I Became the Blacksmith NPC

Liu Kongkong had been puzzling over this for a while. Hunt Heaven had so many Starter Villages — if the requirements for building a level-30 dungeon were the same across the board, wouldn't every Starter Village have to sacrifice one of its NPCs? And if an important NPC disappeared — like a class trainer — wouldn't that mean the village would permanently lose a class option?

But today, Ding Dazhuang had given him the answer: when an NPC dies, someone comes to replace them. And apparently, this group had pegged him as the replacement for Liu Dameng. Though, if he was being honest, that was more or less the truth — he really had taken Liu Dameng's place, just... forcibly.

He returned to the blacksmith shop and opened his stat panel.

With a bounty of several million on the line, nearly everyone in Starter Village No. 0113 had been crowding the entrance to the Void Space dungeon. In just a few hours, he had accumulated another 141.3 attribute points. And that was under the suppression seal — his actual attribute gain was 14,130 points.

"If this keeps up, I'll probably need to put on a second ring before long."

He glanced at his stat panel, decided he wanted a round number, and waited a bit longer. Once the points were where he wanted them, he casually allocated them.

Name: Liu Dameng (Hundredfold Attribute Suppression Active)

Class: Apprentice Blacksmith (Level 20, Max Level Reached)

HP: 1000.01 / 1000.01

Mana: 100.01 / 100.01

Strength: 155.00

Constitution: 100.01

Agility: 10.00

Intelligence: 10.00

Spirit: 10.01

Available Points: 0

"Mana amplification is decent, but the cooldown is a pain."

After some thought, Liu Kongkong decided to keep prioritizing Strength for now — though it was really just a matter of order; he'd eventually put points into everything anyway.

He then opened the dungeon interface. With the sudden surge of players entering the dungeon, equipment drops had exploded in volume.

Just sorting through all the gear was going to take forever. Liu Kongkong made a pained face as he and the shop manager worked through the storage together. During this period, the shop manager had crafted quite a few pieces of equipment on his behalf and had even leveled up twice. The level-ups didn't bring dramatic improvements — just made the manager a bit smarter.

For example.

"Xiao Liu, I'm hungry. Go to the kitchen and whip up a couple of dishes."

Xiao Liu was the name Liu Kongkong had given the shop manager. As for cooking — he'd only just discovered that food in the game tasted exactly like real-world food, and it even gave a satiation effect.

Watching the shop manager trot off to the kitchen, Liu Kongkong went back to sorting.

"These people really do carry everything on them." He pulled a letter out from the pile of gear. "To my dearest Juan? Signed, your baby Village Chief? Is this a love letter the Village Chief wrote to the tailor shop owner?" Liu Kongkong stared blankly. This village has some complicated dynamics!

Probably some player who accepted a quest and never finished it — then it dropped when they died in the dungeon. But since it dropped to me, I have a duty to inspect the contents!

He opened the letter. Spicy stuff!

"You really do learn something new every day — quite the active lifestyle for someone his age." Liu Kongkong carefully set the letter beside the Curse God Ring Mold, planning to pull it out from time to time for review, then felt the envelope — there was something hard inside.

There's more?

Clatter. A ring dropped to the floor.

"What's this?" Liu Kongkong bent down to pick it up.

[Skill-Steal Ring]: Can mark one target and record the last 1 skill they used. The copied skill can be used once by the wearer. Cooldown: 5 minutes. Note: Skill power depends on the wearer's invested Mana and Intelligence. If the wearer's Mana and Intelligence are insufficient, the skill automatically fails. (Cannot copy Divine-tier skills.)

Not a bad item — but why had the old man given this to Qi Ajuan? The ring's power could range from devastating to useless depending on who wore it. What good would it do in Qi Ajuan's hands? Not really his problem to worry about, though. He tossed the ring into his backpack — he was still in the Starter Village, and wearing it in front of the Village Chief probably wasn't a great idea.

Back to sorting.

Suddenly, a commotion broke out outside.

"It's Big Dumb Duck! Big Dumb Duck, hello! I'm Long Wind, the village's little broadcaster — I have a few questions for you!!"

"Get lost!"

Liu Kongkong turned to look out the window and spotted Big Dumb Duck sprinting toward the dungeon entrance, with Long Wind hot on his heels.

"Big Dumb Duck! Just two questions! Are you considering selling the [Guild Establishment Permit]? And is what's going on between you and Ye Weinuan true?!"

Big Dumb Duck had been running just fine until the second question made him stumble mid-stride.

"You write one more piece of garbage like that and I'll bury you when I get back!"

"What? You'll buy me?" Long Wind blinked, then lowered his head to take notes: "In this interview, your correspondent has learned that Big Dumb Duck does not prefer the opposite sex and has secretly taken a liking to your correspondent, thoroughly debunking the rumor..."

Big Dumb Duck nearly spat blood at that, but he had no time to deal with this nonsense right now. The Void Lord was far more terrifying than they had imagined. The puppet players it copied had insane Attack, Attack Speed, and movement speed. But he'd thought of a strategy — this time, they might actually have a shot at taking the boss down.

After Big Dumb Duck left, it wasn't long before Night's Gentle Chill and their group appeared as well.

"Guild Leader Night! I'm—"

"You wait right there!"

Night's Gentle Chill was already fuming. Sunny Sky, who had been a powerhouse in the second stage, had become the biggest headache in the third stage. Once he got parasitized, even four or five people focusing fire on him could barely bring him down. When Night's Gentle Chill heard that Big Dumb Duck had secured the first clear, his heart sank. But after waiting a moment, the system didn't announce any guild being established.

"No drop? Or some other reason?"

It was only after the Toxic Crawler died that Night's Gentle Chill learned there was another boss after clearing the dungeon!

"Everyone push hard! Big Dumb Duck's team should be fighting the Void Lord too — we still have a chance!"

"Let's go!!"

Back in the dungeon, Big Dumb Duck looked at No. 7, whose expression was a little awkward. No. 7 was the fastest player on the team, and once the Void Lord copied him, the copied version of No. 7 at ten times the attributes had absolutely absurd movement speed.

"Put this on."

Big Dumb Duck smiled and handed something over.

No. 7 blinked. "A Lifelong Promise? Boss, you still have this piece of junk?!"

"What do you mean junk — in here, it's a divine artifact. You've all probably noticed by now that when the Void Lord copies a player, it copies their weapon too. So as long as you're holding this thing..."

"I get it!"

As long as the Void Lord copied No. 7, that copy would be useless. The pressure on the rest of the team would drop significantly. And if No. 7 didn't get copied, he could just disengage from the fight entirely.

Night's Gentle Chill's team was dealing with the same problem — and they had more than one problematic player.

One was Heart and Soul, whose speed was on par with No. 7's. The other was, once again, Sunny Sky — a ten-times-attribute Sunny Sky was almost more terrifying than the Void Lord itself. If either of them — or both — got copied, the entire team would have to disengage and start over. But if neither got copied, Sunny Sky became a massive asset. Even going one-on-one against a ten-times-attribute copy, he could hold his own for a very long time.

"Everyone stay sharp. We may have missed the first clear, but we absolutely must secure the first Guild Establishment Permit!"

"Yes!!"

This race that had stretched on for dozens of hours was finally, on this night, approaching its end.

As the first light of dawn crept across the sky, a team suddenly appeared at the crowded entrance to the Void Space dungeon.

The person at the front wore a smile. Under the watchful eyes of everyone present, they slowly reached into their backpack and produced a sheet of paper bearing the words: [Guild Establishment Permit]...

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