I, the little cat, am a substitute for others who are starving and thin

Another NPC?

Yimi frowned, threw the teleportation crystal on the ground, and continued to rummage through Rosalia's inventory. Not finding her own bowl, she let go of the woman in disappointment. At this moment, a pop-up window appeared in Rosalia's message.

"Well?"

Looking at the red dot above, the kitten, completely unaware of how rude this was, couldn't help but reach out to help her click it open.

"Boss, when are we going to trick those guys out?"

Yimi read it curiously.

"Cheat? Cheat what?"

Silica was stunned.

Then another line popped up, and Yimi continued reading: "I can't make it to the temple anymore, I'm going to be killed."

She automatically omitted words she didn't know, although she still pronounced them incorrectly.

"What the hell-"

When the chat history was read out, Rosalia became furious and finally stabbed Yimi in the face without caring about anything else.

At the same time, the leader of the Blood Alliance Knights on the front line of the strategy group had a scratch on his face, and his HP dropped below the yellow line for the first time.

"Meow!"

There is no mechanism that makes it immune to player damage like regular NPCs, nor is there an effect that makes players immune to damage in towns, but the HP that has been revealed is not reduced by a single point.

"Ms. Rosalia?"

"Diego's lackey!"

Yimi drew out his spear and slashed straight towards Rosalia with a standard flying circular slash. The game, which automatically corrected his moves, combined with the moves he already possessed in reality, made the attack draw a perfect arc.

However, a move that could cause extremely high damage caused a system warning to pop up as it approached Rosalia's face.

"Ha...haha! Idiot, what are you thinking? This is the player's safe zone!"

Rosalia was so frightened that she sat on the ground, and then she laughed dryly because she had escaped danger.

"What are you still standing there for? Kill her now!"

"What...haha?"

The boys who stayed here also laughed out loud, not because they were happy, but just wanted to show that they had survived the disaster.

"Um……"

Silica gently pushed away the boy who was blocking her way. Her innocent face put on a serious expression as she looked at Rosalia: "Rosalia, what did that kid just say? Was she reading your chat box?"

This was just a temporary teammate she had just met, and since she had just inexplicably tried to share her spoils, Silica certainly couldn't trust her at all. However, the green cursor on her head made her a little undecided.

"Chat box, I'm sorry I don't know what you're talking about."

Rosalia shrugged, as if she wasn't the one who was frightened.

"Now is definitely not the time to talk about this, right?"

She turned to look at Yimi, and fear reappeared on her face.

The other two people might not be able to see it because they were too far away, but at such a close distance, she could clearly notice that the warning sign that blocked the attack for her was already covered with tiny cracks and was crumbling. Judging from the expression of the little guy, it seemed that he was curious about the warning and therefore did not take the next step.

Come to think of it, although I haven't tried what would happen if I was attacked by monsters in the safe zone, the player's attack would still have a similar effect of penetrating the body, and isn't the warning something for the players to see?

"Why are you just standing there? Why don't you help?"

It was difficult to understand, and in her haste she uttered a grammatical error. Rosalia raised the knife and stabbed at Yimi again.

He still took Rosalia's stab without dodging. Perhaps because of the optimization of the game server, the Love Train in this world did not have overly strong special effects, but at a distance almost touching her face, Rosalia still saw a fleeting flash of light.

The end of the luster is herself!

"It's a lie, right? It's a lie, a lie—"

She looked at the scar effects on her chest in shock, and watched blankly as her health bar continued to drop to the bottom.

It doesn't make sense.

It is impossible for her to be killed by a single blow due to the damage she sustained.

Blood medicine, blood medicine! There's still time!

With the last moment of her life, Rosalia looked up at Yimi and saw that the reinforcements that the boy had just called for finally appeared at the main door behind her. Because of the space inside the door, he was the only one who came in.

A swordsman with black hair and long black bangs.

"You're so late..."

Before she could finish her words, she collapsed into polygons, symbolizing the passing of life.

At the last second, she wanted to curse the person who came, "Are you coming so late just to watch me die?", even though she didn't know the person.

"NPC really killed someone!"

"Step aside!"

The armored man I had seen before tried to push away the boy standing in the front, but was stopped by him with one hand: "Wait a minute, this is just the simplest trick!"

He looked down at Yimi with complicated eyes.

At this distance, his belly was almost touching the back of the little girl's head, so he could see the light very clearly.

It's exactly the same light that briefly crashed the game last year.

After a moment's hesitation, the young man picked up Rosalia's weapon from the ground. "I'm here chasing that woman. On the upper levels, there's a man whose companions have all been murdered. He's been asking high-level players around the square to avenge him. Even so, he just wants to put his enemies in jail."

"This woman, the leader of the Orange Guild, Titan's Hand, uses her green symbol to lure others outside, and then has her companions help kill them."

Orange represents players who have committed criminal acts and have difficulty gaining the trust of others.

The boy, whose ID was Kirito, glanced at Yimi, who had stopped attacking. His eyes happened to catch sight of the teleportation item on the ground, and he instantly had an idea:

"I was the first one to arrive. The items were scattered here from the beginning. I'm afraid that woman deliberately provoked certain NPCs, or simply ordered them to do so, faking the appearance of murder."

"Forged? How can you forge this? Where can I find such a specific NPC?"

The armored man clearly didn't believe it.

"It's simple. When the item's durability runs out, there will be a special effect similar to death. Just time it and use the item to teleport. Although you won't be damaged in the safe circle, the equipment still has durability."

Kirito looked down at Yimi: "Also, when I got here just now, I saw that this NPC's attack was blocked by the system. Can you try to attack me?"

"why?"

Yimi didn't understand.

Cats won't hit people for no reason.

Kirito scratched his cheek: "It's unexpectedly a good kid setting, then..."

He suddenly curled up his fingers and gave Yimi a slight head pump! Just as the rumors said, there was no warning from the harassing NPC.

"!"

"Big idiot!"

Yimi raised his little fist to fight back, but was intercepted again. This time there was no gun and of course no sign of a break.

"That's it."

Kirito looked at Yimi apologetically, even though she was just an NPC.

"What? What good is this?"

It seems that passers-by all believed this statement.

"Come to think of it, isn't this NPC the one in the rumors?"

Kirito stood up again: "It's to make players no longer trust the safe zone and the like. After all, she herself is a murderer who needs others to leave the safe zone."

No one noticed that he clenched one hand nervously.

His actions of framing the deceased were despicable, perhaps even more despicable than anything he had done before that made him regret, even if the deceased was the leader of a murder guild.

5

Chapter 5 Can I beat him?

"It's called a boss, but her health bar doesn't change at all when you attack her. Even the boss on the first floor doesn't have such a short health bar."

"So, they were the ones who spread the news about the boss disguised as an NPC, right?"

"But is this a bug or something? You can actually hit her?"

"It must be a bug. You can tell at a glance that this NPC is not well made."

The armored man, who had already been convinced by Kirito, spoke out as a witness: "When I greeted her just now, a quest popped up here, but the quest guide and reward list were completely empty. It looked like a half-finished product."

Another person nodded: "Indeed, when I spoke to her before, nothing happened. She just walked away from me..."

Kirito glanced at the player who had just expressed his confusion about his ability to attack an NPC. "Actually, when I attacked her, a warning popped up that only I could see, but I haven't noticed any actual punishment or blocking. That woman exploited this bug to make the NPC's attacks ineffective."

If you tell a lie, you have to cover it up with more lies. He understands the trouble involved.

Kirito stepped in front of Yimi and said:

"But when this happens, I actually get a little panicked. I don't recommend following my example. This game has very strict penalties for harassing NPCs. The game didn't fix the issue for a few days after the rumors about her started. It's very likely that Kayaba Akihiko deliberately left NPCs like this around to play games that test human nature."

"After all, his purpose in trapping us here is unclear, and he's also opened up a mechanism where players can harm each other. It wouldn't be surprising if he was just trying to test human nature out of mischievousness."

"If we release an NPC that interacts with damage now, who knows, he might even give an orange cursor to all players who harm him. Then, we can issue a high-reward quest to defeat the orange-labeled player... The cost of this game to us is too high. At least, I'm not willing to take that risk."

"That's right."

Some foolish players gave up the idea of ​​doing it.

Kirito breathed a sigh of relief.

His statement should be able to spread, after all, it concerns the actions of the mastermind behind the scenes. Although it feels like it has nothing to do with Kayaba Akihiko, you are scolded countless times by players every day, and this blame should be borne by you.

If players start to feel that even the inner circle is no longer safe, then this game might never end, right? And...

Bugs are more convincing than you might think. At this point, no one thinks SAO is an absolutely stable game.

Last year, the game crashed once. Golden cracks carrying white light spread from the sky and the earth to every floor of the game. Following the "two-hour disconnection and transfer to the hospital" allowed by Kayaba Akihiko when the server was first launched, all players were once again plunged into darkness and waiting.

After the repair, Kayaba Akihiko only mentioned a system update. The compensation offered by this stingy guy was just a fixed amount of experience points for everyone, which was a very limited improvement for high-level players.

To outsiders, Kirito's explanation is very reasonable. So much time has passed and few people would think of using object special effects to deceive people. However, if this is a normal game that continues to recruit new players, this kind of fraud is only a matter of time.

The three people who witnessed Yimi looking through Rosalia's panel felt uncomfortable, but they also saw the system warning with their own eyes, and they were unwilling to truly believe something that would make them lose their sense of security. They could only regard that trace of doubt as Rosalia's self-directed and self-acted explanation to themselves.

After all, it is just a temporary team. They don’t know whether the other party has deleted their friends on their own initiative. Because it is just a temporary team, even if they know about the other party’s deception, they can only survive the disaster without the depression of being deceived.

No one considered Rosalia's own perspective of being attacked, and no one considered how a warning meant for people could appear on an NPC's face.

"What a bummer! Let's go."

Even though he felt relieved, the person who said this acted as if he was expecting something to happen.

Even though they were curious about Yimi, no one wanted to stand at the door of the rental place that Silica and the others had rented. In fact, this was a somewhat impolite act in itself. If Kirito had not followed the person who asked for help, he would not have been able to break into someone else's locked rental house.

"call……"

"Hmm."

Looking down at Yimi again, the kitten who was just angry at his head pump did not retaliate a second time.

But because he was not satisfied, Yimi's little hands were dishonestly opening his inventory and looking through it. When he saw something curious, he would take it out to take a look.

A chill ran over me as I saw the naughty kid breaking into the figurine house.

Kirito was so frightened that he quickly moved away and quickly took out the black bread and butter that he was already a little tired of eating: "I'm really sorry about what happened just now. Take this as compensation."

It's great that the child doesn't seem to be that aggressive.

In fact, he didn’t know if it was his illusion, but after hitting Yimi’s head, he felt a sudden pain in his own head.

But because he hadn't felt pain for more than a year, he could only regard this fleeting pain as phantom pain. There would be no redness or swelling of the skin in the game, so his sensitivity to this kind of pain was not very strong.

It was precisely this insensitivity to pain and his nonchalant look that made Yimi certain that he was the kind of person who was immune to her causing others to become thin due to starvation, and her hatred increased by 1.

Yimi put her hands behind her back and refused to take it. The equivalent of eating is a pat on the head, not a knock on the head.

She pointed at Kirito angrily: "What's your name?"