Chapter 257 I Picked Up Trash on the Battlefield of National Fortune 13
Inside a private meeting room in the Dragon Kingdom's exclusive rest hall in Player Town.
The atmosphere was quite lively.
"Old Jiang! You didn't see it! This is such a big bottle, and the moment our captain got his hands on it, he 'hiss' and sprayed it out!"
A young team member, his face still flushed with excitement, stretched out his hands to indicate the size of a bottle.
“Those ‘radiation eaters’ are usually like mad dogs. When they come into contact with that white mist, it’s like snow meeting boiling water—they melt on the spot!”
The small team, which had just escaped death from Sector D-4, was reporting to the old man sitting in the main seat.
The captain, a dark-skinned man, carefully placed the bottle of "purification agent," which was still mostly empty, on the table.
"Old Jiang, this is it. We all thought we were going to die there, but that NPC... he just walked by, and then the bottle fell off his car."
He himself found it somewhat unbelievable as he spoke.
"It rolled right up to our feet, and he walked away without even turning his head."
Jiang Zhe didn't speak. He just stared quietly at the bottle of air purifier on the table, his fingers tapping lightly on the surface, making a rhythmic "tap, tap" sound.
In the conference room, besides the team's excited report, there were also Lin Feng, Su Xiaoxiao, and others.
They were all specially invited by Jiang Zhe.
"It fell down by itself?"
Jiang Zhe finally spoke. He raised his head, and his cloudy eyes revealed a sharpness that could see through people's hearts.
"You didn't take it willingly, nor did he give it to you willingly; it just 'fell' down?"
"Yes!" The captain nodded vigorously. "Absolutely! That NPC tripped over it and tumbled down!"
Jiang Zhe's gaze slowly swept over Su Xiaoxiao, then landed on Lin Feng.
"Su Xiaoxiao, the situation you encountered was that three 'ghost shadows' were chasing you. 0714 appeared, chased after them, and used a spray to deal with the ghost shadows."
Su Xiaoxiao nodded: "Yes, Elder Jiang, he seemed very persistent at the time, and he wouldn't stop until he had killed those three monsters."
Jiang Zhe then looked at Lin Feng.
"Lin Feng, your team lured the 'Magma Giant Bear' to his vicinity, and when he didn't react at all, you took the purification agent from his car and dealt with the monster."
Lin Feng replied in a deep voice, "That's right. From beginning to end, he was like a wooden man, not even glancing at us once."
Jiang Zhe withdrew his gaze and stopped tapping.
The meeting room fell silent as everyone looked at him, awaiting his judgment.
"What a coincidence."
Jiang Zhe slowly uttered three words.
"The first time, I took the initiative to pursue you and help you out of a predicament."
"The second time, I passively ignored you and let you take the props to save yourself."
"The third time, it was an 'accidental' fall that brought the item to your feet."
Have you ever seen an NPC trip over something?
With each word he spoke, the expressions of everyone present grew more serious.
Each of these events, taken individually, can be attributed to luck, but when the three are put together, they seem strangely "deliberate."
"Elder Jiang, what do you mean..." Lin Feng frowned.
"This NPC may possess a higher level of intelligence than we understand, or even..."
Jiang Zhe paused for a moment, then uttered a word that shocked everyone.
"Purposefulness".
“He helps you in different ways each time, but he always solves your urgent problems perfectly. It’s not like a rigid procedure, but more like a skillful chess player using different methods to achieve the same goal.”
"Purpose? What purpose?" Wang Meng scratched his head, looking puzzled. "To help us Chinese players?"
"That's exactly what I don't understand."
Jiang Zhe leaned back in his chair: "The battlefield of national destiny is backed by a higher-dimensional existence. The rules it sets are ruthless and merciless. Why would there be a single 'bug' that is so biased towards our Dragon Kingdom players?"
“We cannot place our hopes on an incomprehensible ‘goodwill’; we must figure out what rules are triggering his ‘helping’ behavior.”
He looked around at everyone, his voice becoming serious: "I need a meticulous plan to test all the logic behind his behavior."
He held up three fingers.
"Use the location card to locate the battlefield where this NPC is located."
"Step 1: Non-threatening contact. Send a small team to ask for help verbally while he is working, without any monsters chasing him, or pretend to be injured in front of him and see if he reacts."
"Step Two: Faction Test. We need to find a trustworthy team of non-Dragon Kingdom players, let them encounter danger within our controlled area, and then lure the monsters to 0714 to see if he will still provide 'help'."
"The third and most crucial step is the controllability test. We need to try to see if we can somehow make it attack a target we have specified according to our wishes."
Upon hearing the plan, everyone gasped in shock.
This is no longer a simple exploitation, but a test of the NPC's underlying rules.
The risk is extremely high.
"I will personally lead the team for this matter."
Jiang Zhe stood up: "Lin Feng, you are in charge of organizing the first step of the test."
"Brother Wolf."
Wolf, who had been silent all along, raised his head.
"Find a reliable team of foreign players. We'll pay them. Make sure they cooperate with us to complete the second step of the test."
"As for the third step..." A glint of light flashed in Jiang Zhe's eyes: "Let's wait for the results of the first two steps. Now, let's take action immediately!"
...
D-4 area, at the other end of the abandoned industrial zone.
Zhou Jue was humming a little tune, in a pretty good mood.
She had just thrown a "high-energy battery pack" that she had taken from a discarded robot into the recycling bin.
[Recycling successful, points +85.]
My points balance has exceeded four thousand.
This feeling of slacking off at work and finding hidden gems is something I need to keep up the good work with! I'll strive to snag those items from the online store as soon as possible!
She pushed the cart, navigating through a steel jungle, her divine sense like an invisible net, sweeping across every inch of land, searching for those "trash" pieces that shimmered with a faint light.
Suddenly, her movements stopped, and at the edge of her consciousness, several signs of human activity appeared.
There is more than one direction.
To the east, three people were slowly approaching along an abandoned railway track.
To the south, two people were hiding behind a crumbling wall, seemingly observing something.
To the west, three more people appeared, walking through the ruins of a collapsed factory.
They moved cautiously, maintaining a peculiar distance from each other, like a net slowly closing in.
Zhou Jue's brows furrowed slightly beneath his helmet.
Something's not right.
This is neither a chance encounter nor the formation one would use when hunting monsters.
This is more like a premeditated encirclement.
They came for me?
Do you want to follow in Lin Feng's footsteps and steal my air purifier?
But this setup is a bit too much.
Just as she was pondering, that familiar voice, tinged with a hint of smugness, exploded in her mind.
"Host, pay attention!"
"Multi-point collaborative surveillance from eight different directions was detected, with a behavioral pattern matching rate as high as 98%..."
"Target characteristics have been locked, confirmed as a player from the Dragon Kingdom, leader: 'Old Jiang'."
The system's voice paused, then concluded with a gloating tone, as if it were enjoying watching a spectacle.
"He's got his eye on you."
"A test designed specifically for you has begun."
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