Chapter 492: The Invisible Townspeople
If a horror movie shows a special effect scene of a "ghost" crawling into the actor's facial features, the audience will definitely be scared and may even be left with psychological trauma.
But in the "game" of "Another World"... players are not really afraid of things like "ghosts" - the reason is very simple, in this "game" all ghosts, spirits, evil spirits or other spirit-like things witnessed by players have been killed by the players.
There is no need to be afraid of ghosts that can be killed by physical or metaphysical means... Many people dare not watch Thai or Japanese ghost movies in broad daylight, but can watch American blood films alone at night with popcorn. To put it bluntly, this is the reason.
At this moment, the four players present were startled to varying degrees by the sudden appearance of the "ghost" monster, but they were not really scared; Ivan, the girl closest to the living room door, even shouted in surprise, "Fuck, I finally saw a monster", and rushed over with her weapon and shield drawn...
Aubrey and his son were horrified. Westford, an old man in his sixties, shouted "No" excitedly and instinctively pushed his second son to the side.
Dean Aubrey's eldest brother's face also changed. He grabbed his younger brother by the collar and tried to protect him behind him.
The reaction of Aubrey and his son was quick, but for the players who had already faced the local regular army head-on... their speed was too slow!
The knight's sword captured from a Kenyan officer in Ivan's hand stabbed Dean Aubrey right above his head in the blink of an eye, hitting the ghost that had squeezed half of the "fog" into Dean's facial features!
Purely physical attacks cannot hit ghosts that are purely energy bodies.
But since Ivan had managed to stand out from the blood alliance of semi-professional players who only work hard to win and become the main tank, she obviously would not make such a common-sense mistake. When she swung her sword, she had already activated the new skill of the knight player after his second transformation to the Holy Spirit Knight - Judgment.
Players who complete the second job quest will gain new rune skills that match the new second job profession settings. Among them there must be a powerful core skill that can improve the player's monster-killing efficiency. If there were no temptation of new skills in front of them, not many players would be willing to go through the long and boring second job quest.
Yang Qiu designed the Holy Spirit Knight's second-level core skill "Judgment" into an enchanted skill with a "player skill" shell...
When this skill is activated, a portion of the player's mental power (displayed as an energy bar on the panel) will be forcibly extracted by the activated skill rune and attached to a weapon or shield (after all, this skill is an exclusive skill of the Holy Spirit Knight, so the shield must also be able to be used); it can not only cause damage to demons and beasts, but also directly hit soul-type "monsters".
Of course, the player's total mental power is not much, and the amount drawn from skill runes is not much, so this kind of damage directly targeting the soul is actually pitifully small...but this is not the point!
The real purpose of Ivan releasing this second-level ultimate skill right away is to divert hatred!
The rune skills of the knight player originally have a "provocative" setting, the principle of which is borrowed from mental magic, and its function is to interfere with the target's attention in the short term.
This kind of weak mental suggestion will not work on those overly powerful creatures or non-living things (such as mid-to-high-level monsters, out-of-control evil gods), and the other party will be immune to it, but it is always effective when used to "provoke" such "weak" soul creatures!
The ghost that was trying to invade Dean Aubrey's head was indeed not immune to the mental suggestion driven by the skill rune. It broke away from Dean Aubrey's head and crawled towards Ivan.
"Hate has pulled me!"
Sister Ivan retracted her sword and waved her shield gracefully to greet her companions.
After the ghost monster was separated from the "NPC", it was time to show how hard work can win. This experienced first-test veteran immediately raised his staff and generously cast dark blessings on the ghost monster...
As a master in the first echelon of the player team, he who loves to fight can win. Whether it is potential value (mental power) or equipment, he is second to none. After two dark blessings, the dark energy sent out made the weak spirit that only the players can see take shape, from a pure virtual body to a semi-solid body...
"ah! "
“Oh my god!”
"What is that?!"
Aubrey and his two sons, who were still wondering why the tall undead that rushed to the door was swinging his sword at the air, saw a humanoid ghost slowly appearing in the air at the same time... They were almost frightened to death on the spot.
Dean Aubrey, who had no idea that he had almost been penetrated by the ghost just now, howled and pressed against the wall.
The players still didn't care about this group of "atmosphere groups". Whether they were pulling the "monster's" hatred away from the NPC, or waiting for the "monster" to separate from the NPC before releasing the Dark Blessing (this skill that can restore health to dark creatures including the player himself is harmful to living people), they were just worried about implicating the NPC and having their reputation deducted. When the monster turned into a semi-solid entity, the two walker players who had been waiting nearby with small daggers in their hands rushed over...
In this bizarre and surreal fight scene where four undead spirits surrounded and beat up a weak ghost, the audience was of course not only the dumbfounded Aubrey family, but also Yang Qiu who had been paying close attention to several active anchor points in New Seely Town.
Through the vision of these four players, Yang Qiu observed this weak ghost whose outline was so vague that it looked like a human being. He suddenly realized something.
"It's actually like this—it's actually like this!"
Compared to the soul-like "monsters" that players have encountered when performing night watch missions and brushing exorcist badges, there is no doubt that the ghost that tried to attack Dean Aubrey is very weak!
The strength of human souls varies. After losing the protection of the body, the fragile souls of most people are simply unable to maintain clear consciousness and will soon naturally collapse and dissipate.
Only a very small number of gifted or extremely resentful undead can maintain their spirits after losing their bodies, and even interfere with real matter with the will of their spirits - such as Mrs. Marion who died in great anger, and Toby Bennett who was obsessed with "home" and even degenerated into a great evil spirit.
So…how did this weak ghost shadow, which only appeared in spirit form when it was "attracted" by Dean Aubrey and was witnessed by the players, manage not to naturally disintegrate and fall apart?
There is only one explanation - this extremely weak spirit is protected by some kind of power.
"It's not that He has not developed believers. What He has developed...are believers in another form of existence!"
Yang Qiu watched from a distance as the strange creature quickly became weak under the siege of the players, and all his previous confusion disappeared.
The ancient god consciousness that quietly appeared in Carter Forest Farm did not violate the ancient god's instincts.
'He' actually already has believers - but these believers are unknown to the public!
'He' has never left the town of New Sili, nor has he been affected by some unknown external force. It is simply because 'He's' believers are in the town!
"Then... why did the followers of 'Him' show up?"
Yang Qiu used the player's perspective to shift his attention to the Aubrey family who were at the scene.
Yang Qiu already knew this family's information by heart... After all, their family was indeed the one that was harassed the most by players.
When the player witnessed the ghost, the ghost chose to "invade" Dean Aubrey. It was not surprising that this deacon of the Viscount's Mansion, who was facing the crisis of unemployment, was hostile to the undead and tried to attack them... But it obviously didn't make sense to say that it was because of his hostility towards the undead that he attracted the followers of "Him".
Players' attitude towards "NPCs" is indeed quite rude. Although they are not as atrocious as "traditional" soldiers and bandits who burn, kill, loot and commit all kinds of atrocities, it is normal to cause complaints... Among the residents of Xinxili Town, there are actually quite a few people who are so angry that they resort to violence because of dissatisfaction with player harassment.
Dean Aubrey must be different from the other townspeople since he can attract "invisible believers".
"What's the reason? How is Dean Aubrey different from the other townspeople?"
"Could it be... Dean Aubrey, calling out 'Him'?"
"But 'Him''s existence is unknown, and no one can see 'Him's' believers. How can Dean Aubrey call on a 'God' that he knows nothing about?"
From the peripheral vision of the player, Yang Qiu observed the second son of the Aubrey family, who was clinging to the wall, sweating profusely, and with a look of fear on his face. His mind quickly recalled the known information about this person and compared him with other townspeople who had also used force against the undead.
"Wait... Could it be——"
Thinking of the Morgan family's eldest son who had tried to drive away Professor Yin and Qi Tian not long ago, Yang Qiu's thoughts were suddenly opened.
The eldest son of the Morgan family used to be an apprentice mercenary. He was a brave and aggressive young man. He had conflicts with the undead who came to harass him more than once or twice. If it weren't for the pop-up warning from the "Online GM", he would have been kidnapped by the undead and taken to the city hall to exchange for a reward.
The second son of the Aubrey family is not a brave and aggressive person. As a butler of the Viscount's Mansion, he is as keen on pursuing the "aristocratic style" and imitating the words and deeds of the aristocrats as the common middle-class people in the city. Although he also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the frequent harassment of the undead, this was the first time he tried to fight with the undead.
In other words, when Dean Aubrey was about to fight the undead, his mentality and emotions were different from those of the eldest son of the Morgan family who took fighting as a daily routine.
"He has murderous intentions towards the undead."
Yang Qiu let out a light breath, and the fog that had troubled him for a long time seemed to be blown away by the breeze at this moment.
'He' can make 'His' believers exist in the form of weak ghosts. The strong killing intention will attract 'His' believers, and 'His' believers will try to invade and assimilate into their own kind. In other words... the ancient god consciousness that lingered in the town of New Silli once dominated the divine power related to killing and death.
The frequency of population disappearance in Xinxili Town is not high, and it seems that the number of people disappearing every ten years is very stable... There is an explanation for this; in a relatively stable social environment, it is actually difficult for normal people to have extreme emotions such as "murderous intent".
God is an extremely powerful will; God will not have the cognition to cover up crimes, because God does not think that taking someone's life is a "sin" - as a believer and anchor, whether it is a living or a dead person, it makes no difference to God.
Interfering with people's cognition and making people forget the disappeared dead is obviously not 'His' will; it can only come from the "first messenger of God" who first learned of 'His' existence through some means, took the initiative to call 'Him', and let 'Him' descend here.
The power that the fallen ancient gods can project into the material plane is limited. Failure to assimilate the gods' messengers, or incomplete assimilation, although rare, does not absolutely happen.
In any case, it is good news to be able to confirm that the ancient god's consciousness has been assimilated with the messenger of God. This can at least make Yang Qiu more confident in sending it back to the void.
"Now that we have clues, it's time for the players to help."
Yang Qiu made a decision and immediately began to tamper with... no, replace the kill information received by the player who was about to kill the weak ghost.
While Yang Qiu was launching his brain storm, the two walker players had already chopped the exposed ghost into pieces; just as Yang Qiu came to the conclusion, these two expert players, who also belonged to the first echelon, killed the monster.
The moment the monster disintegrated and disappeared, a long string of information popped up on the task panel of the four players who had worked together to kill it:
"The team that wins only if the players work hard kills the nameless ghost x1."
"Each player who participated in the kill will receive 80 territory reputation."
"The progress of the quest "Disaster (Suspected) No. 063: New Sili Town Unnamed Incident" has been updated."
"Side quest has been triggered."
"The Invisible Townspeople"
"You accidentally discovered a strange ghost at Sheriff Aubrey's residence. It seemed to be attracted by Dean Aubrey's strong murderous intent."
"You destroyed the ghost and protected Dean Aubrey. Even though he won't thank you, you know you did the right thing."
"After destroying this ghost, you had a strange premonition. It seemed that you had found the right way to dispel the shadow hanging over the town of New Seeley."
"Lure out and kill the invisible townspeople. For each demon-like ghost townsperson killed, the participant will receive a reward: Territory Reputation X80."
"Draw out and kill the 'Evil God's Envoy' who forcibly detained the residents of the Ghost Town in the human world. Participants who kill the 'Evil God' will receive rewards: Territory Reputation X800, Exorcist Badge X1."
This reward is really generous... The value of the territory's reputation is needless to mention. The Exorcist Badge can be traded, and the market price is not low.
But this reward is also very cunning - if you can solve a level one disaster and eliminate a major hidden danger in the bud, you are already qualified to receive the Exorcist Badge from the Night Watch, and they will give you as many as you want.
In other words, what Yang Qiu needs to pay is still worthless reputation...
But no matter whether the rewards are sneaky or not, the four players who saw the system prompts were very satisfied.
"Hahahaha! Fuck it hahaha! God rewards hard work!" Those who have worked hard and persisted until now finally saw the rewards. Only hard work can win. He burst into tears of joy on the spot.
