Chapter 11: Intelligent NPC

While Yang Qiu was tirelessly running around the magic plane in an effort to enrich the game's content, he was entirely oblivious of how much controversy he had created on Earth, and how much grievances and abuse Qin Guan, the self-proclaimed "hype man" among the first beta testers, had suffered..

While Qin Guan was sleeping soundly, unaware of the insults and criticism he would receive from the misinformed masses, Yang Qiu, clad in black robes, was crouching in a wheat field, worrying about the Inquisition's armed forces coming and going on the main road outside a certain village.

"This is ridiculous.. I merely sold some clothes in the village, and these relentless flies came swarming in as if they caught the scent of my blood."

In his several decades on the run, Yang Qiu had always been found by the crazed zealots of the Inquisition.

The reason was simple. Yang Qiu was, after all, a living person. Despite being a high-level black mage with the skills to easily survive in the wilderness, he still needed to resupply in populated areas from time to time.

Those religious fanatics wouldn't venture deep into the mountains of woods to find him because who would dare engage in a battle of wits with a high-level black mage in an uninhabited area?

All they needed to do was closely monitor news of unfamiliar spellcasters resembling Yang Qiu. As soon as there were any sightings, these fanatics would swoop in and thoroughly search every village and town in the area.

The most frustrating part was that indigenous residents, regardless of their faith, would actively cooperate once they heard the Inquisition was pursuing a black mage and were more than willing to assist with the capture.

"How many of their ancestral graves have black mages desecrated?" Sighing with self-derision, Yang Qiu quietly left the place.

If Yang Qiu wanted to create a more immersive quest system for players, he would need intelligent NPCs. Or at the very least, it shouldn't be like the current mindless NPCs that could only repeat a few simple lines and perform commands without much response requirements.

It was back to the same old saying; Yang Qiu could only disguise the magic plane as a game and not truly turn it into one. Creating intelligent NPCs with functional capabilities wasn't something that could be accomplished just by writing code.

Therefore, Yang Qiu would need to find some townsfolk with higher intelligence than the undead for Exile Town..

He first set his sights on the Rhine Kingdom that worshiped Lady Gold Coin. Known for their utter lack of principles, the people of the Rhine Kingdom had no qualms about trading with anyone, even demons, as long as gold could be produced. Therefore, Yang Qiu decided to test the waters..

Yet he never imagined that even after more than two months (OtherWorld time), those crazy zealots from the Inquisition were still lurking nearby. Yang Qiu began to wonder if the many tricks he played on them before had left an indelible mark on their minds.

"Forget it, time to temporarily give up on this side of the Rhine Kingdom."

Yang Qiu rode away on his undead horse, avoiding populated areas as he pondered hard on where to find suitable candidates to be "intelligent NPCs."

"Hmm.. That's right!" A thought struck Yang Qiu, and his eyes lit up. He tugged on his steed's reins and galloped off into the depths of the wilderness.

After traveling day and night for over 20 hours, Yang Qiu arrived at the southwest border of the Rhine Kingdom.

This magic plane was a world plagued with many disasters and calamities. The few major empires fought wars for nearly a hundred years to seize territories and dragged the entire continent of Navalon into conflict.

Resurrections of elder gods and invasions of void demons that persisted for thousands of years were effective means of population control. Besides the few supercities, most countries and regions were sparsely populated and a far cry from what it was like on Earth.

The scene of different countries and cities on opposite sides of national borders, as seen on Earth, was practically non-existent in this world. Or rather, the countries in this world were quite "extravagant" in terms of territory. The borders were not called lines but large swaths of unpopulated areas.

The Taranthan Wasteland for example, where Yang Qiu had chosen as the spawn point for Earth players, served as the border between the Rhine Kingdom and the neighboring Duchy of Shiga.

The border "line" to the south of the Taranthan Wasteland and the Rhine Kingdom was the Sorensen Mountain Range, an area of magnificent strategic depth comparable to mainland Japan, stretched southwestern region of the Navalon continent.

It didn't just serve as the border between the Rhine Kingdom and the far south, but also the tomb of the Fallen as well as a paradise for fugitives and wanted criminals.

As Yang Qiu scanned the vast and endless Sorensen Mountain Range, a slight sigh escaped his lips.

If he hadn't been caught by that elder god's tentacle in the forest in the Rhine Kingdom and accidentally found his way back to Earth, the Sorensen Mountain Range might have been the end point of that "journey".. He had been on the run for far too long and had grown tired of that sort of life.

The Sorensen Mountain Range wasn't a pleasant place, but at least it would allow him to catch his breath.

"I'm still here in the end. Haa, perhaps everything in life is predestined." Yang Qiu shook his head and switched out his undead horse to an undead lizard that was more adept at traversing mountain paths before entering the mountainous range.

Yang Qiu's quadrupedal undead lizard followed the winding path up the Sorensen Mountain Range, and he soon felt a ringing in his ears—continuous shrill with cries and low sobs that were indistinct, as if meaningless murmurs.

"It truly lives up to being the tomb of the Fallen, what a unique welcome ceremony.. If this were the Call of Cthulhu game, the player's SAN would have already started to drop," muttered Yang Qiu as he took out earphones, plugged them into his ears, and turned up the volume using the phone in his pocket.

"Like seaweed, seaweed, seaweed, seaweed swaying with the waves.."

This upbeat song from the civilized world resounded joyously, calming down Yang Qiu, who had become restless due to the strange ringing in his ears.

With the materialist worldview ingrained in him since young as a Chinese person, his several years apprenticing under the old man, as well as experiencing many of the unknown fears of this world, Yang Qiu had matured in many aspects.

Even if he had known about the various unknown fears of this world when he first transmigrated over, Yang Qiu wouldn't have necessarily given up and surrendered.

Because to the rebellious teenager at that time, anything that was unreasonable was worth resisting!

Of course, Yang Qiu, who had long since become an adult, understood very well that not all acts of defiance would yield positive results.

But if one didn't even have the spirit of defiance, would there still be any difference whether that person was living or dead?

This had been the outlook Yang Qiu's older sister had instilled in him when he was still in elementary school.

In any case.. he had to view this world's most frightening calamity of an "elder god's resurrection" with a defiant and energetic mindset. It was nothing more than the struggles of elder gods refusing to disappear and using all manner of tricks to assert their existence.

As long as Yang Qiu could achieve "strategic contempt for the enemy," there was nothing for him to fear!

Under the protection of a playlist looping a dozen classic catchy songs, Yang Qiu successfully traversed the treacherous outskirts of the Sorensen miasma zone and entered deep into the mountain range.

Among inhabitants of the Sorensen Mountain Range, only a very small number were willing to stick in groups, while the majority chose to live alone to avoid being influenced by others.

This was a wise choice, as the mental corruption here, more dreadful than any infectious disease, became more potent in densely populated areas.

Drawing on the tracking and anti-tracking skills he had been forced to hone during his years on the run, Yang Qiu searched for nearly four hours and found a treehouse nestled among the canopies of large leafy trees.

Half an hour later, he found the owner of this treehouse. This fella had dug a pit and jumped in, and by the time Yang Qiu discovered him, the corpse was densely covered with flies.

"Did I come too late.." Yang Qiu shook his head, picked up the shovel lying nearby, and covered the hole dug by this negligent guy.

After a few more hours of searching, Yang Qiu tracked down another dweller in a cave located two peaks away from the treehouse owner.

Dispelling through the illusion at the entrance of the cave, he ventured inside, winding and turning for several dozen meters before he found the occupant of this place.

And then he couldn't help but exclaim, "What the..!"

The cave's occupant had suspended himself upside down from a stalactite. A black cloak covered him from head to toe, and he even had fake sharp ears crafted out of mud attached to his temples.

"Is he insane..?"

With great difficulty, Yang Qiu gently lowered this fellow, whose eyes were shut tightly and his face pale and turning purple.

First, he removed the cloak wrapped around his body and discarded the fake ears. Then, he took out a small box of soothing ointment and applied it to the man's temples and philtrum before lightly patting his cheek. "Hey, wake up, wake up."

After some struggle, the older brother who insisted on cosplaying as a bat gradually regained consciousness. He stared blankly with lifeless eyes fixed on the ceiling, completely ignoring his lifesaver.

Yang Qiu raised an eyebrow, staring at this fella for a while, then he took out.. instant noodles and a thermos and prepared some hot noodles, and started eating by himself.

The taste of the instant noodles was rather mediocre, but it smelled really good.. The bat-like fella, pretending to lie on the ground, swallowed his saliva several times but was ultimately unable to resist it and sat up.

His eyes, like those of a dead person, locked on to Yang Qiu with a terrifying gaze.

Yang Qiu ignored him, finished the noodles, and drank the soup before putting away the empty paper bowl. Only then did he cross his arms and look at this fella and said, "Hey buddy, you look terrible."

Brother Bat: ".."

"I understand that even though we know the end of the path is dominated by a terrifying and menacing force, who can truly resist the urge to explore the mysterious and enchanting power that awaits? Sorensen Mountain is a place where people like us, who have managed to survive amid the chaos, are buried. We are simply prolonging our existence, fighting against the inevitable fate that awaits us, just like those who have already found their release."

Brother Bat remained deathly silent, not saying a thing.

"Regardless, I'm glad to find the first other living person in the Sorensen Mountains." Yang Qiu extended his hand to the older fellow. "I honestly don't have the courage to embrace death, and I believe you don't either. The difference is that you seem to have no other way out, while I may have found a possible solution.

"I require comrades to carry out my plan. If you have no other choice but madness, would you care to join me?"

Brother Bat squinted his eyes. "You.. are an evil black mage. I can smell that nauseating stench emanating from you."

"But between the two of us, it seems you are the one closer to the brink of collapse," Yang Qiu said unperturbedly. "If anyone should worry about their comrade losing control and killing them, it should be me rather than you."

Brother Bat remained silent for a while before nodding. "You're right." historical

1 x Intelligent NPC obtained.