Pretending to be an NPC

Mo Shan knew before he even went to the cave that the recipe he got would be either the weak health or weak mana potion recipe. Considering the location and goblins' level.

Luckily he got the health potion recipe which allowed him to speed up his plans by a couple hours for not having to go farm the other one.

By this point night had long since fallen so Mo Shan was also getting ready to leave. Continuing throughout the night wouldn't work since he was a lifestyle player. The city was still full of life but Mo Shan wasn't planning to spend the night here, so he made his way over to the center of the city where the large portal was and hopped in.

______

"Another one came back, seems like this new body everyone is talking about is a real thing since no one who comes out has any injuries whatsoever" some youths were excitedly discussing in a nearby bar whilst eyeing the large plaza outside.

"Let's try going in tomorrow! My parents wouldn't let me enter since no one knew if it was dangerous inside. But seeing everyone come out again I'm sure my parents will allow me to go in!"

Many similar conversations could be heard by both youths and older people alike who wanted to observe first before entering. The star web was also exploding with billions of people sharing their experiences.

A post by the person named dragon emperor even went viral after he revealed his real life identity and shared how he became the first person to reach level 1…and subsequently died and lost everything. Even his world announcement counter in his profile went back down to 0!

As for why these world announcements mattered…some of the better hidden classes had x world announcements as one of their requirements. Hence why grinding for dungeon records and the likes became a must for powerful guilds, since it would allow their core members and the leading powerhouses of humanity to gain hidden classes and grow stronger.

Many people also made posts looking for fellow players to create boar or wolf hunting parties in order to safely hunt them and gather some gear and money.

Others on the contrary were discussing the dozen or so world announcements that happened that day, ranging from first boar king kill to the first to gain a certain amount of reputation in a starting village. Mo Shan was currently also a hot debated topic since he gained 2 major world announcements that seemed almost unattainable to most on the first day. Not that the players had any concept of how hard it was to obtain silver gear or crafting recipes. Many players even thought he just got lucky killing boars.

After exiting the portal the now young again Mo Shan made his way home and checked the star web to see if everything was like he remembered from his previous life.

After confirming no weird anomalies happened he went to bed setting an early alarm.

The next morning….

After entering the portal very early in the morning the old man quickly got used to his sturdier, older and heavier body again and made his way over to the starting village he came from the day before.

3 hours later near the starting village 'Mountainhome'…

"Man it's so crowded in here."

"Bro, everyone is just hiding away in the village looking for hidden quests and tasks to earn money. Only those crazy people are out there hunting boars and wolves."

"Yeah there's no way I'm trying that again anytime soon. Yesterday five of us tried attacking one and me and two others died. Those boars are scary man, I saw one impaling a player's D**k with its horns and right after ramming another player and crushing his head with its hooves. Thank god this world has no blood and gore or people would be drowning this village in puke."

Many similar conversations happened all over the village whilst people were contemplating how to earn money for a weapon. Which would certainly boost their confidence. Though they would need to be level one to wield it.

But barely any players could afford that since the boars and wolves barely dropped a couple copper pieces when one died if players were lucky.

Over half of them dropped nothing and a weapon easily cost over 50 copper pieces. Only those expert fighters or large groups could barely afford a weapon after one day in the game and even then they had to pool money together just to get one singular weapon.

"Hey, what's that old man doing over there? Could it be a hidden quest? No one has managed to earn any money yet except for those lucky few who got a job earning a couple copper pieces a day working in the shops. Let's go check it out before the place is swarmed with people!"

Many players soon noticed Mo Shan arriving with his large leather backpack and concluded he had to be an NPC considering his name wasn't displayed over his head and he was wearing a full set of leather armor and a cloak. Which he conveniently also bought in the city in order to look less like a player.

Mo Shan noticed over a dozen people instantly came swarming over the moment he reached the village again with his cart.

"Thank god players still have the old mentality of being eager to find quests." The old man mumbled under his breath.

"Can we help you with anything, esteemed senior?" A quick witted player asked.

"Actually, yes!"

Suddenly it was like many people just had their crush confess to them, with a dozen people even wanting to hug the old man for needing help, which Mo Shan found very amusing.

"Young people sure are eager to help this old one, very well. Let me give you youngsters a chance to help me." The old man confirmed again in order to draw attention to himself. Many more players even swarmed over after hearing the commotion the players were making over at the stall.

"What can we do to help, old man?" The quick witted player asked again.

"I have a garden full of blue and purple flowers, I wish to add some blue and purple grasses to make it more lively. Can you all help me gather them? For every 100 stalks I will hand out ten bronze coins. You should be able to find these stalks in the forest behind the city in small patches of a couple dozen at most."

"Finally a quest? Holy shit 10 bronze coins for some grass?! I'd even eat it for that price, quick let's go!!" Many people instantly sprinted to the forests like their lives depended on it.

Luckily no players tried anything funny considering how many of them got killed or imprisoned the day before by attacking NPC's

The news of the mysterious NPC giving out quests spread like wildfire and even the star web of the federation soon had a post about the mysterious NPC of Mountainhome village. Mountainhome starting village quickly became one of the most popular starting villages and for a couple hours a large part of the players starting on the second day who saw the post chose that city as their starting point.

By now Mo Shan started seeing players return with 100 stalks of the purple or blue grass. It took them multiple hours because they are found in very small patches and there were too many players harvesting them, even though they respawned pretty fast.

"Hello senior, here's 100 stalks." The first player returned and got the ten bronze coins. A couple hours for ten bronze coins might seem a lot but many players would choose a couple hours of harvesting over barehanded killing multiple beasts until they got enough to buy a weapon.

More and more players started making their way over with 100 stalks, some even several hundred assuming they were worthless and just a quest material for the old man's garden.

This is also why Mo Shan decided to act like an NPC. If he used his player identity people would start hoarding the stuff thinking it was very valuable. Which it would be in the future once others got hold of the recipe, by then a single stalk would go for several bronze coins since every stalk meant a weak health or mana potion as long as the alchemist successfully managed to concoct it.

A couple hours later the old man managed to gather a bit over seven hundred thousand stalks considering that the village had thousands of players who knew about the quest over the span of a couple hours. Which in total cost him just a bit over seven gold, leaving him with a couple dozen silver.

"Sir, here's a hundred stalks!" A middle aged woman said after arriving at his stall.

"Sorry but I'm all sold out for the day. I cannot carry any more stalks as both my hands and my bag are completely full." The old man replied. Which wasn't a lie. Fitting seven hundred thousand stalks of grass inside this trash bag sized backpack was already a miracle. "thank god it was just grass and not seven hundred thousand flowers or something" the old man thought to himself whilst starting his hike back to the city.

"The woman and many other players had to dejectedly leave, but knowing the old man would be back tomorrow made them eagerly go back to the forest in order to stock up on plenty of stalks by the time the old man came back the next day.

Three hours later he arrived at the city once again, by now it was early afternoon so not wanting to waste any more time the old man swiftly made his way over to the alchemist association dodging the many droves of players who were already starting to swarm the city.

"Small or medium room?" An old emotionless clerk asked the old man who arrived. Assuming seeing the old man's age that he knew the rules and needed no introduction.

"Small. 6 hours"

"That will be 6 silver coins"

Mo Shan gladly paid and went inside. But if others were to hear the price of one silver per hour they would surely go crazy.

As for why Mo Shan needed an alchemy room. They supply free equipment and free glass bottles and water which he needed in massive quantities to make the weak health potions. In fact, said potions only needed a single one of the purple stalks and water as ingredients. The difficult part was using one's mana pool to stimulate the medicinal ingredients from the purple grass and extract it to turn it into a potion after boiling said medicinal extract with water.

The recipe merely allowed a player to make the potions and explained how to do it. Most players who started learning this would still need hundreds of sets in order to learn how to make potions. Every failed attempt means destroyed materials and spent mana that needs to regenerate over time.

Making potions didn't actually use up any mana since making the potions merely needed a player to manipulate his mana to help him or her in the concoction process without actually depleting it, but a failed attempt would mean that the mana being used to control the ingredients during the process would explode with the failed potion.

In his past life Mo Shan was no grandmaster alchemist, but basic potions were beyond easy for all players after six whole years in this world. Especially so for a player known as the "library" of a powerful party, signifying his knowledge and mastery over the world's non combat aspects. So Mo Shan could make them at a near 100% success rate, only failing sometimes if he lost focus or got distracted.

"Time to start"

Ding* xp gained.

Ding* xp gained.

Ding* xp gained.

…..