NOVEL NEXT Chapter 559: Site Selection
When the players entered the temple, they saw Alice, the Natural Saintess, standing in front of the Goddess's statue, praying devoutly.
*The players had long grown accustomed to this.*
Alice had become a permanent NPC at the Chosen City.
Although, as the Holy Daughter, her status rose with the increasing population of the Elf Forest, she still preferred to ring the temple bells herself every day and perform the morning cleaning and prayers, day after day.
Shortly after the players entered the temple, Alice finished her daily prayer.
She turned around, looked at the crowd of players entering the temple, then smiled gently,
"Dear Chosen Ones, please follow me."
With that, she took the lead and walked toward the conference room adjacent to the main hall.
The players exchanged glances with each other, then followed expectantly...
The conference room was not far, just around the main hall.
Alice came to the door of the conference room, knocked lightly, and then said,
"Lord Ling, the Chosen Ones have arrived."
"Come in."
The slightly cool voice of Divine Favored Zero echoed in the conference room.
Upon hearing this voice, all players, including Li Mu, perked up with anticipation.
If Alice, as the Life Saintess, held a high position within the church, then Divine Favored Zero was absolutely transcendent.
As the closest kin to the True God and the actual strongest force in the Elf Forest, she was the de facto leader in several major plots.
Even Alice had long grown accustomed to lending a hand to Divine Favored Zero.
In the players' eyes, Divine Favored Zero was also the most valuable purple NPC, practically a walking tool for main storyline quests.
The term "big boss" originated from this.
The players followed Alice and quickly entered the conference room.
Many of them had been in this conference room before.
During every major main storyline task, when plot decisions were made, the NPCs and players gathered here.
Before the war of death began, there was even a huge sand table of the Death Desert made by the players in the conference room.
The players' combat plans were all completed here.
Of course, now that the war was over, with the Half-Beasts either surrendering or fleeing, the sand table had been removed, and it had returned to being a conference table.
Divine Favored Zero sat at the other end of the conference table, smiling at the players entering the room.
Beside her sat another NPC familiar to most players, another Divine Favored of the Elf Forest—El Moonlight.
This elf boy, who looked like a little grown-up, sat upright at the conference table, his expression solemn.
"Please take a seat, everyone."
Divine Favored Zero pointed at the seats around the table.
Without hesitation, the players took their seats.
During this process, Eve, hiding under the Zero Mask, discreetly observed everyone and couldn't help but murmur to herself,
"Fewer than expected, only seven groups after all..."
*Even though she knew the outcome the moment the players paid their contributions, she was still surprised to see only seven players enter the conference room.*
Seven players represented seven guilds or guild alliances, which amounted to seven cities.
But upon closer thought, it seemed understandable.
Among the twenty thousand new public test players who poured in, about two-thirds were absorbed by the old guilds, while the remaining one-third chose to establish their own new guilds.
And among the various guilds, there was always a trend of the strong getting stronger and the weak getting weaker. Many large guilds developed like a snowball, which concentrated many players in the top guilds centered around the four major guilds.
As a result, the power of medium and small guilds became even more dispersed and weaker.
In this sense, it was quite normal that only seven player groups applied to build cities in the end.
Among the seven player groups, three were guild alliances, and four were the four major guilds: Heart of Nature, First Legion, Mengmeng Committee, and the Catastrophe Knight Order (Autobots).
The remaining three were guild alliances.
Eve glanced at the system.
Of the three guild alliances, two were organized by first-class guilds only second to the four major guilds.
One was called the All-Star Alliance, initiated by a guild named All-Star.
The other was called the Azeroth Guild Alliance, initiated by the Silver Hand.
Aside from those two, there was also a guild alliance formed by more than fifty medium and small guilds. The name of the alliance made Eve's mouth twitch slightly, called "Long Live the Goddess," initiated by a small guild named the Eve Goddess Support Team...
Her gaze returned to the conference table, and Eve gestured to Alice seated to her right. Alice nodded with a smile and looked at the players sitting opposite her,
"Good morning, brave Chosen Ones."
"Since you are all seated here, it indicates that you are prepared to lead your companions in founding a new city."
"However, the location for the new city's construction is not decided randomly."
"Through prayer and divine guidance from the Goddess, we have obtained some of the most suitable places for city-building, places rich in resources, strategically significant, or possessing great potential for development..."
"And the newly established city needs to be chosen among these locations."
The players were not surprised by Saintess Alice's words.