Tasting red wine, enjoying the delicacies that the chef has meticulously cooked, appreciating the beautiful scenery of nature.
"What's the matter, do you not have an appetite?" a pleasant voice came through, and Xi Mu looked up to see a girl with a veil and short black hair sitting across the table, resting her cheeks in her hands, smiling brightly at him.
Despite not seeing her full face, those soft and lively eyes seemed to have the power to melt people's hearts.
Angry... no, it was impossible to be angry in the face of such a person.
"It's pretty good," Xi Mu replied casually, glancing at the steak on the table and then gently shaking his head:
"But I'm already full."
"Then have some red wine," the girl smiled, then slightly furrowed her brows, "By the way, have I ever introduced myself to you?"
Xi Mu shook his head, "No."
"Xiyel Alecto," the girl lightly flipped her black bangs, her smile radiant and tender, "You can just call me Xiyel."
"Miss Xiyel," Xi Mu nodded earnestly, then showed a troubled look, "Right, about the two hundred thousand Gold Coins."
"You want two hundred thousand Gold Coins after just a few words?" Xiyel's cheeks puffed up slightly, she took out a bank card and flicked it between her fingers, gently shaking it at Xi Mu.
"At least say something more to cheer me up."
"Miss Xiyel, you are really beautiful," Xi Mu answered solemnly, as if he was very bad at giving compliments, consciously looking away while saying these words.
However, it was precisely such an clumsy and immature compliment that made Xiyel reveal a satisfied smile, pressing down the corners of her mouth that were turned up.
"Do you rarely compliment people?"
"Because there's no need," Xi Mu answered immediately, but Xiyel tilted her head in thought, then inquired.
"Even towards that princess, haven't you ever offered praise?"
"No," Xi Mu answered honestly, his voice containing a trace of dismay; he lowered his head and started eating the steak with his fork.
It seemed... a bit too much bullying.
Xiyel suddenly realized this, she put away her playful thoughts, placed the bank card on the table, and pushed it toward Xi Mu.
"Take the money for now," she said.
"Thank you," Xi Mu quietly took the bank card, thanking Xiyel as if he truly was an upright Knight who had to submit because of life's pressures.
As for how to quickly gain favor with key game characters, NPCs, there were tutorials, and as long as one trained their acting to a certain extent and followed the predetermined script, they could quickly gain the favorability they wanted from the character.
When facing the Goddess of Plague, one must play the role of a knight who is kind-hearted, serious about feelings, and steadfast in his principles.
But he would have to come before the Goddess of Plague due to the pressures of life, showing an awkward... uneasy, unnatural state during the process.
Such an attitude could make the Goddess of Plague lower her guard, and in turn give the goddess a sense of conquest, along with the secret thrill of toying with another family's upright knight.
Of course, to fulfill all these conditions, it is necessary for the player to take care during the character creation phase not to create a face that would scare others at a glance, aiming as much as possible towards the handsome side.
Only then would their strategies for wooing be effective.
"Can you tell me the story of how you met the princess?" Xiyel showed a curious look, her pleasing voice tinged with slyness, "If it satisfies me, I might add some money."
"The story of our meeting?" Xi Mu wore a reminiscent expression, "That day, I wanted to go to the Fenrir Kingdom and ran into Letixia being pursued, so I stepped in."
He spoke in an innocent tone.
"What followed was me taking Letixia and running away, joining a duel to treat her injuries."
"What about the details?" Xiyel tugged at the corner of her mouth, there was too much omitted from the story, just describing the outline.
Xi Mu remained silent.
"Sorry, I've made it difficult for you," Xiyel reacted, realizing that in the eyes of this knight, perhaps things were just as simple.
Given the character of this knight, describing the events in a vivid and lifelike manner would likely not be an easy task.
"I should apologise, after all my eloquence... is lacking," Xi Mu sighed with what seemed like guilt, lowering his head:
"If you want to understand the specifics, I can take you to Letixia. She is much more articulate than I am."
"Are you serious about me going to her?" Xiyel couldn't help but laugh and cry. If she and Ahtal were to meet that unfortunate princess together, they would probably send her blood pressure soaring, causing her to cough up blood and die on the spot.
"Never mind, just walk with me," she waved her hand and picked up her handbag from the table, heading outside the vineyard.
Xi Mu casually grabbed the heavy sword beside him and gazed at the retreating figure of the Goddess of Plague, his eyes revealing a hint of regret. As a multi-cycle player, he had managed to kill almost every character at least once, but he had never managed to kill the Goddess of Plague.
After all, the goddess was meant to be assassinated in the early stages, and at that time, his attribute values were too low. He simply had no opportunity to kill the Goddess of Plague.
He had tried to escape with the Goddess of Plague in the past, but still couldn't avoid the pursuit of the Time Witch, becoming a character doomed to die.
Unless he was capable of defeating the Time Witch early on, he could prevent the Goddess of Plague's death. But if he could defeat the Time Witch,
he could also kill the Goddess of Plague in the early game and complete the pantheon kill catalogue.
"The grapes here are nice, aren't they?" Xiyel walked among the grapevines, looking at bunches of grapes and casually tasting one.
"What a pity that in two months, there won't be enough hands to pick grapes."
"When a god unleashes a plague, there is nothing that can be done," Xi Mu replied, uninterested in the doings of the God of Plague.
From his point of view, the game designers didn't know how to create a logically consistent game. For the so-called balance of population, they dropped plagues periodically to reduce the number of people.
What kind of thinking would come up with such a setting? Clearly, there were many ways to control population growth reasonably.
"Is it really okay for you? You might die too," Xiyel asked the Knight in silver armor beside her, "and the princess you're protecting could die as well."
"If I die, can I not just move on to the next life?" Xi Mu said, then fell silent again, "And how could humans possibly defy the gods?"
"Daring to say that, you must have some dissatisfaction in your heart," Xiyel hummed lightly, arms slightly extended, walking backward between the grapevines, as sunlight filtered through the gaps, casting mottled patterns on her.
"But even resistance would be meaningless," her smile held a tinge of melancholy as she looked at the grapes hanging on the vines, "If you don't prune the vines, you can't harvest sweet grapes, can you?"
Of course not.
This was what Xi Mu thought to himself, but he didn't say it aloud, having no interest in explaining to NPCs, knowing the direction of the plot would not change much either way.
The initial setting for this goddess was certain death, no matter what kind of ideological change the Goddess of Plague underwent, she was to be killed by both the Time Witch and the Witch of Death.
Otherwise, the subsequent storyline couldn't proceed.
"That's just you thinking from a human's perspective of the divine," he shook his head and said to the melancholic Xiyel:
"Perhaps when the gods send down plagues, it's merely them fulfilling their divine duties, as natural as wind and rain."
"Hmph, how could you know any better?" Xiyel raised her hand, lightly touching her chest, and with a playful tone, she said:
"Maybe the one standing in front of you is the Goddess of Plague."
"I believe it," Xi Mu responded decisively, looking at Xiyel's slightly startled expression, analyzing calmly.
"We are near the temple, the site where the God of Plague descends. You wear a veil unwilling to let others see your face, you can casually offer two hundred thousand Gold Coins, and you have a thorough understanding of the God of Plague."
"If you were the goddess, it wouldn't be surprising."
Xiyel blinked her eyes and then laughed out loud, taking off her veil to reveal her beautiful and vivacious face.
She tilted her head, looking at the Knight in silver.
"You're a little bit smarter than I thought, but just a little," she said, her index and middle fingers forming a small gap.
"Figuring out the identity of a god, you as a human should be proud."