Chapter 153

▪️I ALREADY HAVE IT

In a small garden within the city of the chosen ones, Li Mu is performing his daily task of babysitting some elven children.

This task was assigned to him by Alice.

Initially, the task was simply to help Aél take care of his younger sisters, but with the appearance of Nightingale, her younger siblings were also eventually added in to the group.

These young elves all spend the first half of each day learning from Alice and Philothea, followed by two hours of physical exercise.

During exercise, the Chosen Ones are responsible for looking after these children.

For players, this is an easy task.

As they take care of the children, they can also practice or meditate and even improve on their relationship with some NPCs, especially these little ones.

Unfortunately, not everyone can take upon this task.

Only players who have gained enough trust of the Holy Maiden will be assigned to this task.

As one of the few players who have raised Alice's favorability to 80, only Li Mu and HootyBird can take on this task.

Alice is a unique purple-class NPC in the entire game, and her task rewards are second only to that of the Goddess herself.

Therefore performing this task...is almost free experience and contribution points!

In fact, not just Alice, but almost all of the NPCs currently displayed upon Li Mu's relationship tab has high favorability ratings.

Even the Nightingale, who he has only met a few times, has a favorability of 40 towards him.

As for Alice, Berserker, and the young elves he often takes care of, many of them have favorability ratings above 60 percent.

As long as they are followers of Evé, their favorability towards players will be displayed upon the relationship tab within the game menu.

Although Aél and Nightingale's younger siblings are still young, after their older siblings accepted their race's faith, they also became followers of Evé, thus their favorability is also been displayed as well.

Of course, they are still shallow followers and cannot give out tasks.

However, even though they cannot give out tasks, the favorability of these younglings has aroused the interest of some players.

For most creatures, the cuteness of a child far surpasses that of adults by miles.

And as elves who are naturally beautiful beings, their appearance in their youth is even more adorable as well.

Those innocent big eyes and pinkish skin, combined with delicate and attractive facial features, are like heaven-sent dolls or little angels that have walked out of fairy tales, triggering one's inherent protective instincts...especially the females players.

Therefore, the popularity of these little ones amongst the players almost skyrocketed, quickly surpassing that of Alice when they were initially introduced, becoming second only to the goddess Evé.

Many players have come to join in the fun, trying various ways to please these little ones, just to make them laugh and then occasionally sweetly call them as "big brother" or "big sister"

Also...while they're at it, some players would even take a screenshot or record a video, and then post it on the forum or share it on a video-sharing website to show off to their socials.

Of course, there are also some cheeky players who want to coax these little ones into saying some weird things...

But those players are quickly driven away by Li Mu and HootyBird, who mostly became the primary care takers of these children.

One of their job requirements is to prevent these young elves from being taught some strange knowledge by the players.

However, unlike human children who are carefree and easily deceived, these little ones are very cautious. It is difficult to gain their friendship if you cannot patiently communicate with them.

And what most players lack is patience...

Unless there is a huge benefit, most players wouldn't use their time to get to know these kids a little bit better.

It's a bit of a pity that, except for some casual players, these little ones are mostly regarded as cute little useless mascots by most players.

After all, not everyone is as beautiful and attractive as the goddess who can also provide highly rewarding tasks.

Thus... many players eventually give up paying attention to these kids after their initial enthusiasm has died down.

Of course, Li Mu is not among them.

He was the first player to gain the trust of these children.

As a result, other players gave him the nickname "NPC's friend"

In fact, many players envied Li Mu's relationship with the NPCs.

Alas, most people do not have his temperament that truly treats the NPCs as real people and interact with them on an equal footing.

Or to put it another way... although gaining the NPCs favorability can bring some benefits to the players, it is also rather limited and most preferred to spend their game time either fighting mobs or completing tasks.

Except for some private tasks wherein they need to maintain a positive relationship with NPCs, for most players, the time and effort required to improve NPC favorability is not proportional to the rewards they will receive.

Of course, there are also some factors like, most players are also introverts who are not really that good at socializing and don't know how to interact with the NPCs.

Not to mention NPCs, these players even struggle with interpersonal communication back in real life...

Additionally, the native elves are too straightforward.

Even after accepting the gift of the 'Task System' from the goddess, they are always serious when issuing tasks. These native elves firmly believe that the task system is sacred and they cannot rely solely upon personal preferences. Instead, fairness and justice must be upheld at all times.

In fact, this kind of thing is also very common on earth.

Sometimes, the leader only says a few words, and the subordinates will imagine and do many things that the leader does not care about or even deemed unnecessary.

Sometimes, the result is even counterproductive.

Just as the time for Li Mu to take care of the kids was about to end, suddenly a familiar shout came from a slight distance away.

"Brother Mu, have you seen it? A new batch of equipments just came out! The devs released dozens of them, my goodness!"

Li Mu turned around and saw Demacia walking towards him with a mournful face.

He pondered for a moment and messaged HootyBird to take over with the task. He then looked at Demacia and asked,

"What's wrong?"

While shaking his head and sighing, Demacia explained, "It's over bro, it's all over for me! I swore on the official forum a while ago that new equipment would definitely not be released soon, but I was instantly slapped in the face by the devs..."

Li Mu: "....."

"What made you pretend to be rich and write up equipment evaluations anyway?" Li Mu sighed before shaking his head.

"Who knew that equipment updates would be so fast this time! Oh maan...it seems like I have to grind CP again. I originally planned to accumulate contribution points to exchange for a durable defensive gold equipment."

Demacia was heartbroken.

After speaking, the red-haired teen then looked at Li Mu in confusion and asked, "By the way, Brother Mu, aren't you in a hurry to grind tasks and exchange for a new equipment? Why do I feel like you have been grinding less after completing the orc main quest?"

"How about...we go explore Rivendell together? Many people are going there right now."

"Now, the internet is full of videos about exploring Rivendell. Ohh...right, I remember a few days ago you said you were short on money in real life, so hey why don't we explore together and you can even make a video of it for some extra cash?" Demacia asked with some anticipation.

But Li Mu just shook his head and replied, "My current equipment is good enough for me."

"Enough for what? Bro didn't you see the system notification? A new batch of intermediate Iron-rank equipments has been added! Its rating is several times more higher than the purple equipments we currently have!" Murmured Demacia.

After speaking, he then became a bit doubtful and added,

"Moreover, I don't think you are that busy. Bro, you are always helping Alice take care of these kids...Also I heard that you even went to visit Miss Nightingale yesterday. Are you trying to score with this new NPC as well? I mean, it's great and all but, is it really that necessary to raise your reputation that high?"

Li Mu pondered for a moment and began scratching his head, before responding,

"It's not exactly what you think. Building these connections might still be useful eventually... I think the theme of Elven Kingdom is the rise of the elven race, which not only includes us but also the NPCs as well! Moreover, this game emphasizes immersion, so I think our relationship with these NPCs are still very important."

"Trust me, the game developers will eventually do something about the favorability system. I think it's better to raise your favorability now because it will definitely pay off later on. I believe that as more players enter the game in the future, it might not be so easy to increase the NPCs favorability unlike at this time."

Demacia shook his head after listening, "Brother Mu, to be honest, I don't think favorability plays a significant role. I mean, just look at me, I still have zero points, but I can still easily receive tasks. Besides, you should also level up bro. You have been slacking off recently, and even I have reached level 18 and already surpassed you by two levels!"

Demacia then continued, "Also, what about your gear? There is new equipment available, so shouldn't we update our gear?"

"I already have good equipment," Li Mu shook his head before taking out a rough wand and showing off his obviously modified robe.

"I picked up the Orc High Priest's equipment back then. Look, its this wand and robe. I even modified them and now I'm wearing these as my main gear."

Demacia was stunned after inspecting his equipments, "Oh my god, Brother Mu, so it was you who picked up the boss equipment!?"

Li Mu nodded and said, "The system identified them as ordinary white silver-level equipment. Although they have no special effects, their rating is similar to that of gold-level iron equipment. So until better equipment comes out, I don't plan on exchanging them at the mean time."

"Why didn't I think of picking up the boss equipment back then!?" Demacia exclaimed in regret.

Meanwhile, during their conversation, a new system message suddenly appeared in the view of all players.

[❗]

[ Announcement: Elven Kingdom will undergo a patch update the next day, which is expected to take 10 minutes. Please prepare to log out in advance. ]