MoP: Ch. 178

---Third POV---

The affairs in Nary Town couldn't be resolved in a single day. After confirming that the situation in the town was under good control, Viktor took a bunch of newly added tasks and headed back first. He planned to wait until all the loose ends were cleaned up and handed over properly, and a new order was established. Only then would he reappear in front of everyone and officially announce that The Watchers had stepped out of the shadows.

Bang!

A mountain of documents once again filled the desk.

He didn't immediately sit down to handle them. Instead, he opened the system panel.

[Name: Viktor von Vinesse]
[Race: Undead]
[Level: 89 (Magus) / 159 (Demigod)]
[Skills: Divine Insight, Shapeshifter, Multiple Avatars (999/3000)]
[Authority (2/13): Light (...), 98% Sky (...), Others (...)]
[Divine Power: 2,394,171]
[Followers: 999]
[Special Items: Anomalous Dimension No. ??? Temporal-Net Spirit, Divine Contract (Reversed), Game Console, Blessing of the God of Snow]

The biggest change on the panel was the Authority column. Because two complete high-level divine essences had suddenly been added, the authorities were reorganized. The God of Snow didn't even get a separate category. Skills that could be integrated into the first two authorities were placed there. Those that couldn't were tossed directly into the "Others" category.

And at the very front, a prominent blue progress bar labeled [2/13] appeared. This was one of the main reasons he was determined to collect all thirteen Ancient Gods.

"So I've only gathered 7% of the Light Authority? Looks like the bulk of it is still in the hands of the Radiant Church," he murmured thoughtfully.

Although divine essences could only be used by deities and their appearance locations were unpredictable, the Radiant Church had been the greatest church spanning millennia. It was completely normal for them to intentionally collect Light essences to help their god resurrect faster. Other changes included the increased number of online players, the special item Blessing of the God of Snow, and the significant reduction of censorship around the spirit that allowed him to connect to Earth's network.

A sudden change of name definitely meant new changes.

He tried pulling the spirit out from his inner sanctum and was instantly shocked.

"What an incredibly fast mana absorption rate? Is this because my strength increased?"

But he quickly denied the thought.

"No. Before going to Mount Wolcen, I had just updated the encyclopedia's image data. It was nowhere near this fast."

Before, uploading a 2 MB picture took at least ten minutes. Now, he could upload one picture per second, 600 times faster.

A realization struck him.

"It suddenly evolved. Could it be because I merged two more essences? If I merge a few more..."

He shook his head, pushing down his restless excitement. He must not think further. If he did, he feared he might dump the entire mess of the Aeltia altogether.

"Anyway, faster mana transmission is a good thing. At least I won't need to keep trimming things down. If the threshold for uploading pictures and videos is lower now, does that mean I can open this function to the players?"

The players' game system had two main anchors: besides Luminaris, there was the Net-Spirit Channel that handled player entry and exit. There was no reason players couldn't use mana.

With the idea formed, he immediately started implementing it.

Lines of code flowed out, and the photo/video recording function slowly took shape.

[Basic Image Capture Function (Photo): 4000 Divine Power]

The required divine power was far less than he had expected. After all, the divine power only needed to enable a scanning function. If the Net Spirit hadn't upgraded, divine power from Aeltia wouldn't have been able to reach Earth in the first place.

He clicked without hesitation.

"Let's buy it."

However, he didn't immediately update the ability for the players. Instead, he set it aside for the moment. He planned to wait until the rewards for the main quest, saving the sirens, were fully settled before rolling out the update.

While it was still dark, he also took the opportunity to lay out the new set of laws for Nary Town and the arrangements for the various people involved. After making several copies and placing them in the mailbox by the door, he shut the door, went back to his room, and fell into a deep sleep.

He had first used divine power to heal, then traveled all the way to Mount Wolcen, and after returning had to deal with Nary Town's affairs.

Even the undead couldn't be pushed this hard.

---

Lux squatted on the church steps, staring gloomily at the street outside the wall.

"When is the reward going to be issued?"

The forum said that Viktor had arrived, and after checking on the five rescued sirens, the quest rewards would be settled. But why had he arrived at the church and still not checked on the sirens?

It was nearly dark now. Would they really have to wait until tomorrow for rewards?

"Um, excuse me."

A girl with heterochromatic eyes timidly scooted closer.

Lux rested her chin on her palm, tilted her head, and her eyes lit up instantly.

"What beautiful eyes!"

After the players arrived, all the beastmen from the auction house had been brought to the church for unified supervision, waiting for Viktor's further decisions. Since a large area had simply been designated for them, and their actions weren't restricted, it was perfectly normal to see beastmen moving around in the courtyard. But this was the first time a beastman had approached her to chat.

"You're Domie, the feline beastman NineTails mentioned, right? And you have a younger brother named Rami?"

Domie nervously clutched the hem of her clothes and nodded. She had received more compliments about her eyes in a single day than she had in her entire life before this. Everyone seemed to think her eyes were pretty, which only made her more flustered. But hearing NineTails' name made her relax a little.

"You know NineTails?"

"I guess NineTails and I count as friends who chatted for a couple of days."

Lux laughed and ruffled her hair, inwardly delighted.

"What's wrong? Did your brother get hurt again? I'm a super powerful light mage. I'll definitely help you heal him!"

"N-no, it's not that..."

Domie was startled by Lux's enthusiasm and waved her hands quickly.

"No, thank you. Thank you for rescuing us and even giving us bedding and food for free. Rami just received treatment this morning. Another person said he was having trouble adjusting to the environment and needed nutrition and other care, so he's resting in the room for now. I wanted to ask about NineTails' whereabouts."

Lux froze.

An NPC asking about a player?

Domie's grip on her clothes tightened even more, and she looked down gloomily.

"Is she gone?"

She had been in the auction house longer than most others and had seen many severely injured beastmen at the church. She knew well the darkness behind it all. Rescuing them must have come with sacrifices. Thinking this, her vision grew blurry.

"No, wait, don't cry!"

Lux panicked. Comforting children was her biggest weakness. She had just spaced out for a moment. How did things jump straight to the child's ultimate attack: crying?

"NineTails is fine, just busy with something else and won't be coming until tomorrow!"

Domie sniffled.

"Are you telling the truth?"

"Of course. I never lie," Lux said firmly.

Although NineTails had been blasted into a "compressed biscuit," once resurrected, she was completely fine.

So technically, she wasn't lying.

After finally soothing this baffling NPC who popped out of nowhere, she wiped the nonexistent sweat from her forehead and muttered quietly, "Didn't she say she wanted to keep her distance? Why is she still so concerned about NineTails' whereabouts?"

She gave free medical treatment everywhere every day. Why could she never run into an adorable NPC overflowing with gratitude?

Thinking this made her even more troubled.

"Ugh."

"What's wrong?"

Now that she knew NineTails was fine, Domie was in a great mood and her kindness began to overflow.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

Lux sighed dramatically.

"I've been busy all day, saving people and helping take Nary Town, and the rewards still haven't been delivered. It's stressing me out. I want the next part of the quest, I want the promo cutscene, I want new rewards..."

Domie blinked.

"But aren't there a lot of shiny treasures piled up in the church?"

The items were right there. Anyone could take them and split them up. Why did they need to be hauled back together? Why did someone have to distribute rewards?

Lux was charmed by Domie's earnest attempt to think it through.

"Of course that won't work. Too many people participated in this event. We need an absolutely fair judge."

Even though players already had the beginnings of teams and guilds, and some loot ownership was undisputed, the number of unaffiliated newbies far exceeded that of veteran players with established groups. After a large battle, most of what was left was "grey loot" with unclear contribution divisions.

They could only wait for the main quest to settle and let the system distribute the rewards. Otherwise, internal player conflicts would erupt easily. There had been battles before that raged for nearly a full day, forcing the developers themselves to intervene, all because players couldn't agree on who owned the spoils.

If players really got worked up, who knew where things would escalate.

"Absolutely fair..."

Domie's eyes widened slightly. She didn't understand the phrase itself, but she understood the explanation that followed.

"You're a good person!"

In Aeltia, the rule of survival since ancient times had always been "the weak are prey to the strong." Even the weak themselves didn't demand fairness. They would even actively side with the oppressors and exploit those weaker than them. Yet in Lux's words, fairness sounded like something taken for granted.

The child's eyes were so clear and sincere that Lux felt a little embarrassed.

"Hahaha, you're so sweet! Though absolute fairness is impossible, letting the system hand out rewards makes it easy to dump all the blame on the devs. Players don't have that many real conflicts. If the rewards aren't distributed well, they can just curse the dev team."

Speak of the devil. Right then, the system announcement chime rang.

She opened it.

The gist of the announcement was that because too many players participated in the siege battle and the division of labor was too detailed, the quest settlement required sufficient time. Therefore, after calming the citizens, handling logistics, and publishing the new laws, Viktor would visit the rescued sirens and begin reward distribution. And all previous player actions would be counted toward the evaluation.

She jolted upright.

"What? The quest isn't over? We can still farm contribution points?!"

A player lying on the steps nearby shouted in shock. The two of them turned their heads at the same time. Four eyes met, and it felt like you could hear crackling sparks flying in the air.

The scent of a rival.

Lux instantly entered hyper mode and opened the forum.

Let me see what quests are still available. Treating the wounded, calming the captives, rebuilding the dungeon, night patrols... This one!

She selected [Calming the Captives].

The rescued beastmen's emotions hadn't been properly soothed yet. They could break into rebellion at any moment. If she could persuade them to join The Watchers, not only would it resolve the issue of where they should go, it would also add strong laborers for wall repairs.

This quest was simple, effective, and offered high contribution points. She was definitely taking it.

"Domie, I'll go on ahead. Take your time!"

Lux gave her one last head pat and walked toward the beastman resettlement area.

---

The next day.

Sporting huge dark circles, Lux appeared on the steps again, looking completely dead inside. Arms crossed, she breathed out weakly.

"Why is convincing beastmen this hard?"

When she went to comfort them, every beastman treated her with a certain degree of respect. They all sincerely thanked the players for rescuing them from the underground city. But the moment future plans came up, why wouldn't a single one choose to stay?

Talk a little longer and someone would even start showing signs of aggression.

If she hadn't been quick enough to suppress trouble with force each time, the beastmen would have rioted three or four times already.

Domie, holding a white bread loaf bigger than her own face, sat beside her.

"You don't need to promise us special treatment. As long as we can eat our fill, we're already satisfied."

Beastmen only fled to human kingdoms because they couldn't survive elsewhere, and then they were captured and made into slaves.

Lux let out a bitter sigh.

"It's not about treatment. Then why don't any of you want to stay?"

Domie stopped chewing.

Lux narrowed her eyes. Something's up. She immediately wrapped an arm around Domie.

"Come on, tell me the reason. I'm sure NineTails will be here soon."

Domie looked up. "She is really coming?"

Lux nodded firmly.

"Of course!"

That woman was panicking all over the forum, wishing her resurrection cooldown would finish instantly so she could log in and grind contribution points.

After hesitating for a while, Domie finally spoke her mind.

"You guys are nice, but your behavior is too strange. You're too much like Watchers."

Lux froze. "Like Watchers?"

Domie nodded.

"Even though we know The Watchers have long declined, and there's no way they could organize such a huge human army... The fear beastmen have toward The Watchers is carved into our bones. No one wants to live in an environment that's basically hell. Oh, NineTails is an exception."

Seeing Lux's disbelief, Domie shook her head.

"If you're not a beastman, you can never understand our fear of The Watchers. Their leader once wiped out an entire large beastman clan in a single rage. Who would hold onto hope after that?"