The Forsaken-Grade Cultivator-Chapter 7: NPCs

SLASH!

The guard's spear arced through the air with brutal precision, descending upon Han Long's head. A horrific, grating noise echoed as the metal blade mercilessly sliced through flesh and shattered bone, leaving the audience frozen in collective horror.

The vicious blow cleaved through his skull as if it were butter, plunging deeper, effectively slicing him in half.

THUD!

With a sickening thump, Han Long's body crumpled lifelessly to the ground. His cold, lifeless eyes still widened as a result of the shock he experienced before having his brain severed in two.

Tremendous gasps and screams erupted from the crowd of onlookers, most of which emanating from players who had never before witnessed such a grotesque sight.

'This... This is... ridiculously realistic! The devs have truly outdone themselves here, it's like I can see every gruesome detail of his insides from here...!' Ying exclaimed inwardly.

He seemed partly shocked and disgusted by the damned scene, but wholly impressed by the attention to detail of the game's devs.

Irritating as it was, he still had to give credit to whom credit was due.

In any case, Ying's reverie would not last long as the dead player's split body soon burst into a sea of lights before floating into the sunlit sky, melting into the atmosphere. This resulted, once again, in a series of shocked gasps and bewildered yelps from the audience.

Ying reckoned that the NPCs were responsible for the commotion this time.

Apparently, they were programmed to react shocked to such occurrences. Yet, despite this, their reactions seemed almost... Genuine.

'How ironic. First, we witness a gruesome scene of a mutilated corpse... Only for it to burst into a constellation of beautiful lights seconds later. I don't even know how to feel about that.' Ying thought with an awkward expression. He raised his head to look at Han Long's killer.

Truth be told, he half expected to see a twisted, perverted smile on the killer's face at the havoc he had wrought. Or, at least, a little bit of shock from what had followed his gruesome murder. But it was none of those things...

... It was nothing at all.

The young guard didn't seem to be fazed by the fact that his victim had suddenly erupted into a million bright lights; neither did he seem particularly pleased with the fact that he had just taken a life, albeit a virtual one.

His eyes were cold and unreflective, unlike his colleagues, who displayed bewilderment at the brilliant show of glistening stardust.

'Was he just programmed that way, or does he know...?' Ying wondered.

His thoughts were sharply cut off by a voice.

"All of you listen carefully!" The guard suddenly yelled, garnering a few surprised yelps from the crowd who were still processing the recent chain of events.

His eyes were still as empty and uncaring as ever and his spear was raised, striking unparalleled fear into the hearts of the masses. Ying included.

"My sect; White Tiger Sect, has set the entrance fee for this city to be ten bronze or a single silver talés! If you have an issue with this, please speak your mind now."

Of course, not a single soul dared to utter a word.

"Good, no oppositions. If you wish to pay the fee now, then please line up in an orderly fashion. If not, then please excuse yourselves... Or else I shall do it for you."

At first, the crowd seemed to be at odds with how to react. But all it took was a not-so-subtle flicker of the two-meter spear, and suddenly, their thought became clear as day.

'Hmm, why don't we appreciate nature some?'

They scrambled.

....

"Ugh, how troublesome. How the hell am I supposed to make money if I can't even receive Quests from the NPCs in the city?" Ying mumbled to himself, evidently distressed.

''Should I try to sneak in, the walls are tall, but not that steep..." Ying queried while gazing pensively at the well-over 15-foot-tall walls, seemingly contemplating his chances.

It made one wonder, was he really just an idiot all along?

"Huh? What the hell am I thinking, that's too risky. I don't even know the full extent of their defences and besides..." Ying glanced at the NPC spearman, all the events of today flashed in his mind.

Han Long was a fool for picking his opponents so callously, but he was just misguided.

In other games, NPCs that populated the newbie area were not really powerful, and considering the fact that he was also seemingly fairly trained in swordsmanship, his arrogance made a little more sense.

It was just unfortunate; Cultivation Climax was a totally different beast.

If a mere Gate Sentry was already that strong, Ying shuddered to think of how powerful the true monsters of this world were.

'That guy... I can still see a world of slaughter reflected in those eyes of his.' Ying thought while cautiously stealing glances at the aloof guard.

Wouldn't want to get caught staring now would we? That'd be rude, and one could only guess what he does to rude people...

Ying shuddered again.

With a sigh, he gave up on his earlier idea and decided to look around the city's outer settlement for the first time today.

'Hmm? What's this...?'

There were no real buildings in the outer settlements, just a bunch of tents and portable stalls strewn out across a sandy grove, and aside from the considerable liveliness, there was nothing particularly distinct about the orange thicket.

Liveliness... Noise. A lot of noise.

Indeed, the area was rowdy, but Ying had already unconsciously attributed that characteristic to the bare presence of numerous confused players. But it seemed reality begged to differ!

In fact, the number of NPCs present far surpassed that of actual players.

All around him – everywhere – Ying saw that the place was practically bubbling with non-players that streamed in and out of the city.

Some of them were equipped with swords as well as a variety of other weapons; some were busy yelling and advertising their wares, while others were already engaged in a rather primitive form of trade.

What's more, the primary and most popular item of exchange seemed to be the corpses of animal-like creatures!

In more places than one, Ying caught glimpses of various NPCs haggling and bargaining the prices of various dead carcasses with merchants who were also NPCs. He was fairly certain that those creatures were hunted from these very woods.

Unlike in other games, where the NPCs would just idle around waiting for players to issue quests, these ones seemed to be much more... How do I put it? Alive.

They interacted and went about their daily activities like actual people living actual lives, even though they were supposed to be nothing but a bunch of ones and zeros.

But of course, Ying couldn't be sure about this yet.

So, to confirm his suspicions, he approached a particularly cheery NPC. It was a male, dressed in what looked a lot like uniform—as it had a certain insignia on it. He was purchasing large boar meat from an old vendor, while his bulky colleagues carried large jugs of wine when Ying approached him.

"Oh, these woods? Yeah, they're absolutely brimming with monsters. Some people even hunt game as a profession, though I wouldn't advise you to hunt with them, they can be a bit... Visceral, sometimes...." The man said with a shrug, but Ying caught on to exactly what he was getting at.

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

'Solo is the only way to go. Got it.' He established, but just as he was about to take his leave, he was stopped by the jovial consumer.

"Tell ya what, since you're the same age as my young master, I'll tell ya this..." The guard leaned in. "Don't wander too far in okay, for your own sake. These woods are dangerous, very dangerous, some pretty terrifying entities are in there. But if you're lucky, then you'll come across nothing but a few Mortal beasts."

The aged man gave an ominous warning. What did he mean by terrifying entities? Ying honestly wasn't very eager to find out, so he made a mental note to not stray too far in.

In any case, he had found the solution to his problem—hunting.

'Haha, I was stressing over an impossible problem, but the solution was staring me right in the face the whole time!' Ying exclaimed, unable to repress the wide grin that crept up his face.

'I can't believe it took me this long to figure out; I can hunt some wild beasts and sell their corpses for some cash! Not only is it profitable, but I can also Level up while doing so!' Ying thought as he noticed a few players like himself already venturing into the sparsely vegetated woods.

It was time he, too, joined the fray.

With a smirk, Ying said confidently; "Alright then, it's settled. Let's go monster hunting!"