A literal smile that never reached the flesh

Zuo Cheng'an had checked with his skill. The torches in the villagers' hands were made from ordinary firewood and pine resin. The smoke they produced when lit was ordinary smoke, too.

Soon, everyone had undergone the Smoking Ceremony.

Zheng Ren, who had learned his lesson once before, leaned close to Li Yueqiu's ear and whispered a warning:

"Don't be stupid. They're not normal humans at all. Look at their eyes, their expressions. What village could get more than two hundred people to wear exactly the same expression?"

Li Yueqiu was simple-minded, but she wasn't an idiot. With that reminder stripping away her fondness for fellow villagers, she noticed something was wrong, too.

Never mind that there wasn't a single rooster crowing or dog barking in such a large village-why was everyone's face plastered with the same copy-and-paste fake smile?

Paired with their spotless, wrinkle-free, brand-new clothes, they looked like dolls displayed in a toy shop's glass window.

Even if they had dressed up especially to welcome tourists, wasn't this going too far?

Under everyone's gaze, the village chief put on a puzzled expression.

But the chief didn't seem capable of skillfully controlling his facial muscles yet, and the expression he made was very stiff.

His skin and muscles seemed to be separate.

Right before the players, he demonstrated a literal smile of the skin without a smile of the flesh.

The human face had forty-four muscles, capable of producing more than five thousand expressions.

Using any one of those muscles incorrectly could trigger the uncanny valley effect.

Although the bizarre sight before her made Li Yueqiu scream inwardly, wanting to throw the Little Flying Stone and smash their heads apart,

there was nothing she could do. The villagers were important NPCs in the instance, and the players couldn't complete their tasks without them.

So avoiding them was useless. They could only grit their teeth and press on.

Before Zuo Cheng'an could speak, someone on Zhang Zhuang's side let out a piercing shriek,

proving that the Wavebreaker Guild wasn't all it was cracked up to be.

Yang Ye pointed at one of the villagers and cried out in shock, "Old Wang!? Shit! I thought you'd run off with the team leader's mistress! What are you doing in this instance!??"

The villager he called "Old Wang" didn't react. He didn't even glance at him.

The village chief, however, was understanding. Stroking his beard with a fleshy hand free of age spots, he called out, "Wang Cheng? Do you know this honored guest?"

Only after hearing the chief speak did Wang Cheng turn to stare at Yang Ye. After a long moment, he said:

"I don't know him."

"That's a load of goddamn bullshit! Last month, you said you couldn't afford rent and borrowed 30 points from me! You've got the nerve to say you don't know me!?"

Extremely agitated, Yang Ye moved to grab Wang Cheng by the collar. "Give me back my marriage savings!!"

Wang Cheng neither dodged nor resisted, simply letting him grab him.

But something dazzlingly red entered Yang Ye's field of vision. His anger faded, the hot blood rushing to his head cooled, and reason reclaimed the high ground in his brain.

How had he forgotten? The game collected dead players' bodies and recycled them into NPCs!

There were only seven players in this instance, and they were all standing beside him. Everyone else was an instance NPC!

Even if he had been his good friend when he was alive!

Startled, Yang Ye released his grip in a flash and staggered several steps back to his actual companions.

Only when he felt a drop of water slide past the corner of his eye did he realize his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

[Oh wow, what a rare event. Out of countless instances, two players who knew each other actually met. Too bad things aren't what they used to be~~]

[I'm dying. Friends reunited after years apart, only one's already dead. I love scenes like this.]

[Me too. I've still got that iconic scene saved!]

[Do you mean that loving old married couple, where one sacrificed themselves so the other could live, only for them to reunite in another instance not long afterward, and then the man killed himself to become an NPC and stay with his wife?

I've come across it so many times. Just thinking about it disgusts me. He'd already survived, so why the hell die for love? What a fucking idiot.]

[Exactly. He was alive already. Couldn't he just marry someone else later? Watching that gave me a headache.]

Yang Ye and Wang Cheng were only ordinary friends.

At most, they got along a little better than most; otherwise, Yang Ye wouldn't have lent him 30 points.

But they weren't so close that seeing the other man's corpse turned into an NPC would make him seek revenge regardless of the consequences.

Once he calmed down, the most Yang Ye did was lament the misfortune that had befallen him.

It was a minor, inconsequential interruption. As though he hadn't seen any of it, the chief cheerfully beckoned the players into the village.

"Since you're all here to test our attractions, you're also Sunny Village's first batch of tourists. Our village will be sure to give you the best travel experience."

As he spoke, the villagers spread out to either side of the road, leaving a narrow path for the players.

Under the villagers' unblinking stares, everyone headed into the village.

It wasn't a pleasant experience, especially when everyone wore the same copy-and-paste smiling face.

Zheng Ren muttered quietly to Zuo Cheng'an and Li Yueqiu, "Look, that little brat in the split-crotch pants hasn't blinked once since earlier. Don't his eyes feel dry?"

"Dead people don't need to blink," Zuo Cheng'an replied, then added, "Don't keep staring at the villagers."

Although Zheng Ren acknowledged the warning, he still couldn't resist taking one last glance.

Then he saw the little brat in split-crotch pants suddenly rub his eyes.

Then, with a clean, practiced motion, the child plucked out one of his eyeballs, held it in his mouth to moisten it with saliva for a while, and put it back into its socket.

There. He was a cute little kid with bright, watery eyes again.

Zheng Ren quickly looked away and hunched his shoulders, feeling a chill along the soles of his feet and his back. He hurried to catch up with Zuo Cheng'an and Li Yueqiu, no longer daring to let his gaze wander.

After this experience, the question in his mind was finally answered.

At last, he understood why the Chef who had hunted him in the previous instance had worn clothes from a real-world clothing brand despite being an NPC in the game.

So he'd been a player before?

If not for those clothes, Zheng Ren could have noticed something was wrong with the Chef sooner.

Sigh. What a waste of those 40 points.

Everyone followed the chief into the village.

The chief talked endlessly about the tourist attractions available in the village, from local customs to architectural features. His mouth never stopped chattering.

But hardly anyone was listening to him. They were all concentrating on studying the layout of the surrounding buildings.