Malphegor
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MoP: Ch. 60
🕑 Added 2025-02-24 21:03:31 +0000 UTC---Third POV---
"What are the clearance rewards?"
Sarah rubbed her hands expectantly.
She was the first player to clear the game. Could she possibly also be the first in the whole country?
Wouldn't that mean she was the first to know the contents of the grand prize?
With a heart full of excitement, Sarah clicked on the golden reward box in her inventory.
[Ding! Congratulations on obtaining the God of Gods clearance title ×1 and a large discount coupon for the Chronicles of Aeltia game helmet ×1!]
"A coupon??? What kind of grand prize is this?" Sarah nearly choked in disbelief.
So, in the end, the big reward was just an opportunity to spend more money?
You've got to be kidding me...
Sarah took a deep breath.
"Don't get mad, don't get mad. No one else will look after your health if you ruin it," she muttered through gritted teeth, trying to console herself.
"Okay, putting aside the... coupon, getting a rare title is pretty nice."
The greatest value of the title was to showcase her achievement in beating this masochistic mini-game. That was all she really wanted—a rare badge of honor!
She fiddled around in the game interface.
"Let's see where I can display this title. Oh? The forum? That works!"
Her eyes lit up with excitement.
Currently, the forum had only two titles: "Pre-Registered Player" and "Beta Tester."
Once she displayed her God of Gods title, she'd instantly become the brightest star on the forum!
It was also a perfect excuse to scroll the forum and enjoy some juicy gossip.
"Great, I can finally join the ranks of forum performers!"
Sarah closed the game, cracking her knuckles in anticipation, only to find that she didn't have posting privileges on the forum.
"Huh? Why not?"
Completely baffled, she found the explanation in tiny text in the bottom corner:
Only players who pre-registered for Chronicles of Aeltia could register for a forum account.
In other words, she had to pre-register for Chronicles of Aeltia to use the forum and display her title.
And pre-registering required purchasing a game helmet.
"..."
Sarah stared at the discount coupon in her hand, her teeth grinding audibly.
"So it's all interconnected, huh!"
She was all too familiar with this kind of money-grabbing tactic.
"Only a fool would fall for this!" she exclaimed, almost slamming the page shut.
But at the last moment, her eyes landed on the God of Gods game icon on the homepage, and her hand froze.
She glanced at the pitch-black sky outside her window, then at the clock on the wall.
Her finger hovered over the "X" button, refusing to press down.
After a long pause, she reluctantly turned her head away.
"No! I worked day and night to clear this game. I'm the first! I can't just let this achievement go unrecognized!"
She considered posting a screenshot on her social media.
But her friends wouldn't even know what God of Gods was.
If they found out it was just a match-three game, they might even mock her!
Only people on the forum would understand the significance of her accomplishment.
Sarah squeezed her eyes shut and steeled herself, clicking into the Chronicles of Aeltia beta registration page.
"Let's just consider this paying for a forum account," she muttered softly.
After filling out her basic information, she hit submit.
The discount coupon from clearing God of Gods converted her in-game expenses into a registration fee.
Even though she had meticulously planned not to purchase any game items unless she was 80% through the level with less than 3 minutes left, she still ended up spending 10 dollars in the game.
"Not bad!" Sarah sighed in relief and submitted her details without hesitation.
When she re-entered the forum, she found that the top posts were all about God of Gods.
Post after post complained about the game's difficulty, with players lamenting how they were on the verge of quitting out of frustration.
Sarah glanced at the reply counts and widened her eyes.
"The game's this popular?"
But for her, this was a good thing—the more popular the game, the more valuable her record-breaking time would be.
Sarah chuckled gleefully and quickly made her own post.
[First Player to Clear God of Gods—Anyone Else?!!!]
She attached her clearance screenshot at the end.
Within two minutes, players who had "hit a wall" in the game flooded the replies, wailing in despair.
Some who had reached 99% progress but failed due to bad luck also chimed in with regretful comments.
The more they lamented, the more accomplished Sarah felt.
"Totally worth the money!" she couldn't help but exclaim.
---Viktor's POV---
Two days later, in the world of Aeltia, more players who cleared God of Gods began purchasing the game helmets.
Pre-registrations for Chronicles of Aeltia steadily increased.
Taking advantage of the momentum, I started issuing beta qualifications to the carefully selected players from the past two days.
The game helmets were custom-made by a welding and modification company I had contacted.
Although dozens had been sitting in the warehouse for a while, delivering them without drawing attention required some careful maneuvering in the gray market.
In simple terms, it would take at least three and a half days to discreetly transport these costly devices to the new players.
I announced the news in both the game's announcement board and the Honeyvale Town church. "Rainfall increases, leaves begin to yellow, and the scorching summer is quietly coming to an end."
"Both within and beyond the town, crises are drawing near! Before autumn arrives, we must prepare ourselves to forage outside and even deal with roaming goblins!"
"The task board and the item exchange list managed by Alyanne will be updated regularly—please keep an eye out!"
"Good luck, comrades!"
With this motivational speech, the sense of urgency finally set in for the second wave of players.
"We must learn our second skills before the new players arrive!"
"That's right! I want to show off!"
Outside the task board, I watched as Alyanne observed the players in confusion as they, brimming with energy, dashed around Honeyvale Town shouting incomprehensible slogans.
Although they'd always been hardworking—never resting until utterly exhausted—it seemed like their waking hours were growing even longer.
And they were hanging around her far less often these days.
"What a bunch of weirdos..." Alyanne muttered.
I appeared from behind her, chuckling. "What's wrong? Can't handle it?"
"Of course not!" Alyanne replied hastily.
How could she be more exhausted than the players actually completing tasks?
There were only a handful of them. It'd be ridiculous to say she was overwhelmed.
Alyanne was just curious.
"What's gotten into them?"
"I told them new comrades would be arriving soon. Naturally, they're preparing to welcome them."
Preparing to show off in front of new players definitely counted as preparation, didn't it?
Pure competitiveness could often be more motivating than standard rewards.
I watched the energetic players with satisfaction.
"I'll leave them in your hands," I said.
"In seven days, new comrades will start arriving at Honeyvale Town. I'll try to control the speed at which they join, but much of it will depend on your planning."
Fifty players would definitely be much harder to manage than now.
I planned to introduce them in batches, with a group arriving every two days. This would also help them integrate into Honeyvale more easily.
---Third POV---
Alyanne's scalp tingled, and she nodded. "…Alright."
After these days of recovery, her ice dragon bloodline had become quite apparent.
Even though she couldn't use magic, her body was evolving in a non-human direction, becoming exceptionally powerful.
In a straightforward physical fight, those players, who at most were just magic apprentices, wouldn't stand a chance against her.
But for some reason, every time she faced off against the players, she felt unnerved!
It always seemed like their gazes toward her weren't quite right.
To be specific—
Their gazes didn't feel like they were looking at a person, but more like they were staring at an object.
So, just thinking about the number of players soon multiplying several times over made Alyanne's heart pound nervously, filled with unease.
She had only seen such gazes once before—in a crippled old mercenary.
She'd only met him once.
And that one time—
He had almost dragged the entire Ironblood Mercenary Corps to their deaths with his life!
Even now, when she thought back to his frenzied state before death, she would feel the same fear she had as a child, wanting to run away.
It was the kind of gaze that didn't see others as human and didn't care about their own life or death!
"Hopefully, my intuition is wrong…" Alyanne muttered to herself.
These Watcher members had strange logic in their behavior.
But they hadn't yet reached the point of chaotic evil or outright madness.
Another group of players arrived, and Alyanne shook off her stray thoughts, refocusing on her work.
---Viktor's POV---
While waiting for another batch of new players to arrive, Honeyvale Town had undergone significant changes.
The warehouses were overflowing with timber and stone.
I had to set up an additional warded area that players couldn't approach to store territorial resources.
Looking out from the church, the surroundings were now completely barren.
No more shabby huts, no overgrown vines or dense forests—just a few wooden houses standing out in the open.
The players had forcibly turned the once-abandoned jungle town into a clearing.
This gave me much more space to work with.
Some players had even accidentally discovered a few mutated medicinal herbs with healing properties, adding to our stock of special resources.
The Lucky Stars Team had also made significant progress in their weaving endeavors.
Although the fabric they produced was so full of holes that the wind whistled through it, and the clothing styles were limited to old-fashioned shirts and dresses—
After all, sewing two pieces of fabric together and cinching the waist made a dress.
It was much easier to make than pants, which required two leg tubes!
After all these days, the beginner outfits were no longer sufficient.
No matter how bad the Lucky Stars Team's craftsmanship was, the other players had no choice but to accept it reluctantly.
After all, with all male players wearing the same clothes, no one could laugh at anyone else!
Besides this—
Because Edgar had yet to return, the warehouse's sweetfruit reserves were rapidly dwindling.
Helpless, I had to lead a team out to replenish the sweetfruit supply once.
But this wasn't a sustainable solution.
The number of sweetfruit trees nearby was limited.
If I ventured too far from the players, their semi-realized game panels would stop working entirely.
If we couldn't find another food source soon—
The new players might experience the harshness of starvation before enjoying the natural beauty of Aeltia.
I looked at the financial report for Honeyvale Town in my hands and let out a heavy sigh.
"When is Edgar coming back?"
Since the last message, he had sent no further updates.
This left me worried that something had happened to him.
But it didn't make sense.
To understand the players' language, I had placed a mental imprint on Edgar.
Through this imprint, I could sense that he was perfectly fine.
No distress signals, no physical injuries… Edgar had deliberately delayed his return.
I massaged my temples. "Problems everywhere."
I stood, retrieved my wizard's robe, dusted it off, and put it on with a quick flourish.
"I'd better deal with the new players first."
The church was still the same as before.
Though not aesthetically pleasing, it had a complete magic node protection mechanism underneath.
Unless something unexpected happened, I had no intention of modifying it.
---Third POV---
Ten players scrambled to their feet, touching themselves or others, chattering loudly.
"Wow! So many people!"
"Help! I've been kidnapped!"
"Where am I? Is this still Earth?"
"Ouch, ouch, ouch! This isn't a dream!"
A line of new players faced off against the old players.
The older players averted their eyes in embarrassment, whispering complaints to one another:
"Were we this clueless when we first entered the game?"
Like a group of monkeys that had suddenly gained intelligence, but their intellect was still at the level of wild animals.
ProGamer_Daddy wholeheartedly agreed. "You were even more memorable than them."
After all, there was only one player, Hedgehog, who had streaked naked in front of Alyanne and could never recover the favorability rating because of it.
Hedgehog wailed and covered his face. "Don't bring that up. If I had known the cost of taking off my pants was this high, I would never have done it!"
ProGamer_Daddy gave a professional fake smile. "Who wouldn't agree?"
Although he hadn't lost NPC favorability, his SAN value hadn't recovered yet.
Only now did he realize it took 10 days to recover just one point of sanity.
Losing SAN value was instant, but recovering them was a slow grind.
This was just unreasonable!
Viktor expressionlessly cast a silence spell on everyone.
"Welcome, returnees."
"As you can see, my mission failed."
"The gods and Aeltia's conflicts were irreconcilable. Six hundred years ago, the gods launched the Final Divine War and were completely annihilated."
"Aeltia, as foretold, has been heading toward its ultimate destruction…"
Familiar opening lines—He had recited them three times already.
And for the next two days, he would have to recite them again.
Repeating such a time-consuming, face-losing task too many times was becoming increasingly awkward.
Maybe he should find someone specifically responsible for narrating the opening storyline?
With this thought in mind, he continued reciting his lines to the end.
"Now, our first step is to rebuild Honeyvale Town and establish our first base in Aeltia!"
"Do whatever you like! Our goal is the same, our ideals aligned—we're fighting for the countless compatriots behind us. Every minute and second is precious, and we have no time to waste!"
"Before the next magic tide arrives, we need sufficient weapons, food, and a solid wall!"
After speaking, Viktor scanned the ten new players.
None of them had special racial traits like LootGoblin.
A hint of disappointment flashed in his eyes.
But this was always a matter of luck. Having one was great; not having one couldn't be forced.
After introducing Alyanne and Luminaris as usual, Viktor left the church lightly, leaving the space to the players.
Comments
lohan seibert raimundo
Obrigado pelo capítulo
