Reincarnated NPC, But Arknights

Reincarnated NPC, but Arknights

Author: Luo Tianyi Ghost Catcher

Synopsis:

Veteran player Bai Ye was kicked back into the fully immersive online network game "Arknights Online" on the eve of its public beta.

From then on, the continent of Terra had one more native NPC who carried a game panel.

"Catastrophe?" "No one understands the Fourth Catastrophe better than me!"

Bai Ye, Head of Rhodes Island Field Operations, Messenger of the Fourth Catastrophe, and one of the Top Ten Most Popular NPCs, said so.

Volume 1: helloworld

Chapter 1: Arknights Online

Twin moons hung in the night sky, their moonlight dulled by the artificial neon lights.

Bai Ye sat on the guardrail, quietly gazing at the artificial lake before him.

The vast lake reflected the city that never slept on the opposite shore, its surface rippling with the wind.

Everything was so real. After experiencing it once, one would realize that the so-called 100% simulation of the past was still lacking.

In the end, it was just a game, not as real as reality.

However, now, the game no longer seemed to be just a game...

It took Bai Ye quite some time to accept the fact that he had transmigrated into the game.

"Arknights Online," a next-generation, fully immersive online network game built with cutting-edge technology, caused a huge sensation as soon as it was released. With its excellent game performance and exciting worldview, it attracted many players and was jokingly called "The first fully-immersive game for young people."

Before Bai Ye transmigrated, the game had been running for 6 years, yet it still maintained considerable popularity. Various merchandise and collaborative brands emerged endlessly, and it also gave rise to numerous professional players and game streamers.

There were also officially organized professional leagues – the Kazimierz Four Cities Joint Player Arena and the Kazimierz Summer Player Competitive League.

Bai Ye was a player from the start, and with his exceptional talent, his skills were quite good. He was proficient in both PVP and PVE. However, because he preferred freedom, he didn't sign with any clubs or guilds.

He was 20 years old and a solo player.

By recording videos and live-streaming, Bai Ye had become a well-known content creator through the game. He usually played games, edited guides, or entertainment videos during his streams. When he was in a good mood (or when he needed money to eat), he would help out some patrons, which was enough to make a living.

Before transmigrating, Bai Ye was grinding monsters in the Demon Battlefield outside the Saibei Pass in Yan. Although the evil spirits and demons there were powerful, they gave a lot of experience, and he could also earn military merits and Yan reputation, which was suitable for solo players like Bai Ye.

However, Saibei was considered an advanced map. Proximity to demons would continuously decrease one's sanity, and beginners couldn't handle it at all.

At that time, Bai Ye was already preparing to log off. He didn't expect that as he was about to enter Tianji Pavilion with his token, he would unexpectedly fall unconscious in reality, triggering the game pod's emergency mechanism and disconnecting from the server.

When he woke up, he found himself here.

"This game definitely has some issues..."

Bai Ye could naturally feel that the game world he was currently seeing was not generated by data, but a real material world. His current body was also made of flesh and blood, not a virtual creation of "01."

"What is this Oceancat? An alien Pharaoh who can say damedane?"

Bai Ye couldn't help but complain about the company that published the game.

However, Bai Ye was a rather easy-going person. Since he couldn't figure it out now, he decided not to think about it. For the time being, it was better to understand his situation.

"System panel... Huh? Huh?"

Out of habit, Bai Ye tried to bring up the menu, but then he suddenly realized he was being foolish – if he had transmigrated into the game world, how could there be a player panel?

But the next moment, he was dumbfounded.

A glowing game panel screen actually appeared before Bai Ye.

Looking at the virtual light screen floating in front of him, Bai Ye couldn't help but sigh in relief.

He didn't expect to still be able to bring up the game panel, which relaxed him quite a bit, as it was something Bai Ye, as a veteran player, was very familiar with.

Since the public beta, this game panel, composed of virtual light screens, had silently accompanied players through one game version after another. And now, when Bai Ye truly entered this game world alone, the familiar panel became the only link connecting the present to the past.

"It's really... nostalgic."

The system panel before him was quite "ancient," as the system panel would also be updated and adjusted with version changes.

The current panel was still in its beta version, with incomplete UI and functions.

The version Bai Ye first encountered was version 1.0. He hadn't even seen the beta version, as he didn't get a public beta qualification. However, he assumed it wouldn't be much different from version 1.0.

It's the same old wine in a new bottle.

Name: Bai Ye

Template: NPC (Normal)

Race: ██ (Warning, this entry is corrupted)

Level: Lv. 1

Sanity: 15/15

Constitution: 10 (Related to physical strength, endurance, and immunity)

Strength: 10 (Related to muscle strength and physical power)

Agility: 10 (Related to hand-eye coordination, limb flexibility, reaction time, and balance)

Spirit: 10 (Related to mental power, willpower, Originium Arts, sensitivity, and intuition)

Charisma: 96 (Fixed attribute)

Inventory: 0/10

Talent:

[Thought Acceleration]: Accelerates thinking, judgment, reflexes, and brain information processing speed for a certain period.

Overall Evaluation:

[Nothing worth mentioning besides looks and talent]

This evaluation is a bit too real.

Bai Ye shook his head speechlessly.

The personal status panel was pitifully short, and his attributes were also very low, feeling just like when he used to power-level a beginner account for his boss before transmigration.

Except for the super high Charisma.

It was just a tiny bit lower than that of the esteemed readers.

"As expected of me. If I had shown my face on stream before transmigration, I definitely could have made a fortune."

Being strong or weak is temporary; Bai Ye was an old player, and becoming stronger was easy. But being handsome is a lifelong endeavor.

Bai Ye clenched his fist. Although he had returned to square one, he felt great and didn't feel any weakness.

Because this strength was real. After experiencing this feeling, his pre-transmigration attributes, no matter how high, felt like reflections in a mirror or flowers in fog.

However, what surprised Bai Ye the most was that he started with a talent.

Regardless of the race appearance players transformed into, their starting panels and attributes were always the same blank slate. Starting with a talent was absolutely impossible.

Bai Ye attributed his current situation to that NPC template.

Although he hadn't encountered it before, he figured it had to be different from the player panel.

At the very least, the player panel wouldn't have a race entry, because players only chose a race option to transform into during character creation. They wouldn't actually become a certain race and gain attribute bonuses.

"If I had gotten a Wendigo or Dolak race template, wouldn't I have taken off immediately?"

Bai Ye muttered to himself for a while, then closed the game menu and jumped down from the railing.

Since I'm here, I'll make the best of it.

As a member of the **... no, the Cat's Cradle Orphanage, Bai Ye had no lingering attachments to his past life.

Since he was already here, he might as well integrate into this familiar yet strange world.

Survive, grow stronger, and uncover the world's secrets.

Looking at the artificial lake before him, Bai Ye set his life goals for the future.

Excellent, he was fired up!

With goals, Bai Ye felt his blood boil.

"Grumble—"

His handsomeness only lasted for three seconds.

He was hungry.

Bai Ye sighed.

Right now, he just wanted to go to the pier across the way and get some fries.

Chapter 2: Lungmen

Bai Ye walked down the street.

Although the continent of Terra was a habitable planet, destructive natural disasters frequently swept across the world.

To avoid these calamities, the civilization's technological advancement in this world took a peculiar direction.

The most brilliant black technology among them was the crystallization of civilization known as "Moving Cities."

Incredibly powerful materials science, obscure Originium Arts, engineering that seemed miraculous, and Originium power units with unimaginable efficiency created these colossal mobile platforms that could traverse the land.

On these platforms rested entire cities.

When a natural disaster approached and the cities needed to migrate to safety, they would unlatch and split into city blocks with independent power systems, then move towards their destinations.

Many players felt incredibly awestruck when they first witnessed such a spectacle.

It proved that when a civilization's technological tree veered off course and developed to a certain extent, it could also possess unimaginable impact.

In Bai Ye's previous life, there was always a group of players who chased after various Moving Cities, filming and recording their migrations. These people called themselves "City Hunters," and they were passionate about collecting Moving Cities of all different styles.

After all, these behemoths were the epitome of this planet's civilization.

And Bai Ye was currently on a mobile city.

Lungmen.

This was a mobile city belonging to Yan, one of the Yan nation's important economic centers. The currency issued here—Lungmen Dollar—circulated all over the world. After the economic crisis, the economic recession and the opposition between political powers made it difficult for trade participants to move forward. The circulation of Lungmen Dollar made economic revival possible.

Bai Ye was naturally no stranger to this place; in fact, he was quite familiar with it.

Many world quests in the game took Lungmen as their main stage, and Bai Ye had spent a long time here in the past.

He had been to the Upper District, the Lower District, the Lower Structure Zone, the port, and even the outskirts. Bai Ye himself had forgotten how many quests he had taken, how many enemies and wild monsters he had cleared, and had even maxed out his reputation with the Yan-affiliated Lungmen.

A pure grinder.

He could draw maps of some places with his eyes closed.

He had even been to many top-secret areas due to certain quest requirements. Maps and defense diagrams drawn there could sell for a high price in other countries—provided he lived to collect the money.

Lungmen had nothing worth seeing; Bai Ye was already sick of it from the game, so after choosing a direction, he began to make his way.

Lungmen's season was approaching late spring, and the weather had already started to turn hot. Yet, Bai Ye was wearing an incongruous overcoat, and even he found it too warm.

Before setting out, Bai Ye had checked his entire person. Besides this overcoat, he had no other personal belongings, not even anything to prove his identity.

He had to obtain a legal identity as soon as possible. A legal identity from Lungmen was recognized in all countries worldwide.

Right now, Bai Ye was equivalent to a displaced refugee who had illegally entered Lungmen. Without any identification, he was undocumented, and getting caught by the Lungmen Guard Department would be very troublesome.

Bai Ye didn't want to be taken in for questioning. He could fabricate a plausible explanation to get an ID, but that would be annoying and a waste of time.

For players, time was the least valuable and yet the most precious thing.

Sometimes, players would idle their characters for an entire day for a single quest; other times, players would furiously mash buttons just to skip a short game cutscene.