Emperor of solo play

Chapter 110 - How Much? (2)

How Much? (2)

When a User achieves great success in Warlord, everyone starts to comment on the reasons behind the User's success.

One of the reasons behind the success was attributed to the excellent AI making up Warlord.

This was why the Users paid much more attention to the NPCs in Warlord compared to the NPCs of other games.  Of course, it wasn't as if all the NPCs were popular.  If an NPC wanted to be popular, one had two fulfill one of the two requirements.

The NPC had to be either a beautiful woman or a handsome man.  If not, the NPC had to  have a habit of giving out good Items.

From that perspective, Ahimbree's massive popularity was inevitable.  Ahimbree was an NPC that gave Items that was beyond good.  It was downright amazing.

Moreover, a User named Cocomo had obtained Ahimbree's Disciple title, and it seemed he had been short on money.  He sold information regarding Ahimbree, which had never been disseminated before. This drove Ahimbree's popularity into a pitched fever.  Numerous Users attempted to become Ahimbree's Disciple.

At that point, the much praised AI system of Warlord did something very wise.  There were too many Users visiting Ahimbree, so Ahimbree's residence was moved.

This was to Hyrkan's benefit as there weren't many obstacles when he tried to meet Ahimbree.

‘Shit.  If he was going to move, he should have moved up north.  Why the hell did he move to the south?’

Of course, Hyrkan had been working in the North, so he had to spend a good amount of time traveling towards the south.  However, this was a very minor problem.

The usual office that had always greeted Hyrkan was gone. 

“Welcome.”

“……your room is very clean.”

The books that had been strewn about…

Unlike his previous office where the expensive Skill books had coated the floor, his current office was very clean.  It was hard to find any books or even a whiff of paper inside the room.

One would  never expect to feel a sense of unease when confronted with a clean room.

However, Hyrkan felt uneasy.

‘The mood is strangely cool.’

He had come here expecting to receive a delicious treat.  Instead of a treat, he was worried he might have wasted his time coming here.

‘Eh-ee.  At the very least, he'll still probably give me a Skill.  It isn't as if he would only give a Skill book only if the Skill books were strewn across the floor.’

He tried very hard to push down his anxiety, and Hyrkan greeted Ahimbree.

“How's your health and peace of mind, teacher?”

He used respectful words that he had utter to his parents before. Hyrkan looked very respectful.

However, Ahimbree didn't answer immediately.  The NPC kept staring at Hyrkan. It looked like Ahimbree was affected by a system freeze, but the manual explicitly stated that such a scenario wasn’t possible.  This meant it was really having a hard time answering Hyrkan's question. It meant Hyrkan's action had stumped the outstanding AI. The AI was at a loss for words at Hyrkan's absurd action.

Ahimbree opened his mouth after more time had passed.

“I've been well.  How have you been?”