Players’ NPC daddy

"I don't know what the Golden Country is like, but if you lose your body and your soul exists independently, it will be affected by your heart," Chicken explained in Blaze's ear. "You've heard that appearance is determined by the heart, right? The soul is affected even more."

"If you completely separate yourself from your physical body, as a spiritual being, you will change almost instantly."

Blaze could imagine a scenario.

A knight descended from the sky like a hero, choosing not to save a dying Giensian who had resisted persecution and discrimination, but instead ending their lives. Then, the knights retrieved the deceased's soul, revealing a completely unfamiliar figure.

Perhaps the moment they leave their bodies and exist as souls, they will know how wonderful it feels. However, for the living Giens people, this is an extremely evil act that brainwashes their own people and even changes their appearance.

Blaze sighed helplessly. As an outsider, he didn't know how to judge.

Mistaking Blaze for a knight of the El Dorado, the enormous Ghost Rider, distressed by her stubbornness, immediately explained, "You believe that the flesh prevents understanding between beings, obscures the true nature of the heart, and pollutes the soul with the lies and darkness brought about by the flesh's needs. Therefore, the desire to create a perfect nation composed of souls, without lies or hunger, is noble."

"But this is too high a standard for us; we prefer to live superficially."

"I know, and I understand why you wanted me to leave."

Growing up with Marika, how could Blaze not understand how simple the Giens were? So he knew that the giant Ghost Rider was not attacking for his soul.

Blaze looked out at the huge inverted city, the sounds of battle never stopping.

The battle to protect their homeland continues even after it is destroyed.

The giant undead knight is not trying to drive Blaze away for her own soul, but for the warriors of this destroyed, nameless kingdom.

The moment the soul was pulled out by the knights of the Golden Kingdom, it was no longer the soul of this kingdom, this destroyed human race, but the soul of the people of the Golden Kingdom.

The giant undead warrior wants these warriors who protect their homeland to remain warriors of this nameless kingdom until their obsession disappears and their souls are obliterated. He wants these people to prove that the kingdom once existed until the last moment.

This idea seemed so hypocritical to her, an invader and killer. As a Gianes, she was ashamed to say such words.

So they could only use clumsy means and use force to drive away the knights of the Golden Kingdom.

Blaze raised the twisted greatsword and looked at his other self in the reflection through the smooth blade.

While he was troubled by the truth about the Golden Country, he also had doubts.

The Black Beast Knight Blaze is a blessed one. Only by possessing a physical body, or at least a part of a physical body, can one become a blessed one.

Why would a living person be in the golden country where souls live, and become the supreme knight?

Blaze was in a trance for a moment, and he heard again the murmurs of the Black Beast Knight Blaze before he disappeared that night.

"Princess……"

Chapter 177 An unusually familiar routine

Blazer didn't know what to do. He couldn't just say, "Okay, no problem, I won't carry out my mission."

This will undoubtedly cause the extremely upright people of Giens to have a sharp drop in their favorability.

But he couldn't say, no, I have to carry out the mission.

The giant Ghost Rider will undoubtedly continue to fight until he dies once again.

Just when Blaze was having a headache, the giant Ghost Rider suddenly became coy and whispered, "Even if you call me Princess or Miss, I won't let you take those people's souls. This is a matter of principle."

Before Blaze could answer, the chicken, which had deliberately maintained its spirit state, immediately started clamoring.

"Don't get me wrong, he wasn't calling you just now, he was calling me!"

"I'm the only Rooster in the Sky, so I'm not only my own queen, I'm also a princess!"

Clearly, the chicken didn't want anyone else to take advantage of Blaze's unintentional "princess" name. She was perfectly content with this, for Audrey and Marika, possibly even with Herbie's help.

"Yes, is that so?" For some reason, the giant Ghost Rider looked a little lost.

The men of the Giens are proud of their bodies, but the women sometimes have low self-esteem and therefore yearn for the sweet words between ordinary men and women.

Blaze pinched his brows and ignored the chicken's antics. He realized that he wasn't the type to get information indirectly, so he might as well be direct and honest.

Blaze not only took out the previous amnesia setting, but also took out the fairy tale book given by Catherine.

"I see. Not only did you lose your homeland, but you also lost your memory. That's why you want to know about your hometown. No wonder you never took action. I thought it was because you had fallen."

The giant Ghost Rider nodded seriously, believing what Blaze said. He stopped yelling at Blaze to leave immediately and looked at Blaze very seriously.

The negative reputation associated with the Black Beast Knight was reduced through conversation, which wasn't surprising. Whether a title was good or bad, it was ultimately just a first impression. Blaze had encountered strangers before, known as murderers, who nonetheless felt warm and welcoming.

"Look closely, you are the blessed one!" exclaimed the giant Ghost Rider.

Blessed by the gods, immortal, heroic embryos, and able to absorb souls to strengthen themselves, the blessed are shrouded in many enviable halos. However, if these halos fall on the knights of the Golden Kingdom who save the souls of the victims, it will be a complete curse.

The knight who was supposed to save the persecuted was unable to save a single soul, and even used these souls as fuel to strengthen himself.

The blessing from the gods came suddenly, without any warning, like an unexpected surprise. But for the Knights of the Golden Country, it was no less than a sudden disaster.

"Is this the reason why you fell and lost your homeland?" Having said this, the giant Ghost Rider was left with only sympathy and respect for Blaze.

But she also felt sorry that she couldn't do much to help.

"If you want to find your homeland, I can't help you, because we have never really seen the Golden Kingdom, only the knights."

"They are also the people of the Golden Country, who only have souls. By wearing magical armor, they gained the ability to touch the living... Um, our world... Hmm..."

The giant Ghost Rider was struggling with the wording. With her outspoken style, she should have directly called the soul life forms of the people of the Golden Country the dead or the deceased, but she didn't want to say it so harshly in front of Blaze, the knight of the Golden Country.

It would be rude to describe a kingdom protected by brave knights as a world of the dead.

"In short, we once tried to recover the souls of our people, chasing after the knights who were like the sun. But the sun fell into the river of death, and we, the living, cannot transcend death."

"River of Death?" Blaze frowned. Sure enough, there were not so many coincidences in this world.

The kingdom of the dead that Dali Feizhuan mentioned is most likely the Golden Kingdom. Now this lost kingdom is in the underground space known as the world of death.

However, he could never believe that the beauty that the half-bloods talked about was premised on death.

This is a very philosophical question. All the beauty that you can imagine when you are alive is based on being alive. A pure soul, no matter how nice it sounds, is still a dead person. At that time, can you still feel the beauty that you can imagine when you are alive?

Not to mention that after leaving your body, your soul will be completely changed and become a citizen of the Golden Country. Will you still be yourself at that time?

All these questions can only be answered after entering the Golden Kingdom.

"Now I can only ask Dali Feizhuan and the others to take me to the boundary that separates life and death."

Blaze muttered, looking up at the giant Ghost Rider who was observing him and thanking him, "Thank you, Knight who guards this place. I know where I need to go next."

"Although we have different ideas, as a knight who is also protecting his own kingdom, I am honored to help you. I hope you can return to that beautiful kingdom soon." Even though there is a huge conflict in ethical concepts, the giant Ghost Rider still praises the beauty of the Golden Kingdom without hesitation.

"By the way, you said you wanted to stop me from taking away the souls of the undead in this nameless kingdom. Are the people here also mixed-race?"

Blaze was already planning to leave and just asked casually, but the giant Ghost Rider's answer forced him to give up the idea of ​​leaving.

"This involves the Giant Kingdom. No, I cannot tell you about the blood debt and curse that the Giaiens owe."

"Blood debt and... curse?!" Blaze's eyelids jumped. The former was okay, but the brutal war with this nameless kingdom would naturally be judged by future generations.

But the word "curse" shouldn't be used lightly. The last curse he faced was the [Moon Goddess Curse], which was incredibly devastating. Furthermore, this curse was born out of love. If it involved the destruction of an entire kingdom...

"Malika."

Blaze clenched his fists, his red hair dancing before his eyes. He couldn't let another curse plague Marika, already cursed.

"Please tell me about this blood debt, please."

"Since you want to know so much, as the blessed one, if you do one thing for me, I will tell you the whole story."

"Um?!"

The corners of Blaze's mouth twitched. This routine looked extremely familiar.

Isn't this the same old man at the fruit stall? No, isn't this the "If you want to know XXX, do me a favor" tactic used by so many people?!

Chapter 178 Powerful strangers are often perverted

When "Godlock" was first launched, there was one thing that was very criticized, that is, many tasks had no actual rewards, so that the process of upgrading and acquiring wealth was very close to real life and seemed too hardcore.

When players see a villager with a troubled expression, they instinctively rush over to help, delivering a letter or chasing away wild beasts, and generally doing a lot of what would be considered beginner quests in other games.

But after the players completed the task, they found that the villagers would only express their gratitude verbally, and would not take out coins as rewards, nor would they give props, and would not even tell them the anecdotes of the village.

Players immediately started to complain, complaining about the stinginess of the production team. Some players even thought of a massacre because they found that they could obtain the NPC's property after killing it.

But as soon as this trend started, most players found that NPCs began to become indifferent, even hostile and fearful towards players, and were unwilling to seek help from players even when they were in danger.

At this time, a college student majoring in game production named Penguin analyzed a hidden value, which is [the trust of the natives in the group of foreigners].

Unlike other games, players do not assume the role of an ancient person, but a person from a completely unfamiliar and novel world to the entire world.

No one would take it for granted that they would trust a group of people from another world, and the behavior of the players at the launch of the game would determine the atmosphere of the entire game world in the future.

Some players want to kill NPCs, but many more want to explore the world. The world is now filled with an atmosphere of admiration for outsiders, of seeing them as heroes. This was created by the original group of players who launched the server, bearing the negative impact of players who specialized in killing NPCs, and working hard to move forward.

Just as things were looking stable and positive, Penguin once again speculated on a new direction for the game. He believed there was a second hidden value: the Natives' trust in a single stranger. This trust would cause NPCs to proactively contact their most trusted players for help.

Then, the first hidden NPC, Catherine, the elf from the novice village Alcmene, appeared.

This was a story told by a certain player who enjoys gardening, fishing, and fishing, while fishing with an old man in the village. Of course, because the player is really a Buddhist, he only announced the existence of this elf NPC online, but did not say where this elf NPC is hidden.

Starting from the first hidden NPC, players discovered that the world had become extremely huge, with countless fantastic worldviews and tasks coming one after another, with new things almost every day.

The sales of "Godlock", which many people loved and hated because of its excellent quality and complained about while playing, increased several times in one go and received a surge in positive reviews.

It’s a pity that the penguin who analyzed the hidden value never published any new analysis.

According to someone with a mosaiced face who claimed to be Penguin's roommate, on a dark and windy night, a Gothic woman, after failing to seduce Penguin with her clumsy techniques, knocked him unconscious with a helmet labeled "Hypnotic Depravity Device No. 1." Then, another super-muscular man put Penguin in a sack and took him away.

After that, there were only rumors of penguins being treated inhumanely.

In their spare time, some people suspected that this college student with no background must have offended the underworld, but no one ever doubted the producers of "Godlock", whose image fits the two criminals very well.

After all, this penguin helped "Godlock" shorten the players' exploration phase, which would have resulted in a large number of negative reviews, and allowed every player to know a fixed process for figuring out the task.

There won't be any company boss who willfully thinks that the bad reviews caused by players freely exploring the game world and encountering difficulties are more important than the good reviews brought by fixed process routines.

However, although players have a fixed process, NPCs will still often give them sudden surprises.

If you don't throw away the gift given by the old woman you helped, but keep it in the warehouse, then one day, when you have forgotten about it, a man or woman with a secret will find your unrequited kindness from the dusty warehouse of your forgotten memories and ask for your help.

Such things are not uncommon in this world. Everyone seems to be unrelated, but they are connected because of the strangers wandering around the world.

Therefore, for players, the gifts from NPCs are extremely important, and they all symbolize an undiscovered special mission.

……

"Do we...really want to give this thing to strangers?"

"Will it be used in the grand and highly anticipated knighting ceremony in New Arcadia in a few days?"

Herbie's eyes twitched as she watched the Arcadia-exclusive armor Hard forged for the glorious knights. The reason she'd repeatedly emphasized the frantic prefixes for the knighthood ceremony three days later was so Hard could consider it carefully.

"This is what foreigners like. I will never go against the needs of my customers." Had waved his hand and rejected Herbi. He was only here to replenish the goods, not to listen to Herbi's doubts about his products.

"Besides, this kind of armor saves a lot of materials. A small profiteer like you wouldn't want to have more sets of this kind of armor, would you?"

"But this..." Hebi tremblingly lifted the bikini armor from the box, which could only barely cover two points of his chest. "Is it necessary to make this thing specifically for Arcadia? Anyway, it can only cover a small area before and after transformation!"

"If something like this were to appear at a knighthood ceremony, it would be a public execution!"

"No, it's better to say that this kind of armor is worthy of a truly powerful warrior." Had crossed his arms and showed a deep expression.

"I used to be troubled by the fact that powerful foreigners always pride themselves on exposing more of their bodies, seeing it as a symbol of strength. This makes armor meaningless."

"But I soon discovered that those foreigners didn't simply enjoy exposing themselves; they were actually enjoying the [extremes] and [dangers]. The large amount of armor covering them made them feel like they were just swords in their sheaths."

"So you're going to use this armor to make them unsheathe it?"

"That's right." Had suddenly began to speak in high-speed divine language like a great magician.

"As the saying goes, there's always a price to pay for every gain. The inevitable price to pay for fully-covered armor is that the material's defense is dispersed throughout the body, diminishing. But if it's just these three points, these tiny areas, it's like concentrating all the defense, perfectly reflecting the material's power. This time, I'm using orichalcum, a mysterious, magical ore. These three points of defense are no longer armor, but swords that can deflect attacks! While the price is that the rest of the armor is completely defenseless, foreigners will actually appreciate it!"

"They'll be so excited to use these three points of armor to deflect monster attacks!"

"I only heard that the stranger would use these three points to deflect the monster's attacks. For a moment, I didn't know whether to complain that the stranger was as powerful as a monster, or complain that the stranger was like a perverted monster."

Hebi covered her face. She rarely regretted anything, but when she thought about the first batch of honorary knights of New Arcadia using this armor to defeat the enemy in other territories and receive praise, her stomach ached.

Hader stroked his chin and thought for a moment, then handed a large-sized bikini armor to Herbie.

"Look at it this way. Someone as flat and petite as you can actually be protected by this kind of armor."

"Go away, go away. Take the ore and use it to make iron for me."

"Okay!" Had gave a thumbs up and dragged out a box from the warehouse of [Hermes's Traveling Hat]. The box was full of gray ore.