Chapter 377

After sending the message to Hela, Eve refocused her attention back to Boxlunch's team.

The five members had already respawned on the World Tree and were automatically transported to the plaza of the Chosen City.

Evé checked upon their statuses through the game system network and found that, aside from complaining about how odd the questline ended and the seemingly rushed cutscene, their mental states were mostly unaffected.

This made Evé sigh in relief.

Although protections had been added to the game system network to safeguard players' consciousness after the Night Wanderer incident, dealing with mental intrusion from an evil god was still perilous endeavor.

Fortunately, Evé was well-prepared and decisively severed their connections, even going as far as to destroy their in-game bodies completely.

While Boxlunch team's found the whole plot of the questline quite bizarre, they had overheard some crucial information from the conversation between the Shadow Dragon and Azazel.

So after discussing it among themselves, they decided to seek out the elusive Godwarden Zero to report their findings.

Evé did not make things difficult for them.

She sent an avatar to the temple in Chosen City, informing the team of her location through system notifications, and accepted their report.

Though Evé was already aware of the contents of their report from observing them, she still listened attentively as if she just heard about it for the first time.

"I already know about the situation. The war in the underground likely involves an evil god. I will report this to the Goddess. You did well."

Whilst maintaining her aloof appearances, Zero nodded slightly after hearing the report and concluded their meeting.

At the same time, the Boxlunch's team received a system notification of their questline completion.

Each of them earned 3,000 contribution points, and a silver scroll item, named "Advanced Class Slot (Reserved)," which appeared in their personal system inventory.

Despite the odd way it ended, they had still completed their quest, so Evé kept her word.

The five members of Boxlunch's team were elite players from the very first beta-test, and Evé had always intended to grant them advanced class slots.

Hence, this quest is simply a convenient pretext to hand it to them.

In fact, Evé not only intends to hand out these advanced class slots to Boxlunch's team but also to the leaders of major guilds like Li Mu, Demacia, Little Salty Cat, HootyBird, Tomato, and Transformer Ji Gang, who are all slated for these reservation slots.

The reason?

These players represented the high-end strength of the entire playerbase and were leaders of the player-driven management system. Henceforth, the stronger they were, the more stable the player system would become.

Their significant contributions to the game and extensive online playtime justified such kind of privileges.

In a sense, it can be considered as an internal decision.

These silver slots were an investment for Evé, so naturally she prioritized players who brought the most benefits to her.

Evé planned to release the advanced silver slots gradually through various means like quest rewards.

However, these slots would be limited.

Evé decided to release no more than 100 advanced silver slots initially based on current needs, as any more than that would be too taxing for her, mainly due to the cost of resurrecting them.

As for fully opening the path for Silver-rank promotions, that would entirely depend on the restoration of mana in Seigües and the strength of her enemies.

In the following years, the strength of various creatures living within Seigües will inevitably experience exponential growth.

Previously, silver-rankers were considered powerful experts, but in the future, this level of strength will likely become merely average.

Evé plans to adapt to this change in a gradual, step-by-step manner.

Instead of quickly boosting the players' strength to an excessive degree, Evé aims to keep the overall strength of the players just slightly above the world's average, whilst still maintaining a certain advantage.

This approach not only prevents excessive consumption of her divine power but also avoids attracting undue attention from other powerful beings.

The saying "the first bird to stick its head out will be shot" applies in this situation.

Evé's regaining of her powers was mainly possible due to the resurgence of mana and the revival of various mythological beings all across the continent, thereby allowing her rise to go mostly unnoticed.

By gradually growing stronger in this secretive manner, Evé has become fully prepared and no longer unafraid of any attacks when others finally take notice of her.

Nonetheless, she still has to form a long-term strategy to ensure her safety and maintain her advantage.

As for the few fortunate players who acquired the advanced slots, they were simply excited:

"Haha, we finally got the rewards!"

"This quest was pretty easy. It's just disappointing there's no follow-up to it."

"Maybe it hasn't been triggered yet."

"An advanced class slot! I've never been this excited for a game update!"

"Me too! Me too!"

"Haha, we have to brag about this on the forums!"

Boxlunch: "..."

As expected, the five players were satisfied with their rewards.

While Evé was watching them, the casket of the dead suddenly let out a ringing tune.

The Goddess of Death, who rarely left the Netherworld, responded way faster than Evé had expected, indicating that Hela took this war more seriously than Evé had anticipated.

Reflecting on this, Evé promptly opened the Casket of the Dead, and Hela's familiar voice echoed within her High Temple:

"I'm aware of the situation, Your Excellency Evé. Thank you for the warning."

"Hödur indeed has connections with some evil gods hiding underground, namely the Plague Lord, the Queen of Pain, and the Fallen Angel."

"Among these three, the most powerful is the Fallen Angel, who once served as the Eternal Lord's deputy and possesses weak divine power. The other two have only minor divine power."

"Although these three evil gods are mythical beings, they have their own enemies and can only hide themselves underground..."

"However, Your Excellency Evé, you don't need to worry about these three evil gods; I will take care of them."

"What remains troubling is the inclusion of demon lord Azazel."

"Although I had suspicions about their connections in the past, I did not expect Hödur to actually be in contact with one of the Seven Lords of Hell. It seems Hödur has truly forgotten the honor of the gods of the Netherworld..."

"Your Excellency Eve, based on your description, Hödur will likely have Azazel deal with you. I know you possess the power of [Absorption] and are interested in Azazel's power."

"But let me remind you, don't underestimate Azazel just because he currently has only weak divine power. He is not easy to deal with."

"Your Excellency Evé, do you know why, despite several gods joining forces against Azazel a thousand years ago, they still couldn't kill him and only managed to seal him?"

"It's simply because... the Seven Demon Lords of Hell are inherently unkillable beings."

— 377 —

[ UNKILLABLE EXISTANCE ]

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