Cat Alliance Leader pointed at himself, then at the three security guard buddies behind him, trying to build some rapport:
"After I went back yesterday, I told my companions about the trouble Feather Town was in."
"They were really worried when they heard Feather Town had just been attacked by the Cultists, so they wanted to bring some people over today and see if we could lend the town a hand!"
As they listened to Cat Alliance Leader's perfectly reasonable small talk.
The other players cooperated by nodding repeatedly.
Kuang Shao even lowered his shield a little and squeezed out what he thought was a friendly smile.
Yet in response to Cat Alliance Leader's enthusiastic greeting.
The thin old man from Feather Town moved his eyes sluggishly.
His cheek muscles stiffly pulled upward, forming a rather eerie smile.
The old man gave no remotely logical response to anything Cat Alliance Leader had just said!
He simply raised his hand and made a "please come in" gesture to the group.
Then, in that painfully dry voice, he repeated:
"Welcome to Feather Town..."
"This way, please."
Having said that.
The two townspeople turned around in unison and headed deeper into town along the rubble-strewn street.
"Uh..."
[Ji Luo] and [Kindergarten Boss] exchanged a glance, each seeing deep wariness in the other's eyes.
"Cat, were they acting like this when you came last night?"
[Fragile College Student] shrank back a little. "Yesterday, we were too busy checking out the town to pay much attention to what they were saying."
"Yesterday... I think they did talk like this yesterday, too!"
[Cat Woken Up by a Midnight Urge] also felt a chill down his spine:
"Their bot-like behavior hasn't changed. When I asked them questions yesterday, they just kept repeating the same couple of welcome