Chapter 14

▪️ THE BEST LABORERS

This is abnormal, absolutely abnormal!

Why does ‘the Chosen Ones’ behave like this!?

Alice felt like her world had turned upside down as it devolves into a chaotic mess for which confused her to no end.

After a while, a faint green light appeared on one of the branches of the World Tree, as a cluster of lights slowly converged into a human-like silhouette.

The outline of this shimmering figure gradually takes form of a person with an explosive red hair as the light emitting from his body gradually lose its intensity.

It was Demacia, the unlucky guy who had just been knocked away by Alice. He seemed to have been resurrected just now.

Gasping for breath, he said with a fearful tone,

“Oh god… that scared me to death…why is this NPC so damn strong… fortunately, I reduced the pain value in advance…”

Res… Resurrected?!

Alice gazed at the familiar figure as she became somewhat dazed as if seeing a ghost.

‘Don’t be afraid, Alice. These chosen ones are immortal beings.’ suddenly, Eve’s words resounded from within her mind, as if they had a power to calm one’s heart.

“Matriarch!”

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Alice felt a sense of relief, but then her eyes welled up with tears, and she almost cried. She didn’t know whether it was due to excitement or grievances or maybe perhaps both…

“Goddess… they… they…”

The elven maiden sobbed as her words turned incoherent.

“Cough… Don’t be afraid,” Evé cleared her throat and reassured her with a hint of guilt in her tone.

“These otherworldly denizens live an oppressed life back in their own world and I’ve picked them to be my chosen ones to give them a way to momentarily escape their harsh realities and offer them an outlet to vent out their accumulated stress.”

“Sometimes they might do things that you perchance might not understand and they may even act callous at times, but I can assure you that they are also capable of amazing feats…You just need to be patient with them.”

Evé explained in a soothing tone as she let a hint of her touch stroke the head of the sobbing maiden.

It was within her expectations that some Schizos would be included amongst the people she selected.

After all, out of the three hundred people invited, majority were either veteran gamers or streamers.

With them averaging unhealthy long hours of playing time, it was inevitable that some would acquire some sort of ‘Occupational Diseases’ wherein they would be partially numb to external stimulus due to having played all sorts of games. Henceforth these Schizos had the tendency to go wild and seek thrills they’d never experienced before and disregard rules to satiate their own thirst for excitement and master the game’s mechanics.

However, disregarding the fact that they could be troublesome to handle, these neurotic gamers are undoubtedly very proficient in their gaming abilities.

Of course, there’s no way to explain this all to Alice…

After a moment of silence, Evé simply said to the elven maiden,

“Just think of them as having a mental illness.”

Alice: “……”

‘However, rest assured, they’re not inherently bad and also willing to work hard. Just give them various tasks to do and they will eventually settle down after adapting to the environment. Besides, these initial three hundred people are just the first batch. The subsequent Chosen Ones will be more normal.’

Subsequent? Are there more coming?!

Alice was stunned to hear this bombshell of a revelation.

Sensing the unease in the girl’s heart, Evé quickly added, “Ahem…don’t worry, they won’t be like this forever.”

After reassuring Alice, Evé controlled her divine power once again and transmitted a piece of information onto the girl’s mind:

“These are some daily task list you can give to the Chosen Ones to do, which will greatly divert their attention.”

Evé doesn’t intend to micromanage everything.

Since there are native believers available, she will then maximize their role by turning them into NPC’s capable of issuing common game tasks without her direct intervention. By giving them administrative rights to do these menial matters, She instead only needs to focus on the overall plot direction and critical game scenarios.

This is also Eve’s way of promoting player communication with indigenous people of this world. In her vision, she wants to build a new civilization that unites players and natives with strong cohesion between each other.

As for her plans in regards to Alice, this holy maiden would act as the guide for beginners and be given a role as the main NPC that handles all the daily tasks, as well as the candidate for assisting players in changing their job classes to priesthood once its implemented in the future.

As for Eve’s short-term goal, it was to have players complete tasks to steadily raise their levels while simultaneously building their own base camp!

This would serve as the foundation for the newly-formed elven civilization!

After a burst of light, Alice found that something had been added to her mind.

A task list?

The holy maiden looked at the contents and murmured to herself,

“Repairing the temple…”

“Collecting wood…”

“Building houses…”

Alice “…..”

Silence.

T-This… isn’t this just manual labor?

Would the chosen ones really be willing to do such menial things?

These kinds of chores were always assigned to those low-ranking clansmen, even when the elven race was still at its peak… but they are chosen ones!

In addition, they don’t seem to be followers of the Goddess nor their religion either.

Moreover… they are so undisciplined, as well as wild lawless barbarians…

In this situation, would they really show obedience?

These are all tasks which require teamwork after all!

Alice is a bit confused.

“No…I can’t think like this!”

The blond-haired girl shook her head vigorously as if shaking away the guilt she felt about doubting the will of their goddess.

These tasks set by the Matriarch surely must have some hidden meaning behind it!

She was their faith’s sole saintess, the closest one to the Great Mother, and this must be the Matriarch’s personal test for her.

She must complete it perfectly!

Thinking of this, Alice silently recited ‘Great mother high above’ in her heart, then stretched out her hand and gestured a tree-shaped symbol of their faith upon her chest.

She took a deep breath and finally looked back at the players.

The Chosen Ones were still being chaotic, but thank goodness no one was being overly reckless anymore.

Watching the chaotic scenery, Alice, who had just reignited her fighting spirit, suddenly let out a deflated sigh, now feeling even more overwhelmed once again…

How should she speak?

How could she get them to accept the tasks willingly?

If they were really as pitiful as the Great Matriarch had said, and this rowdy behavior is just a means for them to let out their stress…

They live in another world, filled with pain and repression…thus being so extreme in their actions must’ve been an instinctual coping mechanism to manage their mental and spiritual pressure within themselves…

Thinking of this facts, Alice felt that this group of reckless barbarians in front of her didn’t seem so annoying anymore.

The elven girl even felt a little guilty when she thought back to her own insensitive actions from before…

Was I overreacting?

Although that red-haired guy was definitely annoying, Alice decided to let bygones be bygones and now focused on one thing at a time.

‘That guy is still chosen by the Matriarch, so maybe I should apologize first…’

While thinking about it, Alice finally noticed that most of the Chosen Ones suddenly fell into silence.

She raised her head in confusion and found that hundreds of them were looking at her with shining eyes, as if they were looking at a living treasure…

Alice had only seen that kind of look in the eyes of greedy human merchants and fearless mercenaries, which made her shiver involuntarily.

Meanwhile, the players excitedly began to whisper to each other.

“Hey! Did you guys also received the system notification just now? It says you can get daily tasks from the NPC named Saintess Alice!”

“Yeah I received it too as well!”

“Saintess! So the little missie’s job class is a Saintess!”

“Get the task! Quickly get the task guys! Novice task like these tend to be the fastest way to grind exp in the beginning. Let’s hurry and level up! I can’t wait to switch to a Mage Class!”

Suddenly, as if receiving some kind of instruction, all the Chosen ones simultaneously rushed towards Alice, making her jump in fright.

Did the Matriarch convey some kind of divine message upon them?

With some speculations in her mind, Alice tried to calm herself down and awkwardly stated,

“D-Do you… want to accept some tasks?”

Countless players instantly raised their hands eagerly as if they’ve become obedient students.

“Yes, definitely, yes!”

“You’re the best little saint sister! Give me the task please!”

“Lady Alice! I want to accept the task!”

“Alice sister, your little skirt looks so pretty! Can you give me a task as well?”

Alice: ‘…’

In the blink of an eye, all the players turned into bootlickers without her knowing how it even came about.

Watching these elves eagerly accept the menial tasks and then leave with elated expressions, Alice was felt numb.

“The Goddess was right. There’s definitely something wrong with their brains.”

Gasping for breath as he finally squeezed out from the crowd of countless players, Li Mu shook his head and said,

“Whew…sigh, T-This game is too realistic. Even getting a task requires jostling through a crowd…I hope the devs finds a better method before the open-beta otherwise everyone’s just gonna explode in fury…”

Li Mu was still full of excitement despite complaining about it.

Opening his system interface, Li Mu checked the task he had randomly received from the Saintess.

【Daily Randomized Task : Collect Wood 】

【Reward : 50-300 experience points depending on the amount collected 】

“Collecting wood? It seems like it’s for building houses. It’s not too difficult, after all, this is my old profession!”

He once lived in a forest farm back in his youth and learned from there how to properly cut down trees.

“I can get at least 50 experience points doing this task alone! Moreover it’s repeatable as well! Looks like I can quickly level up by accumulating experience points using this method! But alas, it seems like it will be randomized everyday and one cannot specifically choose a task they want…”

Li Mu said curiously while checking, before heading towards the temple’s teleportation array mentioned in the task details.

There, players could directly teleport to the base of the world tree, a kilometer down below at the surface.

Other players have also began to move.

At the same time, hundreds of elves scattered and headed towards the different sections of the Forest as Evé watched from high above as the pieces slowly go on their rightful tracks.

She finally breathed a sigh of relief.