Career Choice

She was so beautiful, radiating holiness and nature itself. Even Qi Lin, a woman, kept stealing glances at her.

"I am the World Tree, the Goddess of Life, the Mother of Nature, the Orthodox God of Creation and State. My name is Jue."

"Traveler from another land, welcome to the world of elves."

Her voice was so pleasant, and she was so beautiful, that Qi Lin felt somewhat inferior.

Qi Lin had only one thought right now:

"Damn, this character model is incredible."

"It's so detailed. Even the fibers of her clothes are exquisitely made."

Qi Lin might have been a police officer, but she was also a young person of the modern age and had played online games before. Judging by the exquisite model before her alone, it blew other games out of the water by several galaxies.

She wondered how much the country had spent on this model alone.

Qi Lin cautiously stepped forward, wanting to touch the goddess's skirt hem in secret. Instead, her hand passed right through the goddess's dress.

Qi Lin's face reddened, and she silently cursed herself. Qi Lin, how could you think about lifting the goddess's skirt?

Cheng Jue, who was watching this scene from outside, also found it rather strange.

That was right. The Cheng Jue inside was merely a projection created by Cheng Jue. Every player would meet their projection upon logging in for the first time. This was to make it easier for Cheng Jue to imprint a Humanity Mark upon their souls.

That mark was the connection between Cheng Jue and the players.

And as a game, choosing a class was indispensable. Classes were also one of the game's defining features.

"Brave traveler, to help you better integrate into this world, I shall grant you the power of the elves."

The goddess's voice rang out. With a wave of her jade-like hand, she lightly pointed at Qi Lin, and several light screens appeared before her. A system window also floated into view.

[Please select your class.]

[Mondstadt: Swordsman, Mage.]

[Liyue: Martial Artist, Qi Practitioner.]

[Inazuma: Onmyoji, Samurai, Assassin.]

[Sumeru: Apprentice.]

[Fontaine: Dual Pistols, Mech Master.]

[Elf: Archer.]

What class should she choose? Qi Lin had previously visited the official World Tree website and knew that the game's classes came from the seven nations of elven civilization. The classes also represented the characteristics of those seven nations.

The seven nations were Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan, and Snezhnaya. The starting classes were all apprentice classes, and players would only begin formally learning their corresponding class skills at level 10.

"What class should I choose?" Qi Lin fell into deep thought.

Since this was a virtual reality game, she wanted to try being a mage and experience the feeling of hurling fireballs.

A Qi Practitioner would not be bad either. She had heard there would even be an immortal cultivation system later on. After all, the overarching setting of World Tree was the Primordial World, so it should become quite popular in the later stages.

But just as Qi Lin was about to make her choice, she was drawn to Fontaine's Dual Pistols class. Somewhere deep inside, a voice seemed to tell her that dual pistols suited her best.

Qi Lin tapped Fontaine's Dual Pistols class and confirmed her choice.

As Qi Lin began learning the Dual Pistols class, the light screen before her flashed. A figure holding two pistols appeared and fired a frenzied barrage of shots at the target ahead.

Yes, this was her class.

Just as Qi Lin confirmed her class, the goddess continued speaking:

"Brave traveler, since you have made your choice, I shall gift you two skill points. They will help you integrate into the elven world more quickly." As she spoke, the goddess lightly pointed at Qi Lin with her jade-like hand.

Qi Lin felt a faint stream of energy enter her body. It was strange—she was clearly inside a game, yet Qi Lin kept feeling that this place was real.

Following her instincts, Qi Lin brought up her character panel.

Name: Tianhe Sheriff.

Race: Elf

Level: 1

Class: Dual Pistols Apprentice

Experience: 0/100

Health: 100/100

Basic Information (expandable)

Learnable Skills: Rapid Fire (costs 1 skill point), Weak-Point Aiming (costs 1 skill point), Leaping Shot (costs 1 skill point)

Qi Lin opened the detailed descriptions of the three skills.

Rapid Fire: Uses extremely fast reactions to unleash a storm of bullets upon the target.

Weak-Point Aiming: Enter combat mode and activate it to discover an enemy's weak points for targeting. Can trigger critical damage.

Leaping Shot: Quickly leap and accurately attack the enemy.

After reading the three skills, Qi Lin had already made up her mind.

She chose Rapid Fire and Weak-Point Aiming, spending the two skill points she had just received on them.

Once the skills had been learned, Qi Lin felt a warm current rise within her. Though she knew this was a game, she could genuinely feel herself becoming stronger.

After she pressed confirm, the panel before Qi Lin changed.

Name: Tianhe Sheriff.

Race: Elf

Level: 1

Class: Dual Pistols Apprentice

Experience: 0/100

Health: 100/100

Basic Information (expandable)

Skills: Rapid Fire, Weak-Point Aiming.

"Traveler, now that you have chosen your class, take your equipment and set out on your adventure through the elven world." The goddess's pleasant voice rang out again as she waved her hand.

A flash of white light appeared around Qi Lin. A hemp garment appeared on her body, a crude belt wrapped around her waist, a bayonet was tucked into it, and she held a crossbow in both hands.

[System Notification: You obtained Novice Hemp Garment (White)]

[System Notification: You obtained Novice Belt (White)]

[System Notification: You obtained Novice Bayonet (White)]

[System Notification: You obtained Novice Crossbow (White)]

These were low-level items Cheng Jue had prepared in advance. They were made from ordinary materials, and Cheng Jue could mass-produce them easily.

As the background music began playing again, the scene before Qi Lin changed.

Qi Lin felt herself arriving somewhere different. Blinding sunlight shone down, and she instinctively turned her gaze away.

Once her eyes adjusted to the sunlight, Qi Lin discovered that she seemed to be inside a protective barrier. With a light touch, the barrier disappeared, and the scenery before her gradually became clearer.

The towering World Tree in the distance, the fresh air so unlike that of the city, and the cheerful birdsong in her ears—everything seemed to tell Qi Lin that this was another world.

If she ignored the thousand elves by the lake with their ridiculous non-mainstream hairstyles, Qi Lin would have thought this place was a paradise.

Standing beside the lake, this was probably the players' spawn point.

Qi Lin looked at those ridiculous hairstyles. If she had not known this was a game, she would have wanted to invite them all to the police station for a good talk.

"I really don't understand why they gave themselves such non-mainstream hairstyles. Isn't the system-generated face good enough?" Qi Lin was utterly powerless to complain.

Just as Qi Lin was mocking this batch of ridiculous online users, they began causing trouble as well.

"Damn, this really is one hundred percent simulation. It's so realistic."

"Even the five senses feel so real." One yellow-haired elf with a non-mainstream hairstyle grabbed another male elf player beside him and began groping him all over.

The male elf player broke out in goosebumps and moved far away from the yellow-haired weirdo in disgust.

The yellow-haired weirdo looked regretful. If that player had been one step slower, something that transcended gender might have happened.

Most of the players were shouting and making a racket, like they had just escaped from a mental hospital.

Qi Lin's mouth twitched at the sight. Just then, a female elf player with a floating sphere beside her came over to Qi Lin.

She spoke smugly, "Dear viewers, look! World Tree truly deserves to be the first virtual reality game. Not only are the backgrounds incredibly beautiful, but the five senses are also extremely realistic, and even the character panel expressions are vivid."

Qi Lin was startled by the female elf player who suddenly ran up to her. She looked up at the player's ID: Ali.

Qi Lin was not surprised at all by the floating sphere beside Ali.

When Qi Lin had browsed the official website earlier, she had discovered a toolbox. It was an auxiliary tool on the World Tree website and World Tree's exclusive livestreaming feature.

Because World Tree possessed unprecedented thought-acceleration technology, the livestream appeared to outsiders as though it had been sped up tenfold. To solve this problem, World Tree's livestreams included a playback speed reduction feature.

Though it was called a livestream, it was practically no different from a recorded broadcast.

The player before her, whose ID was Ali, was a Mage Apprentice.

It was very easy to tell. One only needed to observe the players' weapons. From Qi Lin's observations, swordsmen used wooden swords, while mages used wooden staffs...

Qi Lin's Dual Pistols class used two wooden crossbows, while Ali held a wooden staff.

Just as Qi Lin was explaining the appearance characteristics she had discovered for each class to Ali,

A thousand strangely dressed elves excitedly used their own methods to explore this unfamiliar world.

Someone even deliberately turned pain simulation up to one hundred percent and viciously pinched their own cheek, gasping from the pain.

Qi Lin could clearly see an HP-1 notification pop up over that player's head.

Someone else ran up a large tree nearby, stood on a branch, and looked into the distance, unable to help exclaiming, "So beautiful."

Of course, there were also some abnormal ones.

Three players with Demacia, Lord Xin, and Big D above their heads excitedly stripped off the novice outfits they had just been given.

This also sparked a burst of laughter.

Beside Qi Lin, Ali widened her sparkling eyes and watched the three oddballs take off their clothes with great excitement. She was more excited than every man present.

Unfortunately, everyone was about to be disappointed.

After Demacia, Lord Xin, and Big D took off their clothes, dazzling holy light emerged from that part of each of their bodies.

Big D curled his lips. "It's actually an all-ages version. That takes all the fun out of it."

Just as he was about to make another comment, he scanned the crowd and spotted Qi Lin among them. Big D instantly lost his nerve and hurriedly put his clothes back on. Qi Lin had not altered her appearance much; she had merely blended it with the system face to become prettier. But anyone familiar with her could recognize her at a glance.

And Big D was one of them. It could not be helped—he was invited to the police station every other day, so he had long become very familiar with the officers there.