: SO THIS IS ELVEN KINGDOM |
【 SO THIS IS ELVEN KINGDOM 】
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One hour later…
A young elven girl, no more than sixteen or seventeen years of age, with delicate features, a flawless figure, chestnut locks, and eyes the color of blue, gazed into the ‘mirror’ and nodded with quiet satisfaction.
This was none other than Cáo Língxuān, who had just spent an hour customizing her avatar’s appearance.
Hmm, I feel like I’ve turned young again…
She pinched her own cheeks and touched her virtual body, letting out a soft gasp of amazement.
“I can’t believe how advanced technology has become. This all feels so real, it’s almost indistinguishable from reality…”
“And this character creation system is so much fun! No wonder so many people love this game. Even before entering the actual game, I’m already hooked just from looking at my current appearance. The developers of this game are truly brilliant!”
Curious, she clicked on it, and a pop-up bubble appeared with a description. According to the text, the game rates the beauty of your avatar and the value will glow gold if the rating reaches 90 or higher.
“A 92 rating, huh…If I had just a bit more time, I’m sure I could’ve scored even higher!”
Cáo Língxuān took a screenshot, feeling a bit reluctant to leave the character customization screen.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to keep tweaking her avatar. After all, she had only intended to join this game briefly to accommodate her mentor, Black Cat.
Originally, she had planned to rush through the entire process and drag her mentor back to finish the manuscript. But to her surprise, she had already spent a full hour just creating her avatar without even realizing it.
Cáo Língxuān’s artistic side urged her to continue, but the more logical part of her mind reminded her that it was time to move forward.
Otherwise, her mentor Black Cat would be getting impatient.
Not to mention, the longer she stayed here, the less time they’d have to work on their manuscript…
“I’ll only stay in the game for an hour, at most. After that, I need to drag Laoshi back offline no matter what. It’s almost noon already—if we don’t stop in time, we’ll be pulling all-nighters again…”
She mentally reminded herself.
Then, she chose the username ‘Velodis’ and officially logged in.
In the next moment, Cáo Língxuān was engulfed by a strange sensation, something between the feeling of riding an elevator and passing through an unseen barrier.
Suddenly, her vision went completely blank as the view around her changed. Accompanied by melodic music, a series of stunning, breathtaking visuals unfolded before her eyes.
“An opening cinematic scene?”
She slightly widened her eyes.
Although she didn’t play video games that often, she had spent enough time with her mentor, Black Cat, to recognize this type of content.
The cinematic began with the backstory of the Elven Kingdom, telling the tale of Elvenkind being besieged, which led to the downfall of their race along with their patron deity, the World Tree.
Honestly, Cáo Língxuān wasn’t particularly moved by such storylines. As a manhua assistant, especially to a master storyteller like Black Cat, she had developed a strong immunity to such tragic backstories.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but be amazed, not by the story itself, but by the stunning visuals in the opening sequence.
The mystical and beautiful Elven Forest, and the majestic, elegant cities. Each sequence looked as if it had come straight out of a fairytale, perfectly matching what she expected from a fantasy world.
Combined with the enchanting music playing in the background…
Cáo Língxuān had to admit, her excitement was beginning to grow.
Even if she wasn’t particularly interested in the game’s storyline, she couldn’t deny she was genuinely intrigued by its other aspects.
The opening sequence continued with the arrival of the ‘Chosen Ones.’
By this point, the cinematic progressed with the World Tree lying dormant while the elves were in decline. But with the arrival of the Chosen Ones, everything had begun to change.
These brave warriors from another world were summoned by the newly awakened World Tree, also known as the Goddess Evé Yggdrasill, and descended upon the realm of Seigües.
They worked together to build the City of the Chosen, brick by brick, reclaimed the Elven Forest step by step, and eventually engaged in a final battle against the orcs in the Desert of Death, thereby securing a decisive victory for their faction.
Thus, once again, the name of the Elves echoed across the continent.
Cáo Língxuān pondered.
“So… the ‘Chosen Ones’ in this game was referring to the players?”
This section of the opening had an undeniably epic feel to it, which made one’s blood boil with excitement.
The steady growth of the Elves, the passionate battles against powerful enemies, it all carried a sense of stirring momentum.
Even the scenes depicting warfare made her lose herself for a moment.
She wasn’t usually into stories that involve war.
But the vast battlefields in the game’s cinematic, along with their overwhelming realism and immersion, left her deeply shaken.
The last time she felt this kind of awe was when her mentor Black Cat had recommended a film to her to research. It was an epic fantasy movie said to have shattered budget records and swept awards across the globe.
But that was a movie!
And this… is just an online game.
“Guys probably love this kind of grand spectacle, right? But honestly… even I think it’s amazing. The CGI is really well done.”
Cáo Língxuān sighed with a hint of admiration.
She had to admit…
After experiencing the character creation and watching the opening cinematic, she was genuinely tempted to try the game out for herself.
The intro lasted a full three minutes.
At the end of it, the Chosen Ones were shown waving flags of all colors, cheering atop a grand city that had been reclaimed from the desert…
Then the screen gradually dimmed, and several elegant lines of text appeared:
“The legendary tale of the realm of Seigües continues…”
“Each of you is both a witness and a writer of this history…”
“Oʼ Brave Chosen Ones…”
“—Are you prepared?”
And with that, the opening cinematic sequence finally came to a close.
Suddenly, Cáo Língxuān’s vision brightened as she found herself in a vast, snowy-white space…
And then, a light, ethereal voice echoed around her:
“Welcome, brave Chosen One from another world.”
The voice was gentle and melodic, carrying a strange hypnotic quality to it which evoked warm and inviting feelings, yet also inspired a kind of reverent awe.
Cáo Língxuān looked toward the source of the voice, her eyes widening in astonishment as she was rendered speechless for the next few seconds.
Standing before her was a divine figure glowing with a soft, holy radiance—a beautiful goddess in all her glory.
At that moment, only two thoughts filled Cáo Língxuān’s mind:
What kind of heavenly beauty is this?! This woman’s absolutely stunning!
So this is where Black Cat-Laoshi got the inspiration for Everia…
༺⟐༻
Five minutes later, Cáo Língxuān finally entered the game proper.
By then, she had learned the identity of that dazzling figure that had stunned her moments ago.
Indeed it was none other than the embodiment of the World Tree, Goddess Evé Yggdrasill. Revered as the Goddess of Life, Mother of Nature, and Sovereign of the Elves. She was the leader of their faction to whom all players swore allegiance to.
That brief encounter she had earlier with the Goddess was part of the jobclass selection and skill assignment sequence.
As for the class she picked, Cáo Língxuān chose to become a Mage as she had always been fascinated by magic.
Once she entered the game, she found herself standing amidst a bustling city. The air was filled with the melodic strains of exotic folk music, blending with the lively sounds of merchants calling out their goods and the cheerful laughter of passersby. The city felt alive, its energy surrounding her in every direction, making it seem as though she had truly stepped into a vibrant, immersive fantasy world.
Cáo Língxuān breathed in the fresh, invigorating air and gazed around at the beautiful, prosperous town. For a moment, she truly felt as though she had stepped into another world.
That is…as long as she ignored the green usernames hovering over the heads of everyone hopping along the streets, bouncing exaggeratedly, or even flying across rooftops in outlandish outfits.
“So this is Elven Kingdom, huh…”
Cáo Língxuān mused to herself.
Looking around, there was only one thing that felt a little odd about it. In particular, she noticed that many of the buildings in town seemed to have been heavily inspired by architecture from Earth.
She even thought she spotted a traditional Chinese garden in one of the houses. It was certainly stunning, sure—but a bit jarring when the theme of this game was set within a western-style fantasy world.
Still, the discovery made her think back to what she’d seen in the opening cinematic sequence…
“Wait… Is this city really designed by the players themselves? The developers completely let them have that much freedom?”
From her position, she couldn’t see the entirety of the whole city, but even at street level, its vast scale was evident in the roads that extended far into the distance.
“There are definitely some real-life architects playing this game.”
Cáo Língxuān muttered in awe.
As she continued to explore around, she opened the in-game system menu.
To her surprise, this game actually allowed players to browse web pages online and open various apps directly from within the interface menu.
Before long, Cáo Língxuān contacted a certain someone via chat:
“Black Cat-laoshi, I’m in the game now. Where are you?”
“Huh? Little Cáo, you’re already in? That was fast…Hold on—I’m still customizing my avatar.”
Cáo Língxuān: “…”
…Seriously?
༺⟐༻
More than half an hour later…
A tall, striking male elf appeared in front of Cáo Língxuān.
He had dark gray hair, light blue eyes, and wore a simple set of wooden armor.
Username: ‘Black Cat’
As he stretched his limbs, his mentor exclaimed with delight:
“This is amazing! My neck doesn’t feel sore anymore and my back doesn’t ache at all…it’s like I’ve been reborn!”
“Well then, maybe try exercising more!” Cáo Língxuān shot back. “It’s a miracle you don’t have chronic neck and back problems with you sitting at home all day in the same posture!”
Mao Mo chuckled at her jab.
“Hehe, can’t help it since it’s an occupational hazard and comes with the job.”
Then, his expression turned eager as he looked at the girl:
“So, Little Cáo, now that you’ve logged in, what do you think?”
“It’s so incredible. It feels really realistic. If it weren’t for the usernames above everyone, I’d honestly have a hard time telling this from the real world,” she replied with genuine admiration.
Mao Mo grinned.
“You saw the opening cinematic, right? What did you think?”
Hearing that, Cáo Língxuān immediately shifted into work mode, her expression becoming serious:
“The storyline is a bit cliché, but the emotional impact it evokes leaves quite a strong impression. And… the CGI scenes depicting war near the end? It’s quite frankly visually stunning. I think we could use them as references for drawing our own battle scenes.”
But to her surprise, Mao Mo burst out laughing.
“Haha, CGI? No no, Little Cáo, that scene wasn’t CGI at all. What you saw was an actual real gameplay footage, all recorded and edited from the actual player themselves. The devs just put it together in a cinematic format. Every elf in that battle scene was a real player.”
Cáo Língxuān blinked, stunned.
Edited gameplay footage…?
W-Wait a minute… those grand epical war scenes were actual real in-game events?!
She recalled the massive elven armies shown in the cutscene, and for a moment, she was completely at a loss for words.
Just how many players were there…?
Tens of thousands?
Hundreds of thousands?
“Pretty shocking, right? right?” Mao Mo said, clearly enjoying her reaction. “I was really blown away too. I’ve watched those recordings of battles with hundreds of thousands of players in it and I’m telling you, after seeing those, regular movies and TV shows just feel like child’s play compared to it.”
Then he glanced back at Cáo Língxuān.
“By the way, you spent about half an hour wandering around Chosen City, right? What did you think?”
She looked around at the bustling street and replied:
“This city is massive…but the architectural styles are all over the place. There are so many people and all kinds of shops. Honestly, I felt like I’d wandered into a tourist attraction.”
As she spoke, she pulled out a strange, fragrant fruit from her bag and handed it to her mentor.
“Here, Black Cat-laoshi. I got this from a small shop earlier. The shop owner was giving them out to new players who added him as friends but he gave me two since I’m a girl. I already ate one but saved this one for you, it’s actually pretty tasty.”
“A fruit for adding friends? Pft, that’s probably someone trying to recruit members for his guild.” Mao Mo said knowingly.
“Lemme tell you, Little Cáo. Every time new players enters the game, all the guild will start doing these kinds of recruitment gimmicks. Once the newbies hit level five, they’ll try to bring them into their guilds. After all, being a major guild wields serious power in this game, and they can even influence the storyline. And the top ones might even get the chance to meet the goddess herself. So every guild is scrambling to become one of the elites.”
He paused, then added:
“Oh, and did you know? Here in ElvKing, the Guilds have no member cap. The biggest one, ‘Heart of Nature,’ has over thirty thousand members. And with the recent batch of public beta, that number’s probably gonna go up fast.”
“How do you know all this?” Cáo Língxuān asked curiously.
“How? Well, I didn’t watch hours of ElvKing gameplay videos for nothing,” Mao Mo said with a grin.
He glanced at the pale blue berry in her hand and raised an eyebrow.
“Ah, a berry from Florence. Those are pretty famous. It supposedly taste really amazing too.”
Without hesitation, he took it and popped it into his mouth.
“Mmm… sweet and tangy, with a rich aroma. Yeah, it’s really delicious as expected! Honestly, it taste even better than what those ElvKing gourmet streamers had described it to be.”
“Right? It’s so good!” Cáo Língxuān nodded eagerly.
She was a foodie to begin with, and seeing her mentor Black Cat agree with her made her quite pleased.
But then she blinked and asked:
“Wait… gourmet streamers?”
Catching the look on his assistant’s face, Mao Mo chuckled knowingly.
“Yep, gourmet streamers here in ElvKing. They were lured in by the amazing food this world has to offer… honestly, this game is a bottomless treasure trove! You could spend forever exploring it.”
“Hehe, Little Cáo, you’re a foodie right? I guarantee you’ll fall in love with this place sooner or later. According to the system database, the players have already registered over three thousand different types of fruit in the game, each with a unique flavor. And that’s not even counting all the elven specialty dishes out there.”
“Plus, some gourmet players have started combining earth-style recipes with the local ingredients to create brand-new meals!”
Three thousand types of fruit?
And each with its own distinct taste?
Cáo Língxuān’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Seriously, what kind of game is this?!
Isn’t this secretly a food-themed RPG?
Seeing the look on her face, Mao Mo chuckled even more.
“Heh, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Those 3,000 types of fruit are only the beginning. Some dedicated players have compiled data showing that ElvKing currently boasts over 10,000 documented plant species—and the number keeps rising. As for creatures… or more precisely, magical beasts, their diversity is just as vast. So far, more than 9,000 have been recorded.”
“And because players can earn experience for cataloging and uploading new species to the system database, there’s even a niche group who level up purely by documenting the game’s flora and fauna.”
“When the developers claimed they were creating a fully immersive fantasy world, they really weren’t exaggerating at all. This is by far the most open-world and liberating game I’ve ever encountered.”
Cáo Língxuān was left speechless.
She took a deep breath, unsure of how to even respond.
Just how massive was the undertaking to create a game like this?
From just a few casual comments by her mentor Black Cat, she could already imagine the scale and allure of this game.
It’s no wonder so many people signed up for the beta.
“Alright, time to get down to business,” Mao Mo said with a smile. “Come with me, Little Cáo. I’ll show you what a real elven city looks like. It’ll be great reference material for our work too.”
A real elven city?
Cáo Língxuān’s heart stirred. Her mind instantly went to the breathtaking scenes she had seen in the opening cinematic.
Her curiosity was piqued.
“Where is it?”
“Follow me.”
Mao Mo glanced at the mini-map, then turned and began walking.
Cáo Língxuān quickly followed.
Ten minutes later, they arrived in front of a massive teleportation array, bustling with players coming and going.
“This is the teleportation portal to Florence, the former holy city of the elves. It’s the same one that was shown in ruins during the war in the opening cutscene,” Mao Mo explained.
With that, he stepped into the magic array first.
Cáo Língxuān, full of curiosity, followed closely behind.
A soft, shimmering light surrounded them, accompanied by a strange, floating sensation.
Her vision blurred momentarily before the surrounding scenery changed.
The next moment, her sight was restored, but what appeared in front of her was no longer the prosperous Chosen City but a dreamlike city with white stone buildings nestled among blooming flowers and lush greenery.
The number of people on the streets was noticeably much fewer.
But more intriguingly, many of them didn’t have the iconic green usernames above their heads. She briefly wondered if they were NPCs, but their lifelike expressions and casual conversations with nearby players quickly dismissed that theory.
No NPCs could ever be that advanced.
“Well? What do you think of this city?” Mao Mo asked beside her.
Cáo Língxuān nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s very stunning with a strong western fantasy aesthetic. It’s definitely worth researching!”
But just as she finished speaking, a wave of cheerful noise and laughter drifted in from the distance. Along with it also came a faint but familiar melody.
Upon hearing the tune, Cáo Língxuān furrowed her brows.
“Hold on… this melody feels so familiar…”
Then, it dawned on her.
“Wait a minute, isn’t this the famous tune most people play during wedding march?”
She instinctively glanced at her mentor Black Cat, only to find him also staring in the direction of the music with a surprised look.
“Wanna check it out?” Mao Mo asked.
“Yeah.”
Cáo Língxuān nodded without hesitation.
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