What malicious intent could NPCs possibly have? C16.1

Hey, first of all, thanks for reading my lousy Machine Translation. To be honest, I’d really like it if you guys corrected the mistakes I made. But please speak nicely and politely. My heart is not strong enough to read your too-harsh comments. Have a nice day. 🙂

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Chp16. part1

The scale was an old-fashioned pointer model, with a green line on it.

When Ning Ge stepped on it, the pointer spun, then oscillated around the green line.

Finally, she just barely touched the green line.

Her weight was on the line, all that water she’d drunk hadn’t been for nothing.

“Show your feet,” the man ordered.

Ning Ge lifted her skirt, showing him her toes, which she hadn’t been using to cheat.

The man pressed the height-measuring tape down sharply and firmly on top of Ning Ge’s head.

Ning Ge struggled against the pressing tape, trying to straighten her back as much as possible. She’d probably never been so straight in her life.

Finally, a beep sounded, she’d passed.

She’d passed with all the marks on the line.

Ning Ge got off the scale, thinking she owed Jiang Jin a favour.

The bracelet vibrated: [Temporarily escaped disaster. PS: Never thought you’d want a high reading on the scale, huh?]

After walking to the back of the crowd, Ning Ge glanced at it and, sure enough, it was the crystal globe.

Ning Ge calmly moved to the desk and put it back.

She looked towards Jiang Jin’s eyes, wanting to tell her the crystal globe was back in place, but Jiang Jin didn’t even look at her.

She stood against the wall near Jing Yao, seemingly finding her wide sleeves cumbersome, tightening them, then flexing her wrists. Her face was indifferent, as if nothing had happened.

After everyone finished greeting each other, the aunt clapped her hands, “Children, you’ve all passed the healthy baby check…”

Before she could finish, the man exclaimed, “One more is missing.”

He looked up, scanned the room, and found the person. He walked a few steps to the corner, opened the locker door, and pulled the person hiding inside by the collar.

It was a boy with curly hair, who was also a player wearing a bracelet.

The curly-haired boy was trembling like a leaf, probably terrified after seeing the man throw the chubby boy through the metal door. He hid in a closet, refusing to come out.

The man lifted him onto the scale.

Ning Ge knew something was wrong at first glance.

He wasn’t thin or short to begin with, and after hiding for so long, he’d grown quite a bit. His height seemed to have no upper limit, but his weight was. Although he wasn’t fat, given the bizarre style of the dungeon, he might be overweight.

Sure enough, the scale failed, and he remained silent.

There must be a way, Ning Ge thought. People who are too thin or light can find ways to gain weight, and people who are too heavy must find ways to lose weight.

Ning Ge’s gaze swept across the room.

The man, knowing the child hadn’t passed, snorted and reached for the boy, seemingly intending to throw him through the metal door.

Pei Han was one step ahead of him.

A decorative knife sat on the nearby bookshelf. Pei Han drew it with one hand, a flash of cold light, and with a swift movement, the blade fell.

The curly-haired boy’s right arm was severed cleanly at the root.

The expected gushing blood didn’t occur. Because of his rapid body regeneration, the wound healed instantly, bleeding only briefly.

The scale beeped.

The weight was finally correct.

The man reluctantly withdrew his hand from the boy, picked up the severed arm, and threw it into the metal door.

The curly-haired boy, having lost an arm but escaped death, was terrified.

Ning Ge had witnessed the whole thing, thinking that Jing Yao and Pei Han, these two Alphas, one killing, the other saving, had one thing in common—they were both ruthless.

The aunt clapped her hands again, “Children, you are all the healthiest babies. You passed the check. Now come with me.”

Ning Ge glanced at the curly-haired boy, who had been perfectly fine but was now missing an arm. “This checkup is really healthy.”

As they walked out, Jing Yao whispered, “The famous Pei Han is actually acting as a babysitter, feeding these newbies and changing their diapers?”

Pei Han actually answered, coldly saying, “If you play like this, and they all die, when we encounter a mission where players are randomly selected to die, who dies, you or me?”

Jing Yao: “What’s there to be afraid of? There are still several left.”

Ning Ge quietly nudged Owen, “How exactly is the probability of randomly selecting a player to be executed in a dungeon calculated?”

Owen smiled at her.

“It’s very simple. Players are divided into five categories based on their number of dungeon completions: Novice, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, and Alpha. The probability coefficients for each category are 1%, 1/10%, 1/1000%, 1/10000, and an infuriatingly high 1/100000.

“Let’s assume there are three players: one Alpha, one Advanced, and one Intermediate. The probability of Alpha being drawn is one-third multiplied by 1/100000. The probability of Advanced being drawn is calculated by subtracting Alpha’s probability, multiplying the remaining part by half, and then multiplying it by its coefficient of 1/100000. The lowest-ranking Intermediate player loses its probability coefficient and bears the entire remaining probability after removing Alpha and Advanced players.”

In simpler terms—

Whoever is at the bottom is unlucky.

Owen glanced at Pei Han and Jing Yao, “If the remaining players are two of the same level, the probability is divided equally, half for each.” Ning Ge thought to herself, ‘So it’s obvious that the best strategy for self-preservation is to keep players of lower levels alive.’

This way, they can maintain their own probability coefficient and let lower-level players bear the greatest risk of being selected.

At the same time, mid-level players will also hope that higher-level and same-level players are alive, so that they can help share the probability of being selected, even if it’s just a little bit.

But Alpha’s strategy is slightly different.

Because of their abnormally high probability coefficient, as long as at least one other player is alive, there is basically no chance of being selected.

Ning Ge asked Owen, ‘How many times do these random player selection and execution missions usually occur?’

“In my experience, sometimes once, at most two or three times.” Owen answered.

So, Pei Han’s saving the curly-haired boy didn’t benefit him much.

The real beneficiary was Ning Ge.

The players here, from Pei Han and Jing Yao to Owen and Jiang Jin, were clearly all higher-level than Ning Ge. There was also a short-haired guy who looked quite calm and probably had dungeon experience.

Only Ning Ge and that trembling curly hair, obviously first-time dungeon newbie curly-haired boy remained.

Keeping him alive meant that when the random player selection resulted in execution, the “beginner player” Ning Ge would be much safer.

Pei Han’s roundabout way of showing goodwill was really too… It was a roundabout way.

But Ning Ge received it.

From this, Ning Ge realised that Jiang Jin was helping her because if Ning Ge lived, it would greatly reduce her chances of being selected.

Therefore, even for her own sake, Jiang Jin would never report Ning Ge for cheating.

She was worrying unnecessarily.

In the previous dungeon, everyone was a newbie or near-newbie, not really understanding the rules, just blindly messing around. This dungeon is different.

There are more high-level players, and the strategies are more complex.

Ning Ge thought, “The system’s rules are designed this way, forcing everyone to cooperate, right?”

Owen laughed so hard he almost fell over, “This dungeon and the previous one are both cooperative dungeons, aren’t they? Cooperative dungeons are the most common. There are also adversarial, competitive, and partner-based dungeons. You’ll see soon enough.”

The bracelet trembled, interrupting him. A new quest had arrived.

[Quest: Little Tadpoles Find Their Mother.

Description: Nobody cares who your dad is; it’s all single-parenting anyway. Just find your mother.

Objective: Find a mother for all players within sixty minutes.

Punishment: Randomly select someone to be executed, you know what I mean.]

Just random selection, and here it is.

This looks like a group baby-rearing arrangement, she wonders where the mothers are.

“Children,” the aunt in front stopped, “I’m going to take you to see your mom and dad now.” Ning Ge couldn’t believe it: Delivering her parents to their doorstep? Was this task too good to be true?

The group followed the aunt through a corridor, which led to an extremely spacious hall, like the atrium of a shopping mall.

Around the hall, numerous honeycomb-like glass cubicles were arranged vertically.

In each cubicle, someone was pedalling a wheel.

The wheels spun rapidly, exactly like the ones hamsters use.

Everyone was pedalling diligently, countless wheels spinning simultaneously—a spectacular sight, like a giant hamster exhibition.

Life is short, only a few days, and people are all pedalling wheels.

The aunt smiled, “Children, look! Your parents are working hard. Wave and say hello to them!”

Ning Ge saw a beautiful woman in a cubicle not far away. As soon as she saw Ning Ge and the others come out, she got off the wheel.

She eagerly peered through the glass, her gaze fixed on Ning Ge, trying to make out the number on the back of her hand.

Seemingly finally recognising her, she raised her arm. She waved frantically at Ning Ge, then turned and rushed out of the glass cubicle.

Some other cubicles also stopped, and many adults were running down the stairs. Ning Ge heard them say:

“Are the children from KW awake?”

“Yes, I saw the number! My child is there!”