My lord, spare his life!

The next day, Zhang Yang stood Fan You up.

Fan You's carefully prepared lesson plan from yesterday was of no use.

"Jiuge, where is our lord?"

Shi Xu said, "I have not yet seen my lord."

Fan You sent someone to the backyard of the prefectural government to invite Zhang Yang over.

The messenger returned shortly with the message: "Prefect Fan, the maids of the prefectural government say that the Prefect did not return home last night and did not come back all night."

"Has the Prefect not returned all night?"

Why didn't you even tell him?

"What are you all standing there for? Send someone to search!"

Fan You's mind was filled with the frivolous behavior of powerful and wealthy women of the time, and many of them went out to indulge in debauchery without any regard for meat or vegetables.

Zhang Yang might not have that kind of sense, but there were just too many men and women in Tianyue who wanted to sleep with her, and Fan You openly and secretly blocked many of them for her. As for those who were truly unstoppable, he simply sent them far away... well, I'm talking about Yuan Xie!

My lord, you must not be deceived.

As the sun climbed to its zenith, Zhang Yang, who had disappeared for a day and a night, reappeared looking refreshed, though upon closer inspection, his clothes were somewhat disheveled.

Upon seeing this, Fan You's mind went blank, and anger surged within him.

"Who was my lord fooling around with yesterday?"

"Huh? Easter Egg Bro."

Fan You's eyes widened in shock, unable to utter a single word. When Guan Si followed, his finger trembled as he pointed at him. He had previously entrusted Guan Si with keeping an eye on the women around his lord, but this fellow had betrayed him!

"Why are you staring at me? Why don't you ask her what she did?"

"What could she possibly know? And how could she possibly have taken the initiative?"

The act of procreation was too profound for the lord's mind.

It was definitely Guan Si who seduced him! Reason told Fan You that it was not a big deal for the lord to take a few male concubines. He could even use them to win them over and make the relationship more solid. But it was Guan Si who made Fan You seem a bit too stupid.

Zhang Yang: "What are you talking about?"

"You've been out partying all night, what else can you say?" Zhang Yang didn't understand, but that didn't mean Guan Si didn't. He knew from the first sentence that Fan You had misunderstood, but he was too lazy to explain, and he had no obligation to explain. "I'm going back to rest, I'm a little tired."

Zhang Yang waved his hand: "Go ahead."

Fan You: "..."

Looking at Zhang Yang, who was somewhat disheveled but full of energy, and then at Guan Si, who was indeed a bit tired, Fan You secretly scrutinized Guan Si's physique while inwardly spitting out a curse.

However, this matter still needs to be thoroughly investigated.

"Was the lord with him yesterday?"

"yes."

Fan You stared at Zhang Yang, hesitant to ask for more details, but the first thing he asked was, "Besides him, was there anyone else?"

"Wild Man Bro"

Fan You: "..."

The absurd thought vanished instantly, and I realized I might have been misled by the phrase "disheveled": "What am I going to do?"

Zhang Yang: "Watching a married couple having sex."

Fan You: "..."

It's better not to ask at all!

I almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

Shi Xu was so frightened that he shrank back like a quail, hurriedly taking his leave with his textbooks, leaving the space to his teacher and master. If the two of them started fighting, his fate would probably be even worse than that of an innocent bystander.

Fan You nearly collapsed: "What are you looking at?!"

Little did they know, someone had posed the same probing question yesterday—it was Wang Qi, who had returned: "What are you looking at?"

Zhang Yang muttered sentences that Wang Qi couldn't understand.

[Sigh, because I discovered an important detail: everyone looks different. Even those with similar features don't overlap much, meaning each person is essentially an independently modeled individual.] She strolled through several streets, secretly observed over a hundred households, and finally opened the recruitment platform—every NPC Zhang Yang had encountered would appear here, with records kept for future review. She carefully examined the NPCs' appearances, confirming that they were all unique.

They all look alike; their ancestors must have been cuckolded.

Zhang Yang hesitated for a moment before saying, "[Also, their emotions are different at the same time, and each person's emotional changes have independent reasons... How much calculation would that require?]"

Even the NPCs on the main story map can't do this.

A prime example is the scavenging old woman who had 30 million adopted grandchildren from the very start of the game. Every year on the Double Ninth Festival, her adopted grandchildren would receive a festival task to feed her 12 dumplings she made herself. In the sixteen years since the game's launch, there was one year when this scavenging old woman ate 300 million servings of dumplings on the Double Ninth Festival, instead of 300 million scavenging old women each eating one serving.

They're all doing different things.

Everyone has their own things to do.

Zhang Yang couldn't help but think of the children who liked to surround her.

The children's joy was equally heartwarming, but each child's smile and way of expressing joy was different. Why would the game designers waste precious computing power on content unrelated to the main storyline? Zhang Yang didn't even notice any lag.

[There are even ways to make children—amazing?]

Zhang Yang asked Guan Si how to have children, and Guan Si said that it was possible through sexual intercourse between a man and a woman. To Zhang Yang, this sounded like something forbidden. She knew what it meant, but she didn't know what it looked like.

Zhang Yang secretly observed the daily lives of NPCs from rooftop to rooftop. After doing so many, she inevitably stumbled upon some content that was both inappropriate for children and deeply shocking. She didn't comment on the quality of the other NPCs' character models; she simply couldn't understand this behavior—

Where's the mosaic?!

Where did all those mosaics go?!

She could even see a person's undergarment hanging from their waist, their two buttocks exposed to the air without any blurring! The next second, Guan Si covered her eyes with one hand and forcibly took her away from the scene.

Then, not long after, Wang Qi arrived.

Wang Qi: [...]

Unable to understand, he turned to ask Guan Si.

What nonsense is she spouting?

Guan Si replied irritably, "I don't know."

Almost no one could stop Zhang Yang from doing what he wanted, including observing (spying). Because it was still light, such adult behavior was rare, and Zhang Yang didn't encounter much of it afterward, although he did see a family giving birth in a village outside the city. Because the stellar energy in the air subtly affects the constitution of living beings, women in this world rarely die during childbirth.

The woman inside the house was not giving birth for the first time.

In less than half an hour, the baby was born between her legs. The baby was small, weighing just over five pounds, and was born with its arms and legs curled up, its body slightly pale from being soaked in amniotic fluid. The baby's hair was thick and wet, sticking to its head.

Both hands unconsciously reached out to grab the grayish-white umbilical cord.

As the baby let out a loud cry, the woman assisting the mother breathed a sigh of relief, and the room was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Congratulations! It's a girl...

After cleaning the amniotic fluid and removing the umbilical cord from the baby, they wrapped her in swaddling clothes and went out to share the good news with the waiting relatives. Outside the door were an elderly couple, a man with a slight disability, and three children of varying ages. Upon hearing that it was a daughter, the elderly couple also beamed with joy.

[I'll take care of my health and have another baby in a year... This way, we can get a bigger share of the land, but we don't have enough manpower...]

The family was having a private conversation.

The new mother had already tidied up and listened with a frown.

Let's see if this one can grow up.

The elderly couple said, "We know you've worked hard, but you're our only child. We want more people in the family, but it means you have to suffer a bit... The magistrate has been kind to us these past two years; even a small plot of land has been allocated. We don't know what the policies will be like in the future, so we have to hurry."

They were making plans in their minds.

Unbeknownst to the elderly couple, the "Lord of the Underworld" they were referring to was right outside the door, and he even asked them if they could let her see her newborn child.

Zhang Yang not only watched, but also personally hugged him.

It weighs a little over five pounds, very light, and it's also quite big—

Why is that face so wrinkled?

[Reporting to the Lord, it will fully open up by the time it's a full month old.]

[...Have you grown out? Have the wrinkles on your face been stretched out?]

Zhang Yang looked at the newborn baby in his arms, then at the three children beside the elderly couple. He looked at this one, then at that one, seemingly pondering when the game designers had become so diligent, designing so many models for each child.

Do game companies really have enough computing power?

Can gamers' brains withstand excessive memory usage?

Zhang Yang tried to understand.

Just as she tried to understand Fan You's emotions yesterday.

The result was the same; she couldn't understand it. Her mind felt like it was blocked by a lump of paste, and she would often feel confused.

Sixteen years since the game's launch —

Zhang Yang had never seen an NPC give birth like this before.

However, it doesn't seem like the observed samples had children.

The worry on Zhang Yang's face was obvious to anyone with eyes that could see it, and the elderly couple were so frightened that they knelt on the ground, trembling. Their greatest fear was that their daughter's newborn daughter would bring bad luck, and if that happened, their whole family would have no way to survive.

Fortunately, the worst-case scenario did not occur.

Zhang Yang straightened the baby's swaddling clothes and returned the baby to its parents.

After thinking for a moment, he took out a bag of Yuan Yuan coins from his game inventory: [This child is born well; consider this my greeting gift.]

The elderly couple were overjoyed and quickly knelt down to express their gratitude.

When I looked up again, Zhang Yang was nowhere to be seen.

Zhang Yang saw two pregnant women in the next village with bellies of different sizes. Pointing to one of them, she asked curiously, "When her belly gets that big, will she also give birth to a baby that big between her legs? Are babies always born that way?"

Guan Sidao: [Some people even have their abdomen cut open and pulled out.]

Zhang Yang: [? ? ?]

Guan Si: [Ordinary people can't do this; they'll die.]

Zhang Yang sighed deeply.

Wang Qi, seeing this, sighed, a sign of weakness and powerlessness: "Why are you so inexplicably discouraged?"

I'm wondering if this method is scientifically sound...

Is it necessary for game designers to create a breeding, production, and nurturing process for each NPC? Should each NPC have a different appearance, frequently change their model during their growth, be given different emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness, and have freely expressible emotions?

Wang Qi doesn't understand science: [Is it even scientific?]

Zhang Yang's expression shifted between confusion, shock, bewilderment, and perplexity, as if her entire worldview had been challenged. Wang Qi considered Zhang Yang's itinerary for the day, and that series of acts of spying—wasn't it her subordinates whose values ​​were being challenged?

It would be embarrassing if word got out.

Wang Qi felt very disgusted.

But Zhang Yang's murmur could be clearly heard in his ears: "[...It makes sense scientifically, but not economically, and even less so in terms of how game companies manage computing power costs... This is just too...]"

She felt something was wrong!

My premonition is growing stronger!

??(?w?)

I'm home today. My head has been throbbing since I got off the plane, so today's update will be a bit shorter. Zhang Yang managed to spot something amiss with just 33 points of intelligence; he's already become aware of the situation.