Ding!
[As part of the Extended NPC Feature Set, you have gained the ability to chat with people you've added to your friend list.]
[As part of the Extended NPC Feature Set, you have gained the ability to appoint quests to both players and NPCs alike.]
[As part of the Extended NPC Feature Set, you have gained the right to access the Greater Beyond Forum.]
[As part of the Extended NPC Feature Set, you have gained the right to access the World Net.]
As Valyr read through the notifications he had received from the system, a look of slight confusion appeared on his face as one of the notifications stood out to him. "Huh. That's weird. Why did I only unlock the ability to appoint quests just recently?"
With this thought in mind, he could not help but recall the multiple times he had obtained quests from various people in the past, making him wonder why the system had given him the function just recently. "Aren't I an NPC as well?"
Unfortunately, even after pondering over the question for quite some time, Valyr had no answer to it. With an exasperated sigh, he placed the question at the back of his head, making a mental note to ask other NPCs about it whenever he could.
After that, he focused his attention on the other functions the Extended NPC Feature Set had given him, specifically the one that gave him the ability to chat with the people on his friend list.
Whoosh!
Commanding the system to bring up a screen that was related to the function, the thought that instantly entered Valyr's mind when he got his first look at it was the fact that the screen looked oddly similar to the interface of a couple messaging services he had used in the past.
On the left side of the screen was the list of people on his friend list he could to, while on the right was blank space, which did not take long for him to conclude that it was space for the conversation itself once he had chosen a person to talk to.
Looking through the five people he could choose to contact with the function, Valyr eventually chose Tristan as he was certain that the man was already awake at this hour.
Deciding to send a quick 'Hello' to Tristan, a small strand of mana soon manifested out of Valyr's body before heading back in the direction of Astarto Village. Seeing that, Valyr finally understood what technique the NPCs were using in his previous life when they had another NPC appear before them at short notice. "So they were actually using the chat function all this time. I wonder why players don't have something like that when they chat with other players?"
"Either way, that's a question answered." Sometime later, Valyr received a strand of mana from the direction of Astarto Village as he continued on his journey. Taking a look at the chat function, he noticed that Tristan had replied to his earlier message, asking him why he sent him a message so early in the morning.
In response, Valyr told him through chat that he had already departed the village and was on his way to Clossbay City, leaving Tristan at a loss for words as he asked Valyr after that why he hadn't informed any of them before he left.
Bitterly smiling, Valyr then brought up what the five of them were doing yesterday, telling Tristan that he thought that was more than enough of a heads-up for his departure today. Unsurprisingly, Tristan replied that he still had to give them a heads-up today so they could properly say farewell to him.
At this moment, Valyr felt his heart warm up from the message, telling Tristan that he would keep that in mind the next time he departed from the village, apologizing as he asked him if he could tell the others where he had gone. In response, Tristan told him that he would tell Damian and Alfaera about his departure, which Valyr naturally thanked him for.
"Speaking of which, do you know why I only unlocked the ability to appoint quests and chat with those on my friend list just recently?" With the issue of his unannounced departure out of the way, Valyr went ahead and asked Tristan the question that was on his mind earlier, deciding to get his answer on it now rather than later.
Receiving a strand of mana from the direction of the village sometime later, Valyr read through the response Tristan sent him.
"Well, all I know is that once a new version begins, everyone who doesn't have those abilities you've mentioned unlocks them. Since you're asking me this question, you only unlocked the abilities when the new version began, right?"
"Anyways, I unlocked those abilities when the previous version began. In fact, Damian and the others also unlocked it when the previous version began. The ones older than us probably unlocked them in the versions before ours."
"But yeah. Once a new version begins, those who don't have the abilities yet unlock it."
As Valyr sent a response back to Tristan, thanking him for explaining the reason why he didn't have those abilities beforehand, instead of feeling satisfied that his question was answered, more questions arose from his mind after reading Tristan's reply.
For one, Tristan mentioned that he and the others obtained the Extended NPC Feature Set when the version before the beta began. In other words, they obtained these abilities during Greater Beyond's alpha.
However, he also mentioned in passing that there were multiple versions before Greater Beyond's alpha, which Valyr eventually inferred as the prototype versions of Greater Beyond before the alpha version came to being.
With all of this in mind, Valyr could not help but wonder if the entire universe of Greater Beyond was the first thing to be created by the company before proceeding through the various versions that eventually came to be known as Greater Beyond.
Though this conclusion did make sense to him, thinking that it seemed highly plausible for it to be the case, Valyr could not help but have a feeling that this idea of his was far from the truth.
"If only there was someone I could talk to that was knowledgeable on the matter…" As these words came out of his mouth, Valyr could not help but think of Riekan, finding it a wasted opportunity to have not asked the man about the current question in his mind.
Then again, he had no clue that the system would unlock something like the Extended NPC Feature Set, so he could not blame himself from the past either.
Letting out an exasperated sigh, Valyr furiously scratched his head in annoyance as he placed the thought at the back of his head for now, taking in a few deep breaths to calm himself down before deciding to focus on the other features he had unlocked in the meantime.
