Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
If they had not seen it for themselves, no one would have thought that the most knowledgeable NPC of Twilight City was not an intelligent NPC. This NPC even stayed somewhere everyone was familiar with, the library.
In the deepest corner of the library, there was a skinny lad who wore glasses and held a book heavier than him.
This lad’s name was simple and boorish, “Librarian”.
“What! How is this possible! Old Bull, have you been swindled?” Fearless said in disbelief.
There were so many impressive NPCs in Twilight City. No one would have thought that they were looking for such a person. His name sounds like a mass-produced NPC, one of those functional NPC which every main city had just like system guards.
“I don’t think so, he is a GM after all…” Wang Yu’s words did not sound confident. After all, exploration quests typically needed intelligent NPCs to trigger it. It did not make sense that for the high level Atlanta quest, a non-intelligent NPC was needed to trigger it.
Wang Yu also understood why 9527 said that there was nothing wrong with his second question. This was merely a functional NPC which could be found everywhere… It was akin to asking the GM where to buy weapons. Hence, it was an answerable question.
Spring Halo said, “Don’t belittle Librarian… The Old Taoist Monk and the Holy Monk who swept the floor in Shaolin Temple were both librarians too, even the current dynasty’s…”
“Urgh, shut up…” Everyone was annoyed.
“Why not just ask him!” Vainglory looked at everyone condescendingly then walked to Librarian and asked, “Excuse me, do you know of the Atlanta’s Key?”
“A price is tagged to every question. The starting price is one hundred! For me to answer this question, you only need to pay one hundred gold coins.” After Vainglory asked, Librarian said with a smile, and shocked everyone present.
Non-intelligent NPC’s method of extorting money was indeed extraordinarily aggressive. He even had a standard pricing… Furthermore, it was so expensive, a total of one hundred gold coins. This was almost all the money most of the players had in the game.
There was no other way. At least with an intelligent NPC, they could use reasoning to haggle for a lower price. However, a functional NPC was merely a machine. There was no use reasoning with it.
Vainglory looked at Wang Yu and Fearless, then took out a hundred gold coins and handed them over nervously.
“I know!” Librarian blurted these two words indifferently after receiving the gold coins.
Vainglory was anticipating what would Librarian say next. However, this lad did not bother with Vainglory after saying those two words.
“F*ck! You’ve finished answering me?” Vainglory was furious.
“For me to answer this question, you need to pay a hundred gold coins.” Librarian spoke as he looked at Vainglory.
“Argh!” Vainglory was driven crazy… This system is indeed sneaky. He paid one hundred gold coins to receive such an answer.
“How stupid of you. Ask again!” Everyone reprimanded Vainglory as this idiot had played the game for so long and yet, was still cheated. He was putting them to shame.
Vainglory painfully shook his head and took out another one hundred gold coins then said, “Can you tell me the Atlanta’s Key’s secret?”
Librarian received the one hundred gold coins and gave an even shorter reply, “Yes!”
“What!!!” Vainglory turned fuming mad instantly and punched Librarian’s head. A blue ray of light flashed across. Librarian stood still while Vainglory was bumped away. Twilight City merit points -20.
“I don’t believe I won’t get the answer!” Vainglory stood back up and wanted to continue asking but he was stopped by Wang Yu who picked him up by his collar and threw him aside.
Fearless walked over and said, “Tell me all the information about the Atlanta’s Key.”
Librarian glanced at Fearless and unaffectedly said, “For me to answer this question, you need to pay one thousand gold coins!”
“Why don’t you rob someone?” Vainglory stomped his feet and scolded. This child was too ignorant and tried to compete with a machine.
Librarian glanced at Vainglory and said, “For me to answer this question, you need to pay one hundred gold coins…”
“…” Vainglory surrendered.
Fearless ignored the useless Vainglory and gave Librarian one thousand gold coins.
Librarian received the gold coins and cooperatively replied, “Atlanta’s mainland is an ancient ruins. Before the Darkness Faction invaded Atlanta’s mainland, a civil war erupted. It was then buried in the Ocean of Death which is at the northwest of Lawrence Mountain Range.
Although it was not much, the amount of critical information it had was way more than the replies Vainglory got.
Firstly, Atlanta was the name of a location, not a person. No wonder so many NPCs had never heard of a person called Atlanta. Secondly, Atlanta’s location was at the northwest of the Lawrence Mountain Range.
Lawrence Mountain Range was a well-known mountain range in the background story of <<REBIRTH>>. This mountain range separated the Light and Darkness Factions. The well-known Ironcliff Fortress was dug from this mountain range.
However, no one had heard of the Ocean of Death. In the known map of <<REBIRTH>>, there was no record of such a place.
“Where is the Ocean of Death?” Fearless turned to ask Librarian.
This time, Librarian did not ask for money. Instead, he shook his head and said, “It is beyond what I can answer…”
It seemed like Librarian could not be used as their answer machine. For such top-level information, it was no use giving him money.
This was expected. Every main city had a “Librarian”. If everyone knew their existence and used them for answers, this game’s playability would greatly decrease.
They could cheat some money but if they cheated so much until players leave, they would end up losing even more. Soaring Dragons’ designers were indeed extremely witty.
Since Librarian did not answer them, they could only search around themselves. Fearless also spent a lot more to buy the newest edition of a complete world map from Librarian.
In real life, a map probably does not worth much but in the game, there were no satellites and so, maps’ value were extraordinarily sky high. Only people like those in Quan Zhen Sect who were so rich, could spend money so casually.
There were two key things from the information given by Librarian: the Lawrence Mountain Range, and the Ocean of Death.
In summary, there were both mountains and an ocean. They needed to look for an ocean near the Lawrence Mountain Range.
However, Fearless searched along the Lawrence Mountain Range but did not even find a lake… That was weird.
“It’s impossible. Unless, there were movements of tectonic plates?” Fearless rubbed his chin in deep thoughts.
“That’s not possible. The Lawrence Mountain Range had not change for tens of thousands of years. This shows that even if this world’s tectonic plates moved, it would be very minute… The Ocean of Death was so big, how could it disappear?” Spring Halo condescendingly said.
“Come, let me take a look…” Wang Yu was not familiar with what they were talking about and hence, wanted Fearless to give him the map.
“Do not damage it. It’s real expensive!” Fearless carefully passed the map to Wang Yu and continued discussing about tectonic plate movements with Spring Halo.
Wang Yu looked at the Lawrence Mountain Range’s surroundings for a while then suddenly pointed at a main city, “Is this the Ocean of Death we are looking for?”