Li Bai and Bai Ting had no other place to stay, so they could only return to the hotel for the time being.
They met Qiu Yue and his group at the hotel entrance, chatting and laughing. However, when they saw Li Bai, everyone stopped laughing, but their eyes still secretly fell on her, and it was unknown what they were thinking.
The system announcement has been issued now, and they certainly know what a big deal Li Bai has done.
I feel a little complicated.
But being crushed by Li Bai wasn't the first or second time. She had always been the "ace" in the army, and they sent her here for this result. So no one was too surprised. Besides...
Everyone had their own ideas, but they all agreed to let Li Bai and Bai Ting go first.
After entering the door, I ran into my teammates sitting in the lobby waiting for someone. These people followed Li Bai, so their attitudes were naturally different. Their faces were filled with pride and excitement, but one or two of them had inexplicably complicated expressions.
Li Bai nodded to everyone and was about to go upstairs, but Qiu Yue caught up and called out to her, "Li Bai, wait!"
"What's up?" Li Bai turned around. Her eyes weren't sharp, and her tone was calm, but it somehow made people feel uneasy.
Qiu Yue forced a smile and said, "Congratulations on getting the City Lord's Seal."
Li Bai didn't respond, continuing to look at him. Even Qiu Yue felt an inexplicable pressure at this moment. He gritted his teeth and said, "The higher-ups are already aware of this matter and have made arrangements for the next steps." Knowing that Li Bai wouldn't ask if he didn't speak, Qiu Yue simply blurted out, "You've been transferred to another city, and I'll be in charge of things here. The City Lord's Seal... I might have to keep it for you too."
Actually, this wasn't difficult to understand. Li Bai had just arrived in Phoenix City and had already disrupted the game's progress, quickly obtaining the City Lord's Seal. This was practically like cheating. Naturally, the higher-ups hoped to exploit this advantage to maximize their profits.
Li Bai himself is not good at management work, so it would be of little use for him to stay. The right choice would be to transfer him to another city to strengthen his own team.
If they could seize more cities early on, they would naturally accumulate a huge advantage later on. Furthermore, the other two regions weren't pushovers either. Knowing Li Bai was in the game, they would naturally invest more manpower and resources. It wouldn't be long before the main cities in the game were being seized one after another. Everyone was racing against time, so Li Bai, this time-saving weapon, certainly couldn't be left unused.
As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present had a complex expression. What was the difference between Qiu Yue's behavior and stealing the credit? Although everyone knew that Li Bai had obtained the City Lord's Seal, he was the one who ultimately became City Lord and reaped the benefits. If it was like this here, it was likely similar elsewhere. Was Li Bai's hard work simply a favor to others?
Although he knew that this was not Qiu Yue's intention, he was the one who stood up and acted as the villain.
"I refuse." Li Bai said without hesitation after listening.
Qiu Yue's face showed a hint of astonishment. Although Li Bai was quite independent, she was a soldier after all, and her background was rather unique, so she always obeyed orders in the army. Although no one dared to get close to her, in fact, in the eyes of all her comrades, Li Bai was the most reliable person. She seemed to have no preferences of her own, moving wherever she was needed, and wherever she appeared, it was always the safest place.
No one expected that Li Bai would actually refuse.
"What did you say?" Qiu Yue asked blurt out.
Li Bai did not repeat it again, turned around and continued to go upstairs.
A girl standing behind Qiu Yue frowned unhappily and raised her voice, "Captain, think carefully. This is an order from above!"
Li Bai's answer was to go upstairs without even pausing.
Bai Ting didn't follow. She turned around and looked at the group in front of her with a half-smile. "Are you stupid? The other two districts are no pushovers either. Our boss coming here is enough to make them wary. Who knows, they might still be arguing outside right now! Even if they're fighting for benefits, they should know when to stop. You're letting the boss take the spotlight now. Are you hoping the other two districts will force us to sign an agreement to guarantee that the boss won't be allowed into the game?"
"Besides," Bai Ting, now in full sarcasm mode, no longer had any trace of naivete in her. "Even if you want to issue an order to the boss, you have to send someone qualified, right? If she listens to any random person, she'll be exhausted."
After saying that, she shook her hair and left.
…
Maybe crying is indeed a good way to vent.
She cried until she fell asleep. The next day, when she woke up with her eyes swollen like grapes, Yang Jia looked at herself in the mirror and felt quite calm.
She's a go-getter, but this kind of personality makes her more receptive to sudden changes than those who are more driven. After all, she has no desire for her current situation, neither dissatisfied nor completely satisfied. Naturally, she's not afraid of change, and can even quickly adjust herself to the changing world.
After looking at the mirror for a while, Yang Jia lowered his head and began to squeeze the toothpaste.
After brushing her teeth, washing her face, and changing her clothes, the despair that had lingered all over her body yesterday seemed to have left her, at least on the surface.
As she pulled her phone out of the monkey's pocket, Yang Jia felt a bit confused, but she quickly suppressed her emotions. She charged her phone, then plugged her computer back in and started surfing the internet.
As soon as I logged into the chat software, chat windows popped up one after another.
She had been gone for three days, but to the rest of the world, nothing seemed to have changed. Browsing the content of the various chat windows, Yang Jia couldn't help but wonder, besides herself, was there no one else who noticed that the world had changed?
But that's normal. If they were truly just a bunch of data controlled by the system, then the players the system let in wouldn't find it strange. Even if they were strange, they wouldn't be interested in exploring it. This is because the program didn't give them that part of the content.
This is the NPC.
Then what's going on with me?
Yang Jia keenly realized that perhaps she wasn't just different from the so-called "players." In fact, she seemed different from the other NPCs as well. Being able to realize that this world was different was itself a special thing.
Was it a system bug? Or was there some deeper secret hidden within? Yang Jia had no way of knowing.
Since she couldn't figure it out, she stopped thinking about it for the time being.
After looking through the chat windows, Yang Jia set them to no notifications, then closed them all. Three days ago, she had been so enthusiastic about chatting in the group chat, but three days later, these things seemed to have suddenly left her, and she had no interest in them at all.
When she first discovered that something was amiss with the world, Yang Jia had wondered what kind of changes this would bring to the world. She hadn't known then, but now, she understood: these changes would be earth-shaking, even fatal, costing the lives of countless NPCs and even the destruction of the world.
No one will care.
Because NPCs are just a bunch of data that serves the player, who cares whether they live or die? As for the players themselves, they can be resurrected after death, so there is even less need to worry about it.
In this situation, even if Yang Jia wanted to continue being an NPC who just eats and waits for death, it would probably be impossible.
Players... they were like the protagonists in the cartoons she watched as a child. Wherever they went, there would be plots, tasks, battles and death.
Phoenix City was peaceful today, but perhaps tomorrow, this peace would be broken. In such a precarious situation, even someone as magnanimous as Yang Jia couldn't pretend to know nothing and nothing had happened.
She still didn't think she could be a savior, but at least she was doing her best within her capabilities, with a clear conscience. She wasn't trying to save the world, she just wanted to give herself an explanation.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Jia prepared himself mentally before reopening the game interface.
The character remained where the power went out last night. Surrounding them were densely packed monsters that had just spawned. These were trigger-activated monsters, actively attacking the character as soon as they came within their attack range. In a short while, the character's health bar dropped a fraction.
With mixed emotions, Yang Jia controlled her character, using her Qinggong skills to fly away, leaving the monsters far behind. She flew all the way to the top of the main city wall before finally finding a place to stop and using her mouse to adjust the angle, looking down at the map. This game she played always prided itself on its magnificent backgrounds and exquisite visuals, with many meticulously crafted details. This was Yang Jia's favorite part in the past, and now it was also the part that made her most emotional.
The change of identity means that she can no longer enjoy the pleasure of playing games as before.
If we talk about the level of effort, how difficult would it be to weave a world in which you live, so real that the people living in it are unaware of it!
As Yang Jia pondered this, a new question surfaced. Whether it was Li Bai, Bai Ting, or the other members of his previous tour group, they all seemed incredibly real. At least, they didn't seem to be manipulated by someone else. Furthermore, Li Bai's final boss fight had a "power-up"—an ability a game character couldn't possibly possess. If this was truly just a game, how powerful a computer would it have required to create it?
What era did this work come from? Is it the so-called "holographic game" that has appeared countless times in science fiction novels?
What does the real world outside look like?
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