She was so beautiful, radiating holiness and nature itself. Even Qi Lin, another girl, kept glancing at her.
"I am the World Tree, the Goddess of Life, the Mother of Nature, the Orthodox God of Creation and the State. My name is: Jue."
"Traveler from another land, welcome to the world of Elves."
Her voice was so lovely, and she was so beautiful, that Qi Lin could not help feeling ashamed of her own inferiority.
Qi Lin had only one thought now:
"Holy shit, this character model is insane."
"It's made so exquisitely. Even the fibers of the clothes are this beautiful."
Although Qi Lin was a police officer, she was also a young person of the modern age and had played online games before. Based on the exquisite model before her alone, she had no idea how many galaxies it could leave other games in the dust by.
She did not even know how much the country had spent on this model alone.
Qi Lin cautiously stepped forward, wanting to quietly touch the hem of the goddess's skirt. Yet her hand passed straight through the goddess's dress before her.
Qi Lin's face flushed, and she secretly cursed herself. Qi Lin, how could you think about lifting the goddess's skirt?
Cheng Jue, 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. Whenever each player logged in for the first time, they would meet her projection, all so Cheng Jue could brand a Humanity Mark onto their souls.
That mark was the connection between Cheng Jue and the players.
And as a game, career selection was indispensable. The professions were also one of this game's defining features.
"Brave Traveler, in order to help you better integrate into this world, I shall grant you the power belonging to 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 Qi Lin. A system window floated up as well.
[Please choose your profession.] [Mondstadt: Swordsman, Mage.] [Liyue: Martial Artist, Qi Refiner.] [Inazuma: Onmyoji, Samurai, Assassin.] [Sumeru: Apprentice.] [Fontaine: Dual Guns, Mecha Master.] [Elf: Archer.]
What profession should she choose? Qi Lin had previously visited the official website of World Tree, so she knew that the professions in World Tree came from the professions of the Seven Nations of Elven Civilization. The professions also represented the distinctive characteristics of the Seven Nations.
The Seven Nations were Mondstadt, Liyue, Inazuma, Sumeru, Fontaine, Natlan, and Snezhnaya. The starting professions were all apprentice professions; only at level 10 would players formally begin learning the skills of their respective professions.
"What profession should I choose?" Qi Lin fell into deep thought.
Since this was a virtual reality game, she should try being a mage and experience the feeling of kneading fireballs into existence.
Or perhaps a Qi Refiner would be good too. She had heard there was even an immortal cultivation system later on. After all, the grand backdrop of World Tree was the Primordial World, so it should become highly sought-after in the later stages.
But just as Qi Lin was about to make her choice, she was drawn to Fontaine's Dual Guns profession. Somewhere in the dark, it seemed as though a voice was telling her that Dual Guns suited her best.
Qi Lin tapped Fontaine's Dual Guns profession and confirmed her selection.
Just as Qi Lin was about to learn the Dual Guns profession, the light screen flashed. A figure holding two pistols appeared, wildly firing bursts at the target ahead.
Yes, this was her profession.
Just as Qi Lin confirmed her profession, the goddess continued speaking:
"Brave Traveler, since you have made your choice, I shall gift you two skill points. They will allow you to integrate into the Elven world more quickly." As she spoke, the goddess lightly pointed a jade-like finger at Qi Lin.
Qi Lin felt a vague surge of energy enter her body. It was strange—she was clearly inside a game, yet Qi Lin always felt that this place was real.
Following her instincts, Qi Lin brought up her character panel.
Name: Tianhe Sheriff. Race: Elf Level: 1 Profession: Dual Guns Apprentice Experience: 0/100 Health: 100/100 Basic Information (Expand) 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: Through extremely fast reaction speed, unleash a storm of furious shots upon the target.
Weak-Point Aiming: Enter combat status. Upon active activation, discover the enemy's weak points and aim at them, triggering critical damage.
Leaping Shot: Leap swiftly 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 surge through her body. Although Qi Lin knew full well that 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 Profession: Dual Guns Apprentice Experience: 0/100 Health: 100/100 Basic Information (Expand) Skills: Rapid Fire, Weak-Point Aiming.
"Traveler, since you have chosen your profession, put on your equipment and set foot on the road of adventure through the Elven world." The goddess's pleasant voice came again as she waved her hand.
A burst of white light emerged from Qi Lin's body. A hemp garment appeared on her, a crude belt wrapped around her waist, a bayonet was tucked at her side, 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 all low-level pieces of equipment Cheng Jue had prepared in advance. They were made from ordinary materials, and Cheng Jue could mass-produce them with ease.
As the background music began playing again, the scene before Qi Lin changed.
Qi Lin felt herself arriving somewhere entirely different. Dazzling sunlight shone down, and Qi Lin 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 vanished. Gradually, the sight before her became clearer and clearer.
Looking at the World Tree in the distance that blotted out the sky and covered the earth, the fresh air entirely unlike that of the city, and the cheerful birdsong by her ears, everything seemed to tell Qi Lin that this truly was another world.
If she ignored the thousand Elves by the lake with their bizarre delinquent hairstyles, Qi Lin would have felt this place was like an Immortal Realm.
Standing beside the lake, this was probably the players' spawn point.
Qi Lin looked at those bizarrely styled people. If she had not known this was a game, she would really have wanted to invite them all to the police station for a proper chat.
"I seriously don't understand why they went with such non-mainstream hairstyles. Aren't the system-generated faces good enough?" Qi Lin was utterly powerless to complain.
Just as Qi Lin was mocking this batch of ridiculous netizens, this batch of netizens began causing trouble too.
"Holy shit, this is really one hundred percent simulation. It's too real."
"Even the five senses feel this real." One yellow-haired non-mainstream Elf grabbed another male Elf player beside him and began groping him all over.
The male Elf player broke out in goosebumps and fled from the yellow-haired non-mainstream player in disgust.
The yellow-haired non-mainstream player wore a regretful expression. If that player had walked even one step slower, something that transcended gender might have happened.
Almost all the players were shouting and chattering, as though 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 exquisitely made, even the five senses are incredibly realistic, and even the character panel expressions are so vivid."
Qi Lin was startled by the female Elf player who suddenly ran up before her. She looked up at the female player's ID: Ali.
Qi Lin was not surprised in the slightest 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 official website and World Tree's exclusive livestreaming function.
Because World Tree possessed unprecedented thought-acceleration technology, the livestreaming effect appeared to outsiders as though it had been sped up tenfold. To solve this problem, World Tree's livestreams had a playback-slowing function.
Though it was called a livestream, it was no different from a recording.
The player before her with the ID 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 Guns profession used two wooden crossbows, while Ali's used a wooden staff.
As Qi Lin introduced the appearance traits she had discovered for each profession to Ali,
A thousand strange-looking Elves excitedly explored this unfamiliar world in their own ways.
Someone even deliberately adjusted the pain simulation to one hundred percent and viciously pinched their own face, gasping sharply from the pain.
Qi Lin could clearly see an HP -1 notification appear above that player's head.
Others ran to a large tree nearby, stood on its branches to gaze into the distance, and could not help exclaiming, "So beautiful."
Of course, there were also some less normal things.
Three players with the names Demacia, Lord Xin, and Big D above their heads excitedly stripped off the novice outfits they had just received.
This also caused a burst of laughter.
Ali, beside Qi Lin, opened her large sparkling eyes wide. Watching those three living treasures take off their clothes made her more excited than every boy 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 area of all three of them.
Big D curled his lips. "It's actually an all-ages version. That's no fun."
Just as he was about to offer more commentary, he swept his gaze through 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 adjusted her appearance much; she had merely blended it with the system face, making herself 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 and had long become exceedingly familiar with the officers there.
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