---Third POV---
After spending two hours repricing the goods, the night outside was already lit by a sparse moon and stars.
Lux walked down the street, utterly drained.
Even more exhausting than pretending to be a fake noblewoman...
If Child were here, she could've dumped this task on him. Unfortunately, he was off tracking a suspect NPC involved in the main storyline.
Even at night, the church was lit brightly, with torches burning both inside and outside.
Creak.
A nun dressed in a white robe with green patterns looked at Lux in surprise and delight.
"Wonderful, Sister Angie is here!"
"Angie" was a fake name Lux had casually made up. Seeing an NPC approaching, she immediately wiped the fatigue off her face. Head up, chest out, stomach in, she adopted the posture from the dramas she used to watch.
When she opened her eyes again, she had already fully assumed the role of a holy and gentle nun, even her gaze was full of soft compassion.
"Sister Sally, are you looking for me?"
Sally was flattered and a little panicked. Although she wore a nun's robe and possessed a sliver of magical talent, in reality, she was just one of the many replaceable servants at the temple, not an official nun.
She ran up to Lux and clumsily gave a noble's curtsey.
"Good evening. Bishop Kasse wants to know if you'd like a glass of cool, refreshing plum tea?"
Lux's mind blared with warning sirens.
Again? These identity probes were relentless.
She kept a polite smile on her face.
"No need. To us, summer is never hot. It is instead the gaze of our Lord made manifest. There was a slight mishap during today's missionary activity, and I need to go rest properly."
Sally's eyes filled with sympathy, as if something had just clicked in her mind.
"Indeed, preaching to lowly commoners isn't an easy task."
And Nary Town was under the influence of the Goddess of Spring. For someone from the Radiant Church to openly call for conversions, it was bound to go badly, even if she was a nun. Coming back this late, she must be absolutely exhausted.
Thinking this, she stepped aside.
"Don't worry, I'll pass on the message for you. No one will disturb your rest tonight."
Lux continued to smile, her gentle and flawless features looking even more saintly under the hazy moonlight.
It wasn't until her silhouette fully disappeared that Sally reluctantly looked away.
"She truly is a kind and beautiful messenger of God."
The most even-tempered nun she had ever met. This perfectly matched the fantasies she had as a child.
---
Meanwhile, around the corner, Lux's pace quickened sharply. Taking advantage of the empty surroundings, she rubbed her face to loosen the fake smile.
God, pretending to be holy is so not a job for normal people!
To keep up the nun persona she'd created, she had to maintain a constant act in front of others, awkward and exhausting.
Shetook a less-traveled path back to the room the bishop had assigned her. On the way, she couldn't help but mutter, "I honestly don't know how LootGoblin managed it..."
She could barely pretend to be a nun for three to five days. LootGoblin had been impersonating a goblin for almost a month.
Ugh, just thinking about it hurt.
She didn't run into anyone on the way, so she didn't need to keep up appearances.
That was good news.
She entered her room with a light step. A cool breeze greeted her, and the table was covered with sweet, fragrant fruits. She closed her eyes and sighed in satisfaction.
"So nice..."
This was one of the greatest perks of staying at the church: Thoughtful service.
After all, she was from the higher-ranking Radiant Church. The Nary Town church was doing its best to keep up appearances.
She picked up a small green fruit the size of a cherry, just as she noticed two unread messages in her game inbox.
"Hm? Messages from Child? Is there progress on the main quest?"
She tossed the fruit into her mouth and opened the messages. There were only two short lines.
[I'm out. Took the siren NPC with me too. Good luck with your preaching and infiltrating the upper ranks of the Radiant Church.]
Lux, now suddenly an abandoned partner.
What the hell?
---
Meanwhile, Sally had informed the other servants searching outside that Lux had returned. They all headed back together to report to the bishop.
Behind a long table covered in red silk, Kasse turned around to face the row of servants standing before him.
"Sister Angie refused the tea."
"Yes," Sally replied respectfully, her head bowed low. "Her exact words at the time were…"
She recounted her entire conversation with Lux in detail, even mimicking her tone of voice.
Kasse rested his right hand against his chin, eyes fixed thoughtfully on the long table. After a moment, he nodded.
"Understood. You may go."
The group responded in unison and left in an orderly fashion. Halfway out, Sally suddenly recalled Angie's gentle eyes, and the way she had softly said, "Sister Sally." She couldn't help but stop in her tracks.
"Do we really need to keep testing her like this? Sister Angie… she doesn't seem like a fake. If the Radiant Church ever finds out…"
She trailed off, unsure why. Clearly, the woman had passed all the layers of screening early on. And yet, the bishop still remained suspicious of her. This ongoing testing was a burden to both sides.
Yesterday it was the wasteland hunt. Today it was preaching in the chaotic slums.
Nuns were supposed to stay in the church, offering devout prayers to their deity. But Angie was being pushed to her limits, returning each day under the moonlight.
Was that really okay?
The friend walking beside her suddenly tensed, eyes widening. Concealed by her dress, she tugged sharply at Sally's skirt. She gave her a look that clearly meant: Shut up.
This was not a topic temporary servants should be discussing.
Kasse had a stern and gaunt face, yet his temper was unexpectedly mild.
The gray-browed, white-haired elder raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.
"The Radiant Church is impressive indeed. It's been less than five days, and already they've won over a servant."
Sally was stunned.
"I… that's not what I meant."
She tried to explain but didn't know where to begin. Kasse waved his hand.
"I'm not accusing you of anything. In fact, from the first day she arrived, I never doubted her identity."
Sally covered her mouth, shocked. "Then why are you…"
If he knew she was really from the Radiant Church, why target her deliberately? Wasn't that asking for trouble?
Kasse let out a disdainful snort. "So what if she's a nun from the Radiant Church? No matter how powerful they are, this is still the territory of the Kingdom of Yoan! Their influence doesn't reach this far. If it did, those two archmages who were supposed to come help wouldn't have ditched halfway to chase some 'Butcher'!"
His expression darkened at the thought of the reinforcements who had been diverted. He couldn't help but curse at the two corpses left behind in the Windswept Plains:
"A necromancer they couldn't catch for six hundred years. And two overconfident archmages thought they could defeat the entire continent of Aeltia's worst nightmare?"
To him, whatever happened to the continent of Aeltia couldn't compare to the threat of the tide coming with winter. That was the real war, one that determined the life or death of Nary Town.
The death of those two archmages, indirectly caused by the town's request for help, had completely destroyed his chances of being reassigned to another town's church.
Now, he was stuck, bound to live or die with Nary Town. And he was just looking for somewhere to vent his fury.
Everyone else remained silent.
Although Kasse was only a mid-level mage, cursing out two archmages was quite ridiculous. But for the rest of them, mere magical apprentices serving as helpers, they had even less right to speak up.
After a long moment, having vented enough, he let out a long breath.
"So, the debts of the Radiant Church must be repaid by their own people. These days, more and more people are trying to impersonate monks and nuns. Even if our little tricks are discovered, she still won't be able to do anything to us!"
Sally lowered her head in silence, her eyes showing a look of sudden realization.
No wonder Sister Angie agreed to go to the wasteland!
She had ended up in Nary Town while being hunted in the wilds, waiting for rescue. And yet she still agreed to go preach in the wasteland for an entire day. It didn't make sense no matter how you thought about it.
So, it was because Kasse had threatened her.
She had also wondered why more and more "monks" and "nuns" had been seeking refuge with them recently.
In the week before Angie arrived, three others had tried similar tricks to gain the church's protection. One of them had nearly fooled them. As for Angie, she was someone who suffered in silence. Under the church's roof, she could only follow Kasse's "reasonable" method of proving loyalty. She had been run ragged, sent everywhere on errands.
Thinking of this, Sally felt even more sympathy for her. She still had one more question.
"How did you know Sister Angie wasn't lying?"
Kasse's smile vanished instantly. He stared at her, expression sharp.
"You're talking too much."
Sally froze, fear creeping into her face.
"S-sorry…"
Today Kasse had been unusually talkative, and she didn't know what came over her… She had said far too much that she shouldn't have.
Kasse's expression turned cold, a chilling smile playing at his lips. "I've said it before. I hate people from the Radiant Church. That includes the slaves they've brainwashed! You don't need to come back tomorrow!"
Ignoring Sally's pleading eyes, he waved his hand. The others stepped forward and dragged her out.
---
A new day dawned.
The church in Honeyvale Town was bustling as usual. A few players, dressed in free beginner outfits, moved around like monkeys let loose from the zoo. They exaggerated every motion, poking and prodding everything.
"Whoa, it's cold!"
"Whoa, a rock!"
"Whoa, a person!"
"Whoa, my dick!"
"What the fuck, dude! Why are you touching your dick?"
"It was hard?"
One player burst out laughing, another covered their face in embarrassment, and a third muttered something about "realistic physics systems." A nearby NPC cleared his throat disapprovingly.
Several veteran players walked by with hoes slung over their shoulders and glanced over casually.
"Wow, more newbies!"
"Updates have been rolling out quickly lately. They're handing out test keys faster and faster!"
"I still think it's too slow! Also, when will the forum's cloud gamers believe this game actually exists?"
"The engravings on the church's main door are almost worn smooth from all the newbies touching them!"
They sighed with the same old sentiments. The newbies looked more like NPCs than the actual NPCs in the game. After a brief chat, they went back to their quests.
The current meta wasn't about grinding skills like stacking mud, it was about gaining access to new maps.
They quickened their pace.
At a nearby quest hub, Cobb hadn't slept all night and had massive dark circles under his eyes, his smile more painful than crying. But the players didn't care what he was feeling, such was the life of an "NPC." They surrounded him, badgering and pressuring him nonstop.
"Your wooden barrel is ready! Quick, give me the third round of the story!"
"I want the fourth round of the quest!"
"Can you tell me your name?"
"This NPC is so slow to respond!"
Cobb was on the verge of tears. Ever since he parted ways with Viktor yesterday, his ID on the panel had been glowing with a flashing green effect whenever he was idle. And every time it did, a bunch of Watchers would swarm over, asking him all kinds of questions. Even when he slept at night and the ID returned to normal, some players still came by his house from time to time to peek in.
He hadn't had a proper rest in almost 20 hours!
He even suspected that, if it weren't for the protective magic formations around the civilian housing areas, these people would probably camp out inside his house.
He couldn't take it anymore and had come to the quest area to hide.
Cobb glanced through the void, staring at the glowing blue system time:
[07:59:01]
Come on, just a little faster…
While half-heartedly responding to the players in front of him, he anxiously muttered in his heart.
It was the first time he actually wished work hours would start sooner, just so he could escape the endless wave of players.
Cobb was so distracted that he didn't even notice Alyanne approaching from behind. Seeing the players taking up most of the counter space, she gulped. She suddenly remembered the miserable early days when she had been the only quest NPC.
"So pitiful," she couldn't help but murmur.
Cobb was startled by her voice and turned around, surprised, "Lady Alyanne!"
Alyanne motioned for him not to get up. She gazed through the wall of players in front of her, as if seeing a different scene altogether.
Her voice grew even gentler.
"I heard from the Lord Viktor that you've had other matters lately. The quest hub isn't too busy right now, so I'm giving you two days off!"
Thanks to the fully automated machine tools and the new items in the shop, there were now far fewer players doing regular quests. Even if Cobb wasn't around, the rest of the staff could easily manage.
Upon hearing that, Cobb's eyes widened in panic, and he hurriedly reached out. "No! I think I can still—"
But Alyanne firmly pressed his hand down. Against the overwhelming strength of a dragonborn, his resistance meant absolutely nothing.
Her eyes said, "I understand." As she left, she offered a comforting smile.
"Rest well. No need to rush back to work."
Behind them, a few players who had a translator activated exclaimed in delight.
"Look! We triggered a special event! This NPC gets a vacation!"
"Doesn't that mean we don't have to race the clock anymore? Everyone can finish the quest!"
"Yay!"
Cobb couldn't understand the players' words, but that didn't stop him from sensing their intentions from their cheerful tone. His expression, unseen by the players, shifted from panic to utter despair.
"Oh great Undead Lord…"
He had learned his lesson, he would never hide his background again. Please, just end this punishment already!
He couldn't bear to repeat his story for the 253rd time!
---
"Achoo!" Viktor lifted his head from the mountain of documents on his desk and tilted it in thought.
"Can undead even sneeze? Who's cursing me behind my back?"
"Undead!" A voice full of anger and grief crashed through the door. After days of accumulating divine power, Luminaris' flight speed had increased significantly.
He zoomed into the room like a giant bee, looping two big figure-eights in the air before finally landing his plump body on Viktor's shoulder.
His luminous threads flared up in frustration as he immediately demanded, "Why are there 100 more undead in the church?"
Viktor glanced down.
"If you hadn't stopped people from demolishing the church, there'd be 300 more by now. What, is the church so cramped now that it can't even fit a single decorative light orb?"
---
---
60 Advance Chapters!
Visit my profile page for more information.