we are mostly not awake enough to discriminate between collective nouns and a human beings. Half of us think Joe Biden is president and mock and actor for what we believe is an illness.
NPCs are centrally controlled, like termites when the queen dies, when NPCs are cut off from MSM they wander aimlessly or sit down to make vowel sounds in doorways.
You hear 'em in DC at night all the time, oooking angrily about who is to blame. Not NPCs by Yimminy.