Even Quest NPCs Run Away These Days

Originally, the polite thing to do with escort quests was to drag them out as long as possible. After all, the enemies that popped out scaled up dramatically the longer you took.

Wipe them all out and the reward tier climbed right along with them, plus you got a solid haul of experience and drop items. And no matter how strong the ambushers got, they were always capped by the escort target's level — so there was basically no real danger!

The one problem I hadn't accounted for was that the Reality Patch had apparently made interactions a lot richer. I was diligently circling the same spots on the minimap, trying to farm more monsters out of the woodwork, when the elderly escort target started giving me the side-eye in record time.

Even if he was a quest NPC, the moment he showed up as a green dot, a player was doomed to read the room. Swallowing my regret, I had no choice but to lead the old man out of the forest.

What a waste. I'd wanted to clear every last monster left in those woods before we left.

"There! We're out!"

"Thank you for granting my request, Lady Yu Hee. But… might I ask what you were trying to do just now?"

"Huh? I was poking at the seal to wake up the field boss."

You had to kill the field boss before you left, right?

"Lady Yu Hee, the seal on that forest was formed from the remains of our master, who had set foot in the Nascent Soul realm. It's also the reason the cultivators trapped inside can't freely destroy the forest or fly away to escape."

"Oh, is that so? Sorry! I didn't know!"

So the quest NPC's master was the field boss! Yeah, okay — definitely not killing that one.

I abandoned the idea immediately.

And if what the old man said was true, that meant an early Nascent Soul field boss — over level 500, a colossal one. I wasn't stupid enough to charge in blind without knowing the mechanics!

"So, now that we're out of the forest, we're good, right?!"

"Yes, thank you. One moment, please."

The old man climbed down from my shoulder, took a step, and rose into the air as if walking on empty space, green spiritual energy pouring from his body.

"Your disciple is safe, Master. Please stop sleeping and wake up."

As if answering him, a giant of trees and greenery — more precisely, the forest itself, which had covered half the map — slowly began to rise from the woods.

Naturally, every monster still left in the forest was crushed flat by the mere aftershock of the giant's formation, squeezed between trunks and undergrowth until red flowers bloomed across the giant's body for a single instant and then vanished.

The presence I felt was early Nascent Soul, but the sheer scale and raw power alone looked closer to mid Nascent Soul. There was almost no will behind it, though.

So that was what they meant by "remains."

Unlike the quest NPC — a green dot — the field boss registered as a neutral gray-dot NPC. I watched it for a moment. Then the old man settled onto the giant's palm, drifted closer to me, hesitated, and plucked a fruit from the top of his own head with a soft pop, holding it out.

At the same time, system messages announced that the mission was complete. I nodded, accepted the legendary-grade fruit flashing with golden light, and stuffed it straight into my inventory.

This one was going straight to Cheon Nan-cho!

"Well then, bye! Take care!"

I offered a [Greeting] and parted ways on the spot. Huh? The area penalty had vanished the moment that remains-of-a-master stood up, and a quick check showed Area Confirmation at 100%. No problem moving to the next map.

Leaving the quest NPC behind, I headed for the next map.

I'd scored a gift for Cheon Nan-cho. My heart felt light!

Now if I could just gather the materials for a real limit break, that would be perfect.

Materials to craft the consumables for breaking through from Golden Core to Nascent Soul, enlightenment deep enough to touch the Nascent Soul realm, preparations for the Heavenly Tribulation — the to-do list was long.

No hard level cap, but you still had to risk your life on a limit break. That contradiction was just part of the cultivator job description…!

"Once I'm ready, I should set a save point too…"

How do you make a save point when you can't save?

Easy. Smash a map and take the freeze penalty. That forcibly refreshes the save point!

Sure, the penalty burns a few years of time, but you just use those years to finish the limit break, so it's fine. And once I form a Nascent Soul this time, I might even advance from an incomplete Transcendent Species to a complete one.

You could do it the other way around, too — become a complete Transcendent Species, ascend to the Upper Realm, and form a Nascent Soul there. It sounded like a chicken-or-egg word game, but Elder Togo's warning that an unstable Transcendent Species almost never stabilizes while still stuck in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the Lower Realm had long since been carefully filed away.

According to him, for an unstable Transcendent Species to force a stable transcendence in the Lower Realm — where power was scarce, unlike the Upper Realm — you either had to devour part of another Transcendent Species or create additional Laws from scratch.

"Kyaaaaah! The Demon Immortal! Why?!"

"Waaaaah! Run!"

The second I finished the area transition, the city guards screamed, flung their Dharma tools aside, and tore off in both directions in a desperate scramble to flee. What the hell.

My experience bar was basically full anyway, and I'd already formed the fourth Slaughter Tribulation sea, so I wasn't in a rush for more slaughter energy. I'd come to the city hoping to pick up materials through private trades — but apparently my infamy had spread even further.

How does just making eye contact tank their morale hard enough to trigger a full retreat?

City guards were supposed to be specialists ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at hunting players down and killing them.

Hmm.

"I must have gotten stronger!"

Or maybe the main body's infamy was just that high?

"What now? Things had been quiet lately — why is everyone picking a fight again?"

You know. That one. Bounty Mode.

"…Ah."

It was a mode where killing high-infamy NPCs boosted experience but tanked drop rates, while killing high-fame ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠NPCs boosted drop rates but tanked experience.

On top of that, high infamy or high fame applied extra corrections that jacked up the game's difficulty.

When it applied to a player, high fame made NPCs cheer for you, and high infamy made them run away. That kind of interaction mode.

"I completely forgot that existed…!"

How many mods were there, and I still hadn't even thought of this one?

Well, the main body had dumped the whole mod-cleanup job on us last time and gone off to rest.

You didn't even skim your own memories, main body!

Dereliction of duty!

"Shut up! Aah — I really only came for private trades this time!"

Neutral NPCs across the city were fleeing for their lives.

In the blink of an eye, the only people left in the city were low-level scrub players who'd clearly given up on living and background extras who still hadn't figured out what was going on.

It was a little unfair, but what could I do? I had no choice but to be understanding toward these faint-hearted NPCs!

"Might as well farm some gear before I leave!"

After the Reality Patch, "objects" had gotten a little pickier about their conditions.

For example, it wasn't just the usual village pots and chests anymore — only things that actually held spiritual energy counted, that sort of vibe.

The conditions felt stricter overall, but honestly, all you had to do was flip on Item Filter Mode, check the Object Outline toggle, and you were done.

Anything that registered as an object lit up with a pure white outline, after all.

So I went through the city smashing every single object I could see and scooping up the items.

Statues, dolls, classic treasure chests, glass bottles, weird teapots, elegant painted scrolls, even something that looked like a drum — being a city, the variety of objects on hand was impressive.

Smash them all and they spilled out random gear, consumables, and material items appropriate to the level range.

The real jackpot was when I smashed a painting object. For a painting, it screamed and even fought back when I tore it — a top-tier specimen. The materials and consumables that burst out were solid, too!

It was also the first time I'd ever gotten slaughter energy just from breaking an object.

And it wasn't even a corpse object!

The background extras and low-level scrubs were staring at me like I was a complete lunatic, but I could ignore looks like that without breaking a sweat.

Especially once the low-levels who'd been crouched down like they'd abandoned all will to live realized I was just hunting objects to smash — they started manufacturing objects all over the place, practically begging me to break those instead of them.

Only a handful of them actually registered as objects, but that was enough. I'd perfectly tested the hypothesis that you could use NPCs to artificially generate objects in a city or village for farming. My curiosity was satisfied!

"I even got an epic piece of gear out of it!"

It came from smashing a teapot, sure — but given the odds of an epic dropping from an object, that was basically winning third prize in the lottery. Of course I was in a good mood!

Unfortunately, there were no quest NPCs.

Normally a town or city was supposed to have quest NPCs!

Did they all run because of the main body?

"Is that it?"

A world where even quest NPCs run away. What a harsh place this had become. This was all the Reality Patch's fault.