Chapter 163 Jishi Medical University 21

In "Heartbeat 1000%", although the NPCs are basically just pre-written programs, their outward behavior is almost no different from that of ordinary people.

They cannot provide the dungeon guests with spiritual power and real flesh and blood like the show's guests, but that doesn't mean they don't have any kind of "energy" or anything like that.

There's no need to ask the priest for confirmation; Yu Naixin herself has experience. Previously, in the Swan Castle, the elf prince cultivated the blood-red rose by watering it with the blood of an NPC girl in the Rose Spire event instance.

If the NPC did not possess some form of energy, it would have been impossible for the Elf Prince to succeed.

However, in terms of both quality and quantity, the energy that NPCs can provide is extremely limited, and Yu Naixin doesn't know how much energy the young banyan spirit can extract from the "believers" NPCs led by Li Yuanyuan.

Moreover, the NPCs in each program instance are relatively fixed. Even though "Jishi Medical University" is slowly expanding, the young banyan tree spirit will still face the situation of repeatedly absorbing the energy of the same NPC in different sessions.

So here's the question: In this situation, can the Banyan Tree Spirit Youth obtain the same amount of energy by consuming the same NPC in every "Saving the World Medical University" instance?

Yu Naixin was very interested in this question.

From the fragments of Professor Frankenstein's memories, Yu Naixin learns that the Banyan Tree Spirit youth's ability to absorb "believers" at night is a fixed procedure in the "Jishi Medical University" episode. As long as the participating guests can survive to the corresponding time point, such a "ritual" will be held under the big banyan tree in the experimental building.

The priest's folding fan explained to Yu Naixin that, just as all the scenery in the dungeon program comes from the dungeon guests, the fixed process in the dungeon program is also inseparable from the dungeon guests themselves. The "Heartbeat 1000%" program team can only impose restrictions and regulations on the existing basis, and cannot create rules out of thin air.

Therefore, Yu Naixin is very confident that in every episode of the Banyan Tree Spirit Youth program, she can draw energy from the same "believers," and there is no situation where it is just a superficial effort.

After all, if there's no benefit to it, why would the Banyan Tree Spirit Youth insist on repeating this process every time?

While NPCs can still provide guidance and some information to program guests, they are of little use to the guests in the story.

Even if the players in the instance are keen on killing to vent their anger, they will find it boring and uninteresting to repeatedly slaughter the same few segments of the program. The other party will not give much feedback such as fear, pain, or despair as a real living being.

The Elf Prince's ability to utilize the energy within NPCs requires special methods. The Elf Prince's memory fragments do not contain much information on this aspect; instead, they focus more on his obsession with cleansing the filth from his veins and his longing for the wonderful life he once had in the outside world.

Yu Naixin could only glean glimpses of the Elf Prince's intricate methods from some clues, and was unable to decipher the complete fragments.

However, it is certain that the Elf Prince paid a considerable price for this. Yu Naixin has seen many scenes of the Elf Prince being much weaker than usual after watering and cultivating the Crimson Rose.

When it comes to the Banyan Tree Spirit Youth, there's no reason why similar methods could be used without any cost. NPCs are, frankly, the property of the "Heartbeat 1000%" program team. The program team's attitude towards the guest contestants has always been clear: they can't wait to get rid of them as soon as possible. They're not going to give the Banyan Tree Spirit Youth NPC energy gift pack for nothing.

At most, the banyan tree spirit youth will pay a smaller price and will be able to profit from the difference when extracting energy from the "believers" later.

Therefore, Yu Naixin can confirm that at least the NPCs in "Jishi Medical University" do not have a significant gradual loss of energy as the number of episodes increases. The banyan tree spirit youth in the Frankenstein professor's memory fragments has squeezed the "believers" out of hundreds of episodes, and the core "believer" NPC, Li Yuanyuan, has never changed.

In conclusion, returning to the initial question, Yu Naixin is almost able to answer it herself—

In each "Saving the World Medical University" instance, the Banyan Tree Spirit Youth can obtain the same amount of energy by consuming the same NPC.

There may be some error, but the error will certainly not be too large.

A subtle, ambiguous emotion flickered in Yu Naixin's eyes.

If that's the case, where does the energy that is given to the NPC each time come from?

Yu Naixin could answer this question without much thought.

—It was provided by "that person".

Yu Naixin knew a long time ago that the viewers of "Heartbeat 1000%" needed to "accumulate" their own "sweet coins".

Furthermore, considering that program guests can obtain Sweet Coins through tips and completing cleansing tasks, and that Sweet Coins can be used to purchase almost anything in both the regular and special system shops, it can be inferred that Sweet Coins, the universal currency of "Heartbeat 1000%", are essentially a kind of energy carrier.

The same principle applies: "Heartbeat 1000%" is a dating reality show that pays great attention to logic. Basically, everything is traceable and won't just appear out of thin air. Therefore, the Sweet Coins must also have a corresponding source channel.

Yu Naixin lacked clues about how viewers could obtain Sweet Coins, and Priest Folding Fan also knew very little about the "viewer" group. Yu Naixin could not deduce the exact result, but could only roughly guess that they would generate a certain emotional entropy value while watching the live broadcast of the program guests, which would then be converted into Sweet Coins.

The most compelling evidence is that whenever viewers want to give a reward, they must be touched by the sweet interactions between the show's guests and the other guests, or be extremely satisfied with the guests' performance and feel particularly excited and thrilled. Many comments have mentioned this.

The source of the Sweet Coins that the show's guests receive from the audience is thus known, and the source of the Sweet Coins that the show's guests receive as a reward from the show's team is also easy to deduce: they are transformed from the energy generated by the guests in the cleansing dungeon.

Sweet Coins are energy carriers unique to the show's guests and former guests/"audience members," and are completely inaccessible to the show's original guests.

Yu Naixin speculates that the energy circulating within "Heartbeat 1000%"—whether it's the energy used to mint Sweet Coins, create NPCs, or even construct program instances and maintain the normal operation of the entire production team—comes from the same source.

The success rate of the guests in "Heartbeat 1000%" has always been very low, and the failure rate is high. Yu Naixin felt that relying on this one channel to draw energy from the guest contestants was far from enough.

Such a huge gap could only be filled by the mastermind behind the show, the ultimate authority of "Heartbeat 1000%", "that person" himself.

Yu Naixin recalled the moment she caught a glimpse of "that person's" true form during the settlement of the previous dungeon episode.

The superdimensional body, pieced together from countless chaotic and complex timelines, was so weak that it seemed it could fall apart at any moment.

"He" is so powerful that nothing can pose a threat to Him. If it weren't for the fact that the energy He expended far exceeded what He received, Yu Naixin would not have been able to understand why such a result would occur.

Throughout the countless years that "Heartbeat 1000%" has existed, "that person" has been continuously providing energy for this dating reality show.

Yu Naixin looked slightly lost in thought.

It was so faint as to be almost imperceptible, and so fleeting, yet it certainly existed.

She had sensed before that "that person" must have had an extraordinary reason for placing so many bets on her in such a hurry. "Heartbeat 1000%" urgently needed a guest who was strong enough in all aspects.

But now that it's becoming clear that the reason for the urgency is due to "that person's" excessive weakness, Yu Naixin still feels... a mix of emotions.

However, there were still things to deal with at the moment, so Yu Naixin didn't let herself immerse herself in her personal emotions for too long.

The thought process went on in her mind for only a second or two at most, and Li Yuanyuan didn't notice anything amiss.

Yu Naixin gently tugged at Li Yuanyuan's hand, her expression becoming excited as she responded, "Can I also offer my faith to the Holy Tree? What should I do?"

Li Yuanyuan immediately took action. She grasped Yu Naixin's wrist and led her deeper into the aerial root forest, closer to the trunk of the banyan tree: "Come with me!"

[This is the fastest I've ever seen a TV guest get clues about believer sacrifices from this NPC... This "Yao Ling" is amazing, but watching her play doesn't really give you much of a feeling, it just feels incredibly smooth and seamless. Only those who have watched a few episodes of "Ji Shi Medical University" can appreciate the value of this. This NPC is one of those difficult NPCs to deal with, rarely seen even in the entire "Heartbeat 1000%" series. She has a bad temper, is hard to approach, and is stubborn, yet "Yao Ling" so easily and effortlessly boosted her favorability...]

[Wait a minute! Wait a minute! "Yao Ling" really followed Li Yuanyuan without any resistance?! Could it be that she begged the banyan tree spirit youth to perform a sacrifice twice without success, so she simply resorted to a side method with an NPC to carry out the sacrifice ritual?! Why does she insist on performing a sacrifice in the first place?!]

[I'm increasingly convinced that "Yao Ling's" vulnerability is just a facade. If we selectively ignore her overly realistic acting, from the moment she chose the banyan tree spirit youth as her ideal man, "Yao Ling" has been relentlessly trying to win him over, and with obvious results! This is something none of the previous female guests achieved!]

[Hiss, thinking about it this way is a bit scary. As viewers, we can switch to the Banyan Tree Spirit's perspective, so we know that the Banyan Tree Spirit's favorability has indeed increased a lot. But "Yao Ling" has no way of knowing about the hidden guests in her own territory. If she didn't know that the strategy she chose was effective, she wouldn't have gone down this path so relentlessly. But how did she know that this trick would work?!]

As Li Yuanyuan led her forward, Yu Naixin noticed two interesting details.

One thing is that Li Yuanyuan seems to know the distribution of the aerial roots of these banyan trees like the back of her hand. She can always find the widest gap in the middle of the tree and avoid contact with the aerial roots as much as possible.

Another point is that Yu Naixin deliberately tried not to keep up with Li Yuanyuan's pace. Theoretically, she should have touched some of the air roots, but these air roots would actively avoid Yu Naixin and gently sway to the side without putting any weight on her.

Yu Naixin's lips curved slightly.

This was a privilege that only the young banyan tree spirit himself had been able to enjoy before.

Even though the aerial roots are no longer blood-red, but just ordinary brown, they are still under the control of the banyan tree spirit youth.

This guest, who was hiding inside the main venue and refused to show his face, had actually been paying attention to her all along and had shown a significant increase in his favorability towards her.