Accidental Contact

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

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

A group of people sat around a bonfire, chatting and laughing. The scent of roasting meat mingled with the sweet fragrance of fruit in the air.

The bushes rustled, and everyone beside the bonfire fell silent, turning to look in the direction of the shaking foliage.

When they saw that it was Qi Lin, some of the people in the group breathed a sigh of relief.

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

Dun Qu Qi Yi patted the empty spot beside her. It looked like the seat had been deliberately saved for Qi Lin.

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

Looking around, Qi Lin saw that apart from the people who had hunted the Wild Boar King with her during the day, there were several more people present.

Just as Qi Lin was feeling puzzled, Dun Qu Qi Yi took the lead in explaining. "Everyone, this is the last friend who helped me eliminate the Wild Boar King."

After saying that, Dun Qu Qi Yi said to Qi Lin, "Sheriff Sister, these are the friends I invited."

As she spoke, Dun Qu Qi Yi introduced them to Qi Lin one by one, starting with a familiar stranger. "This is Hawkeye. He's an apprentice archer, and his arrows are incredible. I heard he runs an archery shooting club in the United States."

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

Qi Lin also smiled at Hawkeye in a friendly manner and continued listening as Dun Qu Qi Yi introduced her friends.

"This Captain America's Loyal Fan is Hawkeye's friend. Like you, Sheriff Sister, he's a Dual Guns apprentice."

Hearing the two beautiful ladies introduce him, Coulson politely smiled and nodded at them, appearing every inch the gentleman.

Lord Xin, who had been eavesdropping from the side, cut in. "You really like Captain M."

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

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

Coulson answered amiably, "Yes, I'm a fan of the Captain. I've collected every movie poster and card of his."

"Really?" Lord Xin did not think much of it and casually replied, "I've only watched the first Captain M movie. I never watched the rest."

"That's such a pity." Coulson had originally wanted to recommend the Captain's movies to him, but seeing his utter lack of interest, he said no more.

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

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

Whenever she thought about how Sister would react if the players learned that half the others came from other worlds, an image of Sister being furiously angry would rise in Dun Qu Qi Yi's mind.

"Wuwu X﹏X So scary. Don't think about it, don't think about it." Dun Qu Qi Yi hurriedly shook that terrifying image from her mind.

Qi Lin suddenly saw Dun Qu Qi Yi inexplicably shaking her head and asked with concern,

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

"It's nothing." Dun Qu Qi Yi hurriedly laughed it off and changed the subject.

"This person—I'm sure Sheriff Sister has heard of her great name."

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

She was a blonde female player. Qi Lin saw her crouching beside the bonfire, eating a fruit that looked much like a Hami melon. When she took a bite, milky-white juice flowed down the corner of her mouth.

She closed her eyes in sheer enjoyment. Sensing someone looking at her, she opened them, awkwardly wiped away the milky juice from her mouth, and smiled as she nodded at Qi Lin.

Then she resumed battling the fruit in her hands.

"It's her." Qi Lin was far too familiar with her. Not long ago, the system had broadcast an announcement to the entire server about her, and Qi Lin blurted out her name. "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 declared boldly, "Call me Boss Sis, and I'll give you a camp property."

Qi Lin smiled and did not take it to heart, but she never could have imagined that before long, property prices in the Player Camp would soar at a freakish pace.

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

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

Qi Lin received a piece of leather armor. She used Appraisal Technique to inspect its information.

[Name: Casual Leather Armor (Green)]

[Level: LV5]

[Defense: +100]

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

[Description: Leather armor made from the Wild Boar King's hide. Superb craftsmanship gave what should have been a gray item its present wonder. Perhaps it only turned out this way because even its creator had not taken it too seriously.]

[Creator: Great Elf, Skadi]

Looking at the equipment information before her, Qi Lin blinked. "Holy shit, it's actually green equipment. I didn't expect Dun Qu Qi Yi really did go find 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 any better protective gear later, this equipment could barely last her until level fifteen.

Just as Qi Lin was feeling satisfied with the equipment she had received, a burst of loud commotion came from nearby.

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

Lord Xin asked in confusion, "Why is the system telling me I can't use this equipment?"

As he spoke, he displayed his weapon's 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 fangs. It is a weapon suited for both offense and defense.]
[Creator: Traveler, Dun Qu Qi Yi]

After reading the weapon description, Young Mistress 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 react 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 told me they got 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's words. Demacia's face darkened. "How was I supposed to know something like that would happen? When we were cutting down the tree, it felt like the tree had eyes and was charging right at us."

Big D slapped his thigh. "I almost forgot this is a game. You need levels to wear equipment. This game is just too realistic."

"Speaking of the game, have you noticed that NPC Skadi's simulated intelligence is incredibly realistic? She's just like a real person," Qi Lin asked everyone.

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

Only Dun Qu Qi Yi had a flicker of awkwardness flash across her 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 something we need to verify. How much experience do you all get from your daily quests?"

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

"Me too, two hundred," Young Mistress followed.

Hawkeye and Coulson exchanged a glance. Since it did not seem like a 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.

The moment Dun Qu Qi Yi revealed her quest rewards, everyone turned to look at her.

They all nodded thoughtfully, seeming to have guessed a certain possibility. To confirm the guess in their hearts, they looked toward the final three.

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

"Why is the gap so huge?"

Hearing this, Young Mistress teased, "Isn't it because the three of you stripped naked right from the start and got seen by Skadi?"

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

Young Mistress took another bite of the fruit in her hand and continued explaining.

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

"Haven't you noticed how immersive World Tree is? NPC affection works the same way. Since the heart of this game is immersion, we shouldn't treat NPCs as NPCs. We need to treat them like real people."

After listening to Young Mistress's explanation, Hawkeye and Coulson understood why their experience rewards were so low.

Hawkeye quietly asked Coulson, "Agent Coulson, I remember you once had a mission to protect Mr. Stark. The files mention that Stark had an artificial intelligence named 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."

Hearing that, Hawkeye sighed in relief. He had thought someone had already surpassed the United States' foremost Tony Stark.

Seeing Hawkeye's reaction, Coulson realized he had not made himself clear and explained, "What I mean is that Mr. Stark's JARVIS is currently only a computer program, while Miss Skadi in World Tree is completely like a human being—unless she is a staff member in disguise."

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

Looks like we need to give the director a detailed report. That thought showed in both Hawkeye's and Coulson's eyes.

When everyone encounters ads such as "Are you a True Person?", there is no need to pay attention to them. Just close them. Do not scan QR codes or send text messages!