Ignatius led Siegmund through the crowd of NPCs approaching the gates to the City of Stomrus. None of these NPCs were useful to him in any way, but only existed to give an additional sense of life to the city.
And, well, the environment 'was' quite lifelike.
Shimmering heat haze was visible over the desert sands, and the buzzing noise of locusts rose all around. Buzzards circled overhead in the distance, and the smells of exotic spices and frying meat filled Ignatius's nose.
In a grand environment like this, of course, the realistic smells of manure and sewage which could be found in a 'real' city were absent. The game didn't want to disgust players, after all. At least, not until they visited swamps or crypts, or any other place 'intended' to be disgusting.
But in the City of Stomrus, capital of Thijya, there were only the sensations of glory, wonder, and mystery. Or rather, the sensations which were designed to 'produce' these feelings in players.
All the Story Mode environments, including the City of Stomrus, were instances of zones which could also be visited in other modes of play. Right now, Ignatius was surrounded only by NPCs with limited AI.
After he left the mission, he could travel to the "true" version of Stomrus, where he'd find NPCs with much more advanced AI that allowed them to adapt to their surroundings and to the ways players treated them.
But outside of certain scripted events, the decisions Ignatius made in this story mission would have no lasting effect on the outside game world. Though the environments were incredibly lifelike compared to every game that had been released in the past, this was simply one of the qualities of Path of the Immortal that made it clear that it was just another game.
Well…
They gave the 'illusion' that Path of the Immortal was just a game.
'It should be a few days before the first Anomaly happens,' Ignatius thought as he passed through the huge metal gates and walked down city's main path of the city. Banners hung from the tall sandstone buildings all around him, and NPCs were excitedly saying variations of the same information.
"The festival's been delayed, did you hear?"
"Yes, the Grand Master is calling an emergency meeting!"
"Do you think it has anything to do with the strange phenomenon that we saw in the sky?"
"It's not right to delay a festival for the gods, though… even if a god has descended to the Earth again!"
"Well, let's go to the emergency meeting and find out quickly, so we can get back to preparing for the beginning of the festival!"
All of it was exactly as Ignatius expected—
But then a strange figure caught Ignatius's eye, a figure in a dark cloak who turned and disappeared into the swarming NPC crowd as soon as he was noticed.
Ignatius stopped in his tracks. "Wait, who was that?"
"Hmmm?" Siegmund asked, looking around. "Who do you mean?"
There had never 'been' a mysterious, dark-cloaked figure in the first Monk story mission, not in the many times Ignatius had played through it.
"Unless this is part of a secret launch event," Ignatius mused. "That's not impossible. I didn't know the game back then like I do now, so it's entirely possible that I simply missed a game launch event. How would I have known it didn't belong in the main mission?"
"You're worrying me," Siegmund said nervously. He didn't take his claymore down from his shoulder, since there was no room in the crowd to wield it, but he shifted his stance to better prepare for a surprise attack. "Friend, I don't see this danger you speak of!"
Any "meta" speech by Ignatius that referred to the game as a game would be interpreted by the Onion Knight as in-character speech, and so his words had apparently been received as meaning "I saw someone who looks like an enemy plotting against us, but he disappeared."
But Ignatius wasn't concerned with Siegmund's reaction. He simply glanced around him, looking for a side quest notification. He didn't receive one, but such a notification 'would' have appeared if this mysterious figure was part of a secret bonus event to celebrate the game's launch.
Nonetheless, Ignatius pushed through the NPCs in the crowd to follow the path he guessed that this figure had taken. He stepped away from the main quest area and behind some buildings.
There, the figure was at the end of the alley!
No…
Had it just been Ignatius's imagination?
For less than a single second, he could've sworn he saw the NPC standing against the sandstone wall of the alley, looking back at Ignatius…
But then the figure had simply disappeared without a trace.
Ignatius walked slowly to the point where the NPC had stood. He crouched to examine the ground and the stone wall, but he could find no switches, symbols, or other elements which might start a side quest.
The shadowed stone was cool as he put his hand upon the wall. "I guess the only explanation is that the devs programmed that NPC into the game, but didn't plan anything special for him. He seems so mysterious that he definitely 'looks' like he's leading players to a secret. Then he just despawned when he reached the end of his path."
Enough players must have been confused and annoyed by this that the developers quickly patched the NPC out of the game.
After a few moments, Siegmund caught up, breathing heavily underneath all his heavy armor. "Did… did you find the person, my friend?"
"No," Ignatius sighed. "What a sloppy scenario." He was about to leave and return to the main mission when he had an idea. "Wait, let's take advantage of this hiding spot. Loan me your armor here."
Siegmund was initially reluctant, thinking that perhaps the shadowy figure which Ignatius had seen would take the opportunity to attack while he was helpless, but eventually unequipped his armor, causing it to teleport from his body onto the ground.
Ignatius touched each piece, causing it to disappear into his inventory and then to reappear on his body as he equipped it. It was difficult to see through the huge, onion-shaped helm, and the armor generally restricted Ignatius's motions, but it provided a huge defensive bonus for low-level characters like him.
Large enough, in fact, to protect him even in Hell-difficulty story missions… making Ignatius's crazy new plan possible to complete.
Probably.