Chapter 154

▪️BROTHER MU, IT'S TOO DIFFICULT!

"Patch update?"

The two of them were slightly startled.

Ever since the launch of the game's closed beta, ElvKing still had only undergone a single major update and one minor update.

Although the players would often noticed that the system would occasionally update some relatively small matters, all of which are relatively harmless issues. The players did not find anything wrong with it since the game is still currently in the beta testing phase.

But this is the first time a scheduled patch update will be implemented and announced in advanced.

Li Mu and Demacia checked the time and eventually stopped caring about it.

After all, it's would only take ten minutes and they can just log off early when the time comes.

It was already the second day of the week back on earth after Li Mu had logged off in the game.

Taking advantage of this recent update, he then completely disconnected himself from the gamepod and slept well in his bed back in reality.

Usually, while he was sleeping in the real world beforehand, he would also let his consciousness enter the game.

However even though physical fatigue can be easily restored just by sleeping, mental fatigue on the other hand is a lot more complicated since prolonged VR gaming can heavily affect one's mental recovery.

Surprisingly, some players have found a solution to this dilemma which is while entering the game during sleep, they could also allocate some time to let themselves rest inside the game.

However, Li Mu still preferred to disconnect himself from the gamepod and sleep in a traditional way once in a while.

He felt that he needed to do this routine, otherwise...Li Mu feels that he will eventually be unable to distinguish the difference between the game and the real world if he keep immersing himself without any sort of anchor that bound him back to reality.

Elven Kingdom is simply just too realistic and this game had really reminded Li Mu of a series of old movies he had once seen before called, 'The Matrix.'

As time goes by, he had increasingly suspected that ElvKing's developers may have built this magnum opus of a virtual online game in accordance to the standards shown in the Matrix.

It's really incredible.

Even defecation needs to be done within the game. He doesn't know whether to call it over simulation or just blatant perversion...

Regardless, if it weren't for the game-like elements such as the status screen and a BGM playing in the background, then he might really indistinguish the game world from reality.

In any case, it can be confirmed that the technology used in Elven Kingdom is totally different from the game engines used in other online games.

Perhaps...this may even be the true definitive online game that the hearts of most players are longing for.

Li Mu sighed whilst feeling all sorts of emotions deep within him.

Regarding the mind acceleration feature, there are some rumors suggesting that it could potentially accelerate one's thinking process also in reality to a certain extent, if a player stays inside the game for a long time...

"Actually... if this rumors were real, then it would be pretty good but unfortunately, there's still no proven evidence that could back these claims."

Li Mu sighed, as he booted up the gamepod and scrolled through his phone to check his social media accounts.

The current month was July, and his university is already on its summer vacation, so Li Mu had more free time in his hands.

However, as a streamer, he had not livestreamed anything for almost a month...

These days, except for eating, showering, and uploading videos regularly, he spent almost every waking hours playing games in his room.

As for the videos he's uploading, they were naturally recordings of his playthrough of Elven Kingdom. His content nowadays only consist of gameplay clips, as well as some tips he had learned while playing, such as how to quickly improve an NPCs' favorability rating.

As a streamer who mainly review games, Li Mu had been completely addicted to Elven Kingdom and had not touched any other virtual reality games after playing ElvKing.

Alas due to the existence of mind acceleration, Elven Kingdom couldn't be livestreamed properly on earth, so his livestreaming channel had become rather neglected.

Fortunately for him, recording gameplay was still entirely possible. Although Elven Kingdom had not yet been officially launched, it had already garnered numerous fans online.

Thus Li Mu took up a part-time job as a content creator, relying upon the views brought by his recordings to barely make ends meet.

However, as a streamer, Li Mu is self aware that his level of gameplay was really not that particularly strong, and the quality of his recorded gameplay videos was not exciting enough to garner much attention.

Moreover, he was not the only streamer selected by the developers to play in the closed beta. There were many other veteran streamers who were invited as well and are also quite excellent at uploading enticing videos.

Therefore... although his videos had a decent amount of viewership, they were not particularly popular in regards to video content about Elven Kingdom.

However at this time, when he opened his main channel, Li Mu noticed that the viewership rate of his recorded videos had suddenly exploded for some reason.

Especially his series of videos on 'How to improve NPC favorability in Elven Kingdom.'

In these series of videos, Li Mu summarized some of the characteristics of the elven NPCs present within Elven Kingdom.

He read the entire official lore and analyzed in detail the elves' concepts, personalities, preferences, etc... to help the players communicate better with the NPCs.

However, when he first uploaded these series of videos, the reception was rather lukewarm but he was not really all that surprised by this outcome since not much player are doing it since increasing an NPC's favorability takes a long time, and the benefits were quite limited as well.

Moreover, the NPCs will still give them tasks even if a player chooses not to increase an NPC's favorability, just as long as they approach the task giver with a respectful attitude.

Although some players thought that it might be worthwhile endeavor to maximize an NPCs' favorability and gain their trust for a possibly of being given a secret quest, most players still believed that it was not worth the time and effort and would rather spend their time hunting mobs instead.

Apart from Alice, the purple-class NPC, most players thought that the other NPCs aren't really that important thus they didn't felt the need to get more closer with any of the native elves.

For hardcore players, besides the main questlines that offer huge rewards, teaming up to grind mobs is currently the fastest way to raise one's level.

Hence, Li Mu was not entirely surprised his videos aren't that popular.

However, something strange happened just now.

Li Mu noticed that the viewership of the series of videos he uploaded had suddenly increased by tenfold!

It was rather odd since the reception was still lukewarm when he went to bed yesterday.

This left him completely puzzled.

"Why did the views and comments drastically increased so much all of a sudden?"

After a quick scan of the messages he received, Li Mu found out that many of the comments were left by players currently participating in the closed beta.

"Congratulations! By watching these video series, you have discovered the hidden treasure of ElvKing!"

This was the highest rated comment.

"First! Gimme some luck guys. Big Bro Mu, you are so amazing!"

This was the second one.

"Damn! you are indeed Brother Mu! I bow to your foresight!"

This was the third one.

"'NPC's favorability rating are definitely not useless. 'The devs will eventually do something about the favorability system.' After watching this video, Xiao Mu, tell us the truth dude...are you really not an insider?"

Li Mu: "....."

What's going on?

He was even more confused.

Li Mu then opened a certain group chat on his phone and was surprised to find that this chatroom was also exploding as it was being bombarded by tons of messages.

He received so many direct messages, almost all of which were sent by his friends from the offline group chat of his guild, Natural Hearts.

He took a brief glance then opened one of the dm's and noticed that it came from Demacia.

"Brother Mu-!!! Help me! Waaaaah... I'm done for! I'm really so done for this time!!!"

"Please teach me the way to quickly build up favorability with the NPCs! Otherwise, I'm gonna be in so much trouble!"

"Oh, and by the way, after you enter the game, can you help me pick up my equipment? I'm too miserable bro!"

Li Mu: "....."

What's this mess?

'Hmm...? Wait, was the patch update related to the favorability system?'

Li Mu's eyes lit up.

He took a deep breath, put down his phone, and eagerly entered the game pod...

"Start game - 'Elven Kingdom'!"

After entering the game, Li Mu finally saw the details of the recent update patch.

Without hesitation, he clicked upon it.

[ Elven Kingdom Favorability and Reputation Patch Update Instructions ]

[Enhanced Favorability System]

[The player's task rewards will be calculated based upon your favorability points towards the NPC who had issued the task. Positive favorability points will earn extra rewards, with a maximum bonus of 100% (doubling the rewards); while negative favorability points will result in a penalty, with a maximum penalty of 50% (halving the rewards).]

[Improving and strengthening the Reputation System]

[Based upon the NPC's favorability towards the players, the entire playerbase's reputation will now be evaluated, and will receive a comprehensive reputation score based upon every players combined favorability points. (The maximum score is 100 points.) ]

[Based upon the playerbase's comprehensive reputation score, each players can earn additional rewards for main quests, side quests, and hidden storyline quests, with a maximum bonus of 100% (doubling the rewards).]

[Based upon the playerbase's comprehensive reputation score, each players can also receive exchange discounts on transfer, skills, scriptures, and perfect resurrection times in the exchange store. The higher the comprehensive reputation score is, the greater the discount each player can receive, up to a maximum reduction of 50% (halving the cost).]

[Based upon the playerbase's comprehensive reputation score, each players can also receive a lucky buff in the exchange store. The higher the comprehensive reputation score is, the higher the chance of obtaining rare and special effects on the equipment when purchasing gears. The maximum chance is 100% (guaranteed). The buff effect is valid once a day.]

Li Mu: "..."