Anna is the wife that Pan Yang married, and after nurturing their relationship for so long, her affection level is already maxed out.
Even if gifts were effective, you canāt increase a maxed-out affection level, so giving gifts is purely a waste of gold coins and materials.
"You heartless scumbag!"
"Men are all pigs, flaunting themselves in front of someone every day when they were pursuing them, and now they canāt even bear to give a gift?"
"Old married couples, lacking freshness is normal, poor Anna!"
"Feeling sorry +1! Such a great girl, how did she end up marrying a scumbag streamer..."
Seeing Pan Yang mistakenly give a gift to Anna and then showing a distressed expression, the chat was all teasing about how heās lost interest in the new and cherished only the old.
Old viewers still remember, when he first played Divine Grace Continent, he really liked Anna and even said something like "meeting Anna ruined my lifelong plans."
And now he even hesitates to give a gift?
The jokes from the viewers left Pan Yang a bit helpless. To cater to the livestream audience, he made a decision.
"Okay, okay, Iām a scumbag, I failed Anna. How about this, Iāll first give a gift to Pat, then another to Anna..."
"One for each, fairness prevails!"
Even though doing that was a waste of gold coins, as the gifts were quite expensive, with the cheapest costing 10 gold coins each.
But who can blame the audience for loving to create a ruckus?
Streamers are in the service industry, they need to serve the audience well, and if the audience makes a request, they fulfill it!
So, Pan Yang balanced things out.
He gave a gift to Pat, then turned to give one to his wife Anna, then another to Pat, and then again to Anna...
Repeated this cycle about ten times.
Finally, Patās affection level went from neutral to follower, allowing him to be recruited into the Hero Squad.
"Spent more than 1,000 gold coins, huge loss!" Pan Yang felt heartache over his decision while opening the recruitment interface.
Pat, come on in...
Just as he was about to recruit Pat to fill the last slot, an unexpected situation occurred.
"Pat joined the team!"
"Pat left the team!"
The two notification messages appeared almost simultaneously. At first, Pan Yang thought he misread, but then he tried recruiting a few more times.
No response!
This time there wasnāt even a notification, and Pat did not join the team.
"Whatās going on? Is it a bug?"
Having never encountered such a situation before, Pan Yang felt at a loss, not knowing why the recruitment had failed.
It shouldnāt be like this!
The affection level reached "follower," so NPCs should be recruitable to the team and follow the game protagonist.
"Try moving!"
Someone in the chat suggested that Pan Yang try moving the character to see if Pat would follow along.
If he does follow, then it would prove to be a display bug, with Pat having joined the team but not showing up.
If he doesnāt follow, then the recruitment failed, and Pat did not become a heroās ally...
"Let me try!"
The chatās suggestion was quite reasonable, so Pan Yang controlled the hero to move a bit.
An eerie scene occurred!
At first, Pat didnāt move, but when Anna followed the hero, Pat also moved along.
"Ah?!"
Not only did Pan Yang wide-eyed, feeling his brain had frozen, but the audience watching his stream was also just as shocked as if they had seen an alien.
The hero was cheated on?
No! From the reaction earlier, Pat should have successfully joined the team.
But for some reason, he wasnāt in the team list, and he didnāt follow the hero; instead, he followed Anna as if he were Annaās follower.
"Wait, let me think this through!"
After repeatedly confirming that Pat followed Anna and not the hero, Pan Yangās clever little mind began to ponder the causal relationships here.
Gifts, add affection...
In the game Divine Grace Continent, NPCs also have affection levels between each other, which is a well-known fact.
During the early access phase, someone exposed that they married two NPCs who were enemies, and then the wives ran away and the equipment was gone...
This matter became so famous!
So much so that many players who never played Divine Grace Continent heard about the incident of "a player got deceived by an NPC for a betrothal gift."
Due to this situation going viral, many players suddenly realized that the NPCs in Divine Grace Continent are so intelligent? They even dislike other NPCs?
Based on this premise, Pan Yang and the livestream audience derived a conclusion.
The reason why Pat would follow Anna instead of the hero likely was because:
The "follower level" affection displayed in the game referred to Patās affection for Anna, not his affection for the hero!
"But this doesnāt make sense..."
Having figured out why the recruitment failed and why Pat couldnāt join the team, Pan Yang was puzzled.
It was he who increased the affection level, and he who gave the gifts, so how did it turn into Pat liking Anna and not him, the hero?
Whoa, what a Minotaur!
He gave gifts, raising Annaās affection, and this Pat guy actually dared to have thoughts about the heroās wife, does he have a death wish?
"Could it be because of the streamerās earlier antics? So the affection went to Anna?"
Someone in the chat speculated.
Pan Yang took a glance and felt that personās reasoning made sense.
If he had to find a reason, it might be because he sent a gift to Anna earlier to clear his name from being a scumbag.
"So, this is a bug in the game?"
After reaching the conclusion, Pan Yang said with a chuckle, "Spent so much more gold coins, and in the end, still couldnāt recruit the NPC. What a loss..."
If only he hadnāt listened to the chat.
After paying such a high price, he failed to recruit the desired NPC, and instead got his wife an unwanted tag-along, what a huge loss!
"Streamer, try going outside and see if Pat can enter combat..."
"What are you thinking, brother? I havenāt even recruited him into the team, how could he possibly enter combat?"
Rolling his eyes, Pan Yang felt this audience member was a bit unrealistic.
Although Patās current status is bizarre and he follows his wife Anna, heās not part of the hero squad, how could he enter combat?
"Just go try it!"
"Fine, Iāll give it a try..."
Since he had free time, and seeing other viewers also persuaded him to try it out in the wild, Pan Yang then controlled the hero to use the teleportation array and arrived at the demon-infested outskirts plains.
A demonized wild boar launched an attack!
Entering combat scenario!
"See! I told you... huh?"
After entering the combat scenario, Pat was nowhere to be seen in the hero squad, and Pan Yang was just about to mock everyoneās wishful thinking, when suddenly, Pat appeared in the blink of an eye.
Tearing apart the void barrier with his bare hands, he forcibly joined the battle.
Pat, how terrifying!