From Software lets player skill shine in many areas and that includes the good old ability to act while keeping your wits about you.
Elden Ring features numerous systems that have been the same throughout various Souls games and one of them is the multiplayer system that allows for surprise PvP. When a player invades another's world, they are marked in a colour different than the NPCs but that is not true about the host themselves.
Throughout the years of Souls games and their hardcore existence, players were pretending to be NPCs in order to avoid PvP fights but even though the phenomenon was known to the fans for a long time, this was not exactly a common occurrence.
Elden Ring players continued the honoured tradition of fooling the occasional invader as u/xdc_lis posted their bit of fun with a person who came for PvP but eventually left after a round of hide and seek.
As you can see in the linked video, hiding was done in plain sight as the host merely held a torch and walked on a path in a fairly short line. Upon reaching the end of their "scripted" path, the player would turn around and walk back, just like an NPC would.
This was all planned by the host, who even found an armour set that was exactly like the ones worn by an AI in that exact spot. Naturally, the NPC had to go before the invader was summoned but the overall result is a pretty good dose of comedy and a break from fighting the bosses all over the place.
