Vol-2: 093. It's Actually an Idle Play

093. It's Actually an Idle Play

Li Aozi chuckled and guided them into Triangle Town.

The residents of Triangle Town felt uneasy about these more than forty strangers who had been brought in, especially since the players acted like curious kids, wanting to touch everything, eat anything that seemed edible, and sleep on any bed they saw—of course, these behaviors quickly earned them beatings and scoldings from the locals, and the meddling players had no choice but to scurry back to Li Aozi.

Only Li Aozi treated them well; he even invited his own people to the lab. A mentor is indeed a mentor.

For many, it was their first time seeing the outside world and its settlements, and they were particularly shocked.

"Whoa, is this the outside world? It's the first time I've seen such a stunning scene. The sky is red and black, and you can't see a single sun."

"How do they farm? In this icy and stormy place, even storing water must be a huge problem."

"That's a nuclear reactor over there. Seems like there's still some hope."

The players from the White Day Guild were more composed. They carefully observed the surrounding characters and occasionally switched to 'disguise mode,' actively interacting with the residents of Triangle Town, and recorded which NPCs sold what, which NPCs triggered quests, what the NPCs knew about the area, and their opinions on Li Aozi. They compiled this information and published it on their internal channel, creating an exclusive guide.

"The actual ruler of Triangle Town is the warlord Auckland. He appears to be a young boy, but in reality, he's a mastermind with the memories of seven generations of his family. Triangle Town's slogan is 'Triangle Alliance,' and that's what you should shout when addressing a superior. Li Aozi is both a protector of Triangle Town and a force supported and invested in by the town itself. The relationship isn't complicated..."

The White Day Guild had its own analysis team, and after collecting the available information and photos, they quickly deduced a lot of useful intel, which would help the White Day Guild further establish its foothold.

What surprised their guild leader, Yan Wang, was that after some conversations, it seemed like the people of Triangle Town respected Li Aozi even more than the warlord.

If the warlord was the king to Triangle Town, then Li Aozi was practically a legendary figure.

Gradually, from the locals' mouths, the players began to learn the reason for Li Aozi's fame.

"Abyss Humanitarian Annihilation War," "Liberation of the Principality of Gulant," "Aerial Meat Grinder," "Direct Penetration of Frost-Plated Airspace"—any one of these events alone would be major enough to make it into a game expansion.

The most outrageous thing was that the last three achievements happened after the PV for "Star Abyss" was released. From the player's perspective, it was as if Li Aozi was a harmless guy one day, and the next, he had turned into a Khorne champion who could easily deal with humans.

These four renowned feats completely solidified Li Aozi's supreme reputation. Combined with his pale complexion and the fact that he helped the people of the outside world rid themselves of the Abyss Humanitarian disaster, in their eyes, not building a shrine for him would be unreasonable.

"Looks like we underestimated Li Aozi's power." Yan Wang said worriedly to his subordinates. "If he's this strong, does that mean the threshold for transferring to [Mutant] is also really high?"

"A high threshold just means [Mutant] is powerful." The players under him didn't seem to mind. "Anyway, we're in the closed beta, so we have plenty of chances. Rather than hesitating later during the official release and getting overtaken by others, we might as well take the plunge now."

Yan Wang thought that made sense, but he still felt uneasy.

"Star Abyss" was unlike any other game they'd ever played; whether in terms of realism or completion, everything was just too high-level.

Not to mention other things, they could even take off their pants to cast water magic, or shove a weapon into an Oreo to apply a poison enchantment.

Furthermore, Yin Coin had discovered a particularly sneaky exploit: using the characteristic that players' bodies could be summoned as NPCs, after dying three times, the character would disappear. So, he would take out high-interest loans, sell organs, and sell himself to death. A teammate would revive him, and he'd continue selling. After using up the three resurrection opportunities, he'd take the loan and organ sale money and run, only to create a new character the next day.

Although the "selling-yourself-loan" strategy would result in losing a month's worth of game time, and the money earned would not be nearly enough to compensate for the losses, with character favorability, quest progress, and current level all reset, some players still found it worthwhile to try this rogue playstyle.

Yan Wang's main concern stemmed from the leveling system of this game: compared to other games, the level progression in "Star Abyss" was incredibly slow. If you started practicing martial arts with the same NPC, from the NPC's perspective, you might not even be able to learn as fast as they did.

Looking at it this way, even if someone were a prodigy, whether they were a player or an NPC, starting training at 18 years old, it would probably take until they were nearly 30 to reach Li Aozi's level of strength, right?

NPCs at Li Aozi's level would likely be proud and aloof. Would they even acknowledge them?

Especially since Li Aozi had invited them over so easily, the more Yan Wang thought about it, the more something felt off.

'Could the [Mutant] class transfer have some sort of trap? Or maybe the class isn't as good as it seems?'

If the game's developers had intentionally designed it to make them run through a series of long and frustrating quests, Yan Wang could accept that. But if the conditions for the [Mutant] transfer were too simple, then they'd need to give it some serious thought.

There wasn't much time left for Yan Wang to speculate, as after walking a bit further, the players arrived at Li Aozi's laboratory.

The doors slowly opened, revealing an automated mechanical assembly line continuously producing large quantities of biochemical agents, injecting them into biopools. The dizzying mechanical arms rapidly repeated actions like grabbing, squeezing, placing, and transferring, while the air was filled with the smell of formaldehyde, ammonia, chlorine, and something burnt. The nauseating odor triggered an instinctive revulsion, but after a while, once their bodies adapted to the air, the players were surprised to discover a 'Nutrient Enrichment' status on their panels.

The vitality here was incredibly abundant.

The players curiously touched everything, flipped through stuff, and Li Aozi just smiled, watching them bash their heads against the walls in an attempt to find hidden rooms.

While they were having fun, the lab's doors slowly closed, and at this point, Li Aozi no longer hid his intentions and finally laid his cards on the table:

"You all aren't from Azure Star, are you?"

As soon as he said that, the player who was rummaging through drawers pushed them back in, the one flipping tables righted them, and the one prying open the safe obediently locked it back up. The players, one by one, looked nervously at Li Aozi, while the higher-ups of several guilds exchanged glances.

"What do we do?" South Pole Penguin, the leader of the 'Arctic Ocean' Guild, looked confused and unsure how to react.

"Did we just break the fourth wall?" Old Blind, the leader of the 'Murloc' Guild, never missed an opportunity to stir things up. Their guild was a hub of troublemakers and entertainers, and the guild leader himself was a popular streamer. As he talked, he munched on popcorn, watching the show unfold.

"See, I knew it wouldn't be that simple." Yan Wang crossed his arms with a 'I saw this coming' expression. "There's no such thing as a free lunch. Great, now we've been duped. The next step is probably torture, forcing confessions out of us, conducting all sorts of forbidden experiments on our bodies, figuring out the secrets of the players' bodies, and then Li Aozi will gasp in shock: 'Whoa, the Fourth Calamity is terrifying! This one can't be allowed to live for long'—ha, classic cultivation novel plot."

Although everyone was joking about being duped, in reality, as players, they were more excited than anyone else to see what would happen. This was just another cutscene to watch, and they were waiting for Li Aozi to make his next move.

But after waiting for a long time, all Li Aozi did was sit there and start playing on his phone, completely ignoring the players and leaving them to themselves.

Wait, this isn't right?

What happened to the scripted cutscene?

Damn it, is StrangeNet playing us again?

Though they could admire the beauty of Li Aozi from this close, being left hanging like this, unable to interact—damn, it was worse than having their eyes gouged out.