My lord, spare his life!

The wisdom of 016:23

How can you make someone break through your defenses quickly?

Naturally, this involves questioning the expertise that the other party is so proud of.

As soon as Zhang Yang finished speaking, she saw something flash by. A look of confusion crossed her peach blossom eyes as she gazed at the top of the mysterious woman's head. She said sincerely, "If you don't know, you don't know. It's not something shameful. Why are you getting so worked up?"

The mysterious woman, who had been in a green name state, suddenly became a red name.

Even if it was just for a moment, it showed that the other party had intended to kill.

According to Zhang Yang's observations and summaries of the samples, this phenomenon is called "breaking down defenses," "getting angry," or "becoming furious out of embarrassment."

The mysterious woman almost couldn't hold back the smile on her face.

She spoke slowly and solemnly: "I am indeed a strategist who advises people, but I only advise those who are loyal to their lord. You are not among them, so why should I answer such a question for you? If you really want to know, I can certainly offer some guidance."

As long as Zhang Yang dares to take the initiative, she will make things difficult for him.

To everyone's surprise, Zhang Yang simply shook his head.

Mysterious woman: "Why don't you want to know anymore?"

This young friend is quite fickle, despite his young age.

"The answer is definitely not with you, nor with anyone else." Zhang Yang's logic for reaching this conclusion was very simple: "If you knew that your lord was not just a rebel leader who needed to massacre cities and plunder the poor to replenish his military supplies, and if others knew, there wouldn't be the seven great states and countless smaller vassal states you mentioned in this vast land."

The mysterious woman's pupils trembled.

It was unclear whether Zhang Yang was genuinely stupid or pretending.

A true fool would obviously not say such a thing.

"Therefore, there's only one truth!" Zhang Yang seemed to have had a sudden enlightenment, standing up and pointing to the map, saying, "The answer is actually right here with me!"

Instead of seeking advice from others, it's better to analyze yourself inwards.

She just hasn't figured it out yet.

Mysterious woman: "..."

"You don't look well, so you can sleep in this bed." Before the mysterious woman could react, Zhang Yang used the windowsill to flip over, then lightly jumped onto the roof tiles, sat cross-legged, and took out her laptop from her game backpack.

She has thirty-two such notebooks.

The contents were fragmented, mostly consisting of behavioral guidelines, precautions, and details she had summarized from observing human samples, with the remainder being the content of the game activities. Zhang Yang rested her chin on her hand as she flipped through these notes by the moonlight.

"The higher-ups must have a solution..."

Besides flipping through her old notebooks, Zhang Yang also pulled out the system log. The system log detailed who she had met, what she had done, and what she had said after entering the homestead side quest. She focused on analyzing her interactions with Shen Zhi and the mysterious woman.

"...There don't seem to be any clues..."

Just as I was about to close the system logs, I noticed something with my sharp eyes.

She scrolled down the system panel, which was visible only to her.

[Congratulations! You've discovered a new character, a mysterious woman. Status: Recruitable. Would you like to add her to your friend list?]

Can NPCs be added as friends?

In the past, adding friends was just an observation sample.

Zhang Yang thought for a moment and added the mysterious woman to his friend list.

After adding the one-way friend, Zhang Yang casually opened the friend list he hadn't paid attention to in a long time, paused for a moment, closed it, and then reopened it.

"...Where are my observation samples?"

My friend list of tens of thousands of profile pictures was completely cleared out at some point.

At this moment, only the mysterious woman who had just joined remained. The mysterious woman's profile picture was a black outline of a woman; her real name was not displayed, and there was a recruitment tag next to her profile picture.

Zhang Yang disregarded all of this, focusing solely on finding the missing observation sample. Soon, a chill ran down her spine as an extremely ominous guess quietly surfaced in her mind—could it be that the game's official team had discovered her?

Or did she encounter an even more serious bug?

The disappearance of the observed sample left Zhang Yang feeling extremely insecure. The intense crisis she felt when she first gained consciousness returned, causing her anxiety, distress, and torment: "...If I were human..."

If she were a human player, she could ask the official team to retrieve the friend data of the observation samples, but unfortunately, she is a bug!

Isn't her contacting the game's official representatives just walking into a trap?

Zhang Yang frowned, staring blankly at the bright moon in the sky, her thoughts in disarray, as if countless balls of yarn had been thrown into a blue frame and were swinging back and forth, the ends of the yarn all tangled together.

"No, no..."

Zhang Yang suddenly stood up and paced back and forth on the roof tiles.

"You must have misunderstood something."

In that instant, Zhang Yangfu suddenly remembered some details, and the problem that had been troubling him suddenly became clear. The observation samples could befriend adventurer NPCs with special identities, and get their help when they encountered trouble: "Could it be that the observation samples' friend data wasn't lost, but rather temporarily blocked by the game developers? Are the player friend lists and NPC friend lists separate?"

This explanation is the most plausible.

Zhang Yang finally understood this and let out a long sigh of relief.

"...You're scaring yourself."

Her gloomy mood immediately returned to its high, and she lowered her head, enthusiastically examining her new friends list.

[Name: Mysterious Woman (Unknown, inquiry recommended)]

Age: 32

[Faction: Rebels (Temporary)]

【Occupation: Strategist】

[Stars: Unknown (To be deciphered)]

[Talent: Unknown (To be revealed)]

Loyalty: 49 (Loyalty level is low)

Morality: 49 (Low Morality Value)

[Intelligence: 89 (Those with too low intelligence cannot be controlled)]

[Ambition: 98 (Too ambitious, recruit with caution)]

[Title: None available]

When she saw this page pop up in the NPC friend list, she suddenly remembered that she seemed to have a similar data page.

She immediately opened her profile picture.

The content above has undergone slight changes from the beginning.

Name: Zhang Yang, courtesy name Boyuan

Age: Unknown (disguised)

[Faction]: None available (can be formed)

[Stars]: None available

[Talent]: To be unlocked

Loyalty: 3 (Upgradeable)

Morality: 13 (Upgradeable)

[Strategy]: 23 (Upgradeable)

[Ambition]: 100 (Max)

[Title]: Wanderer

[Current Status]: An unknown passerby

Zhang Yang couldn't care less about being emo, and she had no time to worry about whether the game's officials would find out and eliminate her. She was furious!

"Why is my intelligence only 23?"

A level of intelligence of 23? Isn't that just plain stupid?

"Why is her intelligence score 89?"

Zhang Yang was shocked, Zhang Yang was angry, Zhang Yang was confused.

Unconvinced, I checked the system logs again.

She frantically scrolled up and finally found an old record: [Congratulations! You've discovered a new character, Mysterious Rainy Night Passerby A**, Status: Recruitable, Add to Friends List?]

Zhang Yang added the mysterious passerby from the rainy night to his friends list.

Name: Shen Zhi, courtesy name Shude

Age: 18

[Faction: None]

[Occupation: Military General]

[Stars: Unknown (To be deciphered)]

[Talent: Unknown (To be revealed)]

Loyalty: 88 (Slightly high; can be trusted after being subdued)

[Morality: 87 (Slightly high, can be trusted after being subdued)]

[Strategy: 69 (Slightly low, proceed with caution when considering advice)]

[Ambition: 64 (Slightly low, can be trusted after being subdued)]

[Title: None available]