Title: Just NPCs
Summary: Luxion would have been overjoyed.
I casually observed the woman with the open wound. She spat vitriol at me as she always did. Her acerbic tongue was what had finally pushed me to test something. While the response was modified in a way to take into account the fact that I had been the one to stab her, ultimately, Zola's attitude had not changed.
She did not exhibit a response you would expect from a normal person. She demonstrated no fear. She didn't seem to understand that aggravating the person who just stabbed you was a bad idea.
She acted like an NPC. A badly scripted character from a poorly written game.
So I hadn't been reincarnated, or my reincarnation came in a limited form. It was more likely my soul had been tethered to the game. A soul trapped amongst souless NPCs.
If I had known about this sooner, I would have deleted the NPC sooner. Such a senselessly vicious AI. It would have saved me so much needless grief.
Without much fanfare, I slit her throat. She... It never showed fear to the end. I felt nothing. Well, I felt no regret. I did feel relief as the source of my irritation was finally gone.
The only thing left to do was to hide the body or maul it to the point someone thought she was done in by a monster. Didn't want to risk dealing with some alert/wanted mechanic that some games had.
"Hey, Leon. How are you doing?" Luce asked me.
Odd, I suspected Balcus would have been given the role of comforting me. A simulated man-to-man discussion.
Ah, Luce must have been tagged with the anime mom trope.
"I'm fine, Mom. The monster was too focused on Zola to bother me."
"Sure, you weren't hurt, but it still must have been frightening."
"Not really."
"You don't need to hide it, you know. It's okay for boys to be afraid. To cry when bad things happen. To need their moms," Luce said in a soothing tone. Such a scripted response.
In order to move the cutscene along, I simply hugged her silently. Give her the impression that I was trying to hold myself together. I couldn't truly fake being traumatized so I just let Luce fill in the blanks from my silence.
"Leon, I think it's about time you get blooded," Balcus said.
It had been a few years since I disposed of Zola. Since then, life at the barony had improved significantly. Without Zola to incur more debts, we were able to steadily make payments to shrink our current ones.
The only misfortunate detail was that Rutard and Merce had been forced to live with us. They were Zola's corrupted spawn and too set in their ways. Well, they were mob NPCs. They would never change.
The only reason why I did not dispose of them was that the NPCs would grow suspicious. Life was tough enough already. No need to trigger any hidden mechanics.
"Leon? We can put it off until later if you aren't ready," Balcus said worriedly as I had been too lost in thought. The parental figures often attributed my periods of contemplation to trauma. I suppose this time was far more reasonable compared to the other times.
"It's fine, Dad. So how will I be blooded?"
Balcus gave me a hesitant look before shaking his head.
"You and Rutart will be executing a band of pirates we have caught."
Enemy game objects. I wonder if experience was a thing. Could this be considered a quest as well?
"Is Nicks not participating?"
"He's already done it."
The eldest hadn't done it yet? Par for course, given what I knew of his programming.
Rutart was vomiting in a corner. He hadn't even done the deed yet. He had stalled when he had to look the pirate in the eye.
Not wanting this to take any longer than necessary, I marched up and snatched the blade before slashing Rutart's pirate. The arterial spray covered Rutart's face. The quickness of the kill forced him to watch the life fade from the pirate's eyes. While Rutart had not done the deed, I suppose he had to experience the traumatic part.
"How are you doing, Leon?" Balcus asked apprehensively.
"I think you should be more concerned about Rutart," I said while pointing at the boy. I made sure to not point at him with my knife so as not to trigger further panic algorithms.
"But you were the one who did the kill."
"He was already a dead man."
"... It's okay to be disturbed by this. It's not natural for people to kill people."
I gave him a flat look.
"We literally praise people for doing it."
Rather than respond, he decided he wouldn't get anything more from me and turned his attention to Rutart.
That could have gone better. The father NPC would likely cause me problems later on. I'll deal with that later.
More importantly for me, I didn't feel particularly stronger. Was it because I hadn't earned enough experience to level up or was it because the level up system worked differently.
I looked at the remaining bound pirate. He gave me a terrified look as I stared at him. Would killing him be enough to level up?
I slowly walked to him.
"Leon, what are you doing?"
I looked back at Balcus.
"Finishing the job."
"You don't need to do this!"
"Does it look like Rutart will?"
"That's not the point! You've already done your duty!"
I decided against arguing any further. Appease Balcus's sensibilities. I let my shoulders drop. Exhibit sudden drop in tension. Make Balcus think I had been reluctant to do this.
Balcus adopted a soft look. He must have thought I had been putting up a strong front. Alertness levels must have dropped.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Leon."
I just nodded silently.
"How about you take your brother back home to get washed up?"
"I don't think that would be wise. I think Rutart would likely be scared of me."
"Fair point. I probably shouldn't be lenient with him anyways. He hasn't been properly blooded since you did it."
Such an illogical thought process. Only an AI could have made such a decision. Let's further traumatize the NPC who witnessed an execution and had been covered in blood. Such a loving father character.
My curiosity regarding level ups grew too much. I needed to know if I would get stronger by simply killing enemy units.
However, going on a pirate killing spree would raise some serious red flags. It didn't matter that the world and any sensible government should wish for the eradication of pirates for the greater good. The NPCs still balked at the idea of someone willing to do such a civic duty since the NPCs were coded with too simplistic an algorithm.
Fortunately, monsters existed and needed to be culled.
Unfortunately, my parental figures would not allow me to go on such cullings.
Fortunately and weirdly, they entertained the idea of me registering to become an adventurer and taking odd jobs. You'd figure that they would have known that becoming an official adventurer meant that going on a culling was a distinct possibility.
I guess my interest in Holfort's famed profession was normal enough for them to overlook any potentially concerning behavioral issues. In fact, it might have laid rest to some since I was acting more in line with what was considered normal.
Though, I could do without the escort NPC.
"Leon, are you going to be okay?" Nicks asked me as we were about to depart into the Academy's dungeon.
Why did games often have to insist on recapping past events so often? It was so tedious when I couldn't skip the dialogue.
"I'll be fine, Nicks."
"It's just that... what with... you don't need to prove anything. We can push this off until your first dungeon exploration class in the Academy."
"It's not a matter of proving anything. I just want to try my hand at being an adventurer for now. Better to practice here before I try my hand in the open skies."
There. A perfectly valid reason that didn't involve my 'trauma'. It was all practice for me before I took on a harder challenge.
Nicks, however, still looked unconvinced. However, he let the matter go for now.
After delving for thirteen floors, I felt no stronger than I had been at the start. Admittedly, it could have been due to the exhaustion of exerting myself for so long. So I could safely cross out immediate level up gains. Make sense. Even if I was trapped in the game, my character was not a playable character.
I also crossed off the idea that I could not level up. After all, I still was aging, which implied that my stats could change.
With these two details in mind, it was likely that gains were noticeable after a recovery period or a refresh period for the code. The question was if the gains were dramatically affected by total experience or if gains more closely mirrored real life.
"Leon, we should turn back now. I haven't delved this deep on my own before," Nicks said with a hard pant.
Looking back at my older brother, I could see he was telling the truth. He was not comfortable venturing so deep. His AI parameters must be telling him to go back to his designated navmesh.
With a reluctant sigh, I decided to err on the side of caution. Luce and Balcus would not take kindly to losing their son.
"Leon, let go," Jenna shrieked as I held her grubby hand. She had tried to take a portion of my earnings as her own when I had returned back to Nicks room from the dive. The stupid NPC was programmed to be just like Zola. Always taking and berating.
It really rubbed me the wrong way.
"Then let go," I said.
"You're hurting me, Leon," Jenna whimpered.
Her faulty AI hadn't considered letting the loot go.
"Then let go. It's a simple thing."
Nicks decided to step in at that moment.
"Let her go, Leon. There's no need to hurt her."
"Once she let's go."
"She's our sister, Leon."
"And? I told her that I wasn't going to give her my loot. She ignored me and tried to take it anyways. I told her to let go, she refused. I told her I would let go if she did. She has decided not to let go still."
"... Jenna, just drop it."
"Nicks, are you really going to side with him?! He's hurting me!"
"And Mom and Dad will deal with that at home. For now, just drop it."
Jenna, after a moment of pleading, let go. And with that, I fulfilled my end of the bargain.
Nicks took a look at me before shaking his head. While I had done nothing wrong, he likely assessed me in a more negative light. Even though he seemed to somewhat understand my reasoning, he could not bring himself to approve.
That was the problem of simplistic moral systems common in games. Even if Jenna was being a petty thief, I was in the wrong because she suffered the repercussions for her actions. Because she was a woman in distress, I was the bad guy.
"Interesting, so you are a descendant of Old Humanity," Cleare said excitedly.
I lucked out. I had no idea if I had had Old Human DNA or whatever constituted as such in this world. I may have the memories of my previous life, but that did not mean I came from the game's version of Old Humanity.
Not like I had a choice. It was either let the ancient AI test my blood or die. The cooling corpses of the elven scientists and the monstrosities gave me no illusion that I could get out alive if the AI decided to end me.
"Leon Fou Bartfort has been added as primary user. Status report: research facility has been compromised. Elves have overtaken the facility and surrounding area. Asking for approval to exterminate threats."
Looking around, I probably didn't have much of a choice. I recognized a few of the NPCs. They were the village chieftains and had likely spread word that I had come to the island.
Fortunately, no one besides the elves knew I was here. I could erase my presence by eliminating all the NPCs.
"Granted."
AN
1) Honestly, knowing that the world is the game, it isn't entirely illogical that someone could come to the conclusion that people are NPCs.
2) Not sure where this would go. On one hand, Leon has little personal qualms in murdering or harming NPCs. On the other hand, he hasn't done much specifically because it would be too troublesome. Makes trying to write an interesting plot a pain since anything super interesting would also be completely asinine to do if you are avoiding trouble.
Review Response
HalfMoonSilver80: Zola's side of the family becomes plot relevant again after the Alzer arc.
Ominous442: Zola only specified that her children are from her lover. We do not know anything beyond that. People speculate if the father is the elf servant due to how the children look, how the novel had very recently revealed that half breeds were possible, Zola's specifically use of the word lover, and her natural disdain for men. Though, it is also fairly likely that it could have been some random court noble since elf half breeds aren't widely known within canon.
As for Zola feeling slighted not working, I disagree. People can feel slighted despite being shit himan beings. Zola is definitely one of those people. Additionally, this information is coming from a biased source. Of course the information is naturally going to paint Zola in a better light, or as good a light Merce is willing to allow.
A final thing about Luce, we don't actually know when Balcus got serious with her. Considering his forced promotion was out of left field, he very well could have already been sweet on Luce before he was forced to get married to a noble. There simply is very little information surrounding these characters, and for all we know, Balcus could really have been awful. Doubtful, but it would still fit the canon.
Aoikaze Kiro: Good to hear that you are enjoying these. As for requests, I don't really do those mainly because my writing trends on the flash of inspiration. Can't get myself into ideas presented to me.
Resurrection of the Forgotten: Been on my back burner.