The two-story building of this old lady from the former dynasty was not affected by the two large-scale sieges. It seems that everyone knows the importance of a good doctor. Of course, it is also possible that her hidden strength is enough to protect her.
The security of this building.
The reason why she has hidden strength is because of the way she talks.
When Sherlock talks to "NPCs", there are always some "keywords" that can trigger his/her "functions", and once those functions are triggered, they will ignore the current environment and execute the functions activated by the keywords.
The current reasoning result is that the Lord of the Ocean Dimension, Bai Xing, divided the NPCs placed in this world into three, six or nine levels.
The lowest level are naturally those recruited artillery, ahem, heroic soldiers. They seem to have only two behavior modes: "Fight under orders" and "Escape with low morale". After being killed, they will turn into black mist and dissipate directly, without even corpses.
and passers-by in villages also fall into this category.
The more advanced ones are lords, businessmen, and village leaders from various places. They can also have daily chats, just like normal people, but their reactions after triggering the "keyword" prove that they are still NPCs.
The highest level, naturally, is like Instiana. Ever since he found Long Qi in a robber hideout and followed the mission guide to find her, not a single "keyword" has been triggered. Sherlock had to use his own words to communicate with her.
.
Sherlock even suspected that some important NPCs related to the direction of the entire world were all shaped like this, but he had rarely seen a few of them. Perhaps the "Arzagos" Watson had seen was also of this type.
Today is another severe dialogue challenge. I have completed the task of "becoming the overlord of one party" and also completed Instiana's task. However, if I fail to meet her requirements in planning for the future, I may very well fail.
There is no follow-up, so I can only look for evidence of dominance and fight with other players.
Sherlock adjusted his mood and walked into the small building to see Justina.
"Smart approach, young man," Justina was making medicine in a clay pot without looking at Shylock: "Each of those traitors claims to be orthodox, and they don't think anyone dares to fly their own flag boldly.
, at most they are just raising their status, so they will not attack you for the time being, but will only send messengers to promise generous terms, and only ask to dedicate the dragon flag to them to prove their legitimacy, but if you resolutely refuse, it will take about two days.
After a few months, they will come around and treat you as an enemy and send troops to attack."
Oh? Is this the reason for the so-called "protection period"? If you stand still during this period, the surrounding empires will have illusions, but if the true nature of the initiative to attack is revealed, they will not hold back.
"I am mobilizing all my family troops to come together, madam," Sherlock said, "I want to know your next plan."
"Don't worry, young man, my old friends are already on the way," Instiana glanced at Sherlock: "What you have to do now is to repair the city wall, stabilize public order, improve residents' loyalty, and ensure that they can resist the two major forces.
After the empire's tidal offensive, they still have the remaining power to occupy their cities."
"That's it," Sherlock nodded: "The next step is to occupy the cities of the empire, and it needs to reach a certain proportion."
"Oh?" Instiana put down the medicine jar in her hand: "Although this is not difficult to guess, why is it 'a certain proportion' instead of 'all'?"
"Would you put all your hopes of reviving the empire on a person of unknown origin?" Sherlock shrugged: "What if I was specially trained by the empire to find out all the veterans who want to revive the Kalad Empire?
?”
"Ha... young man, even if I say 'I believe you are not', you won't believe it," the old woman said with a slight smile: "Of course, I won't say that. We have experienced too much in these years.
Duo, has become accustomed to being wary of anyone, even if he is holding the dragon flag fragment."
"So, why is it 'a certain proportion?'" Sherlock asked instead.
"Aren't you very smart? You can keep guessing." Justina started pounding her clay pot again.
"Because the conclusion drawn by the reasoning is too bizarre, I want to ask you to confirm it," Sherlock paused: "When I occupy more than a certain proportion of an empire's territory, will the remaining cities directly rebel and join me?
"
"What's rebellion, it sounds ugly, it's called uprising," the old woman glared at him, and then said: "Do you think that there are not many old men from the previous dynasty left like me?"
"At least not on the surface, the clues to you were found on the dragon flag." Sherlock spread his hands.
"Have you traveled to all the cities and spoken to everyone?" asked Justina.
"Um...no." Sherlock shook his head.
Because there was an entire family of troops to make ends meet, Shylock was running around in various cities and villages almost non-stop, completing tasks, killing bandits, escorting caravans, transporting goods based on price information, selling trophies, and so on.
Now that I think about it, although I am very busy, traveling all over the East China Sea Empire, and raising the reputation of almost all the merchants and leaders, I am only familiar with those "useful" people, and there will be no such thing in various towns and villages.
There is almost no time to deal with the "NPC" in the mission.
It would not be surprising if among those who were just watching him silently, there were actually "high-level NPCs" like Justina.
"Heh," seeing Sherlock lost in thought, Instiana chuckled: "As people who are feared and vigilant by those traitors, we will not take the initiative to do work that may deal with many people, but we can have a little influence.
Not bad, doctors in clinics, craftsmen in blacksmith shops, managers in workshops, sorters in caravans, these 'invisible' professions, the lords may not see them once a year, but we can always observe silently
them."
"But being able to influence the city's decision-making and make them surrender directly to me is a bit..." Sherlock scratched his hair.
"What is surrender is called an uprising," Justina emphasized again: "At that time, the lords of the cities you have not occupied will declare to join you, but they will not give up the cities they own. This is our influence.
If you want to deprive them of their fiefdom, you have to find a way yourself. If it causes him to rebel, it is not our problem."
"Didn't you say it wasn't rebellion..." Sherlock muttered.
"Leaving the empire is treason!" Justina knocked on her medicine jar.
Yes, yes, everything you said is right...
"Besides," when Sherlock was about to say a few more words and leave, the old woman suddenly looked out the door with a meaningful expression: "It's good that you refuse to work for that 'enemy of the empire' in Arzagos.
But he will not give up. In the process of restoring the glory of the empire, he should gather all the small kingdoms that are not in the imperial camp to form an alliance to fight against you."
"..."
At this moment, Sherlock deeply realized what it meant to be "the enemy of the world".
