The party’s first group was finished. They looted all the bodies.

Now their second task was to meet the friendly NPCs of this village who had soon left their homes to go back outside after the battle was over. AI in Divine Mortality are dynamic, and so they logically take shelter, even when it’s potentially necessary. But, they do not operate in a herd mentality, sometimes a villager could stay outside and sit on the rooftops ‘watching’ or maybe ‘cheer’ for one side over another.

Yet the village of Makron was special. Not only how it’s treated in ‘lore’ as a place that’s used as a trashcan for the nobles in their national conspiracy, but the obvious changes in gameplay as in how all the villagers are expressing ‘frightful’ behevaior despite the fact the Players did do anything bad or scary. Or so that’s how the event would normally play out.

What the Players soon realized is that, afterall, some of the NPCs didn’t belong to this location. They clearly weren’t your average countryside bumpkin, but rather residents from Kurejar. There were two ex-city guards. Some religious and city ministers. A group of merchants. And, most importantly, a lesser noble was present as well. The appearances of these NPCs were rugged, their clothing was tattered and dirty. Even their facial expressions and complexions were obviously not in good condition.

The Party divide themselves so that they could all individually talk with the interesting NPCs. Niki entered dialogue conversation with the merchants. Remixhorizon entered into dialogue conversation with the ministers. Krafty with the ex-guards and the villagers. And Sayooshi spoke with the lesser noble.

Apparently everyone’s conversation with the NPCs was just textual dialogue, as it is with most common NPCs, or whenever the Player is interacting with an NPC in a minor way. However, the lesser noble was clearly a substantially relevant NPC because he provided both textual and audio communication. These instances aren’t rare, every Player experiences them practically at least one a day or every few days depending on whatever the heck they do inside the MOAG. The audio files are either built into the character because a voice actor read out a script, like how it’s often done in traditional video games with voice overs. But, the audio files can take too much space, especially since Divine Mortality is an expansive game with too many characters to account for. So, a relatively innovative technology is used by the game sometimes for AI to automatically read out their textual dialogue. And it’s different from a regular textual reader with a robotic voice because the AI chooses from a preset of certain tones and accents, and the end result is them sounding a bit like a vocaloid. This system cannot be used too much or it would be too heavy on the game’s performance, so it’s limited like traditional voice overs. However, it’s certainly more common than real people’s voice acting. All this is to say that the lesser noble was voiced by his AI, which had the effect of intimately drawing Sayooshi’s attention to the Lesser Noble rather than skimming through the character’s dialogue.

The Party eventually found out that Makron (the village) acted sort of like a secret gulag. A camp to put political opponents away from the affairs of Sonder, done by the dominant faction of most nobles.

The merchant NPCs, ex-city guards, and the religious ministers decided to leave Makron and head down south to the Free Counties. They asked for permission to leave and take the common weapons of the dead bandits for their travels. Since some Players like having ego trips, even if they aren’t roleplaying or acting as actually indecent people, the NPCs never know what the ‘Divine Spirits’ might do. Because in the minds of many NPCs, you need to act carefully when near a Player. Especially since there is always the possibility of them being able to kill you relatively easily. And if they die, then they’ll simply respawn.

Of course, aside from his greedy desires, Sayooshi (and his party) treated the NPCs nicely (like the average Player does) and let them be on their way peacefully. But, the city ministers and the lesser noble were not willing to leave the Marchdom of Sonder because they had an agenda to topple the secret regime building up in the background. Even though they were of a minority faction, it was their goal to save Sonder. The city ministers were liberal, in the sense they sought equal and free trade under just laws, without the burden of arbitrary rule and corruption. However, the lesser noble was more idealistic, he sought to also improve the lives of people living in Sonder. Such a thing, in most games, is simply flavor text and atmosphere, and maybe this occurs at the end of a quest chain or a plotline. However, in Divine Mortality, such a thing is basically feasible. It is possible to actually improve the satisfaction of common NPCs by raising their lifestyle, so in a way, Divine Mortality was secretly a grand strategy game underneath a MMORPG. So, when Sayooshi learned about this lesser noble’s intentions, Sayooshi’s senses were burning with excitement. This is the chance… the beginning of it all!

“So, did our quest advance pal?”

Krafty asked Sayooshi because he couldn’t see any changes in his quest log. The quest given by Rori Fletcher to Sayooshi was shared by Sayooshi to his friends, also Niki. But, as somewhat expected, there wasn’t any change.

“Nope!”

“My, Sayooshi are you frustrated, or… are you excited?”

Niki caught on to Sayooshi’s excitement based on his change of tone. But Sayooshi did not reply, he remained completely silent. Remixhorizon then tried to get his attention

“Yo, Sayooshi… you there? Hellooo?”

“Maybe he’s secretly super sad? I know I would be know what he’s been going through today hehe, did you catch on to it Remix?”

“Yeah… Hey Sayooshi, do you need a “kid/midget” like me to cheer you up or something? You probably didn’t realize this, but me and Krafty are aware that you’re constantly thinking about not disappointing or wasting our time. But you don’t need to worry! Uhh, hehe… umm, it’s pretty fun just wandering around the game with pals… PLUS it’s basically the holiday season… so cheer up!”

“It’s true!”

Remixhorizon displayed a rare amount of genuine earnest care, her voice was slightly shaking because of how embarrassed she felt. And Krafty also agreed, especially since he’s often very honest with his own personality and interests. Some other people might shy away from saying ‘stupid’ stuff like this online, especially to people you’ve met not too long ago. But Remixhorizon and Krafty were of a similar heart. Deep down Niki also wholeheartedly agreed, but she was quietly laughing in the background. Remixhorizon thought that this annoying mature lady was acting like a petty demon for good fun, but it was also the type of response she expected from a lot of people in this game. Some of them are, as Remixhorizon refers to them, “sh*tty” and other’s might not be as bad as Remixhorizon sees them to be. However, Remixhorizon and Krafty didn’t yet realize that Niki wasn’t laughing at the pure message beaming straight form Remixhorizon’s heart, instead, she was laughing at already knowing that Sayooshi was about to laugh right now as well…

Sadly, Sayooshi was deep in thought. So fortunately, or unfortunately for Remixhorizon, his hearing was muffled for this brief moment and didn’t hear what she was saying. Instead, his mind was scattered at various subjects… already seeing the future of his grand plan like a profit. All that pointless philosophy…all that internet reading… all those hopes and dreams, might actually amount to something!

“Ha…haha…hahaha…hehehaha…Hahahaha!”

Remixhorizon and Krafty went silent, wondering what was happening. Why was Sayooshi laughing?

…

While the villagers were returning to their daily activities, they were also preparing barricades in case of wild animals attacking and amassing tribute to pay to another group of bandits who were bound to take control of the village. It was ‘protection’ money.

The bandit’s bodies were disappearing, and if the ex-city guards and merchants didn’t pick up the (“junk”) common items off the bandits, then those items would also either disappear or be taken by the villagers.

In the center of the village, Niki, Remixhorizon, and Krafty had their characters facing upwards to the top of the village chief’s home. It was just another, simple, Nordic-style wooden longhouse with a thatched roof. After a few seconds, Sayooshi appeared on top after ran behind it and climbed up from stacked objects. Eventually, he loomed over his Party… but just a half a meter above. Remixhorizon and Krafty were still confused yet, it was apparent that Sayooshi wasn’t actually sad.

“Y’know, Sayooshi, for someone who hates roleplayers… we have a lot in common with you.”

“Shut up Krafty!- Sorry, sorry… wait, that’s not important… listen. Friends! My loyal comrades who have stuck around with me since the beginning!... I am referring to you, Krafty. You, Remixhorizon. And you, Niki!”

“There he goes…”

Despite Krafty’s accurate remark getting dismissed by their ‘leader’, Krafty and Remixhorizon were happy that Sayooshi was happy. Plus, he was acting energetic, which was a great sign. Meanwhile, Niki was flattered that she was considered as a loyal comrade even though they had only met an hour ago.

“I announce that I’ve had a eurka moment and I’ve just now outlined how we will start the Player Government!!! All that’s left to do is to find some money… BUT besides that, operation- ummm…ummm… Operation DREAM MILKSHAKE is a GO!”

“OPERATION MILKSHAKE?!?”

Everyone fell flat after the build up and exciting announcement, but what’s up with that name?

“Why is the operation’s name, dream milkshake???”

Krafty astutely asked

“Because, it’s snowy here in Sonder, and I just randomly thought about the chocolate milk kittens guild I was a part of until they kicked me out recently… but basically, I kinda want to drink a milkshake at the moment…”

“Fair enough”

Krafty quickly replied but Remixhorizon facepalmed her face in real life and Niki was giggling at the silliness. Niki found a group, and a project, that she wanted to be a part of.