Players Beyond Native Comprehension

Every night when he returned to the Mage Tower, Hill would contact Falan. Besides checking on the situation in the capital and the war in the south, Falan also wanted confirmation that Hill had not been driven stupid by the players. He genuinely felt that there was something wrong with the Undead's minds.

After learning a little more about the players during this period, Hill had gradually pieced together their skill panels. Even a Magus could only cultivate two types of skills at once, yet players preferred Fire-Element Law paired with something else. Though they could use at most twenty skills, their colorful combinations made their battles remarkably exciting and interesting.

There were only two ways players fought each other. One was to kill without caring about the reason, which apparently resulted in becoming a Red Name. In Hill's territory, they would be directly shot to death by the arrow towers. The other was for guilds to declare war, after which the system would designate an area where both sides could engage in a free-for-all.

The liveliest and most eye-catching event now was the Undead's siege war. Not only were many Mages from Salar floating in the air to watch, but many people from Hephasaldo had come as well. They had even brought out airships. Although they did not dare enter the defensive zone of Salar's Border City, they reported on it every day.

In truth, the native Mages had already noticed that the Undead used their skills rather rigidly. Their casting times were long, and many Undead were very willing to loudly announce the name of the skill they were about to use. In a real fight, one native Mage could take on ten Undead.

But there were simply too many of them.

More than a million professionals—though only a little over half had joined this siege war—was still a terrifying number. The Undead also loved fire spells and would set entire cities ablaze at the slightest provocation.

The people of Salar found the Walls of Fire cast by tens of thousands of people terrifying enough. Hephasaldo was even worse off.

Not to mention that their Magi had taken the field directly. Thousands of them joined hands to cast Blazing Meteor, sending hundreds of thousands of enormous balls of magma crashing down on the heads of their own people. The madness frightened countless onlookers.

Hephasaldo did not have enough Magi defending it to directly sustain a magic barrier strong enough to withstand that. This was no longer a battle that could be maintained by consuming Elemental Crystals. Only Magi directly pouring in their mana could manage it.

Before the war began, there had still been ordinary villagers near the players' territory who were reluctant to leave. Now, not even animals remained within a thousand miles.

Since he knew people from Black Rose and lived nearby, Falan had secretly gone to watch several times. Although their battle was not as brutal as the one next door, it was still enough to shock him.

Black Rose had formed a suicide squad from a large number of Swordsmen. At intervals, they would charge straight into the enemy formation and unleash their ultimate moves to instantly kill the Priests. Falan returned with a wry smile and said that he would probably never again see so many Priests dying at once.

Only a race unafraid of death could develop such a no-return style of combat. Once more than half the Priests died, the Mages on the walls would rain down overwhelming fire spells, wiping out more than half the Knights and Swordsmen at once. Then the Knight Order would charge out and cut down the injured Mages in the rear.

During sieges, tens of thousands of people could cast Earthquake and Magma Meteor at the same time. Those on the walls could not stay on their feet every time, and once the protective barrier broke, the defenders were in extreme danger.

But Black Rose's Priests always stood at the rear. Ten-thousand-man groups led by several thousand archbishops could basically stabilize everyone's health. As long as the defenders on the wall were not wiped out in one blow, the magic barrier would soon light up again.

It sounded easy, but with everyone able to undergo Revival, it became a battle of endurance.

The Undead could fight passionately from daylight until late at night, while the native spectators were all deeply shaken.

After watching a few times, Falan stopped going. A battle where even Magi had become consumables had deeply disturbed him.

But whenever he returned to his own territory, he would see some Undead wandering about every day, teasing cats and dogs, completely unconcerned about their fellow Undead fighting to the death elsewhere.

Falan truly felt that Hill's earlier decision to keep his distance from the Undead had been absolutely correct. This race could be dealt with, but it was better not to form deeper ties. With too much contact, Falan felt he would go bald.

So now, he worried most about softhearted Hill. He contacted him every day to make sure Hill was not getting too close to the Undead.

Hill could not put his suffering into words. How could he possibly become close friends with people who treated him as an NPC? Even a cardboard cutout had its pride, okay?

Still, he understood Falan. After all, Hill was his only family. The players' chaotic nature could indeed make an elder worry, so Hill obediently spoke with Falan every day.

Hill did not care about the players' siege war. Though the natives saw it as an intense battle, a clash of pride with no lives truly at stake was just that. A war where making the other side suffer mattered more than killing them was something Falan and the others could never understand.

No matter how fiercely they fought, it would not stop them from facing enemies together. Once the real campaign began, even if they tripped each other up, they would first attack the Noble Coalition. Of course, they might pull too hard on someone's leg one day and cause a city to fall. But they had plenty of people, so taking it back would not be a problem.

William, over in the capital, had done something truly major. The enraged great nobles had joined forces and actually stationed troops at a large mine, preventing William's army from entering.

William did not hesitate to order an attack, showing them no mercy whatsoever. Even among those allied nobles was the family of his mother's maternal grandfather.

And after taking the mine, he marched directly on the nobles' castles. The only leniency he offered was to exile those nobles who surrendered.

The Spencer Family remained completely silent throughout this period. William had not withdrawn his noble subordinates from the northern Border City. He had even scattered several of his uncles from branch families among other border cities.

Hill felt that the northern border would become very chaotic in the future. He only hoped the exiled nobles would be smart enough to stay as far away from Salar as possible.

Still, the fact that these nobles had not gone south to Hephasaldo meant they had some backbone.

When Hill mentioned it to Adrian, Adrian loudly laughed at his foolishness. "Idiot! If William loses, they can naturally return. Even if they do not gain much, at least they will not be exploited by Hephasaldo and forced to sign unbearable contracts. If William wins, would they not be expelled together with everyone else if they went to Haifa? Then no one knows where they would be driven to!"

Although Adrian's family had also been dealt with, they were somewhat far from the capital. The nobles who had resisted at the front had taught them a profound lesson, so they obediently accepted their punishment.

They had lost a great deal of money, and all their slaves had been taken away. From then on, they could only stay honestly in their territory and live off farmland and trade caravans. But at least they had kept their titles and lands, not to mention their lives.

No matter how many fallback plans they had prepared, preserving the family without regrets was still worth celebrating. Adrian happily sent back a large sum of money and repaid the last bit of debt he owed his family.

Adrian had been so pleased lately that he was practically floating, so Hill forgave him for calling him an idiot. "Dear Brother Adrian, do you have any new potions for sale lately?"

"Do not imitate those Undead!" Adrian snapped angrily.

At first, he had thought he was successfully getting information out of them, and he had also enjoyed being surrounded by sweet, delicate girls. But he soon discovered that, in the eyes of those female Undead players, he was not as valuable as a single new potion made by his teacher. Most likely, those charming and adorable girls called him brother aloud while calling him an idiot in their hearts.

He no longer stayed in the potion shop. Every day, he squatted in the Mage Tower and diligently cultivated.

Hill very much wanted to say that the Undead girls definitely would not call him an idiot in their hearts. After all, they only thought this NPC was handsome, suave, charming, and rather easy to talk to. But he wisely kept silent.

The players' attitude toward NPCs was actually rather strange. By now, the smarter people in Salar had distanced themselves from the Undead. They could all sense the Undead's lofty attitude, as though they could leave at any moment.

Most people followed William's approach toward the Undead. They were a mercenary army worthy of respect.

Their attitude had to be friendly, and their words had to be calm. If they needed something, they should pay more and not think about defaulting on their debts. Above all, they should not try to claim the Undead for themselves.

Even William, who had summoned them here, had never entertained such grand ideas. Others should not challenge themselves. If they still refused to give up, they could look at the miserable fates of the great nobles who had tried to buy off High-Rank Undead during this period.

How many extraordinarily generous quests had they issued to the Undead staying in their territories? How many resources had they gritted their teeth and offered? The Undead accepted every single one. Yet when William's Knight Order arrived, not one of them stayed behind to help those nobles. The most conscientious ones remained neutral and watched from the outskirts. But most turned around and joined William's camp without even wiping their mouths after eating.

When those nobles angrily accused them, they asked in great shock, "You paid money, so we accepted quests. Did anyone think we would betray our Supreme God just because we took a little of your money?"

No one knew whether those nobles died of anger, but from then on, probably no one would think the Undead were greedy for money and easy to win over.

Everyone also understood why William had never cared about the nobles tempting the Undead. As long as the Supreme God's favor remained, the Undead would only help William.

In truth, it had always been rare for the followers of Gods to be bribed by outsiders. But the Undead's usual behavior always made people feel there was an opening to exploit. They loved money, beauty, and spectacles; they had bad tempers and so many apparent weaknesses that countless people wanted to take a stab at them.

But every ending was miserable.

After all their scheming, the people of Salar could only conclude that even though the Undead seemed least like a God-Blessed Race, the result was still the same. The spectators who had watched coldly mocked them without restraint.

After hearing this information, Hill only wanted to bury his head in a book.

He could also confirm that the Undead's underwear could not be removed. After all, among those foolish players, there were always strange people who wanted to run around naked.

In the square before Hill's Lord's Manor, there were always players who had lost bets and stripped off their equipment to run laps. Fortunately, they had not been foolish enough to run outside the village.

When Olivia first saw this scene, her face turned livid and her whole body trembled. Amid the Undead's thunderous laughter, she barely maintained her composure and hurried back to the church. From then on, she stayed far away from the small square whenever she went out.

Fortunately, the players did not want to lower her favorability. Otherwise, someone would definitely have gone to provoke her right in front of her.

Hill remained completely unfazed even when he saw naked female Undead, so no one made much of a fuss around him.

One player deliberately asked Hill about it. Hill merely answered expressionlessly that he knew an Undead's body might not match their original gender.

Then the group dispersed in disappointment.