Although Anan had not officially announced the impending Plague Torrent through Oath's official channels, Madam Calamity tipped them off, so Oath's official team still learned of Anan's objective and imdiately took action.
Carl had assud their response would be to rally the forces of the Empire and the Holy Nation to defend the City of Glory together.
As it turned out, Carl had still underestimated the logic of these truly galaxy-brained operators.
They actually decided to go with the flow, abandon the City of Glory completely, and launch the originally planned Version 2.0 Empire update ahead of schedule.
"No, from a live-service operations perspective, are they actually geniuses?"
Before going on his date with Anan, Carl was watching the official Oath preview livestream through a web interface.
The event was titled Imperial Glory, which sounded quite nice.
But in Carl's eyes, the contents of the event were nothing short of a full retreat.
"Saviors, we will be opening the brand-new Version 2.0 map early in Version 1.5, the Imperial Holy Capital!"
As the host of the preview livestream, Toyama was passionately introducing the new large-scale map to the players.
Opening a new main city map early was not that big of a deal by itself.
The truly insidious part of Oath's plan was this.
They were going to take all the rewards from the City of Glory and move them into this new map, the Imperial Holy Capital.
"The first phase of the Trial of Glory is also coming to an end, but there is no need to worry. To optimize everyone's exploration experience..."
"All rewards from the Trial of Glory and the City of Glory will be rged into the exploration rewards for the Imperial Holy Capital."
As Toyama spoke, he demonstrated by opening a treasure chest on a street corner in the Imperial Holy Capital.
As a result, the chest imdiately popped out 20 free Contract Stones, another 20 free Contract Stones as City of Glory optimization compensation, and 60 free Contract Stones as Trial of Glory compensation.
Just opening a roadside chest gave 100 Contract Stones.
At that mont, Carl was truly willing to call Oath the most generous mobile ga in the world.
"The NPCs of the City of Glory will also travel to the Imperial Holy Capital and continue their bonds with everyone there."
"Likewise, we will continue launching brand-new events and gaplay in the Imperial Holy Capital, including the second phase of the Imperial Trial, the Battle Pet Champions League, and more."
Carl listened to Toyama's passionate explanation in the livestream as he described everything good about the Imperial Holy Capital, from the piles of Contract Stones to the fun new gaplay.
In any case, Carl was left feeling rather speechless.
Isn't this basically encouraging the players to completely abandon the City of Glory?
The rewards, events, gaplay, and NPCs of the City of Glory were all being relocated to this new main city.
Oath's official team seed to be telling Carl very directly.
If you want to ss with the City of Glory, go ahead. We can't afford to deal with you, so we'll just run away.
Although this was definitely a cowardly move, Carl had to admit that Oath's official team had played it brilliantly.
The City of Glory had consud a lot of art and modeling resources, and its fall would likely co with enormous server costs.
Even so, they were dead set on not letting Carl get his way.
By using the original Version 2.0 plan ahead of schedule, they could lead all the players to the new Imperial map and the storyline centered around the Imperial Princess.
That would make all of Carl's preparations go to waste.
The problem was, if Carl had truly secured the City of Glory, that would have been fine. He could have simply focused on developing it in peace.
With Pokémon and all of Netherworld Village's gaplay systems, Carl was not worried at all about players abandoning the City of Glory.
But the current problem was that the Empire's invasion was still ongoing.
Under the siege of Imperial War Beasts and Imperial soldiers, the Pokémon gaplay in most players' versions of the City of Glory could not even launch properly.
The Pokémon Carl had added could easily be chewed up and swallowed by Oath's original monsters.
The Empire's invasion and assault were continuous, even with the Guardian Beasts manifested by the Abyssal Knights protecting the area.
The village players only managed to hold about a hundred Cities of Glory, barely keeping them free from the Empire's influence.
"This is war..."
Carl was currently inside the Open World of a Navigator Guild player. At a glance, it looked no different from any other City of Glory, but in reality, all the NPCs had already been replaced by Imperial soldiers.
"Since things have reached this point, they won't feel any pain unless the flas of war spread into their own territory."
The day of Carl and Anan's date arrived.
Right now, Carl was being nagged by Irene.
"I-It's actually Miss Anan? Her status in the Holy Nation is no lower than that of a Bishop. Although the Agata family can only be considered minor rural nobility, we still have a lineage that dates back to the birth of Elysium itself. We must not lose our manners."
Although Carl had rarely ntioned Irene, after coming to Netherworld Village, Irene's true body had actually remained by Carl's side the entire ti.
Since Irene had recently beco friends with Hasumi, her social circle had expanded quite a bit.
"There's no need to go through all that trouble. It's just a practice date. In the end, it's not much different from teaching those Holy Nation refugees their romance lessons."
Carl waved his hand, signaling Irene not to start fussing over marriage arrangents and wedding etiquette.
Carl's attitude toward Irene was sowhat like his attitude toward a clumsy, innocent younger sister.
Irene, on the other hand, always treated Carl like a younger brother who needed discipline whenever noble etiquette was involved.
"Even if it is only a practice date, Lord Carl, as the last survivor of the Agata family, you should still consider the continuation of the family bloodline."
Irene had not forgotten that she was the ancestral maid of the Agata family.
"Not considering it for now. Irene, when you go play with Hasumi today, rember to have the Saintess and Griff fill out this form."
Carl used his usual thod to send Irene away.
The Saintess and that greatsword guy, Griff, had decided to fully side with Carl. Carl now wanted to ask them whether they were interested in changing their Character Cores to Monster Hunter-style weapons.
If they were interested, he also wanted to know which weapons they planned to switch to, and so on.
"All right..."
After seeing Irene off, Carl headed to Crimson Night's Open World at the agreed ti for his brief date with Anan.
This place was the heart of the Navigator Guild's Open Worlds, Crimson Night's City of Glory.
It seed Madam Calamity's invasion ability could be blocked after all.
However, doing so required power at least on Anan's level. Even among the Abyssal Knights, only about a hundred individuals had a Data Volu high enough to reach that standard.
This Open World was personally protected by Anan, and the entire world looked prosperous and peaceful.
It was wrapped in that warm Pokémon atmosphere, where people and Pokémon lived in harmony, everyone was friendly, and even if villains appeared, they were all codic troublemakers.
But neither Carl nor Anan knew how long this warm atmosphere could last.
The Empire's invasion would not stop.
"Is it really all right for you to let the Saviors catch them however they like?"
When they t, Anan tried to chat with Carl about a lighter topic.
The eting place for Carl and Anan was a private room in a dessert shop in the City of Glory.
Both Anan and Carl had dressed up a little, at least enough that players would not recognize their original appearances.
Anan turned her head and looked through the window at the village players running around the city to catch Pokémon.
After the initial chaos settled, many village players were now working hard to complete their Pokédex.
"That's also part of the fun of Pokémon gaplay. However, for Pokémon left sitting in player storage, if their affection is too low, they will be automatically released after a while."
At this ti, Carl also ntioned so of the challenges in designing Pokémon gaplay.
The Pokémon world emphasized the emotional bond between Pokémon and Trainers. Players running around the map catching everything with Poké Balls was, in that world's values, extrely frowned upon.
But one of the greatest pleasures of Pokémon-style gas was collecting every Pokémon.
So Carl found a balance through affection. Pokémon with low affection would automatically be released if they were left in storage for too long.
After all, the creatures of this world truly had their own thoughts. Players could also board them at facilities like Pokémon Centers.
However, the City of Glory had not yet developed such facilities.
Because of that, the deeper fun of Pokémon-related gaplay still needed to be developed naturally by the Pokémon of the City of Glory, the NPCs, and the players before it could truly shine.
For now, Carl should focus his attention on his date with Anan.
(To be continued.)
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