You have been emergency disconnected. Please choose whether to reconnect.
“Yes.”
Reconnecting...
Connection complete. Reading character information.
Welcome back, lawful good Mo. Innocent World will be loaded soon. Good night.
When Mo Tan came to his senses, he found that he hadn't been refreshed by the system in some remote wilderness, but was lying on a clean, soft bed, surrounded by a faint fragrance.
Of course, he hadn't accidentally stumbled into the boudoir of some young lady awaiting marriage, although such cliché plots still frequently appear in novels, animations, and a large number of film and television works, steadfastly and persistently emitting a mind-numbing stench. But at least they won't appear in Innocent World and Quadruple Split (crossed out)... Rest assured, everyone.
“It seems this isn't the battlefield from before.” Mo Tan sat up, surveyed the room's environment, and murmured, “It really does disconnect just like that. Fortunately, no one noticed at the time, otherwise, who knows what the consequences would have been...”
It happened like this: not long ago, after Mo Tan and Shuang Ye reached an agreement in the Public Space, he immediately went offline before she could react, then expended great effort to forcibly switch his personality and log in as Black Vatican as quickly as possible.
After all, although he was 90% sure he wouldn't arouse Shuang Ye's suspicion again, he wasn't willing to take any additional risks. If Shuang Ye still had doubts after their interaction and immediately logged into the game to find Black Vatican wasn't there, it might still keep her on alert...
So Mo Tan planned to log in quickly and return to the camp. If he received a message from Shuang Ye, he would reply instantly, which would pretty much completely put her at ease.
In this game, players cannot see if their friends are online. To know if someone is playing, there are only two ways: meet them in person or send a message to confirm.
But this time, Mo Tan was overthinking it. After receiving the friend request from the character 'Tan Mo,' Shuang Ye had completely dispelled her previous suspicions, thinking she had just been overthinking things, and her attention had already shifted to 'Black,' whom she had just met. She didn't log in again afterward.
Mo Tan's statement about being 'attracted by a sudden flood of false information online and then investigating it slightly' had no logical flaws and successfully convinced Shuang Ye that the subsequent series of events had no connection to the priest she knew in the game.
At least for a short time, the initiative was firmly in his hands.
Of course, as for what Shuang Ye thought, it didn't matter...
Everyone understands the principle of one wrong step leading to many wrong steps.
Then, after returning to the military camp and making some simple confirmations, Mo Tan sent another message to Shuang Ye. The main content was complaining about the tediousness of charging magic crystal lamps and some insights about magic power and faith perception. After confirming she wasn't online, he greeted Ned and the others and left the outpost, preparing to go to the church to see what skills he could learn.
As a result, on the way... he had an episode.
So, he disconnected...
Logging back into the game, lawful good Mo made a dazzling appearance~
This was probably the entire process before.
Of course, for Mo Tan (the current one), it was a good thing, because he was very concerned about what happened to the Forest Sprite caravan and the Ground Dragon Mercenary Group acting as guards.
However, the first half of the sentence could be considered nonsense, because no matter which personality Mo Tan logged into the game with, the character matching his current personality would undoubtedly be the one he most wanted to play.
So, crazy people have more fun~~
“Since I can appear here, it proves that this must be 'reasonable,' at least for now I don't need to worry about danger.” Mo Tan didn't leave immediately. Instead, he sat on the bed, propping his chin, deep in thought. After all, two days had passed. If his companions from their previous joint operation had met with misfortune, rushing a few minutes wouldn't help. If everyone was already safe, there was even less need to rush.
As mentioned before, although he was upright, kind, and highly responsible, the 【lawful good】 Mo Tan was not the straightforward and unthinking type. Personality doesn't affect intelligence, so he didn't rush into action. He even thought that perhaps the answer would appear before him soon...
Mo Tan was currently thinking about another matter.
A matter that was important from every angle.
He was too weak!
The 'he' here refers not to the current 【lawful good】 Mo, but to Mo Tan himself, no matter which character... is the same.
Let alone compared to those NPCs, even among players, Mo Tan was relatively uninspiring. It wasn't that he played poorly or had limited talent; quite the opposite, the character represented by each personality had great potential, but...
He had too little time!
Other players play a single character from 7 PM to 7 AM, totaling 24 hours of game time (correct, the real-world to game-world time ratio is 1:2), while Mo Tan only has, on average, less than one-third of that. This significantly impacts his ability to complete quests or level up. This doesn't even need an example.
The lawful good Mo character even went for more than ten chapters without... ahem, didn't log in for an entire day yesterday, and this is just the beginning. As players' total game time increases, this disadvantage will quickly amplify geometrically, eventually falling into a vicious cycle.
Well, even if Innocent World is different from other games, extreme uncertainty might make the consequences less severe, but it would still have a significant negative impact on Mo Tan.
And Mo Tan's dissociative identity disorder isn't an active skill, but a passive effect, which means...
“No solution.” Mo Tan sighed, murmuring with a shake of his head, “At least no solution for now.”
At this moment, he wasn't regretting this unequal treatment; he simply wished he could possess the strength to help others, just like in a combat encounter, the role an ordinary cannon fodder plays versus a max-level hero unit is like heaven and earth.
Whether it's the Death Knight who believes in Brother Chun and can resurrect both friend and foe with full buffs, or the white-bearded old man who can group teleport with his companions to escape if he can't win, they're all more reliable than an SCV that can only weld, right?
Regardless of the world view, high-tech tasks like inflicting damage and saving lives require hard power as a backing.
And Mo Tan's current strength is probably not even as good as an SCV; at least they have welding!
However, even though the bug of having multiple characters combined with Mo Tan's illness has significant drawbacks, it's not entirely without benefits, for example...
Clang!!
The door, suddenly pushed open with great force, interrupted his thoughts. A red-faced dwarf brawny man rushed in, and without a word, gave Mo Tan a bear hug.
“Ugh! Mag... Mag!!” Mo Tan felt the air instantly squeezed from his chest, struggling with a red face and neck, “Gentler! I'm... dying!”
This smiling, bearded dwarf warrior in front of him wasn't Mag, the squad leader of the Ground Dragon Mercenary Group, who else could it be?
“Haha~” Seeming to realize he had been a bit too excited, Mag quickly released him, laughing, “Those little green-skinned people said you were awake, and I didn't quite believe it, but I didn't expect it to be true!”
Mo Tan was a little confused and asked, “Awake? So I was... unconscious before?”
“Yes, unconscious for nearly two days.” Mag nodded, sat down on the edge of Mo Tan's bed, and spread his hands, “We were all worried about you. Our mercenary group has had someone guarding you outside the room this whole time. But just now, it was those Forest Sprites who told everyone you were awake. Tsk tsk, they didn't install some peeping array in the room, did they? I'll have to ask them later. I've wanted to watch Hammer-girl bathe for ages!”
Hmm, from the name, one could tell she was a dwarf girl with decent combat power. For his own mental health, Mo Tan decided not to imagine anything from Mag's previous words to preserve his worldview.
“You're overthinking it, old beard.”
A sharp voice came from not far from the two of them. Mo Tan and Mag turned their heads blankly, finding that the potted plant originally placed by the head of the bed had moved. The nameless plant inside had pulled out arm-like limbs from the soil, propping itself on the edge of the pot and trying hard to pull itself out. It took a while for it to get the part below its 'waist' out of the soil.
Mo Tan felt that this little fellow should be the so-called Forest Sprite, but its appearance was completely different from Mag's 'little green-skinned people.' At most, it was a walking leek...
“Please keep your amazement to yourself. I already have a boyfriend.” The leek... Forest Sprite waved its leaves at the somewhat stunned Mo Tan, then, in a hazy green light, transformed into a miniature female resembling a dean of students (what kind of appearance is that?), and scornfully said to Mag, “The first reason I knew he was awake was simply because I was watching here. Alright, mission accomplished, you two chat.”
With that, she twisted her snake-like, barrel-shaped waist and left...
Very graceful, very shapely.
“Don't question your aesthetic.” Mag rolled his eyes and whispered to Mo Tan, “I swear, even among Forest Sprites, that guy just now could be said to be extremely ugly...”
The latter blinked, not expressing any opinion, but just smiled, “It's good that everyone is okay, but honestly, I'm completely at a loss right now...”
This was absolutely true. Leaving aside everything else, just Mag's comment about 'being unconscious for nearly two days' filled Mo Tan's mind with questions, because logically, whether a player logs in or logs out, the manifestation should be a subtle flash of white light, and then, click, the person appears~ or disappears~
Mo Tan had never heard of a character's body remaining in the game after logging off...
Although the official explanation for player login/logout details was vague, merely stating 'under relatively reasonable circumstances,' the idea of a character remaining unconscious in the game for nearly two days after logging off seemed a bit too fantastical!
If he didn't get this cleared up, it would definitely make Mo Tan's hair stand on end!
Think about it, a character in the game can be said to be the player's self, right? It's not an exaggeration to say it's another you. And then, after you log off, your other physical body remains in this world full of Orcs~ Ogres~ Lizardmen~ magic~ alchemy~ in short, a very fantastical and chaotic world.
Anyone would break out in a cold sweat, right?
“Thanks to you~” Mag patted Mo's shoulder: “Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to reach here safely with zero casualties. The Ground Dragon owes you a favor~”
“Thanks to me?” Mo Tan scratched his hair, puzzled, “I just shouted for everyone to break through at the time. Even if I hadn't said it, you professionals would have surely made the same choice, right?”
He didn't believe the mercenaries and Forest Sprites were idiots who would ignore the fiery path at the time; it was arguably their only way out.
He had only reacted a bit faster, at most...
“Did you forget what happened next?” Mag stared at Mo Tan for a long time before muttering, “Could it be some side effect? After all, no one knew what you did at the time...”
Mo Tan asked curiously, “What did I do at the time?”
Mag smiled at him, casually pulled out a small wineskin from somewhere on his person, took a big gulp, smacked his lips, and recalled, “What did you do? Roughly, just as we had barely gathered and formed a formation, preparing to break through, you suddenly let out a loud roar, and then countless Sand Goblins and Mud Fishmen all fell to the ground... Some were spitting blood, some were dying, some were unconscious, but none got back up. Then, after a while, you also collapsed, and we brought you here.”
Mo Tan took about five seconds to process Mag's words in his mind, then spread his hands, indicating that the other party had completely missed the point: “Can we be a little more specific?”
Then this somewhat simple-minded dwarf warrior readily agreed and proceeded to gesticulate wildly while rambling to him for over half an hour...
Finally, the content Mo Tan himself summarized was as follows:
After he shouted, everyone began to prepare for a breakthrough, and by then, he had actually disconnected.
But his in-game self did not turn into a white light and disappear. Instead, he suddenly stood frozen, unresponsive to others' calls, while the large number of ambushers had already begun to regroup, seemingly planning to launch another fierce attack.
Just then, 'he' suddenly let out a roar to the sky. One second later, large numbers of Sand Goblins and Mud Fishmen around them suddenly began falling like cut wheat, and the ever-elusive archer didn't even fire another arrow. The imminent crisis was bizarrely resolved just like that...
And he, who should theoretically have been the instigator, also collapsed, falling into unconsciousness.
The mercenary group members could hardly understand this phenomenon. Finally, an old Forest Sprite who had lived for who knows how many years squeezed over, stood there and watched Mo Tan for a long time before coming to a vague conclusion: this kid must have activated some highly forbidden ability, paying a great price to instantly kill a large number of enemies.
Then, for reasons like overexertion, exhaustion, cost, or backlash, which only the heavens knew, he fainted.
...
Mag managed to stretch this little bit of content into half an hour!
And Mo Tan, who was already confused, became even more so after hearing it...
Chapter Seventeen: End