Conquering OtherWorld Starts With a Game

After leaving the valley where Exile Town was nestled, roughly a mere 800 meters to the southwest, lay the remnants of a forsaken sheep ranch.

During the expedition quests, players had passed by this desolate site twice, each time exploring with the faint hope of uncovering hidden quests. Yet, all they found were dilapidated wooden farmhouses and half-brick, roofless stores. This had been a barren place devoid of even a single feather.

Qin Guan led the three girls along the mountain's foothill path. Drama Thirteen's immediate reaction upon her first glimpse of the site was, "Whoa~ It's like a scene straight out of a horror movie!"

"This place is really wrecked," commented July Snow as she scanned the place. "Are there any NPCs here, like a zombie lurking in the corner or something?"

"No NPCs here. If there were, they'd have been discovered by now." Qin Guan waved his bony claw. "Let's not waste time. Hurry and start using Identify on anything suspicious; we're bound to find something linked to our quest."

The girls dutifully began casting their identification spells in every nook and cranny.

Identify, a skill automatically granted (activated) to players with Potential values above 40, with its cooldown of 30 seconds, was among the most frequently used skills.

It could identify any item, NPCs within a four-level range, and the equipment on NPCs. Identify was akin to the instinctual right-click of traditional PC MMORPG players used to inspect equipment and level information.

It wasn't long before their meticulous search in the ruins of the abandoned ranch bore fruit.

"I've found something!" July Snow was the one that made the discovery and cried out in joy after Identify revealed some information. "The well! There's something inside!"

Qin Guan, upon reaching the desiccated well pointed out by July Snow, cast his own Identify, revealing hidden words about six or seven meters down that read "Secret Door."

"Ah, so it's hidden underground. No wonder nobody found anything before," Qin Guan muttered. He quickly found some old ropes in the nearby ramshackle farmhouse, which seemed to have been used for tethering livestock.

Tying the ropes together and securing one end to a post, he lowered the other into the well. Despite his lack of real-world rappelling skills, in the game world, players' weight was trivial, and Qin Guan descended the well with ease.

At the bottom of the damp, moss-covered well, Qin Guan fumbled along the contours of the secret door for a mechanism to open it. Frustrated, he gave the stone slab a forceful push, and to his astonishment, it slid away effortlessly.

Qin Guan: "…"

Fortunately, the three girls hadn't come down due to the narrow confines, which allowed Qin Guan to keep his facade as a capable leader intact.

Behind the stone slab lay a crudely hand-dug hole, revealing a corpse nestled within. Its pale, gaunt face and tattered clothes contrasted starkly with its rigid pose, knees drawn up to its chest.

When Qin Guan saw it, it saw Qin Guan too, and its dull, gray eyes slowly rolled to meet his eyes.

"What the f*ck!" Qin Guan immediately stepped back.

"Ahhh~" The zombie, too, let out a shriek and stiffly raised its arms to cradle its head.

Due to zombies being sluggish in all aspects, including movement and speech, this cry and action of cradling its head were like a drawn-out slow-motion scene from a movie…

Qin Guan: "…"

Qin Guan used Identify on this zombie, and green words indicating a friendly appeared above this zombie's head that read "Survivor Voss."

"A friendly!" Qin Guan slapped himself on the forehead. "Damn zombies and skeletons are of the same faction. What did I get scared for!"

Fortunately for Qin Guan, the narrow confines of the well had saved his blushes once more.

"Voss?" Qin Guan ventured, trying to initiate interaction.

The zombie NPC slowly put down its hands and stared "apprehensively" at Qin Guan with its dull gray eyes (zombies couldn't show emotion). Slowly, it opened its mouth. "I-I am Voss… Who are you? Has Charlotte sent you to capture me?"

"Of course not. Charlotte is long dead. You are long dead too… Um, that's not important." Qin Guan shrugged. "What did Charlotte do to you all? Do you know where Meri Bowen is?"

"Is that so… Charlotte's dead, haa… that damned scoundrel deserved to die a long time ago!" Survivor Voss's body trembled as he expressed his agitation, though his voice remained unusually sluggish and disconnected, which rather broke the immersion.

Fortunately, players weren't concerned about such details and only focused on extracting vital clues for their quest. Thankfully, the zombie Voss, burdened with significant plot information, readily divulged the details Qin Guan sought.

"Charlotte wanted us, those who defied him, silenced forever. He assigned us an impossible task and deceived everyone.

"The others all perished, including Meri. Only I escaped and came back… I wanted to tell everyone the truth. This was very important. But I failed… I got caught by Charlotte's scout."

At this point, Survivor Voss's voice ceased, dull gray eyes fixed blankly on Qin Guan, his mouth agape, revealing yellowed teeth.

Qin Guan eyed this zombie NPC stiffly.

As an experienced gamer, he could predict the dramatic turns of a storyline and the NPCs' typical responses at each stage. However, he couldn't help but think that forcing a zombie NPC to display such a range of emotions was a stretch too far. He mentally critiqued the game's developers for their overly ambitious attempt at realism in the NPC's design.

"Are you frightened, Voss?" Qin Guan asked, suppressing his urge to make a mocking remark.

"I… I was taken to Charlotte's sheep ranch and imprisoned…" Voss continued in his "trembling" voice. "I-I could only pass the crucial information… S-something very, very important… to that scout."

"And what was that?" Qin Guan inquired, still remaining patient.

"Meri discovered a secret, Charlotte is an apostle of Deathbringer Khazan," Voss uttered fearfully. "Khazan, an evil god that demands death… Wherever His apostles appear, death follows. Charlotte intentionally requested to lead the Pioneer Corps not for the sake of the Duchy of Shiga's territorial expansion; he sought the death of the pioneers!"

Qin Guan acknowledged this with an "Oh," feeling pleased that his suspicions were validated. Charlotte, the omnipresent general of the Pioneer Corps, indeed had a narrative significance more profound than initially apparent. After confronting the advanced NPCs' inner demons, it seemed that Charlotte would be their next significant adversary.

"The scout was terrified when I told him. He hid me in this well… I had just concealed myself when I heard his dying screams. He was killed!" Voss lowered his head, cradling his face with gaunt hands.

After a long time, this zombie NPC seemed to have a realization. Staring blankly at his hands, he whispered, "Ah… I'm still 'alive' even though I've become like this… So I too was sacrificed to Khazan."

Qin Guan's initial amusement gave way to a chill as he observed the rigid performance of the zombie NPC.

Voss slowly looked up, scrutinizing Qin Guan from below. "You… don't look like the living either, comrade. Were you also a sacrifice?"

Disregarding the idea that there was still categorization when it came to the undead, Qin Guan thought to himself that if the devs made player characters like zombie NPCs, he would be the first to abandon this game!

"Eh… Hold on, does this plotline mean to imply the origin of the undead?" Qin Guan stroked his chin and mused.

Qin Guan didn't dwell on it and continued the interaction.

"Where is Meri Bowen? Or… her remains?"

Survivor Voss replied, "Why do you seek Meri, compatriot?"

"For the quest," Qin Guan responded.

This answer didn't seem to trigger the necessary response from Voss, who continued staring blankly.

Scratching his bald skull, Qin Guan tried a different approach, "Because Hugh Potter and Bierda asked us to find her."

Survivor Voss's demeanor changed, and his attempt at a pained expression was almost comical. "Has Bierda become a sacrifice too? Then, that means the others didn't escape this fate either?"

"That's right. Everyone in Exile Town is dead, either turned into zombies or skeletons," Qin Guan replied indifferently.

These seemed to be the keywords Survivor Voss was waiting for. He sighed. "Deathbringer Khazan, when projecting his power into the material plane, is weak. He can't claim lives directly but cunningly steals from the reaper. Those killed by His apostles are denied eternal peace, becoming undead."

"Oh…" Qin Guan had guessed… right. The undead were indeed creations of evil gods, souls fleeced from the grim reaper's domain.

"I don't know if Meri was fortunate enough. If she met the same fate, perhaps you can find her in the mining zone."ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novelenglish.net . Fɪre.ɴet

As Survivor Voss concluded his part, Qin Guan heard Drama Thirteen shout from the well's entrance, "Vanilla Boss, there's progress with the quest. The next part has come out!"

Qin Guan didn't hesitate to leave Voss and immediately grabbed the rope and climbed out of the well—he didn't even ask Voss if he wished to return back to Exile Town and be united with his compatriots. For players, this was how they treated NPCs.