Abstractness Taken to the Extreme

When the mission screen suddenly appeared in the players' vision, the battlefield fell silent for a brief moment.

The players in the various allied battle groups' minds overloaded, their thoughts momentarily crashing.

After a few seconds of silence, messages erupted in the regional channel like a volcano.

The news soon reached the player forums, too.

Every player who opened the post to learn more was just as dumbfounded.

Underpants War God: This screenshot's way too fake. You can tell it's photoshopped.

Mage Must Melee: Am I seeing things? The Bully put up a mission screen and wants us players to accept a quest? Am I still asleep, or is the Bully?

Thirty Years of Missing Last Hits: Damn, is the Bully sick in the head? We're enemies. What's the point of giving us quests?

Can't Heal You Anymore: Wait... hold on, let me get this straight... Our own faction doesn't have any quests available. We're playing a free-exploration open world, and now our biggest archenemy—the villain we've been fighting tooth and nail for years—is giving us quests? With rewards?

Scenery Lover, Not a Fighter: This is beyond ridiculous. Our own big bro Di Zhao is so aloof, but the biggest pest in the village—our experience piñata and war-training machine—is giving us jobs? Is something wrong with this game's logic? Did the Bully switch to an NPC template?

At that moment, every player was dumbfounded.

The fierce fighting in the Emperor's Tomb Mountain Range came to an abrupt halt.

The insect army sensed that something was off and calmed down as well, no longer launching fierce attacks.

The allied battle group players exchanged bewildered looks. They stared at the enormous black screen ahead and the reward details on it, feeling as though they were dreaming.

It felt like the neighborhood bully