NPC Players
Meanwhile, in a dormitory at a military academy in the northern Empire.
"Shen Que! At this rate, when are we ever going to make it into ranked matches?" The curly-haired, brown-haired youth took off his VR goggles, opened the gaming pod and climbed out. "We're only on the first stage, and we can't even get our hands on a mech in the game!"
Xilaier opened his smart device and checked the Dark Night rankings on the campus forum, his expression growing more and more anxious.
The military academy encouraged its students to play Dark Night, and even provided gaming pods for all of them.
After all, the game simulated real interstellar warfare to the greatest possible extent at the lowest cost. It also trained sentinels in mental power, mech operation, combat command, team coordination and other essential military academy subjects as they played.
The school's leadership also checked the freshmen's rankings in Dark Night's ranked matches to make an initial selection of outstanding students for early mech training. That meant having one foot in the elite class.
But for certain reasons, he and Shen Que had even been late registering for school, so naturally they had fallen quite a way behind in the rankings.
"Xilaier, what are you panicking for? If we plan our battle strategy in advance, it'll take three months at most to clear the bounty hunter storyline." Shen Que adjusted his glasses, an air of determination surrounding him. "With reliable teammates in ranked matches, we'll have no trouble making the top three on the newbie rankings."
"How are we supposed to find reliable teammates? I can't even tell NPCs and players apart." Xilaier rubbed his hair in frustration, instantly turning his already wavy hair into a wild mess. "I thought that Viscount Xiersen was a player. I spent ages trying to get friendly with him, and he turned out to be an NPC."
Compared with Xilaier's anxiety, Shen Que was noticeably calmer. He took a sheet of scratch paper from a drawer without hurrying, spread it on the desk and picked up a pen to write down a plan.
"A team needs five people: a commander, a main attacker, a support, a ranged attacker and a guide." Shen Que wrote down the five team roles on the scratch paper. "Xilaier, you're good at sniping and dodging, so your mech will most likely be an agile type. The ranged attacker position suits you best. My mental power is relatively strong, but I don't have an advantage in physical fitness, so for now I can only consider the commander or support position..."
"We definitely need a main attacker, and that position absolutely can't be filled by an NPC."
"There's nothing we can do about the guide. We can only find an NPC to fill that role, but ninety-nine percent of the guide positions across the server are filled by game NPCs anyway, so it won't affect us much."
Shen Que circled the guide position and wrote "NPC" beside it...
"But even an NPC guide is hard to find!" Xilaier fell apart again. He had spent the day roaming around the game and had gotten into several fights with sentinel NPCs, but he hadn't found even a single clue about a guide.
"Stop howling." Shen Que wrote a few more words on the other side of the scratch paper... Viscount Xiersen. "There's no way this character appeared so abruptly for no reason. He might be the key to breaking the deadlock."
"Shen Que, you mean... we should go back to his territory with him and become his live-in son-in-law?!" Xilaier froze with his hand in his hair.
He remembered... the only reason this lovestruck viscount had come to the count's residence was to find a live-in son-in-law, so that once his daughter was married and had legally inherited the title, he could travel the world with his wife?
Among all the viscounts reporting on their duties, Viscount Xiersen stood out as particularly eccentric. The quests triggered by the other viscounts were sure to involve fighting monsters and leveling up, but this one... somehow didn't seem very reliable.
"Let's take a gamble." Shen Que thought it over and remained curious about Viscount Xiersen's side quest.
"All right, buddy, I'll listen to you." Xilaier had a great deal of trust in his childhood friend. Shen Que had been smart since he was little, after all, and following his advice was sure to be right.
Ninth Military District, 9:30 a.m.
"Woof, woo~"
Yuqing woke to a furry sensation rubbing against her face. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw the wolf cub's beautiful, round blue eyes. She propped herself up on her arms, sat up in the soft, large bed and stretched, only then feeling fully awake.
"Good morning." Yuqing contentedly ruffled the pup's head.
"Woof, awoo~" The wolf cub stuck out his tongue and acted cute, trying hard to imitate a dog's bark. It was rather comical.
Yuqing rocked with laughter, patted the wolf cub on the head and handed him a little felt ball. "Go play with this. I'm going to wash up."
"Woof, awoo!" The wolf cub obediently lay down on the floor and played with the ball, nudging it gently with his nose.
Ers was very thoughtful. The Ninth Military District work uniform had already been ironed the previous night and hung in the most conspicuous spot in the dressing room, so Yuqing could change and head out as soon as she finished washing up.
It was her first day at work, after all, so Yuqing took it very seriously.
After washing up, Yuqing took out skincare products and cosmetics for the first time in ages. Bottles and jars of all kinds covered the table, but she didn't recognize a single one. Fortunately, the system looked up a guide on the star network in time and explained their functions and uses to Yuqing one by one. Half an hour later, she finally finished applying light makeup.
[Host, when you have time, you could go to a salon in the city for a treatment. While I was looking up the guide just now, I found a lot of salons that guides love to visit. They look pretty good.] The system had, after all, watched Yuqing endure hardship in the apocalypse, and now whenever it saw something good, it wanted to recommend that she try it.
"Okay."
During the apocalypse, storms and sand swept across the surface, and she and the other ability users had kept themselves tightly covered year-round. Her skin hadn't suffered much, but years of malnutrition had left her hair somewhat yellow and dry. Now that she had the means, getting a treatment sounded good too.
She took the white coat off its hanger and slipped it on over her work uniform. Only after making sure she was dressed appropriately did Yuqing prepare to leave.
"Woof, woof!!" The little wolf had been playing obediently with his ball in the living room. When he saw the guide come out of the dressing room, the ball in his mouth dropped to the floor. A few seconds later, he barked excitedly twice.
At the same time, Ers, who was standing guard outside the door, felt his pupils contract sharply and his heartbeat quicken...
"Good morning, Ers." Yuqing was carrying her canvas bag, and as soon as she opened the door, she saw Ers standing there in a daze.
"Good morning, Miss Guide." Ers came back to his senses, took the bag from Yuqing and replied softly, "Would it be all right to have breakfast delivered to your office?"
"Sure." Yuqing didn't mind where she ate. As long as there was food, she was content.
"Your office is on the thirtieth floor of the laboratory building. The infirmary is downstairs, and the mech research, development and maintenance center is upstairs. The surroundings should be relatively quiet." Ers pressed the elevator button and stood sideways to hold the doors.
Originally, Yuqing's office had been assigned to the administration building, but almost all the soldiers in the military district had access to the floors below the fiftieth. It had already been noisy before, and now that the guide had arrived, the marshal feared those brats would tear the building apart. He was even more afraid that the guide would be so frightened she would move out overnight.
"Mm-hm, whatever you arrange is fine." Yuqing did like peace and quiet. A quiet environment made her feel safer.
"Today's appointment information has already been sent to your smart device. There are two S-ranks, three A-ranks, and..." Ers frowned when his gaze fell on the last name. "Lin He, who just broke through to SSS-rank. His Spiritual Sea is extremely unstable, so please be careful."