Game of the World Tree
chapter-335

In the central square of the Chosen City, Zhou Menghan, now in her druid character ‘Meng Zhihan’, watched the bustling crowd with curious eyes, whilst marveling at the lively scene before her.

“Aren’t there way too many people?”

She already knew that fifty thousand spots were allocated for the fourth closed beta, and she was well aware that most of the Chosen applicants would immediately rush into the game the very instant they were allowed to do so.

Nevertheless, what she didn’t expect was the shocking visual impact brought about by a gathering of fifty thousand people in one place altogether…

Oh sure, there were also many who participated during the battle with the half-orcs, but at that time, there were only thirty thousand people, and they were sparsely distributed in various key locations within the Black Dragon Castle.

In contrast, the central square was now densely packed, with people clustered together standing shoulder to shoulder, which gave a profound visual impact compared to back then.

Seeing this scene made Meng Zhihan subconsciously think of the overcrowded subway situation in certain island nations…

Moreover, this was all still happening with the premise of people continuously leaving the city square right after they logged in.

Speaking of which, when the city square was initially planned, it was designed with a maximum capacity of only thirty thousand people.

Back then, the urban planners didn’t put much consideration into the fact that the Elven Kingdom actually had only one server, leading to the current situation.

Nonetheless, despite the crowded conditions, each avatars still remained free from the common bug of overlapping characters that often occurs in most MMOs when many players gather in one location.

This feat showed how great the game engine the developers of Elven Kingdom had created.

Of course, having only one server also had its benefits, which made the whole game way more epic to play since the playerbase could expand to this unprecedented numbers!

Meng Zhihan shook her head and glanced at the built-in system clock.

“Three in-game hours have already passed but why hasn’t Su Yuan logged in yet?”

She muttered somewhat strangely.

During these few hours of waiting, God knows she has rejected countless people who approached her to strike up a conversation!

Of course, her eye-catching and gorgeous high-leveled equipment was one factor that garnered lots of attention.

Adding to that, being a female character in Elven Kingdom, wherein players can’t choose the opposite gender, will also naturally attract the interest of many players, including these newbies desperate enough to find a powerful thigh to cling on.

And Meng Zhihan checked all these boxes since she was a female player who had played the game for so long and was considered one of the high-leveled life-oriented players.

Although the lower-grade legendary Iron staff around her waist was obtained by sheer luck, the majority of her other equipment consisted of upper-grade sets of purple Iron-rank. The few remaining pieces, though less glamorous, were still transitional purple epic equipment.

Additionally, despite not reaching the maximum level and not ranking among the top players on the leaderboard, her strength was still valued and welcomed in various exploration campaigns.

Not to mention, she was also a rare player who was also an apprentice blacksmith personally taught by the elven forging maestro, Carlos himself!

After waiting for a while, she couldn’t help it anymore and sent another message to her best friend:

“Hey, Su Yuan! How much longer are you going to be? I’ve been waiting for you for three hours!”

Soon, she received a short reply from the other party:

“Almost there…”

Meng Zhihan: “…”

“This is the seventh time you’ve said ‘almost’ you know! What the hell are you even doing anyway? Didn’t I tell you to quickly log into the game?”

She sent a message once more and moments later, her best friend replied with a somewhat proud declaration:

“I’m still customizing my character’s face. Don’t worry, my score is at 83 points already!”

Meng Zhihan: “…”

So, my dear sister, you’ve spent three hours just customizing your character’s face?!

Wait… she got 83 points?

Hiss…this ‘face-pinching’ fanatic!

Meng Zhihan herself had witnessed how difficult it was to increase one’s overall score rating in Elven Kingdom’s character creation screen…

Specifically, the beautiful preset faces provided by the system were only worth 50 points, and to score higher than that, one must personally customize it further themselves.

Yet when Meng Zhihan tried it herself, not only the base score of 50 decrease, but it continued to lower further as she made modifications to the preset she had chosen.

Eventually after spending so long in face-pinching her character, she began to doubted her own sense of anesthetics and finally reluctantly settled when she got a 60 score rating.

However, her best friend Su Yuan actually scored a 83 ratings?!

Well, as expected of a hardcore character-development otaku gamer…

Meng Zhihan silently muttered within her mind incredulously.

“…How much longer do you need?”

She asked again.

“Well… I need to at least achieve a score of 90 points. You’re right Menghan, this game is quite interesting.”

The other party replied cheerfully.

Meng Zhihan: “…”

Right there, she was almost tempted to post her grievances on the official forums.

Urgent help needed, my friend has turned ElvKing into a character customization game and refuses to leave the starting customization screen. How do I guide her back to the right path? Please reply immediately.

At that moment, Meng Zhihan felt like she should had log off first.

“Hurry up…”

She said weakly.

“Alright~”

The other party responded.

Meng Zhihan: “…”

Was this still the very same friend of mine who was initially reluctant to download Elven Kingdom?

Now look at her…she’s clearly way more excited than me, and she’s still at the character customization screen!

Meng Zhihan complained silently within her heart.

Forget it, I’m just gonna call her Su Jingze ¹ from now on...

As the sun set in the west and dusk gradually settled, the Chosen City welcomed its first night after the latest update.

The lively atmosphere and cheers from the ongoing bonfire party in the central square drown out everything, filling everywhere with a festive, celebratory atmosphere.

And finally, a certain newcomer that’s been addicted to face-pinching this entire time finally decided to leave the character customization screen.

“Menghan! Look, look! How’s my character looks like?”

Finally, a graceful and lovely female player appeared in the square.

Username: Yuanjuan.

She chuckled and twirled around a grumpy female druid half-lying on a bench, with a satisfied expression.

Meng Zhihan’s eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of her best friend’s appearance.

The light golden hair cascaded around her face, framing her light blue eyes and delicate features in a perfect harmony that evoked a strong sense of protectiveness from those who beheld her.

Without a doubt, her friend’s appearance radiated an undeniable charm that can captivate all who saw her.

However, when Meng Zhihan’s gaze moved onto her friend’s chest and thought back on RL², her mouth twitched involuntarily and she couldn’t help but sneered:

“Hah, girl. It looks so unrealistic.”

Yuanjuan: “…”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s only a game and I’m happy with it!”

A certain female newbie pouted.

Then after speaking, she moved her body a bit and muttered softly:

“So it turns out that it really feels heavier when you get older…”

Meng Zhihan: “…”

She sighed, checked the system clock, and retorted:

“Sister, it took you eight hours just to make it ‘heavier’. If this game didn’t have mind acceleration features, I would have logged out already.”

“Eight hours?! Has it been that long?”

Su Yuan, no, Yuanjuan widened her eyes in surprise.

“Weird…I feel like I haven’t face-pinched for that long. If anything, I can only say that the character customization in this game is too fun and realistic.”

Meng Zhihan: “…”

It’s hopeless.

I shouldn’t have logged into the game before her, knowing that this girl is obsessed with appearances!

Su Yuan smiled somewhat embarrassingly and quickly apologized to her friend.

Honestly… although she hadn’t officially started playing the game yet, the initial character creation and customization menu had already hooked her on.

Just based on the character design and the extremely detailed customization system alone, it easily surpassed any other games she had played before!

Not to mention… she was willing to continue playing just because of the cute appearance she had painstakingly created in the game!

Even if it’s just in the game, who doesn’t want to be a beautiful little fairy?

However, Su Yuan also noticed that after her friend saw her appearance, although there was indeed a hint of amazement in her eyes, overall, there didn’t seem to be as much of an impact as she initially expected.

“You don’t seemed very impressed? I scored 99 points in character customization ratings, you know! The system even rated me as the top in the entire server!”

Su Yuan said in confusion.

Meng Zhihan glanced at her and said, “Didn’t you encounter the goddess when you chose your job class? Would you still consider yourself beautiful after seeing that NPC, huh?”

“The Goddess?” Su Yuan was slightly stunned, then remembered the scene when she first logged in and created her character.

At that time, it seemed like she heard a very pleasant female voice, and she was wondering who was the voice actor doing the voice-over.

But at that time, her mind was all focused on her newly customized appearance, and she didn’t pay much attention to anything else.

Moreover, her old friend kept urging her to hurry up too, so she hastily chose a mage jobclass and entered right after…

“U-Uh, you see, I didn’t paid much attention…”

Meng Zhihan: “…”

She shook her head incredulously and casually found a screenshot of the goddess from her collection before sending it to her friend:

“Here, this is the peak of beauty in this game, you’re still a bit off compared to her.”

Su Yuan curiously accepted the file and opened it…

Then, Meng Zhihan noticed that the other party’s eyes were almost visibly brightening at an astonishing speed.

At this moment, she suddenly remembered that her friend’s love for idol nurturing games was simply because she enjoyed appreciating the various beautiful appearances of her beloved characters…

After all, this was someone who was obsessed with appearance to the core, and even liked collecting various cute dolls in real life, with a shelf full of SD dolls at home.

“Wow… Is this an NPC in this game? She looks so beautiful! Where is she? I want to take a photo with her!”

Meng Zhihan: “…”

“If you’re looking for the goddess, you can go take a photo with her statue in the temple.”

Su Yuan: “…”

— 335 —

【 HAH GIRL 】

¹ 苏境泽 – I’m not really sure about this one but it might be referring to the Chinese meme, Jingze’s law.

² RL – Abbreviation for Real Life or Reality.

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