"Why shut down the servers?"
Little Green felt quite puzzled.
"Based on the experience I saw in your memories, shutting down for a day at a time like this would cost you a lot of players."
Ed, however, smiled confidently.
"Then let me ask you: do we really have a lot of players?"
"...Uh, hard to say."
"Player attrition only happens once you reach a certain scale. We don't even have double-digit player numbers yet, so there's no need to worry so much."
Ed explained with a smile:
"Besides, I'm very confident in our game's quality. Maintenance downtime is just to give everyone a better experience. If they develop withdrawal symptoms, they'll only end up liking our game more."
"You make it sound like we're doing something bad... Oh, right, I haven't asked: what are you planning to do during that day of downtime? I thought you were just tired and wanted a break."
"Of course not."
Ed looked toward Upperstream Village, which was also the direction the players were exploring, and said:
"It's time to introduce some new NPCs."
"You mean those villagers?"
"Who else?"
"But they don't know how to be NPCs at all!"
"What does that matter? They don't know they're NPCs."
"That makes so much sense I actually can't argue."
For the players and Ed, this was a fine day for leveling up, but for the animals living in the wilderness of the barony, it was not quite so wonderful.
In this world, the boundary between animals and monsters had long since become hopelessly blurred. Almost all non-sapient creatures instinctively displayed aggression.
And that was exactly what the players wanted-
Red-named monsters everywhere?
Combat, hell yeah!
One low-level starter village monster after another fell. The players excitedly took their loot, leaving the parts with little practical value where they lay.
The sun slowly sank westward. In a corner the players had not noticed, a rat emerged from a burrow, crawled over to the incomplete body of a Vine Sheep, sniffed it, and let out delighted squeaks.
Although it was still early, the temptation of food made the rat choose to feast.
As it consumed more food, the rat's eyes grew increasingly blood-red, as though blood might drip from them at any moment. Shreds of bloody meat even hung from the corners of its mouth.
Its belly was already round from eating, and its body now looked abnormally bloated. Even getting all four feet onto the ground was difficult.
For a rat, entering this state was extremely dangerous.
It had already lost its basic ability to flee. If a natural predator appeared now, this bloated rat would become a ready-made meal in its jaws.
For all the countless faults ready-made meals might have, they could still fill a stomach, which was better than going hungry in the wilderness.
In this world, where most people-or rather, most creatures-were going hungry to some degree, there was nothing wrong with eating a little ready-made food.
But after eating and drinking its fill, the rat did not return to its burrow. Instead, it raised its head toward the sky and kept squeaking.
Because of their frequency, these sound waves were not picked up by the players' bodies, but the restless stirring within the tangled burrows underground grew increasingly pronounced...
"Well? How far have we gone?"
After stabbing a somewhat irritable mutated rat to death with his spear, [Zhongde] wiped away sweat that did not exist.
He looked up at the dim, gray sky and only then realized it seemed to be getting late.
[Howling Pothos]: "We're still about a kilometer from that highlighted point. We need to make a decision."
[Good Times Don't Last]: "What decision?"
Everyone looked at this newbie with little gaming experience and discovered that he seemed genuinely unaware rather than deliberately playing dumb.
Even [Great Wei Boxing Champion], who had only joined the game today, had realized this. He pointed at the sky and said:
"According to you, we only get twelve hours of testing each day. If we keep heading that way, we won't be able to log out at the castle at eight."
[Do Some Farm Work] picked up where he left off:
"In this freaky world, would you really feel safe logging out outside a safe zone?"
With that, he pointed at the rat [Zhongde] had just stabbed to death:
"What if you log in tomorrow and find that rats have chewed away a chunk of you?"
Just imagining the scene he described sent a chill down [Good Times Don't Last]'s spine.
He nodded hastily and said:
"I vote we go back."
The others all agreed. All six players present were very cautious. [Howling Pothos] had originally thought there would be some reckless players among them, but the all-too-real immersion seemed to make them value their lives here just as much as they did in the real world...
That's fine too. At least I won't have to worry about pieces scattered everywhere.
After everyone agreed to head back, [Zhongde] suddenly pointed at the dead, fat rat on the ground and asked:
"Can this thing's brain be used to make a Soul Returner?"
The group immediately fell silent. The rat was certainly large, but however large it was, it could not compare to an ordinary human body. Although Ed had told them any brain would do, a rat's brain... was a little disgusting, more or less.
Everyone shook their heads, putting an end to [Zhongde]'s plan to farm contribution points with rats.
"Then let's hurry back. We can pick up the prey we didn't have time to skin along the way. Everyone still has room to carry things. These are all materials, so don't waste them."
As the sky gradually darkened, everyone headed toward the castle. With the built-in map, they would not lose their way.
Soon, a corner of the castle appeared on the horizon, and [Shit Appraisal Master] spotted the corpse of a "Plum Blossom" Deer. The Paralysis Flower's poison was not strong enough to knock out six people at once, giving the group an opening and allowing them to truly kill this kind of monster for the first time.
He hurriedly crouched down, detached the head of his short spear, and began cutting meat off the prey. But as he cut, his surroundings seemed to grow quiet.
[Shit Appraisal Master] felt a little puzzled, but did not look up. He merely cursed with a laugh:
"You ungrateful bastards aren't leaving without me, are you?"
Still, no one answered.
Now [Shit Appraisal Master] also sensed something was wrong. He stood with a solemn expression and saw that his motionless companions beside him were all looking behind him. Every one of them was gripping their weapon tightly, and fine beads of sweat had appeared on their foreheads.
"Is there something behind me?"
He turned around curiously, then saw a living ball of flesh, a mingling of red and black, just four or five paces behind him:
[Rat King (Red) Level: ???]
Clatter.
The spearhead in [Shit Appraisal Master]'s hand fell to the ground. Rather than bend down to pick it up, he patted [Zhongde] beside him and said:
"Looks like we won't have to wait until tomorrow."