Magic, Evil Gods, and the Fourth Calamity

It's a common game mechanic where non-player characters ask players for help, requesting that players take them to a safe place, etc.

I've encountered many such tasks when playing games in the past.

But honestly, I've never seen a game like "Otherworld Online" where a player is tasked with escorting over thirty non-player characters.

Qu Nan frowned slightly, then suddenly remembered that this was an MMORPG game!

According to the characteristics of MMORPG games, this kind of task should be carried out by a player party.

Thinking this through, Qu Nan's gaze involuntarily turned to the world channel in the lower right corner of the game interface.

At this moment, messages kept scrolling in the world chat window. Players were either sending out team invitations or selling items at low prices.

This is what a normal, healthy MMORPG world channel should look like.

However, for Qu Nan, this world channel is just for show, because his world channel chat box is grayed out and has a line of text that reads: "Sorry, you are currently an unconventional character and cannot use the world channel."

An unconventional role.

Qu Nan doesn't know how many times he's seen this term, and how many game features he can't use because of it.

However, it's hard to tell without a hunch that the game developers deliberately designed this unconventional character as an isolated island, preventing them from engaging in normal social interactions and forcing them to constantly perform their sole mission—killing—driven by the countdown!

but.

kill!

Is it really the only task?

Looking at this group of emaciated people kneeling on the ground, and at the light of hope flickering in their eyes.

This game is so realistic it's almost frightening; to Qu Nan, these NPCs are just like living people.

Qu Nan felt a little reluctant to leave them here; although they were just game NPCs, they were still human beings.

I glanced at the real time: 9:35 pm.

It's still early, so let's see this through to the end, like seeing a Buddha to the Western Paradise.

So he asked, "Where to? Where do you want me to take you?"

The difficult question caused the old man to fall silent, and after a long while, he stammered out a reply.

"We don't know, sir, we don't know... We've never left this village... We..."

"Oh, I see! Follow me!"

Upon hearing the old man's reply, Qu Nan couldn't help but recall the magnificent city, the invisible wall that had blocked his path, and the human soldiers whose eyes were filled with respect.

Perhaps, these people can go there.

The thought flashed through his mind, and he tried hard to recall the location of the city.

Strangely enough, what is usually a difficult task for someone with no sense of direction in a game was quite easy this time, as it allowed him to easily identify the direction of the city.

Qu Nan strode toward the city, and the thirty-odd surviving villagers followed him after a moment's hesitation.

Then, Qu Nan regretted it.

These survivors were all very thin, and the disturbance from the orcs had left them extremely weak.

What should be a small hurdle that can be overcome in one step can take this group of people several minutes to get through.

After traveling for an hour, we hadn't even covered a tenth of the distance.

trouble!

This is really troublesome!

Qu Nan is considering whether to just log off and get rid of these guys.

The next moment, a little girl with messy hair presented Qu Nan with a pot of wildflowers picked from the roadside.

"Uncle, here are some flowers for you!"

The pale and thin little girl, with her bright, jewel-like eyes, timidly looked at Qu Nan.

And in the jeweled eye, Qu Nan saw his own reflection, which was his real appearance, wearing a strange black armor.

"Thank you, thank you!"

Qu Nan took the flower, subconsciously brought it close to his nose and smelled it, but it didn't have much of a scent.

"Uncle, these flowers smell very nice, they smell wonderful."

After the little girl finished speaking, she ran away like a rabbit, darted into the back of the line, and hid behind a middle-aged man, peeking out with her little head to watch the trouble.

Qu Nanlue shrugged helplessly, but he gave up the idea of ​​abandoning the group of NPCs.

He remembered his partner showing off the dream virtual technology of "Otherworld Online" to him, and he really liked this feature that allowed people to play games and sleep at the same time.

It's 9:50 PM now, and there are still nine hours until I get up. If I speed it up five times, that's 45 hours, almost two days.

This time was enough for Qu Nan to send these NPCs to that city, and his remaining time also seemed to be enough—[1:05:00:56]—with the killing along the way and the orcs, Qu Nan's time successfully increased to more than a day.

Along the way, they encountered many ferocious monsters, and even several orc squads.

However, Qu Nan easily dealt with them and led the group of NPCs towards the city.

Time continued to pass, the blazing sun sank into the west, and the sky was tinged with dark purple.

Night has fallen.

Qu Nan turned back to look at the group of NPCs behind him, panting but still gritting their teeth and persevering, and couldn't help but say, "Let's find a place to rest for the night! We can continue our journey tomorrow!"

The group found a place near the river, on higher ground, with a wide view, to rest.

The man unloaded the bundle he always carried and went to look for firewood nearby.

The women, with children in tow, took out some food and a large pot from the bundles.

They set up a large pot, put the food and the river water they had fetched into it, and started cooking.

Soon the old village chief brought a bowl of hot soup to Qu Nan.

"Sir, would you like something to eat?"

Qu Nan took the wooden bowl handed to him by the old man and found that it contained rice porridge stewed with vegetables and mushrooms.

"Thanks."

I took a bite; it wasn't bad, but it wasn't delicious either.

It was at this moment that the old village chief finally spoke up and asked Qu Nan a question, drawing the attention of everyone eating around him.

"Sir, may I ask how much further we need to go? Where are we going?"

This was a question everyone wanted to know the answer to, but it wasn't asked until after nightfall.

"We've covered half the distance. As for where we're headed... it's a city, a city guarded by humans!"

Qu Nan didn't give a straightforward answer because he didn't know anything about the city. He was just intuitively aware, based on his past experience playing games, that he could take these NPCs there.

However, whether going there was really feasible was uncertain at this point.

"Then, sir..."

The old village chief, who had wanted to ask more questions, saw Qu Nan staring blankly at the wooden bowl and didn't dare to ask anything further, so he silently retreated.

He didn't know if his choice was right or wrong, but he knew that if he continued to stay in the village, he would surely die.

This powerful human is their only choice.

At the same moment, a message popped up and slowly unfolded in Qu Nan's field of vision.

Fearless Firecracker: "Honey, how are you feeling as you spend your first night in this other world?"

Qu Nan: "Not so good, I feel a little panicked."

Fearless Firecracker: "What happened?"

Qu Nan: "In the afternoon, I mean the afternoon in the game, I saved a group of people..."

Qu Nan Jian Dan and Wu Wei Da Pao Zhang explained what had happened, and also took a picture of the NPC next to them and sent it to him.

Fearless Firecracker: "Wow, so many NPCs! Did you save them all, Bao? That's amazing!"

Qu Nan: "It's nothing, I just killed some orcs and rescued them on the way."

Fearless Firecracker: "Speaking of which, Bao, what level is your character now? From your description, it sounds pretty powerful!"

Qu Nan: "What level? I haven't actually checked. Let me take a look now."

Qu Nan: "Is this it? It says lv99 on it."

Fearless Firecracker: "I'm so envious! Upper Silver Rank! Upper Silver Rank! I really want to participate in the limited-time mission and experience the life of a Silver Rank expert!"

Qu Nan: "High-tier Silver, is that very strong?"

Fearless Firecracker: "It's currently considered very strong, and the Silver rank hasn't been unlocked for regular players yet..."

Fearless Firecracker and Qu Nan gave a detailed introduction to the level system in "Otherworld Online," while Qu Nan looked at the messages sent by the other party and couldn't help but turn his gaze to the dark purple night sky filled with light spots.

What a beautiful night sky!

He struggled to respond to the fearless firecracker, but suddenly felt a swelling in his lower abdomen, and a sense of urgency from reality overwhelmed him, prompting him to hastily exit the game.

As soon as he exited the game, Qu Nan climbed out of the game pod and went straight to the toilet. After a relaxing bowel movement, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and returned to his room, lying down on the bed.

He stared at the pure white ceiling, and a wave of weariness made him close his eyes.

When he woke up, it was already dawn outside the window.

I fumbled for my phone by the pillow and realized it was already past five in the morning. I usually take a nap, but I was wide awake.

What's going on? Did you sleep so well last night?

Hmm, I remember I was playing "Otherworld Online"?

The hazy memories instantly became clear, and Qu Nan hurriedly got out of bed, crawled into the game pod, and logged into the game.

Oh no, how did I fall asleep in bed? I wonder how those NPCs are doing?

It's hard to believe that this game is dynamically running; even when players aren't online, everything in the game continues to evolve spontaneously.

Qu Nan was somewhat worried that the NPCs might encounter some danger while he was offline.

A flash of white light appeared, and Qu Nan appeared in a blank space. A full-length mirror stood in front of him, showing Qu Nan's current image—a human male randomly generated by the system.

Is this the character creation process?

I've exited the time-limited mission?

Yes!

My game time is only thirty hours, which is equivalent to six hours in real life.

It's already past five o'clock; the countdown has long since ended.

Qu Nan didn't try to customize his character's appearance; instead, he climbed out of the game pod and lay back down on the bed.

He knew that even if he created his character and entered the game now, he wouldn't appear next to those NPCs.

He will probably never know what those NPCs went through while he was asleep.

I always feel empty inside, like I did something wrong, even if it's just a game.

Get up, wash up, get dressed, and eat.

After doing all this, Qu Nan left home, rode a shared bicycle to the nearest subway station, and took the subway to her company, which was dozens of kilometers away.

Qu Nan signed in early, then sat down at his workstation and began his work for the day.

As colleagues arrived one after another, they immediately spotted Qu Nan, who was engrossed in her work. Several colleagues who were close to Qu Nan were about to go up and tease her, but instead met her gaze with Qu Nan's slightly vacant eyes.

Seeing this, the colleagues wisely refrained from disturbing the conversation, but they couldn't help but huddle together and whisper among themselves.

"What's wrong with him? He doesn't seem to be in good spirits."

"I suspect he broke up with his girlfriend. Wasn't he in a long-distance relationship? Yesterday after get off work, he was bragging to me about going on a date with his girlfriend in a game!"

"Games? What games?"

"His luck with 'Otherworld Online' was ridiculously good. He made a reservation on the first day and got the test qualification for the closed beta 3.0 on the second day."

"...No, why should I? I pre-registered since the closed beta!"

The morning ended quickly; I tried to numb myself with work, which was a way of giving my empty heart something to do.

He sat up straight, stretched, and subconsciously picked up his phone, which led him to the official website of "Otherworld Online," where he clicked on the forum.

Upon entering the official website, he was immediately drawn to a post.

Posted by: Flowers Bloom in Wealth

[On the background story of the limited-time mission "Chaos Race" and the role players assume]

Many of you have probably already entered the limited-time mission and are wondering about this strange mission.

Knowing that this mission requires extending one's existence through constant killing, one must understand that this task demands the ability to prolong one's lifespan.

However, if you think that's all there is to the limited-time missions, you're sorely mistaken.

As many people know, once you enter a timed mission, you will appear in an underground space filled with rotting matter.

After leaving this underground space, we entered a church that enshrined a bone dragon.

Don't think this bone dragon is just background noise; it has a famous title in the game—the Gluttonous Dragon.

That's right, it's the one that opposes the "Throne of Light" and is known as the strongest evil god.

I wonder if you still remember the human who appeared in Sogoria before.

[Image of Alpha]

He was actually a follower of the Gluttonous Dragon, and he led a group of humans with confused beliefs to establish a holy city within the territory of the Orc Empire.

Players in the limited-time missions take on the role of a chaotic race born from flesh and blood, who worship the Gluttonous Dragon.

In the game, they are called unconventional characters.

...]

In the heavenly realm, a blue illusory screen unfolded before Ai Yi, who carefully read the post about "prosperity and wealth" and was quite satisfied with its contents.

However, the only drawback is that the entire article focuses on the Chaos Race and the Gluttonous Dragon, without mentioning another entity, the Hall of War.

Clearly, players are unaware of the changes taking place within the Orc Empire.

Perhaps in their eyes, this is simply how things are within the Orc Empire.

Ai raised her hand to put away the illusory blue screen, turning it into a ball of light and merging it into her body.

The next moment, he looked up at the sky above the divine kingdom, towards the supreme temple that was connected to all the divine kingdoms.

A violent and frenzied aura raged there, as if proclaiming its existence to the gods.