Chapter 13

▪️Is this...the Chosen Ones?

What's the most frustrating thing about playing games?

It's when you started playing and just before you realized it, hours have already passed and it's already time to log off.

Time is always the enemy of the players.

Or the lack of it.

But 'mind acceleration' gives players the ability to have more free time in a sense, right? Even though it's only an hour back in real life, its four hours inside the game after accelerating one's thoughts!

Elven Kingdom have attracted a lot of attention from gamers, not only because of its top-notch promotional videos, but also because of this miraculous technology.

Of course, they don't know that this is just because the rate of time flowing between the two worlds are vastly different.

However, in reality, aside from the miraculous 'mind acceleration' features, the gameplay aspect of Elven Kingdom have also greatly exceeded the players initial expectations.

Its just way too realistic!

So realistic that one could say that its even a completely different beast from the rest of the crude VR games which are already out on the market!

The publishers didn't lied!

The game was just like how they advertised it, making people feel as though they were truly there, in a real fantasy world.

At this moment, all the lucky players participating in the closed-beta were filled with curiosity and excitement.

Three hundred elves, each in their own unique game character form, were exploring and studying this vast unfamiliar new world with enthusiasm.

Some stood in the open, gazing at the distant sceneries, exclaiming, "So high and beautiful!".

Some waved their arms, feeling the same gravity as back in reality with their expressions filled with surprise.

Others pinched their faces while sighing, "I can't believe it...it's just so real!".

However, there were also some abnormal players...

A player with an explosive hairstyle unexpectedly took off his clothes in public, causing some players near him to exclaim, "Ah!" in surprise while other players around him laughed and booed.

The few female players covered their faces but looked towards him curiously with big watery eyes whilst peering through their fingers.

Nevertheless, this particular player was obviously disappointed.

After a few movements, he stripped himself naked, but a golden light appeared and nothing could be seen clearly on his private parts.

"Dammit! It turns out that this game's ratings are suitable for people of all ages!" The nudist player regretfully booed.

Eve felt her eyebrows twitching as she watched this scene in her celestial domain ...

Fortunately, she had already prepared the blurring light as a default settings, otherwise the game would have been sactioned by the Game Classifications board for obscene content right after its launch.

She didn't want the game to be unilaterally banned on earth for inappropriate sexual content!

Glancing at the person who took off his clothes, Eve made sure to remember his username, adjusting his luck attribute down to 01, while calling onto Saintess Alice to quickly arrange tasks for these beasts lest they caused any further problems.

Most of the beta-testers she caught this time were veteran gamers whom had been playing online games for a long time.

Who knows what sort of actions this group of players would come up with in order to exploit the game.

Inside the Nature's Shrine.

Alice, who was kneeling as she prayed in front of the statue with her eyes closed, suddenly opened her emerald-colored eyes as she sensed a massive wave of spatial energy fluctuates within the air.

'The Chosen ones hath arrived.'

Her eyes were instantly filled with excitement and anticipation upon hearing this news.

She then stood up, holding the hem of her ceremonial dress, and prepared to finally greet these Chosen Ones.

At the same time, Eve's solemn voice once again echoed in her mind,

'Alice, assist the Chosen Ones to acquaint themselves with this world.'

For some reason, she felt that the voice of the Goddess was somewhat more tired than usual.

It seemed that summoning the Chosen Ones had consumed a considerable amount of the Goddess's power...

'I couldn't let the Goddess down!'

Their Patron god were already working this hard for the future of the Elvenkind even though she just recently awoken.

With these devout thoughts in her mind, Alice's gaze became even more determined, as her faith became even more stronger.

"Matriarch, I promise will not sully your expectations of me!"

With deep emotion, she bowed slightly towards the statue and gestured a tree-shaped symbol representing their religion with her right hand onto her chest before eagerly rushing towards the trunk of the World Tree...

As soon as she walked out of the temple, Alice heard various bursts of cheers and shouts.

"It's the chosen ones!"

Her eyes lit up as she quickly tidied up her appearance, patted her face and organized the welcoming speech she had prepared in her mind, then walked towards the direction of the noises with a sweet smile and graceful steps.

She briefly wondered what kind of beings are these Chosen Ones that the Matriarch even placed so much importance upon their arrival?

Alice's thoughts continued to imagine various things as she walked towards her destination with hurried excited steps.

As a young maiden whom was not even reach 300 years old, Alice was full of longing and curiosity for these chosen ones, who were akin to the heroes of old legends in her eyes.

At this moment, her mind had already imagined various scenes...

Well, as the vanguard of nature, the chosen ones must be like those heroes described in the old scriptures, riding on unicorns, wearing gorgeous holy armor, wielding sacred swords and magic staffs, and carrying divine blessings...

They must be true heroes, handsome and elegant, humble and noble as well as mysterious and powerful!

They must have iron discipline with beliefs like those from the legendary Legion of Nātūra!

At the thought of this, Alice felt a strange sense of tension in her heart.

"Pfft, what am I even thinking about..I am our fath's sole Saint! I must not disgrace the Mother Goddess's dignity!"

Alice scolded herself and shook her head vigorously, dispelling all the nonsensical thoughts from her mind.

However, she unconsciously quickened her pace.

She lifted a branch that obstructed her view, and Alice finally saw the anticipated "heroes" that she eagerly looked forward to meet...

On the trunk, hundreds of "Chosen Ones" in rough robes and wooden armor were jostling about, making alot of ruckus as some were frolicking, while some were experimenting with magic. Few were scraping the tree bark and wantonly slashing leaves with their wooden swords, and some were singing loudly in a off tune within the distance...

Even more exaggeratedly, there were even a few male elves who were completely naked, and their lower bodies were shining with brilliant light as they jumped around between the branches, dazzling people's eyes with their obscenity...

"This bark is too tough! Even with a knife, I just can't scrape it off..."

"Where are my pants? Who stole my damn pants?!"

"Hey, hey...You guys are just too excited! Can't you just read the instructions properly?"

"So what skills did you guys get huh?"

"Mine are mostly melee-based. The goddess gave me Cross-cut and Spin Attack."

"Cross-cut is so cool!"

"Does anyone knows how to read the mini-map?"

"Hey is there a female player who want to take a screenshot with me? The scenery here is good, and I want to post it on my groupchat."

Of course, if you observe carefully, there are only a few dozen really rowdy players. The majority are still properly studying the novice guide without making a scene, but these few dozen players are enough to sully the overall perception of the playerbase...

From the perspective of the players, this kind of behavior is understandable. It can be said that this game is just too realistic, making players feel surprised and curious, wanting to experiment with everything.

But... for the indigenous elves, it's different.

Looking at the totally chaotic scene in front of her, Alice's smile froze upon her face.

"This is... the Chosen Ones?"

She rubbed her eyes, suspecting that she was seeing a hallucination.

Taking a deep breath, Alice looked again...

"Hey hey! Those are the pants I took off earlier! Don't just wear them dude!"

"There's no name written on them, how do we know they're yours huh?"

"I'm telling you guys, that's enough! Let's just play the game properly!"

"Didn't they say there would be a guide for beginners? Where is this person?"

Chaos still ensues...

Click...Alice felt like something in her heart breaking.

The destructive combination of Elves beautiful and noble appearance along with such vulgar and despicable behavior was almost enough to subvert the holy maiden's core values...

She stared blankly with wide eyes with her brain in complete turmoil.

What...what is going on?

Aren't the Chosen Ones the vanguard of the gods?

Aren't they supposed to be noble and enlightened beings?

Shouldn't they be akin to the heroes and warriors of legends?

This...this...

This group either possessed by goblins, with no discipline whatsoever, and manners just like the orcs with no sense of shame at all.

What on earth is going on?

Suddenly, she noticed those several people with outlandish hairdoes with wooden swords slashing at the tree bark.

The girl's face changed, her anger finally surged as she couldn't help but shout, "Stop! What are you doing! You can't be disrespectful to the Mother Goddess!"

A clear voice suddenly appeared, attracting hundreds of players attention.

In an instant, three hundred pairs of eyes of varying colors looked towards the girl...

The atmosphere fell into a strange silence.

Being stared at by a hundreds sets of eyes, Alice felt her scalp utterly tingling in alarm.

She couldn't help but involuntarily take a step back, feeling a bit timid but still trying to remain calm and said,

"W-What are you looking at? Even if you are the ones chosen by the Matriarch, you still cannot be disrespectful to her vessel..."

Her voice trembled slightly, but still with an air of resilience.

Players looked at each other, and the silence instantly turned into a lively spectacle.

"An elven girl?"

"So cute!"

"Look! Her head doesn't have a username! She must be an NPC!"

"No shit idiot! Look at her equipment, it's so cool, definitely must be an NPC!"

"Her expression is so vivid and realistic! This A.I is so different from the NPC's from other virtual online games!"

"Hey pretty girlie, what's your name, are you a priestess?"

"Hey, hey, calm down guys, you're scaring her!"

Watching the cute and vigilant face of Alice, some of the male players became curious and excited just like a wild animals.

"Oh god this is not good...her expression is a bit too tempting... It makes me want to bully her..."

"Sister, what's your name? Are you a priestess?"

"Missie, is there any quest for me to do?"

"Li'l Sis, can I join your religion?"

"Hey, can I touch your priestess dress?"

Because Evé had already made language adjustments beforehand, the players' words would automatically be converted into the universal language of the world of Saigües and vice versa. Therefore, Alice could clearly understand what this group of chosen ones was saying...

Listening to these frivolous words, the holy maiden blushed and trembled with anger and shyness.

"Oh she's embarrassed! Look, she's totally embarrassed!"

"Wow! This game's really highly interactive! The NPC's are so lifelike!"

"Hmm... why do I feel like she's getting angry?"

"Come on, guys! Even if she's an A.I, can't you be polite?"

"Hmm... I've never seen an NPC this lifelike before. I'm just curious you know."

"Why isn't she talking? By the way, who has the appraisal skill? Can you try appraising her identity?"

"I do! I do! Let me try... Hmm... the young lady's name is Alice Swiftwind, her profession is Naturia's Priestess, her level...oh I can't see it... Huh? Using Appraisal can also unlock the target's favorability rating? Damn...! Why is my favorability rating with her so negative?! Damn it! It just dropped again!"

"Hahaha! Maybe it's because your face's just too ugly! Hahaha, let me try... Damn it! Why is my favorability rating so negative too?"

Alice was shaking with anger as she watched these bunch of bastards who were acting like bandits without any restrains.

She took a deep breath and desperately reminded herself in her heart...

Calm down! Stay calm!

"Remember Alice, you must stay calm!"

"This must be a test from the Mother Goddess! You must not disappoint the Mother Goddess!"

"Why isn't this girl speaking?"

"Her hair is so long! I wonder how it feels..."

Suddenly, a rather daring player who had been the first to stripped slinked over and reached for Alice's golden hair.

The elven maiden was utterly startled and couldn't help but swing her staff.

In a burst of brilliant light, accompanied by a wailing scream, the player with "Demacia" written in green letters above his head was sent flying by the Protective Sanctuary spell, and fell straight down from the World Tree.

So weak!

This was Alice's first thought.

Oh dear Goddess! What have I done? I just pushed him down!

This was the second...

Alice was shocked and took a few steps forward, looking down at the World Tree...

However, the unlucky player was nowhere to be seen.

"Matriarch, I... I... I actually killed a Chosen One?"

Alice's vision went black.

"Hahaha! That dude's just asking to be killed!"

"He dared to provoke an NPC despite being at level 1, I'd say it just serves him right!"

"Hahahaahaha!"

Behind her, the gleeful voices of other players came, accompanied by bursts of laughters.

Alice turned her head incredulously, staring at the elves who not only weren't afraid or worried after witnessing a companion's death, but were also excited as well.

She felt like her brain was becoming increasingly unable to keep up with the absurdity of this situation...

Are these chosen ones crazy?