I, the little cat, am a substitute for others who are starving and thin

"Are you kidding me? Such a strong guy was killed with just one slap!"

Someone collapsed: "Kayaba Akihiko..."

"Teleport away quickly!"

Heathcliff interrupted his collapse by giving a second order.

He looked at Yimi with a hint of surprise, but not overly surprised.

-

"This game shouldn't be about mindlessly stacking difficulty. There should be other ways to defeat jungle bosses like this."

Kirito returned to the safe zone and looked at his blade.

He was not very skilled in dual swordsmanship, and the boss's mechanism was very troublesome. Even if he had used it at that time, he had no confidence in defeating him.

"I'm sorry about what happened yesterday."

Asuna spoke.

Kirito retracted his sword: "Which one?"

This sentence seemed to remind Asuna that she needed to apologize for more than one thing. Kirito was actually referring to the fact that she lied to him about the origin of the bow, and that if she took the initiative to lure the boss out, everyone would waste a crystal because of her, and that thing was indeed not cheap.

But Asuna's understanding was obviously wrong. She blushed and took out a pair of boxer briefs from the inventory and threw it in Kirito's face.

"I'm sorry about this, okay?"

"..."

Kirito quickly took it down and put it back.

Can't you just ignore it? I didn't even mention it! Can't you just consider it a gift?

"Several NPCs were killed."

Kirito lowered his head: "One of them even made a deal with me."

But tomorrow, they will still refresh here. He is indeed too sentimental because he truly lives in this game.

Without waiting for Asuna to offer any words of comfort, he shook his head and spoke again, "Is the child with you? Can I go check on her and make sure she's safe?"

"Even if I refuse, you won't give up, right?"

Asuna reluctantly walked ahead to lead the way.

"Thank you."

"No, I should say sorry."

That was what they said, but after Asuna led the way to the room, all they saw was an open window and an unclosed fairy tale book.

She ran away? I promised you that!

If the expression here could be detailed enough to show the color of blood, Asuna's face must be pale.

"what happened?"

"she……"

Asuna hurried out and began searching the town.

Can't find it, can't find it anywhere.

She is so tiny, where can she run with such short legs!

Could it be that he ran to the village gate...

17

Chapter 17 Adoption.

How different are computer programs from real people?

If an artificial crop has external parts that are different from the human body, but can fully react like a human, or even an inferior animal, as well as have the ability to think and learn, can this thing be considered life?

If we were to think about it a little further, wouldn't human cells and tissues also be just programs and parts? This sort of thing had actually been on Asuna's mind as far back as the third level of the game.

One night, the illustrations in the picture book were still scribbled by a naughty little girl. Yimi had painted the dog baking cookies with stiff fangs, and painted the cookies in her hand with a layer of color, and on the right side, an arrow had written the words "poisoned" in a clumsy way.

This word "毒" is a typo.

Are these details the result of careful design by Akihiko Kayaba, or are they the actions of the child himself after Akihiko Kayaba created him?

At least I learned from her how to eat dim sum elegantly. No matter how clumsy I am at using chopsticks, these are all genuine memories, or rather, the embodiment of "life".

Even before leaving, she promised the child to teach her how to cook, and the child also promised her to stay in the room, which was a personal area that outsiders could not invade, a safe zone within a safe zone, but the little girl did not keep her promise.

The child is 'alive'.

Please, don't go there...don't let anything happen to you!

But wasn't she thinking of using NPCs to draw the monsters' energy just yesterday? Didn't what happened today play into her hands?

It was as if she was the one who caused it.

"Asuna, calm down!"

Kirito was chasing after him.

"No, I don't want this!"

Asuna held her head in her hands and ran towards the village gate.

Fortunately, the world did not give Asuna any unwarranted malice. Imi, who had turned back into human form, was standing there just fine, and Heathcliff, who was the last one left, was standing in front of her. The two seemed to have communicated something.

"Strange auntie."

Yimi waved and said hello.

Asuna's nerves finally relaxed.

Was it personal concern for the child? Or did she not want a child to be sacrificed? Or was she afraid that Kirito would place all the blame on her? Which of these was her concern, she herself couldn't figure out.

Asuna quickly stepped forward and gently hugged Yimi.

"Well."

Yimi turned her face away to leave some breathing space.

"Isn't this okay?"

Kirito breathed a sigh of relief.

As a result, he couldn't sleep at all last night. When he clicked on Asuna's friend list, he directly typed a message of nearly 700 words. After thinking for a long time, he deleted it, and deleted Asuna's friend list together.

"Boom!"

Asuna quickly bent her fingers and placed them on Yimi's head.

At the same time, Asuna felt a pain in her forehead, and this time she was sure it was definitely not an illusion.

"What?"

Yimi rubbed her forehead and quickly ran to Kirito and grabbed the corner of his clothes.

"Why are you asking? Didn't we agree to stay in the house and not come out? I'm angry."

Asuna put her hands on her hips.

"But I smell the bad guys!"

Yimi raised his fist.

She wants to kill them all! This is only the fourth one.

"Bad guy?"

"Just when I ran into that not-so-idiot Kirito..."

"You're still swearing!"

Asuna tried to tickle Yimi's spot, but the effect didn't seem to be very obvious.

Kirito smiled and turned to look at the other person here: "Captain Heathcliff, what happened?"

This man actually seldom attended meetings, and Kirito had only met him once before today.

"That boss is dead."

Many people saw this incident, and it couldn't be concealed.

Heathcliff glanced at the kitten that had just transformed into a humanoid form right in front of him. "I don't know if it was the village guards or a plot kill, but a boss in the form of a baby panda appeared and killed it instantly, and then it turned into an NPC right next to you."

"A baby panda? Yimi?"

Kirito was stunned for a moment, vaguely remembering that a similar creature did run towards him before he teleported away.

"Many people witnessed this. We should hold a meeting to discuss the situation in detail. However, I believe Kayaba Akihiko didn't create this world just to watch us struggle to survive. We've already passed more than fifty levels. He didn't need to place a supermodel boss here."

He looked at Yimi thoughtfully:

"Based on my experience playing many games, this type of boss usually has mechanisms that are particularly easy to target, and the flesh beneath the shell should be relatively weak."

"While stalling for time, I actually tried attacking its weaknesses, and discovered that its defense seemed only comparable to that of a boss below level 50. In fact, due to its long body, sword techniques that only deal one hit actually dealt multiple hits. It's as if each section of its body is an independent entity capable of triggering attacks, each possessing a shared health bar."

The BOSS that was thought to be extremely difficult was suddenly killed easily by other BOSSes. Will the players start to panic?

In fact, this problem is easy to solve. All it takes is for someone to discover the lullaby of the NPC little girl in the village and remove the oppressive feeling of the geographic track.

The geographic track value is not as weak as he described, and there is no mechanism for the body's health bar to be an independent individual. However, if it makes people feel that the NPC in front of them is too strong, it will lead to a situation that he does not want to see.

Maybe the strategy team will directly move this NPC to the BOSS room to trigger the fight.

So while verbally disparaging the strength of the NPC in front of him, he, as the default leader of the strategy group, took the initiative to bring up this topic:

"This NPC possesses a wide-range ranged attack, hitting all of the Geo Crawler's bodies at once, causing the damage trigger frequency to reach an instant kill effect. Although it doesn't sound that powerful, it can actively attack the boss's ranged skills. If you can bring it to the boss room..."

"Is it really a good idea to take such a risk?"

Unexpectedly, the one who refuted him was not Kirito, but his lieutenant Asuna.

"Captain Heathcliff should know that some quest NPCs cannot be resurrected after death. You told me about this child's particularly simple quest and item that allows him to level up regardless of experience."

"Also, what level do you plan to reach with her? NPCs can't level up until they're exhausted?"

"But in a boss battle, we can't guarantee who will land the final blow. You just mentioned instant kills. Even the health bar of an individual monster is enough to prove its damage. It shouldn't be too much of a stretch to say there's at least a level 60 monster."

"If we use the NPC to defeat the boss, will the final loot spawn? Or how will we divide the huge amount of experience dropped? And if we reach a floor where she starts to lose her strength, will we really have the strength to continue?"

The loot dropped by the BOSS does not fall to the ground all at once, but goes directly into the inventory of the person who dealt the final blow. This also prevents PvP from being started directly after the BOSS is defeated to a certain extent.

As expected of a highly acclaimed strategy master, he merely brought up an introduction and then refuted it with a reason that he had not even thought of at first.

Kirito nodded and echoed Asuna, "Besides, how could Kayaba Akihiko allow NPC cheating? The consequences of the Geo Track running out of range just now have already proven that this must be a trap set by Kayaba Akihiko."

"..."

The topic turned to Kayaba Akihiko again.

Although I know that he will never get a good review, I still feel a little strange when I hear this said to his face every day.

He looked at Asuna. "So, according to our previous plan, adopting her into the Knights of the Blood Alliance is fine, right?"

"Captain Heathcliff should be aware that some NPCs have a favorability system."

Kirito suddenly brought up this topic.

This is specifically reflected in the discounts on purchases.

"Unfortunately, I think she still has a higher liking for me than Asuna."

Asuna glanced at Kirito.

"Is that so?"

Heathcliff didn't insist any longer and walked past Kirito: "Kirito-kun, I look forward to your joining us in the future."

"?"

he left.

Asuna squeezed Yimi's hand and asked, "Are you here because you're worried about us?"

Yimi turned her face away: "I'm not talking to you. You just hit me."