I Became an NPC
I was leading Seo Arin's group back toward the village when she, trailing along behind me, broke into a trot and drew up at my side.
"Oh, right—Siwoo!"
"What is it."
"I just realized I completely forgot to invite you to the party!"
Right. Last time, the party had only ever been mentioned out loud. I didn't have a proper UI, so of course I'd assumed that conversation alone had already signed me up. It hadn't. Seo Arin had never sent an invite to begin with.
"Hmm… For an NPC, do I just do it the same way I invite other users?"
How should I know. Whoever had the UI would. Not me. Most games never let you send a party invite to an NPC, so it was fair that she wouldn't know—usually, on certain quests, the system simply flashed a line that so-and-so NPC had joined the party, and that was how you learned they'd been added.
Poke, poke. Still glued to my side, Seo Arin jabbed a finger into my ribs.
"That tickles."
"I'm testing! Just bear with it a second!"
She called it a test, so I let it pass. Then she started rubbing her hands all over me.
"This a test too?"
"Mhm, mhm! Fingers weren't working!"
"Getting bold, Arin."
…The flush climbing her cheeks suggested the gesture carried another meaning entirely. I looked at her with that thought plain on my face, but she paid my stare no mind and kept feeling her way over me until walking was a genuine inconvenience.
Yoon Se-ah seemed to notice Seo Arin growing bolder by the inch. She let out a small sigh and held out a sheet of parchment—when she had even produced it, I couldn't say.
"Arin. They explained it at the Adventurer's Guild. If you want an NPC in the party, you have to get a Party Consent Form."
"Umm… I feel like that might've happened…?"
"It did. You weren't listening to the receptionist at all back then."
"…Ehehe?"
So that was how she usually slid out of things. At the sight of Seo Arin sticking out her tongue, Yoon Se-ah's sigh only grew heavier.
"Haa… I knew it. …Anyway, Arin, you're the party leader, so give that to Siwoo."
"Okay~!"
At Yoon Se-ah's look, Seo Arin nodded hard, scurried around in front of me, and tipped her face up with sparkling eyes.
"Siwoo! Take this!"
I accepted the parchment.
◈ An item that allows an NPC to join a party.
So something like this existed. I signed the parchment and handed it back, and the sparkle in Seo Arin's eyes flared until it looked ready to throw off stars.
"With this, you're officially one of our party, Siwoo!!"
"Please take good care of us."
"Mm. Yoroshiku."
Behind Seo Arin, who was grinning dopily down at the parchment, Yoon Se-ah and Jeong Hayun stepped in. Yoon Se-ah dipped her head and offered the greeting once more; Jeong Hayun, for her part, shot me a thumbs-up.
"I'll be counting on you from here on."
This ought to make exploring a good deal easier.
⊳ You have joined a party!
⊳ The Individual/Party Instanced System may now apply to you!
Certain sections and floors are divided by individual or by party.
In those zones, you are not affected by other players' actions.
In those zones, you cannot see other players.
In a party, some quests are shared.
The moment I joined Seo Arin's party, new notices rose in a rush. Aside from reward quests, the things I could barely see came spilling down as if I had finally been linked to a real player.
So that had existed too—the Individual/Party Instanced System. It was why other players could take down the Floor 5 Gatekeeper whenever they pleased. Judged an NPC, I hadn't had the system, so none of it had applied to me. If it worked like this, they might as well have applied it to me from the start. The discrimination was honestly impressive.
After we reached the village, I showed Seo Arin's group to the Adventurer's Guild. She breezed into the building with a spring in her step—only for the interior to look strangely unsettled.
"Hmm… Is the mood here always this chaotic?"
"Not a chance. Something must be going on."
I shook my head at her question and approached the receptionist I had met before.
"Things look unsettled. Has something happened?"
"…Ah. Adventurer."
I was the one who had spoken, yet the receptionist's eyes went straight to Seo Arin. This receptionist was an NPC too; the system was probably set to put players first.
"Well… Invaders we have never seen before are approaching the village."
"Invaders? Not monsters?"
"Yes. According to the patrol, their basic form is human… but beyond that, the traits of beasts have appeared on their bodies."
"Beasts? Oh! Beastkin!"
Seo Arin's eyes lit at the receptionist's words. She looked ready to blurt something more, but Yoon Se-ah clapped a hand over her mouth from behind, and the words never made it out.
"They are outsiders who appeared without warning, you see. The village has no choice but to raise its guard, and because of that our Adventurer's Guild has grown rather disordered as well."
"I see."
"…Which is why I must ask. If it isn't too much trouble, could you lend your strength to the Adventurer's Guild?"
Core Quest (Floors 6–10)
📍 Clear all related quests to open the path down to Floor 11.
🎁 Objective: Aid the Adventurer's Guild and obtain information on the outsiders.
…So I really hadn't been able to progress because the world had me down as an NPC. The moment I arrived in a party with Seo Arin's group, they handed the quest over at once.
"Looks like a main quest."
"Seems like it! More importantly—Se-ah, Hayun! Beastkin! I can't wait~!"
"Mm. Fluffy animals are cute."
Whatever Jeong Hayun was picturing, her usual deadpan had loosened a fraction as she stuck a thumb up.
"We'll lend you our strength! Don't worry!"
"Ah… I'm relieved you'll help. I'll speak to the branch manager myself about the reward."
"We'd be grateful if you did!"
"Leave the village and head south, and you should be able to see the outsiders."
"Okaaay~!"
Seo Arin nodded, seized my wrist, and hauled me straight out of the guild.
"Hurry, hurry~!! What are we supposed to do if we dawdle and Fluffy disappears!"
"Mm. Fluffy."
Jeong Hayun latched on right behind her. More pressingly, I wished she would let go of my wrist.
"W-wait a second…! You two, we have to go together…!!"
Look at that. Shouldn't they be dragging Yoon Se-ah along, not me? Those two might manage, but her figure was hardly built for running. Even as I thought it, my eyes locked onto a certain part of her, jolting hard with every step. Still—I was getting a pretty good view out of the bargain.
There is no paradise where we have fled.
Nor any thought of seeking one.
We ran for nothing more than to live.
The remnants of a lost war.
That is what we are.
We moved in the direction the receptionist had given, and far off the shapes of soldiers came into view.
"Halt, please. I'm sorry, but passage beyond this point is temporarily forbidden."
"Because of the outsiders up ahead, right?"
"…That's correct. But how did you…?"
"The Adventurer's Guild sent us. To obtain information on the outsiders."
Yoon Se-ah had stepped forward to speak.
"…If that's the case, then yes. Understood. We've received the official notice as well, so we'll let you through. Please be as careful as you can."
"Yes. Thank you."
Yoon Se-ah offered a slight smile, then turned back toward us.
"Mmph…! Mmmp…!"
"Yeah, yeah. I'll let you go in a minute."
For the record, I was the one holding Seo Arin. Not that she was the type—but if she ignored the soldiers and shot off ahead, it might turn into a problem. That was Yoon Se-ah's view. I didn't know the precise reason, but she had known Seo Arin far longer than I had, so I kept quiet and went along.
We passed the soldiers, walked a fair distance, and only then did I let her go.
"You guys…! Isn't this way too much?! Is that seriously what you think of me?!"
"Well, Arin, once you've set a goal, you clear out anything in the way and keep going."
"That's true, but…! I can tell public business from private feelings, you know?!"
"And just now, whether the soldiers stopped you or not, all you were thinking about was getting through as fast as possible, weren't you?"
"…Flinch!"
So there really were people who said flinch out loud.
While Yoon Se-ah took Seo Arin's complaints apart point by point, I felt Jeong Hayun beside me tugging at my collar. Tug, tug.
"What is it."
"There."
Where she pointed, unlike the medieval air of this village, stood people dressed in modern uniforms. The other strange thing was the arms. The legs. Less a person's limbs, if I had to say it, than something closer to a beast's, fixed where arms and legs ought to be. These had to be the outsiders the receptionist had meant.
"…That's not Fluffy."
The outsiders discovered by Han Siwoo's party