Silent Rain's party stayed in the room for a little while longer before quickly taking their leave.
After all, killing monsters and leveling up was the main focus; grinding NPC favorability was just a side task. Although raising favorability increased the likelihood and priority of receiving quests from NPCs, and the reputation points gained from higher favorability offered sweet discounts in the game shop, they had already purchased weapons and equipment using Merit Points, so they had no immediate need for discounts.
However, on their way out, the five of them exchanged knowing glances.
Tecabelo.
This place name was now firmly etched into their minds.
“Tecabelo...” Jiumeng murmured softly, his eyes shining. “We definitely have to check it out when we get the chance! What if we can sneak into an unopened region early?”
Kazama immediately chimed in, “You bet! Let's head south in a bit and see if we can find the map's boundary. If we can exploit a bug to slip past it early, we'll get a massive head start!”
“Don't be reckless. Let's find where the invisible wall at the boundary is first,” Silent Rain warned in a low voice, though a hint of curiosity was also hidden in his eyes.
The simple and kind Annie had absolutely no idea that her casual remark had instantly ignited the players' passion for exploration and pioneering.
...
The Divine Kingdom of Light.
Iluvia looked down at the bustling scene in Castellan, where the believers were settling in and the players were busily running around. She nodded in satisfaction, her eyes filled with gratification.
“Not bad, not bad.”
She murmured softly, her voice filled with a profound sense of accomplishment. “I've finally gained a true foothold on this continent and established my own foundation.”
The safe teleportation and smooth relocation of nearly a thousand believers earlier, with zero accidents or casualties, had finally resolved her biggest worry of late.
At this thought, she breathed a sigh of relief and began planning her next major direction.
A main city had to be built.
This was the top priority.
Although Castellan was an ancient ruin with a decent foundation, it was still a far cry from a main city capable of housing tens of thousands of people.
Roads had to be widened, city walls repaired, functional zones designated, and infrastructure improved—each and every task was a massive undertaking.
However, given the players' unimaginable drive and efficiency, the main city would likely be built in no time.
Meanwhile, a bold idea popped into Iluvia's mind.
Should she launch the open beta for the entire server once the main city was fully established?
But in the next second, the terrifying registration numbers for the second beta flashed through her mind—a whopping ten million!
Iluvia hesitated instantly and silently shook her head to dismiss the idea.
“Hmm... Maybe... I should run a few more closed betas first?”
After all, letting in countless players all at once was terrifying, to say nothing of their strength, just the sheer numbers alone!
What did ten million players even mean?
The entire population of some small to medium-sized kingdoms on the continent of Aenoria was barely around ten million.
If she let ten million people in all at once, let alone managing order and distributing resources, the sheer foot traffic alone would instantly paralyze the newly built main city!
“One step at a time, slow and steady,” Iluvia comforted herself, carefully planning out the steps.
“First, let these five thousand closed beta players fully build the main city and lay down a solid foundation. If we haven't even finished building the city at our own doorstep, how can we talk about an open beta?”
“Besides...” She paused, her voice tinged with a subtle trace of helplessness. “Just five thousand people are already enough to give me a headache. With ten million, I'm afraid I'd suffer a nervous breakdown.”
Although she wouldn't feel physical fatigue as a goddess, she would definitely feel mentally exhausted!
The difference between “one player causing trouble” and “ten thousand players causing trouble at the same time” was like night and day!
But then again, although the initial investment was indeed substantial—creating bodies for the players consumed divine power, and leveling them up consumed even more, which at first glance seemed like a purely “losing business”...
...Iluvia knew very well that the players were high-quality assets that would definitely bring guaranteed profits in the long run.
Investing divine power early on to build bodies and help them level up looked like a losing trade, but the players' core advantages were too overpowered—they were immortal, and they could grind endlessly.
Take city-building, for instance. From a pile of ruins to a functional settlement, the players had stubbornly ground it out in less than a month.
Leveling up was even more absurd. Aside from a few casual slackers, almost all of the first beta players had reached Level 40, the Bronze Rank peak. It had only been five short days since the second beta started, and the most hardcore grinders had already touched the threshold of Level 30, nearly catching up with the main force.
A few days ago, when she had some free time, she opened the game's backend and glanced at the online hours of the top second beta players. She was utterly dumbfounded on the spot.
Five days! A whole five days! Aside from the few hours they were forced to log off daily to recover their characters' fatigue values, those people had basically maxed out their online time!
Even when they slept, their minds remained highly stimulated in the game. Even if their physical bodies in reality were in a state of sleep, they couldn't keep abusing themselves like this.
Iluvia was genuinely impressed.
Along with her admiration, she was also slightly worried—would these guys end up dropping dead in reality from overplaying?
She couldn't help but let her mind wander:
If everyone was equipped with a system panel in reality, where studying and exercising let them visually see their stats rise and their skills improve, and they could see that their efforts yielded guaranteed returns, would all of humanity turn into hardcore grinders?
At the end of the day, what people lacked wasn't effort, but rather tangible, visible feedback on their growth.
But as much as she mused, there was no point in overthinking it. After all, there was no such thing as a system panel in reality.
Cough, cough... Alright, back to the topic at hand.
In short, the more the players ground, the more divine power they provided her. The more divine power she had, the stronger she became. The stronger she was, the more rewards she could bestow. And the more rewards she bestowed, the more the players would grind.
It was a perfect, self-accelerating positive loop!
“Mhm! Exactly! That's how it is!”
Iluvia couldn't help but praise her own brilliance.
“Yep, as expected of me!”
She was highly satisfied.
Having reached this point in her thoughts, Iluvia soon realized another issue.
“As the player base grows... relying solely on Lilith to hand out daily quests probably won't cut it anymore.”
Her little Saintess was already so busy handling temple affairs every day that her feet barely touched the ground. If she had to bear the burden of handing out all the daily quests as well, how would that be any different from a capitalist exploiting the working class?
“Hmm... I need to find a way.”
Iluvia tapped the armrest, pondering for a moment before a sudden stroke of inspiration hit her.
“Right! I can add a quest system for the believers!”
It wouldn't let the believers hand out quests themselves; that would be too complicated and easily lead to unnecessary trouble.
Instead, the system would automatically capture the believers' needs and convert them into quests, displaying them in the players' field of vision.
The NPCs wouldn't need to do anything, speak, or perform any operations. They would only need to think “I need help” in their minds.
In the players' perspective, an exclamation mark would appear over the heads of the NPCs who had quests.
Based on the color of the exclamation mark—white, blue, green, purple, or gold—the reward tiers of the quests would be distinguished.
“The higher the tier of the color, the richer the rewards.”
Iluvia nodded in satisfaction, then immediately thought of a deeper issue.
“However, the reward tiers of quests issued by different believers must vary. The more devout a believer is, the more divine power they provide me, so their quest rewards should naturally be higher...”
“Strength is also crucial. A devout non-Class Holder versus a devout Gold Rank Class Holder—the divine power provided by the latter is on a completely different scale.”
She pondered for a moment and finally finalized the rules:
The reward tier would be jointly determined by “level of faith + believer's strength.” The more devout the faith and the stronger the believer, the higher the tier of the exclamation mark that would appear over their head. Naturally, players would swarm over like wolves smelling meat.
“White, blue, green, purple, gold... Five colors should be enough.”
Having designed the quest system, Iluvia was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she suddenly remembered another very important issue.
This system must absolutely never be exposed to the believers.
The players were souls from another world, with no direct connection to the laws of this world. Even if their souls were searched, they wouldn't leak anything.
But the believers were different. Both their bodies and souls belonged to the continent of Aenoria.
If an enemy captured a believer who had access to the “quest system” and conducted a soul search or soul probe, the secret of the system's existence would be exposed.
“Then that would be troublesome.”
Iluvia's expression turned a bit more serious.
The game system was her core mechanism for “running the world.” If a hostile True God discovered the existence of this system, they would likely attempt to destroy it directly—and once the system was destroyed, the players would be unable to log off on their own, meaning the “log out button” would simply vanish.
“Though knowing how players typically behave... it probably wouldn't cause any major chaos.”
“Yeah, probably...”
She mumbled softly, but then shook her head.
“Still, it's a potential risk. Besides, if the game system is lost, rebuilding one would be quite troublesome, and the normal operation of the game would be affected during that time.”
Therefore, the existence of the quest system had to be hidden somewhere invisible to the believers.
Specifically, in the game's backend.
Exclamation marks would automatically appear over the NPCs' heads, players would see them and accept the quests, and the NPCs would simply think “I need help” in their minds. That was all.
The believers didn't need to know anything about the system.
This way, she wouldn't have to expose the system's secrets, while also perfectly distributing quests, freeing up Lilith, and providing the players with a massive number of leveling channels.
Three birds with one stone—it was simply perfect!
Nevertheless, Iluvia still planned to give the believers some “gentle hints,” such as:
“The more devout your faith, the easier it is to receive help from the God-Chosen Ones!”
In this way, the believers would naturally become more devout, and more devout believers would issue higher-tier quests, attracting more players to help. It would form a positive, hidden undercurrent of activity.
“Perfect.”
Iluvia clapped her hands, a satisfied smile gracing her face.
Rate on N.U.
