or taking screenshots, so there were always closed beta players praising how realistic Return Journey was, but they were all treated as hired posters by those who did not get a closed beta spot.
And posting a game experience completely different from other players and being labeled as a cloud player and posting a green post was also normal.
"Ah, I've seen these too," destin suddenly clapped her hands. "I thought this was a green post before, so it wasn't?"
"Actually, I don't know either," Computer Sleepy Cat shook her head. "But think about it, if these posts aren't green posts, but there are really players who were captured and killed by 'savages' as soon as they logged into the game, wouldn't that match up with the 'companion in danger' line?"
Nan Su's eyes lit up, "Yeah, we players are all called Descenders by the NPCs. It's normal for fellow Descenders to be called companions by the NPCs!"
Rin also had a sudden realization: "So, the mysterious person wanted to tell us that some players have been captured?"
Computer Sleepy Cat propped up her chin with one hand and continued to browse the content of the forum, casually replying: "Maybe more than that. I've read many posts, and basically every starter village has its own special storyline. For example, in that Freedom Village, most of their NPCs are children, which involves the Children's Gang faction."
"For example, the three starter villages in Bartovita. Most of the NPCs inside are related to Bartovita, and the guide NPC in one of the starter villages is even a princess of the Bartovita royal family."
"Plus our starter village, which encountered a slaughtered village at the beginning. This is also the special storyline of our starter village."
"So I think that these players who were captured by the savages don't not have a starter village, but their starter village is special. Those savages are the NPCs of their starter village!"
A white light flashed across Computer Sleepy Cat's glasses: "Since there are ordinary starter villages with initial favorability in the positive numbers, there must also be villain starter villages with initial favorability in the negative numbers—"
"Hmm... I understand the reasoning, but why did you suddenly put on these glowing glasses? Is this ○nan merchandise? When did you buy it?"
"Don't expose what you see through. Mianmian is showing off."
After being forcibly deprived of her show-off prop [glowing plain glasses], Computer Sleepy Cat listlessly continued to express her brilliant opinion:
"So my thoughts are similar to what A'Ming guessed. This should be a prelude to the main storyline, paving the way for the subsequent plot. Maybe it will even open up the faction mode, but that should probably wait until the open beta."
"So that means we can't do anything now?" Rin asked.
Computer Sleepy Cat: "Of course not."
She switched the page to the forum and clicked on 【Post New Thread】. "We can also make this guess public, to brainstorm. I estimate that there are already people who, like me, have guessed that this might be the game's preparation for introducing a faction mode."
"We can also look for those players captured by the savages along the way. They are so special, they must be involved in one or two hidden quests. If we get more clues, maybe we can accept a hidden quest too?"
"And this hidden quest is definitely related to the mysterious person who gave you the quest before, so we are not afraid of leaking the clues, because we are already the leaders, and we can continue to go deeper with the clues discussed by other players!"
As she spoke, Computer Sleepy Cat put on her show-off prop [glowing plain glasses] again and struck a classic ○nan pose.
The other three looked at each other, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, and started to play the role of the straight man: "Wow! Mianmian, you are so smart!"
No sooner said than done.
Computer Sleepy Cat, who was dizzy from the praise, picked up her keyboard and began to organize her language to write her post.
The others also returned to their own positions and began their own tasks.
Rin, the only one who had left her contact information to the public, was refreshing the private messages in the background, muttering: "Experienced professional players..."
...
Ailman Continent.
Yan Yunqing watched as the posts on the forum gradually appeared as he had expected. He closed these posts with satisfaction. All he had to do was wait quietly for the players to provide clues and then copy the answers after brainstorming.
Sure enough, as long as players were used well and correctly, they were a very powerful help.
The door was knocked, and Yan Yunqing looked up to see Merlin walk in.
He still had an untidy appearance, but unlike the pretense before, this time Merlin had a clear dark circle under his eyes, and his beard was messy. It was obvious that he hadn't had time to take care of himself.
"You look very tired?" Yan Yunqing teased.
Merlin sat down in front of Yan Yunqing with a plop. Hearing Yan Yunqing's words, he rolled his eyes dramatically, "Of course I am! I haven't slept for four whole days. These Descenders are really a handful. Several people have already come to complain to me."
"Those Descenders even wanted to pull down the blacksmith's pants! This is too terrifying!"