MoP: Ch. 157

---Third POV---

The forum was as chaotic as ever. Some would even call it a beautiful disaster of human ambition and stupidity, though more likely the latter.

There were hardcore tech crafting guides that made Viktor's head spin, complaints from civil engineering veterans who'd just fallen from Tier 0 status, and combat players sharing increasingly insane tips for capturing level-1 monsters. You name it, someone had posted about it.

The recruitment event rewards were generous enough to spark widespread discussion among players. Hell, they were throwing magicoins at anyone who could drag a warm body back to Honeyvale.

Players who hadn't yet left Honeyvale Town were plotting to raid a monster stronghold they'd scouted earlier, maybe they'd find some survivors cowering in the ruins.

Players out in the Wasteland bragged that there were refugees everywhere just waiting to be recruited. The only problem was screening them before dragging them into the Great Oak Forest. Nobody wanted to accidentally invite a serial killer to dinner.

Some players even bitched that recruiting one by one was too inefficient and suggested just taking over Nary Town directly...

That last suggestion got way more support than the first two combined.

Viktor couldn't help but laugh and shake his head when he saw it.

"Everyone just wants to stir up trouble for entertainment."

Nary Town was at least one of the Yoan Kingdom's border defenses, and it wasn't lacking in military strength. Even just the city wall, forged by master-level craftsmen, wasn't something newbie players could handle. They'd bounce off it like ping pong balls.

Not to mention, Nary Town wasn't some isolated backwater. If reinforcements from neighboring city-states came calling, how the hell would they deal with that shitstorm?

He read through a few more related posts, watching players fantasize about conquest like kids playing with toy soldiers. After confirming that players were still rational and that attacking Nary Town was just empty talk, the kind of bullshit people spouted when they were bored, he decided to let it slide.

The other two recruitment strategies, however, looked much more viable. He had high hopes for their potential.

Especially the players in the Wasteland, there were as many refugees out there as you could want! The only issue was the effort needed to find and persuade them. Refugees weren't exactly trusting by nature, and for good reason.

Luckily, the previous NPC territory investigation event had ended. A new batch of players could now leave the forest, and the teams capable of searching for people were growing stronger by the day.

The future was looking bright, assuming nobody did anything catastrophically stupid.

He nodded as he scrolled through the posts.

"Judging from the updates on the forum, at least three players have already found refugee groups and are doing pretty well with them."

"Wasteland refugees usually stick together in large groups, often over a hundred people. If even half of them can be brought in, the numbers will be significant."

"And with the still-unrevealed refugee source from Fuki, plus the people in the Shelter... Getting 500 people together shouldn't be a problem at all."

Whether Hawkes was satisfied with that number or not, Viktor certainly was. Gather half the people first, then slowly start the work. As for time, if you squeeze a little, you'll always find some.

If worse came to worst, just have the players pitch in, they'd work twice as hard as any normal person just for the thrill of it.

Scrolling further down, a post marked with a deep red "HOT" label appeared, glowing like a neon sign in a strip club.

[Siren Rescue Operation Intelligence Summary (Real-Time Updates)]

The comments below had already reached an astounding 20,000.

"Oh? The players are progressing that fast?"

Yesterday, according to Booze, only one player had successfully infiltrated the casino. So how was there already an intelligence summary post with tens of thousands of comments?

He clicked in and scrolled through it.

At least 80% of the comments were from "cloud players," spectators who weren't even in the beta but followed every development like it was their favorite soap opera.

Well, thinking about it, that made sense. Compared to events that only closed beta players could participate in, cloud players were much more enthusiastic about discussing posts involving storyline developments.

Closed beta players could give real-time updates, which gave cloud players a sense of "commanding the battlefield through words" and remotely influencing the plot. It was like being a general without any of the actual responsibility.

The post content was pretty straightforward, but the drama was top-tier reality TV material.

Basically, yesterday Booze had, in a desperate attempt to get another chance to talk with Viktor, exposed the fact that Garble had been "two-timing" with sirens.

The players present were shocked. The news spread like wildfire, even players in faraway Nary Town logged off to check out the gossip. Because apparently, nothing traveled faster than juicy scandal.

After some discussion, they realized that Garble had barely interacted with NPCs before and hadn't been seen in three or four days. The guy had basically vanished into thin air.

Since the casino matter couldn't be kept under wraps anymore, NeverShowOff simply stepped forward and revealed the entrance route through the Mage Guild.

At the same time, taking advantage of their three-day head start and Garble, who was currently deep in the emotional hell of a true love-triangle mess, they secured command of the operation.

They began actively recruiting players who were willing to join the mission. It was like watching someone organize a heist, except the target was rescuing fish-people instead of stealing money.

This thread was also posted by someone from NeverShowOff's side. The other players had no choice, most of them had received the intel, but their progress was slower than a snail on sedatives. They could only accept their loss and fall in line.

NeverShowOff's team was the first to release basic casino intel publicly. This helped other players make progress, and they began sharing their findings too.

The happiest of all were the long-idle cloud players, who, like kids in a candy store, basically moved into the thread full-time!

[NeverShowOff]: Aside from the Mage Guild, there must be other entrances to the casino. Any ideas?

[Child]: I'll go first, there's definitely one in the military camp!

[BoneCruncher]: But you have to get in first! The military camp is way harder to access than the Mage Guild!

[OrdinaryName]: Since we already have a stable route, why not just all use the Mage Guild?

[DeadFish]: Same! I'm really interested in the Opportunist Trial!

[LootGoblin]: Sounds good! #BeginnerSpellCompendium link#, learn a spell and come find me. I'll help you get a Mage Badge!

[Hedgehog]: You're seriously trying to boost your sales at a time like this?

[LoveDoctor]: What a coincidence! I just learned the Growth Spell from that list. I'll be at Nary Town soon. Garble must feel so lonely infiltrating alone. I volunteer to go keep him company

[Child]: Yeah right. Don't think I don't know, you guys just want to romance the siren girls!

[Garble]: ...

[LoveDoctor]: Garble, you're still alive?!

[Garble]: The past is too painful to recall. But yes, I'm still alive

[LoveDoctor]: The ship's sunk and you still haven't been disbanded? This is intense, I'm going!

[DeadFish]: +1!

[Garble]: ...

[Child]: ...

Some people's desire to flirt with death just couldn't be stopped.

Even though Garble had already warned them that clearing storyline content wasn't a pleasant experience, and the system made it all too easy to trigger the pain threshold, there were always players who only picked out keywords like "beautiful siren" and "romance subplot" and insisted on trying it for themselves.

It was like watching people volunteer to stick their hands in a blender because someone mentioned it had pretty lights.

In the end, NeverShowOff had to drag out the example of Garble, who was currently surviving decently well, as leverage. They threatened to have Garble temporarily shut down the Opportunist Trial if players kept acting up, only then did the restless players calm down a bit.

They successfully split up into several teams to scout out all of the casino's exits. It was actually impressive coordination, like watching a bunch of cats suddenly organize themselves into a military unit.

After reading the latest comments, Viktor felt gratified.

"NeverShowOff really does show some potential as a commander."

Without needing his intervention, they were already able to organize and manage the player community effectively. Otherwise, if all the players had swarmed the Mage Guild blindly, even a fool could've seen the problem coming.

After finishing his entertainment break of observing the players' movements, he plunged back into his endless workload. He worked all the way until the next day, grinding through paperwork.

Only then did he barely manage to handle the piled-up tasks.

"Once everything is over, I'm definitely stepping down immediately."

He lay on the wheelchair, letting out such a sigh that it would've made a philosopher weep.

Even an undead with boundless energy couldn't avoid mental exhaustion after working for so long. It was like being a computer that never got to shut down, eventually, even the best hardware started glitching.

"No, maybe it's just that other undead don't have to think."

He shook his head. Wasn't being a lord supposed to mean closing your eyes and collecting money while leaving everything else to your subordinates?

The road ahead was long and arduous...

He opened the forum, using the excuse of checking on those chaotic players to take a short break. And the moment he looked, his jaw would've dropped if he still had one. Wait… he did. And it was lying on the floor.

Eleven more players had sneaked into the casino!

He looked at the time again, confirming that only a single day had passed.

"What the hell is going on? Is the casino really that easy to get into?"

With that level of security, how did it survive for decades? It was like having a fortress made of paper and wondering why people kept breaking in.

Reading further, he picked up his jaw from the floor.

"Lust is the greatest motivator, huh?"

After hearing that all the sirens were incredibly beautiful and had enchanting voices, the players' enthusiasm for exploring the casino skyrocketed.

Spells that were previously painstakingly slow to learn were now mastered in record time, and they even managed to earn Mage Guild badges from LootGoblin. It was like watching nerds suddenly become motivated when someone mentioned their crush would be impressed.

Six players used the guild's secure channel to enter the casino.

Another eight, unwilling to back down, insisted on challenging the Opportunist's Trial, and were wiped out. Their corpses probably decorated the trial grounds.

Meanwhile, over at the barracks, after nine players sacrificed themselves to scout the path, because apparently nobody learned from the first eight casualties, they finally discovered the entrance. Two more players were sent in, probably stepping over the bones of their predecessors.

Another three players used the same escape route that Gaeman once took to get into the casino. The guards there were lazier than mall security, and the three made it in completely unscathed.

Each success story boosted the confidence of the remaining players like a drug. Even total newbies who had just arrived in Nary Town yesterday and knew nothing were already eager to challenge the casino directly.

Meanwhile, on Garble's side, news kept coming in. He'd learned about another casino entrance inside a magic tool shop in the civilian district. Immediately, players volunteered to go investigate.

"At this rate, in less than a week, players will have the entire casino mapped out."

The rescue mission for the sirens was looking very promising, assuming the players didn't accidentally burn the whole place down in their enthusiasm.

Suddenly, Viktor shuddered. A mysterious sensation compelled him to look up.

Then he stood up and quickly walked to the window.

"This feeling is..."

Had the first divine altar... been completed?

---

Nary Town, Church of the Goddess of Spring.

Ding ding ding! Ding ding!

A suspicious-looking nun in white robes was banging away at a huge statue with a chisel and hammer, making enough noise to wake the dead. Which, considering the neighborhood, might not have been entirely metaphorical.

She kept glancing over her shoulder like someone about to commit a crime.

"Hurry up, the other nuns will be back soon... Phew! Done!"

Lux looked at the crooked lettering etched into the base: "Statue of the Light Goddess."

She let out a long breath that could've deflated a balloon.

"Been chiseling this thing on and off for two days, finally finished."

She opened her game panel and pulled up a private message she'd typed to herself as a reminder, because apparently even in a fantasy world, you needed to-do lists.

"Altar activation requirements: Divine symbol, statue, artifact."

"This should count as the statue, right?"

She stepped back, gazing at the full view of the statue, a goddess bent over, cradling a sprouting seedling in her hands, her eyes filled with compassion. All divine statues were handsome men or beautiful women.

As long as the gender matched, it was indeed hard to tell which deity a statue belonged to.

Lux stepped on a stool and removed the green sprout, replaced daily by some dedicated nun, from the statue's hand. Then she placed a mirror by the window.

A beam of sunlight happened to shine directly onto the hand where the sprout had just been, like she was directing her own personal light show.

"Okay, now we've got the divine symbol too!"

She clenched her fist in joy.

"And conveniently, there's already an artifact belonging to the Light Goddess under the statue. I don't even need to prepare it. All the altar components are in place!"

Don't ask why the artifact of the Light Goddess was under the statue of the Spring Goddess. She didn't know either.

She had learned from a dismissed NPC church maid that the bishop had long known she was a real nun of the Radiant Church. While looking into the reason, she found a box hidden beneath the statue.

The items inside couldn't be taken out, but they would glow when she prayed. According to intel found by other players, artifacts only reacted when prayed to by followers of the corresponding faction.

Since she wasn't a true divine believer, and her own faction only had a Light Goddess avatar, then without a doubt, that was an artifact of the Light Goddess.

Most likely, Bishop Kasse had once obtained the artifact, but due to conflicting faction alignment, couldn't openly use it and had to stash it away.

Staring at the now-complete statue, she took a deep breath.

"Next is the final step."

Activating the altar required a prayer from a church leader. Usually a pope, or a well-known holy son or daughter.

Although she was none of those, the quest said she could do it, so she could.

She clasped her hands together at her chest and closed her eyes to begin praying.

"Uh... Beautiful and merciful Light Goddess, how glorious is your holy name throughout the land, the heavens declare your glory... Praise the Goddess... In the holy name of the Lord, amen!"

Since she didn't have an official prayer, she had to make one up on the spot.

As her final word fell, the beam of light in the statue's hand suddenly flared up, instantly bathing the entire statue in radiance.

She instinctively raised her arms to shield her face, expecting either divine intervention or very angry nuns.

Before she could even worry about the noise attracting others, the light vanished as suddenly as it appeared, and everything returned to normal.

Lux cautiously stepped forward: "Did it work?"

She took the signal amplifier she had gotten from NeverShowOff and tucked it into a hidden compartment at the base of the statue.

The next second, her game panel beeped rapidly like a computer having a seizure.

[Congratulations! You've completed the quest "Distant Watch," activating the altar that links two locations. Rewards are being issued...]

[Main quest updated!]

[New intel: Nary Town Casino!]

[Event launched - "A Grey Past" (now concluded!)]

[Wasteland Quest Expansion! "Recruitment Drive!"]

[Map Update - New Honeyvale Town!]

[...]

The long-silent message channel was now buzzing non-stop.

Soon, all those disconnected message threads, offline forums, and server updates came flooding in.

Over on the forums, several familiar user IDs popped up with new threads.

[I'm online in Nary Town again?!]

Several replies quickly followed, clearly from old-time players who were now online again.

[Same! I was just flirting with an NPC when my game panel lit up like an alarm, and turns out the forum updated too!]

[Even the map looks totally different now. Honeyvale Town has grown a lot!]

[Looks like things are going pretty well over there.]

[That quest I accepted ages ago finally settled, I got triple-digit magicoins! Even though I have no use for them right now]

[Finally, real-time updates! Used to have to log out and check the official site for every little update, so annoying!]

[Wait, since when did the devs start acting human?]

[Right? We've been complaining about the offline quest system for ages. No way this update came out of nowhere!]