What if Weed had never joined Royal Road?

What if an NPC truly became self-aware?

When Devant learns of learns of his true position on the continent of Versailles it turns his life upside down. What does the word player really signify? As far as I know they were originally called foreigners. The word NPC seems to mean non-player character yet we give this term relation to natives. What does this discrepancy mean when an NPC becomes a player?