reincarnation npc, but tomorrow's ark

Ifrit didn't go out to say anything.

……

However, if Ifrit were to tell Baiye and Dr. Kal'tsit about this, she would likely receive a completely different reaction, and it would probably be helpful. This is because Baiye and Dr. Kal'tsit know exactly what happened to the child.

That thing that Ifrit called "that wretched fat man" is very likely the consciousness of some Balrog. According to the information Saria previously provided, the essence of the "Balrog Project" that Ifrit participated in was actually to fuse a fragment of a Balrog with an experimental subject.

It's quite normal for the Flame Demon fragments to contain the Flame Demon's consciousness.

However, this thing chickened out when it encountered Bai Ye; it's a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong.

-------------------------------------

Bai Ye was unaware of the conversation between Ifrit and Himer.

Even he himself couldn't understand why Charmander and he had such a good relationship, but having such an interesting junior was quite a fun thing.

Yes, Baiye treats the little fire dragon like a child. Although she is taller than Heme (Heme: Are you being polite?), this girl's mental age is only about 10 years old.

A typical little kid.

When Bai Ye is with her, he feels like he has become a reliable adult, especially after meeting Dr. Kal'tsit, he can quickly find confidence in Ifrit.

So, Bai Ye is actually quite awkward.

……

After finishing his business on Rhodes Island, Bai Ye first returned to Kazimierz.

It feels like it's been ages since I last went back, but when I check the date, it's only been two days. It feels like a whole month has passed, though. What's going on?

Bai Ye guessed that it was probably because he missed those two deep-sea hunters very much, not because some trashy author had stopped updating for a long time!

After finishing repairs on the fourth wall, Bai Ye quietly returned to his hideout in Kazimierz—the manor of a certain knight lady.

Although he had completely taken control of the Unrivaled Alliance, established a cooperative relationship with the Rose Newspaper Group in the Business Federation, and even gained the friendship of the Grand Knight Commander of the Supervisory Council, Bai Ye still lived in Zofia's house.

He looks exactly like a gigolo who lives off a woman.

Well, they even brought three other girls to stay there—doesn't that make things even worse?

If we consider Goredia as a young girl, then ( )

Fortunately, Bai Ye maintained a good cooperative relationship with the Rose Newspaper Group, which allowed him to indirectly control those unscrupulous editors. Otherwise, given the nature of those gossip tabloids, they would definitely have exposed this kind of tabloid news.

This arrangement has reduced Bai Ye's workload somewhat.

Well, or rather, it reduced the workload for the Justice Enforcement Department.

……

Bai Ye's return to Kazimierz this time was indeed not for anything important.

The key issue still lies with Laurentina.

Ghost Sharks need to replenish their "White Night Energy" regularly, so White Night doesn't leave Deepsea Hunter for too long, usually returning every one or two days.

It's much better than before.

Initially, Ghost Shark could not leave the White Night for more than 12 hours, otherwise she would fall into the same dark state as before. Later, this situation was extended to 24 hours.

It's much better now; I've had no problems for at least three or four days.

However, Bai Ye had already gotten used to going back often.

Perhaps it was because the Specter Shark was too clingy in that state? He felt a little reluctant to leave it alone. Unless Bai Ye genuinely wanted to play some strange game, he usually granted Laurentina's requests.

Skadi usually joins them as well.

In the end, it was always Goredia who was injured.

For a deep-sea hunter with extremely keen senses, sometimes having overly developed hearing may not be a good thing.

Especially when Bai Ye forgot to activate the soundproof barrier...

Chapter 81 Player Logout

The world operates independently of human will, at least for now. After all, in the world of a certain Hanged Man, Yuriko Suzuko could stop the Earth's rotation for 5 minutes by using her full power.

After spending two days in the warm embrace of Specter and Skadi in Kazimierz, White Night forced himself to break free from his idyllic state, enduring the almost deadpan stare of Graceia, and returned to the core city.

Life must go on.

For Bai Ye, this is the most important day of the year.

1097 12 Month 31 Day.

The player has disappeared.

Well, the native inhabitants of Terra have become quite used to it after experiencing at least two mass undead wipeouts. This is especially true for the residents of the core city.

Besides the complete halt of most commercial activities, the pace of economic development will also be greatly affected. This is indeed a significant blow to core cities whose industries rely heavily on players.

However, it wasn't as serious as I had imagined.

It just so happens that everyone is taking a long holiday together.

The lifestyle of those infected may be very different from that of ordinary people. Their lives are in constant danger; for these poor souls suffering from terminal illness, death from an outbreak of Oripathy could come at any moment.

Therefore, they are more willing to spend more time with family and friends. As for wealth, enough is enough. After all, no matter how much they earn, they may never have the chance to spend it, so there is no need to be so competitive and work so hard.

For some of the infected, work is simply a means to make their home a better place; they're not working solely for themselves. Their level of awareness is truly impressive; even Bai Ye admires them.

Therefore, a longer rest period is just right for them, and they are even happy to do so.

However, for the branches of large enterprises stationed in the core city, it was indeed a disaster.

A one-month hiatus means these companies, which rely on player spending, will face a full month of production and business shutdown, which is absolutely terrifying. Fortunately, Bai Ye has already held several meetings with the heads of these companies' departments, assuring them that they don't need to worry about overcapacity and can continue research and development while maximizing their inventory.

If it weren't for Bai Ye's successful prediction of the exact time the players disappeared once again, further solidifying his status as an expert and consolidating his authority, these guys might not have actually followed his advice completely.

Only Bai Ye knows the spectacle that follows each new version. Players typically accumulate a large amount of experience and LMD at the end of a version's release, ready to shop and celebrate after the version's launch.

The reason for this habit is that in the past, games would use versions to limit the strength of players, usually by restricting levels, such as level restrictions or skill level restrictions.

For example, in the first version of a certain online game, the level cap was only 20, so by the end of the version, all the experience points could only be stored up and could not be used.

That's pretty funny.

Arknights Online doesn't intentionally lock players at certain levels. However, leveling up in this game is extremely difficult. Wild monsters don't respawn automatically, and dungeons have stamina limits, so you can't just mindlessly grind monsters like in other games.

Even after two versions, the players' levels aren't particularly high. However, they've put a lot of effort into honing their skills and abilities.

There are no useless skills in Arknights Online, and skills learned early on will not become obsolete due to version updates. Even top-tier players like White Night wouldn't abandon the skills they initially learned.

On the contrary, these fundamental abilities are the cornerstone of a player's power system.

Furthermore, as you continuously add skill points, the level of basic skills will gradually increase. For example, the level of a skill like [Originium Arts Theoretical Foundations] determines the upper limit of a player's spellcasting ability.

This is also what makes the game interesting for players.

Therefore, the new version opens up new skills for players to learn and iterates on new equipment, which has become what Bai Ye and his friends need to do now.

Actually, this kind of thing wasn't difficult for Bai Ye. Luna had already done it before she transmigrated, and Bai Ye himself was a veteran player, so almost no one understood players better than him. He could set up new equipment step by step according to the players' needs, which would motivate them without widening the gap too much and making players feel that there was an insurmountable chasm between themselves and high-end equipment.

In short, it's about being a ruthless, inhuman planner.

White Night did not rush to produce the first-generation power armor "Gipsy Danger". Although this model had undergone various tests by Melantha and its performance had reached an amazing level of stability, it was still a first-generation model. Even though it could be considered a god-tier weapon by today's players, it was obviously not a top-tier piece of equipment.

They will eventually be phased out.

Once new versions are released, these older versions will be difficult to sell, and may even become unsellable. Unsellable equipment means losses, and there will be no cash flow to continue developing and burning through funds for the updated power armor models. Bai Ye doesn't want to stop developing new models just to buy older versions of equipment.

In the ancient times on Earth, such things did happen before. Many electronics companies that can be considered ancient paved the way for future generations with their bloody lessons.

However, few people remember this kind of history anymore. After all, in this new era, everyone has a database to compile, and many things can be retrieved at any time, so memorization seems insignificant. Bai Ye learned this knowledge in a special training course. Zhongsi Academy still maintains the strange tradition of closed-book exams.

Therefore, after calculation, White Night stopped producing power armor after producing an appropriate number of units and instead began producing various repair parts and expansion packs for customized power armor.

Yes, there are also various paint jobs and decorative items that represent the power armor skin.

While power armor is already cool enough, it can get a bit boring for players if they can customize it themselves. This would obviously satisfy their desire for personalization.

"Will this kind of spray paint really sell?" The typist was somewhat skeptical.

She always felt that for people who buy weapons, such decorative items could easily compromise the weapon's original stability, and no one would be willing to gamble with their own life.

"Heh, you're too young." Bai Ye had an expression that said he saw through everything. "When young people start putting stickers of anime girls on their guns, the nature of the matter has already changed."

Chapter 82 The Typing Girl's Alertness

"Anime/manga culture? Does that mean it's what's known as otaku culture?"

The typist's eyes lit up.

Bai Ye couldn't help but turn his head and glance at her.

Upon noticing this, the girl immediately stopped smiling and hurriedly explained:

"Ahem, I... I have absolutely no interest in those things from the East."

"Um, I don't know what you're talking about!"

The girl muttered to herself, looking even more anxious than Bai Ye.

"Speaking of which, what comic did I see you reading last time?" Bai Ye stroked his chin thoughtfully, as if he hadn't heard what the typing girl was saying.

"Waaaaah..." Lephne screamed.

"Hmm, and last time, I saw you ask Miss Linglan to buy something from the East..." Baiye ignored the strangely shaped typist and continued talking to himself.

"Gah-"

Typing Girl was completely sunk.

"Hey, are you alright? You've turned completely gray..." Bai Ye patted the girl's shoulder. Turns out, some people really do have a sudden change in appearance...

In short, due to a chance conversation, the Typing Girl revealed her hidden attributes to Bai Ye.

……

"Um, sorry. I felt like Typing Girl was easy to bully, so I couldn't help but take the joke too far." Bai Ye apologized with a smile, but his tone didn't sound like he was apologizing.

Sure enough, the typist got even angrier:

"Did you come here today to argue with me? Go get some tomatoes, I'm going to smash them in your face and make you look like you're covered in blood!"

"..." Bai Ye didn't expect that this guy's way of threatening people was quite cute.

If it were one of her own kind, the cheerful Exusiai would probably already be grinning as she pulls out her Laterano Gun.

Typing Princess only reluctantly forgave Bai Ye after he took out the special edition potato chips he bought from Longmen.

……

"It's all Dad's fault after all..." the typist said angrily while crunching on potato chips.

"Hmm, you and him..." Bai Ye was a little confused.

He used to think that the typist might have some kind of estrangement from her family, since she looked very unwilling when her father called her home last time.

However, judging from the girl's tone now, it seems that this is not the case as he imagined.

If there were a conflict, they wouldn't speak in this tone.

"Hmm? You mean Dad? Ah, I remember Mostima sent you a letter last time?" Typing Girl didn't know what Bai Ye was thinking, and her expression was a little strange, but she said firmly, "Trust me, whatever you do, don't meet him. You'll regret it."

"..." Bai Ye really didn't quite understand the reason. However, when she recalled her meeting with Mostima, her expression was indeed a bit strange when she mentioned Typing Princess's father.

"Can you tell me why?" Bai Ye blinked.

"The reason... I can't say it!" The typist shook her head in frustration after struggling for a while. "Anyway, you'll know when you see him... No, it's probably better not to see him."

As Bai Ye spoke contradictory words, he became increasingly confused.

Are riddle tellers all the rage now?

It seems that Terra is indeed a breeding ground for riddle masters, and among them, Dr. Kal'tsit is undoubtedly the best.

In short, this nonsensical topic has come to an end.

"I suddenly have some free time..."

Bai Ye sat down at the desk, and Typing Girl naturally moved the open bag of potato chips over to him.