Ch.9Ill-Fated NPCs (4)

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but the online game “Eight” isn’t particularly a god-tier game, nor has it ever won Game of the Year.

Still, there’s something that makes you want to keep playing it, or rather, something that makes you want to return to it.

That would be the NPC Party System!

When you complete quests for predetermined NPCs in the game, or hidden NPCs, and unlock their affinity, you can form parties with them.

For instance, if I’m playing a DPS character, what every damage dealer dreams of is having a supporter who boosts their damage output. But who would willingly take on the role of a tool just to be your main supporter?

However, in this game, Eight, that’s possible. With NPCs!

If you unlock the affinity of characters like church members or wandering bards, they’ll follow you around as your personal supporter, casting buffs and becoming your dedicated tool!

Plus, many NPCs have well-designed illustrations and 3D character graphics, so if you literally want to party with a pretty figurine, you just need to unlock their affinity and form a party with them.

There’s one tiny… no, honestly, it’s a fucking difficult drawback: you need to level up not just your main character but also the NPCs. But reaching level 1100 with your main character wasn’t that hard to begin with, and there was a certain satisfaction in leveling those pretty figurines up to 1100 as well.

On top of that, the AI was quite smart, so they wouldn’t just die pointlessly in battles without mechanics.

Supporters would reliably stay in the back, damage dealers would maintain their position in the middle, and tanks would frantically rush forward to take hits if my character got hit even once—at least that minimal AI behavior was properly implemented.

“Y-You crazy bitch!! D-Do you have any proof?! Drawing a sword in a place like this—are you insane?!”

“Yes, I have proof! That pouch on your right hip! That belongs to the sleeping man over there!! How dare you steal from someone who’s drunk! Put it down right now!”

“……”

The tavern was descending into chaos with tables being flipped and everything going to hell.

I looked once at the woman and man at the center of it all, then abruptly stood up.

Hmm, should I talk a bit more about Eight’s NPC system?

Of course, many people want to walk around with pretty figurines. But even more than that, the performance-obsessed players wanted to have good characters following them.

But isn’t that natural?

A character in Tier 0 versus one in Tier 5.

Obviously, depending on which one you take with you, the money and experience you earn will differ, so no matter how pretty they are, you wouldn’t want to drag around a Tier 5 or untiered character.

Of course, having both beauty and performance would be ideal, but in reality, just because a character performs well doesn’t mean they’ll synergize perfectly with your main character.

And that woman flipping the table—or rather, the drinking table—right in front of me… my past life memories are telling me:

Absolutely do not get involved with her.

I immediately moved to leave the tavern…

-BANG!!

“Hey, hey, HEY?! What’s this?! What do you think you’re doing?!!”

Damn, this sucks. Just as I was heading for the exit, some men burst in with enough force to tear the door off its hinges.

They stood blocking the entrance, glaring at the woman and the collapsed man.

Anyone could see they weren’t the town guard. They were clearly some kind of thugs.

I quietly moved back like flowing water and sat down in front of my beer mug again, while the tavern owner, who had taken my 200 coins and told me many interesting stories, watched the situation with a pale expression.

Well, that’s truly unfortunate.

“Hey!! Woman?! What are you doing to our little brother?! Drawing a sword in a place like this!! Do you want to be dragged off to the guards right now?!”

“Ha. Your little brother, is he? Then you should keep him in line! I caught a criminal trying to steal someone else’s money!”

“What?! Do you have proof?! Do you have any evidence that our brother was trying to steal something?!”

“How many times do I have to say it? That pouch on his waist isn’t his…”

“Then whose is it supposed to be?!”

“The person sitting over there who passed out dru… Huh?”

The woman with the sword only now notices that the person she was trying to help has disappeared, and she tilts her head in confusion.

And I’ve fully assessed the situation. This woman must have triggered her passive ability upon entering this town, and the situation is gradually being led by her skill.

Sigh. I’m definitely not getting involved.

“What?! Who are you talking about?! Speak clearly!!”

“Uh, huh?! Just now, someone was sitting there… Hey, didn’t anyone else see? The person who was sitting there…”

The woman, seemingly flustered, tosses her blonde hair and looks around for confirmation from the others. But the people who were drinking nearby either distance themselves from her, who suddenly started waving a sword around, or just give sly smiles as if they knew all along she would end up like this.

Sigh. Well, it’s probably just another story of someone getting scammed and victimized. She’s definitely a woman I’d be in big trouble if I got involved with.

“Hey, miss? You shouldn’t act like this. Treating an innocent person like a thief and even drawing a sword first? Are you some kind of criminal?”

“W-What!! I was just…!!”

“Then what? Were you trying to rob our vulnerable little brother? Is that why you approached him?”

The men gradually corner the stammering woman with their clever wordplay. If they had just drawn clubs and knives and charged at her, she probably wouldn’t be so flustered.

But the situation has completely reversed, and she’s becoming the wrongdoer.

And finally.

“Ah, um… I-I really saw it. I, um…”

She furrows her brows as if about to cry, constantly looking around to see if anyone will stand up for her. But no one reaches out to her. Of course, I won’t either.

Even if she was a Tier 1.5 NPC up until Episode 7, the moment I get involved with her, my life is over.

“Ugh! B-Big bros…!! M-My waist!”

“Oh no!! Little brother!! Our little brother’s waist is shattered?!!”

“Eh, what?!”

The man who had been lying down perfectly fine until just now suddenly starts complaining of pain and begins to act in an exaggerated manner, putting even more pressure on her. This is the typical behavior of a self-harm scam group.

She must have already been caught up in some incident since entering this town, and the story is probably heading toward its conclusion.

If there were a playable character here, this would be the quest mode where her affinity would unlock.

Finally, the self-harm scam group starts talking about their real objective.

“Hey!! Miss, what are you going to do?! You’ve crippled a perfectly healthy man—you don’t think you can just walk away saying it was a misunderstanding, do you?!!”

“Ah… um, well, that… um…”

Right, now she’ll get her money taken, and that’s the end.

This woman is destined to live her life like this because of her skill, [Can’t Stand Injustice].

Once she meets a playable character, she becomes quite a helpful damage dealer with her outstanding skills, but that one skill is what drops her tier.

Not being able to stand injustice is good, but because of that crazy skill, exclamation marks appear above her head at the most inconvenient times.

There was once a bug where her quest would pop up even during raids, which was a real nightmare.

Like, we’re trying to kill a boss, and suddenly (!) “That’s a pickpocket!” appears—what the hell? Did someone steal from the raid boss’s pocket?

What’s worse, once a user parties with her, if they don’t complete all those quests, her affinity drops rapidly, and she won’t follow you for a while—she’s an NPC with truly annoying mechanics.

And if you get fed up and disband the party without completing the quests, the affinity of other high-performance justice-oriented NPCs also drops—a woman with a hellish passive ability.

For someone like me who’s already short on time and trying to escape, getting involved with her would be hell on earth…

“Whaaaat?! You don’t have moneeey?! Then how are you going to fix our little brother’s waist?!!”

“Ah, that. I-I’ll… work and pay it back right aw—”

“Nooo!! How! Can! We! Trust the words of a criminal who drew a sword in a crowded place?! Huuuh?!”

One of the men approaches the woman with disgustingly drawn-out speech, and the woman who was ready to swing her sword just moments ago suddenly shrinks back.

Anyone can see she’s in the wrong. But… she doesn’t have money? She should always have money though?

Huh? Unless…

“Ha!! There’s no choice then! We’re not the kind of people who just punish wrongdoers without mercy. You don’t want to be handed over to the guards, do you?”

“Ah, that, anything but that…”

“Well then… I guess there’s no other way?”

The man looks at the blonde woman as if licking her with his eyes, then slowly reaches out and grabs her shoulder.

Wait, seriously? This was quite a controversial topic in the community. Really? Is this where the unicorns go berserk?

“Well, we can pool money for our brother’s hospital bills, but then there’d be no punishment for what you did wrong, miss.”

“T-That’s…”

“So. If you play with us tonight, we might forgive you. What do you think? Want to go to the guards? Or would you rather have some bedroom sports with us and part ways on good terms?”

“……”

Now the woman has tears welling up in her eyes. What’s worse, the man’s other hand is caressing her collarbone just above her chest.

Even the men behind him are grinning lewdly and making thrusting motions with their hips.

Wait, what the fuck? Seriously? This is happening? She was already controversial enough with the non-virgin debate!

Is she really going to lose it here? For real?

“Ugh… A-Anything but that…”

Her voice, completely subdued and diminished from its earlier strength, echoes softly through the tavern, but the men shout as if they’ve been waiting for this: “Then go to the guards!!”

She wouldn’t want to go to the guards. The moment she does, her life is over.

Sigh. Damn, that was TMI I didn’t want to know.

Still, she was a beauty, so I did take her along for a while.

Since she was a damage dealer, I used her for a bit, leveled her to 500, then dumped her. Well, what can you do if she has no money?

Eventually, the woman was surrounded by the men and left the tavern, and I quietly stood up…

-BANG!!

“Excuse me, gentlemen. I’m sorry, but isn’t this person an acquaintance of yours?”

Oh for fuck’s sake. Really.