Domestically produced instant noodles, capable of withstanding the critical taste test of hundreds of millions of Chinese people, would undoubtedly be a profitable commodity if a time-traveling merchant could sell them in the 19th and 20th centuries.
21st-century Chinese people might seem picky, with many insisting on only consuming pure, natural, and organic foods, though back in the 19th century, most didn't have the luxury of being picky.
Even just turning the clock back 30 years, hardly anyone would care whether their lard at home was from pigs fed with genetically modified feed or not, nor that soybean oil was a healthier option. They certainly wouldn't discard the pork lard just because it lacked the health benefits of the latter.
Having the luxury to be picky about food was only something that came about in the last twenty-odd years or so, thanks to surplus production capacity.
Complaints about instant noodles being unhealthy, lacking nutrition, having monotonous flavors, and just for satiation were only made by those who could afford them. It was entirely possible that the instant noodles stored in the cabinets of Chinese households could remain till they expired. But if the same instant noodles were placed in some impoverished African country, that would never happen.
In short, mass production of spices on a production line and delivering them to households at extremely low prices—a common practice of Earth—had never occurred in this other world. The sweet, umami, salty, and aromatic seasonings inside the instant noodle packages easily conquered the taste buds of the indigenous people here.
On top of that, there was the deadly weapon—Lao Gan Ma chili sauce—that was added to each bowl. Whether it was a commoner from Camore who had never tasted anything good or a well-born knight serving the faith, not a single drop of soup was left in their bowls when they were done.
"Damn, seeing these NPCs enjoy it so much makes me want a bowl too," muttered someone as the players were cleaning up. "I wonder if we would be able to eat the food in this game if our in-game characters were humans instead of skeletons…"
"That's probably impossible. No matter how advanced this game is, it can't simulate the sense of taste. At most, it will show an animation of eating."
"Sigh… In web novels, don't immersive holographic games give players a sense of taste when eating? This game is a disappointment!""Wake up! Time for labor!"
"Hahaha…"
Unceasing Entropy separated from her team for the time being and wandered through the crowd of players doing quests and, after a while, managed to find Blossoming Strokes.
"Blossom, I need to discuss something." Unceasing Entropy motioned to Blossoming Strokes from a short distance away.
Blossoming Strokes finished discussing the online schedules with her teammates, then left her team and came over. "What's up, Qingyue?"
All the members of Unceasing Entropy's team followed how Tang Jia addressed her as Qingyue, and over time, Blossoming Strokes also did the same.
Unceasing Entropy looked around, then led Blossoming Strokes to a less crowded area for more privacy and whispered, "Blossom, have you noticed something strange about these NPCs?"
"Um… Which aspect do you mean?" Blossoming Strokes didn't understand.
Unceasing Entropy hesitated, unsure of how to broach the subject. After a pause, she finally said, "It's just… I keep feeling that these NPCs are way too intelligent. Their behavioral logic seems too realistic."
"Aren't the NPCs in this game always like that?" Blossoming Strokes responded. "The advanced NPCs in Exile Town can even understand and respond to players' taunts, plus they send players back to the respawn point if they get rubbed the wrong way. It's way more impressive than real-life AI."
"Well… Although it seems strange to only bring it up now, I have to say that the NPCs in this game, especially the many human ones we just encountered, don't seem to make sense," Unceasing Entropy said with a grimace.
"How do I put it… Those captives seem to be seeking help from those advanced NPCs riding alongside Lord Yang, but those NPCs ignore them. Also, the civilian NPCs we interact with for the quest really look and act like refugees, and really portray it more realistically than extras in a movie.
"It's not just their appearance. What I mean is their behavioral logic, response patterns… everything is so in line with the 'refugee' setting. If this is just a part of the game developers' pursuit of 'realism' and 'immersion,' and the behavioral logic of these civilian NPCs is completely programmed, then I can only say that the game development team's programmers are all super-geniuses way ahead of their time."
Blossoming Strokes went silent for a bit before whispering, "Qingyue, are you trying to say that these NPCs are played by actual people?"
Unceasing Entropy faltered, "Uh…"
Blossoming Strokes gave Unceasing Entropy's arm a reassuring pat and said earnestly, "Chill, girl. If we wish to forcibly log out, we can do it in a second and wake up in the real world. Our only connection to this game world is the helmet we wear.
"In fact, your line of thought is perfectly normal. When I first entered this game, I too wondered whether I was experiencing a plot from a novel and had been transmigrated to another world by putting on the helmet. So, I specifically got my mom to help me. She used her phone and videoed how I fell asleep upon wearing the helmet, and then she forcibly took it off…
"The outcome was entirely normal. As soon as the helmet was removed, I woke up on the sofa at home. It isn't just me. Many others playing the game have had their parents, wives, or husbands forcefully remove their helmets too. It's similar to unplugging the network cable when playing an online game.
"If this is somehow a form of 'transmigration,' then our 'transmigration' is too easy, as if it were child's play. In those 'infinite worlds' and 'transmigration' stories, usually there's at least a 'system' to assist the transmigration process.
"Of course, this game definitely isn't VR. I've checked, and no VR game from any company allows you to log in with just one helmet but through a lot of equipment. But, in any case, we aren't researchers nor game developers, just players. As long as we can play the game, that's all that matters. Why should we care about the underlying black technology if any? Don't you think so?"
Unceasing Entropy: "…"
She could relate to what Blossoming Strokes said. As a young Chinese, she wasn't a stranger to the concept of "transmigration" even if she didn't read web novels or comics; the theme of transmigration could also be found in movies and TV shows.
When playing a game like "OtherWorld," which was so immersive and felt nothing like a modern technology product of Earth, it was only natural for players to doubt whether it was just a game or something more.
However, the reality was that players could only enter this world by wearing the helmet, and without it, they couldn't "transmigrate" no matter how hard they tried, even if they stayed offline and slept all day.
Moreover, "OtherWorld" did have familiar game mechanics, such as the quest system, reputation system, and class system, which were similar to traditional MMORPGs.
"Alright, maybe seeing so many human NPCs for the first time made me overthink," sighed Unceasing Entropy.
Blossoming Strokes chuckled. "It's normal. Not just human NPCs, when I first encountered the zombie NPCs at the start, I really wasn't sure if I was playing a game. Actually, now that I think about it more, it doesn't make sense for the state to completely ignore it if we could transmigrate to another world via a game, right?"
Unceasing Entropy also laughed. "Yeah. If the damned game developers really could allow so many people to transmigrate to another world, then why not open the gates to the other world and conquer it. We'd be rich just by cutting down trees, let alone mining minerals and extracting oil."
"Exactly! It's a waste to leave this place uncultivated. We could clear the land, grow crops, and have a huge granary in just three to five years." Blossoming Strokes laughed heartily.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the valley, while engaged in a lively conversation (mutual probing) with Black-robed Inspector Lowell, Yang Qiu suddenly paused.
"Hmm?" Lowell thought this black mage was about to make another profound statement and patiently listened.
"Nothing," Yang Qiu refocused on the conversation at hand.
Getting rich by chopping trees. Why hadn't he ever thought of that! New manual labor quest—reserved for future use.
Once players were roughly done tidying up, Yang Qiu released a new instant quest. Using reputation as a reward to drive this group of cheap laborers, he got players to lead the civilians, captives, and the horses they had ridden to set off.
The carts civilians sat on were pulled by mules because the carts were too low to fit on horses. However, since the horses couldn't really speed up much when pulling carts, it didn't really matter.
Half an hour later, the large group entered the plain that Yang Qiu had coined "Desolate Wasteland."
Upon seeing the heaps of supplies piled up in the plain and dozens of randomly placed metal tricycles, the jaws of the Holy Legion cavalry nearly dropped to the ground.
This area originally designated to be the battlefield hadn't been used due to Yang Qiu being intercepted in advance by the Holy Legion cavalry. However, the base here still needed to be built. Yang Qiu signaled the Holy Legion calvary to choose their own spot to camp and immediately headed toward the zombie general standing at the heart of the supplies, "holding down the fort."
On the surface, the leader of the players' race had to be the zombie general NPC. Thus, "NPC Lord Yang," Yang Qiu, couldn't be monopolizing all the quests. A portion had to be assigned by the zombie general.
While controlling the zombie general, Yang Qiu had a private, scripted conversation with himself in front of the players. Next, the "leader of the undead," the zombie general, issued quests to players. The first quest was to build tents for the civilian NPCs, and the second quest was requesting players to build a respawn point.
Players were pleasantly surprised upon receiving the second quest. "Whoa, we can build respawn points? Besides logging in and out, we will be able to teleport too?!"
"Finally, the teleport function is activated! At least these damned developers have the conscience to not make us walk the whole way back!"
"Wait, this teleportation point can only be used by the undead, right? So, we still have to walk in order to send the civilian NPCs to Exile Town?"
"What's wrong with that? Isn't it great to farm monsters along the way?"
"F*ck yeah!"
The promise of the teleportation feature ignited the players' enthusiasm. There wasn't any dissatisfaction with the manual labor quests, and all the players got busy.
Yang Qiu was pleased with the players' enthusiasm.
The undead's teleportation array, to put it simply, was a summoning array. Its mechanism was similar to the mechanism that allowed players to be teleported back to the resurrection point after death. Therefore, only players, who were basically undead, could use it, while living beings couldn't.
Constructing this array required a large amount of magic powder, and the magic powder spellcasters players worked so hard to increase their reputation was finally put to good use.
Yang Qiu didn't plan to limit development to just Exile Town. Establishing bases in places closer to the Duchy of Shiga would lay the groundwork for Taranthan's future development.
Currently, there were few players and not that many civilians had been taken in. A main town, Exile Town, and a satellite town, Desolate Outpost, would be sufficient for the time being.
Black-robed Inspector Lowell chose a location neither too far nor too close to the undead and ordered his troops to camp there. He arranged his men and came over to the base to assess the situation.
Then he noticed… that the undead were still very energetic and busying themselves with work. Some were setting up tents for the civilians, while others wielded shovels and pickaxes to dig holes.
Lowell: "…"
Were it not for the friendly behavior of these undead towards the living, Lowell would have suspected they were trying to bury the civilians.
Of course, not all of the undead were doing something. Lowell spotted some doing nothing, chattering in empty spots in an incomprehensible tongue, then gathered and walked out in a group…
Within the player community, there would always be ones that stood out as independent individuals. Despite the reputation rewards offered by the zombie general for the manual labor quests, some players still hesitated to participate. Instead, they were inclined toward teaming up and exploring the surroundings in hopes of finding some monsters to fight.
These players, ready to venture to the outskirts of the base, noticed Lowell approaching them. One of them immediately approached with enthusiasm and struck up a conversation, "Hello, do you need any help from your undead friends?"
Lowell, who couldn't understand Mandarin: "??"
"Oh, this NPC isn't interactive," the player waited for a moment and, without receiving a proper response, said dejectedly.
"Stop trying. NPCs with quests will initiate conversations and those that don't won't respond even if you interact with them," a comrade of his explained.
The player who initiated the conversation walked away.
Lowell: "…"
Black-robed Inspector Lowell then entered the base.
While players continued to set up tents and dig holes to build the respawn point, they noticed the enigmatic advanced NPC walking alone. Immediately, several of them dropped what they were doing and eagerly approached him.
"Hello, do you need help from your undead friends?"
"Hey, handsome. Need any assistance?"
Lowell: "??"
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