Chapter 08
▪️ VIRTUAL REALITY GAME
The spring rain continued almost rhythmically without stopping this entire season.
Nevertheless, the emerald green forest still appeared to be even more vibrant under the cleansing of the rain, with a gentle breeze carrying a faint earthen scent as all things were rejuvenated whilst basking within the light rainfall...
Standing in the side hall of the naturalist shrine, the Elven Saintess Alice idly looked out of the window at the miniscule world outside, feeling a sense of wonderment within her heart.
The mother goddess... has really returned.
Even though three days have already passed since that incident, Alice still feels as if it is all surreal.
At this moment, the young elven girl's countenance became even more solemn and noble.
After being promoted to a saint, her strength has undergone earth-shattering changes, directly bypassing the Iron-Rank and entering the ranks of peak Low-Silver earning her a position somewhere around the top 50 rankings within that tier!
However, Alice didn't feel any sort of joy for her own strength progression as her heart is only filled with endless mirth for the return of their mother goddess, as well as deep regret and self-loathing for almost abandoning her faith.
"I must work hard to cultivate and not let down the mother goddess ever again. I will strive hard in proselytizing the faith of the mother goddess and the future of our race!"
Looking at the high mountains at the distance, the elven girl pursed her rose tinted lips tightly and clenched her tiny fists in determination.
"Alice."
An old familiar voice interrupted the elven maiden's musings, and Alice's pointed ears slightly twitched involuntarily as she turned around and saw the old priest Samuel walking towards her slowly.
The elder priest was wearing a gray and white ceremonial robe, with a fully packaged backpack latched onto his back. His face had a hint of radiant youthfulness into it, as if he had regained some hundred or so years of his life back.
It's still quite hard to associate this lively appearance to the weathered old man whom had chosen to give up their religion mere three days ago.
After reigniting his faith once more and obtaining the blessings of the goddess, Samuel also broke through the ranks and became a strong Low-Silver rank rivaling those around the top 40's within that tier.
"Grandpa Samuel."
Alice bowed politely towards the elder whom had always taken a good care of her ever since she was a little child.
She then looked at the backpack hanging behind the old man and her eyes brightened as she asked with joy,
"Is everything prepared already?"
Samuel simply nodded as he turned around and looked towards the direction of the main shrine with a fanatical expression.
"The Matriarch has ordained the gathering of the scattered clansmen now that she had returned, and I'm afraid I'm the only one who can fulfill this ordeal and contact those surviving clan members."
Three days ago, the Elven Matriarch Evé Yggdrasill enacted her first mandate: to regroup all the elven clan members which are currently scattered all throughout the world. Among the believers present, Samuel felt that he was the one most suitable for doing this job.
After speaking, he once again showed a look of shame.
"For the sake of the Mother Goddess and for our clan, and finally...for the atonement of my own sins, I am ready to uphold this task."
Feeling the new powers bestowed upon him by the Matriarch, Samuel felt that his previous self whom had chosen to forgone their faith was simply a befallen pathetic bastard!
At the same time, his belief in the Divine Matriarch became more and more firm.
Hearing the impassioned words of the old priest, Alice's emerald eyes slightly lit up in relief.
"Gathering the clan members...yes...that's great..."
After speaking, she also became a little worried.
" Grandpa you're alone in this mission, so be sure to be safe okay?"
Hearing the holy maiden's worried tone, Samuel's expression softened slightly. He lightly patted Alice's head and said,
"Rest assured! I alone am good enough for this task. Not to mention that with the Matriarch's benevolence given unto me, I have also already become a silver-ranked priest. The Matriarch has also bestowed upon me a divine artifact that can sense the location of our fellow clansmen from within a certain distance. This object can also defend me against attacks at the Gold-Tier Rank to some extent."
He then reached out his hand, holding a green leaf that exuded a potent holy aura in his palm.
It was a leaf belonging to the World Tree, strengthened by Evé herself by consuming one point of divine power, and was considered a quasi-divine artifact.
Three days ago, Evé gave this leaf to Samuel, ordaining him to start the search for the remaining members of the clan and guide them back here in this ancestral forest.
"That's good..."
Alice nodded, and then said with a tinge of regret,
"Grandpa... I also want to search for our people together," said Alice, feeling a bit envious.
Samuel laughed heartily and then said with a serious tone, "You have a far more important task ahead of you. Remember that you must assist the Great Goddess in guiding the chosen ones who will soon arrive in this world."
Guiding the chosen ones...
Upon hearing these words, Alice's eyes lit up slightly as she nodded gently. She thought of the recent oracle bestowed upon the Great Goddess and her admiration and fervor for their Matriarch resurfaced.
The Advent of the Chosen ones!
Three days ago, the Great Goddess had enact her second mandate, stating that chosen ones from another world would soon descent upon this realm and help the elven race revive their civilization as some sort of 'heroes' akin to the legendary figures spoken in the fairytales of old.
At the same time, the Great Goddess ordained the Holy Maiden Alice and the Oak Guardian Berserker to prepare to guide these chosen ones and help them gradually adapt to this world.
What kind of people will the chosen ones be? Will they simply be elves as well? or perchance even like those illustrious High Elves just like the heroes from the old legends!
Alice's expression was filled with expectations.
Regardless, since they were personally chosen by the Matriarch herself, then surely they must be like us elves as well- kind, just, honest, and selfless!
She couldn't help but swoon at the mere thought of it.
Watching the eagerness of the girl in front of him, Samuel's expression softened even further.
He then looked up at the still withered canopy of the World Tree as his gaze gradually becoming firm.
"The Matriarch has just regained her strength, and her current power is still limited. We must work hard to spread our faith and bring our Patron God back to her peak, leading us Elves back towards prosperity once more..."
After speaking, he and Alice locked eyes and smiled at each other as they moved their arms while performing their religion's hand gesture.
"Praise be thy Matriarch!"
"Praise be thy Matriarch!"
The voice was full of vitality and passion!
After conveying various tasks to her followers, Evé dived back into her Celestial Domain.
She once again reconnected to Earth's internet and started constructing the "game" in preparation for the arrival of the players.
Within these past three days, she had verified the feasibility of her ideas through various experimentations, and the only thing left to do now is to perfect the game's internal system for which she simply named [ Elven Kingdom ] and finally promote it through various social media sites!
"The leveling system must be set up properly as its a core dynamic that could either make or break a game. Let's see, perchance I can model it after the Sàige's own power ranking system as well to make things less complicated..."
"Hmm, I think it's better to limit the player's intial average levels somewhere around the Iron-rank during the closed-beta stage, with the maximum level cap being forty up until I proceed to the open-beta phase."
"As a matter of fact, why don't I copy the job classification system as well. But in exchange, I can add more attribute settings on the status profile as these are all the basic things gamers would expect like Str, Def, Luck and so on..."
"I'll just make an appearance at the beginning as some sort of introductory guide to aid these players into setting up their character appearance and initial stats! Then I'll give players some small gifts and increase their affection for me since first impressions are important on matters such as this."
"As for the player's default race, let's just choose the elves obviously since being born as an elf is an inherent ability of the World Tree after all. To save divine power, I can set their base strength to the minimum level of 01. After all, those hardcore gamers will definitely grind hard to level up through quest and competitions..."
"Hmm... to facilitate their rate of advancement, I can also forcefully awaken their dormant potential to the highest degree, which in doing so would let these players probably reach the talent of geniuses!"
Evé then pulled up her mental checklist of things to do before continuing.
"What's next...ah right, modify the 'War Sacrifice' skill, integrate it into the avatar as a passive skill, and integrate it with the leveling system. That way, these players could provide me with DP each time they level up!"
"Hmm... If I calculate it this way, one divine power can create just about 100 avatars. In the closed-beta phase, I can just make it 300 people just to be safe. After all, I still need to reserve some DP for my own protection in case some unexpected trouble occurs."
"Selecting potential players should also be a top priority. Preferably choosing those who have spent a long time playing virtual games, and some influential streamers on the net as well... This can quickly spread the game's reputation and facilitate the expansion of the playerbase later on."
By the way, gore, pain and even obscenity coefficient can be modified through the system settings. She can use some of her DP to either numb the pain or blur things not suitable for general populace if they want.
"I will limit the scope of activity for those who are just new so that it will be more easier to revive their bodies and recover the remaining DP within them once they die. Then, I can make them work for me again starting back from level 01 after their death's cooldown has passed."
"As for the experience points, I'll just apply some hidden passive skill that can log all the activities of the players onto their avatars so that I can check their condition anytime and display it should they check their Status Screens..."
"As for the game's main storyline...I can just use some online materials for reference but the theme will obviously be the rise of the elven race!"
Also, the promotional trailer must be done well! There are some segments recorded about the Heavenly War in the World Tree's inheritance and well...she can just spliced some of it instead. Also the magical powers used in that battle are way more realistic than any most modern CGI could even offer!
For the background music, the elves are an artistically attuned race so they already composed tons of musical pieces all throughout history and Evé also have recordings of them all.
"For the game's art cover..I'm just gonna use Alice since most gamers have a thing for cute waifus and...um, let's also add some handsome guys to attract some female players as well..."
"The flow of time in both worlds are vastly different. It's like mind acceleration technology! The game time is four times faster than reality!...but the question is how to explain this tech? Um...oh yeah, there's already alot of sci-fi stories that tried to delve into this so I'll just 'borrow' some of their words and explain it in a completely vague manner full of technical jargons that the average schmuck wouldn't understand at all! Ahha, I am a genius!"
Without realizing it, three days had passed, and with the help of divine power, this massive undertaking had finally taken form and the game was finally completed.
"Great I'm finally done!"
Looking at her magnum opus, Evé felt extremely satisfied.
At this moment, her divine power, which was originally at 20 DP, had dwindled down to only mere 11 DP as the cost of operating across dimensions and the internet was still significant.
"As for the closed beta-test of the game, I'm just gonna release it for one week from now on Earth! I just
hope I could trick a lot of people in these next seven days into playing my game!"
After sensing her own state, Evé made up her decision.
The next step is to gain some publicity.
Using her divine power to interfere with the internet once again, Evé successfully managed to stealthily established a game company called "Yggdrasill Cutting Edge Tech Co, Ltd." and secretly registered "Elven Kingdom" as a virtual reality game. Finally, she uploaded the promotional video onto the net in one go...
Next, she awaited for the game's teaser to gain some traction and welcome the subsequent first batch of players.