Reincarnated NPC, But Arknights Chapter 22

"Damn, the experience I just saved dropped a bit."

"I died a few hours ago to test fall damage..."

"The penalty after death is a bit severe. Not only does reviving take time, but there's also a debuff."

"You drop an item when you die, it's really annoying..."

In short, these people were both afraid of death and didn't take their lives seriously, which was absurd.

However, the strangest thing to the people of Lungmen was that after these individuals died, their bodies didn't remain. Instead, after a period of time, they would simply dissipate into scattered light points and vanish into the air, leaving no trace behind, as if they had never existed.

Some observant police officers even noticed that the wounds left by players when they were injured, and the blood that dripped from them, also disappeared after a while.

All these strange phenomena cast an aura of mystery around the players.

But Bai Ye knew this was just the beginning.

It wasn't until the official launch that the various nations of Terra gradually discovered the peculiar and special characteristics of the players. Only after a series of events, followed by testing, observation, and communication, did the political entities begin to take the player group seriously.

Bai Ye knew very well that this was just the beginning.

By chance, his accidental actions and various coincidences had led players to participate in a group event during the open beta. Although the number of participants was not large compared to the total beta player base, it had certainly left a significant mark.

When Officer Chen Hui Jie returned to the entrance with the captured ringleader, she was surprised to find that the lower-level gang members, who had not been dealt with first due to manpower shortages, had all been apprehended without exception.

Except for a few unlucky souls who were accidentally killed by players.

The number of players had also greatly decreased. Some were sitting on the ground, others were celebrating in small groups, and more were not by Bai Ye's side, constantly crouching and standing, or shaking their weapons.

Some were having a dispute over the distribution of spoils and were engaging in a sacred dark duel under the supervision of "I Will Always Like Mikoto Misaka"!

Most absurdly, a group of players was trying to strip the clothes off the gang thugs, only to be chased away by Guards Bureau officers...

"It's done?"

Bai Ye saw Chen Hui Jie approaching and went to meet her.

"This guy really knows how to run. Luckily, there were people from Rhodes Island at the exit," Chen Hui Jie said, throwing the handcuffed ringleader to the ground.

Speaking of which, this guy was also incredibly unlucky. A lot of things that had nothing to do with him were pinned on him, which led Chen Hui Jie and the other officers to not hold back during the operation.

However, the leader had been operating in the factory for many years and had made numerous arrangements within, causing the Guards Bureau to suffer some losses.

Finally, he attempted to escape through a secret passage but was stopped by Scythe's blinding electric arc.

"Sister Oni, why are you injured?"

Bai Ye saw Hoshiguma being supported by two officers as she walked out. One of her legs was injured, making her unable to exert force.

"It's nothing. I was ambushed by Originium explosives when passing through the secret passage," Hoshiguma said with a carefree smile. For someone with her extraordinary talent as an Oni, such an injury was indeed a "minor injury."

Most of the other Guards Bureau officers were also injured, and a few were even carried out.

The atmosphere was somewhat somber. The Guards Bureau officers did not show much joy over their victory; instead, they were silently tending to their wounds.

Perhaps sensing the somber atmosphere, the players gradually stopped their commotion. To some extent, people can empathize, and they could understand the NPCs' disappointment and sadness.

With the culprit arrested and the factory sealed, the case had achieved phased results. Next, Officer Chen Hui Jie would need to organize interrogations, track down the remaining contraband drugs, and admit the Infected, and so on.

"Looks like I'll be busy," Chen Hui Jie shrugged, her original vacation apparently canceled.

"Rhodes Island can take over the matter of admitting the Infected later."

Scythe, supported by Flanka, walked over to Bai Ye.

She leaned entirely against the fox-like woman, her face flushed with a suspicious redness.

However, she still tried her best to maintain a serious expression while handing over the work, which, combined with her current disheveled state, was quite amusing.

Chen Hui Jie glanced at the smiling and satisfied Flanka and the inexplicably indignant Scythe with some confusion but didn't say much, merely instructing Rhodes Island to take over the Infected affairs later.

A large number of Infected required treatment due to contraband drugs, and these could all be handled by Rhodes Island. This was something that had been agreed upon before the operation began.

Bai Ye looked around and suddenly walked towards the factory exit.

Seeing this, the players exchanged glances and followed him out.

"He's quite popular..." Swire noticed this scene and found it a bit strange, as if these peculiar people had a particularly good relationship with Bai Ye.

Bai Ye going out alone was naturally to interact with the players.

After all, these guys were quite excellent tools for him.

The players, on the other hand, firmly believed that Bai Ye was a main NPC, so they all followed him.

After all, in typical settings, NPCs wouldn't leave immediately after a quest ended; there would be follow-up dialogues and such.

As expected, Bai Ye began to speak: "Esteemed citizens, thank you for your hard work... Abba abba abba..."

As he spoke, he winked, quietly increasing his favorability by one point.

[Ding, Bai Ye's favorability towards you has increased by 1 point]

At that moment, the players were moved to tears!

The NPC's affection was too hard to gain. After working so hard for so long, and focusing on attacking the sand, I finally managed to raise her affection a little.

Bai Ye didn't say much more. After all, besides players who cared about the plot, most players wouldn't pay attention to the dialogue.

That's right, currently, players' ideas and thoughts were still stuck in the old era's online game tropes. They were even a bit unaccustomed to not being able to find an option to skip dialogue. Only a few perceptive players treated this world as a real world, diligently learning about the world's background, conversing with various NPCs, and finding joy through an immersive gaming experience.

Chapter 40: The End, and the Beginning

Seeing the players' absentmindedness, Bai Ye knew it was time for some substance.

Similar to how he dealt with Zhai Mao before, he first spouted some nonsense, and then Bai Ye directly opened his personal store. He could only sell skills for now. The reason was quite simple: Bai Ye only had a few pieces of equipment himself, not enough to distribute to so many people. But he had a lot of skills. His six years of accumulation from his past life were far too easy to handle for these rookie players who had only been in the open beta for a day.

As he had expected, when the players saw the full list of skills, their eyes lit up. (Bai Ye's own character card only listed the skills he used and focused on upgrading.)

Immediately, there was another round of wailing and exclamations of "holy crap." Except for a few players who cared about their image, most players looked at Bai Ye and wished they could pounce on him.

Skills were so hard to find.

Especially for open beta players who only had one day.

Oh, and if you accidentally courted death, you'd have to wait a long time with a gray screen to revive, wasting even more time...

Time was precious, and the ways to learn skills were scarce and difficult!

You couldn't just find someone on the street and expect them to teach you skills. There were martial arts schools, sure, and they taught real martial arts, but they charged money. Where would open beta players on the first day get Lungmen Dollars?

Some random gangs did have martial arts masters, but new players weren't even considered low-level thugs. Why would they give you pointers?

Not to mention the even rarer Originium Arts. This did have systematic training plans and paths, but both courses and books required money.

As for mysterious NPCs or hidden NPCs like in novels? That was even harder. Some players really searched all over the streets, and they did see quite a few beggars, but nothing else...

Now, a living NPC who could teach skills stood before them. Players who had already tasted the hardships of the game and the difficulty of learning skills while leveling up wouldn't let Bai Ye go.

Actually, once players had money, there were quite a few channels for learning. It was a pity that one day was too short; there wasn't enough time to do anything.

While harvesting the players' newly affluent wallets, Bai Ye couldn't help but feel a bit emotional. After all, these were all quite green players!

There was even someone trying to show off in front of him, boasting about how quickly they learned skills and how talented they were, trying to attract Bai Ye's attention as a special NPC through this.

Well, if it were an ordinary Terra native, they might have been genuinely surprised. But who was Bai Ye? He was a player in his past life. This life, he was wearing the skin of an NPC, not some ignorant child.

Everyone knew that players could quickly master skills through experience and Lungmen Dollars, and they could directly use experience and Lungmen Dollars to level up. Trying to trick "Master Bai" with such petty cleverness was a pipe dream.

Casually lowering the affection of the show-off, Bai Ye maintained a pleasant expression, ignoring the unfortunate fool's wails.

This time, Bai Ye had a good haul. All the players who survived came to give him experience and Lungmen Dollars, which was much easier than grinding monsters in his past life.

Suddenly, Bai Ye had the urge to go find all 4,000 open beta players one by one.

But it was just a thought. He was now "Bai Ye, an Important NPC in Arknights OL." Players only ever fawned over him; chasing after players to fawn over them was too demeaning and wouldn't benefit his long-term plans.

Only by establishing his image, maintaining his persona, having players actively seek him out, and becoming tools and leeks with good self-awareness could a virtuous cycle be formed. Coveting immediate small profits was like fishing in a dried-up lake.

Ahem, dealing with NPCs isn't called "cutting leeks." It's clearly providing high-quality services to players, increasing their game experience, reducing difficulty, and players should be thanking him.

One could only say that a person often becomes the very thing they hated most in the past.

While lost in thought, Bai Ye suddenly saw a female player with the ID [Xia] come to learn skills from him.

Unlike other players' choices, this player chose to learn archery skills, rather than crossbow shooting.

Bai Ye immediately recognized her. This player was an old friend from his past life...

[Xia], the number one sniper in the "Chocolate & Vanilla" guild, a natural sharpshooter. It was said that she was an enthusiast of retro archery in real life.

However, Bai Ye knew her because of "TeaParty."

In his past life, Bai Ye, as an alpha player, entered the top tier starting from the third version and gradually became one of the top players. The number of players at this level wasn't large, and most of them were star players cultivated by guilds, shining brightly in the Kazimierz player arena. There weren't many lone wolves like him.

In the third version, he was invited to join the legendary non-guild small player group "TeaParty," and he was the only solo player among the invitees. Unfortunately, fate was not on his side. His team coordination ability was too poor, and his individual charge ability was too outstanding, making him unbalanced and prone to being disconnected from the team. This prevented him from participating in TeaParty's group activities.

TeaParty was an organization founded by imitating a certain novel in reality. Its sole purpose was for fun and challenge. It had no fixed base and only held "tea parties" periodically.

In his past life, Bai Ye was an orphan, so his personality was rather solitary and he had some social anxiety. He preferred playing games alone.

Even though he didn't join TeaParty, the guild leader didn't give up on him, persuading him that he could build good relationships with players in TeaParty, so even as a lone wolf, he wouldn't be isolated and powerless.

In this way, Bai Ye met a group of top players through TeaParty, including guild leaders and star players. Bai Ye's previous power armor was commissioned by his friends in TeaParty.

However, these were all things of the past. Now, he was considered a local on the continent of Terra, with no connection to TeaParty or players...

But this didn't stop Bai Ye from picking out some good ones among the leeks and tools to focus on.

Zhai Mao was like that before; she would become a prominent streamer later, very useful.

Those guys from TeaParty were also good. Among them were guild leaders and strategists. Through them, it was equivalent to having a large field of player leeks.

While thinking, Bai Ye slightly adjusted [Xia]'s affection value, then spouted a bunch of "I'm very optimistic about you, you have great talent" nonsense, and also gave her the address of the Rhodes Island office.

In this way, it could be considered a compromise and reconciliation with his past...

Chapter 41: Game Forum

The next day, the open beta, which had lasted for one Terra day, finally came to an end.

Bai Ye opened the game forum. Even though he couldn't log into the game, the forum was still incredibly lively.

Open beta players, viewers drawn by reputation, and curious onlookers... the online world was a vibrant spectacle, a universe of its own.

Bai Ye had initially thought that the massive player-involved battle from yesterday would be the hottest topic. However, upon entering the forum, he discovered that the most popular content was actually a promotional video.

[NPC Bai Ye: I Have a Dream]

Damn, this title is something else...

Bai Ye himself was stunned. He instinctively clicked on it and found it was a video edited by a Bilibili uploader. They had used many player-recorded gameplay videos, Zhai Mao's recorded segments, and official promotional PVs. Combined with Bai Ye's original speech and background music, it created an epic and grand feeling.

The video concluded with Bai Ye handing out a business card. It listed the address of the Rhodes Island office and Bai Ye's spoken line: "This world needs more heroes. Are you in?"

[I'm fired up!]

[Bai Ye only needed three sentences to make me give up all my experience and Lungmen Dollars.]

[Why can't I find this NPC?]

[I need to join Bai Ye's faction right now.]

[Can any big shots explain the basic settings of Rhodes Island, Infected, and Originium?]

Bai Ye stroked his chin, quite satisfied with the video. "Players are truly talented... to have such self-aware tools, they did a great job."

Of course, Bai Ye wouldn't believe everything the commenters said. Even though these players were now loudly proclaiming they would spread his word and join him, it would be amazing if even 1/10 of them sought him out in the game.

Besides the video, players were naturally discussing yesterday's battle. They hadn't expected that after only one day of open beta, they would encounter such a large-scale mission that could be participated in by a massive number of players simultaneously.

Especially when someone posted about NPC Bai Ye teaching players skills after the mission ended, it immediately made a large group of players who hadn't participated in the mission feel jealous.