I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Early the next morning, Liu Kongkong climbed out of the Game Pod with bleary eyes — the thing was actually pretty comfortable to sleep in even when you weren't playing.

He yawned his way through washing up. He had indeed reached Level 10 the night before, which also unlocked Level 15 weapons and equipment. Considering that some hardcore grinder players might level up fairly quickly, he had already prepared a batch of Level 15 gear.

Upon hitting Level 10, he had originally planned to put his skill points into [Life Needs Miracles], but he suddenly noticed a new option had appeared in his skill panel.

"Good Enough to Get By": Still troubled by broken equipment? Top-tier gear exploding after one use? Don't worry — a little repair goes a long way! It can only restore 50% durability, and if you're unlucky it might even drop some stats, but hey, at least it works!

Repair? This was something Liu Kongkong had been curious about before. Prior to this skill appearing, the blacksmith shop had no way to repair equipment. He had wondered if it might be an NPC-exclusive skill, but seeing it now, he finally understood — he simply hadn't been a high enough level.

One use restores 50% durability. But what about two uses?

Liu Kongkong ran a quick experiment. He grabbed a random crude staff and repaired it, finding that its original 100 durability dropped to 50...

"It can repair in reverse?" Liu Kongkong was stunned.

He tried again — still 50...

Well, whatever. He tossed the staff back into storage. Some poor soul opening a mystery box later could have it as a gift.

After all that fiddling around, it was already past 3 a.m. by the time he logged off. He had been wide awake before, but after sleeping for just over three hours, he woke up completely exhausted.

"Stay up all night and feel great, sleep for a bit and feel like death. How does that make any sense?"

But sense or no sense, it was time to head home.

He slung his backpack over his shoulder — no clothes inside, just his ID card, a charger, and a birthday gift for his mom. His bank balance had also skyrocketed to 730,000 yuan, so he made a last-minute decision to buy his dad a new phone too.

Liu Kongkong's family was fairly ordinary. His father was a carpenter in their hometown town, and his mother stayed home cooking and doing laundry. The old couple scrimped and saved every day with one goal in mind: to help their son buy an apartment in the city — which was exactly why Liu Kongkong had been saving up on his own.

After buying the phone, he boarded the train — and immediately froze. Sitting right next to him was none other than Gao Yiwen, the woman he had met once before. What a coincidence — that was the only thought in his head. He had been so busy with work over the past year that he rarely went back home, and he had figured he would probably never see her again. But it didn't really matter. He gave a polite nod and then went back to scrolling through his phone.

"Hmph." Gao Yiwen was thoroughly annoyed by Liu Kongkong's attitude. Seeing that he had no intention of striking up a conversation, she picked up her own phone and started browsing the Hunt Heaven forums. Her Game Pod had already arrived, and as a complete gaming newbie she had been cramming guides and tutorials lately. But the posts were full of gaming slang she could barely make heads or tails of.

There happened to be a self-proclaimed professional booster sitting right next to her, but for various reasons she had no desire to ask Liu Kongkong for help. Still, her eyes drifted toward him almost involuntarily — and she noticed he was also browsing the game forums.

Seeming to sense someone looking at him, Liu Kongkong turned and glanced at Gao Yiwen, then at her phone screen.

Wanxing — Level — Starter Village No. 1011

Very low level, hasn't been playing long. Liu Kongkong clocked her character info in an instant, but what caught his attention more was the post Gao Yiwen was currently reading.

"Starter Village No. 1011's Largest Guild — Star Expedition Corps — Recruiting Without Limit."

Posts like this were everywhere on the forums. Plenty of guilds claimed to be the biggest, and more than a few boasted about being the strongest on the entire server. But Liu Kongkong had always had a nagging question — were these guilds actually that powerful? In his view, Night's Gentle Chill and Big Dumb Duck's factions in Starter Village No. 0113 were decent enough, and with both sides constantly recruiting over this period, they probably had a few hundred to a thousand members between them.

"Is this guild really that strong?"

"Huh?" Gao Yiwen was caught off guard. She didn't really want to answer him, but seeing the genuine curiosity in his eyes, she nodded anyway. "Probably? They have a lot of people."

"How many?"

"Uh... three or four thousand?" Gao Yiwen tried to recall.

Liu Kongkong was taken aback. That many? That would mean a significant chunk of the entire Starter Village had joined this one guild.

"Those people are absolutely disgusting," Gao Yiwen said indignantly. "They've surrounded every area where NPCs are located. If players want to do quests, they have to pay them in-game currency. They even killed the tutorial NPC. When I first logged in, there was no tutorial at all... I only found out later from a friend that there was supposed to be one."

They killed the NPC?

That genuinely alarmed Liu Kongkong. When the Village Chief had called that meeting and said not to worry, Liu Kongkong had assumed it was just an offhand remark — but it turned out players really were killing NPCs.

"Didn't the NPC respawn after being killed?"

Based on what Gao Yiwen was saying, it was clear the NPC had not respawned — or perhaps the game simply hadn't updated that mechanic yet. After getting a confirmation, Liu Kongkong fell silent.

If NPCs didn't respawn after being killed, and there was no refresh later on... then if he died, would that really be the end of him?! Maybe he should test it? Liu Kongkong was a little curious. That might be possible later down the line, but definitely not now — he hadn't made enough money yet.

This was genuinely useful information. Liu Kongkong decided that once he got back, he would stack his HP even higher. Better safe than sorry — while retreating to the blacksmith shop made him invincible, he would definitely need to venture out eventually.

So in return, Liu Kongkong spent the rest of the journey answering quite a few of Gao Yiwen's questions about the game.

True to his profession as a booster, he had played many games and knew a great deal.

"So you still haven't played Hunt Heaven yourself?"

At some point during the conversation, Gao Yiwen had caught a glimpse of Liu Kongkong's phone and noticed his profile showed him as a guest. Someone this knowledgeable about the game, who made a living from boosting and carry work, not making money from Hunt Heaven — she didn't quite buy it.

"I've got too many orders to finish right now, I can't fit it in. Maybe I'll consider it later," Liu Kongkong said, making up an excuse on the spot.

"Sounds like business is going well?"

"Barely scraping by," Liu Kongkong replied with a perfectly straight face.

"You're this busy and you're just barely scraping by?"

"Yep."

"..." Unless he actually wanted to talk to you, every word out of this man's mouth was a conversation killer.

They rode in silence the rest of the way. When they got off, Liu Kongkong said a brief goodbye, grabbed his bag, and walked off on his own. He had told his father Liu Liming beforehand, and as usual the man would drive to the high-speed rail station to pick him up. If he saw Liu Kongkong walking out with Gao Yiwen, it would probably mean a whole lot of unnecessary explaining.

Coming out of the station, he spotted Liu Liming from a distance and waved with a smile.

"Hey, hold on, don't rush." Liu Liming saw Liu Kongkong walk up and immediately start heading for the exit, and quickly stopped him. "There's someone else!"

"Who?"

"Who else — Old Gao's daughter. She heard I was coming to pick someone up and asked if I could give her a lift on the way. I wasn't too keen on it, but we're old acquaintances, so what can you do." Liu Liming's face showed a hint of distaste.

"Why weren't you keen on it?"

"Because Old Gao's daughter looks down on you, doesn't she..."

"Uh... I guess so."

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!