An Accidental Encounter

When Qi Lin arrived at the orchard she had visited during the day, she had originally thought she would be the first one there. To her surprise, someone had arrived even earlier.

Seeing the faint glow of a bonfire in the distance, she pushed aside the branches blocking her path, and her view suddenly opened up.

A group of people sat around a bonfire, chatting and laughing amid the scent of roasting meat and the fresh fragrance of fruit in the air.

The bushes rustled, and everyone by the bonfire fell silent and looked toward the shaking foliage.

When they saw that it was Qi Lin, some of the crowd let out sighs of relief.

"Sheriff sis, come sit here." Qi Lin looked over and saw that it was the white-haired girl, Dun Qu Qi Yi, speaking.

Dun Qu Qi Yi patted an unoccupied spot beside her. It seemed that seat had been deliberately saved for Qi Lin.

"I didn't expect me to be the last one here." Qi Lin sat beside Dun Qu Qi Yi somewhat embarrassedly.

She looked around. Aside from the people who had hunted the Wild Boar King with her during the day, several more people had joined them.

Just as Qi Lin was feeling puzzled, Dun Qu Qi Yi spoke first to explain. "Everyone, this is the last friend who helped me defeat the Wild Boar King."

Then Dun Qu Qi Yi said to Qi Lin, "Sheriff sis, these are the friends I invited."

As she spoke, Dun Qu Qi Yi introduced them one by one. She began with strangers Qi Lin was somewhat familiar with. "This is Hawkeye. He's an apprentice archer, and his arrows are amazing. I heard he runs an archery shooting club in the United States."

Hawkeye nodded at Qi Lin. He had some impression of this player.

Qi Lin also gave Hawkeye a friendly smile and continued listening to Dun Qu Qi Yi introduce her friends.

"This Captain America's Loyal Fan is Hawkeye's friend. His class is the same as yours, Sheriff sis—an apprentice dual-gunner."

Coulson, who had just been introduced to the two beautiful ladies, politely smiled and nodded at them, looking every bit the gentleman.

Lord Xin, who had been eavesdropping nearby, interjected, "You really like M Country's Captain."

Coulson's expression stiffened. While browsing the game forums, he had discovered that people in the East liked to refer to the United States as M Country, with M being the first letter of the Chinese word for beauty.

But Coulson thought it might simply be a linguistic habit, so he did not pursue the matter.

Coulson replied amicably, "Yes, I'm a fan of the Captain. I've collected every movie poster and card related to him."

"Really?" Lord Xin did not think much of it and casually replied, "I only watched the first M Country Captain movie. I never watched any after that."

"That's really a shame." Coulson had originally wanted to recommend the Captain's movies to him, but seeing his lack of interest, he said nothing more.

Dun Qu Qi Yi, who had been watching them talk from the side, wiped away a bead of inexplicable cold sweat.

Good thing they didn't keep talking, or the fact that they're from two different worlds would have been exposed.

The moment she imagined what would happen if the players learned that half the other people came from other worlds, Dun Qu Qi Yi's mind filled with an image of her elder sister becoming extremely angry.

"Wuwu X﹏X, so scary. I can't think about it, I can't think about it." Dun Qu Qi Yi hurriedly shook the terrifying image from her mind.

Qi Lin suddenly saw Dun Qu Qi Yi shaking her head for no apparent reason and asked with concern:

"Dun Qu Qi Yi, what happened? Are you feeling unwell somewhere, or did the system bug out?"

"Nothing." Dun Qu Qi Yi hurriedly laughed it off and changed the subject.

"This person, I'm sure Sheriff sis has heard of her."

Dun Qu Qi Yi gestured toward the female player among the crowd apart from themselves.

She was a blonde female player. Qi Lin saw her squatting beside the bonfire, eating a fruit that looked like a cantaloupe. With one bite, milky-white juice flowed from the corner of her mouth.

She closed her eyes in blissful enjoyment. Sensing someone looking at her, she opened her eyes, awkwardly wiped away the milky-white juice flowing from her lips, and smiled and nodded at Qi Lin.

Then she continued battling the fruit in her hands.

"It's her." Qi Lin was far too familiar with her. Not long ago, the system had announced her name across the entire server, and Qi Lin could not help blurting it out. "Young Mistress."

Hearing someone call her, Young Mistress immediately paused her battle with the fruit. Raising her head and seeing Qi Lin, she patted her chest and said grandly, "Call me Boss Sis, and I'll give you a camp property."

Qi Lin smiled and did not take it seriously, but she never could have imagined that before long, property prices in the Player Camp would rise at an insane rate.

After introducing all the friends Dun Qu Qi Yi had invited, Dun Qu Qi Yi once again brought up one of the purposes of this gathering.

Dun Qu Qi Yi took out several weapons. "These are the weapons and equipment made from materials dropped by the Wild Boar King." She then distributed the weapons to the people who had hunted the Wild Boar King.

Qi Lin received a piece of leather armor and used Appraisal Technique to inspect its details.

[Name: Casual Leather Armor (Green)]

[Level: LV5]

[Defense: +100]

[Green Attribute: Recover 300 HP every ten minutes after being injured]

[Description: Leather armor made from Wild Boar King hide. Superb craftsmanship transformed what should have been a gray item into something extraordinary. Perhaps its creator did not put much thought into it, which was why it turned out this way.]

[Crafter: Great Elf, Skadi]

Looking at the weapon information before her, Qi Lin blinked. "Holy shit, it's actually green equipment. I didn't expect Dun Qu Qi Yi really did go to NPC Skadi to make it."

According to what Qi Lin had learned from the game forums, a level-five green weapon was equivalent to a level-ten gray weapon, which was equivalent to a level-fifteen whiteboard item.

That meant that even if she did not obtain better protective gear later, she could barely use this equipment until level fifteen.

Just as Qi Lin was feeling satisfied with the equipment she had obtained, a burst of noisy shouting reached her ears.

Turning around, she saw that it was Big D, Lord Xin, and Demacia.

Lord Xin asked in confusion, "Why does the system say I can't use this equipment?"

As he spoke, he displayed his weapon information before everyone.

[Name: Brightfang Spear (Gray)]

[Level: LV5]

[Attack: +33]

[Description: A crude weapon, pointed at one end and polished from the Wild Boar King's sturdy tusk. A weapon capable of both offense and defense.]

[Crafter: Traveler, Dun Qu Qi Yi]

Young Mistress, after reading the weapon description, was the first to spot the issue. "Didn't you notice? You can't equip it if your level isn't high enough."

Only after Young Mistress pointed it out did everyone realize it and look at those guys' levels.

Big D: LV2

Lord Xin: LV2

Demacia: LV2

Seeing that the three of them were only level two, Qi Lin looked at Ironclad Heroism. "I thought you were joking when you said they were unlucky enough to get crushed to death by a tree. I didn't expect it to be true."

The three of them were sitting beside Ironclad Heroism and heard Qi Lin. Demacia's face darkened. "How was I supposed to know something like that would happen? When we were chopping trees, it felt like the trees had eyes and kept crashing into us."

Big D slapped his thigh. "I almost forgot this is a game. Equipment requires a level to wear. This game is just too realistic."

"Speaking of games, have you noticed how realistic NPC Skadi's intelligence simulation is? She feels completely real." Qi Lin asked the group.

Young Mistress, Hawkeye, Coulson, the Bush Trio, and Big D all nodded.

Only a flicker of awkwardness crossed Dun Qu Qi Yi's face, but it vanished in an instant, and no one else noticed.

Seeing that everyone agreed with her, Qi Lin slowly said, "Before that, there's one question we need to verify. How much experience do you all get from daily quests?"

"I get around two hundred." Qi Lin spoke first, revealing her quest rewards.

"I get two hundred too," Young Mistress followed.

Hawkeye and Coulson exchanged a look. Feeling that it was no big deal, they said, "We both get around one hundred."

"I get around one hundred too." That was Ironclad Heroism's voice.

"I get three hundred," Dun Qu Qi Yi said.

As soon as Dun Qu Qi Yi revealed her quest rewards, everyone turned to look at her.

They all nodded thoughtfully, seeming to have guessed at some possibility. To confirm their suspicions, they all looked toward the final three.

Big D, Lord Xin, and Demacia all wore bitter expressions. "We haven't completed a single quest that gave more than ten or twenty experience points."

"Why is the difference so huge?"

Hearing this, Young Mistress teased them, "Isn't it because you three stripped naked right from the start and let Skadi see you?"

"What does that have to do with quest experience?"

Young Mistress took a bite from the fruit in her hand and continued explaining:

"This is probably the game's hidden mechanic—the Affection System."

"Haven't you noticed that World Tree has a strong sense of immersion? NPC affection works the same way. Since immersion is the core of this game, we shouldn't treat NPCs as NPCs. We should treat them like real people."

After hearing Young Mistress's explanation, Hawkeye and Coulson understood why their experience rewards had been so low.

Hawkeye quietly asked Coulson, "Agent Coulson, I remember you once had a mission to protect Mr. Stark. The files said Stark had an artificial intelligence called JARVIS. How does it compare to the NPCs in this game?"

Coulson fell into thought at Hawkeye's question, then shook his head. "They can't be compared."

Hawkeye breathed a sigh of relief. He had thought someone had already surpassed Tony Stark, the United States' leading genius.

Seeing Hawkeye's reaction, Coulson realized he had not explained himself clearly and added, "What I mean is, Mr. Stark's JARVIS is currently only a computer program. But Miss Skadi in World Tree is completely like a human, unless she is being played by a staff member."

"Then Mr. Stark's technology is completely incapable of comparing with the technology displayed by World Tree," Coulson added.

It seems we need to give the director a detailed report. That thought appeared in both Hawkeye's and Coulson's eyes.

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