1 - I'm an NPC

Translated by rabbitrisu.

This author has something to say:

[Explanation of the previous work and this work (the little angels who haven’t read the previous work don’t need to read this)]: The previous work was written two years ago. It was my first work. There were many immature aspects of the game background and settings, so in this article, in addition to some larger foreshadowing that will be explained to you, other settings will be updated and changed. All settings are based on this work. The little angels who have read the previous work should not comment questions like ‘It seems that the previous work wasn’t written like this’, muah~

<<Actually, I’m an NPC>> is a brand new story that is different from the previous one. There is no mixing between the previous one and this one. I will try to make it so everyone can understand it without reading the previous one. If you want to read the previous story, that is very welcome. It’s called <<Sorry, I’m an NPC [Online]>> and can be found under the author’s column. It’s a good ride for everyone. Please support (づ￣ 3￣)づ

[The expansion pack ‘Pan Long Underground Palace’ is loading…]

[Loading complete.]

[Ding.]

When Xiao Ran woke up, he found himself standing amongst some ruins, surrounded by players coming and going.

“Da Shi seeking group for the Level 30 dungeon Buyue City.”

“Gao Wan is leading a team to clear the Hidden Mirror Soul, friends. Arrival speed is very quick!”

“Healer seeking group for Buyue City. She’s soft and easy to push down. Begging a boss to drive her.”

……

Shouts burst one after another into his ears. Xiao Ran blinked and looked at the altar full of players not too far away, then remembered that this was actually the hidden map that he and his teammates had cleared together before – Buyue City.

Xiao Ran rubbed his head that was about to explode. His brain was kicked by countless horses, so it took a few minutes to calm down.

He inadvertently glanced at the game time in the corner of his vision, and his heart couldn’t help but skip a beat.

The expansion had updated. He actually slept for a month?

No wonder Xiao Ran was so shocked. Oracle of the Gods would have a short-term impact on the data of certain NPCs during system maintenance, but the effects of that last for at most one or two days before it’s complete. Month-long fragmentations like him were extremely rare…

Yes; I forgot to say. Our protagonist Xiao Ran is an actual NPC.

And he’s a very ‘special’ NPC.

A Divine Doctor girl who had lost her investigation skills ran over to Xiao Ran with a smile on her face and said affectionately to him: “Hey, handsome. Our team is missing one out of five. Are you interested in completing the dungeon together, yeah?”

“I have no need for this dungeon, and… the benefits aren’t very big.” Xiao Ran looked at his level and politely refused.

“Oh, all right.” The healer girl returned to her team with slight disappointment and couldn’t help but look back at Xiao Ran. It was obvious that his level of 38 and fairly good equipment was enough to make people feel pitiful.

In addition, several groups of people approached to invite Xiao Ran, but Xiao Ran rejected them one by one.

No one found out he was an NPC.

The same game vision, the same operation principles, the same data information… Xiao Ran was exactly like a player from his head to his toes.

Obviously, he was a bug in the game.

Xiao Ran slept for too long. When he looked back, he found that the equipment he was wearing didn’t match his level, so he decided to change his equipment.

Five power gems, three lucky gems, a few Tian Shen Pills that instantly boost spell damage to 300% and reduce spell casting time by 70%, a handful of Level 30 orange weapons that can be used by the Infinite Swordsman, 1 Level 30 orange leggings that can be used by a Holy Monk, 6 gold coins, and he went up 6 levels straight. That was his dungeon reward for clearing Buyue City. If such a clearance reward was advertised outside, too many people would be jealous to the point of insanity, but for Xiao Ran, a well-informed, God-level NPC, it wasn’t surprising.

With those things, he should be able to change to better equipment.

Xiao Ran perked up. He once again refused to players surrounding him who wanted him to join their next dungeon and, under their regretful eyes, swept towards the door of the dungeon.

Buyue City was remote and surrounded entirely by Level 60 zones. In order to popularize the dungeon map, the Master Brain specially set up a teleportation point at the entrance to the dungeon, leading to the large cities and small towns of Shenzhou in Sanchongtian. 2

Xiao Ran secretly watched the players he passed along the way. He made sure that they didn’t react too much when they saw him, and only then did he relax.

Speaking of, although Xiao Ran was only Level 38, he was still a big celebrity in Shenzhou.

A month ago, there were innumerable players who wanted to reap his head in exchange for the bounty. In order to avoid those players who regard money as the meaning of life, Xiao Ran even went through a long period of time escaping into a wasteland.

And now…

In this online holographic game where talented people are cycled through rapidly, there aren’t many people left who remember Xiao Ran except for the involved parties.

"

"

Since that was the case, he quickly passed through the crowds in an inconspicuous manner. After reaching the teleportation point, he chose to teleport to Lusui Town, which was closest to the Buyue City dungeon.

After reaching Lusui Town, Xiao Ran went to the auction house without stopping and took out the orange sword into his hands.

The equipment of Oracle of the Gods was divided into seven levels: white, green, red, blue, purple, orange, and gold. Although equipment burst rates 3 were low, it had been two years since the Chinese server opened. Whether it was old players looking to upgrade their old equipment or an influx of new players, the equipment output and players’ market demand for equipment was ensured.

Most people could wear fairly normal equipment at the proper level, but that was limited to low-quality equipment.

High-quality equipment, in addition to the legendary gold equipment, included blue, purple, and orange. There was a cliff-like gap between their burst rates and those of the other equipment.

Under normal circumstances, players would only have one or two blue equipment that can be worn at any stage, even if they play very well.

The starting price Xiao Ran set was 3 gold coins. When he put it up, the price rose at a staggering speed. It wasn’t until 7 gold coins were bid that the players slowed down, and they finally stopped once the price reached 7 gold coins and 67 silver coins.

After Xiao Ran paid the 1% handling fee, he took the large sum of money in his hands and started browsing the auction house interface. A blue magic brush 4 with +46 spell damage, gauntlets with +6 dodge, and +8 defense… All kinds of Shen Bi equipment filled Xiao Ran’s vision.

Xiao Ran sorted through a bit, and in the end only one piece of Shen Bi equipment with +31 defense, +47 spell damage, +12 dodge, +5 will, and +3 concentration was up for auction, a Level 35 purple Hanfu for a price of 4 gold coins.

Unlike the preferential treatment for God-Level NPCs like Xiao Ran, the auction house charged up to 25% for player transactions! As a result, players were reluctant to put up some particularly good equipment in the auction house. Most of them chose to publish news in the world chat and then trade privately or go to the market and set up a stall. It wasn’t easy for Xiao Ran to find a level 35 purple outfit.

Putting on the new dark purple Hanfu, the already exquisite youth became even more mysterious, attracting people nearby to look at him more often.

Xiao Ran had long been accustomed to the feeling of being watched. His appearance was the best out of all players and NPCs. There were too many eye-catching scenes like that.

Xiao Ran calmly exited the auction house and walked toward the market.

The market was next to the auction house. Before Xiao Ran entered, he could hear all kinds of shouts, bargaining, and even arguing. It was very lively.

Stall owners in the market only needed to pay a stall fee of 10 silver coins to set up their stalls. Although the sale prices were definitely not as good as the auction house for players of any faction, compared to the handling fee, most players with high-quality equipment still preferred this more primitive way of trading.

Lusui Town was located in the middle of three Level 30 zones, two Level 40 zones, and one Level 60 zone, so its popularity naturally goes without saying.

Xiao Ran passed by some rival players and squeezed to the front of the stalls to scan them roughly. As an NPC, Xiao Ran had data on most of the equipment in Shenzhou. He didn’t need to look carefully at most of the equipment. Just a glance and the information would automatically pop into his mind. If other players knew that choosing equipment could be so easy, they wouldn’t even know what it actually means to be jealous!

There were many people in the market, and there was plenty of equipment. When looking for the right equipment there, they often only took a short time to choose, not taking up too much time that could be spent on leveling.

“This blue gauntlet is going to sell for a gold coin? You’re too good at business, laoban.” 5 Xiao Ran picked up a gleaming aqua blue gauntlet and said tactfully.

The stall owner was an uncle with a long beard. He saw that Xiao Ran was wearing some extraordinary clothing, and coupled with his rosy, delicate face, thought that he was probably a little young master from a rich man’s house. Bluffing, and said gruffly: “As for what the handsome boy said, this gauntlet should sell for at least 1 gold coin and 20 silver coins in the auction house.”

“The average blue gauntlet is that price, but your piece’s quality isn’t so good. You could price it at 1 gold at most, then with the 25% handling fee, you would only get 75 silver coins.”

The uncle saw that several other players at the stall shook their heads after hearing Xiao Ran’s words, then his tone suddenly got much worse: “Where is this kid from. If you’re not buying it, don’t bother Laozi when he’s doing business don’t disturb Laozi’s business if you’re not buying. Shoo, shoo, shoo.”

Xiao Ran didn’t argue with him. He put down the gauntlets and looked at other stalls.

Buying is never as good as selling. After looking at several stalls, the laoban were like human beings, but Xiao Ran himself was a little fox. He refused to suffer, so naturally his face wasn’t pleased.

After a full circuit, he didn’t even buy any equipment.

Xiao ran sighed, then suddenly saw a stall in front of him. Several Shen Bi players in Hanfu walked up and picked up a dark gold belt, checked it repeatedly, then shook their heads in regret and put it back.

Xiao ran followed them curiously and couldn’t help but exclaim when he saw the price and quality.

“This orange belt is only selling for 3 gold coins?”

Orange outfits were the best batch of equipment in the entire game setting. The price of this Level 35 orange belt was… as if he didn’t need money!

The stall owner was a tall and burly young man. The corner of his mouth twitched helplessly. “Look at the stats first.”

Xiao Ran took a look at the belt and was instantly clear.

[Belt: Yixue Belt

Level Requirement: 35

Quality: Orange Equipment

Attributes: +37 defense, +6 concentration, +3 will, +2 luck, +5 hit, +5% spell damage

Reed Painting (Rare) Skill Level +2

Writing Chapters (Free) Skill Level +2

Spring Breeze Under the Brush (Rare) Skill Level +1

Career Limitation: Available to cloth-wearing careers in the good faction.]

+37 defense, +6 concentration, +3 will, +2 luck, +5 hit, +5% spell damage. Such stats could only be considered good purple equipment. The reason why this belt could be ranked as an orange equipment is because of the skill bonuses that come with it.

It’s very difficult to upgrade skills in Oracle of the Gods. The upgrade difficulty for rare skills and free skills is several times that of common skills. The skill bonus was enough to put this belt, which could only be comparable to purple equipment, into the orange equipment range. It was even rare amongst orange equipment!

But the skills…

“It’s a pity. It says that it’s universal, but the skill bonus TM is for Shen Bi skills!” A healer said regretfully.

“Shit. It must be unusable for Shen Bi too, ah. Do you think that free skills and rare skills are cabbage in the street?” Another Shen Bi player rolled his eyes and said.

As soon as his words ended, several other Shen Bi players beside the stall also agreed.

Shen Bi was really quite useless in the early stages of the career, so very few people chose it. Its rare skills and free skills had an outrageously low burst rate, not to mention that Spring Breeze Under the Brush, a group healing skill, was as rare as the ancient secret methods of immortal cultivators. There may not necessarily be a player equipped with Spring Breeze Under the Brush amongst 10,000 Shen Bi players!

As for the skills about Reed Painting and Writing Chapters… obviously none of them had learned them.

The stall owner looked at Xiao Ran with an expression of despair.jpg. He had been there for a day, and there had been many players around for a long time. Many people were waiting for him to reduce the price after not selling so they could pick it up. After all, apart from those three skill bonuses, the belt was no different from ordinary purple equipment.

But inside his heart, he was a bit unwilling. The orange equipment… could he really sell it so cheaply?

But he thought about it. Those skills were too rare. Xiao Ran looked young, handsome, and kind, with a gentle temperament. At first glance, he wasn’t a powerful character. He didn’t think Xiao Ran could use the belt.

As he was waiting for Xiao Ran to pitifully put down the belt like everyone else, he unexpectedly nodded and took out 3 gold coins very naturally:

“I want the belt. I have the Reed Painting and Writing Chapters skills.”

TL Notes:

Hi everyone! This is my first translation for Foxaholic, but I’m currently working on two other novels, Opening a Shop in the Nightmare World and Disguised as a Boss in an Escape Game, on my personal site. I may move them here later, but for now I hope you all enjoy this novel!

Footnotes

Literally: Promise Swordsman, Promise refers to the Daoist view of infinity before creation. Shenzhou means ‘divine land/state’ and can refer to China. Sanchongtian is the third and highest layer of heaven. Keeping Shenzhou rather than China because of its canonical location in the third heavenly layer. Burst rate is the drop rate; the likelihood that a certain item or ability is going to be granted to someone. Shen Bi: magic/divine brush or pen. The tool referenced here has the same characters as the Player Occupation: Shen Bi. In order to differentiate between the two, the tool will be referred to with a translation and the career will be referred to with pinyin. Laoban means shopkeeper/owner/boss. Boss is the most common translation, but it doesn’t have the right connotation in English ☹