"Red Spirit Invasions."
Kiriko had been concerned about this from the very beginning.
"Yeah. The conditions for invasions were also changed when the game officially launched," Kiriko said. "According to Argo's intel, it seems to be connected to that White Mask."
"I see..."
In the "original version," invasion-related rewards were extremely generous. In a sense, it was also a form of anti-piracy measure.
And these so-called invasions were connected to Varré, the White Mask.
Logically, this should have happened later.
But after NPCs developed independent wills, if someone wanted to curry favor with one and communicate with them to some extent, it was entirely possible for an NPC to give a player an item ahead of time.
Although every player received the same rewards, it was still possible to obtain items meant for later through the right methods.
And as more and more people died, The Lands Between would become increasingly real.
Even unique NPCs like Melina and Ranni were now basically on the level of Yui, the administrative AI from the original Sword Art Online.
"If there's someone with self-destructive tendencies who wants to drag us down with them, they'll definitely come invade us," Kiriko said.
"Why are there people like that..." Asuna sighed.
"That's just how games are. In games that require teamwork, a single sentence from us might make some people decide they'd rather throw away victory just to take certain people down with them...
``` [Damn it, I played League of Legends this morning. Some stupid Teemo started feeding because I said a couple things, then he camped at the blast plant and went invisible in mid to leech my XP. Screw him.]
[Having terrible teammates really sucks.]
[That's exactly what those people are like. They play just to lose and watch their teammates lose their