A Day in the Life of an NPC [Inner Thoughts]

On the second day of the open beta for Otherworld OL, Yi Shuyun received an official email inviting her to become an in-game tester. The pay was generous, and the work was simple. Play a different NPC each week. The only requirement is that players must never discover your identity while you're in character. Yi Shuyun: I get paid to lie flat and enjoy retirement? What a sweet deal! She happily accepted the invitation and started the very same day. Yi Shuyun received her first random identity: Big Yellow, at the entrance to a newbie village. "..." Who says Big Yellow isn't an NPC? It can even give out quests! Randomly select a lucky player and assign a quest [Lost Big Yellow [Random] Quest objective: Woof, woof woof, woof woof woof! Quest reward: Woof! Woof! Woof!] Lucky player: "???" "Quit messing around. I'm in a hurry to catch my boyfriend cheating. Go wander around a little longer, okay? Good dog~" Yi Shuyun: What, what, what? I get to enjoy the drama for free, too?! After successfully unlocking a new way to enjoy the drama, Yi Shuyun happily leaped out of the melon patch, and a whole new world opened up to her. Whether she was a street beggar or a city's ruler, whether she was Big Yellow at the village entrance or a paladin's beloved pet, she could always find the perfect way to enjoy the drama and uncover all kinds of unknown secrets. * Shi Jingye had a secret: he could hear the thoughts of every NPC in Otherworld OL, and it drove him crazy. All the NPCs were mechanical and dull. Their thoughts repeated the same one or two lines over and over, and he couldn't turn them off. It was so annoying. That was until he met a yellow dog NPC named "Big Yellow" [Woof woof woof!] [Woof~] [Woof woof! Woof! Woof woof woof!] Shi Jingye: "..." The dog's calls were so full of emotion that Shi Jingye was sure it was no ordinary yellow dog. He followed it everywhere and went to great lengths to use his only pet slot on Big Yellow, whose rating was a mere D. Yet, somehow, after the contract was sealed, Big Yellow's thoughts were reduced to just two lines, completely devoid of emotion. For a while, Shi Jingye suspected he'd imagined what he'd heard a few days earlier, until one day he was walking down the road and heard another voice, a woman's, overflowing with emotion [What, what, what? 78 backup boyfriends?] [And every single one thinks he's your one true love, dutifully grinding gold for you to spend every day?!!] [What do you mean, a new outfit every three days and a new hairstyle every two?] [Girl, even if you own the shop, you can't spend like that! Share some gold with me, will you? Wait, no, I'm an NPC now. I can't spend gold...] Shi Jingye looked at Big Yellow at his feet, then at the filthy little beggar NPC crouching in the corner with a broken bowl, her eyes shining brightly, and fell into deep thought. *A lighthearted comedy. Both the female and male leads love enjoying the drama. Hope you all have fun reading! Theme: Be happy every day.