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# Chapter 34: Server Merger and the Third Trial

After the incident with Brynhildr.

My older brother and I wandered around the map, checking on the NPCs’ statuses.

“Did you hear? They’ve started to gather troops in Mikenese recently.”

“Oh, could it be that they’re preparing for war? Now that I think about it, the movements of Illyon have been quite unusual lately…”

“Sigh, those foreign guys are like a swarm of locusts. Why on earth did the gods bring them here?”

“Well, it’s obviously to solve various problems on the surface, right? Sure, there are foreign folks who are not so nice, but there are also good ones, aren’t there?”

And then we reached a conclusion.

“The NPCs’ autonomy has increased.”

My brother muttered with a serious look (albeit just an emoticon).

“They were already somewhat autonomous, but fundamentally, they were set to act within predetermined patterns unless a foreign player approached them for interaction. You know the reason, right?”

“It’s because, for a game to function, some user-friendly elements are necessary.”

If a merchant NPC said, “I won’t sell my goods to a foreigner like you!” and turned away, it would create a lot of issues.

If the average player level is below 40, but suddenly 80-level NPCs started slaughtering everyone, that would be a problem too.

“Of course, there are NPCs that are hostile towards foreigners or try to use them, but overall, they’re just a minority.”

So does that mean their ratio has significantly increased now?

“Hmm, I guess. To put it simply, it’s like the basic choices A, B, C, D, E have now released F, G, H as options. Some will choose them, while others won’t. However, it’s true that the constraints have loosened, making it harder to read their actions than before.”

What could be the cause?

“Perhaps something was done by Lunara, who took over my account. They might have changed the NPCs’ autonomy to ‘high.’ It’s impossible to set it to ‘very high’ without mutual consent between you and me, so let’s consider that an exception.”

Why would that thief do such a thing? Could it be that they’re monitoring my playstyle of using NPCs?

“At least from what I’ve seen so far, your actions haven’t been detected as that ‘broadcast.’ Lunara might have briefly scrolled past it a few times on Nadia’s or other players’ screens, but that’s it.”

How about party chat?

“Same here. Supporters can’t read it, and Lunara might be able to check logs, but I’ve manipulated the logs to prevent her from catching on.”

Let’s discard the possibility that I was under surveillance and recorded without my brother realizing it.

If I can’t trust that, I can’t do anything at all. Even if that were the case, my brother’s skills as a technician are genuine.

There’s no way I would fall behind those fools who can’t use the authority they have properly.

“Trust weighs heavily, huh… So what will you do moving forward? It seems controlling the NPCs at will will be difficult now.”

Well? While it’s true that it’s become hard to predict their action patterns, the fact that their autonomy and subjectivity have increased isn’t necessarily a bad thing from my perspective.

Being able to treat the NPCs more ‘humanely’ makes it easier to build friendly relations with them. Let me show off my visual novel skills.

“Using ‘humane’ and ‘visual novel’ in the same sentence is quite the contradiction.”

Let it slide, let it slide.

Anyway, it’s about time for the third trial to begin.

What ridiculous situation will those thieves come up with next to torment the people?

*

“Hello! Everyone! It’s your lovely GM Lunara! Yeah—!”

On the day the second trial came to a complete end.

Players couldn’t help but show sour expressions.

“…After doing something like that last time, how can she keep up that kind of energy?”

Seeing Nadia shake her head, Erin shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, in some sense, she might be showing a strong sense of professionalism, right? If she keeps dragging out the past and sulking, the viewers would lose their energy too.”

“Hmm, that does make sense.”

Whether Lunara noticed the two’s evaluations or not, she continued her broadcast in her usual cheerful tone and atmosphere.

“The second trial ‘Blessed Royal Tomb’! Successfully concluded. There were minor troubles along the way, but in the end, it was wrapped up splendidly. Now, shall we start by revealing the rankings?”

1st Place: Karsh (Warrior/Delta Server)

2nd Place: Chopaewang (Warrior/Sigma Server)

3rd Place: Asahi (Warrior/Phi Server)

4th Place: Labyrinth2010 (Mage/Tau Server)

5th Place: Sibylla (Bard/Mu Server)

6th Place: Moonlight Priest (Priest/Ksi Server)

7th Place: Siberian Heosukhee (Warrior/Alpha Server)

8th Place: Nursing Home Wheelchair Breaker Jeongmuhyul (Warrior/Zeta Server)

9th Place: Mudamudamuda (Mage/New Server)

10th Place: Americano (Mage/Delta Server)

………

……

…

“Every time I see it, there are a lot of absurd names…”

“Well, as long as they’re not personally addressed, it’s not that weird.”

After checking the ranking list, Nadia blinked her eyes.

“During the first trial, the mages dominated, but this time it’s the warriors. By the way, getting first place two times in a row means Karsh must be pretty skilled.”

“If you had properly tackled it, Nadia, you would have definitely made it into the rankings. Don’t you feel regret?”

During the trial, from start to finish, Nadia repeatedly created large-scale parties to tackle the royal tomb every single day.

The contract for parties with experience distribution and ally Osa functions was extraordinarily expensive, and even charging participants didn’t make the funding much better, and since the participants’ overall levels were low, they couldn’t go deep, thus resulting in low efficiency.

While beginners, with their low base levels, easily profited just by hopping back and forth on the 1-3 floors, Nadia, who already had a high level, had stagnated in her growth.

During this period, she experienced an enormous loss: not only did she fail to gain adequate experience points and trial performance points, but also lost money.

Despite that, Nadia’s face was quite bright.

“No, it’s fine! I’m not that interested in high rankings, anyway. Thanks to this, everyone has survived. That’s what’s important.”

If Lunara’s plan had gone as intended, this event would have caused a mass elimination of lower-tier players.

However, Nadia actively executed plans to save lower-tier players, and other players were similarly inspired to repeatedly create parties, resulting in an extremely low number of deaths on the Alpha server.

“Everyone keeps thanking me, and it’s kind of fulfilling. Well, that’s how it is.”

As Nadia beamed, Erin looked at her with a peculiar gaze.

For Erin, saving people was an act of necessity. While there was a moral reason behind it, in any case, helping as many users survive as possible also benefitted Erin.

However, for Nadia, it wasn’t like that at all. Whether a large number of users died and their server got merged elsewhere, it was of no loss to Nadia.

Yet she still willingly helped others.

When she wasn’t sure what was right, she wandered endlessly, but once Erin pointed her in the right direction, she walked right down that path.

In general evaluations, she might be seen as a sucker. But from another perspective, she’s a big player. Erin privately raised her evaluation of Nadia.

Whether it was hypocrisy or convoluted actions, even if she knew it was to her own detriment, she had to bestow such a rating on someone whose stubbornness was to push forward.

“Newcomers to the top 100 and those who have been pushed out of the rankings, welcome as well. We’ll be awarding gold medals to those who made it into the top 100, and silver and bronze medals to the rest.”

“Who is ‘Siberian Heosukhee’? Is he the strongest in our server?”

“That’s the guy who had been doing royal tomb parties throughout the event with level restrictions.”

“Damn, I couldn’t make it into the top 100 again. It’s going to be tough to get ahead later.”

“This trial was a merry-go-round, so definitely the fuel-efficient warriors are in the lead.”

As the users continued their sighs and analysis, Lunara calmly continued her announcement.

“The Lambda server, which had the lowest number of surviving users in the second trial, has been disbanded! The survivors from that server will be allowed to migrate to the server of their choice!”

“Now, let me tell you about the third trial!”

“The third trial, the name is～～～ ‘Zombie Hunting’!”

With a naming choice that was bland and didn’t match the background, Erin’s face began to sour quickly.

“Starting now for three weeks, ‘Zombies’ will appear all over the continent. Players who get injured by zombies will be infected with a virus. If the virus is not treated within a specified time, the player will also turn into a zombie.”

“The virus can be cured using status recovery skills or by using ‘serum’ items that zombies drop at certain probabilities.”

“Zombies are generally weak enough for beginners to take down, but as time goes on, they become stronger. In their final stage, zombies are incredibly powerful, so it’s advisable to defeat them before that happens!”

“The more zombies you defeat, especially the stronger ones, the more merit you will earn! So please actively engage in hunting!”