Chapter 28: Version Update

While there was a little squabbling over the matter of stealing kills, the two batches of Players still combined smoothly and allowed Xi Wei a breath of relief.

With that, the first hurdle was overcome, and Xi Wei did not have to worry about his new religious faction destroying itself in its infancy.

“Leah Yakaran… the princess of the fallen kingdom is still quite far from starter village. She probably needs more time to arrive… huh. In other words, the main quests the Players could do now is carry bricks and build houses, or explore the outer reaches of the Valley of the Tragic Dead.”

Xi Wei extended a tentacle to scratch the bald upper part of his spherical form. “But the skeleton legion that invaded this time is unusual. I just feel there it’s not so simple, perhaps I could assign it as a side quest to have the players investigate…”

Given that every Player in the world below were all basically Xi Wei’s eyes, he would know when they find anything. He would just have to adjust the quest as the situation unravels.

Moreover, after coming into contact with the other Players, Angora also understood that his System was different from the others, and certainly not improved module like Eleena’s.

If he had to put a finger on it, it was like the difference between role-playing games and simulators…

Still, in Xi Wei’s perspective, Angora was less a player and more the village head NPC who assign missions to Players and have them help establish starter village together.

It was a process that benefited Angora himself as well. When his fief prospers, the rewards he would receive as a lord would naturally grow.

And at the moment, a point of caution was to not expose the town as a base for believers of God of Games (who were cultists in other churches’ perspectives) and bring on their own destruction.

The other was to ensure that the Players did not enter the Valley of the Tragic Dead without restraint.

It was not that Xi Wei has been reluctant to let the Players purge that wretched place—in fact, he hoped more than anyone else that the Players would easily clear the entire valley since it was the former battlegrounds of the gods. They just might be able to retrieve things such as broken divinities, allowing Xi Wei to claim more divinities without the risk of having to attack the other gods.

Still, the interior of the Valley of the Tragic Dead was filled with dangers. The former empire of Valla had once dispatched ten thousand strong to explore the valley wafting with purple miasma with the intention of finding the Herb of Revival, a legendary plant said to resurrect others. Nonetheless, the expedition was almost completely decimated by unknown creatures before they could delve deep into valley, with less than ten survivors making it out.

Though the Players were now were high on morale, truth be told, Xi Wei could imagine the Players who were still in their early levels being wiped out entirely every ten feet inside the Valley…

If that was the case, they would decrease in both EXP and level even if they could be revived. If they did things without restraint, the present situation where the Players’ average level stagnated would be a majority occurrence, affecting Xi Wei’s plans for the future.

It was also simple why Xi Wei was sure that the Players would select adventuring and not help the town construction efforts—when playing a game, compared to spending a dull four to five hours growing crops, wouldn’t a thrilling adventure with the potential of gaining rare dropped items so much more appealing? Moreover, seeking death was in itself engraved deeply into the DNA of players, be it back on Earth or any other world.

After all, Eleena’s party had been cautious when fighting monsters before they had attempted resurrection in fear that they would be the ones killed instead. However, after that one occasion where Marni died and they tried Revive, they had become reckless as seen in their rescue of starter village, reminiscent of their counterparts back on Earth.

It was fortunate that the Players’ mindsets were no different from that of people in Earth’s own era of myths, and coupled with them being devout believers, their behavior could still be kept in check. Otherwise, Xi Wei would be really worried that they might drag him along with them in their self-destruction spiral.

“Either way, I’ll just set it like this for now…” Xi Wei reached out with his tentacle, swiftly typing something into the computer he built with divine power…

***

Almost right after they had finished clearing up the army of skeletons, the Players suddenly received a message from the System. All of them could therefore see it immediately with some who were having some ale pouring it into their noses.

In contrast to the other Players who were left baffled, Eleena, who had come in contact with the System first carefully read through the message from her god.

Ding!

[Game Version 0.02 update]

[Currency System unlocked: All Players can now obtain game coins through clearing quests and killing monsters. Game coins can be used to purchase items and equipment from the Shop in the System.]

[Reputation System unlocked: only the ‘unnamed town’ presently allows the gaining of reputation points through the completion of commissioned quests. Commissioned quests can be accepted from the Notice Board (work in progress) and Angora Faust.]

[Epic Mission: Explore the Valley of the Tragic Dead has been added to your quest page. Each exploration of the Valley of the Tragic Dead dungeon furthers the explored rate by percentage mode. Exploration to certain rates secures corresponding rewards.]

[Have fun!—The God of Games]

The actual message was not very long, and Leah finished reading through it soon enough.

The other players were done as well, and now the town was bursting in lively discussion.

“That must be an oracle, as told in legends!”

“But the oracle I hear from the stories is not quite the same…”

“Don’t ask. The God of Games is just awesome!”

“Who’s Angora Faust? What’s with that weird last name?”

“This is the unnamed town? Why does it look like a village instead?”

“Isn’t that’s right? Not even my hometown is that bad!”

The townsfolk of the unnamed town were all left staring blankly at the Players’ abnormal behavior. All of them looked simultaneously towards their leader that was Angora.

After all, if it was not for his calm command when the legion of bones invaded, they might all have died instead. Now, they now saw him as a real lord.

More importantly, the reinforcements who were perfectly capable of fighting but behaved eccentrically had come answering his call…