Chapter 80.2: How Incredible, Huh
Thus, without any shred of hesitation, these bunch of players immediately set off to pilfer Tuttle's supplies.
Because players were only interested in equipment, none of the advanced NPCs had ever considered that these undead would go after their food supplies. The tricycle loaded with provisions was left outside the tent, with even the tarpaulin, which was supposed to protect it from rain and moisture, left unsecured.
A few players crowded around the tricycle, lifted the tarp, and openly rummaged through Tuttle and Hal's personal stash.
"My god! So many biscuits!"
"Can you believe that bushy eyebrow Tuttle brought a backpack full of these Uncle Pop egg rolls? I'm dying from laughter!"
"Leave the biscuits, grab those wafers and egg rolls. Two bags of buns and a few cartons of milk. We might need it when those two orcs wake up."
"How about instant noodles?"
"No, it's too oily. People who have been starving for some time might have trouble with greasy food."
"Hey! There's a bag of cakes here! It's hidden so deep that we nearly missed it! How sneaky!"
"Take it, take it!"
In under ten minutes, these players had made off with snacks that Tuttle had painstakingly hoarded for over half a month, chortling gleefully as they fled the scene…
While the players were carrying out their "operation," the dark-haired youth that had been left behind scanned the campsite fearfully.
Unlike the undead, he didn't possess full night vision, but the moonlight tonight was ample.
Under the moonlight, he made out several scattered tents and dozens of tricycles filled with goods. Nearby, in an open space, were the clear remains of a campfire. Several stones serving as makeshift seats surrounded the already extinguished fire, and there was a kettle and a few cups on the ground.
When the boy had opened his eyes, all that he saw were undead. And undead didn't need to make fires nor drink water… Clearly, there were living people residing in this undead camp.
This discovery eased the pounding in the boy's heart to a certain extent.
But he still couldn't shake off the fear. He realized that he and the two orcs, weak as they were, couldn't run very far. Before they fell asleep, they had at most been about 10 kilometers away from Weisshem.
Why had these undead come so close to a human town? What were they planning?!
If Weisshem, this sort of hellish place, fell to the undead, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. But getting himself caught up in it was an entirely different story.
How is Lyka and that other guy? No, what about my comrades? They should be nearby! Have they been discovered by these undead?!
The teenage boy's thoughts gradually turned to despair. Why am I so unlucky? I was only briefly separated from my companions, then deceived by a merchant caravan and sold into Weisshem. I just wanted to escape, but ran into a horde of undead?!
As he wallowed in self-pity, the players returned with a pile of food.
Seeing this bunch of undead in scale armor (it was a stretch considering it was just iron plates strapped to leather) with knives strapped to their sides, making strange raucous noises as they approached, the black-haired youth felt a shiver run down his spine.
The teenager had only heard of undead creatures in folktales and legends.
In tales concerning times of Old Gods throughout the Navalon Continent, it was said that the final act by a blasphemous spellcaster against the Goddess of Fate was to desecrate an entire continent, transforming all living beings within it into wandering undead. Ships at sea that accidentally deviated from their course would sometimes see a strange continent glowing green and, if failing to turn back in time, would forever remain there.
In truth, though, undead beings were nothing like the terrifying creatures exaggerated in those folktales that were passed down. Most undead beings were actually mindless creatures, less dangerous than a pack of wild dogs.
However, the teenage boy was only an aspiring warrior. He and his comrades were just doing odd jobs at a small tavern in Indahl to make ends meet. Their most "dangerous" act had been venturing to the outskirts of the Sorenson Mountains to capture some low-level monsters rarely seen in the city and sell them as pets to wealthy individuals.
In contrast to the seasoned Weapons Master Rex and the former bandits, this youngster had no idea that undead appearing in the material world were mostly low-level minions employed by black mages, and thus, it was only natural for him to react this way.
Several undead stopped about five meters away from the teenager, and their chinless jaws moved, creating weird noises in what seemed like communication. Then, one undead walked over alone toward the teenage boy.
As the skeleton drew closer, the teenager's fear turned to despair. His body, which had been trembling incessantly, quickly became limp.
I'm going to die…
That was all that went through the teenage boy's mind as despair was accompanied by a hint of regret.
He really regretted it. He shouldn't have rashly run away from home. He shouldn't have naively believed that he was different from others. And he shouldn't have thought he could make it big outside.
Ji Tang crouched down in front of the human teen. He carefully unwrapped a small cake that had been from Tuttle's stash and, holding it by the plastic wrapping, pressed it toward the youngster's face.
The dark-haired boy: "??"
Ji Tang patiently allowed the young human to take in the rich aroma of the cake. And when the towel in the youngster's mouth was soaked with saliva, Ji Tang reached out and removed it.
With his mouth finally free, the young human immediately chomped on the small cake, the size of a fist, in one mouthful.
As if worried that the stuff in his mouth might be taken away, the youngster, who hadn't had decent food in quite a while, clamped his mouth shut, cheeks puffed, and chewed earnestly. After the cake in his mouth reached a manageable size, he immediately swallowed.
Then… the youngster's eyes rolled upward, his head tilted back… and he began to cough uncontrollably.
Ji Tang tore open a carton of milk also taken from Tuttle's stash, pinched the young boy's jaw open, and poured half of the milk in.
After feeding him three pieces of cake and a carton of milk, Ji Tang attempted to undo the straps binding the young human's hands and feet. This time, the teenage boy didn't go berserk and sat quietly in place, his eyes fixed on the bag of cakes by Ji Tang's feet.
"Rest for a bit. Eat more after digesting. Do you understand?" Ji Tang enunciated each word slowly.
The youngster obviously didn't understand Mandarin. He glanced up at Ji Tang, who appeared to be talking to him, then returned his attention to the bag of cakes.
Ji Tang could only helplessly shrug at the other players. "This kid can't communicate either."
The other players all sighed.
"Maybe we didn't feed him enough. Should we give him more?" Give Me Medicine wasn't willing to throw in the towel just yet.
Blossoming Strokes had to advise her friend. "Calm down, Meds. These civilian NPCs are very fragile. Remember how the NPC we rescued previously suffered from heatstroke?"
Give Me Medicine could only mutter in resignation, "Then what should we do? We haven't received a quest yet."
Ji Tang: "…"
"Don't worry. Mia can't communicate with us either, but she can talk to the instructor NPCs. When it's day, and the instructor NPCs wake up, we should be able to solve the communication issue," Unceasing Entropy spoke up.
"Alright," Give Me Medicine said reluctantly. Then, after a short pause, he asked, "So, what should we do with these NPCs? We can't keep watching them all the time. Should we find a place to hide them?"
At this time, the reason there weren't many people around camp was because the NPCs had all gone to sleep. With no NPCs to interact with, players online had wandered out of the camp to practice their lifestyle profession skills. Unceasing Entropy and Ji Tang were only here because Give Me Medicine had personally gone to find and recall them.
It was also about time that some players would be logging out, and if someone returned and stole the fruits of their labor while this bunch was playing around outside camp… then that would be really bad.
Blossoming Strokes and Unceasing Entropy groaned, "Ummm…"
Ji Tang: "…"
Ji Tang couldn't agree to let these three individuals be bound up and hidden away somewhere. After mulling for a bit, he suggested, "How about this. I'll stay here and keep an eye on these three NPCs…" To avoid any misunderstandings, he added, "One of you should stay with me. I'm afraid I won't be able to watch over three of them alone."
A player from Blossoming Strokes' group raised his hand. "I'll stay. I didn't take up gathering, so I won't really gain much gallivanting outside."
Give Me Medicine was about to nod when he saw the flap of the tent behind the dark-haired teenager being lifted slightly.
A somewhat gaunt face appeared beneath the tent cover, and a pair of amber-colored eyes scanned the surroundings cautiously.
This pair of amber eyes met the dark and hollow eye sockets of Give Me Medicine.
The lifted tent flap was gently put back down.
"F*ck—" Give Me Medicine cried out.
With a muffled thud, a slender figure dashed out through the tent flap and sprinted desperately into the distance…
"Quick, catch—!" Give Me Medicine yelled out while immediately springing into action and leading the chase.
The adult orc who had woken up and immediately sensed something off made a decisive choice to escape. He had reacted quickly enough and made a far smarter decision than the teenage human. However, his body was rather weak, and he was easily outpaced by the players' "nimble" undead bodies. It didn't take long for them to catch up and bring him back.
Ji Tang used the same technique of allowing the adult orc to smell the food before feeding him. And after feeding him mid-way, he stopped and made an attempt to interact.
However, the result was still the same… This NPC couldn't be communicated with.
Thus, Ji Tang didn't wait for the child orc to wake up and fed Lyka while she was still in a drowsy half-asleep state…
———
As per usual, Yang Qiu, following his Earth-time healthy routine, woke up in the morning, washed up, and had breakfast before putting on his mage robes and casually opening the rift to the other world.
On arriving, he greeted Inspector Lowell, who was already enjoying his afternoon tea. Yang Qiu chatted with Lowell for a bit while casually immersing himself in the imprint matrix to check the activities of online players…
And he nearly sprayed out tea all over Inspector Lowell's idol-like face.
What. The. F*ck?!
In the expedition campsite, a teenage kid about the age of 15 had appeared along with an adult and child orc at some point.
Weapons Master Charlie Rex was sitting together with the first-tier and second-tier players, having a serious discussion about whether to attack Weisshem.
Yang Qiu: "…"
You guys, huh… How incredible… To think you guys can even expand the plot while I was away…
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