Game of the World Tree

Evé was very satisfied.

The new influx of players from the third batch of beta-testing had greatly alleviated the problem of labor shortage, especially in regards to some of the most tedious mundane tasks.

And Chosen City, whose infrastructure development had reached somewhat of a bottleneck, is once again displaying a trend of further expansion due to the appearance of a large number of new players.

Wanting to see it personally for herself, Evé decided to walk around the Chosen City while using one of her disguise named ‘Fēng’, the enigmatic female player whose loosely acquainted with Little Salty Cat.

The current Chosen City has become more lively than ever before. Prior to the arrival of new players, the city had become somewhat deserted due to the opening of several new maps and players venturing into these locations, resulting in a more diluted city population.

However, with the arrival of new beta-testers, the city is once again filled with clamor and noise. Naturally, most of the individuals were newcomers bustling about the city, diligently performing daily tasks with curiosity and joy, even if it entailed engaging in manual labor such as moving bricks on a construction site.

Moreover, whenever a veteran player returned from their out-of-town trip, they would often garner envious glances from the newcomers, which in turn led to an even higher work efficiency.

Putting in effort to complete daily tasks was crucial until reaching level 11, at which point a qualitative leap in strength would occur, that unlocks additional game features!

Therefore, most newcomers are striving hard to level up as quickly as possible.

While idly wandering through the city, Evé also noticed that the inns run by older players were all fully booked.

This was because, following her announcement of the third round of beta-testing, some astute players saw a potential business opportunity and swiftly renovated some buildings and repurposed them as Inns or lodgings.

Although the official “Morgue” was still present in the Chosen City, the facility had become excessively cramped and overcrowded, leaving no room for the newcomers.

As a result, players who put in a bit more effort frequently formed parties and opted to rent rooms in the inns established by more experienced players instead.

After all… these inns were not only spacious but also well-equipped as well.

Actually this trend had started even way back in the second beta-testing phase. Therefore, during the third round, even more veteran players recognized this lucrative business opportunity and collaborated with each other to establish lodging accommodations for the newcomers for extra income.

Ensuring a secure location to store one’s avatar while offline remains a crucial aspect of playing Elven Kingdom, as the character’s body won’t disappear when a player logs off.

It wasn’t that the newbies didn’t care about this aspect; in fact, some would even choose a corner in the city to log off directly. However, the fact remained that if one didn’t want to log in after being stripped of their equipment, it was still better to stay in the “Morgue” or an Inn.

After all, even the basic equipment provided by Evé at the start could be worth 400 contribution points if sold as a complete set.

Moreover, there was no equipment binding feature in Elven Kingdom. If a player was careless and slept outside, it was highly possible for them to log back in completely stripped of their equipment and belongings.

In a big world like this, there was a wide variety of people, and a player’s avatar while offline sleeps like dead pigs, completely defenseless and unresponsive.

Although there was a system in place to punish criminal actions, if the theft was only related to equipment and didn’t physically harm the player, then the system wouldn’t assign the perpetrator a criminal designation.

Furthermore, since offline players didn’t know who had targeted them, they typically couldn’t report the theft and thus could only swallow their losses.

This could be considered a flaw in the game’s system, and Evé was well aware of it.

However, Elven Kingdom is not a real game, and implementing a feature that binds equipment, items, or players together is an extremely challenging task. Even providing players with spatial storage space would be a daunting endeavor due to its resource-intensive nature.

So, Evé has accepted the fact that there will always be flaws, and just as long as they aren’t very serious, she will try to ignore such flaws. In fact, having such flaws also has its pros and cons. One example of this is that it forces players who intend to sleep in the open and negatively impact the city’s appearance to find proper accommodations instead.

She still remembered the first night of the third beta-testing phase when the central square was littered with “corpses,” creating a terrifying sight for anyone who came across it.

Of course, after the second day, hardly anyone continued on to do that sort of thing.

However, considering the unfortunate fate of newcomers who have been stripped of their belongings, Evé decided to create a function. She has established a method for players to receive a set of basic equipment from Alice, a special service available only in the temple for 500 CP.

Accumulating 500 contribution points was quite achievable, even for new players. They could easily earn it in a single day.

Walking along the city’s streets, Evé spent 10 contribution points to buy a cup of freshly squeezed fruit juice from a player vendor. As she sipped it, she once again admired the vibrant city, feeling content with its development.

What pleased her was not just the enthusiasm of the newcomers but also the importance veteran players placed upon their lives, which eased her mind considerably.

After the launch of the third beta-test, the death rate amongst the more experienced players had significantly decreased.

It’s not that these players had become inherently more skillful, but rather that they had become more cautious compared to before.

This was mainly due to the revised resurrection system.

Evé had eliminated the concept of perfect resurrections, and replaced it with resurrection coins instead.

One resurrection coin required 100 contribution points to be exchanged, with each player only being allowed a maximum of 10 exchanges per day, and these coins were also non-transferable.

The number of resurrection coins required for a perfect resurrection is now directly tied to the player’s current level.

If a player lacked sufficient resurrection coins to perform a resurrection after dying, they would then be resurrected at a much lower level, corresponding to how many coins were lacking.

This new resurrection system haf quickly raised the contribution point cost needed for high-level players wanting perfect resurrections…

Furthermore, the daily exchange limit of 10 transactions had also curtailed the previously unlimited resurrections for high-level players and affluent individuals.

By implementing these conditions, even as high-leveled players further increases their levels, it would still take them at least a week to accumulate enough coins for a perfect resurrection.

Of course when this update came out, there was an outcry on the forums. Players felt that the devs had imposed overly strict limitations on the resurrection mechanism, resulting in a much poorer gaming experience.

However, the devs official explanation was short and simple—It was done to balance the game mechanics.

Anyway, the willful undertone was obvious—play if you want, stop if you don’t.

There are still more than 20 million applicants waiting in line to be chosen after all.

Evé was quite confident now.

After venting their frustrations on the forums and seeing that the devs wouldn’t retract their decisions, the players inevitably changed their tune to “It’s really fragrant.” ¹

After all, what made Elven Kingdom so unique?

It was all thanks to this mind acceleration technology; it had managed to attract countless players from around the world…

In a sense, it was akin to quadrupling one’s own lifespan!

Not to mention the game’s unparalleled quality.

Of course, veteran players’ existing perfect resurrection chances would be compensated by directly converting them into corresponding resurrection coins of equal value.

For instance, a player like Little Salty Cat, who had accumulated a whopping total of 70 perfect resurrection chances, and was now at level 21, had received 1,470 resurrection coins from the system.

In addition, Evé didn’t completely remove the bug that allowed players to resurrect infinitely. After all, it was one of elven factions aces in the hole.

If they were to encounter a powerful enemy that required players to sacrifice their lives, then she would consider granting the players a temporary buff of unlimited resurrections.

With the resurrection issue having been resolved, Evé’s current challenge is solving the significant shortage of equipment.

The influx of 9,000 newcomers would place significant strain on the equipment supply.

“I can put out another batch of lower-tier Iron-class equipment on the exchange store. Players sent me quite a lot of these previously, and after repairing them, I’ve gathered thousands of sets, many of them are even purple epic-class.”

“However, it’s still not enough. I can encourage players to ask the Dark Dwarves to tailor-make equipment for them or even teach them how to craft equipment for themselves…”

As she watched some players passing by, Evé contemplated upon this matter.

Merely relying on her to provide equipment wouldn’t be a sustainable solution. It would be best for players to gradually become self-sufficient themselves, while Evé would just focused on offering much rarer items to attract high-level players and wealthy individuals.

In essence, Eve’s ultimate hope was for players to establish a self-sufficient faction with strong combat capabilities and cohesion.

“Additionally, there are also those Beastmen to consider. We could engage a few Orcs tribes in battles to acquire more equipment.”

“Hmm…perhaps I won’t have to look for them since they might come knocking on their own.”

“If Uller becomes anxious, there is a chance that he might send a large army to attack us before the upcoming winter. If he still maintains some semblance of a true god’s decorum, then he might even dispatch some of his believers to formally issue a declaration of a religious war.”

“However, this matter needs to be considered in the long run, and the newcomers’ levels should be improved first. The rewards for daily tasks are quite abundant, so their leveling pace should advance more quickly.”

“Once they reach level 11, these newbies can start training in the Shadow Dungeon and after they become more proficient in combat, I can further expand their operational range.”

Evé had accumulated quite a bit of divine power by now.

With her current abilities, she could easily expand the players’ operational range.

However, considering that the territory she currently had was adequately enough to accommodate 10,000 players, she ultimately decided to wait a little bit longer.

It is best to take things step by step. The players’ strength needs to increase gradually, and the world map should also be opened up bit by bit to the players…

“Oh, right. There’s also the design for the city defense core that I reverse-engineered from Blackrock City. I need to issue a task to encourage players to build this in Chosen City, Florence, and even Rivendell and Black Dragon Castle!”

Evé thought.

Although she had put the design for the city defense core on the exchange store, sadly there was no one interested in it. This lack of interest could be attributed to its high price or perhaps because players didn’t have a demand for it.

As Evé was wandering around in the Chosen City lost in thought, a commotion up ahead suddenly caught her attention.

Evé momentarily paused her thoughts and looked towards the commotion, seeing a few veteran players and native elves near the city entrance excitedly discussing something.

Demacia, Li Mu, and even the primordial elf Thranduil were among them, surrounded by a number of other people.

What’s going on?

Evé raised an eyebrow.

Driven by curiosity, Eve, while disguised as “Fēng,” discreetly walked towards their location…

¹ 真香 – Really Fragrant is a chinese internet slang used to describe someone doing something that he or she had previously sworn never to do

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