Chapter 372 - 362: Roleplaying as a Game NPC 10

After a busy night, Moira Lynch started work right on time at eight o’clock.

She was exhausted from working all night, but the fatigue vanished the moment she entered the game pod.

This was one of the benefits of the game pod.

After extended use, game wristbands and helmets would inevitably leave the body feeling tired, but the game pod was different.

According to research, a full night of gaming in a pod was equivalent to six hours of deep sleep.

This was a godsend for insomniacs and hardcore gamers who often stayed up all night.

You could play games to relieve the stress of a day’s work and get enough sleep to stay healthy—it was the best of both worlds.

Upon entering the game, Moira Lynch immediately began her role-play for the day.

But first, she needed to settle up yesterday’s quest.

When she logged in, she saw that the group from yesterday was already there, having waited for quite some time.

Seeing Azure, the character Moira Lynch played, appear, the players immediately gathered around to turn in their quest.

Moira Lynch had no idea what the differently colored spheres of light they brought back were, but since the system registered the quest as complete, she put on a look of pleasant surprise.

"Thank you so much, brave warriors. Here, this is what you’ve earned."

After speaking, Moira Lynch handed over the quest reward, Isra’s Ring, to the players before her.

How they chose to divide it among themselves was not her concern.

Worldborne took Isra’s Ring and said to his companions, "I’m taking this ring. When we get back, I’ll have 100,000 Gold Coins deposited into each of your accounts."

Hearing this, the others nodded.

They might have looked like a team, but in reality, they were just working for Worldborne.

All the equipment they currently wore, including their accounts, belonged to Worldborne.

So, naturally, they didn’t dare voice any objections to his proposal.

But just because they didn’t show it on the outside didn’t mean they weren’t the least bit unhappy on the inside.

Meanwhile, after Moira Lynch finished tying up loose ends for Azure, she began her role-play for the day.

「In Verdane County」

A fox player named Lily stepped down from a horse-drawn carriage, her eyes immediately landing on the distant Verdane County Magistrate’s Office gate and the notice board beside it.

The city layouts in Divine Soul were mostly the same, with only minor variations in detail to reflect different local customs and cultures.

After looking around, Lily decided to head to the notice board first to pick up a quest and familiarize herself with Verdane County before deciding on her next move.

She had found her way here because a letter she’d unintentionally acquired during a previous quest mentioned Verdane County.

There weren’t many people at the notice board. The NPC in charge of registering quests was resting with his eyes closed, a blade of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth.

Hearing approaching footsteps, the NPC immediately spit out the foxtail grass and straightened his posture.

The quests on the board were mostly run-of-the-mill: either simple tasks with low rewards or extremely tedious ones. Lily was used to seeing this.

As a veteran player, she expertly filtered them out, refusing to waste her time on such quests.

Suddenly, one quest caught her eye.

The reward included reputation value.

Reputation value was a special commodity in Divine Soul. It was difficult to obtain, only possible by helping certain NPCs in the game.

And it wasn’t as simple as helping just any NPC.

Accumulating enough reputation value allowed you to buy land and open a shop in the game, among many other benefits.

This quest offered a full one hundred points of reputation value—more than she could earn in a whole month of hard work.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Lily accepted the quest.

Never mind what a hundred points of reputation value could do for her; the reward was so ridiculously high that she had to see what the catch was.

After successfully accepting the quest, Lily finally read the details:

[In a small fishing village by the sea in Verdane County, villagers who went out at night to forage on the tidal flats discovered a huge, unidentified black shadow on the beach. Overcome with fright, they fainted on the spot. Upon waking, they were driven mad. After the incident, Verdane County sent people to investigate, but none of them ever returned. This matter has already caused considerable panic in Verdane County. Brave hero, please travel to the Little Fishing Village to investigate the truth and eliminate the black shadow causing the panic.]

After reading the description, Lily’s first reaction was, ’This quest doesn’t seem that hard.’

She’d completed dozens of quests just like it.

She guessed the scary black shadow was probably a game BOSS.

’Still,’ she thought, ’with such a high reward, this BOSS must be pretty tough. I’d better be careful.’

But BOSSes were Lily’s favorite thing.

After all, in the game Divine Soul, Lily was known as a "master of lucky drops."

She could get equipment to drop on her first try that took others days of continuous grinding to obtain.

Because of this, many people specifically invited her to fight BOSSes. With this in mind, Lily quickly completed her registration with the NPC and set off toward the Little Fishing Village.

What she didn’t know was that shortly after she left, a group of players nearby watched her go with gloating smiles.

One of them said, "Someone else took the quest. I wonder how long this one will last."

"Probably not long."

"Our whole party couldn’t even last a single round against that BOSS. She’s all alone. I doubt she stands a chance."

"Speaking of which, we’ve been fighting it for so long and haven’t even seen the BOSS’s true form. Once this person gives up and comes back, I’m reporting this quest to the guild."

A BOSS that powerful must drop some incredibly rare equipment.

At that moment, a player who didn’t know what was going on asked, "Is that BOSS really so dangerous?"

"The danger is secondary. The main thing is, when that BOSS kills you, it takes all your equipped gear with it."

Hearing this, the player glanced at the shabby-looking gear on the people in front of him.

He had just assumed they were always this poorly equipped.

Noticing the player’s appraising gaze, one of the group snapped in frustration, "What are you looking at? There’s nothing to see!"

Meanwhile, Lily, still oblivious to the difficulties that awaited her, held her map and headed enthusiastically toward the Little Fishing Village.