Real world, gaming community.
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "Wow, that last part of the performance was really cool, wasn't it?"
Although the players in the group couldn't see each other's real faces, his words at that moment already showed that he was smiling.
[ Shit Appraisal Master ]: "We just lost some money, why are you so happy?"
[ Zhongde ]: "What's wrong with this village chief? Why did he come all this way to perform performance art for everyone?"
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "Well, because the two of us went on a trade route, we know a bit about the inside story."
[ Zhongde ]: "... Young man, stop talking nonsense."
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "I think this performance can be considered the official explanation."
"Explain what?"
Explain why the service was down yesterday.
"Does game maintenance also need an explanation?"
"So, this is just my guess."
The group fell silent for a moment, everyone waiting for the logical deduction of [ the Good Times Don't Last ].
"The game's time is out of sync with the real world, so according to the official settings, something must have happened on the day we were absent."
"It now seems that the guides reached an agreement with Dragonborn Village and Seraphina on this day, so that we would have trade routes to run after going online, and a 'one-stop shop' would help us open accounts and deposit money."
[ Zhongde ]: "But isn't this our economic system and quest system? What does it have to do with NPCs?"
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "So, if we want to find the logic in this, we can't use the thinking of 'the real world' and 'the game world,' but we should look at it in terms of 'our world' and 'another world.' Only then will my logic be relatively coherent."
[ Zhongde ]: "There's some truth to that. Let me observe it further."
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "Besides, the rewards this time were also quite interesting. They weren't just simple in-game currency rewards, but were distributed in the form of discounts, as if they wanted us to have more interaction with the Dragonborn Village."
[ Zhongde ]: "Indeed, but speaking of which, why are you explaining these things to everyone today? Where are Pothos and Boxing Champion?"
[ Howling Pothos ]: "Editing the encyclopedia, please do not disturb."
[ Great Wei Boxing Champion ]: "This diarrhea-like update is really exhausting for all the compendium players... Has anyone taken a picture of the Dragonborn Village submitting to Seraphina? I'll upload it to the compendium later."
[ Do Some Farm Work ]: "I filmed this from a specific angle, so it looks like the village chief is the one kneeling as the guide. Do you think it's okay?"
[ Great Wei Boxing Champion ]: "Okay, but I have a question for you."
[ Do Some Farm Work ]: "What?"
[ Great Wei Boxing Champion ]: "... Are you a journalism major?"
A world not yet in chaos, August 8, 2037, 20:00.
World of Disorder, August 8th, 908 (Royal Calendar), 8:00 AM.
Seraphina leaned against the wall of the castle's main hall, scrutinizing the row of bodies neatly arranged in the center of the hall.
Ed's explanation yesterday didn't completely convince her, so the 150-year-old Red Dragon decided to observe for herself.
For some reason, she felt like she was in a morgue.
She vaguely remembered that the last time she saw something similar was nearly a hundred years ago, when, under the invasion of the Demonic Tide, humans died in droves like weeds. The survivors would stack the corpses in a similar manner and then bury or cremate them together.
Ed explained the origins of these Soul Returner to her yesterday. Even with Seraphina's wisdom and knowledge, she had never heard of such rumors in this world. If it were just one or two, that would be fine, but some human mages seem to be able to do something similar to possession.
But... that's ten already!
Her golden eyes looked at Ed, who was making an incomprehensible gesture. As he had said, this summoning ritual had to be performed once a day, as it was a necessary condition for calling upon the souls.
However, Seraphina didn't sense any Psionic Energy fluctuations from him...
This human... is not simple.
As Ed's own incomprehensible gesticulation ended, the bodies on the ground quickly came to life.
The familiar-looking bodies quickly regained their Vitality and, after a brief period of adaptation, began to move on their own.
However, the humans who were supposed to take their equipment and leave the castle looked at the unfamiliar bodies with some surprise. At the same time, they were speaking in a language that Seraphina could not understand.
[ Zhongde ]: "Wow, it's a new player!"
[ The Good Times Don't Last ]: "There were four?!"
[ Do Some Farm Work ]: "Although I know the random character models in this game are terrible, don't these two look a bit like women?"
[ Shit Appraisal Master ]: "Let whoever wants to fix this dilapidated roof do it. I'm going to mentor the newbie today."
The four bodies on the ground began to twitch one after another. Ed, who had extensive experience in summoning, knew that this was a necessary process when a soul adapts to a body. Because it was the first time that a soul was merging with a body, the login time would be relatively longer.
Soon, the people on the ground opened their eyes.
They looked around in confusion, seeing the guide from the encyclopedia, the newly joined dragon girl, and several somewhat abstract-looking... humanoid creatures.
This must be a player!
[ Litang's Supremely Fierce Tiger ]: "Do you... do you have wheat?"
[ Dawn Ah ]: "Some brothers, some."
[ Zhongde ]: "What's the point of playing an immersive game without a microphone?"
[Pond Fish and Old Abyss]: "This game... it's actually real."
Of the four newcomers, only the [ Dark Archmage ] remained silent. After adapting to the body, she quickly took two steps back, maintaining a safe distance from the others, a distance befitting a socially awkward person.
The crowd was dancing wildly in the hall, making Ed's eyelids twitch.
He was determined to put the character customization feature on the agenda soon, otherwise these already somewhat inhuman characters might completely lose their humanity.
Despite the chaos at the scene, the necessary sense of ceremony could not be omitted.
Ed worked through the night to revise the opening scene's dialogue so that newcomers could quickly immerse themselves in the character.
However, at the end of the opening, instead of letting the players roam freely as before, he pointed to a corner of the lobby:
"Dear Soul Returner, to help you quickly familiarize yourselves with this world and master this new body, I have prepared a complete set of basic tools for you."
"Please, guided by the other Soul Returner, begin to contribute your strength to restoring order to this world!"