reincarnation npc, but tomorrow's ark

Yes, if one person can't kill you, then call a whole group; the world chat is full of messages calling for reinforcements. Players are such contradictory beings. They can fight tooth and nail over the smallest internal conflicts (literally), but once an external enemy appears, they immediately unite and stand together against it.

More and more players are flocking to Iberia because of the calls.

Before entering the battlefield, they had already selected their assigned zones and quickly read the instructions written by the commander. Therefore, they did not get confused after entering the battlefield, but instead went to their assigned positions.

The addition of new players will not cause chaos in the defense; on the contrary, they will effectively fill the gaps in the defense.

Just then, some players started doing something new. They were exploration players who were detached from the battlefield and were called "Rangers". They discovered the nest of the sea terror fish and a continuous stream of enemies were pouring out of it.

Therefore, a group of players quickly organized themselves and prepared to raid the enemy base. They even managed to "get" a speedboat from the Punisher Army.

Yes, the players are very daring; there's almost nothing they wouldn't dare to do in this situation.

The group charged into the sea with a large quantity of high-energy explosives. Because players had already implanted eyes in their bodies, they wouldn't even lose their way.

Although the first squad was quickly wiped out due to their unfamiliarity with underwater combat, many other squads rushed towards their location.

With a large number of players who couldn't die, they immediately utilized their innate advantage: saturation attacks, which was their forte...

And so, players who had grown to a certain stage, each possessing considerable combat power, displayed the formidable strength of the Fourth Calamity for the first time on this land. What was once minor skirmishes had now become an undeniable force on this land. The various qualities they exhibited would also awe the native inhabitants.

Chapter 155 The Key to Victory or Defeat

(Unnie Eunya, hehehe, my Unnie Eunya, you'll be able to receive it soon)

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"Now, do you still think they're chaotic?"

Kal'tsit and the others who had been standing by the teleportation device were now idle. The arrival of the players changed the situation in just five minutes.

The ocean of undead instantly submerged the real sea. The swarms of dinosaurs, once ashore, couldn't even create a ripple among the players.

Kal'tsit and Carmen stayed far away from the teleportation device, as there was simply no place for them to stand. Even the players themselves were jostling and pushing, forcing the guild to eventually set up more teleportation crystals in Granfalo to distribute the players.

Saint Carmen watched as the players methodically killed the Terrorfish and burned away the Netherworld Mark, and couldn't help but sigh:

"They are indeed very efficient soldiers—after the initial chaos, they immediately organized themselves. And strangely enough, they spontaneously formed an organization without even communicating, which is very strange."

"Baiye speculates that this race possesses a telepathic ability, which allows them to communicate more efficiently," Kal'tsit replied.

“There are no written records about the undead circulating in Iberia; we’ve only seen reports of such a race within the country. It seems we’ve indeed isolated ourselves for too long, and are even falling behind the outside world,” Carmen said softly.

“However, this sensory ability seems somewhat similar to the pheromone exchange of Hai Si?” Kal’tsit pondered. “No wonder Bai Ye has always said that the undead are the best choice to resist large groups.”

“Indeed, they are numerous, and they can move quickly using abilities similar to spatial magic, and they can also resurrect. No wonder they are called ‘undead.’” Carmen clearly admired the players’ fighting style.

Kal'tsit added:

"You've missed the most crucial point: the undead don't leave behind corpses when they die. Instead, they shatter into fragments and then disappear as light particles. They are a kind of projection-like creature. Therefore, when a large group kills them, they can't obtain anything useful—corpses, biomass, nutrients, gene fragments for evolution... nothing at all."

"The strength of a large group lies in its ability to sustain itself through war, constantly and passively evolving, drawing nourishment from the corpses of enemies to replenish its manpower, fully utilizing its strengths to make up for its own weaknesses, or evolving new abilities to cope with new environments."

"However, when fighting these undead, they gain nothing but endless biomass depletion."

“But the undead, they are getting stronger in an unknown way—” Carmen pointed to the player in front of her, “They have appeared in Iberia before. At first, they were very weak, even weaker than ordinary bounty hunters. The most ordinary Retribution soldier could easily kill a whole squad.”

"But later, they gradually became stronger, even able to help us hunt bounty hunters, and now, the best among them can even rival the Inquisitors of the Inquisition. Although such strong individuals are few in number, their average level has surpassed that of the Punishing Army."

Kal'tsit watched the undead pushing back towards the coastline and sighed.

"Fortunately, these people are peace-loving and have even helped us a lot. Otherwise, a group of immortal beings who can grow stronger through battle might become a nightmare for the entire land, even more terrifying than hordes of demons. This would be an invasion of us from another dimension."

"No matter what, at least they are helping us solve the crisis in the deep sea." Carmen didn't seem worried.

Without external assistance, he was certain that the deep sea would be the first to engulf Iberia.

The fate of Terra is none of their concern, for they were the first to perish.

As they were speaking, a muffled sound came from the distant sea, and a huge column of water shot into the sky, shattering the waves.

"Looks like they've blown up their nearshore nest... What a bunch of fearless creatures." Carmen breathed a sigh of relief. The terror fish near Granfalo were retreating; their biological instincts told them they couldn't linger here any longer. They began fleeing the coastline, escaping back into the deep sea.

……

"hateful--"

The cultists of the Deep Sea Church, who witnessed all of this in secret, were furious. They had originally thought that the Terrorfish could devour all the heretics on the shore who were unwilling to join the large group, turning them into nourishment for the large group, and causing these damned Inquisitions to perish here.

However, the change was too rapid. In the blink of an eye, the invincible group in their minds was defeated, and even their nest was destroyed.

I'm not reconciled, I'm extremely unwilling to accept this.

The cultist clenched his fist, but the next moment, something cold was pressed against his throat.

It was a sword.

"Courtroom, come with us." The voice that came through the phone was colder than a sword blade, sending the cultist into an icy abyss.

Clearly, the Inquisition wasn't just watching the players battle the Sea Kings. The Punishing Army, following Carmen's orders, began to meet the reinforcements from the three large formations that were coming to their aid, while simultaneously setting up fortifications and barracks in Granfalo.

The judges of the Inquisition began capturing these cultists from the Deep Sea Church. The Terrorfish didn't attack here without reason; it was clear that the cultists were sending signals, guiding and indirectly controlling these creatures that acted on instinct.

Therefore, these people must be arrested to eliminate the remaining poison.

……

"It seems you're safe over there." Bai Ye's voice came through the communicator to Kal'tsit's ears.

Although he was already in the deep sea, Bai Ye seemed to have a very good understanding of the situation here.

“Your side is making quite a commotion too,” Kal'tsit replied.

The solar wind rays of the White Nights were still too domineering and powerful, and even the seaside was affected to some extent.

"Did you gather those undead?" Kal'tsit quickly grasped the key point.

Bai Ye replied with a smile:

“I don’t deny that, but it’s not entirely due to my personal factors.”

He then sent an encrypted file to Kal'tsit:

"You and Lady Carmen need to implement the above immediately—next, we must make good use of these undead to relieve the pressure on the Iberian defenses and buy time for our operation."

Bai Ye knew full well that it was impossible to completely eliminate Hai Si through the players; this was an endless war of attrition. The real key to victory lay with them, and with them, in the deep sea.

Chapter 156 Terrifying Earthlings

(I heard that bodies with missing organs have been found in mass graves in Gaza; they are still relatively new.)

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Now, Bai Ye no longer needs to personally become a GM and arrange the world like a game for the players. After Bai Ye submitted the plan to Kal'tsit and Carmen, the Iberian Tribunal began its work.

It's impossible for so many players to stay in one place indefinitely. Iberia has a long coastline with many defenses that urgently need strengthening, and the Inquisition is responsible for deploying players to various fronts to fill gaps.

Fortunately, thanks to the more advanced terminals left over from Argonaut's technology, Carmen was able to quickly complete these complex statistical and calculation tasks.

In addition, there are a series of settings that are very correct and indispensable for players, such as the military merit system, exchange shop, logistics supply, limited costumes, achievement challenges... The planners had already figured this out very well in the 21st century's anime-style online games. The system is extremely mature and can maximize the players' desire to play and buy - of course, the desire to compete is also very strong.

Especially when the game quality is extremely poor, yet the developers and planners still try to squeeze every last drop of money from players, players will naturally offer their most sincere and friendly greetings to the developers' and planners' "mama".

When Bai Ye visited the museum before, he was very curious about why these people always liked to go against the players. For example, they would use some very strange character illustrations, like dragon illustrations, to appease the players. Or they would make a villain with a very unlikable character into a player character. Or they would make the protagonist played by the player look like he was limping. It was really quite confusing.

Fortunately, *Arknights Online* is different from ordinary games. It's a game based on the real world, meticulously packaged. It looks very much like a game, but the underlying logic is different. Furthermore, Luna has never considered using it for profit; all existing revenue streams are simply to make the game appear genuinely real, nothing more. After all, 24th-century gamers aren't fools; the traditional crystal extraction and remote farming methods of 21st-century game developers are no longer effective.

……

"Everything's arranged. Your method is very effective; at least it's kept these undead somewhat in line..." The Inquisition, represented by Carmen, was also somewhat troubled. Having so many new mouths at once was indeed going to cause some initial chaos. However, players had one advantage: they didn't require any resources. Luna had considered this, and hadn't implemented a system like a hunger meter. Otherwise, with tens of thousands of mouths to feed, the original system of Terra might very well collapse.

There are still many people on this land who don't have enough to eat.

Similarly, although Iberia is technologically advanced, it can only guarantee the food supply for its core cities. As a closed country that has long been self-isolating, it has no time to take care of coastal towns like Saltwind.

If players really need to eat, they probably won't need Sealings, and Iberia will collapse.

However, what's giving the court a headache is that the players have started causing trouble again.

Although players don't need to eat and have no hunger level, they can indeed enjoy food. The problem lies here: initially, some players found shellfish and started eating them. Only a few players became more daring and curious, even going so far as to chop off the tentacles of a tarantula and grill them in front of the Inquisitor.

Before the court could even react, the story spread across the forums, and players quickly began to imitate it. Well, according to the players, it actually tasted quite good, supposedly resembling grilled squid, and with the seasoning, it was quite fragrant.

Believe it or not, there's practically no seafood in Terra. This might be the first time players have tasted seafood on this land.

As for Earth? It's possible there won't be any seafood to eat in the 24th century. The reason is simple: since the early 21st century, before the Earth Federation was established, a shameless little country began discharging untreated nuclear wastewater into the ocean. Through ocean currents, almost all seafood carries some degree of nuclear radiation.

After that, Earth experienced Season 3, a great war that ended with the appearance of Luna. Humanity did not destroy itself, but it almost destroyed most of Earth's ecosystem at the time. Even with 24th-century technology, the restoration work is only basically complete, and nuclear radiation in the oceans has not been completely eliminated. Therefore, seafood is indeed very rare for these players.

The cost of consuming safe seafood is considerable. In fact, to restore the ecosystem, most marine life has become protected species.

Now that players have the opportunity to feast on seafood in Terra, their motivation for this new event has begun to shift. Initially, it might have just been a joke, but now they're serious. Even Bai Ye, who knows the players best, probably didn't expect this to happen.

However, only players would dare to eat like that. If it were a Terran, they would probably have already become terrified of fish by now. This reinforces the Iberians' stereotype of players; the Terrans are truly terrifying, they even eat sea creatures and seem to enjoy it immensely!

Carmen was at a loss, since these people weren't considered heretics and hadn't experienced any changes or reactions after eating. She certainly couldn't stop them now, otherwise the fragile cooperative relationship she had just established would be destroyed.

In the end, the court let it go, but they strictly forbade the Iberians from eating this "delicacy," no matter how fragrant it was!

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Bai Ye was both amused and exasperated upon learning of this, as it was indeed something that players would do.

Now is not the time to worry about such things. According to Carmen, with the players' help, they have resolved the crisis in Granfalo, and the Inquisition has established a foothold there and set up camp.

After that, the focus shifted to recovering the coastline, with the Eye of Iberia as the center. Scholars from the region were invited to study the Iberian lighthouse and begin repairing the remaining lighthouses.

According to the communication just now, their technicians, warships, and soldiers will arrive soon.

After that, Bai Ye and the others could safely search for the large ship and head to the deep sea.

However, before that, Bai Ye had one more thing to do.

Chapter 157 A Name

(I've definitely secured perfect attendance this month. As planned, I'm going to take a day off on May 1st. Wow, I'm so amazing!)

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“Ulpian, Goredia, come and see this.” Bai Ye examined the fragment of events called “The Last Knight” that appeared in his inventory, and then took out some documents that he had previously confiscated from the cultists of the Deep Sea Church.

Although the edges of the pages were charred black by the flames and some parts were blurred, the general content was still legible.

Goredia jumped off the aircraft and walked into the lighthouse.

“These are all letters exchanged between the bishops of the Deep Sea Church… They must have been sent by those cultists acting as messengers, which is why they were the ones who destroyed them.” Bai Ye examined the contents of the letters, then narrowed his eyes, pointed out one of them, and handed it to the two captains of the Deep Sea Hunters.

“This is… a deep-sea bishop? His name is Cicero.” Ulpian read the Agor script on it.

The reason Bai Ye was sensitive to this name was because he had seen it in Rhodes Island's files. Closing his eyes and searching along the name, Bai Ye, with his exceptional memory, quickly recalled that the name came from an operator's file.

It was a peculiar existence, a hybrid of a human and a being, clearly the result of a blasphemous experiment. Bai Ye deliberately avoided that operator to prevent the nascent soul within her from having a negative impact on him.

At that time, Gladys had already accepted the fact that the nascent life was sealed within White Night's body, so she did not take action against this life form that was almost half-human and half-sea creature. According to past practice, she would probably have wanted to kill that operator.

According to the operator's file, this unfortunate operator suffered a massacre of her village by bandits in her childhood. She was rescued by an old man passing by, and that old man's name was Cicero. Bai Ye suspects that the operator's current state is definitely related to Cicero.

And now, a deep-sea bishop happens to share the same name, Cicero, which is clearly no mere coincidence. Before venturing into the deep sea, Bai Ye intends to go to the place indicated on the letter to uncover the truth.

Bai Ye shared his thoughts with everyone present. The junior judge, Elena, immediately spoke up:

"We want to participate in this operation too!"

“I suggest the Tribunal stay here and wait for reinforcements to arrive.” Bai Ye shook his head. “The remaining lists can be submitted to you. The Tribunal can continue these arrest operations, but this time, let us handle it.”

“I’ll stay here and let Eleanor go with you,” Dario suggested. “She will oversee your actions on behalf of the Inquisition.”

Furthermore, Dario believes that Eleanor needs more training. It's good for her to stay with White Night; this young man will protect her.

"Then let's leave one person behind too." Bai Ye looked around at the deep-sea hunters, pondering a suitable candidate.

“I’ll stay… It seems you’ve gotten used to working together, and my joining would only disrupt the tacit understanding you’ve built up,” Ulpian said helplessly. “Gredia, I’ll leave things over there to you.”

“I know.” Goredia nodded, then paused and continued, “I will discipline your hunter. I was too lenient with her before and neglected to discipline her.”

Ulpian sighed:

"It's been a long time since I've seen her. She's changed so much. Her eyes are only for that special land person."

Goredia remained noncommittal.

However, she didn't say anything, since her own hunters were in the same boat. Why does it feel like meeting up with former comrades has turned into a parent-teacher conference?