Absolute Death Game

Buli was taken aback when he heard this. To think that he couldn't even beat the weakest monsters—this game truly lived up to its reputation as a high-difficulty game. With his years of gaming experience, he had never seen anything like it. To play it safe, he decided to first stroll around the village.

The village was bustling with many NPCs, giving it quite the realistic feel of an actual village. He approached an old man who seemed amiable and clicked on him, but no options appeared. Instead, a blank speech bubble popped up.

"Team Leader Li, how do you talk to NPCs?" Li Jian happened to walk up behind him, and Buli took the opportunity to ask.

"Oh, see that dialogue box? Just type what you want to say in the box, and the NPC will respond to you," Li Jian immediately explained patiently, "But remember, if you say the wrong thing, you might get an unexpected result, so you should never just type recklessly."

Really? Buli thought to himself that it sounded too sci-fi. How massive a server would be needed to support such randomness?

Skeptically, he typed "Hello" into the dialogue box and hit enter.

The old man immediately replied, "Hello, young man. Is there something you need in our village?"

It actually works? Buli cursed "SHIT" in his mind, thinking it was incredibly sci-fi. Perhaps it was just some simple preset responses. Hoping for the best, he thought to himself, but then he quickly dismissed the idea. Before having solid evidence, it was better not to jump to conclusions.

He then typed another sentence, this time intending to test it further, so he wrote a rather long message, "Hello, elder, I'm new to this place and was wondering if I could temporarily stay here?"

The old man smiled, "Of course, you can. As long as you abide by the laws and avoid causing trouble, we, in Dahuang Village, welcome guests from all directions. I am the village head of Dahuang Village, you can call me Elder Huang."

Buli laughed, the kind of laugh that felt a bit ridiculous but also contained the surprise of facing something completely unexpected. He couldn't deny the intelligibility of the NPC. Still, deep inside, Buli was continuously speculating about the principles behind this text recognition system, (It must recognize certain characters' settings, which wouldn't be difficult, no, that's wrong. The sentence structures are so natural, with no sense of discord. It couldn't be achieved with ordinary translation software).

(However, it's impossible that behind these NPCs there's someone controlling them, right? The labor costs would be unbearable for a game.) He quickly counted, and just in this village alone, there were at least a hundred people, not to mention the towns there would be later in the game. Who knows how many people would be required to manage that?

(It seems it must still be some kind of character recognition feedback system, just very advanced and powerful, powerful beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.) With his thoughts confirmed, Buli continued playing the game.

"I don't suppose you know where one could find work around here?" he asked. Since he couldn't earn experience by fighting monsters, he figured he might as well do some quests to earn money and buy some equipment.

"Ah, are you looking for work? Then you've asked the right person. We used to have many young people working here, but recently they all left one after another. We have lots of jobs that need filling," the elderly man coughed, seeming in poor health. "Ah, I remember, there's a place at the eastern end of the village that could use some help, you can go and ask there."

Buli jogged all the way to the eastern end of the village and found it was a farm, with a farmer standing in front of a pigsty looking quite distressed.

"Hello, is there anything I can do to help you?" Even though he found it bothersome, Buli still asked politely.

"Ah, what a coincidence, I'm in need of a swineherd. It's dirty and tiring, but the pay is quite good—I can give you fifty copper coins a day. Of course, if you don't do well, I will deduct from your wages. Are you interested?" The farmer seemed obviously delighted at seeing Buli, speaking excitedly with his hands and feet.

A dialog box popped up in front of me, "The farm owner invites you to change your job to 'swineherd'. Do you accept?"

Swineherd? There's actually such a profession? Becoming a swineherd and then swinging a pig feed spoon on the battlefield? No, this must be a lifestyle profession. It's fine to do it temporarily just to earn some Game Coins first, but I need to understand this job conversion system thoroughly. It would be quite the joke if I couldn't change back after the switch.

After pondering for a moment, I turned around and asked, "Manager Li, are you familiar with the swineherd profession?"

"Swineherd?" Li Jian approached Xiao Buli's computer with interest, gazing at the screen thoughtfully before shaking his head. Xiao Buli noticed that, contrary to the profession's peculiar nature, Li Jian didn't seem to find it amusing. "I don't know about that. My first profession was a lumberjack."

"Lumberjack?" (First profession? So, you can switch to other professions later.) Instantly, Xiao Buli concluded the answer he was seeking in his mind.

"Exactly. A widow in the village referred me to it. So, this game really depends on luck. Talking to different people may yield different results, and even talking to the same person might not give the same outcome each time. Of course, some say jobs are assigned based on your innate talents. Anyway, I started as a lumberjack." Hearing Li Jian's explanation, everyone stopped clicking their mice and perked up their ears to listen, for any bit of experience with a new game was invaluable.

"So, what are the benefits of changing to a lumberjack?" Li Baocheng asked.

"Of course, changing to a lumberjack allows you to gain the 'Lumbering' skill. When I leveled up my Lumbering skill to LV3, I gained the Axe Mastery skill, and when it reached LV5, I gained the 'Downward Slash' skill, along with an increase of 1 point of Strength and 1 point of stamina to my Attributes. When my Lumbering skill reached LV10, my Heavy Chop was upgraded to LV2, Axe Mastery to LV3, and both Strength and stamina increased by two points. Additionally, I gained a skill called 'Enduring Stamina', which reduced physical stamina consumption by twenty percent. Then, I went to change my job to Axeman. Using the money saved up from lumbering, I bought a set of equipment. Completing all these took about twenty days, and by then, I could take on one or two bandits by myself. Not long after, I was assigned to the White Tiger team and became a formal employee—by the way, I was the fastest to change over to a combat profession among the new hires at the time."

When it came to games, Li Jian didn't seem as cool and unsmiling as he had been when he first started wearing sunglasses.

Realization dawned on Li Baocheng, "I see. So, you're saying that no matter the profession, as long as you level up the skills to a certain extent, you can gain combat skills. Does that mean we should start by developing from a lifestyle profession?"

"That seems to be the case."

"Are there any limits to how many times you can change professions? Can you switch at will, or is there a cap to the number of times you can change?" Xiao Buli inquired from the side.

"If you've played for a while and find you don't like it, you can change at any time, of course, you must meet the conditions. This game has a very high degree of freedom; as long as you meet the conditions, almost anything is possible. Furthermore, different types of professions can exist simultaneously; the same type of professions will only display the highest priority one. For example, I am both a lumberjack and an Axeman."

"Does that mean I can learn all the professional skills if I work hard enough?" Xiao Buli continued to probe.

On hearing this, Li Jian thoughtfully shook his head, "In theory, yes, but a skill will decrease in proficiency or even degrade if not used for a long time. So, if you learn every skill, you might end up mastering none, because you have to keep using the skill consistently."

Xiao Buli nodded, gaining a new understanding of the game's mechanics. This insight annoyed him slightly, as it seemed all his previous gaming experience amounted to nothing in this game. Swineherd it is, then. Whatever. Earning eight thousand a month and then feeding pigs in the game, haha, it's quite the dark humor.