Game of the World Tree

▪️VERSION UPDATE

Even though a month had passed according to the news, Evé didn’t believe that the orc army would arrive anytime soon.

After all, the orcs had only begun mobilizing a month ago, and it was estimated that they had only set out just a few days ago.

As a general rule, larger armies moved more sluggishly.

Not to mention, the Orcs will have to climb over the rugged Dark Mountains to come from the Death Desert in the south to the Forest of Elves…

Of course they could also use the road from the Kingdom of Aries but how could any Human Kingdom possibly allow a 30,000-strong orc army to enter its borders?

Moreover, the God of Winter and Hunting, Uller, preferred not to involve any other forces in this religious war.

The information obtained by the Dwarves only stated that the orcs mobilized their 30,000-strong army northward.

In essence, it was the Church of Death that had obtained inside information through divine revelations, and deduced that the orcs’ target was the newly ascended god in the Elven Forest.

So, it was inevitable that the Orcs would cross the Black Mountain Range.

And crossing the Black Mountain Range would take even more time.

Therefore, before the orc army’s arrival, players still had a window for growth. This period could range from as short as twenty days to as long as over a month…

“Speaking of which, it’s been almost two months since the closed beta started. Maybe I should organize a summer event now that it’s summer vacation back on Earth?”

Evé contemplated as she left the conference hall and returned her consciousness back to the World Tree.

“However, before that… let’s take a look at exactly how many players are theoretically ready for battle.”

She thought for a moment, then glanced upwards at the ten thousand and two hundred “stars” that represented the players in the skies of her Celestial Domain.

Afterward, she also checked each player’s personal data, but she was taken aback when Evé checked the players’ average online time duration.

“What on earth? The average daily online time is twelve hours!?”

Twelve hours!

In other words, the majority of these players were spending half of their daily 24 hours within the game!

Even though players could play while sleeping, it was still astonishing that many remained online for no less than 7 hours…

“It seems I made the right choice in choosing all these beta-testers…they are all hardcore gamers! And… the allure of Elven Kingdom is much stronger than I imagined.”

Evé marveled whilst looking at the data.

However, the most extreme case was Boxlunch.

Upon further examination, she was shocked to discover that this hardcore player averaged 20.3 hours online every day.

Thirty thousand orc warriors didn’t elicit much of an emotional response from her, but Boxlunch’s daily online time managed to stun her.

“No wonder he’s leveling up so fast… he’s practically living in a gaming pod, isn’t he? Doesn’t he even have a job?”

Then, Evé specifically looked at those players with relatively less online time and found that amongst the ten thousand and two hundred players, approximately a hundred individuals had the least online time.

“The least online players have an overall duration of less than twenty hours… and there are over a hundred people with an average daily online time of less than two hours, with most of them being third-round beta-testers.”

Seeing this data, Evé sighed inwardly.

There was nothing she could do about it.

No matter how well a game was made, it couldn’t satisfy everyone.

Even if these ten thousand and two hundred players were carefully selected by her, there was still no way to avoid players quitting for various reasons or those who seldom logged in…

It was just the way things were.

However, this posed a problem for her since Elven Kingdom fundamentally is not a game.

If a player stayed offline for too long or truly abandoned it, their avatars would face an uncertain fate since these avatars aren’t just data and have actual physical bodies.

Let alone anything else, although the player’s avatar will enter a dormant state after its user goes offline, it will still inevitably die if the avatar doesn’t get any sustenance for a long time…

“Perhaps… I should set up a retrieval mechanism. I’ll just archive their avatar on the World Tree If a player goes offline for more than three days and only reactivate it when they finally log back in.”

“As for those who might quit, I’ll inform them that the storage time is one month, and their avatar will be completely recycled if the user isn’t online for one month.”

After deciding on a solution for players who stayed offline for extended periods, Evé shifted her focus to war preparations.

“There’s at least twenty days left before the orc army arrives… during this time, I need to bolster the players’ strength as quickly as possible and strengthen the defenses of the Elven Forest.”

“While I could directly enhance the players’ abilities, in the long run… it’s better to let them work hard on their own. If enhancing their strength is limited, I can always give them buffs using Hela’s divine power when the time comes.”

“For the next twenty days, I can temporarily lower the amount I am getting from war sacrifices and instead reallocate it to give players more experience… No, well, now that I think about it, why don’t I just give them all of it for the time being, ‘double experience’! Double the joy!”

“Furthermore, I’ll release some new infrastructure tasks like building defensive structures to enhance the defense level of the Elven Forest. This war… in the end, I’m the defending side with fewer people, so we need to focus on defense.”

“Maybe… I can directly issue tasks for life players to replicate Blackrock City’s defense core!”

“Well… after our meeting with the dwarves, the players should know by now that the Orcs are coming. Let’s directly start a new main storyline…all these tasks and activities will be part of a new main questline!”

“Hmm, there are quite a few changes this time, so let’s just release them in the form of a version update.”

With that in mind, Evé began to use her divine power…

The headquarters of the guild, Heart of Nature.

This was the sole Elven-style building within the Chosen City, meticulously designed by a few members of the Moe Moe Committee at Li Mu’s request, which imitated the native architectural style often seen in Florence.

The main structure of the building was hewn from marble, sourced from the ruins of Florence. Beautiful vine and floral patterns adorned it, giving the structure a grand presence.

Combined with the vibrant plants, white boulders, green grass, and blossoms surrounding it, the Heart of Nature’s headquarters exuded a unique charm befitting of its name compared to the other guild headquarters.

At this moment, within the Guild’s hall, some players were excitedly chatting amongst each other…

“What? Brother Mu? Did you say a 30,000-strong orc army is coming?”

Demacia, upon hearing the news brought by Li Mu, was dumbfounded.

He couldn’t help but shiver.

“Oh gods, I can barely wrap my head around it….30,000 orcs? It’s like an ocean of people! Can the official servers even handle this amount?”

“It should be manageable, as these numbers are somewhat similar to the defense battle of Blackrock City,” Li Mu said after some contemplation.

“It’s not actually the same, right? Those shadow creatures are much more weaker individually than Orcs. I personally took them down before! Although Orcs may seem simple, but they are much more formidable than those mindless monsters!”

Demacia shook his head.

Afterward, he looked envious and said, “I envy you, Brother Mu. You’re now considered the leader of the players by the NPCs, and you can even attend these decision-making meetings.”

Li Mu: “…”

Without waiting for Li Mu’s response, Demacia sighed again,

“Ah… I’m so miserable….I’ve been working so hard, yet my personal reputation score is still only at 2 points. Dude, the average score on the entire server is almost 10!”

“Now that my level is getting higher, the demand for experience points is also getting bigger and bigger. As a pure combat player, this low reputation score is affecting my speed in gaining EXP and contribution points from quests.”

Upon hearing Demacia’s words, Li Mu appeared somewhat surprised.

“Huh? Only 2 points? Weren’t you building good relationships with the citizens of Florence recently? And… I’ve shared all my tricks with you, so why is your progress still so slow?”

Demacia chuckled awkwardly.

“Uh… m-maybe I got too carried away with the MLM scheme in Blackrock City recently, and so I tried to do the same here again but well…”

“A while ago, didn’t a lot of elves return? Originally, my personal reputation score was catching up to the average, but then I found out that they also brought some good stuff along with them, so I couldn’t resist… I wanted to try promoting ‘Amway’ again among these new elves to see if I could get some magical equipment. Who knew I’d be easily exposed by Zero, and then… you know…”

Li Mu: “…”

“On another note, that NPC named Zero is really amazing! She saw through my pyramid scheme at a glance. She truly deserves to be a purple-tier NPC! Unlike those dwarves who were easily deceived even though they felt something was off.”

Demacia sighed wistfully.

Li Mu: “… “

“You’re beyond help,” he shook his head, patting Demacia on the shoulder,

“I’m saying… your MLM has been expanding quite a bit in Black Rock City. During today’s meeting with the NPCs, it appeared that there was a dwarf in your downline. I’m curious how you plan to handle this situation. You might want to prepare yourself for potential repercussions, like committing seppuku as an apology, or brace for the possibility of being hunted down by the Church of Death.”

Demacia: “…”

“Well… today is a day for joy! I haven’t been exposed yet!”

After saying that, Demacia cleared his throat a few times and quickly changed the subject, “By the way, Brother Mu, the Orcs are coming. Aren’t you going to inform the other guilds?”

Li Mu glanced at him, pondered, and said, “No need for your reminder. I’ve already recorded a video and posted it on the official forum. Besides, I believe system notifications will arrive soon. Following the usual pattern, this is definitely the prelude to a major questline!”

As soon as Li Mu finished speaking, as expected, almost as if on cue, a new system prompt flashed across their field of vision:

【❗】

【Announcement: Elven Kingdom will undergo a version update tomorrow. Please prepare for logging out in advance.】

…

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