Building a sect from scratch.

Chapter 51 My Apprentice is an NPC
Help! My apprentice is an NPC, what should I do!?

The latest viral post on the gaming forum wasn't posted by Wang Ergou, but by a lucky player's alt account whose level clearly indicated they'd been lurking for a long time. This sparked a lot of excitement among netizens.

After all, we're tired of seeing flying bamboo rafts; it's just the same few videos and screenshots over and over again, not exciting enough.

However, it's rumored that Lani is already preparing to use the hefty compensation money from Wang Ergou to manually craft the flying boat. Furthermore, to satisfy the perverted requests of netizens who want to spy on her progress at any time, Lani has even opened a dedicated live streaming account, uploading screen recordings of her hand-crafting process every day. The reason for uploading screen recordings is mainly because the game's live streaming function is not yet available. What infuriates everyone the most is that even after being criticized for so long, the game's official team has remained completely silent, as if they were dead.

But as soon as this post came out, Lani's handmade flying boat was immediately pushed down to second place in popularity.

"As the player with the undisputed top combat power in the entire server, I am posting this with immense regret."

"I'm so stupid, really. I only knew that I couldn't flirt with the sect NPCs, otherwise I would lose favorability. I didn't know that this game had hidden values, and I couldn't even joke around with them."

"That day, my friend went to dig for spirit herbs as soon as he logged on. By the time I logged on, he had already filled a backpack with them. He then told me to go to Guangcheng Immortal Abode in Taiping Town to sell them."

"I am very obedient. I listened to every word he said, so I went. After I sold the spirit herbs, I wanted to go back to the sect. Who knew that I would see an extremely ugly little boy NPC on the way? I had a brain fart and wanted to flirt with him and ask him if he would like to be my apprentice and come back to the Taiyin Sect with me."

"He actually agreed! I didn't expect the NPCs in this game to be this intelligent. The kid actually took it seriously. But I was just joking! I just casually made an appointment with him and then left."

"Who would have thought the game's NPCs had such amazing memory? Kid waited for me for over ten days! Everyone says I'm shameless and heartless for even lying to Kid, but I just thought it's just a game, what's the big deal..."

"Then when it came time to test my spiritual roots, I became the only one in the entire server with five spiritual roots! Five spiritual roots! My mana regeneration during meditation is slower than others! With this aptitude, even if the game developer wanted me to be the protagonist, I could only be a useless protagonist!"

"The guy next door with two spiritual roots said he only stole a chicken and suddenly he has two spiritual roots, but I lied to the kid and he got five spiritual roots right away! What does this mean? Does it mean the kid is more valuable than a chicken? No! It means you have to be extremely careful when interacting with any NPC in this game!"
"Fortunately, this game has a high degree of freedom. Yesterday, Brother Er Gou told me that he wanted me to go back to Brother Xiao Hai to fulfill my promise and see if I could reverse my spiritual root. How could I not cooperate? I don't want to be wiping the floor forever!"
"Later, after we found the kid, we took him in, and it did have some effect, but not much effect—for example, now my mana regeneration speed during meditation is the same as other players, but my spiritual root is still five spiritual roots, and my mana bar is still short and weak!"

"So brothers, there are countless paths to immortality, but the first rule is civilization and morality—a lesson learned through blood and tears, brothers!"
"Finally, I want to ask, how should I take care of a 14-year-old illiterate child? How should I teach him in school? What textbooks should I use? Urgent! Waiting online!"

The original poster's narrative, reminiscent of Xianglin's wife, successfully turned the comment section into a massive farce, with almost no one offering serious advice.

Besides the netizens who love watching the drama unfold, some were shocked that "Ten States Chronicles" actually allows for a nurturing/raising system, and they were all very interested in it.

Until Wang Ergou followed up from the first floor: "To be honest, I was also tempted to take on an NPC as an apprentice, but I tried it all afternoon yesterday and found that apart from the little boy that Zhen Junzi took on, all the NPCs nearby had incomplete spiritual roots and basically couldn't cultivate! And whenever I mentioned any keywords related to 'taking on an apprentice,' a dialog box would pop up on my face, warning me that the NPCs' aptitude was too poor to cultivate, and if I persisted, it would be treated as fraud, and in serious cases, my game account would be canceled and I would be permanently blacklisted... Hmm... Although I think this thing is set up very irrationally, I didn't cheat anyone out of money, so how could it be fraud! But to be honest, I've already been warned once, and if it happens again, I might lose the game, so Ergou doesn't recommend that anyone follow Zhen Junzi's example, that kid's luck is just heaven-defying!"

The sub-section also included several screenshots of Wang Ergou being warned, which were very convincing.

Following Wang Ergou, many netizens with extremely peculiar thought processes chimed in: "So, the current situation is that player Zhen Junzi possesses a server-wide exclusive pet and a unique NPC follower/disciple?" "Hmm... how can this not be considered a serendipitous encounter?"

"You know what, who wouldn't be tempted by such an extraordinary reward? Who wouldn't be bewildered?"

"I'll hit the kid hard the third time, but the kid will be all 'Auntie loves you' the second time. That's right, I'm a hypocrite!"

"But this kid's appearance is really too jarring to look at..."

"Raising a child! This is a perfect opportunity to play a raising game! OP, remember to treat the kid's illness, bathe him, deworm him, and sterilize him... cough, sorry, wrong topic..."

"Listen to me, feed the child first. Look how hungry this little guy is!"

"Maybe they're just naturally thin!"

"OP, I suggest starting with teaching pinyin. My little niece's preschool pinyin textbook is quite good!"

"Surely not? Fourteen years old and still can't read?"

"You think ancient times are like modern times? And you think people could read? More than two hundred years ago, the global literacy rate wasn't even 20%! Let alone in ancient times when there weren't even any countries!"

"This is a fictional game! Everyone's cultivating immortality, and you're talking to me about logic?!"

"Can't there be logic in cultivating immortality? Where did this idea come from? Are you a reincarnation of a contrarian?"

"Wait, hold on, the poster is supposed to teach the kid how to cultivate immortality, right? But the poster is a player! How can they teach him? They can't just teach the kid how to chop down trees the fastest and then exchange that for experience to level up, can they? That's a bit too far-fetched..."

"Upstairs, you guessed it. Look, this post is all over the place and the poster hasn't responded yet. It's because he's in the sect's library, studying the 'Qi Guiding Technique' on his own! The system warned him that if he doesn't provide proper guidance and education to the kid for more than a week, he'll be 'permanently dead'—basically, his account will be invalidated, his genetic identity permanently blacklisted, and he'll never be able to play this game again! Oh, you're asking how I know this? Of course, it's because I'm the one who sent him to sell spirit herbs! Sigh, because of this, he even emptied all my silver and spirit stones, claiming it was compensation for his emotional distress so he could raise his disciple. I kind of regret it..."

Good-natured netizens flocked online to watch the drama unfold: "Holy crap! The guy who started this is here! They haven't even broken off their friendship yet, they're definitely true love!"

So sleepy... I don't have time to check it now, there might be typos, I'll fix it when I wake up QAQ
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(End of this chapter)