Something was off!
Not just a little off, but ten thousand things were wrong!
Zhang Yang’s anger flared up quickly, but died down just as fast.
She soon realized something and stopped pacing back and forth, her gaze settling on the Map Screen: countless NPCs had founded empires here on the Homestead Map.
If players wanted to reclaim their home plots and build a world of their own here, they would have to wipe out or subdue all these factions.
That was the main Homestead Quest!
And now, it had become Zhang Yang’s quest, too.
She had to complete it before she could build her own home however she pleased!
Zhang Yang quickly remembered a few more details.
No wonder she so often saw human observation samples staying on the Homestead Map for ages, tinkering with something there every time they logged in.
Whenever Zhang Yang invited them to head out into the wild to rob players, capture Strange Beasts, fight Zombies, or explore Instance dungeons and secret realms, they always politely declined.
Back then, she’d wondered, Was the Homestead really that fun?
Well, would you look at that.
So this was the truth.
On the surface, Zhang Yang looked focused, as though she meant to commit every mountain and river on the map to memory.
In reality, her mind was elsewhere.
The woman noticed it all.
As she lowered her head to drink her tea, the corner of her mouth curled into a knowing smile.
Though Zhang Yang was acting rather strangely, trying to mislead everyone by playing dumb, did she really think she’d fall for it so easily?
She hadn’t lied to Zhang Yang, either.
The map on the screen really was more than twenty years old and was no longer of any use.
There was no point in Zhang Yang memorizing it.
“Young friend, you’re so focused. Have you realized something?”
Zhang Yang came to her senses and raised a hand to point at the map.
“Is this world truly vast?”
“Survey the four extremes, gaze down upon the lay of the land. Rivers and streams surge and branch apart; mountains rise in rugged clusters. The vast sea stretches all around, while lofty peaks tower up alone.” The Mysterious Woman sighed wistfully.
“How vast and boundless the world is! How could ants like you and me glimpse even a fraction of it?”
Zhang Yang only caught a long stretch of incomprehensible babble and the six words “vast and boundless world.” She nodded in agreement.
Couldn’t argue with that.
It really was huge.
This was a deed worth 888,800,880,000 Alliance Coins.
What a treasure!
A faint, peculiar pride welled up in Zhang Yang.
When someone praised your home, of course you were happy as its owner.
Once she finished her Quest, the world would belong to her!
“Young friend, you still haven’t answered my question.”
Looking at this map, what was she thinking?
Zhang Yang paused, then glanced from the corner of her eye at the text conversation in the System Log. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
The other woman had asked what she had realized.
Zhang Yang answered honestly, “Looking at this map, I can tell that I’m going to be the ruler of this land!”
Building a country on her turf?
These NPCs sure had some nerve!
Zhang Yang began figuring out how to reclaim everything that belonged to her.
Should she slaughter every last NPC?
That approach would take far too much work, and the NPCs would keep respawning.
She could hack away at them for the rest of her life and still never finish them off.
Zhang Yang remembered that the human observation sample hadn’t taken long to settle down and retire in the Homestead, either.
The solution definitely wasn’t to kill them all.
Besides, the Homestead Side Quest was so huge, there had to be some NPCs walking around to add a little color and make the place feel lively.
Zhang Yang was the first to reject the idea.
The safest approach was still to run quests, as she was supposed to.
She planned to sound Shen Zhi out and trigger the next quest as soon as possible.
Honestly, Shen Zhi was so useless!
His brain was no good.
Faced with a choice between Jianxing and Tianbian, the guy could somehow pick the wrong direction with perfect accuracy, and he dragged his feet when it came to issuing quests.
Zhang Yang mentally gave Shen Zhi another round of scorn.
Little did she know how deeply her words had shaken the woman.
The latter searched her face for some trace of a joke, but found none.
Zhang Yang’s words rang out with conviction, and her attitude was so matter-of-fact that she seemed to be stating something perfectly self-evident.
The Mysterious Woman clapped her hands.
“Young people are truly formidable.”
She spoke words of praise, but only she knew what she really thought.
Any normal person would have realized that the remark was just a polite thing to say when there was nothing else to be done.
But Zhang Yang was different.
“That’s what it means to be formidable, and it’s only right and proper. Anyway, I’ve run into a problem. How about giving me some advice?”
The Mysterious Woman smiled faintly.
“What problem?”
“Some villains stole my realm from me. Which route do you think I should take now to get it all back?” Zhang Yang folded one arm across her chest and rested her chin on the other hand, her face full of distress.
“Killing everyone is definitely out of the question. What about killing all the ringleaders?”
Zhang Yang treated every faction as an instance.
The leader of a major faction was naturally the Boss of that instance.
Kill the Boss and you clear the instance.
By the same logic, killing the leaders of these factions should let her bring the faction to heel, right?
The Mysterious Woman: “…”
She was sure there was something wrong with Zhang Yang’s head.
And not just a little.
With a sigh, she crouched in front of her, giving her a look of pity, sympathy, and helplessness.
She waved a hand in front of her eyes and muttered, “Am I setting the bar too high for the game designers’ intelligence?”
All the observation samples said game designers were brain-dead.
How intelligent could the NPCs they designed possibly be?
From their conversation just now, the Mysterious Woman really didn’t seem very bright.
The Mysterious Woman didn’t understand what Zhang Yang was muttering, but somehow she got the distinct impression that Zhang Yang thought she was an idiot.
Realizing this, she felt that uncomfortable sensation in her chest starting up again.
“Young friend, that is unwise. Since when has anyone subdued the whole world through slaughter?”
“Can’t kill them into submission?”
“NPCs are this tough?”
“I refuse to believe I can’t beat them into submission, even if I have to pound them into bone meal.”
Three remarks in a row, all brimming with pride in her own Combat Power.
Zhang Yang had her reasons for not believing it, too.
To make her disguise more convincing, whenever the game raised its level cap, she would pick someone from among the human observation samples she was on relatively good terms with and ask them to team up for Quests and leveling.
Zhang Yang only had to tag along and play her part to get away with it.
Quite a few Quests involved beating up thugs and hooligans.
As soon as the thugs’ HP Bars ran low, they would scramble away, crawling and stumbling, then drop to their knees and beg for mercy, pissing themselves with fear.
Some were scared out of their wits by just a couple of threats.
Clearly, Combat Power could make any Red Name meek and docile.
The Mysterious Woman closed her eyes, too exhausted even to speak with any force.
“…Yu founded the Xia dynasty, and Jie brought about its fall. Tang founded the Yin dynasty, and Zhou brought about its fall. Jie of Xia and Zhou of Yin were both tyrannical rulers. If beating people into submission could secure the realm, why would dynasties ever change? It won’t work.”
Zhang Yang listened to a whole lot of it, but didn’t really understand.
Still, she’d grasped the main point: killing the various factions’ big and small Bosses alone wouldn’t make them submit.
The Homestead Quest couldn’t be handled that way.
This was so complicated.
She really wanted to ask for a walkthrough.
Zhang Yang crouched down, tilting her head and resting her chin in her hand.
“If that approach won’t work, then tell me, what will?”
The young woman’s peach-blossom eyes gleamed brilliantly in the candlelight.
As she stared intently at the Mysterious Woman, the earnest sincerity in her gaze made it seem as though she were looking at the world’s most precious treasure.
The Mysterious Woman: “…”
The young woman had little patience.
When no answer came after a long wait, she lost heart, pouting and muttering incomprehensible nonsense.
But there was one thing the Mysterious Woman understood.
“So you don’t know either. But Shen Shude said you’re a strategist. Aren’t strategists clever people who come up with ideas for others?”
Clearly, the Mysterious Woman wasn’t clever enough.