Chapter 41: Successful Integration

The players are not used to having two more NPCs following them.

His understanding of following an NPC is very simple. If it is a turn-based system, which is rare nowadays, he will kill a monster once, and then the NPC will continue to kill it or give him treatment.

If it is a real-time battle, after he attacks the character, the three characters will fight together to kill the monster.

When running around the map, just follow him closely. When he walks straight, the NPC also walks straight. When he turns, the NPC also turns.

In short, it was like he had two extra character clones that couldn't be controlled.

But as soon as these two joined the team, they brought him a trouble that could not be ignored.

They had lights, one for each lamp, two in total.

Players finally got used to this pixel game, playing it as an exploration game with no regard for the wild monsters, but in the blink of an eye, the darkness was illuminated, doubly so.

Why?

Because not only do these two NPCs have lights, they are not the type that follows him around and does his every move, they move on their own!

So, one walked in front of him and the other walked behind him, like a floating light with an orange circle with a black edge, one in front and one behind. The orange-yellow light illuminated the dark corridor, and even the shorter passages could be completely illuminated.

If there are monsters ahead, the NPC with the big sword in front will choose to take a detour. If there are random monsters spawning behind, the NPC with the staff behind can find a false wall that can be broken, so that they will not be surrounded by monsters.

If a random monster happens to spawn among them, they can't hide from it, so they fight together. It's not the kind of fighting mode where they just follow him and use skills blindly. The two of them have their own cooperation. If he doesn't take action, the two of them can kill the monster unscathed.

So why does such a poor pixel-style 2D game need two such smart NPCs!

The player almost dropped the controller.

Since the team has been successfully formed and he has no option to withdraw from the team, he can only work on the adjustments.

The first step in the adjustment process is for him to recover his dark vision.

Otherwise, he couldn't really distinguish the pixelated map even with light, so it would be better for him to run around in complete darkness. Suddenly, a health bar would appear right next to his face in the darkness, with a bit of eerie background music. How interesting it would be.

Anyway, with his one-shot attack power, if it weren't for this style of painting, he would have probably cleared the level by now.

Teammates are immune to damage, and players can only damage the floating lights by attracting monster attacks.

But these two are so smart!

Not only does he have a high combat power and very good coordination in killing monsters, he also takes particularly good care of the floating lights that the adventurers rely on for survival. It's obvious that he's an experienced dungeon adventurer.

For three consecutive levels, even if the players tried their best to cause trouble among the monsters guarding the level, the two of them only lost a little blood, which was quickly restored by the priest's wave of the staff, and the floating light was unharmed.

The player finally gave up on damaging the floating light, and at the same time gave up on his two teammates. He chose to physically abandon his teammates and go solo.

When entering a new level, he quickly ran into the passage, leaving behind the NPCs who were protecting him in front and behind, running around in the dark and hitting the wall, killing every monster he encountered. Once he found the light of a floating lamp along the way, he immediately turned around and ran away.

Even if you meet the monster guarding the level in the end, you can just defeat the monster together and enter the next level, and then repeat the above process.

What do the abandoned teammates think?

How would a player think of this?

He only knew that on each level, these two NPCs would appear at the entrance with him unharmed, and would pop up text bubbles all over the map to catch him. They were almost becoming random monsters in another sense of the word.

Until the 29th floor.

When the player entered the entrance, he wanted to turn around and run, but he saw that one of the NPCs' health was reduced by half.

He stopped reflexively and took out his blood bottle to trade with the other party.

By the time I realized that this was not a NPC protection mission and I didn't need to worry about my teammates' health, I was surrounded by two NPCs and started a conversation.

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "This is the only way to make you stop. It turns out that Jouno is a kind person at heart."

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "Is it really a human?"

[Hagiwara Kenji]: "That's very rude, Jinpei-chan."

The pixel man with only half of his health bar left drank a bottle of blue potion and waved his magic wand. A magic circle lit up on the ground under his feet, and dots of flashing light represented recovery enveloped him, instantly filling up his health bar.

Players who saw these two NPC text bubbles: "???"

The NPC followers nowadays can actually lie?!

While being greatly shocked, players were finally willing to see what these two were up to.

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "We didn't mean to lie to you. Can we stop and talk now?"

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "Do you understand what teammates mean? We don't want to rely on your strength to get to the deepest point. Although we are not as strong as you in terms of military strength, teammates can make up for each other's shortcomings."

There are only three points in the player's dialogue options.

After he made his choice, this seemed to be misunderstood by both of them.

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "Sorry, don't you understand? Can you understand my gestures?"

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "Hagi, what are you doing? He's not a fool."

The player immediately took out his gun and shot twice at the staff man.

Although it does no harm, it does help him vent his anger.

How can he look like a fool!

[Hagiwara Kenji]: "NICE! This is a normal response, but it's not that normal. Jouno, are you not familiar with the road?"

The players were shocked.

How could the NPC see through him to such an extent? !

Kenji Hagiwara is still outputting.

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "It seems like you didn't know the way and just ran around in the dark, and that's why you tried to break our lights."

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "But is there a possibility that we can find the way?"

[Hagiwara Kenji]: "If I can't help you, Jouno, and just follow you to the deepest level in the name of teammates, and you regard me and Jinpei as a nuisance, we have to save our reputation, right? We can't do such a thing."

The player fell into deep thought. Although this NPC talked a lot, what he said made a lot of sense.

Indeed, these two are just two more troubles for him, but the teammates given by the system usually enhance combat power, so they should not be a trouble in any way.

【Jinpei Matsuda】: "Just try our route and you'll know."

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "When we encounter a monster, we'll attack together. Otherwise, you don't have to do anything, just follow us."

The game options are one to refuse and one to agree.

The player chose to agree.

Then, he became the follower NPC of the follower NPC.

According to the text bubbles that popped up by these two NPCs, the layout of each floor of the dungeon is completely random, and the same floor is different every time you visit it.

Therefore, the shops around this dungeon never sell maps. Those who sell maps are all vendors who try to cheat those adventurers who are so new that they can't be any newer.

The route they talk about is based entirely on their experience.

For adventurers, the most important thing is to reach the destination, so any battles that can be avoided along the way must be avoided. Even if one has strong combat abilities and healing magic to protect oneself from injury, human energy is ultimately limited.

The method used by players to clear all the monsters on a whole floor and turn the map at least three times is the least recommended.

Matsuda Jinpei can accurately avoid the monsters' attack range. He can even judge based on his experience that there are monsters in areas that are not illuminated by the floating lights, and in fact there are monsters there.

Kenji Hagiwara is particularly good at memorizing routes. Many roads are dead ends, and it takes a lot of effort to walk in and out. But sometimes, in order to avoid monsters, you can't help but go in a detour, or you will encounter patrolling monsters in front and behind that you can't avoid.

When they have to fight, the three of them are not afraid at all, but Kenji Hagiwara is often able to miraculously find a false wall that is no different from any other wall, and after breaking it down and walking into it, there will be a new path.

The player doesn't have to think about anything, just follow the two of them, and when either of them attacks a monster, he just follows suit.

There is no need to specially protect the relatively fragile Hagiwara Kenji. Not to mention that Matsuda Jinpei can taunt monsters, once when this guy was hit by a random monster, he actually used the conditional reflex to hit the monster on the head with his staff, causing weak physical damage.

It's you! Physical Mage!

Finally, the player saw the advantages of the two teammates and completed the running-in with this team.

They advanced to the 40th floor smoothly. Although the monsters' health doubled after the 35th floor, the players' fully-cultivated panels were truly crushing here.

With him around, the pressure on Jinpei Matsuda and Kenji Hagiwara was greatly reduced.

The players were more certain that this copy was indeed a relaxing little game.

On the 40th floor, the three characters rested while waiting for Hagiwara Kenji to return to blue.

Kenji Hagiwara is a man who can't sit still. He is the one with the most text bubbles in his head, and now he has opened up the topic again.

A question mark appeared on the head of the pixelated man lying on the ground in a very unpresentable manner.

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "Does Kojono think that he can save the world by clearing this dungeon because it is so special?"

Matsuda Jinpei, who was lying next to him, had a simple mocking expression on his face.

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "Are you being fooled by the Adventurers Association? You don't look like someone who would think so much."

The black pixel man who didn't lie down stood there pitifully.

Unfortunately, the two NPCs who used to be considerate of him and were punished with him now seem to have become very familiar with him. Not only have they changed their way of addressing him, they no longer care about his feelings.

Damn!

Isn't it just that I reply to them every time we talk? How could I be so proud of my favor so quickly?

——He seemed to have used an ancient idiom. As expected of him, he is really cultured.

While the player is distracted, the game provides two dialogue options.

You are not here for the bounty.

【Just want to explore? 】

Um.

A classic option split in two.

Both Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei had a messy look on their heads, which represented their thoughts.

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "If I tell others the reason why I'm at odds with Kojin, they'll laugh at me."

[Kenji Hagiwara]: "This world has not reached the point where we need to save it, and the income from previous adventures is enough for us to live well. Although it is a bit strange to survive on the resources of the dungeon, it is time for people at that time to think about the longer term. We can't do that much."

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "Rather, people who think they can save the world are immature fools, right?"

[Hagiwara Kenji]: "Then what are we, who came here because we had a dream about something like that? Big idiots?"

[Matsuda Jinpei]: "..."

[Jono Hisashi]: "Dream?"

[Hagiwara Kenji]: "Well, I can't remember the details, I just remember that this world seemed to be destroyed, and I saw me and Xiaozhen tied in my dream."

[Jinpei Matsuda]: "The level of ancient magic in the dungeon is far beyond modern magic, so maybe there is a connection. And this dream is very annoying and I will keep having it, so I might as well take a look."

[Kenji Hagiwara]: “Actually, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Between [Dreams are all fake] and [Have you rested well? It's time to set off], the player ruthlessly chose the latter.

Hagiwara Kenji uttered a mournful cry and got up from the ground.

"Xiao Tiaoye is too inhumane!"

Complaints aside, action is still taken quickly.

He also wanted to see what secrets were hidden in the deepest part.

What does it have to do with him and Xiao Zhenping?

Under the light of the floating lamp, the black-haired young man stood there straight and stiff like a puppet. He never glanced at them, and his eyes were only on the front.

The other party was more difficult to deal with socially than Kenji Hagiwara had ever seen before.

Why does this mysterious and powerful adventurer think the world needs to be saved?

If the player could know Kenji Hagiwara's psychological activities.

He would probably feel confused.

Because he also doesn't know why this poor 2D pixel-style dungeon game world needs to be saved.

But the game sets up such a background and gives the player a great title of saving the world, and then lets the player take a handful of broken copper and rotten iron to run errands for the boss of the blacksmith shop or fight monsters in the wild in the novice village.

Isn't this normal operation of the game!

I think I can finish this list now. I think I have written enough.