Enlighten Senior Fellow Zhong

The girl sitting imperiously atop the Thunder Bear was none other than the daughter of the poaching guild’s leader, and Tower Master of the high tower, Zuo Yi.

As the NPC who had been the most beloved by players in his previous life—whose approval rating could go toe-to-toe with that of the Swift Fox—Lu Ze had chosen to bring her back in fully authentic form.

Cat-ear hood, twin ponytails—one pink, one black—a crop top, and a micro-skirt.

And a little expression that might as well have had the word "tsundere" written all over her face.

"These clothes... they look so weird..." Zhou Yue blinked.

"So... so pretty!!!" Zhou Qiaoling’s eyes were practically sparkling with stars.

Sure, Lu Ze had screwed her over countless times, but when it came to aesthetics, he was truly ahead of the curve—and she fully acknowledged that.

"Can we loot her clothes off her if we beat her?"

"Sis, I beg you—please act like a human being..."

"Qiaoling, are you really that thirsty? I swear I can feel your drool dripping on my arm..."

"Huh? I’m not even standing next to you!"

"Then what is this..."

Zhong Yi turned to his left with a look of disgust, only to see Mu Yawen staring at Zuo Yi in a daze.

Strictly speaking, at the Thunder Bear—the massive, burly beast she was riding.

"Zhong... Zhong-brother..."

Mu Yawen wiped the drool from the corner of his mouth, his eyes burning with intensity. He raised a finger and pointed at the Thunder Bear.

"I’m into... this one!"

"Uh?"

Zhong Yi froze, following the direction of his finger, and saw Zuo Yi staring back at him with utter disdain, as if he were nothing but a lowly minnow.

'Could it be that Mu-brother has finally reached the age of first love? Hah, well then, that’s fine...'

Zhong Yi felt a wave of relief and quietly rejoiced inside.

Even if this was just an illusion within a pocket realm, at least it had managed to crack open that blockhead of Mu Yawen’s—and that filled him with deep satisfaction.

"So your brother here will help you take her down... wait, WHAT???"

When Zhong Yi looked at Zuo Yi again, his heart jolted violently.

For some reason, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the look Zuo Yi was giving him felt... strangely familiar...

"Hmph, just four pathetic minnows. Don’t expect this lady to go easy on you!"

Zuo Yi lifted her chin proudly, arms crossed over her chest.

"Tear them to shreds, Thunder Bear!"

...

Zhong Yi’s group of four had gotten carried away having fun and were all sitting at level fifteen or sixteen across the board.

Even so, against this mere level-ten Tower Master, they were still in for a rough ride.

Every Pal that a Tower Master commanded was a specially enhanced variant.

Health, size, attacks, skills—their stats were all ridiculously over-tuned.

Luckily, the group had already learned Zhong Yi’s trick of using Pal Spheres to recall and redeploy their Pals to avoid taking skill damage, and slowly but surely, the battle was tipping in their favor.

"If we keep doing this, doesn’t that mean we could challenge any Tower Master we want?" Zhou Yue asked curiously mid-fight.

"Probably not... Pals can dodge forever, but we can’t."

Zhong Yi shook his head and explained to Zhou Yue.

"That’s just you... I actually could manage it."

Zhou Yue smirked and jabbed back.

"Pfft, screw you!"

Zhong Yi scowled, then pointed at the hourglass counting down in the tower’s sky above.

"And don’t forget—there’s a time limit on this thing..."

"If a level-ten Tower Master has nearly ten thousand health, then higher-level ones might have hundreds of thousands."

"It’s not just about dodging—it’s about raw damage output too."

Zhou Yue nodded with a resigned look: "Hmm, Lao Zhong, you do make a point..."

Just as he said that, a bolt of lightning slammed down toward him, and he quickly rolled aside.

He came out unscathed, but Zhong Yi got fried down to a sliver of health.

"Dammit! Why does this crap usually target you? Why do I keep getting hit?!" Zhong Yi groaned in exasperation, darting behind a pillar to wait for his shield to recover.

In past fights, aggro from big monsters always went to Zhou Yue.

But in this Tower Master battle specifically, Zuo Yi’s attacks constantly came after Zhong Yi, much to his confusion.

"Whoa!! I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die. Zhong-brother, move over a little, let me heal up too..." Zhou Qiaoling wasn’t doing well either—she was zapped, covered in soot, her hair starting to look like an afro, scrambling toward Zhong Yi in full panic.

After all, the pillar they were near was a giant stone column that could block a lot of skill damage.

The moment Zhou Qiaoling got close, the corner of Zuo Yi’s mouth curled slightly.

Then she clapped her hands.

A hail of thunder orbs, as if guided by sight, curved around the obstacle and slammed straight into Zhong Yi.

"???"

"That’s cheating, this is SO not fair!!"

"Zhong-brother, did you get possessed by your bro?! Why do I get zapped just for standing near you!!!"

...

Watching Zhong Yi take a beating, the livestream chat was having the time of their lives.

[Streamer sucks, watching is super satisfying]

[Doesn’t feel like it’s a skill issue—watched a ton of people challenge Tower Masters, never seen lightning that curves around obstacles before...]

[Is Lao Zhong infected by Zhou’s bad luck or what? This is just cursed!!]

[Haha!! I’ve figured it out—every time Qiaoling gets close to Lao Zhong, Zuo Yi goes full berserk]

...

Right at that moment, watching the Tower Master battle from his own livestream, Lu Ze blinked in disbelief.

"Weird... I should have formatted all of her memories..."

Lu Ze muttered under his breath.

As one of the few special NPCs, Zuo Yi had naturally been granted sentience.

The production schedule for "Palworld" was tight, and Lu Ze didn’t have time to cultivate a new mind that fit her personality.

So he chose the simplest, most direct approach—finding souls already similar to the NPC archetype and just copy-pasting them in.

Zuo Yi was a classic tsundere archetype.

And for that archetype, Lu Ze happened to hear from Zhong Yi about the perfect candidate.

He Qingyue—a core disciple of the Yunxian Sect who had been nursing a one-sided crush on Zhong Yi all along, yet was always mistaken by him as someone who despised him.

Using that lead, Lu Ze easily located He Qingyue’s cyber soul.

With her as the base soul, he layered Zuo Yi’s persona on top.

Oddly enough—even though Lu Ze had completely erased the existence of "He Qingyue" from her, looking at what was happening now... she seemed to be...

Keeping some remnants of those traits.

Especially whenever she came across Zhong Yi.

Watching it all unfold, Lu Ze couldn’t help but chuckle.

Because, you see, Zuo Yi wasn’t just a Tower Master.

She was also a special being that could be recruited as a partner—or even captured with a Pal Sphere.

After giving Zuo Yi sentience—and especially building her soul on the foundation of He Qingyue’s cyber soul—

Lu Ze couldn’t help but wonder if Zhong Yi’s "Palworld" was about to become a dating sim instead.

"Eh, forget it..." Lu Ze shook his head.

"Consider it me knocking some sense into that thick-headed Zhong-brother..."