Lind knew all too well the way players operated, especially upon hearing that the enemy numbered 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 people and seeing four Undead players abandon their stealth to launch an attack, he really wanted to voice his scorn. Was that truly abandoning stealth? You must have botched the stealth and made a snap decision to switch to an "invincible stealth" mode, waging a massacre.
Their motto: if you kill everyone you see, it's as if you've seen no one.
After hearing roughly what had happened, Lind paid up decisively. It's just Gold Coins, after all, and he'd get them back in less than five minutes anyway.
The four players who received the money did not disappoint him. Don't assume men have no impulse to shop; they just don't buy because they don't want to. Look at this cloak and armor set selling for 50 Gold Coins—how could one resist such a temptation?
Lind also overheard the petty complaints of the players.
The weapons carried by the vagabonds had too poor attributes, and they weighed them down; they wouldn't bother using them.
"So, it's really because of the weight that you dumped the food, huh?"
Lind felt a pang of sorrow in his heart. Just because he wasn't in immediate need of food didn't mean he didn't need it. The more he could eat, the better, and what he couldn't eat, he could sell to others.
Do players need to eat? Of course, they do, but the vast majority are reluctant to eat, preferring to be in a "bleeding" state, because spending money on food during the pioneering phase is such a waste. They'd rather spend money on something more vital... like weaponry. In the early stages, the penalties for dying are almost non-existent, as everyone's around level 1.
He believed that being a gourmet could be a promising secondary profession in the future.
Lind was looking forward to it himself, as he too wanted to try the delicacies of Earth.
In the meantime, the players had already finished their "blood-spending" (shopping).
The equipment sold at the Star Dragon Ridge outpost was indeed superior—durable, high in attribute, and most importantly, stylish.
As everyone knows, looking cool equals massive attack power!
Throughout, Lind never mentioned anything about Aluna; players had to explore that on their own. He trusted they wouldn't easily overlook the secret of Aluna.
He only instructed the Soldiers once more to keep watch over the eight individuals, preventing players from getting too close and causing a commotion, which would waste time. He believed the Soldiers, with their training, could discern who might be problematic.
After returning to his room, Lind removed the sword hanging at his waist and shifted his consciousness to the "Doomsday Magic Ring" official website.
There were no new announcements, nothing of importance, but there were quite a few sporadic video updates.
"Hey, not bad moves," he remarked.
Someone had actually created a character of a beautiful woman performing a dance from the Red Velvet Art Troupe. This indeed packed quite a punch.
Lind, as an anonymous visitor, gave it a thumbs up, longing for the day when he'd have a chance to create his own account and leave comments too.
He believed "Doomsday Magic Ring" could herald a second golden age for video content creators.
After browsing for a while, he came across videos with titles such as "36D Missy catching loaches in deep water," "Authentic foodie explores Newbie Village's pantry," "What if I confessed to the widow in Newbie Village?" and so on.
In essence, they were all insufferably inane clickbait videos, hardly more sophisticated than a "Try Not to Laugh Challenge," especially with NPCs looking at the embarrassingly performing players as if they were idiots, projecting an atmosphere of digging one's own grave through the screen.
Awkward!
However, Lind understood why they did this, as numerous complaint posts revealed that in this game, players were "too free." Ignoring those lonely players who were still alone, most were distrusted even after joining Newbie Village and had few job options available.
The small number of players who did manage to gain a modicum of trust ended up doing jobs like hunting, farming, or manual labor.
Many complained, questioning whether the game even considered players to be the protagonists at all, wondering why there were no world-saving quests.
With nothing to do, players who didn't want to leave such a realistic world—almost like they had time-traveled—actively explored and sought fun, which seemed fair for a beta test without a main storyline.
Another group, after confirming the absence of a main storyline, started creating content, mostly short video bloggers. Since they updated early, they caught the initial wave of popularity, so no matter how trivial their videos were, they could easily hit tens of thousands of views in no time.
But that might not be the case in the future, as the cutthroat competition among players is merciless; boring videos will undoubtedly get weeded out.
Rather than the video content, most players who couldn't get into the game were expressing a deep yearning for "Doomsday Magic Ring."
For the first time, Lind realized that on Earth, this game required wearing a helmet to play, and U-shaped pillows had become the top-selling third-party accessory.
Many comments under the videos even asked if this was really a game and not live-action role-playing.
"Of course, this doesn't count as a game," Lind thought, considering himself a living being without a system and without grinding monsters.
Having confirmed that most players were just meddling around without anything to do, even unwilling to bite a lighter, Lind lost interest. His main focus now was on reading forum posts.
Text can be edited rapidly and is timely, plus there are a variety of sub-forums for posting.
Chitchat, strategy guides, tutorials, socializing, and more - all of these allowed Lind to fully grasp his current situation, and boy did he love spending time on the Officials' forum.
[new! I'm stuck in the map, any kind knights to rescue me?]
[new! I got a weapon, a decent blade from the village, so cool! Picture attached, includes a how-to-get guide]
[new! Does this game not make sense, or is it just me? Why did they completely ignore this area?! So annoyed!]
[Essential|A battle thoroughly won by players, absolutely true and thrilling, with a counter-attack tutorial included!]
[Essential|Character customization, with detailed settings: Geralt, Saber, Liu Yifei, Miyazaki Hideki, Thanos, Ninja Turtles, Steve, …]
If there are essential posts, does that mean there is an Administrator on the official site... Does the Administrator know they've become an NPC, and is the game company aware of this.
After all, am I the outsider, or are the players the outsiders?
He was full of question marks, but in the end, he chose to wipe his forehead and pretend not to care. Since there were no answers at the moment, he decided to put that aside and focus on understanding his own little world first.
There were many players stuck in the map. Up until now, a lot of players hadn't even seen an NPC or a wild monster, just trekking on foot all the time. If it weren't for the truly beautiful scenery, the strong sense of immersion, and the lack of any new games to take its place on the market, probably a large number of players would have quit already.
After browsing posts for a good while and coming out for dinner, Lind found that instead of surrounding Aluna and making a fuss, players were chatting by a distant campfire.
Huh, that's strange, how could players ignore a brand-new NPC!
Could it be that Aluna has chickened out? Absolutely impossible!
Because he knew very well that when it came to babbling on and on, Aluna was definitely queen level, capable of controlling the situation!
You could hear her speak all kinds of flashy dialogue, but come to realize after thinking it through, none of them was useful. Her staple was being bland yet loud.
And Lind needed exactly this kind of talent.
The only option was to ask Aluna about it.
With players around, Star Dragon Ridge had nearly said farewell to the issue of insufficient firewood.
Lind even saw in the distance that eight women and children were happily roasting by a fire.
These Undead players sure loved to domesticate and feed NPCs.
Aluna, pinching a dried mouse, looked at Lind the moment she saw him, her expression straightforward.
Is this the "God's Knight" you were talking about? I really wish I could spit dog shit in your face.
What do they have to do with knights, they're even showing half their butts!
Nun is so mad she's shivering with anger.
What happened?
Lind also saw something in Aluna's resentful glance; the two sides hadn't failed to interact, they had - and maybe Aluna had even taken a big loss.
Could it be... That's too beastly, Aluna's already so old!
Once again, the "eavesdropping" skill of a first-level Great Knight came into play.
"Loves White Silk: Hey, do you think this old nun is all talk, giving us the cold shoulder, keeps repeating those few phrases, is there something wrong with her brains?"
"Moon Slash Blade: Definitely a low-level AI, in my opinion, not a key character, just an NPC to fill the space. But I asked her several times, and she didn't give out any quests."
"I don't think so!" Dragon Scale Sword cleared his throat, serious, "She's not a dummy, she just really dislikes us. When I got face-to-face with her just now, I could feel she really wanted to hit me."
"How about we lift her skirt later?"
"Stay away from us, you're too perverted!"
As Lind passed by, the corner of his mouth twitched, what have you done to Aluna!
If this goes on, Aluna is going to flag red.
"I've noticed a lot of NPCs in the Newbie Villages seem similar, all with clenched jaws, reluctant to engage with players. Is it that the Undead are discriminated against? Hey hey, I'm gonna punch someone right now."