Chapter 473 303: A Unique Game Experience
Uffie was a bit surprised. This was the first character she had encountered while searching the map who seemed somewhat "human."
The ones she'd run into before were all bandits, vagrants who looted resources, or shady merchants who were always trying to swindle her.
None of those characters would have bothered asking who she was.
"What are you here for?" the old man in the game continued to ask.
The old woman, meanwhile, remained seated in her chair, apparently suffering from some sort of illness.
Uffie was torn about whether or not she should go inside.
'It's very rude to barge into someone else's home without an invitation.'
This was a small cottage that could just barely be called a home.
Other places, including the small building Uffie was staying in, were shelters at best.
'She felt that there should at least be an opportunity to talk for a bit here. Maybe she could talk with this old man and see if she could trade for some supplies.'
Unfortunately, the game didn't have a dialogue system with multiple choices. It wasn't a role-playing game.
Uffie was worried she would be attacked the moment she went inside.
She had her athlete pace back and forth in front of the door for a few laps before finally deciding to go inside and investigate.
'The athlete is a fast runner. Even if she gets attacked, she should be able to get away.'
'She was just too desperate for supplies right now.'
She had already picked the few safe locations clean, and the other maps had enemies she couldn't handle yet.
The chef back in her shelter was sick and starving. He probably wouldn't last more than a few days. She had no other choice but to search the old man's house for supplies.
She clicked inside the room, and her athlete jogged in.
'Just a little,' Uffie thought to herself.
'Just enough for the next couple of days, just enough to last until the female reporter gets back. A new map should open up by then, and the resource situation will improve.'
After entering the cottage, the athlete wasn't attacked.
The old man just kept following her, pestering her with questions.
"What in the world are you trying to do?"
"Are you with those bandits?"
"You're here to rob us!"
"Yelena, quick, hide!"
"It's not safe here anymore!"
Watching the old man and his wife, Uffie felt a bitter taste in her mouth.
But she couldn't go back empty-handed.
So she reached for the old man's cabinet anyway.
He still didn't attack. He didn't seem like someone who could survive in a warzone like this.
The old man just pleaded desperately.
"Please, don't take our food... We don't have much left."
Uffie felt as if she were actually doing something terrible.
'They're just data. As a developer, she knew full well that every character's life, death, and dialogue were nothing more than data on a design sheet. But it was still agonizing to watch.'
Very few games cast the player-controlled character as the villain. Even when they do, it's usually forced by the plot.
But here, Uffie herself was choosing to become the villain—a war survivor who had just been robbed was now about to rob people even weaker than she was.
'Fucking war.'
It was just like the slogans scrawled everywhere on the crumbling ruins within the game.
Only one thought remained in Uffie's mind: Fucking war.
'So this is what they mean by giving the choice to the player, letting them feel it for themselves instead of just being preachy. It's damn effective.'
Uffie had her athlete open the cabinet.
Just as the old man had said, they really didn't have much food left. The supplies here were far from plentiful.
At the very least, it was nothing compared to the areas controlled by the military or bandits.
'Uffie figured that if she could just take over those areas, she wouldn't have to worry about food and drink for the rest of the game. Not only her, but she could also support this poor old couple.'
The problem was, however, that she couldn't defeat the military or the bandits.
The weak can only prey on the weaker.
Uffie didn't take all the food. She couldn't bring herself to do it, even if they were just data.
She only took what she needed for the next couple of days.
'Once the new map opens up, I'll bring them any extra supplies I find.'
Uffie suddenly had a brilliant idea. 'If I just bring them more supplies later, it won't really be stealing, right? And I'll be helping them survive what's to come. Oh, I'm so smart.'
Uffie felt super clever.
'It's still stealing, of course, but I'm sure the old man will understand. Okay, getting this worked up over an NPC does seem a little weird.'
Everyone has their own playstyle. Uffie's was to fully immerse herself in the game, as if everything in it were real.
With the idea of bringing supplies back later, Uffie felt much better.
So she took a look at the other supply caches in the room.
'Just a peek.'
And with that one peek, she found a bottle of medicine in another cabinet.
It was even more important than food. This stuff was nearly impossible to find on the map; the main source was trading for it from merchants, and it wasn't cheap.
In times of war, medicine was all the more precious.
Especially with the chef in her shelter still bedridden, with no guarantee he would recover.
The old man was still pleading.
"Please, don't take my wife's medicine..."
Uffie hesitated again.
'Could the old woman really die if I just take the medicine for a few days? She doesn't look *that* weak.'
"I'd say take it. The grandma looks fine, but the chef at your place is about to die for real," her onlooking colleagues chimed in.
"The chef is your teammate, and this family is just NPCs. Saving your teammate is obviously the priority."
"If the chef dies, who's going to cook? That little bit of food you have will be used up in no time."
The chef's Skill was indeed very important to Uffie, as it allowed him to make food using fewer ingredients.
"Besides, you already took their food. What's one more bottle of medicine...?"