Looking at the tasks Mother Goddess had assigned, Skadi was deeply troubled, wondering how she was supposed to distribute them.
Just then, Skadi suddenly felt as though countless eyes were fixed on her. Following those gazes, she curiously looked up and discovered that the Travelers were watching her with the same eyes they used to inspect items.
And while Skadi was still completely unaware of what was happening—
In the eyes of the many players, a question mark suddenly appeared above the Great Elf Skadi's head.
Anyone who played games regularly knew what that meant: there was a quest.
As the Travelers' looks toward her grew increasingly strange, voices from the crowd reached Skadi's ears.
"Did you receive the system notification?"
"I got it too. The system said to collect a quest from Great Elf Skadi."
"Then hurry up! I was planning to finish the quest early, level up early, and complete my class advancement. The class I chose is mage."
Watching the Travelers swarm toward her in a rush, Skadi finally realized what was going on. Mother Goddess had probably given the Travelers some kind of order.
Faced with such crazed Travelers, Skadi swallowed before gathering her courage and stepping forward to ask, "Is anyone here to accept a quest?"
"Me, me, me!"
"Elf miss, I want one too!"
A whole crowd gathered around Skadi with their hands raised.
Skadi: "..."
Watching the Travelers suddenly turn into bootlickers, frantically taking on errands.
Skadi could only think silently to herself, Perhaps just as Mother Goddess said, there really is something wrong with their minds.
In Skadi's view, Mother Goddess had assigned only a few kinds of tasks:
[Gather Wood] [Clean the Camp] [Gather Food] [Drive Away Wild Beasts]
To Skadi, all of these were nothing but laborious chores. Yet the Travelers accepted them with astonishing enthusiasm.
Having just accepted a quest and squeezed her way out of the crowd, Qi Lin shook her head.
"I really didn't expect even accepting a quest at the start would require people shoving shoulder to shoulder. This is realistic enough."
As she spoke, Qi Lin opened the quest she had just received from Skadi.
[Random Daily Quest: Gather Food. Collect 50 random vegetables or fruits. Progress: 0/50. Reward: 10–300 EXP.]
So it was gathering food. After reading the quest, Qi Lin also activated the minimap function in the system.
With the minimap's help, Qi Lin could clearly see that everything within ten kilometers of the players' spawn point was a safe zone, while danger existed beyond that range.
And not far from the spawn point was a small orchard.
Following the map's directions, Qi Lin headed toward that orchard and arrived there.
The moment she stepped into the orchard, Qi Lin caught a distinctive woody fragrance drifting through the air. Even the sunlight filtering through the scattered leaves felt utterly real.
Every so often, small animals darted between the fruit trees, clutching some unknown fruit as they plunged into the grass.
Coupled with the exclusive ambient music playing by Qi Lin's ears—
The entire place was the very picture of a primeval forest.
As Qi Lin searched the orchard for fruit, she found trees bearing fruits that looked very much like figs, though they differed somewhat from figs in reality.
Fortunately, game characters came with the Appraisal Technique. Qi Lin used it on one of the fig-like fruits.
In the next instant, information on the fruit appeared before Qi Lin.
[Name: Sunset Fruit.] [Description: A gift of nature, commonly found throughout the Seven Nations. A plump fruit as beautiful and radiant as the setting sun. Its strange sweet fragrance can invigorate the spirit.] [Effect: Restores a small amount of vitality upon use.]
Seeing the Sunset Fruit's description, Qi Lin curiously plucked one from the tree, wiped it with her hand, and took a bite. Crunch.
"Mmm!" Qi Lin's eyes instantly lit up. With that first bite, a peculiar fruity fragrance filled her mouth. Qi Lin had never tasted anything like it in reality.
Crunch, crunch. After several bites, Qi Lin finished the Sunset Fruit in her hand.
After eating it, Qi Lin noticed a green cross symbol had appeared on the character panel of her game character, the Tianhe Sheriff.
Unfortunately, Qi Lin was not injured right now. Otherwise, she could have experienced the Sunset Fruit's healing effect.
Qi Lin looked at the fruit covering the orchard and forcibly suppressed the greed in her stomach before beginning to complete the quest.
She was about to finish gathering fifty Sunset Fruits, but how was she supposed to carry them back?
Looking at the vines climbing the fruit trees around her, Qi Lin had a flash of inspiration. She tore off several sections and wove them into a simple vine basket.
A while later, Qi Lin looked at her handiwork with satisfaction, nodded, slung the vine basket onto her back, and returned to the Player Camp.
On her way back, Qi Lin spotted a shrub bearing fruits that looked like strawberries.
Without hesitation, Qi Lin threw an Appraisal Technique at it.
[Name: Berry] [Description: Brightly colored fruit. A small beauty scattered throughout the wilderness, capable of sweeping away the weariness of travel.] [Effect: Relieves hunger. Hint: Perhaps it has other uses.]
Seeing the information provided by the Appraisal Technique, Qi Lin's face darkened. Even game systems knew how to make snide remarks these days.
"Forget it. I'll bring some to Skadi and let her take a look too." After some thought, Qi Lin picked all the berries from the shrub and returned to the camp.
The moment she entered the Player Camp, the game music by Qi Lin's ears switched back to a cheerful tune.
Qi Lin also discovered that while she had been out gathering food, the other players had already cleaned the camp and used the wood they had cut earlier to build wooden houses.
The quest hand-in area was located at the center of the Player Camp. According to Cheng Jue's plans, it would eventually become a large square. For now, it was used to hand in quests, and later it could also serve as a trading area for players.
When she arrived at the central square, Qi Lin saw that other players were also gradually returning to hand in their quests.
At that moment, Skadi was surrounded by players and busier than a spinning top, though she seemed to be in a very good mood.
Qi Lin felt that Skadi was nothing like an NPC and more like a real person. Sometimes, Qi Lin even suspected that Skadi was a staff member in disguise.
Perhaps the game developers had even installed an independent intelligent AI into the NPCs.
But just as Qi Lin was about to step forward and submit her quest, she noticed that whenever a player acted flippant and smiling toward Skadi, Skadi's attitude instantly turned cold.
"Could there be a hidden Affection System?" Qi Lin sensed something. That had to be it. The Affection System was such a fundamental feature that the developers could not possibly have left it out. Perhaps it was even the key to unlocking certain later quests.
After noticing that Skadi treated everyone differently, Qi Lin stood to one side instead of stepping forward to submit her quest.
She carefully observed Skadi's attitude after each interaction with a different player. Interestingly, whenever Skadi noticed Qi Lin watching her, she would shyly turn her head away. Qi Lin would swear she had never seen an NPC with such vivid expressions.
After observing for a while, Qi Lin realized that Skadi was fairly friendly toward female players, but when faced with male players, her attitude became extremely cold.
After thinking it over carefully, Qi Lin understood. At the beginning, the shameless players who had flirted with Skadi and made improper remarks had all been male, leaving her with a terrible impression of them.
Qi Lin watched Skadi's movements whenever she spoke with each player.
Suddenly, Qi Lin's heart stirred, and an idea came to her...
She stepped forward. Skadi noticed the female Elf approaching her. In truth, Skadi had been observing Qi Lin for quite some time as well, wondering what this female Elf had been doing while standing off to the side and watching her.
"Have you completed your quest? Are you here to hand it in?"
Qi Lin came before Skadi, stood straight, and gave her an unfamiliar Elven salute. Qi Lin had seen Skadi do the same thing from the side and had copied it with convincing form.
Using an equal tone, Qi Lin said, "Yes, I have completed the quest and have come to submit it."
"Mhm." Skadi felt that the Elf before her was completely different. In Qi Lin's eyes, Skadi seemed more like a companion, so she nodded and said,
"Then let me see what you gathered."
Qi Lin did as instructed and set down the vine basket on her back.
Skadi stepped forward to inspect it, then nodded in satisfaction. "These are Sunset Fruits. When your levels are low, they can also serve as healing potions."
As she spoke, Skadi said to Qi Lin, "You completed the quest very well. This is your reward."
The moment Skadi finished speaking, Qi Lin saw that the quest section of her system had changed to completed.
Following the system prompt, Qi Lin saw that 300 EXP had been credited to her panel. In an instant, her character panel showed her leveling up twice in a row, bringing her character level to three.
Sure enough, there is a hidden affection mechanic, Qi Lin thought.
As her character level increased, Qi Lin could clearly feel her body's strength growing significantly.
The improvement was so obvious and so real that it felt as though she had truly gained power.
Skadi looked at her thoughtfully. In Skadi's eyes, Qi Lin's leveling up carried obvious fluctuations of the Life Principle. It resembled the feeling of an Elf being born, only much weaker.
In Skadi's view, this had to be Mother Goddess's handiwork. What Skadi could not understand was why Mother Goddess would create such a huge commotion just to strengthen such a weak existence.
That was right. When Qi Lin leveled up, the sound and light effects were simply maxed out.
Qi Lin's level increase also drew many envious looks.
Just as Skadi was about to return to her place, Qi Lin hurriedly stopped her. "Miss Skadi, how should this be handled?"
As she spoke, Qi Lin took out the berries she had picked on her way back and showed them to Skadi.
"These are berries. If you only use them to fill your stomach, that would be rather wasteful." Clearly, Skadi had not finished what she wanted to say.
Qi Lin immediately replied sincerely, "Please teach me."
Seeing how polite Qi Lin was, Skadi suggested, "I recommend that you find a Traveler whose class is Sumeru scholar apprentice. She has a better way of handling berries."
Skadi pointed in a direction, signaling Qi Lin to look for her there.
"My god, what kind of move is this? An NPC introducing a player to another player." This was enough to shock Qi Lin for an entire year.
"Oh, right. Next time, you can also take food to scholars, or learn cooking yourself once you reach level ten. That would be even better." Skadi's sudden reminder left Qi Lin somewhat at a loss.
Out of politeness, Qi Lin could only nod to Skadi and walk in the direction Skadi had indicated.
After this incident, Qi Lin developed some guesses about the NPC system in World Tree.
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