"World settlement in progress, please wait."
"World settlement in progress, please wait."
"Settlement complete. Main quest 'Clear sword art online' completed. Player skill 'Weakness Analysis' retained. No side quests, no hidden quests. Intimacy with Asuna Yuuki reached 95, partial attribute growth obtained."
Kaede listened to the voice in her ear and couldn't help but be stunned. There was actually such a thing as quests? But since there were quests, why didn't they tell her beforehand?
sword art online had quests, and there were reminders too. But in the Myriad Worlds, it only told her what tasks were completed after she cleared it. Is this a joke?
However, it was obviously impossible for Kaede to go and argue with the developers. She could only sigh, look at the pitch-black space in front of her, and in the next moment, her vision blurred.
Meanwhile, in a corner of some newbie village, a flash of light passed by. In the light, a young girl's figure seemed to appear. Then, that figure slowly changed, and finally, when the light dissipated, a thin, weak boy was standing there.
"Ugh..." Looking at the unfamiliar environment before him, Kaede felt a vague sense of familiarity.
"Big sister..." Kaede looked at the top of the drawing board, where four extra characters had appeared: sword art online.
"Is that the name of that game..." Kaede finally looked at his attributes, frowned, and felt his body, which had suddenly become many times weaker, feeling a bit unaccustomed.
Name: Kaede
Class: 2D Soul Painter
Attributes: Strength: 3, Endurance: 5, Agility: 6, Magic: 45
Overall Strength: LV0
Skills: Drawing LV0, Soul Painting, Weakness Analysis
Equipment: Soul Brush, Soul Drawing Board. (Class-specific equipment.)
This was Kaede's current attributes, which were not on the same level as his attributes in sword art online. However, even so, Kaede felt that his attributes seemed to have become quite a bit higher.
This made Kaede feel a bit confused. Logically, if that world didn't count toward his own strength, his attributes shouldn't have increased.
However, after thinking for a while, Kaede stopped pondering it. In any case, this was a good thing; what was the point of thinking so much?
Finally, Kaede stepped out of the alley.
As soon as Kaede stepped out of the alley, he felt something was wrong. Why was the road empty? Where were the players? Shouldn't it be crowded with people?
"Huh?" At this moment, a passing middle-aged man saw Kaede and couldn't help but be surprised. "There's actually still a player here! Incredible."
"Uh." Kaede was also stunned. Looking at this man and hearing his words, he couldn't help but say, "Are you an NPC?" After saying it, Kaede felt like he was done for; the person in front of him didn't look like an NPC at all.
"NPC? The group of players from two months ago did indeed call us that. Hmm, in your eyes, we should be NPCs, right?" The man said.
Kaede blinked, his whole being falling into a state of system crash. This place didn't seem to be on the same level as sword art online at all! Is a normal NPC like this? He had never seen such NPCs in sword art online! In his shock, Kaede completely failed to notice the words "two months ago."
"By the way, how did you know I was a player?" Kaede asked again.
"Oh, this. You players are actually quite easy to identify; it should be called intuition." The man nodded, then frowned again. "However, some players are indeed not easy to identify; it seems they use some strange things to cover it up."
"You can also cover up... identity." Kaede felt like the sword art online he played was very low-tier.
Suddenly, Kaede thought of a question. "Then can you pretend to be players?"
The man's gaze toward Kaede immediately changed; it was like looking at an idiot.
"Uh, what's wrong?"
"We are no different from you. Could you recognize that I was an NPC at first glance?" As he said this, the man grinned.
"Uh..." Kaede carefully examined the man. Indeed, with his observation skills, he hadn't found any difference between this man and himself. As expected, what kind of game was this!
"I won't talk to you anymore; go find the village chief for details. I still have things to be busy with." After finishing, the man pointed out the way for Kaede and left. If it hadn't been for suddenly seeing another player and getting interested, the man indicated that he wouldn't have stopped at all.
Kaede, who was in a daze, looked in one direction and then walked over. Along the way, Kaede noticed that everyone looking at him had an expression of surprise, exactly the same as the man's initial expression, and he knew that this group was all NPCs! And not the kind of NPCs that only knew how to say a sentence or two...
Finally, after a while, Kaede arrived at the so-called village chief's house, a somewhat strange building. If people from his time were to see it, they would be able to recognize it as a siheyuan (courtyard house).
"Oh, a guest?" The white-haired Old Man sitting in the room looked at Kaede, who was walking over, and couldn't help but say in surprise, "Is there actually still a player remaining here?"
"..." Kaede felt that he seemed to have gotten used to it.
"Alright, according to the quest from above, I will introduce this world to you." The village chief said this and then paused.
When Kaede was prepared to listen carefully, he waited for a long time but didn't see the village chief speak, so he couldn't help but look at the village chief.
As for the village chief, his old face flushed, he knocked on his head, and said, "Wait a moment, let me think."
Kaede crashed again. The NPC forgot what he was supposed to say?
In the end, the village chief still didn't remember what he was supposed to say.
"Sigh, I'm old. It's only been two months, and I've already forgotten everything."
"Two months?" This time, Kaede finally heard it, and as expected, he was stunned once again. He had been in sword art online for at least two years, yet only two months had passed here?
"Forget it, I'll give you some compensation. Take this to the blacksmith shop over there and ask for a weapon, just as if I had already told you." Finally, the village chief looked at Kaede, who had no intention of moving, and said helplessly; he didn't know that Kaede wasn't moving simply because he was stunned.
"Sigh, okay." Kaede was a bit dazed, took the letter, and walked out with a blank mind.
"Sigh, I'm old." The village chief was still there, constantly tapping his head. Finally, unable to remember, the village chief sighed, "You have to accept getting old!"
As for Kaede, he had also figured it out a little; it must be that the flow of time in that world and this game were different.
Then, Kaede didn't think much more about it. What he didn't know was what kind of sensation it would cause if other players knew about this.
At this moment, Kaede was only thinking about his weapon.
Then, he found the blacksmith shop. Sure enough, the first sentence was still that exclamation.
Kaede was now immune to this sentence, and then handed the village chief's letter to the shopkeeper.
After the shopkeeper looked at it, dissatisfaction appeared on his face.
"That damn Old Man, all he does is exploit me." As he spoke, the shopkeeper's gaze toward Kaede also turned sour. "Speak, what kind of weapon do you want?"
How could the shopkeeper's gaze be hidden from Kaede? Kaede also figured one thing out: that is to treat these NPCs as real people, then it shouldn't be hard to guess what they are thinking.
Kaede also knew that the shopkeeper in front of him was definitely dissatisfied, but that was none of his business; he just wanted a weapon he could use.
Then, Kaede told the shopkeeper about the appearance of the weapon he wanted.
"You wait." After the shopkeeper finished listening, his eyes seemed to brighten, and then he walked into the back room.
Bored, Kaede looked at the things in the shop, and then black lines appeared on his forehead. Why were they all farming tools! Could he really forge weapons?
Finally, the shopkeeper walked out, holding a rusted Tachi in his hand.
"Here, just this one, it exactly meets your requirements." After finishing, the shopkeeper waved his hand and said, "If there's nothing else, leave quickly, don't delay my business."
"..." Taking the Tachi, Kaede was speechless for a while, and clicked on the Tachi's attributes.
Rusted Tachi (LV0): As you can see, it's just a rusted Tachi, perhaps it will break at some unknown time.
Alright, this description is impressive, but the key is, where are the attributes!?
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