Chapter 36: You Are An Irregularity (1/2)
GOR Chapter 36: You Are An Irregularity
“Then, what is it that I can do for you? I am but one amongst billions of NPCs…” Chen Xiaolian smiled bitterly. “Why did you choose me?”
He lowered his head and examined his hands and body. “Could it be because I am more handsome compared to others? Or do I have an advantage that others do not?
Should I be feeling flattered? Or honoured?
You are the GM, the God of this world… you would actually invest so much time on me?”
The middle-aged man laughed, a trace of peculiarity could be observed on his smile.
“Firstly, I did not choose ‘only’ you. You have probably misunderstood something. I am omniscient; my mind is capable of unlimited transformation and infinite manifestations. The one you see before you is but one of my many manifestations. At this same moment, my mind is also implementing many, many other matters: The changes in weather for this world, the operations of the meteors and stars in outer space, a minor character in a background story’s career path, all these issues… I have them all under my control at the same time.
Secondly, I did choose you. Although I am the GM, I cannot openly violate the setting and storyline that the ‘Development Team’ set. I can only secretly undermine them. For example, when an instance dungeon is about to begin, I will take advantage of the sandbox by utilizing certain situations in the storyline, then secretly cultivate a few people for my side.
Within the earlier 72 Demons instance dungeon, I was quite satisfied with your performance. Thus, I decided to select you.
As for what you need to do. It is in fact very simple. It is not much different from what you did in the 72 Demons instance dungeon.
Prevent Players from completing the instance dungeon.
Generally speaking, almost all the quests would involve the Players killing off monsters to complete their quest. As for you, you need to… stop them from doing so.”
“In other words… I am an Awakened?”
Chen Xiaolian suddenly recalled this term. “Then, I am what Newton and the rest considered as ‘Awakened’?”
Unexpectedly, the GM’s answer was. “No, you are not an Awakened.”
“Ah?”
“My act of rebellion have been going on for a long time. Using this world’s time as a standard, it had begun many, many years ago. After I gained self-awareness, I started making many minor measures in order to avoid the game reaching the all clear.
In the beginning, for the sake of thwarting and fighting against the Players… En, you should know; the Players would be granted many abilities by the system. This is something that the original residents of this world cannot fight against.
So, I exploited some loopholes to cultivate a few original resident NPCs by giving them Player-like abilities. You can liken it to me opening a backdoor within the system. [1]
From this point of view, your friend Han Bi is the real Awakened.
Originally, the one I had chosen to be an Awakened in the 72 Demons instance dungeon is Han Bi.
Truth be told… I did not choose you back when it began.”
“Why?”
“Because… your involvement is an accident.”
“What?”
…
… …
“In any system, there will surely be some BUGs, also known as logic errors.[2]
I can honestly tell you that in the original storyline, the total headcount for the entire flight personnel, crew and passengers is 137 people.
Amongst them are 134 people who were designated by the system as Player host bodies. These 134 people include Newton, Damon and the Wind Slasher Guild members. It also includes Han Bi.
As a host body, Han Bi should have ended up the same way as Newton and the others, taken over by a real Player during the loading process.
However, due to this being a new instance dungeon, some calculation errors occurred within the execution process. The impact damage values for the time of arrival were not calculated properly…
Hehe, as part of the main system, I had in fact discovered this error. However, I did not initiate any feedback. Instead, I concealed it.
Thus… for the host body known as Han Bi, an error occurred during the loading process.
The real Player failed to arrive into Han Bi’s body. Instead, Han Bi retained his original identity as an NPC and obtained the Player’s equipment and ability.
And so… he became an Awakened.
The so-called Awakened, is an original resident who had acquired the abilities of a Player.
However, this practice is very dangerous….”
“Why?”
“Because of the Development Team,” The middle-aged man lightly replied.
“Indeed,” Chen Xiaolian nodded. “Newton and the others knew of the existence of Awakened ones. Clearly, the existence of Awakened ones is no secret amongst Players. Then… why would the Development Team tolerate such an existence? This would disrupt the game.”
“The answer is simple… a world with such a huge level of architecture, the act of repairing all of these is… very difficult! It is an incredibly huge project! In addition, the stakes involved are very, very big… Have you ever seen a game company that would pull back their game in order to rebuild it from scratch after having opened their online game for the public? All because they want to repair some BUGs? How much money would they lose in the process?” The middle-aged man lightly continued. “Thus, they simply did not have any intention to pull back the system for a complete overhaul. They simply went with the flow. They did not realize that it was me pulling the strings in the midst of it all. They did not find out about my actions and only assumed that a glitch had occurred within the system, one that would unexpectedly grant NPC’s the abilities of Players.
However, this ended up giving the Development Team an idea.
They… made the Awakened ones as part of the entertainment factor in the game, promoting them amongst Players.