But the airflow in the southern skies, swirling with frightening tempests.
Even at such a distance, one could feel the terrifying elemental hollows causing the chaotic tornadoes.
Twenty million people are going to come in together?
"They’re fighting fiercely!" players pointed out, "Is it just being a week late? Do they have to be in such a hurry?"
"It’s a month in the game! If you hurry, maybe you could even level up to Magister."
"Why not Sky Knight!"
"A Knight leveling up faster than a Mage? What kind of pipe dream are you having!"
"What’s the point of all this talk? How much has your experience bar grown? Squabble over nothing. If you’re not convinced, go have a fight."
"It was better when the levels were low, die if you want to.
Now if someone gets me killed, I’ll have to be at their necks forever."
"It’s too unfair, got to go complain to the game designers! Dying once and losing 10%, who can afford that?"
"Are you dumb? Didn’t they give two options from the start? Lost fixed experience is fine, it just means dropping levels, but with percentage, there’s no level drop. We voted for the percentage ourselves."
"The PVE crowd almost cursed us to death. They wanted to choose fixed experience. Don’t they die more than us?"
"Aren’t there more PVE players than us?" The player scratched his head, "I joined later, just burying my head in leveling up."
"That one time, PVP guilds collaborated mightily, regardless of friend or foe, everyone issued announcements. If they dared to choose fixed, we’d go straight into PVE guild wars."
"Though they might not admit it, the outcome was clear."
"Don’t stir up trouble. People just don’t want to waste time with us."
"Isn’t PVP just full of bored people! But initially, we were the ones who had the advantage, there were more of us PVP guilds than PVE.
PVE players are the ones who watch the trends before switching games, unlike us who come on command."
Hill listened to the players’ chatter and wondered, was William planning to attack Cortez within a month?
Were the lower-level officers William had been training these past two years sufficient?
It was only now that Hill noticed, apart from the troops defending Border City, nearly everyone at the northern border of Saral had left.
To the south lay Kexlote, offering too many generous policies. Any civilian with a bit of sense had migrated southward, and those not so bright, not understanding, would follow the crowd anyway.
Hill didn’t know how much preparation William had done, but as long as he had taken precautions, Hill believed this man, who understood military and politics, would do his best.
But Hill noticed something, the Natural Consciousness showed no reaction to this matter.
It would comfort Hill, but that was because Hill was full of worry.
Was it because the scale of the Demon invasion wasn’t significant, or because nature didn’t care whether humans survived or not?
Hill knew that the Abyssal Gate wouldn’t exist for long, and the Demons emerging sought to capture human souls.
But to nature, the existence of Demons should just be an unpleasant matter!
Yet it merely showed feelings of disgust, with no violent reaction.
This world was too strange in many ways.
There were too many secrets, and Hill was somewhat intimidated, unsure of how unsightly and embarrassing the truth beneath the unveiled curtain might be.
Hill sighed heavily and closed the window.
There were already players below taking pictures of him; with so many girls around, Hill didn’t want to hear what they might say.
Phillips and Miss Carl, floating high above, looked down on the players.
Hill truly felt relieved for them, not understanding what the players said might be for the best.
In just a few minutes, Hill had already heard several fabrications by the players.
Hensley was quite astute, quickly taking his people back after it ended, but Hill also heard that some had created a little comedy out of the tense atmosphere between Hensley and Phillips.
In the future, the natives would either need thick skin or not understand the language. Hill mused to himself, with these millions of people coming in, where could one find a secluded corner?
In these past two days, Hill always saw resting players watching the excitement on their tablets, live-streaming the mountains of this game—whether there were invisible walls, as they seemed to climb the highest mountain range in the west.
Fran didn’t dare to build a Magic Tower there.
And it was unclear when those dozens of people might die and return.
There were also those who built ships and set sail, competing to see whose vessel could travel farthest. The bizarre ways of dying made the tablet-watching players laugh out loud.
Hill heard about it and assigned them a task: detailed sketches of sea monsters. Hill would buy them at high prices. If they could bring back any marine resources, anything at all, both Fran’s and Hill’s territories would purchase them.
For the players, Hill really didn’t know what treasures they might unearth from what angle, but it was best to prepare for everything.
As long as even one good item was received, it would be worth collecting any amount of ordinary materials beforehand; there would always be a way to use them.
There was also the competition among Mage players striving to fly towards the Starry Sky, seeing who could break through the atmosphere first.
The person to touch the first star would win.
Aren’t you afraid of landing in some Divine Kingdom?
There weren’t many Human Deities, probably because the God of Nobility had ascended to the Divine Throne early on.
But the God Systems of Elves and Dwarves were as many as hairs on an ox.
It’s just that they didn’t receive any messages from humans, and didn’t react even when cursed at.
Now, with only over a million players, Saral already felt as if there were no secrets left; with tens of millions more coming in, it was hard to imagine what it would become.
Hill was extremely grateful that he had not simply hidden all along. The players already considered Hill and Fran’s territories as a natural part of the world.