Linde understood the players' way of doing things all too well. Especially after hearing that the enemy numbered 15, 16, 17, 18, or 19, and the four Undying player characters abandoned stealth and charged in, he just wanted to facepalm. Was that really abandoning stealth? They probably just failed at stealth and immediately switched to a "Musou-style stealth," killing everything in sight. (Referring to games like Dynasty Warriors where you mow down hordes of enemies)
The motto: if everything you see dies, then you saw nothing.
After hearing the general outline of what happened, Linde very decisively paid them. It's just gold coins, anyway. They'll be giving them back to me in less than five minutes.
The four players didn't disappoint him after getting the money. Don't say men don't have shopping impulses. They only don't buy things because they don't want them. Look at that lamellar armor with a cape selling for 50 gold. How could you resist that drip?
And Linde overheard the players' murmured complaints.
The weapons that the wanderers had were terrible. Carrying them around affected their weight limit. They didn't need them.
"So, it really was because of the weight limit that they just threw away the food?"
Linde felt a pang of sadness. He might not be short on food right now, but that didn't mean he didn't need it. The more you have, the better. If you can't eat it, you can sell it to someone else.
Do players need to eat? Of course, they do. But most players weren't willing to eat. They preferred to stay in a "low health" state, because spending money on food during the early game was a waste. They needed to spend their money on the hilt... the blade of their weapons. The penalties for dying early on were almost nonexistent anyway, since everyone was around level 1.
He believed that in the future, "foodie" would be a very promising sub-class.
Linde himself was looking forward to it. He wanted to taste the food from Earth, too.
In no time, the players had finished their "shopping spree."
The equipment sold in the Star Dragon Outpost's store was the best. Sturdy, durable, high stats, and most importantly, stylish.
As everyone knows, style = extra attack power!
Linde didn't mention Ailuna Momo at all. The players needed to explore on their own. He trusted that they wouldn't easily miss Ailuna Momo.
He just reiterated to the soldiers to keep an eye on the eight people and not let the players get too close to them, lest the players waste time joking around. He trusted that the soldiers' professionalism would allow them to identify anyone with problems.
After returning to his room, Linde removed the sword hanging at his waist. At the same time, his consciousness shifted to the Apocalypse Law Ring official website.
No new announcements. Nothing else new for the time being. Some scattered videos had been uploaded, though.
"Yo, nice moves."
Someone had actually made a video of a beautiful woman dancing the Red Velvet Art Troupe's choreography. It was definitely a bit of a banger.
Linde, as a casual viewer, gave it a thumbs up. He was also looking forward to having the chance to register an account sometime in the future. He wanted to be able to leave comments, too.
He believed that Apocalypse Law Ring would help video creators usher in a second golden age for their careers.
After browsing for a while, he found titles like "[Busty Babe, Deep Water Loach Catching]," "[Authentic Old Foodie Explores the Newbie Village Kitchen]," "[What Happens If I Confess My Feelings to the Newbie Village Widow?]," and so on.
In short, they were all extremely boring, low-effort videos that weren't much better than a "Try Not to Laugh" challenge. Especially the NPCs staring at the awkwardly clowning players with a look of utter bewilderment. You could feel the vibe of toe-curling embarrassment through the screen.
Cringe!
But Linde understood their approach. As many complaint posts showed, players in this game were "too free." Not to mention those poor players who were still all alone, most players who joined the newbie village weren't trusted and didn't have many jobs they could do.
The remaining small percentage of players who had managed to gain some trust were doing things like hunting, farming, and manual labor.
Many people were complaining that this game didn't treat the players like protagonists at all. Why weren't there any world-saving quests?
Players with nothing to do were reluctant to leave such a realistic world, since it felt like they had been transported to another reality. So, they actively explored and looked for fun. After all, it was still in beta, so it was reasonable that there wasn't a main questline.
Another group, after confirming that there was "no main quest," started "making content," mostly small video creators. Because they were updating early, these people caught the first wave of hype. So, no matter how garbage their videos were, they could easily break ten thousand views in a very short time.
But the future was uncertain. The player base's competition was ruthless, and boring videos were bound to be eliminated.
Compared to the video content, most players who couldn't play the game expressed a strong desire to play Apocalypse Law Ring.
Linde also learned for the first time that, in the real world, this game required a headset to play, and U-shaped travel pillows were the best-selling third-party accessory.
In the comment sections under many videos, people were still asking, "Is this really a game, or is it live-action roleplaying?!"
"Of course, this isn't a game," Linde thought to himself. He felt like a living, breathing person, with no system and no monster slaying.
After confirming that most players were just trying to force some content, without even lighting a lighter, Linde lost interest. Right now, he was mainly focusing on browsing posts.
Text is quick to edit, timely, and posting has various detailed sections.
Shitposting, guides, tutorials, meetups, etc. They allow Linde to comprehensively understand his current situation. He really loved hanging out on the official forums.
[New! I'm stuck in the map, will a kind soul come save me!]
[New! I got a weapon, Village Goodsword, super stylish! Attached image, with acquisition tutorial]
[New! Asking if this game has no logic? Why did they abandon me here?! So annoying!]
[Featured | A Completely Victorious Player Battle, Absolutely Authentic and Exciting, Plus Parry Tutorial Tips!]
[Featured | Character Customization, with Detailed Data: Geralt, Saber, Liu Yifei, Hidetaka Miyazaki, Thanos, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Steve...]
The existence of featured posts. Does that mean the official website has moderators...? Do the moderators know they've become NPCs? Does the game company know?
Whether he was the outsider or the players were the outsiders.
He was filled with question marks, and finally chose to wipe his forehead and pretend not to care. Since there were no answers, he decided not to look for them for the time being. He'd figure out his own little plot of land first.
Many people were getting stuck in the map. So far, many players hadn't even seen an NPC or wild monster, and were just walking around. If the scenery wasn't really good, the immersion wasn't strong, and there weren't any new games on the market to replace it, probably a large percentage of people would have quit.
After happily reading the posts for a while, when he came out for dinner, Linde discovered that the players hadn't surrounded Ailuna Momo. Instead, they were hiding by a fire in the distance, chatting.
Huh, that's a bit strange. How could players ignore a brand new NPC?
Could it be that Ailuna Momo was showing weakness? Absolutely impossible!
Because he knew very well that when it came to being mystical and wacky, Ailuna Momo was definitely Queen-level, capable of controlling the whole situation!
You could hear all sorts of fancy lines from her, but when you thought about the last sentence, you realized that none of it was useful. The main thing was that it was colorless, odorless, but very loud.
Lord Linde wanted this kind of talent.
He could only ask Ailuna Momo for the reason.
After the players arrived, Star Dragon Outpost basically said goodbye to the problem of insufficient firewood.
Linde even saw the eight women and children in the distance happily roasting by the fire.
These Undying players really loved herding and feeding the NPCs.
Ailuna Momo, holding a dried rat, looked at Linde immediately, her meaning simple.
This is what you call "Knights of God"? I want to spit dog crap in your face.
They have nothing to do with knights! They're even showing half their butt cheeks!
The nun Momo was furious.
What happened?
Linde could also see something in Ailuna Momo's resentful gaze. The two sides hadn't just failed to connect, they had connected. Maybe Ailuna Momo even got the short end of the stick.
Could it be... that would be too depraved. Ailuna Momo is already very old!
The first-tier Great Knight's "eavesdropping" technique came into play once again.
White Stockings Enthusiast: "Hey, what do you guys think about this old nun? She's all mystical and doesn't pay us any attention. She just repeats the same few lines over and over. Does she have something wrong with her brain?"
Mooncleaver: "It's definitely because the AI level is too low. In my opinion, she's not a key character, just a tool NPC. But she hasn't given out a quest even after we asked several times."
"I don't think so!" Dragonscale Sword cleared his throat, looking serious. "She's not a simpleton, she just really dislikes us. When I was face-to-face with her just now, I felt like she really wanted to punch me."
"Then should we try lifting up her skirt later?"
"Stay away from us, you're way too perverted!"
Linde's mouth twitched as he passed by. What did you guys do to Ailuna Momo?!
If this keeps up, Ailuna Momo is going to go rogue!
"I see that many of the newbie village NPCs seem to be the same way. They all have sour faces and don't want to interact with the players. Is it because the Undying are being discriminated against? Nani, I'm going to start a riot!"