I Refuse to Kill My Friendly NPC
The killing intent battering my entire body was so intense it registered as actual blows, even though it shouldn't have been able to touch me at all with my Slaughter Shell.
It was nothing more than raw killing intent—but its source was a late-stage Nascent Soul giant. For an ordinary Golden Core cultivator, the aftershock alone would have flattened them like a pancake, and a direct hit would have blown them to smithereens. I immediately pulled out my Wheel and greedily sucked every last scrap of that killing intent right up.
Sure, he was blasting killing intent all over the place—but he was still a green dot! Armed with unshakable faith in my Friendly NPC, I spun the Wheel as fast as it would go and vacuumed up every bit of killing intent I could get.
Maybe it was because it was pouring off a giant the size of a mountain, but the sheer volume of killing intent was absurd. It refined itself through the Wheel, flooded through my Golden Core, and cascaded straight down into my Mental World.
The moment I confirmed that crimson clouds of Nascent Soul killing intent were billowing up and settling into place inside my Mental World—
Ohhh! Holy shit, that's broken! One sincere blast of killing intent and I jumped five whole levels in a single gulp. So this is what happens when you chow down on a Nascent Soul cultivator's killing intent? Absolutely ridiculous!
"Ah—baby, are you all right?"
"Waaah! I mean—yes, I'm fine, Senior!"
My favorability toward the Friendly NPC who'd just free-leveled me five times skyrocketed so hard and so fast that even though I'd already said I was fine, the giant still fretted over me from every angle. Only once he was satisfied did he smile with pure relief and speak again.
"Call me Senior Togo, or Elder, baby. Now that you've inherited the oath, you may speak my name freely—even if you still call me baby."
"Uh… Elder Togo?"
Whatever about that answer pleased him so much, his booming laugh alone kicked up a sonic boom. The surrounding clouds scattered under the shockwave, laying bare a sky of pure, blazing red.
Of course, sitting on Elder Togo's palm, I was perfectly fine. Still—Nascent Soul cultivators really were disgustingly strong. Looking at it objectively, the system message hadn't even displayed this Friendly NPC's name.
He'd told me himself, so it showed now—but the fact that it hadn't before pointed to one simple truth. The level gap was more than double, system-wise.
Factoring in that I was sitting just under level 350, that meant he was at least over level 700. It also meant level 400 wasn't the threshold for forming a Nascent Soul.
Level 500 was probably the hard-cap breakthrough for Nascent Soul, and since Elder Togo was late-stage Nascent Soul, Deity Transformation was probably gated behind level 800 or 1000!
"Forgive me for earlier, baby. When I heard the tale of the one who dragged my realm down and sealed me in this place, I could not master myself."
His realm dropped…? Even so, he's still late-stage Nascent Soul. Wait—so he was originally Deity Transformation?! This is a Sect Event! Difficulty! Who the hell set the difficulty like this?!
Thank god my race was listed as Young Giant, so Elder Togo had flipped into a Friendly NPC the instant he saw me as one of his own. If he hadn't, I'd have been pulverized on the spot and forced to respawn!
Who was it that said a Nascent Soul-level challenge was doable, huh?!
I chewed out my inner humanities, but they were still me, and I'd agreed with their assessment in the first place—so spitting on my own face was a waste of time. I stopped and looked up at Elder Togo instead.
Seeing the naked, blazing favorability for a green-dot Friendly NPC shining in Yu Hee's eyes, Togo felt a warm smile rise of its own accord—and with it, a quiet relief that this baby giant was the successor.
Whatever enmity he still held for the monstrous previous successor who had seized him at Deity Transformation, forced him into imprisonment, and turned him into a storage vault—it was nothing compared to the fondness swelling for the baby giant before him. Her face looked blank, but the absurdly high favorability she directed at him was so raw and unfiltered it practically glowed.
Perhaps his soul, which had been fading and fading across an unfathomable stretch of time since his imprisonment, slowly dying by degrees, had simply met a pure infant and borrowed a little of that light.
He had fallen to late-stage Nascent Soul, yes—but he had once been a mid-stage Deity Transformation cultivator. By every right, a mere Golden Core cultivator should have been less than dust, less than a worm beneath his notice.
And yet here was a tiny, young child who had already achieved transcendence into the giant race at the Golden Core realm. Her talent was clearly abnormal. Once she finished receiving every inheritance—just how far would she go?
"Um… what exactly does a successor do?"
"It seems you have not received a single inheritance yet. That is fine, baby. How fortunate—that I may be your first."
At last, he could break these shackles. Bound by restrictions no different from a curse, unable even to die by his own hand, he had been trapped here, dying by inches.
"…Baby. You aren't thinking I mean to seize your body, or threaten you, are you? It worries me a little."
"You wouldn't, though, right?"
A Friendly NPC would never turn hostile on me! And if they did, it'd be because of circumstances beyond their control, or a quest! The conditions for Friendly NPC status are ridiculously strict, you know!
A green dot isn't just 'favorability over 50.' Like I've said before, Friendly NPC designation is the power of the mod itself. It's a safety mark that means this NPC has no [Misfortune Events] or [Eok-kka Events] attached!
And the Friendly NPC in front of me is an incredible elder who didn't just let me freeload off his killing intent—he directly affected my Mental World and shoved five whole levels into me!
I was just starting to wonder whether I could politely ask for another helping of killing intent when golden characters erupted from the great mountain Elder Togo was carrying on his back.
"…Elder Togo?"
I didn't even glance at the golden light surging up from the mountain and dyeing the entire event map gold. Elder Togo's power was collapsing so fast I could feel the presence of it vanishing—and before I could even voice the question—
Heir of Hwanga-gongdong title confirmed.
Will you reclaim the lost property of Hwanga-gongdong?
"No!"
What the fuck is this bullshit.
They stuffed a kill-your-Friendly-NPC event into a Sect Event?! I always figured the xianxia mode creator had no parents—but maybe they actually had multiple sets of parents? There's no other explanation for cramming in an event like this!
"Baby. Compared to the oath you will bear, this is a very simple thing."
"I don't want to! Can't I just get you out of here, Elder Togo? If I level up a bit more, I should be able to!"
"Once you have received every inheritance, perhaps. But unlike me, the others will not welcome you kindly."
"Even so…"
I don't want to watch a Friendly NPC die. He didn't just warm up to me because we share a race—he's been genuinely worried about me this whole time.
I don't think I've ever received goodwill from a cultivator stronger than me before!
"Heh. So you worry for me… But this property—this Calamity Mountain I was forced to shoulder, which has carved away and devoured my spiritual energy across long years—I do not believe a little baby could bear it."
"But I want to leave together with you, Elder Togo… Hmm…"
I originally wanted to bring a Deity Transformation-tier Friendly NPC back to my base. Parking Friendly NPCs and convenience NPCs at your base is just basic practice, right?
"Why do you care so much for me, baby—someone you have only just met?"
"Because you call me baby."
So maybe throwing a little tantrum wouldn't hurt. I watched my inner humanities throw up their hands and cheer in unison, then sank into thought.
Okay. Back when I was Foundation Establishment, Prisoner Mode's power let me take Core Formation-level Cheon Nan-cho captive. So even at Golden Core, shouldn't I be able to take Nascent Soul-level Elder Togo as a prisoner?
I tested the hypothesis. It failed spectacularly.
More precisely, Prisoner Mode couldn't handle the load at all. An earthquake ripped through the Sea of Slaughter hard enough to kick up a tidal wave. If Elder Togo hadn't reined in his power, the tower I'd worked so hard to build would have collapsed under the surge entirely.
I spent a long while thrashing around on Elder Togo's palm, trembling under the overload of a Prisoner Mode that was about to kill itself trying to contain power it couldn't possibly hold.
"What a stubborn baby you are. To insist on taking even one such as I—imprisoned and bound by seals of old."
"I'm taking you with me, Elder Togo!"
Because I really, really like him!
What's a favorite character if not someone you like? Elder Togo's got that dignified, magnificently aged look going for him! He's so huge I can't even see all of him properly, but still!
I'm bringing him back to base!
Burning that resolve in her heart, Hia looked up—and Togo, gazing down at her, wore a faint smile.