Heya. Hue Nightworth here. So, you’re interested in my story, I presume. My life as an NPC, becoming a Player and the countless careless adventures I’d get myself in after that crazy thing happened… If that’s the case, you’re in the right place. First things first, let’s see how the average day in the life of NPC Hue Nightworth was…
✤✤✤
“Hello, dear customer! How could I help you today?” - this is one of my programmed lines, that I have no control over, whenever someone comes to my shop. By the way, I work as a librarian for the city of Yrego.
“Hi, I have a new quest I must complete.”
“Oh, that must be the Skill Book Quest, right?”
↬ Quest: Skill Book - Find the Skill Book and bring it to the librarian. 0 / 1.
Players have quests they must complete. It’s my job, and the other NPC’s, to help Players in their quests.
“Yes, that’s right. In fact, I’ve found it already!”
“Oh, is that so? Could I see it for a moment, sir?”
⇿ Receive: Common Book? (Y/N)
As the Player handed me the book, I could instantly tell it was a fake. It is our job to make sure the Player completes their quests correctly and fairly.
No.
“You seem to have the wrong book. Could you perhaps look for the Book of Skills?”
Ahhh.. I hate that. Even though I told him to **** off with his fake book, the System converted it automatically to my programmed speech.
⇿ Receive: Common Book? (Y/N)
“I already told you, you glorified chimp. It’s the wrong goddamn book!”
No.
“You seem to have the wrong book. Could you perhaps look for the Book of Skills?”
“Ah… I seem to have the wrong book.”
No shit sherlock. Whatever…at least he left. Now I can get back to my business-”
“Hey there Hue! I’m here to ask for some paper. I need it for a Player’s quest.”
↬ Quest: Help Anna - Give Anna 3 pieces of paper.
This was Anna, one of my fellow NPCs in the city. We’ve known each other all our lives.
Apparently, someone realised Players can only see certain parts of NPC interaction… such as greeting them, accepting quests and some basic speech. But… there’s so much more!
Some quests require the cooperation of multiple NPCs, which is not shown to Players.
And so, just as Players, we receive quests and rewards.
⇿ Give to Anna: Paper (x3)? (Y/N)
Yes.
⧪ Quest Rewards: 20 nopper. Accept? (Y/N)
Yes.
We sometimes receive currency for completing quests but, as opposed to the Players, we’re given nopper instead of copper, silver is replaced by nilver and gold by nold.
“Thanks. See you later, cutie.”
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Ahhh… she called me a cutie. My knees are getting weak…
“... B-B- Bye!”
Shut up! I ain’t a simp. It’s just that she’s… pretty. Real pretty. Life always radiates from her, like she’s some sort of goddess. And that smile…. That goddamn smile with her red plump lips with teeth as white as a pearl always stealing the room… Yeah, that’s right. NPC’s have emotions. We just don’t show it to Players… or, it's more like, we can’t.
More than emotions, in fact. We have our own lives. Families, hobbies, pets, bills to pay… we’re as real as these so-called Players.
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“Ahhh. I’m beat. I’ve been working the whole day with no breaks… “
↬ Quest: Stock up - Search for the fisherman and purchase 2 lbs of squid ink.
“Last one. Then I’m off to bed.”
As I walk towards the fisherman, I figure it’s a good use of my time to explain some more things… I’m a busy guy, y’know!
I mentioned previously the currency we NPCs use is different from that of a Player's… There’s more to that, however. While a Player can’t have nopper, and an NPC can’t own copper, both are used to buy goods. Players can’t buy everything we can, for example food. For some reason, Players don’t seem to require food to survive. We do, and we use noppers for that. Similarly, NPC’s can’t buy weapons, armor etc… I did, however, receive a wand and a robe when I got hired as a librarian.
One similarity we share with the Players however, is:
Menu.
[ Menu - NPC ]
Name: Hue Nightworth
Level: 3 / 99
Status: Strength: 1 (1) ⧫ Defense: 2 (3) ⧫ Stamina: 2 (2) ⧫ Agility: 1 (1) ⧫ Magic: 5 (7)
Skill: Librarian Knowledge (D) - Passive Skill - Skill Growth requires 10% less coins.
Job: Civilian
Equipment:
Cheap robe ⧫ + 1 Defense
Cheap wand ⧫ + 2 Magic
Coins: 137 Nopper
Messages: None
Quests: Stock up. Search for the fisherman and purchase 2 lbs of squid ink.
A menu. Both Players and NPCs use a menu, visible only to the person, revealing important information about that person. One thing being the level, which we NPCs, as opposed to the Players, level up through doing quests given to us by other NPCs or by helping Players complete their quests. It’s sort of a social ranking between us NPCs, where the higher the level, the more respect you receive. Not sure how that happened though.
In addition, we also have skills with each skill having a rank, ranging from D all the way up to SSS(although I’ve never met someone with such a high rank skill. In fact, I haven’t even come across someone with A rank skills!). NPCs and Players are usually born with a passive skill, unique to them. These can be upgraded, of course, with coins. And if you’re not happy with your current skill, new ones can be bought and sold, with the exception of the one you’re born with.
Oh! We’re almost there. Sorry, I’ll explain the rest another time, I gotta finish the quest.
“Heya Mister, have you seen the fisherman?”
As the man turned to face Hue, his face resembled nothing out of that world. It was void of color, facial attributes or any resemblance of a human face. Instead, spark-like lines came flying towards Hue.
“What the-?!”
Bztt. Bztttt. The sparks zapped Hue.
⧪ Damage taken: 20
⧪ Damage taken: 20
WTF?! Damage taken?! I’ve never heard of NPCs being damaged before! We don’t have a health bar like Players do… What’s going on?!
Hue, in panic, started running towards the city. The faceless man followed.
Bzzt.
⧪ Damage taken: 20
If I had the health of a Player, with my current items, I’d have only 40 health left. That means… 2 more hits and… I’m gone?
Bzzzt.
⧪ Damage taken: 20
NOO!! I’m almost there! Come on, body, move! I can make it!!
His vision began getting blurry as exhaustion set in, only noticing the branch ahead of him, after bumping into it.. As he fell backwards, his eyes could only see the electrical line coming straight for him. It was going to hit any moment now.
Bzzt.
⧪ Damage taken: 20
As he heard the sound informing him he had lost another 20 health, his view of the strange man suddenly froze. Did the man stop moving? No. He was frozen. In fact, everything around Hue seemed to have frozen, himself included.
Strange messages came in Hue’s view, similar to the menu interface he would see each time he’d think of the word. But, instead of the familiar menu information, only a single thing could be seen.
[ ERROR ]
[ ERROR ]
[ ERROR ]
….
After around 20 Error messages, a new message came in, different from the others.
[ Play Game (Y/N) ]
Play… game? Error? Why is everything frozen? I can’t move… Am I… dead? Is this it for me?
With plenty of questions and no possible way of finding answers, Hue did the only sensible thing he could. He answered.
Yes.