Reincarnation NPC, but Arknights

What's the point of seeing the player? The so-called sense of familiarity stems from seeing someone from the past. But now, he and the player are no longer from the same world.

He no longer belongs to Earth... and can never go back.

……

"What's wrong with you? Why are you standing there like that?" Chen Huijie reached out and nudged Bai Ye.

Bai Ye snapped out of his daze, steadied himself, looked at Chen Sir beside him, and casually asked, "Chen Sir, do you know what a control panel is?"

"Control panel? What's that? Elevators don't need control panels; we have a more advanced processing system."

It seems you don't know.

Bai Ye is now certain that he is indeed the only one who possesses this so-called NPC panel.

He may be the only Terran who can interact with the player's game panel through his own built-in panel.

A person caught in the middle, belonging neither to this side nor to that side.

He is also the only NPC who can independently edit and issue quests to players.

The other tasks that players accept are probably all automatically generated by the system.

If we can make good use of this...

Bai Ye calmed himself down. He had an incredibly strong ability to accept reality because he truly had a big heart. Even if an arrow grazed his face, he wouldn't blink.

'As long as you keep moving forward, the road will continue to extend.'

……

Inspector Chan's arrival finally resolved the "Carmen" incident.

Along with the Imperial Guard officers came a large number of medical personnel who set up temporary quarantine checkpoints outside Zone 5 to deal with the "vagrants" who had piled up outside the city gates.

An announcement blared outside the border: "Attention—"

"Please cooperate with the staff in the mineral disease quarantine and pass through the quarantine checkpoint in batches and in an orderly manner according to the staff's instructions."

"Once any unregistered infected person is discovered, the Konoe Bureau will arrest them in accordance with the Emergency Response Act."

"Please note—"

……

In short, everything is on track.

The players' initial restlessness and anxiety began to ease, and they started looking around, curiously observing the Royal Guard officers standing to the side with their weapons in hand.

"Finally, we're getting into the main story... This should be considered a real-time rendered cutscene?"

"Awesome, seamless connection, but the latency is a bit high."

"Does anyone know what an infected person is? Is it a zombie?"

"There should be a plot analysis coming soon..."

The players were discussing it amongst themselves. Although Carmen was frustrating, the problem was finally resolved.

Then, they saw the white night.

There was no way around it; the police officers standing next to them were all wearing standard armor and full-coverage helmets, so their faces weren't visible at all. They looked like mass-produced NPCs.

In this situation, Bai Ye stood out directly.

Besides, he's so handsome, it would be hard for him to be unremarkable.

A long, black trench coat (bought casually), a handsome appearance that appeals to both men and women (a charm attribute of '96), a cool expression (actually, he's spacing out)...

"Holy crap, that NPC is awesome! By the way, who's the face model for him?!"

"The planners and programmers should apologize to the artists right now; they've given us a hard time since the game launched."

"What a handsome young man! Mom, I'm in love."

"Quickly, come and fencing with me!"

"Great! I'm even more excited for the rest of the game now. Hurry up and bring it on, I can't wait!"

"This person must be the main character?"

……

Bai Ye himself was unaware that he had become famous.

The game's public beta launch already garnered immense attention.

Through screenshots of the live stream, his photo immediately appeared on the forum and then spread to other parts of the internet.

The marketing accounts, self-media, and even the editors of the "Shocking News" department mixed in with the live stream immediately lit up.

Here comes the bombshell! A single image to start, everything else is made up.

What does it mean to use a technique of first criticizing and then praising?

First, they lock the players out of the door, and then suddenly release such a good-looking NPC. It's hard for Bai Ye not to become popular!

It's a pity the game's developers don't know how to appeal to otaku.

Wouldn't it be better if it were a prettier girl?

Oh, you mean that policewoman... She is indeed pretty, but unfortunately, she can't compare to the handsome young man.

If Bai Ye could achieve legendary status on Earth, his head would definitely be getting a crazy +1s of progress.

In a sense, Bai Ye has succeeded in his goal. He has indeed left a deep impression on the players—his coordination with Carmen was excellent.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Players and White Night Through Chen Huijie's Eyes

"Where did these...people come from?"

Officer Chen Huijie looked at the chaotic group of players in front of her and didn't know what to say. Even as a top student who graduated from the Royal Victoria Guard Academy and had been a police officer in Lungmen for many years, she had never seen so many strange people.

It's hard to say.

Chen Huijie's expression was rather strange; she felt that the shock she had experienced in the entire previous year was not as great as the shock she had received in just one day.

"I feel pretty good about it?"

Bai Ye raised an eyebrow. He stood next to Chen Huijie, but seemed somewhat unconvinced.

That's it?

It seems this group of players isn't very good. They haven't gone too far yet, but their level of self-expression is far less than that of the predecessors who fully explored the early stages of the game.

It's still the same as always, too simplistic.

There's one more thing I need to learn.

"Why do they look so strange?" Chen Huijie found it an eyesore, but she also felt that these guys were actually quite pitiful, and she couldn't laugh at them because of their bizarre appearance.

"Oh, it's just that they have a unique aesthetic sense, no need to worry about it." Bai Ye waved his hand after hearing Officer Chen Huijie's words. Speaking of which, seeing the appearance of the ancient god, he only felt a sense of familiarity; he had seen too many in his previous life and was already used to it. Come to think of it, it would be strange if the random team were all normal people.

Do you think they are pitiful?

These guys probably enjoy it.

Arknights Online supports character customization, allowing players to adjust facial features and body shape to a certain extent, but players must choose a specific race to become a character. The selectable races are Lupo (Holo), Felin (Catgirl), Pero (Doggirl), Volpo (Foxgirl), Fengti (Minotaur), Caster (Rabbit), and Durin (Dwarf).

However, apart from the Dulin, the differences between these races are only in appearance and have no effect on their initial attributes.

The Durin race will have some of their Strength attribute reduced, but their Agility attribute will be increased to match their small size.

Actually, Chen Huijie's statement about players having unusual appearances isn't entirely accurate. At least, a quick glance by Bai Ye revealed that a large portion of the players had chosen female characters. Of course, this doesn't mean that all those selected were female players; it just suggests that perhaps any game with character customization will eventually become a dress-up game.

TerraNuts truly lives up to its reputation!

There are quite a few players who look like ancient gods. Some people like to dress themselves up very beautifully, while others like to dress themselves up very strangely.

The weirder the outfit, the faster the kill; maybe that's just the unique quirk of a big shot.

Bai Ye glanced at the IDs and found that the one with the strangest appearance seemed to be called [Wang Laoju].

This one is even more important; he's a well-known content creator on Bilibili, specializing in game gameplay videos.

Speaking of which, he was really lucky; he actually won a spot in the public beta test. No wonder people in my previous life always claimed it was an inside story.

The proportion of the above two phenomena will continue to decrease after the server opens, because as the version is released, the number of players will continue to increase, and Arknights Online will have social attributes. At this time, it will be really embarrassing to talk and communicate with classmates, teachers or even superiors while wearing a strange face or a female character.

Unless you're a lone wolf like Bai Ye in his previous life, who doesn't care about anything.

……

It has to be said that Chen Huijie's work today is destined to be very hard. She originally thought that there were enough people, but now it seems that the number of guards she brought is still too few.

She had to personally step in to maintain order.

"You all, line up and stop rolling around. And you, stop jumping."

She just couldn't understand why some people liked to roll around on the ground, and why some people seemed to find the floor too hot to walk on, so they would jump every few steps.

This is actually an old tradition passed down from games of the past. In the past, game input devices were usually keyboards and mice or gamepads, and players always preferred to move by rolling, sprinting, and jumping instead of walking and running normally.

In short, forget about walking normally.

Even though it has now become a fully stealth game, this "glorious" old tradition has been preserved, much like a kind of sentiment.

Some have even questioned whether games are even necessary if everything in them is as realistic as in real life, with so many additional constraints and rules. In reality, you can't possibly roll around while walking, but in games, you can do something just as cool.

This is the significance of fully immersive games.

Of course, this kind of "meaning" was something Officer Chen Huijie could never understand. She just thought these players were noisy. And some players always liked to surround her, as if she were some rare animal.

The people of Terra cannot understand gamers. There are no online games here; the harsh Originium environment has severed connections between nations and even cities. In Terra, only intercity local area networks exist. The variety of games here is also limited, with most games played on consoles or handhelds.

For example, the currently popular game is Monster Hunter, produced in Japan. Its main content revolves around defeating monsters, collecting dropped materials to craft new weapons, and challenging stronger bosses. It is very popular because it supports face-to-face online multiplayer.

Because they had seen so few of them, the Terrans initially regarded the players as strange oddballs when they first encountered them. Later, as they gained a deeper understanding, they came to see the players as a special phenomenon, but never considered them as "players."

----------------------------

"Phew, I'm so tired..."

Chen Huijie had never felt so exhausted, not even when she was fighting criminals in Longmen. Looking at these chaotic "refugees," she felt as if she had suffered a mental blow.

'Speaking of which, who exactly is this Bai Ye?'

Turning her head casually, Chen Huijie saw Bai Ye standing not far away.

Compared to himself, Bai Ye could be described as having an easy time.

A large group of refugees (players) stood around him, and many others were even watching aggressively. However, even so, Bai Ye remained unfazed.

The only word to describe Chen Huijie is "admiration".

An ordinary person would have been unable to bear being surrounded by so many "strange" refugees, but Bai Ye maintained a calm expression and attitude throughout, and even mingled with the players.

'What an amazing guy. Looks like I was just being paranoid before.'

Officer Chen Huijie nodded. She had previously considered Bai Ye suspicious, but judging from the current situation, there seemed to be no need to. After all, what malicious intent could someone who could speak calmly and naturally with the appearance of an ancient god possibly have?

Chapter Twenty-Four: They're all free labor!

If Bai Ye knew what Chen Sir was thinking, he could only say that he was overthinking it.

The so-called "calmness" and "peace of mind" are simply because they have seen too much in their past lives and are no longer surprised.

In fact, everyone has the potential to be a silly person, but in reality we all wear masks. However, in virtual online games, we can take off our masks and be who we want to be.

The reason Bai Ye didn't drive away the players around him was because he was testing the NPC template function.

He can edit and issue quests to players, but there is a limit to the number he can issue. He can also choose experience, physical items, or skills as rewards.

The amount of experience that can be allocated in a day is also limited.

However, the physical objects and skills must be possessed by Bai Ye himself.

For example, if Bai Ye gives away the standard straight sword made by Thor Industries as a reward, it's equivalent to him losing that weapon.

If he wants to use a skill as a reward, it must be one that the user possesses, and the reward skill level can only be the lowest.

In addition, Bai Ye discovered that she could freely adjust her displayed favorability towards players.

This seems interesting, and Bai Ye suddenly wants to find a player to try it out.