Chapter 53: You Look So Pitiful When Grinding For Levels, But So Handsome When Max Leveled

(Translator’s Note: The title is derived from the meme ‘你挣钱的样子虽然很狼狈,但是你充钱玩游戏的样子真的好靓仔’, meaning ‘You look so pitiful earning money, but so handsome when spending money on games’)

[Miss Doll smiled at me! I wanna talk with her for an entire day!] Posted by: ACertainPlum.

[Isn’t there a way to change waifu’s clothes? The ones she has are too shabby!] Posted by: CutestTheresa.

[Do you guys think this is a love simulation game or something?] Posted by: BadMood.

Jiang Qiao browsed the forum and found that quite a number of players were hoping to change Vigilist Floria’s clothes.

Her gray nun robes were too shabby after all.

“These are the preset dialogues for you. Try guiding them towards the topic of increasing their levels and about the War of Divinity.”

After reading all the comments on Vigilist Floria on the player forums, he started planning ways to scam…No, guide the players to become stronger.

“I’ll try my best, my lord.”

“Share the preset dialogues I gave you just now with your sisters.” Jiang Qiao closed the System Tome that he was holding.

Jiang Qiao added more than a hundred dialogue branches, as well as a whole new main quest in preparation for the upcoming War of Divinity.

“Synchronizing…” Floria closed her eyes, and reopened them a few seconds later. “Synchronization complete.”

“Notify me when a player manages to unlock the main quest alright?”

“It has already been activated.”

“That fast?”

It had only been two seconds after the data had been synchronized between the different Florias.

Perhaps some players completely treated this game like a love simulation game and talked to Floria all day?

“Code 107, the version of me serving the sacred soul StarlightScribe.”

107 was the index number of players that had logged in, and any code before 1000 were the players that entered Sacred Souls in the first testing. Jiang Qiao remembered this ID—It was the one that had posted the thread that had caused this game to blow up in the first place.

Jiang Qiao defined this sort of player as the scholars, and they represented the casual player base together with the ones that went around checking out the scenery. Instead of focusing on the game, they focused more on discovering the lore and storylines of the game.

“Recreate the scene please.”

Jiang Qiao pulled Ocean Blue a few steps backward to leave enough space for Floria, and a semi-transparent hologram appeared in front of her.

The hologram was that of a mage character with a large hat, and from his actions he seemed to be listening carefully to what Floria was saying.

…

The Starlight Scribes was an organization among players that had the objective of discovering all sorts of settings and background stories in games.

Fan Xing was the creator of this organization, and before this he had always been checking out dungeons in War. As soon as he came into contact with Sacred Souls, he was completely drawn in by this realistic world.

The NPCs in War only had a couple of preset dialogues, but the NPCs in Sacred Souls had a few hundred per character!

In his very humble opinion, it was a feat that was near impossible. When an NPC’s purpose was only to help repair equipment and do some miscellaneous tasks, no game developer would waste that effort on setting so many dialogues for them.

This was an MMORPG and not a love simulator after all, doing it was synonymous to a great waste.

But Sacred Souls did exactly that, and especially with the character called Floria.

Every time he spoke to her, the conversation would always turn out so different that he almost thought she was a real human.

That was until he asked the same questions that she repeated her answers that he realized that this was just an NPC, a cluster of data.

That being said, he was still extremely enamored by this lifelike character that he didn’t even bother training and grinding for levels, choosing to record her words and upload them onto the forum instead.

Fan Xing had managed to record an entire 573 pieces of dialogue, and this was probably all of her dialogues in his opinion.

“Good morning Floria.”Fan Xing started asking and experimenting with Floria again to see if he could get any new lines from her.

“Good morning great sacred soul,” Floria replied, and Fan Xing had already heard this so many times he was numb to it.

And so he started to communicate with Floria, but was quite disheartened by how her replies were all ones that he had heard before. It had already been a while, but he hadn’t heard any new lines from her.

“She’s an NPC, after all…” Fan Xing scoffed at himself, thinking, ‘Is it wrong to try to pick up a girl made from a cluster of data 1?’

Should he go check out some other NPCs?

After asking for a little more and giving up, he sighed as he walked out of the Cathedral of Resurrection.

“Great sacred soul.”

Suddenly, Floria spoke, and Fan Xing stopped his steps and looked back hopefully.

“May you find your value in this broken world.”

This reply made Fan Xing sigh again as it was the default message whenever he left the cathedral.

“But before you leave, I have a question, if that’s alright?” Floria’s next sentence made the sullen player look up so quickly he might have gotten whiplash.

A question?

She had never asked him any questions in these few days that he talked with her, did he activate some secret conversation, or did Floria have the ability to think independently?

“What is it?” Fan Xing quickly made his way back to the stone steps.

“The pope has taught me about the church, about God, and about the ones that God loves…” Floria softly uttered a piece of dialogue that Fan Xing had never heard before, her tone somewhat confused. “But, does God really love her creations?”

What kind of question was that? Fan Xing was taken off guard, but he still recorded the line dutifully. Floria’s next movements made him stop typing on the keyboard.

“I am but a doll created by you humans, have you ever thought of loving me?” Floria placed her hands on her chest, her glass eyes wavering as she stared at Fan Xing. “Of course, I love you dearly…Is that not why you created me?”

F*ck! F*ck! F*ck!

As soon as he heard this, Fan Xing’s breath practically got caught in his throat. It was his first time being confessed to, even if it were just an NPC!

He really wanted to hug Floria and tell her that he did!

But the touch restrictions didn’t allow him to do so, so he only nodded.

“Thank you for your kindness, sacred soul, but as a mere doll I cannot accept your love…” As soon as she finished her sentence, Fan Xing received a system notification.

[Main Quest: Preparations for the War of Divinity]

[Quest details: You have come upon the truth of Vigilist Floria, and she seems to have a premonition of an upcoming cataclysm and a chance to change—The War of Divinity…As a doll created by the church, Floria longs for a heart like a human’s, will you assist her?]

[Quest Requirements: Player LV50]

[Quest Reward: Unlocks Stage Two of Vigilist Floria’s affection…]

There were more rewards, but Fan Xing only needed to see the first one before making up his mind. He didn’t need anything like EXP, Equipment, or Renown!

But he needed to be Level 50 before he could accept the quest? He had been so engrossed in discovering her dialogue that his level was only Level 25, not even as high as the second batch of players.

‘I must grind for levels! Grind until I’m max level!’ This thought took root in his mind and grew endlessly.

Footnotes:

Ch 53 Footnote 1

Meant to be a DanMachi (Is It Wrong to Tro to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) reference, but doesn’t translate quite well.