A view of life from an AI lumberjack's perspective

Have you ever thought about what does the day looks like for a non-playable character of the game and how do things revolve around them?

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(As soon as the loading game screen was finished. The game quickly went back to where it was left off by the player.)

Game system: "Welcome back, Aeon! Resume quest?"

Player: Yes *click*

The game started with a momentary cutscene featuring one of the villagers who is asking for help from an adventurer to heal their land that was plagued for months by an unknown source. After a few dialogues, the game shifted to a playable third-person point-of-view.

Quest Update: "Investigate the origin of the Kassadum's plague.

A voice was heard from a distance, "Well, these woods ain't gonna chop 'emselves!" followed by a thugging sound of trees being struck by an ax. *thug* *thug* *thug*.

Upon hearing the grunted sound near his location, the player, who is in the main mission of investigating the origin of plague in the village of Kassadum, decided to move his character towards the nearest NPC to have a conversation with a woodchopper, to extract information from NPCs to gain knowledge in fulfilling the current quest.

A large font sized instruction is floating above the woodchopper's head which says, "press E to interact." The player pressed "E".

"Hey, how are you doing?" a cloaked man with a long wooden staff which seems to be a level sixty wizard suddenly emerged out of what seems to be a portal. Abrupted by the sudden appearance of an unknown man, the lumberjack who looks to be a primed, middle-aged man respectfully answered, "Ah, I am chopping these woods so my family can warm themselves for the upcoming winter, my dear sir." The lumberjack quickly went on his work to chop the woods. The adventurer was about to leave for he thought that the NPC he approached was not capable of prolonged interaction. But then, he just stood there and watched how would an in-game AI carry out its chores, so he watched the lumberjack closely and noticed that the tree he had been chopping doesn't even dislodge. He was confused at what the lumberjack was doing so he asked him again, "What are you doing?" the lumberjack stopped and replied with a programmed response, "Ah, I am chopping these woods so my family can warm themselves for the upcoming winter, my dear sir." he said. The wizard now started to dig through the conversation, "But you're not chopping the trees, look at it, it doesn't even budge!" With the programmed smile, the lumberjack looked at the tree he had been chopping for ages, his face still unfazed. The wizard then asked, "Where's your house?", "Oh, it's right there in uhh.. beside those uhh.." The lumberjack scratched his head in confusion, "It's, it's.." he doesn't even know where to point his finger at. "Where's your family?" the wizard added, "Uhhh, they were right uhh, there, right there, yeah, preparing for the upcoming winter." The wizard did not stop questioning the lumberjack's actions and even questioning his existence. "How long have you been here chopping these trees?" he asked, and the NPC replied, "Well, I was just here a while ago!" he then smiled and looked confidently upon the inquisitor's eyes. "No, no you're not, you've been here since the game started, you were programmed to stand here and not to go anywhere while you keep yourself busy by chopping these fake trees, with your fake ax, forever. While we, the main players of this game, are free to roam around to save your village, loot treasures, steal your chickens, and anything we like to do with the game." the wizard said condescendingly. "Game? Whadd'ya mean game?" the lumberjack confusedly asked as he frowns his eyebrows. "Yes! We're in a game. And you're part of it." the wizard tried to prove his point to a non-playable character with no particular reason in mind, maybe he was just bored and wanted to play with the system.

"Come to look at this," the wizard said, he then started to stretch out his arms and exclaimed, "Holy fire!" a bluish fire came out of wizard's hand and charred the objects where he pointed his fingers at. The lumberjack was amazed by what he had seen. "You see that?" the wizard bragged, "that's what I can do! I can learn all the elements, max it all out, concoct any potions. I could even revive your dead relatives... if you have one! Ha!" he mockingly exclaimed. "And you, you're just there, chopping woods until the game decided to remove you or update you in the game system," he added. The wizard again started to question the piteous, innocent man who knows nothing but to chop woods. "What's your name?" he slowly asked, "Uhh my name's uhh, oh yeah, look above my head that's my name, heh," he replied. The wizard looked above the floating name above the NPC's head, "It says lumberjack, it's not even a name, that's your job title! See? You don't even have a name." he refuted. The lumberjack, for the first time in the making, started to become aware of what's happening around him and question his existence and purpose in life, his confusion is visibly seen in his face as he held his ax.

"Tell me again, who.. are.. you?" the wizard asked with a prying look.

The lumberjack just stood there without doing or saying anything, but his visible confusion was quickly changed by a smile as it is what he was programmed to do when interacting with the game characters. The adventurer then noticed a bubble sign above the lumberjack's head, it says *press E to interact*. He thought he's about to snap the AI out of reality to where he was and what he does, and without further ado, he pressed E.

"Well, these woods ain't gonna chop 'emselves!", the lumberjack exclaimed and continued to chop down the trees.

The player received a sudden error and was banned from the server due to a bug report and for a momentary game glitch.