WVKWnovel Chapter 181: Old Tool Players
Chapter 181: Old Tool Players
Peaceful and quiet Exile Town.
Undead, who had just come online and had yet to receive the battlefield missions, grumbled about the mentor NPCs having all disappeared as they frolicked around the town.
The women from Camore had already grown accustomed to the noise created by the undead and went about their tasks; occasionally, when an undead approached them gesturing, the women would take out their needles and threads with seasoned ease, trading their skills for some sugar cubes.
In front of the vacant land behind the Undead Merchant Association headquarters and canteen, two undead wearing beginner cotton T-shirts and shorts were squatting in an experimental field, meticulously checking the germination status of the sown seeds with a small hoe.
"Case solved. It's not the soil or water; it's the seeds." Master Liu grimaced as he swept away the moist soil, revealing a rotten seed. "Seeds from Earth just won't sprout here, none of them do."
"Yeah, only native crops can be grown here. Look how well these wild garlic and onions are doing," Old Geng said dejectedly, glancing at the lush new shoots in the other half of the experimental field. "Native crops can grow, but foreign species can't. This world that has mages isn't that simple..."
"Let's suggest the task force to bring in a few technical specialists to study the agricultural situation here," Master Liu said, dusting off the dirt on his fingers. "I heard from Xiao Ji that in Weisshem, farmers work hard all year round and barely harvest 100 to 150 kilograms per acre. They don't even make 500 kilograms of corn and rely on potatoes to fill their stomachs for at least half the year. Life there is tough!"
"Helmets are an issue." Old Geng shook his head. "The young patient Gong that's under Xiao Lu's care regained consciousness and now everyone with patients in vegetative states wants to send them to the research institute. Setting eyes on those targets now is sure to cause outrage."
By now, the national team had long discovered the secret of the helmets—the more days people like Ji Tang, Master Liu, and Old Geng, who needed to spend days in bed in reality, "log in," the better their mental state became.
It was near impossible not to understand that "logging in" to this game had a rehabilitation and enhancement function for people's mental conditions.
Master Liu merely scoffed. "That's why I previously said not to suffer just for the sake of pride. It would also be good if we could get a hundred out of those three thousand helmets, but that bunch just insisted on thinking long term..."
Old Geng wanted to say something, but he suddenly froze.
He was clearly standing in the backyard of the Undead Merchant Association canteen. There was nothing else in his view but Master Liu and the experimental field, which was half bare and half full of new sprouts.
However, all of a sudden, it seemed like a layer had been overlaid over his field of view. It was as if he was seeing the world through someone else's eyes, and he could hear that person's words and the surrounding sounds clearly.
"Eh, what's going on?" Master Liu's voice sounded. "Old Geng, I'm seeing weird stuff. You?"
"I see it, too," Old Geng replied right away. "Wait, let's listen to the voice first."
In the overlaid vision, both Master Liu and Old Geng saw the same person say, "What kind of crappy quest is this, asking us to uncover the truth but not providing a translation feature?"
The speaker was also an undead, with a noticeable green ID above his head—Vanilla Pudding.
Vanilla Pudding was a well-known veteran of the game, so naturally, Master Liu and Old Geng knew who he was. On further surveying the IDs above the heads of the few undead around him, the two old timers could guess that they had "intruded" into another player's perspective.
"Don't be hasty," said the female player with the ID Blossoming Strokes. "Since it's a hidden quest, there must be a key point to trigger the next clue. Let's see what clues these 'quest items' have to offer."
The overlaid vision shifted as if the player with the "main perspective" was moving together with Blossoming Strokes.
A group of disheveled and miserable-looking natives appeared in the image.
The "main perspective" player, along with Blossoming Strokes and others who were noisy, surrounded this group of natives, who were bound and unable to move. They examined the captives' faces, searched their pockets and everywhere possible.
"Hmm... these NPCs are all quite delicate, completely different from the villagers over there. Perhaps this is a clue?" a player scratching his skull mused.
"Is something so obvious even a clue? Don't embarrass yourself! These NPCs are 'Indahl Citizens,' while those are 'Kain Town villagers.' Even a blind person can tell them apart!" another player mocked.
"Since these NPCs are quest items, there would surely be clues on them... Hold on." As if she suddenly thought of something, Blossoming Strokes started running into the distance.
"The main perspective" followed as well, letting Master Liu and Old Geng, who had unexpectedly intruded on the scene, get to appreciate the rural scenery of this world...
Yellow dirt roads, the gray-yellow mud walls, scorched yellow thatched roofs... The world looked like the scene from an old movie from the last century, covered in an earthy yellow hue. Apart from the equipment on the running undead, there wasn't any single bright color.
When the villagers appeared in the frame, Old Geng, a veteran who had once helped develop Northwestern China, felt a pang in his heart.
The wrinkled body wrapped in the 100% pure cotton cloth was covered in horrifying wounds, with crisscrossing whip marks and abrasions covering every inch of skin. His face swollen to the point where his features from before his death could not be discerned.
Blossoming Strokes, a cultured person, couldn't help cursing, "F*ck! Is this what 'hunters' mean?! F*cking hell!"
Once the two ladies uncovered the truth, players in the advanced vanguard, along with Master Liu and Old Geng, who were "channeling" Unceasing Entropy's perspective, simultaneously saw yellow text popping up on their panels:
———
[Suspicious Hunters]
Suspicious Hunters: 13/13 (completed)
Dirty Truth: 1/1 (completed)
You have uncovered the secret of these hunters that were behaving strangely; what they hunted aren't beasts but their own kind!
Unable to forgive these despicable sinners, you decide to take these hunters back to the gates of Indahl City and hand them over to Charlie Rex.
Bring Back Prisoners: 0/13
Bring Back Lizard Horses: 0/13
———
Old Geng took a deep breath, turning and meeting Master Liu's gaze with a complicated expression.
The overlaying images they were seeing were transparent, allowing them to still see their surroundings despite their field of view being dominated by another's perspective.
If Old Geng was like a wily old fox that had seen many things in his years, then Master Liu, with his years in road and bridge engineering, was like a savvy monkey.
Old Geng could vaguely guess the "truth," while Master Liu instantly figured it out, his expression even more vivid than the former.
In the overlaying image, the players, angered by this dark and brutal quest, were furiously stripping the thirteen criminals of all items that seemed valuable: clothes, pants, belts, shoes, rings, necklaces, brooches, scarves, wallets, and so on; everything they hadn't taken before was now being taken off and silently handed to the villagers as compensation. Then, they stripped the criminals down to their underwear, tied them to the earth lizards, and led the horses away from the village.
As the players left the village, the forced overlaying image the old men were experiencing faded.
Without saying anything, the two old men crouched on the spot, motionless.
Not long after, several rows of yellow text popped up on their panels:
———
You have gained the authority to issue hidden missions.
You have gained the authority to distribute reputation rewards for the Indahl territory.
You have gained the GM panel, authority level: D.
You have gained the authority to view the activity range of online players and access their perspectives.
An exclusive personal quest has been added to your quest panel: [Invisible Guardians].
Regulating online players' gaming behavior, guiding online players toward a positive gaming atmosphere, is an inescapable responsibility for every GM authority holder.
Service hours spent on [Invisible Guardian] quest can be exchanged for login helmets, with every 200 hours (game time) of service time exchangeable for 1 login helmet.
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