"Ouch!" The thick ropes bound [I94YourDad] and his followers, and then they were roughly thrown to the ground, their faces bewildered.
Everything happened too fast; their defenses were broken individually, and their HP was reduced to critical levels, leaving them no chance to fight back. Now, they were tied up and completely immobilized.
"Boss, what's going on? Why does it feel like these NPCs want to eat us?" The followers were nervous, only daring to look at their boss.
"Calm down," [I94YourDad], considering himself the leader, tried to stay calm. He quietly leaned over and whispered in their ears, "Isn't there an emergency game shutdown function? Just press that, and poof, we're offline!"
"That's why you're the boss!" The followers suddenly remembered this function and started worshipping their leader.
The boss is the best! The boss is amazing!
After calming his followers, [I94YourDad] tried to use his only movable finger to open the forced shutdown interface to log out of the game.
"Ethan, reinforce [Bind], I don't want them to move a single finger." A demonic voice echoed in their ears. Looking up, they saw Nors staring at them chillingly, sending shivers down their spines.
Ethan nodded to Nors and waved his staff, making the binding magic even stronger.
Their bodies felt as heavy as lead, completely stiff, unable to move even an inch. Now, they truly couldn't move a finger.
"Please, sir, we don't know what we've done to offend you," [I94YourDad] pleaded, groveling.
"Yeah, yeah, we promise to follow the rules," the followers echoed, thinking Nors must be an official GM, otherwise, how could he prevent them from logging out?
They must have accidentally offended him and were being punished. They kept begging, their faces pale with fear.
Suddenly, an elderly woman walked over unsteadily. The crowd couldn't see her expression clearly; she just stopped a few meters away from [I94YourDad].
The old woman wore a patched grey cotton jacket and pants. Her white hair was messy, her face full of wrinkles, and her eyes bloodshot. She didn't speak, just stared at [I94YourDad], then looked at his followers.
In a flash,
"Slap!"
A crisp slap broke the silence, stunning everyone with the old woman's sudden action.
[I94YourDad] was slapped, his head turned sideways, and a ringing sound filled his ears. Pain and humiliation intertwined, and he shouted angrily,
"Even my parents never hit me like this, you damn NPC! I'm going to complain!" He initially tried to stand up and intimidate her, but seeing the old woman's eyes filled with overwhelming hatred, he was instantly frightened.
"My daughter... was fine," the old woman's voice trembled, tears quietly falling from her wrinkled eyes. The anger and hatred are almost unbearable, she tightly clutched her clothes, trying to find support.
"It was you people, constantly harassing her because she was pretty."
"I begged, I knelt and begged you to leave her alone," the sorrowful accusations echoed in everyone's ears, each word cutting deep like a knife.
"And then... one day..." the old woman paused, struggling with immense pain. She took a deep breath and shouted, "She suddenly committed suicide!"
She pointed forcefully at [I94YourDad] and his group, demanding, "What else did you do to her?"
What did they do? They just harassed her more intensely.
"If it weren't for you people, she would be fine!" She would have gone to study at the Solan Empire, had a bright future, maybe met her true love, and married. But all that is gone, destroyed.
The old woman's voice was hoarse, endless tears couldn't wash away the hatred in her heart.
Her daughter, like a flower, the only treasure left by her late husband, was gone. How could she not hate them?
It's all their fault!
[I94YourDad] and his group were terrified. In their original world, they were just 17-18-year-old students. They couldn't understand why NPCs had such strong emotions, leaving them confused and scared, sitting there helplessly.
Suddenly, a stone hit one of their heads. Although it didn't bleed, the system's realistic feedback told them they were hit by a hard stone.
Looking back, they saw it was Miller, whom they had just tormented.
Miller, holding a pile of stones, his eyes red with tears. They had no doubt Miller wanted to stone them to death.
"Give me back my parents, you devils!" Miller shouted, his neck turning red, and he started coughing violently as air rushed into his chest.
Miller's accusation was like fire, quickly igniting the emotions of the surrounding villagers, and turning their initial anger into action.
"They killed her, we can't let them go!" a burly man roared, lifting his iron shovel to hit them. The other villagers, seeing someone take the lead, quickly joined in.
"What are they saying? This is our first time here, we haven't killed anyone," the followers gulped, their voices trembling.
"What the hell, I want to get out of here! I just came to play a game," one person, seemingly unable to take it anymore, started to break down, using his hands to protect his head.
The dense attacks fell like raindrops on them, but the damage was only -1-1-1-1-1, causing minimal pain.
Nors's eyes flickered as he watched, knowing the situation was rapidly spiraling out of control, yet he didn't intend to intervene, nor did Celia.
He knew the villagers needed to vent. After all, these players were just virtual beings.
Even with the realistic feedback, they would only feel pain at most. But to the people of this world?
They were truly dead.
"Hey! Stop it, they haven't done anything yet!" Alex squeezed through the villagers, blocking one of their attacks with his body, standing in front of the group.
Scarlett, knowing Alex's uncontrollable kindness had kicked in, silently stood beside him, after glancing at Nors.
"What are you doing? Trying to save them?" The villagers, bloodshot eyes filled with rage, would have hit Alex with their shovels if they weren't afraid of the Academy's mages.
"I knew you were with them!" The villagers' faces twisted with anger, their words filled with hostility.
"No, I'm saying we should at least question them properly first," Alex tried to reason, calming the overreacting villagers.
"Get out of the way! Or we'll take you down too!" The air was thick with tension, the villagers' accumulated anger and hatred had driven them mad.
"What's wrong with these NPCs, why are they attacking players?" The followers huddled behind their boss, trying not to get hit.
"Yeah, it's just a game, why take it so seriously? Everything will respawn soon! Maybe your daughter will come back too!" a follower, hit and in pain, spoke recklessly, not caring if they understood.
"Shut up, idiot!" Alex shouted in horror. What were these lunatics saying, making things worse?
"Game...?" The air froze, and everything seemed to tighten instantly.
"You think this is all a game?" The old woman, her voice devoid of emotion, asked quietly.
"Yeah, it's just a game world, right? The data will refresh after a while, and your daughter will come back," the person, oblivious to the situation, kept talking.
Unable to bear it anymore, the old woman slapped him harder.
"Refresh? Data? My daughter was a person! So tell me, how do you refresh it? It's been a month, and my daughter hasn't returned!" she shouted.
The person, holding his slapped cheek, felt the burning pain and shame, stuttering, "How would I know when? Maybe the officials think it's just data and didn't bother to refresh it." He spoke softer, but the villagers heard him.
Their anger soared; these people didn't value lives, treating it as a game, and acting recklessly. Unforgivable! The villagers stepped towards them, their faces twisted with anger and madness, weapons clenched in their hands, ready to tear them apart.
"Enough!"