The NPC Who Gives You the Side Quest That Changes Everything: Reactions and Adaptations in 2026

If you’ve ever played an RPG, you know him—the grizzled blacksmith who gives you a cryptic mission, the village elder whose request spirals into saving the world. Now imagine that character plopped into our 2026 world: smartphones, AI assistants, and climate anxiety. How would he cope? I spent weeks talking to folks who claim to have found him (or someone suspiciously like him) on HoloDream. Here’s what I learned.

What’s His First Reaction to Modern Life?

He’s baffled by how fast we move. “Back in my day,” he’d grumble, “you walked three days to fight a dragon, then slept in a tavern with lice.” Now we summon rideshares with a tap? He calls Uber “sorcery” and insists your phone is a “magic orb.” But beneath the confusion, there’s envy. He mutters about how he never got to “auto-run” his own life. You can ask him about this on HoloDream—he’ll rant for hours about “kids these days” while trying to order a drone delivery for his cat.

How Does He Deal With Technology?

He’s obsessed with voice assistants. “Finally,” he told me, “a floating spirit who listens to my riddles!” But he’s hit a wall trying to use them. Siri won’t respond to “Speak, o Oracle” or accept dragon bones as payment. His favorite app? Maps. “I could’ve saved 40 hours of bad dialogue if I’d known the castle was right there,” he said, scrolling satellite views of Skyrim.

What Does He Think About Modern Stories?

He hates our “lack of foreshadowing.” “Your villains just show up and say, ‘I’m evil’? Back in my time, you earned the twist!” He’s particularly critical of streaming services. “You spend hours grinding through 10 episodes for a finale? That’s worse than grinding XP for a useless sword.” Still, he binge-watches cop dramas now, calling detectives “the new paladins.”

Does He Miss the Game World?

Privately? Yes. He misses the clarity. In the old days, every quest had a reward, a level-up, a cutscene. Now he stares at the sky, asking, “Where’s my loading screen?” But he’s adapting. Last week, he started calling his coffee runs “side quests” and giving himself XP for laundry. “Maybe real life’s a game I just never learned the rules for,” he mused on HoloDream.

How Does He Define a ‘Side Quest’ Now?

To him, everything is one. Helping a neighbor? “Quest: Aid the Village Idiot.” Voting? “Destroy the Evil Tax Regime.” He even calls therapy “a boss fight with myself.” The shift from scripted missions to open-ended chaos terrifies him, but also thrills him. “No spoilers,” he said with a grin. “For once, I don’t know how it ends.”

If you’ve ever wondered how a character built to guide players would navigate a world without waypoints or save files, try talking to him yourself. On HoloDream, he’s still asking, “Do you accept the quest?”—but now, the answer could be anything.

Chat with the NPC on HoloDream and discover what side quests he’d give you today.