New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The officers settled down as Khalor resumed his explanation of the upcoming update.

“Evo Gaming will announce the time skip only when the update is almost done, meaning no one will have time to prepare for it. We should get ahead of the wave before they lock us out of the game.”

“Already making plans,” Phoenix replied.

Her attention was half on what Khalor was saying, and half on her interface. She was already setting up things for their guild for the time skip.

She had a few contacts that were still in Sunpeak and the other major cities of New Eden, and she was pulling out favours.

If she could get representatives of each city to at least entertain relations with their new kingdom, they would come back to something better than an empty and ruined fortress after the ten-year time skip.

She only hoped that her attempts would yield results, and not scrap everything they had built in the last few days. She would hate herself if she ruined it for everyone, instead of making it better.

But she had faith in the people she was contacting. These players had been prospects she wanted to get in the guild, but since they owed her favours, they were reticent.

They would rather have a clean ledger before locking themselves under her. After all, climbing the social ladder would be hard, with a chip on their shoulder.

Phoenix hoped they would accept her invitation after clearing these favours. They were valuable assets to anyone that could get them under their wing.

In the meantime, Khalor kept talking.

“There will be many changes in the updated New Eden. The main one being, you should never travel alone unless you can fend off multiple enemies at the ranges of level thirty to forty.”

Frowns appeared on almost everyone’s face. Declan interjected.

“Why so? Will there be a surge in powerful enemies?”

Looking at Declan, Khalor smirked.

“Because finding enemies alone, or under these levels, will have become quite hard after the update. Only the protected starting zones will still have enemies in the lower-level ranges.”

“Then what will replace them?” the headless man asked.

“Not replaced. Changed. The creatures from everywhere in the world will have been corrupted. At least the weaker ones. And that is only the tip of the problem.”

Everyone took a moment to let the information sink in. If Khalor was right, which they were currently doubting, that meant New Eden would fall into hard mode soon.

“Also, this will not be the biggest issue with traveling alone.”

This time, Gulnur was the one to ask.

“What else could be worse than packs of corrupted powerful enemies?”

“Two things can and will be worse. The first one is that there will be even stronger enemies sometimes roaming along with them. But the second is worse than even that. We won’t be immune to corruption.”

Most of the people in the room didn’t understand the weight of these words. But Astaroth was well aware of what Khalor really meant with it.

His mind was already weighing the weight of Khalor’s statement. What would happen if corruption suddenly affected players? 𝘦𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝑙.

Would they change into maniacs? Or would they lose the ability to control their actions?

The implications of either of these scenarios were bad. And that was just what he could think of, off the top of his head.

“Anyway. Let us not waste any more of this twenty-four-hour period to prepare. Phoenix, if you could grant everyone in this room level fifty, that would be a great help. As for the others in the guild, do what you see fit.”

Phoenix nodded her head. She pulled away from her constant messaging, pulling her guild tab open.

It took her only a few seconds to make everyone in the underground chamber level fifty, and she then sent a guild message to the rest of the players to amass in front of the palace.

Once Khalor received his Exp, he got up from the dais stairs.

“I will consider this meeting adjourned, and head out to make my preparations for the update. I recommend you all do the same.”

As he sauntered away, ascending the stairway, the other officers pondered on what to do. In the end, they turned to the two guild leaders, awaiting instructions.

Phoenix finished sending her stream of messages and turned to see them all waiting. Astaroth was looking at her pensively.

He sent her a private message.

‘We might as well use them for preparation too, if they want directions anyway.’

Phoenix read it and agreed with him.

“If any of you want to make preparations of your own before the update kicks us out, you are more than welcome. If not, I have a few tasks I can assign you guys.”

Seeing that no one asked to leave, or directly left, Phoenix interpreted they had nothing to do. So she nodded at them.

“Okay then. Gulnur, I will need you to head to a dwarven major city and speak to the highest rank native you know, and try to establish political connections. Same thing for you, Morticia.”

“On it,” Gulnur responded.

“I will try,” Morticia said.

“Silent Light, you need to do the same in a human settlement. I’die and Athena, you guys can make the most of your time here, trying to fix up as much of the Bastion as you can.”

The three of them nodded, leaving to do their respective tasks. This left only Astaroth, Phoenix, Violette and Gale in the chamber.

Phoenix looked at Gale, not sure what she could have him do. She doubted he had political clout anywhere, seeing as people hardly took a kid seriously.

But Gale cut the silence.

“I know what I can do. I’ll head back out and tell Grandpa we might need to make some changes to our current accommodations. Also, before I leave. Astaroth, Grandpa wants to talk to you as soon as you can.”

“Tell him I will come out when the timer kicks me out, and I’ll be all his then.”

“Okay!”

Chirping, Gale took off, wind-stepping his way out of the chamber. This left only Violette, Astaroth, and Phoenix.

Astaroth looked at Violette, opening his mouth.

“I think you should warn your parents that you might spend more time in New Eden after the update. Also, tell Alfred to increase security around your house. Discreetly, if possible.”

The little girl nodded, taking her leave immediately.

Astaroth looked at Phoenix next.

“I’ll have something to do, too. I will be away until the clock runs out.”

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”