I Became the Blacksmith NPC

The night passed.

Early the next morning, Liu Liming — dark circles under his eyes and a grin plastered on his face — drove Liu Kongkong to the train station. He'd been too excited to sleep the night before.

"Look at this car, son — what power! And the space! We should go on a road trip sometime!"

It was a regular gasoline-powered car, nothing luxurious. From Liu Kongkong's perspective, there were probably plenty of better options at that price range, but when it came to buying things, liking it was what mattered most.

Liu Kongkong played along the whole way, praising Liu Liming's choice as incredibly wise. By the time they covered the short twenty-odd kilometers to the station, Liu Liming's face had nearly split from smiling.

Get out of the car. Say goodbye. Enter the station. Board the train.

The trip home had cost somewhere around two hundred and eighty or ninety thousand yuan all told — but it was money well spent.

Back home, he showered, blow-dried his hair, and took a look at himself in the mirror.

Had he actually bulked up a little? Liu Kongkong studied his reflection. His overall condition seemed better than before too. But now wasn't the time for vanity — he'd been offline for a whole day and had no idea how the blacksmith shop was doing under the shop manager's watch. After getting home yesterday, there'd been the car purchase, and then he'd spent the evening drinking with his dad. He hadn't even checked the forums.

He climbed into the Game Pod and logged in.

"Seems like everything's normal?" He'd deliberately logged off in his bedroom before leaving, worried that if he logged back in mid-session, he and the shop manager might appear in players' line of sight at the same time. He pushed open the bedroom door and peeked out — compared to before, things outside seemed a bit livelier today. He called the shop manager back inside and checked its inventory bag.

"Holy shit — all the level-10 and level-7 gear sold out in just one day? Even the level-5 stuff is completely gone?! What happened — did business suddenly explode?" Liu Kongkong stared at the 61 gold sitting in the shop manager's bag. Before leaving, he'd set up the daily currency handover, which had already amounted to a full 1 gold.

That meant over the past day, every piece of level-5 and above equipment in the shop had been swept clean. There were still some items in stock, but those were custom-crafted pieces he'd held back intentionally, planning to sell them at a premium.

Something had happened. At the current pace of progression, everyone should have been grinding dungeons to level up. Yet the handful of level-15 pieces still sat quietly in the shop manager's bag, which meant no one had reached the level to use them yet.

He tucked the shop manager back into his bag and walked to the shop entrance — and in an instant, he understood why everything had sold out. Because Starter Village No. 0113 had just kicked off its second all-village war.

Liu Kongkong had no idea what had started it, but he could see players constantly appearing at the respawn point, then charging out of the village like madmen. The sheer number of people repeating this cycle had formed a long line stretching from the respawn point all the way to the village gate.

Whatever they're doing, as long as I'm safe. Ever since learning that other starter villages had players killing NPCs, he'd been a little worried about his own safety — but for now, at least, he was still in the clear.

He checked the trading exchange rate. The in-game currency exchange rate had been sliding steadily, now sitting at 1:0.6, with a continuing downward trend. He quickly listed his coins on the exchange, and ten minutes later, 366,000 yuan had arrived in his account.

Not bad — he'd earned back the cost of his dad's car in a single day. The falling exchange rate was something Liu Kongkong had mentally prepared for. He kept his cool. He opened his character panel next. The Path of Samsara's first-clear record was gone, but people were still attempting it in droves. He hadn't checked before logging off two days ago, and with the full day away on top of that, another 8,000-plus deaths had accumulated in the dungeon — converting to 80 attribute points. Add in the 30 attribute points from leveling up from level 7 to level 10, and he had a nice pile.

"Attribute points are supposed to be precious — but in my hands, they feel almost cheap." Liu Kongkong smiled and dumped all 110 attribute points straight into HP. His stats instantly became:

Name: Liu Dameng

Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 10)

HP: 1531/1531

Mana: 421/421

Strength: 43

Constitution: 154

Agility: 43

Intelligence: 43

Spirit: 43

Available Points: 0

1,500 HP! Any tank at this stage of the game would weep with envy at that number — but for Liu Kongkong...

It still wasn't quite enough. Killing NPCs was usually a group effort, and 1,500 HP still felt a little low. He hadn't cared much about stats before, but now that he had a sense of danger, he wanted to stay alive — because only by staying alive could he keep making money.

But where would more attribute points come from? The returns from Path of Samsara were already on a downward slope, unless the System let him open another dungeon. Leveling up? A measly ten points per level was too little. As for boosting HP through equipment — that might be possible down the line, but right now, he couldn't even craft that kind of gear himself.

Keep leveling up.

Players continued to pass by outside. A few noticed the blacksmith shop had new stock and casually bought a couple of pieces. He was curious about what was going on, but didn't know how to bring it up. He spent the afternoon hammering away, selling off scattered pieces of equipment here and there. It wasn't until the sun began to set that he spotted a familiar figure — Lonely as a Song. He checked his level: 12.

Looks like this guy was still keeping out of the chaos.

"Master Liu, I'm here to turn in a quest." Lonely as a Song was the same as always, pulling out five pieces of black iron and submitting them.

The black iron quest was something Liu Kongkong had set up before leaving. The material was needed for level-15 equipment, but since he hadn't been there in person, the shop manager had treated all players equally — Lonely as a Song could only turn in five pieces at a time.

But now that he was back in person: "Bring out however much you've got."

Lonely as a Song blinked, then broke into a wide grin. "Master Liu, I've been waiting to hear you say that!" He'd been running the black iron collection quest since yesterday — there was no choice, with the fighting outside so intense that no one would team up with him for dungeons. "I've still got 1,495 pieces..."

Impressive! Liu Kongkong gave a mental thumbs-up, immediately issued the quest reward, and Lonely as a Song instantly leveled up to 13.

Then the two of them just stared at each other.

"Master Liu... is there a quest you want to give me, or something you want to say?" Lonely as a Song looked at him expectantly.

There was, actually — he just didn't know how to bring it up. Liu Kongkong's mind raced, and then he straightened up with sudden gravity. "In your view, how would you assess the current situation?"

The current situation? Why is a blacksmith asking about that? Lonely as a Song froze for a second. "It's... pretty interesting? Or do you mean them—" He woodenly pointed at the players sprinting madly toward the village exit.

Liu Kongkong gave a nod.

"Ah, yeah, it's a real mess out there!"

And then what? Come on, keep going! Liu Kongkong's eyes widened. He had no idea what was happening outside, and without knowing, he couldn't even figure out what equipment would sell best.

"Master Liu, are you curious about what's going on out there?" Lonely as a Song looked at him with a puzzled expression, then noticed the stiff look on Liu Kongkong's face.

"You can just ask me directly, you know. They're still fighting over the boss — it's not over yet. I walked past just now and took a look. The Cold Duck team is currently at a disadvantage!" He added a quick explanation, worried Liu Kongkong might not know: "The Cold Duck team is the alliance between Big Dumb Duck and Night's Gentle Chill. You should remember those two, right?"

Liu Kongkong's expression went blank with shock.

Big Dumb Duck and Night's Gentle Chill? Why had those two formed an alliance?! What on earth had happened while he was gone for that one day?!

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