The Opening

The reckless player was sent flying backward, knocking over several players who couldn't dodge in time before Feng Xue finished speaking. Surprisingly, the reckless player died instantly from the impact, while the players he knocked over were completely unharmed.

"Holy crap, this NPC is amazing!"

"He really is a hidden master!"

"They've set a 24-hour self-imposed lockdown from the start!"

The various voices of the onlookers reached Feng Xue's ears, but he paid no attention to the silly words of the players. Instead, he carefully sensed the state of the player who "vanished into thin air" a few seconds after he breathed his last.

"This amount of information seems a bit too little..."

Feng Xue pondered silently. He could feel the information flow dissipating like water evaporating into Water Vapor. Based solely on the analysis of this magnitude, he sensed something was amiss.

Undoubtedly, these players are real people who can provide [consciousness], but the [consciousness] they released upon death was far below the normal level of real people. If we had to say, it would be equivalent to the level of a non-existent being of the Anomaly Level.

Feng Xue could somewhat understand this outcome. After all, if a person were truly transformed into information, then death would be just like dying as a real person in the Infinite City. Even if it wouldn't become Omen because this world is the Real World, death would still be complete. And as a game that has been in closed beta once, if dying once meant certain death, probably no one would want to play it, right? Even if there were people who weren't afraid of death, it wouldn't be that easy.

But how does this model work?

Feng Xue could vaguely sense a flash of Spiritual Light, but she couldn't quite make it out, so she had to put it aside for the time being. Instead, she kept splitting open a Coffin board and carefully working on it.

It seems that the game's resurrection mechanism has some kind of loading bar limit, or that it requires resurrection coins or something. In any case, after that player died, most players went into a wait-and-see state, wanting to talk to him, but worried about dying for nothing.

However, players are never short of reckless individuals, and as some players began to disperse, someone finally gathered around:

"This... senior, how can I help you?"

The standard quest acceptance line came from the player's mouth. Feng Xue didn't pause, her hand on the plane didn't stop, she just glanced at him casually, and then said disdainfully:

"You? Even a kid on the street is better than you. Go do whatever you're doing and don't get in the way."

After saying that, he put the Coffin board aside and picked up another piece of board to start cutting.

With this example, players flocked to him one after another. At first, Feng Xue casually responded to a few people, but after the tenth person was rejected, he seemed to get impatient and raised that unapproachable Air Wall again. The players could only be kept outside the wall and stare blankly at this NPC.

"Let's go. Even if this NPC has a quest, you'll probably need to be strong enough to accept it." Seeing the player run into a wall, Five Kills shook his head and waved to Liao Yunhuai, signaling him to come hunting. Liao Yunhuai glanced at the comments in the Live Broadcast Room, his eyes darting around, then shook his head and said:

"Sorry, I'm a live streamer, so I have to choose the strategy with the most comments."

"I understand, I understand, then I'll go first!" Five Kills wasn't too unhappy about it; compared to suddenly leaving the team halfway through the game, the current situation was actually better.

Watching Five Kills walk out of the village, Liao Yunhuai addressed the viewers in the Live Broadcast Room:

"Dear viewers, for your curiosity, I've given up on rapid accumulation in the early stages! Give me a donation, and I'll take you to uncover the secrets of this big shot!"

[666]

[666]

[666]

A series of small donations flashed across the Live Broadcast Room screen. Liao Yunhuai didn't mind the amount and immediately put on a business-like smile before heading into the village.

He was a player who started his closed Closed Beta in this Big Locust Tree Village. Although a month had only taught him how to hunt rabbits, he had thoroughly mastered the village.

"This NPC wasn't in the Big Locust Tree Village during the last Closed Beta. As we all know, the game 'Jianghu' emphasizes realism. During the last Closed Beta, I inquired about the conditions for settling in the village. If the developers aren't contradicting themselves, then NPCs should also be subject to these conditions when settling in."

While explaining his thoughts to the audience, Liao Yunhuai went to the tavern, bought a pot of old wine, and then followed the path to the Village Chief's house. He saw the Village Chief sitting on the steps above the door, smoking and playing chess with the old man next door.

Based on his experience from the last Closed Beta, he pulled the cork off the wine jug. As the aroma of the wine wafted out, the Village Chief and the old man next door, who were staring at the chessboard, turned their heads at the same time.

Upon seeing the newcomer, the Village Chief immediately smiled and said:

"It's you, kid! I haven't seen you for a month, where have you been?"

"Something came up back home, so I went back to help out. I have something I'd like to ask you about, Grandpa."

As Liao Yunhuai spoke, he handed over the wine jug. The Village Chief gave him a knowing look, then, as if showing off, took two swigs in front of the old man next door before smiling and saying:

"Speak up. As long as it's even a small plot of land in this Big Locust Tree Village, my word still carries some weight."

"Well, we saw someone at the village entrance earlier... um, a stranger. We'd never seen him in the village before, so we came to ask you about him."

The old Village Chief was a shrewd man; upon hearing his words, he immediately understood what the young man was thinking, and promptly gave him a teasing smile:

"Heh, what haven't you seen? You want to become my apprentice, right?"

"Uh, Village Chief, you know him?" Liao Yunhuai was slightly taken aback. He had thought that this kind of NPC would be a Hermit master whose abilities were unknown to everyone, only showing off their extraordinary skills in front of players. How come even the Village Chief knew he was an expert?

"Nonsense! Do you think ordinary people can get registered so easily?" The Village Chief rolled his eyes at Liao Yunhuai, took another sip of wine, and then said:

"Don't let his youthful appearance fool you, he might actually be older than me! This master is probably someone who has seen through the illusions of the world, or perhaps he's currently engaged in Mortal World Cultivation. Anyway, storytellers have told plenty of stories like this. In any case, he's currently a carpenter in the village, you know what I mean."

"I understand, I understand!" Liao Yunhuai nodded vigorously, his face still showing some expectation. The old Village Chief looked at the wine in his hand, muttered something under his breath, and then shook his head and said:

"Let me put it this way, he's been in the village for over half a month now. Quite a few clever young men in the village have thought about becoming his apprentices, but none of them have succeeded. If you really want to become an apprentice, you should save up some money and go to a martial arts school in the city."

"Old man, do you look down on me?" Liao Yunhuai feigned distress, but the Village Chief pushed him forward and said:

"Come on, do you think this old man is stupid? How could I possibly fathom the thoughts of a master? If you want to become an apprentice, figure it out yourself!"