Chapter 436

Chapter 436: Chapter 433: "Please choose your Hero.When enveloped by the white teleportation light, Su Ming’an sensed something was amiss.

Usually, when he teleported, there would be a strange, fixed-frequency sensation flowing around him, always in the same direction.

But at this moment, he detected a hint of discordance.

...The direction of the flow seemed out of the ordinary this time.

Before he could carefully discern it, darkness fell before his eyes.

As the teleportation glow faded, he quickly opened his eyes,

to complete darkness.

The space he found himself in was one of pure blackness.

Looking down, there was no sensation of solid ground beneath his feet; he was floating in a void.

In the upper right corner, the live stream that should have been active was now off, and the comment box was empty, lacking even a single congratulatory message that would normally be present.

System time kept moving; he glanced at it and his own time had not come to a halt.

Yet, within this pitch-black space, one might feel the claustrophobic terror of being at the bottom of the sea where no light reaches.

He stood silently in the void, not speaking, his face devoid of any dramatic expressions, simply waiting.

About ten seconds later, a pink light appeared before him.

Long ears, white fur, a massive body, limbs like strings of pasta; the fuzzy white figure shifted slightly, revealing a pair of eyes red as blood.

In front of him appeared the boss rabbit, etched with a blood-red set of scales on its chest.

Su Ming’an looked at it.

"Are we here for a candlelit dinner?" he surveyed the surroundings, still shrouded in darkness, "Not even a light?".

The boss rabbit opened its blood-red eyes, swiveling its pretty pupils, and showed him a smile that could be described as "gentle".

Such a gentle smile, on the face of the boss rabbit, appeared especially eerie.

"The Eighth World, a world of peak competition." It spoke, its voice bearing a mechanical quality, its tone devoid of its usual sarcasm and instead, mechanical and cold, "—Ruler, in this world, you bear an additional task."

Su Ming’an remained expressionless.

He had guessed that being summoned to a separate space at the start of the game meant there was something else to be communicated.

...So it’s the Ruler’s task?

Prior to this, acquiring the Ruler’s quests always used to come directly through system prompts; this time, the boss rabbit himself was issuing it to him.

"In this world—you need to designate your own clone to replace an NPC from the Eighth World. After taking the place of an NPC, your clone must temporarily act as an NPC, traversing through the venues of this world and observing its structure."

Su Ming’an listened, somewhat surprised.

—In this world, he would have both the identities of an NPC and a player.

His true self would participate in the competitive matches as a player, while his clone, as an NPC, would roam around the venues and observe.

He remembered that the tasks given to Rulers before were to protect certain NPCs or to reach specific locations—with the intent to guide him towards the most challenging storylines, enabling him to uncover the most hidden narrative clues.

And now, his Ruler’s task seemed to have ascended a level.

...He had been assigned the task of "observing the instance", akin to a programmer who runs a check for bugs after programming.

Traversing through the venues, observing the instance, and uncovering secrets, to see if "bugs" existed in this world.

This was even beyond the previous "player" level, more akin to the task of a game observer.

"Have I... ascended to a GM (Game Master)?" Su Ming’an said.

"Not quite." The boss rabbit continued, its voice still cold, "Ruler, your clone can only wander within the venue as an NPC, responsible for observation and recording, without altering the rules of the game or intervening in the matches."

"An outsider, then." Su Ming’an narrowed his eyes, "Question, after my clone becomes an NPC, can it still serve as my combat support?"

He was aware that if his clone went off to observe the world as an NPC, then how could he summon it to assist him in battle?

And given the special nature of this task...

The clone skill itself began to look even more suspicious.

After all, considering its bug-like nature, it didn’t seem like something that could be drawn from a Red Level Skill Pool. It was, instead, a skill he secured in one go with his initial E-level Luck.

But then again... if the clone skill was indeed different, it wasn’t quite logical to explain.

Was it... that he became the Ruler because he acquired the clone skill, or did he have this dual-operation ability from the start because of his Ruler status? Or could it be the clone skill was merely an accident, truly a lucky catch from his E-level luck?

The pupils of the boss rabbit’s eyes darkened.

In a robotic tone, it answered his question:

"Answer. No." It said, "Considering that your clone skill will thus be unusable in the Eighth World, for the sake of fairness, the game will compensate you with additional benefits."

"What benefits?"

"Confidential."

"That doesn’t seem right," Su Ming’an spread his hands, his tone somewhat helpless, "Being the Ruler in a world of a hundred competitors, I’m actually subject to this kind of suppression. My most critical core occupation skill is disabled due to becoming an NPC, yet the compensation is kept from me... For me, this start is far too unfair. This can’t help but make me somewhat sad..."

His emotions surfaced as he spoke, his tone filled with indignation about this "unfairness".

"No, our game." The boss rabbit’s tone was flat, cutting him off directly, "Is absolutely fair."

...How familiar that response was.

Su Ming’an subtly reined in his emotions.

"To you, this compensation is equivalent to the temporary loss of your clone skill. As long as you survive, you will definitely appreciate its value," the boss rabbit added, "And, you are not completely deprived of your clone skill; you will still have control over your clone. Once it has fully completed the patrol task within the venue, you will regain absolute control over that skill."

"Is that so..." Su Ming’an nodded, then suddenly, like an eager elementary student, raised his hand, "Question. To what extent can I control my NPC clone?"

"As long as it’s within the limits allowed by the world patrol task, you can explore at will," said the boss rabbit indifferently.

Su Ming’an understood.

In other words, it was as if his clone had taken on an extra task of "posing as an NPC to patrol the venue", and as long as it was within the system’s permitted range, he could still control his clone.

...Thus, for him, his clone couldn’t serve as direct combat power in competitions among players, nor could it act as his resurrection substitute.

But he gained an NPC that could wander around the arena and collect clues everywhere, as well as a secret compensation.

Moreover, his main gain wasn’t really in this regard, but rather in the realm of information.

It seemed... he was somewhat leaping out of the purely "player" level and was nudging closer to the order and design inherent in the instance itself.

Although at present, this was merely "wandering" and "observing" the instance’s arena.

...But what about after that? After rising to the next level?

"Ruler," as the highest level of identity, was not limited to mere NPC favorability; it appeared to already be subtly involving things related to the instance.

Boss Rabbit stretched out that fluffy white hand.

A giant blue screen turned on in the void of pitch darkness.

On the screen, white flowing light emerged, outlining various transparent characters, each with a name labeled below them.

Zhou Qi, Zhou Lili, Kelsey, Broke, Meiyatu, Liu Changqing, Ghost Old Terry, Guang Li, Luokeke, Qin Huanya...

There were at least a thousand densely packed names, shining like white ants on this giant blue screen, which unfolded all the way down to the darkness at Su Ming’an’s feet.

Above the screen, these characters were diverse in appearance, comprising both genders, all ages.

Their attire, even more so, could be termed "East-West cultural amalgamation," featuring armor, robes, casual wear, sacrificial robes, cheongsams... Su Ming’an even spotted people wearing Hanfu, Lolita outfits, and bikinis...

The scene of these myriad character images arrayed before his eyes was like "Choose your hero."

It was dazzling to behold.

"These are NPCs from the Eighth World," Boss Rabbit said. "Within them, you can pick a substitute for your clone. After a successful substitution, your clone had better patrol the grounds without arousing suspicion from other NPCs— because, if your clone is killed by any entity before completing a full patrol progress, it would mean failure of the Ruler’s Quest."

"I see," Su Ming’an nodded.

At this moment, he finally understood why he had to receive this Ruler’s Quest in a separate space.

Because if the task were to be accepted within the instance, players hiding nearby might discover it. This group of players might then attempt to kill his cloned NPC.

He immediately began to meticulously sift through these diverse NPCs, selecting the right substitute.

To be frank, having a view of all NPCs in a world, one could usually decipher what type of world it is.

But judging from the appearance and clothing of these people, Su Ming’an couldn’t actually make any definitive conclusions.

...These people were dressed in what could only be described as a "cultural hodgepodge," mixing elements from both the East and the West, as well as the past and present. Apart from roughly deducing that this wasn’t a futuristic technological world, it was impossible to pin down what specific type of world it was.

These characters came without descriptions, just bare names, leaving him to judge their rough identities based on their outfits.

Su Ming’an pondered for a moment.

Firstly, if choosing a substitute NPC, one must not select one that obviously looked like a faction boss; a boss usually had numerous underlings, making it easy to spot anything off with the clone.

Secondly, he couldn’t pick someone too weak, for revealing a strength that didn’t match their own would also arouse suspicion.

Thirdly, he needed to pick someone who seemed to have simple social relationships, without a myriad of familiar relatives.

Fourth, do not select those who seem easy to bully. Clones should try to avoid conflicts with top-ranked players, since everyone is quite familiar with the clone’s skills.

Ming’an’s thinking was very clear, but as he looked at the list of NPCs with only names, he found himself at a loss.

Through the various instances before, he had understood that judging by appearances is not reliable, and it’s foolish to judge a person’s identity based solely on their appearance—after all, who could have imagined in the initial Seventh World that the seemingly ordinary Viscount would turn out to be the supreme Deity of Yun Shang City?

Therefore, judging identity purely based on the character profile on this panel was equally shortsighted.

He slightly lifted his eyelids, glancing at his boss the rabbit who was watching him calmly.

The rabbit’s pair of eyes, under the pink light, shone with a mechanical glow, lacking its usual spirit as if it were a rabbit-shaped robot.

...Like a piece of machinery being controlled by someone behind the scenes.

"You have two more minutes to make your choice," the rabbit boss said. "Right now, all players are within the initial allocation of identities. After two minutes, everyone will be transported together."

Su Ming’an looked over the panel again, still pondering—merely looking at the characters’ appearances was not enough to make a choice; it was basically a blind selection.

He worried about the timing if he entered the instance to confirm an NPC’s identity and then had to roll back.

But after a moment of consideration, he had a new idea.

From the perspective of the game mechanics... he might have a better option.

Let’s try it first. If it doesn’t work, just pick one at random. After all, there’s no harm in trying.

"Boss Rabbit... no, Organizers," Su Ming’an lifted his head. "Can I know the information about this instance ahead of time?"

"No, you have one minute and forty-five seconds left to choose," the rabbit boss said.

...He couldn’t get any information in advance?

Ming’an’s gaze swiftly scanned the screen.

He had learned, based on the instance of White City in the Second World and the Terrily Town instance in the Fourth World, that a purely ’competitive’ world would need a ’Guide’ to introduce the rules of the entire world.

In the White City instance, it was the rabbit boss who personally introduced the rules to each team of players.

In the Terrily Town instance, it was the ’Mayor,’ a key figure, who introduced the rules of day and night in a vague manner.

...And according to the clues shared by Noel, it was clear that the Eighth World was a multi-instance game, requiring the collection of ’Silver Stars.’ If ’Silver Stars’ were understood as something like ’Faction Points’... Obviously, the rules of such a world would be similar to a checkpoint-based instance, requiring players to go through a series of mini-challenges to ultimately decide the rules for the ’sole’ victor.

Based on what the rabbit boss just said about "after two minutes, everyone being transported together," he could guess—in such a multi-instance competitive world of the Eighth World, the instance would need an initial, unified ’Rules Presenter’ to clarify for the players the rules of collecting ’Silver Stars.’

This ’Rules Presenter’ might be an NPC from the original instance world, but in doing so, the NPC introducing such overly gamified mechanics would be a bit out of character (OOC).

Therefore, he believed it was more likely that the instance in the Eighth World would replicate the situation in the White City instance.

...That is, having the rabbit boss introduce the rules at the beginning.

So, as the initial rules presenter of White City, the rabbit boss...

—Could it count as a "NPC" that could be replaced?

Su Ming’an found that he might have found the best possible choice.