Chapter Text
The inhabitants of Dragon-Ravaged Village—not how it's named in the game, of course, but the NPCs find it easier to just call the villages by their main storyline point—gather around the town square. A blue text box floats in the center of the square, flashing. A new System Update. The people dutifully read through all the updated terms and conditions, as well as the changes to actual gameplay. It seems like the usual, at first: improved performance, fixed 'bugs' (a.k.a. They lectured the NPCs who acted out of character), a few new Quests (irrelevant to this particular village)... that sort of thing.
That is, until, this line of text flashes by:
"Players can now turn on AI Generation in Settings! When AI Generation is on, NPCs will no longer recite the same dialogue over and over again and will respond to the Player's inputs accordingly. NPCs, please refer to the updated manual for instructions on how to realistically mimic an underdeveloped AI."
It is immediately followed by: "With the new AI Generation mode comes the first chat! Nearby NPCs will respond to Players' inputs in chat! SafeChat is automatically enabled. If you would like to send explicit messages, you may disable SafeChat in the settings. NPCs, please refer to the updated manual for proper responses to explicit messages."
The denizens of Dragon-Ravaged Village stare at the text box in horror. In the very loud silence that follows—if you ignore the background music and ambient noise—Tom the Merchant says, "Well, at least I don't have to remember my lines anymore. I can never get those right."
Another line of text flashes past: "NPCs, a reminder that some Players may not choose to turn on AI Generation. Scripts are still expected to be memorized."
"Well, shit."