My lord, spare his life!

Things from the past?

Zhang Yang suppressed the instinct to draw her knife and slash—a real human wouldn't refrain from attacking someone with a red name so close to her—but she held back. Without showing any emotion, she feigned confusion: "What happened before? What happened?"

Despite the fact that tens of millions of "visitors from outer space" are men, women, young and old, they all use the same identity and experience similar things, which players call "missions".

The NPC on the homestead asks her if she remembers the past. Isn't this treating her like a player to follow the storyline?

I've triggered a homestead quest.

Zhang Yang tried hard to recall the few human learning samples she had closely observed. One of them had indeed invited her to team up to fight monsters in a homestead quest. Thinking of this, Zhang Yang calmed down.

She deduced two conclusions—

First, the home missions are not difficult.

Secondly, the red-named monsters are not difficult to defeat.

If it's too difficult, and the task has a high barrier to entry, it's impossible for every player she's observing and learning from to have a homestead, since they're all reassuringly unskilled. Zhang Yang calmed herself, forcing herself to ignore the temptation of being a red-named player: "Have we met before?"

She posed the question as a pretext.

He stared with great interest at the other party's unchanging red name.

Amidst the chilling, dense thunder, the mysterious passerby in the rainy night scrutinized Zhang Yang with a veiled suspicion, clearly disbelieving every word she uttered. Yet, his words surprised Zhang Yang: "We've more than just met, Your Highness—"

Zhang Yang tilted his head: "Your Highness?"

In her memory, the only two human players she observed and studied who were associated with the word "Your Highness" were named Taro Boba Coconut Milk Prince and Call Me Crown Prince. To distinguish between these two, Zhang Yang used the first two characters.

She also asked the two people observing the samples out of curiosity.

Why do they all call him/her "Your Highness"?

Is this what a large family is like?

【Yes, yes, yes, although we are both Your Highnesses, I am the Milk Tea Party Prince, and the one you are talking about is the Feudal Remnant Party Prince. It's like we're both stones; if we stay on the mountain, we're called Mountain Stones, and if we stay at the foot of the mountain, we're called Foot Stones.】

This explanation is simple and easy to understand.

Zhang Yang secretly noted it down in his observation diary.

Now, she has become "Your Highness".

I just don't know which faction's prince he is.

"I am—" Seeing that Zhang Yang's reaction did not seem feigned, the mysterious passerby in the rainy night felt a little relieved. He paused suspiciously for a few breaths before continuing, "I am the younger brother of the military commander in your household. I have met Your Highness a few times with my elder brother."

Zhang Yang: "..."

Her blank, vacant eyes seemed to convey a single sentence—

What is this person mumbling incoherently?

"Your Highness!"

"Don't rush, speak slowly, I'm listening."

For example, you could first explain to her who Dianjun is.

This is the pain point for NPCs.

Even though she tried her best to imitate and observe human players, learning their behavior and emulating them in every way, as an NPC, she couldn't intervene in the main storyline. She could only piece together the general plot from the words of countless observation samples. She even had to write down the emotional reactions that should occur during these tasks to avoid giving herself away.

The side quests for the homestead were completely unknown to me.

She gathered far too little information.

He spoke in a complicated manner, and Zhang Yang listened attentively.

Even though she couldn't understand eight out of ten sentences, she would use the system to record the conversation and review it later when she had time.

On a mysterious rainy night, a passerby introduced himself as Shen Zhi.

The moment he finished his introduction, the scarlet words "Mysterious Rainy Night Passerby A" above his head changed to the scarlet words "Shen Zhi".

Shen Zhi's elder brother served as the military commander at the princess's residence and was one of her confidants. During a period of chaos and rebellion, his brother led troops to escort the princess and her officials to safety. However, they were separated by the fleeing rebels. Worried about his brother's safety, Shen Zhi returned to search for him and his group.

Shen Zhiyan's words were full of worry.

Zhang Yang, however, was completely confused.

However, she understood some of the information.

"So you're looking for your brother. Well, wait until the rain stops and it's light before you look for him. It's easy to get struck by lightning in this thunderstorm."

Shen Zhi seemed to have not expected Zhang Yang to react this way.

He shook his head solemnly: "I cannot abandon His Highness."

Zhang Yang: "..."

Oh, by the way, her role in the mission is "Your Highness".

It seems that His Highness is still a remnant of feudalism.

Zhang Yang replied quite naturally, "No need."

Shen Zhi stubbornly refused.

"Though I may be a playboy, I know what's important and what's urgent. Right now, there are chaotic armies everywhere, trying to capture Your Highness. If my brother finds out I abandoned Your Highness and failed to protect you, how could he possibly let me off?" Shen Zhi knelt on one knee, adopting a posture of submission and loyalty. "Shen Zhi, the third son of the Shen family, is willing to serve Your Highness, even unto death!"

Zhang Yang stared at the red name above Shen Zhi's head and fell into deep thought.

Should she do this task or not?

Should she kill Shen Zhi or not?

Shen Zhi could clearly feel Zhang Yang's blatant gaze upon him, but he gritted his teeth and endured it, his expression remaining impassive. At that moment, Zhang Yang's voice came from above him: "I have a question. You said you were going to protect me for your brother? Then why didn't you show any worry or urgency when you saw me torn to pieces? Do you think I'd believe you?"

As soon as the words were spoken, a chilling sensation approached.

The snow-white blade was pressed against his neck.

Zhang Yang's voice was calm but impatient: "Answer."

Shen Zhi saw his reflection in the blade out of the corner of his eye.

Clearly, a poor explanation could lead to execution.

Shen Zhi swallowed hard: "The great building is about to collapse. If Your Highness really dies here, all past grievances will be wiped clean. My brother will naturally not be bound by gratitude and can retreat to our ancestral home with his family."

But who would have thought she wasn't completely dead?

He was clearly chopped off with such great force and then hanged.

Not only did he not die, but his body was also stitched back together.

Now that things have come to this, he has no other choice.

If she were allowed to run around aimlessly here without her memory, and then run into the rebels, things would become even more complicated. Shen Zhi exhaled a breath of stale air: "I understand that Your Highness doesn't trust me, but your current situation is far more dangerous than you imagine. Why not trust me this once?"

Zhang Yang looked at his name with suspicion as it turned back to yellow.

No, is this person a fence-sitter?

Their stance keeps shifting.

She sheathed her long sword and chose to keep him for the time being.

"I'll trust you this once, but if you dare to harbor murderous intent towards me again, you won't have your head left on your neck."

Shen Zhi clutched the spot on his neck where the blade had just touched.

I touched a hand full of warm, sticky blood.

He clenched his fists.

Turning his head, Zhang Yang pulled out a notebook from somewhere.

Write a few words in a scribbled manner.

"Shen Zhi, an NPC with a name..."

There are tens of millions of players, and even more NPCs.

Game developers naturally don't bother giving every NPC a name. Many NPCs only have general titles, such as "thug from this place," "hooligan from that place," "thug from that place," "zombie from that place," or "monster from that place"—these are the kinds of small monsters that players repeatedly kill and respawn. Even NPCs within the player's area of ​​activity are often referred to as "this old lady," "that old man," or "whose child"... Names are very rare among NPCs.

Shen Zhi has a name.

This often indicates that the other person is a "character" who may be involved in other quests. Killing the NPC might cause a bug that prevents the quest from progressing. Players can log off to repair the client and wait for a refresh, but she can't.

"...Keep them for now, kill them after you're done."