Game of the World Tree
chapter-200

▪️RETURN OF THE BLACK DRAGON

«Elven Kingdom» will conduct its third round of closed beta testing on July 25th, recruiting a total of 9,000 new players for this round!

Evé did not leave a long sign-up duration for this third closed beta test. In fact…it was already the 20th of July on Earth when she announced the news of the third test.

For the netizens back on earth, the news of the third closed beta happening within 5 days was quite sudden.

However, due to it being a widely renowned virtual MMORPG with advanced technology like mind acceleration, along with high degrees of freedom and realism, «Elven Kingdom» has already garnered a large number of fans.

When this news quietly appeared upon the official website, it immediately caught the attention of the netizens who had been constantly checking the website almost daily for any kind of notification.

In an instant, various major gaming forums and news outlets immediately reposted this news, and many well-known streamers, video content creators, and influential online figures have also quickly shared it, expressing their anticipation for the third closed beta of the game.

For a brief moment, “Elven Kingdom” had once again became the hottest trending topic across various major social media websites, instantly capturing the attention of numerous netizens. The intensity of their discussions this time around even seemed to exceed the first few days after the game’s initial launch…

This virtual reality game, which had seen a slight decrease in popularity online after a month of no noteworthy news, had immediately returned to its peak!

9,000 people!

That’s not a small number.

Compared to the initial 300 players selected for the first beta test, and the additional 1,000 for the second one, the chances of being chosen this time around had increased significantly with 9,000 new slots available.

Suddenly, numerous netizens flooded the official website of Elven Kingdom and instantly registered for the third closed beta, hoping to become one of the 9,000 lucky participants.

Within just one day, the number of registrations for the third closed beta have easily exceeded 300,000.

And on the second day, the number of registrations surged even further, directly surpassing that of 2 million!

However, the number of registrations just didn’t stop there, and it still continued to rise rapidly with each passing day…

Moreover, the number of comments below the official website’s announcement have also began to skyrocket at a ridiculous pace…

“Hahaha! Well look at that! This dog of a game is finally having its third closed beta! Waking up early every day just to check the forums wasn’t in vain!”

“Wow! The third beta is finally here! I’ve been waiting anxiously for this!”

“Finally! Every day, I could only watch enviously the videos posted by those damn closed beta players on video platforms!”

“Dude, although I haven’t entered the game, I’ve already fallen into the rabbit hole of watching ElvKing videos nonstop. I registered immediately after hearing the news! Hopefully I’ll be lucky this time.”

“This news caught me off guard… I missed the registration for the second beta before so I can’t miss it this time!”

“9,000 people… That’s quite a number this time! Our chances of being chosen seem quite promising!”

“Oh dear goddess Eve, please I’m hoping to be among the first ones selected for this closed beta!”

Observing the enthusiastic response to the news, not only were the netizens excited, but the closed beta players themselves were also thrilled upon learning about the third round of beta testing.

“Haha, Nice! Finally, more people are going to join the game.”

“9000 new people in one go! That’s great!”

“Awesome! With the expansion of the game’s available playable map, we’ll definitely need more players. This third round of beta testing couldn’t have come at a better time.”

“Hehe, there will be fresh new labor to help us with the dirty work now!”

“When the third beta starts, the player count will likely surpass ten thousand, right? Massive legion warfare campaigns isn’t just a pipedream anymore! Just thinking about it is so exciting dude…”

“July 25th, right? Five more days to go, I’m really looking forward to it!”

Even Evé herself was also amazed by the enthusiasm «Elven Kingdom» had generated back on earth.

Evé knew well that the game she had created was already highly acclaimed back on earth. After all, with its advanced features and capabilities, no other games in the current time could even compare.

Moreover, daily videos of the game are being posted online by various closed beta players, and the view counts of these videos are also quite high!

However, while it was evident to Evé that Elven Kingdom was already gaining a considerable amount of popularity online, she still hadn’t anticipated it becoming this massively popular…

Nevertheless, the game being so popular was a good thing for Eve!

And this time, relying on the information provided by the netizens during registration, she proceeded to screen these prospective applicants, giving preference to those with a lengthy history of online gaming.

But just as Evé was happily using the system to sift through and select a large number of prospective players, she suddenly heard a murmured prayer from afar…

Evé then felt a stir and immediately withdrew her attention away from the internet and shifted her focus back to her inner mindscape.

Within her Celestial Domain, a bright star of faith twinkled incessantly, as Evé also heard a clear, yet rough and excited prayer from one of her believers.

“Hehe Your Grace, Meryer has returned! I have brought back so many treasures! Cattle! Sheep! Chickens! This Lord have bought them all!”

…Oh so it was that little black dragon.

This punk’s prayer was filled with uncontrollable excitement.

“Meryer? This guy actually managed to brought something back along with him?”

Evé felt a stir again, now feeling thoroughly curious and surprised.

More than ten days ago, this black dragon had volunteered to personally go to the human lands in order to purchase a batch of livestock breeding animals, and Evé had casually agreed without harboring much hope.

He is a black dragon, after all.

With his fierce appearance and Black Dragon’s rather notorious reputation of being the most dangerous and violent amongst all of the dragonkind, Meryer would likely be treated as a malevolent dragon and would face immediate hostility upon entering the human territory.

As for trading… Evé didn’t think it would work at all.

But now, looking at it, this rascal seemed to have actually succeeded in his endeavor?

Thinking of this, Evé immediately shifted her consciousness and connected it to “peer” through the eyes of Meryer…

At this moment, the little black dragon was hovering and joyfully flying through mid-air, as he occasionally let out excited roars.

It seemed he had already reached the vicinity of the border between the Elven Forest and the Dark Mountains but hadn’t proceeded further. Meryer also didn’t enter the area of the Black Dragon Castle; he just kept circling the sky like an over-excited husky.

And just beneath him on the ground, Evé also noticed a long column of what appears to be all sorts of animals.

It was a lineup composed of various livestock…there were cows, sheep, and more, totaling no fewer than three hundred animals!

Evé even spotted several cattle carts loaded with wooden cages in the lineup, and these cages were filled with poultry like chickens, ducks, and geese!

Did this punk really bring all of these back? And moreover, there are so many of them?

Evé was actually incredibly astonished for once.

She knew how much common currency Meryer had obtained from the players—it was just a small paltry amount stripped from the mercenaries of the Sauron Caravan. Even when combined, what this rascal got wasn’t even enough for a thousand silver coins.

But… is common currency actually this powerful in terms of its purchasing power!?

Never mind the poultry, Meryer actually brought back with him hundreds of cattle and sheep!

However…Evé quickly realized something was amiss.

Indeed, this whole livestock procession was grand and impressive. Furthermore, aside from the livestock and poultry, there were also over a dozen of humans assisting in herding the animals.

They were mostly dressed in shabby clothes, and except for that one guy who appeared to be their leader whose clothes were slightly neater, the others seemed quite distressed.

Each of these humans had deep dark circles under their eyes, pale complexions, and expressions marked by confusion and fear.

Eve: “……”

…Why does it feel like this punk didn’t acquire all these things through trade but rather snatched it instead?

Evé couldn’t help but rub the base of her forehead.