After logging out, Tyrannosaurus Warrior immediately opened the Kingdom of Heavenly Principles Player Forum and logged into his account, "When Will Myriad Mirror VR?"
With the closed beta underway, there were clearly far more posts on the forum than before. Some popular threads had already surpassed ten thousand replies, and all sorts of ridiculous titles kept popping up.
For example, posts titled "Shocking! An NPC Actually Did This to Me?" and "I Spent My First Day of the Closed Beta in a Jail Cell" made Tyrannosaurus Warrior's mouse click on them before he even realized it.
"First!"
"I'm guessing the OP got arrested for flirting with an NPC. Don't ask me how I know."
"Replying to the comment above: Don't think I don't know you, you big-eyed rascal, are in the XX City prison."
"Well, damn, we're all locked up together, huh? Stop looking next door. That isn't me."
"."
Tyrannosaurus Warrior laughed helplessly.
Sometimes, absurd players really could bring people a lot of joy.
After stretching a little, Tyrannosaurus Warrior made a post.
"On the First Day of the Closed Beta, I Ran into a Hidden NPC"
It was just after nightfall in Xia Kingdom. Most people were resting at home and surfing the internet, making it prime traffic time.
Before long, a flood of replies appeared beneath his post.
"?"
"No pics, no proof?"
"One minute has passed and the OP hasn't replied. Verdict: talking out of his ass."
"That ID... Aren't you that Bilibili uploader who makes galgame videos?"
Only after someone finally recognized his ID did Tyrannosaurus Warrior feel thoroughly satisfied and begin typing.
"Here's what happened. I accidentally won a closed beta slot for Kingdom of Heavenly Principles. Since I had nothing to do lately, I thought, why not give it a try?"
"—Verdict: regret-inducing lucky bastard."
"—So the OP is showing off after getting a bargain, huh?"
The replies came almost instantly, but Tyrannosaurus Warrior paid them no mind and continued typing. "First, the sensory experience. As the world's first immersive virtual reality game, I was really curious about how its realism differed from real life. From my first day of experience, though, there was practically no difference at all!"
"Players got hungry, falling hurt, the NPCs had vivid, natural expressions, and their dialogue wasn't stiff, repetitive script. It was almost exactly like real life."
"—True. My experience was pretty much the same as the OP's. These people all felt like real humans, not system characters at all."
"—Same here!"
"—What's the point? Where's the hidden NPC?"
"Relax, typing takes time." Tyrannosaurus Warrior shot back lightly before continuing. "I was exploring with another player. In Blackwater Village, not far from the spawn point, we ran into him. (Man in Black with a question mark over his head.jpg)"
"—Holy shit, it really is a hidden NPC?"
"—The OP's luck is insane. So jealous."
"—Does having a question mark over his head automatically make him a hidden NPC? What if his level was too high to inspect?"
"—Use your brain, dude. Even if his level was too high to inspect, wouldn't he still be a big shot to current players? Compared to those villagers without levels, wouldn't that make him a hidden NPC?"
"—Exactly. OP, keep going."
"Alright. Actually, when I first saw this NPC, I was really excited too. I hurried over to talk to him, hoping to score a hidden quest, but all I got was a mining quest. Worse still, before the quest even started, he sold us pickaxes for one hundred gold coins each and successfully drained both our wallets dry."
"—The OP got a quest on the first day? A bunch of people in our village ran around all day, yet not a single NPC gave out a quest."
"—You've got it good. I did free labor for these people all day and didn't earn a single coin."
"—Hahahaha, that's miserable. Oh, I don't have a closed beta slot. Never mind, then."
"—Could it be a prerequisite quest for a hidden quest?"
"At first, I thought it was a prerequisite quest too, because no reward was listed. But do you know what happened? After the quest ended, he actually tried to sell me stuff!! I gave every last gold coin I earned from him right back to him!!"
"—Forgive my cruel laughter. Wait, this shop actually sells epic weapons? He really is a hidden NPC!"
"—Damn, the OP's luck is way too good. I can't accept this."
"—Why do you have a dad in the beginner village?!"
"—You're in Blackwater Village, right? I'm coming to your place right now!"
"—Dressed so mysteriously and selling things... Could he be some kind of wandering merchant?"
"That was my initial guess too, that he was some kind of merchant. But the player exploring with me said this NPC was far from simple."
"He said that the moment he entered the village, the NPC in black gave him immense pressure, like someone was holding a knife to his throat."
"Besides, according to the background information released by the official site, the Kingdom of Blossoms is an extremely free nation. If he were a traveling merchant, why would he wrap himself up so tightly? It was as if he were hiding something."
"—The OP's exploration partner isn't simple."
"—Can you even have that kind of baseless feeling in a game?"
"—You can. When the guards arrested me, I really felt the disdainful stares all around me."
". What's more, after saying goodbye to that NPC, I asked the other NPCs in the village about him. The result was that the man in black wasn't a villager here at all!!"
"Want to know the identity of this NPC in black? Want to know where he came from? Then follow my account with the same name on Bilibili. Throughout the closed beta, I'll reveal the true identity of this hidden NPC for everyone!!"
"—So this is where you finally show your hand!"
"—I really didn't expect that ending."
"—What the hell? Not even dogs would follow you!"
Tyrannosaurus Warrior snapped the forum shut, took a brief rest, then opened Bilibili. Seeing his follower count rapidly rising, he felt a little better.
He had originally made galgame-related videos on Bilibili, but that genre was somewhat risque and could never truly grow big. Since he needed to make money from his account with over a hundred thousand followers, changing direction had been inevitable.
Unfortunately, he did not have many diehard fans. After making other types of videos, not only did the views on the galgame videos he occasionally posted plummet off a cliff, but his follower count also kept dropping. If this continued, he would have to give up making videos and find another job, perhaps even several part-time jobs.
Otherwise, he would no longer be able to afford his younger sister's expensive medication.
Fortunately, just when things were at their hardest, he won a closed beta slot for Kingdom of Heavenly Principles, the latest sea of internet traffic, and was also lucky enough to encounter a hidden NPC.
This wave of traffic was life-saving money.
"Big bro whose name I don't know, you're my second dad!!"
However, Tyrannosaurus Warrior did not know that the reason his followers were increasing was not because of his post.
After he logged out, another player also posted information about the NPC in black.
Compared to the others, the title was completely unremarkable—very simple.
—"Holy Shit, What a Handsome NPC"
The content was even simpler. There was only one video:
The evening sky was languid and cloudless. Beneath a tree, someone sheltering from the shade wore a somewhat heavy-looking black robe and lay lazily on a slightly worn chair, seemingly fast asleep.
A gentle breeze carrying the glow of the setting sun passed through the gaps in the leaves, lifting one corner of the hood slightly and revealing half of the man's exquisite face, rendered dreamlike by the radiance, to everyone.
Without question, the popularity of this post far surpassed Tyrannosaurus Warrior's, with over a hundred thousand replies.
And just like that, "finding the NPC in black" became the shared goal of every female closed beta player.