Carl spent so ti writing the script for this side story.
It took him less than half a day.
The reason Carl was able to finish the script for this side quest so quickly was that, when sumd up, its plot was still very simple.
In essence, it was a story where the players, at Carl's invitation, entered the illusory world he had constructed.
Inside that illusion, the players would arrive at the Adventurers' Guild, the blacksmith shop, and other familiar locations from the previous ga's main city. There, they would reunite once more with the NPCs from that earlier title.
Carl would use his illusions to hide the NPCs' current true appearances and present them to the players as they had been before they were infected by the Calamity Virus.
Because of that, the NPCs who ca to participate only needed to play their old selves, repeat their original lines, and do the things they had once done.
Up to this point, the side quest was still a warm and simple crossover story featuring characters from the previous ga. It was not the kind of story that would cause much emotional turmoil among the players.
But after that, the script and lines Carl had written would begin to take effect.
In short, during the final three days before the version update, Carl spent his ti refining his illusion techniques and frantically eating Sacred Contract Stones to increase his data capacity.
He also made preparations for the side quest, such as composing its background music.
Finally, three days later, the ti arrived.
Oath Version 1.1, Saintess Hymn, officially went live.
However, not long after Oath Version 1.1 opened, on the very sa day the Saintess banner went online, sothing unexpected happened.
As Oath players, they should have either charged straight into the gacha banner at the earliest possible mont or rushed into the new version's main story.
However, led by Crimson Sigil, several players from the top ten guilds on the Extre Abyss rankings imdiately rushed over to Carl's place instead.
"Shopkeeper! Start it up!"
Ryan sounded like a prisoner who had just been released after serving his sentence, his voice filled with the freedom of a Shawshank Redemption ending.
"It's the first day of the version update, and you're not doing the main story?" Carl asked, looking at the group of players who had co to play.
"We can push the main story tomorrow! Monster Battles cos first!"
At the urging of this group of players, Carl opened one round of Monster Battles after another for them.
Then, Carl very quickly realized sothing.
This group of players was planning to live here and never leave.
"Miss Crimson Night, you don't plan to try Oath's new main story on the first day either?"
Among this group of players, the one Carl paid the most attention to was still Crimson Night, the Guild Master of Navigator.
In the real world, she was a content creator who made story explanations and lore analysis videos for gas. She had a full two million followers on a certain video platform.
Crimson Night was also the first player to post a video speculating that, in a certain version, so NPCs had either had their mories wiped or had been replaced entirely.
On top of that, given how seriously she treated the NPCs in the ga world, she definitely had a deep emotional attachnt to the original NPCs from the previous ga.
Carl had also checked the content schedule that Oath had officially announced so far for Version 1.1.
The sinister part of the Oath developnt team's arrangent was that Carl's side quest required players to clear the Version 1.1 main story before it could be unlocked.
They had even added another restriction. It would only unlock one week later.
If Carl did not personally promote the existence of this side quest, most players would finish the Saintess main story, then wander into the final decisive battle to crusade against Carl one week later without understanding what was really going on.
In Carl's eyes, Crimson Night was the best candidate to promote his side quest.
That was why Carl was subtly urging her.
Crimson Night, why don't you stop playing auto battler for now and go experience Oath Version 1.1's main story?
"It won't be too late to do the main story in a few days. When I make story explanation and discussion videos, I usually have to slowly analyze and research every aspect of the plot. This kind of thing can't be rushed."
Although Crimson Night said this with complete righteousness and confidence, the way her hands kept refreshing monsters while she gritted her teeth and searched for key units really failed to convince Carl.
"What Oath Version 1.1 main story? Isn't this ga just a Monster Battles launcher?"
Ryan directly sumd up the ntality of everyone present in a single sentence.
Naturally, Carl did not say anything more.
He estimated that, once spoilers for the main story started flying all over the internet in a few days, these players would probably sigh in relief and say that Monster Battles had helped them dodge a bullet.
Carl was not idle either.
Thanks to Ryan's promotion, Carl had welcod another wave of new players.
During this period, aside from writing and rehearsing the side quest, Carl had already poured all his effort into devouring Sacred Contract Stones.
He had raised the server limit to more than six thousand players, but even that still could not satisfy their demand.
At this mont, Carl understood that perhaps he really should move to a larger venue and recruit so helpers.
For example, Netherworld Village?
Of course, at the current stage, Carl was only thinking about it.
Right now, Carl turned his attention to the real world's online evaluations of the new limited character, the Saintess.
Under Oath's promotional campaign, along with the efforts of various strears who claid to be making character strength evaluations but were actually selling the banner, the Saintess, this brand-new five-star limited character, received unanimous praise online.
Carl directly found the video with the highest view count.
"[Oath] Magical AoE Main DPS! Oversized Damage That Instantly Deletes Everything?"
Carl briefly watched the guide video. In the end, he ca to one conclusion.
That knight princess, Hasumi, was finished.
Just from listening to the video creator's spreadsheet data, when Carl heard that the Saintess's AoE damage was equal to Hasumi's single-target damage, he already realized that this character was absurdly overtuned.
In short, the Saintess's only flaw was that she locked team composition. She required two other Holy Nation characters on the team to unlock all of her passive abilities.
"They're already releasing a faction-locked character?"
Carl sighed.
However, in Carl's eyes, this flaw was actually an advantage for the Holy Nation faction.
At the current stage, the Holy Nation team centered around the Saintess was directly and steadily suppressing the Hasumi team from the previous version.
Carl felt that Hasumi really could pack her bags and hurry off to find a new career path.
After looking through the online evaluations of the Saintess, Carl shifted his gaze toward the main world.
At that mont, the Saintess in the main world was sitting quietly in the garden in front of the academy. She was surrounded by the Holy Nation's gacha characters as she waited for the arrival of the players.
At present, there were a total of ten Holy Nation characters in Oath. Among them, four were standard five-stars.
Freya and Griff were both Holy Nation characters. There was also an assassin-type Abnormal character. Apart from them, there was also a standard five-star Support.
This character had originally been blown up by Carl's maid, Irene, but after the Saintess arrived, she finally had a place to work.
"Lady Saintess, this is the ranking list for Version 1.0's Extre Abyss. So of the Saviors' nas may be a little strange. You only need to pay attention to the guild prefixes they belong to."
At that mont, Griff had already beco the Saintess's guard.
As for the Saintess's real na, Carl did not know it either.
The Oath developnt team called her the Saintess, and the people of the Holy Nation also called her the Saintess, so Carl was too lazy to dig any deeper.
"ThisGaDoesNotTakeOrdersDoNotDisturbThanks(Kyo), Crimson Night, Vengeful Blood, Scored With All My Might, Nah I'd Win..."
As the Saintess looked at the nas near the top of the individual ranking list, they were still fairly normal at first. Later on, however, they began to grow increasingly bizarre.
Even so, the Saintess still locked onto several key nas at first glance.
"Kyo. Is he the strongest existence among the Saviors?" the Saintess asked.
"Yes. This Savior's strength is so great that even I would not dare make him my enemy. Just eting his gaze makes so nervous that my palms sweat."
Griff did not hold back at all in his reverence for Kyo's strength.
"Is that so? A powerful being who can make even the commander of the Vanguard Knights so fearful would be considered a rare treasure even in our Holy Nation, correct?"
Hearing Griff's evaluation, the Saintess imdiately beca interested.
"That remains true even if one looks at the entire world. So, Lady Saintess, if he, as well as those powerful Saviors near the top of the Extre Abyss rankings, co to experience the main story, you must use your main consciousness to receive them!"
Griff gave her a serious warning.
The reason a ga like Oath needed a script was that the gacha characters could not personally take care of every single player.
The ga story that most players experienced was acted out step by step by the secondary consciousnesses of these gacha characters.
"I know, I know. With my charm, the Lord Saviors, including Kyo, must already be unable to wait. They are surely rushing over right now, eager to have a wonderful encounter with in the main story, aren't they?"
The Saintess held a cup of black tea, looking completely confident. She was like a fishing addict who had already finished baiting the spot in a private fishing pond.
"Don't worry. From the first mont they see , I will make them fall for . Right now, I only need to sit here and wait for them to arrive."
Carl quietly listened to the Saintess's victory speech from the corner of the garden.
What he was actually thinking was this.
A try-not-to-laugh challenge? Then you win.
After that ca a long wait.
It was a wait so long that even the Saintess began to feel sowhat confused.
On the first day, only a very small portion of the players near the top of the Extre Abyss rankings ca, and all of them were mbers of the Do Alliance.
As for the true top group, Kyo, Crimson Night, Ryan, and the others, not a single one of them appeared.
The Saintess attributed this to the possibility that these top players happened to have sothing to do on the first day of the new version and therefore had no ti to log into Oath.
This was very normal.
Thinking about it that way, the Saviors who could not have an encounter with her on the day Version 1.1 opened were truly a little pitiful.
Then ca the second day.
Kyo and the others still did not co.
At that point, the Saintess was still thinking that these top-tier Saviors must all be very busy in reality.
But it was fine.
She could still wait.
On the third day, they still did not co.
At this mont, the Saintess finally realized that sothing was not quite right.
"Griff, Saviors such as Kyo, Crimson Night, and the others, those powerful Saviors, have they not visited our world during this ti?"
The Saintess asked Griff this question because, over the past few days, Kyo, Crimson Night, and a large group of other top players had not pulled on the banner at all. None of them had obtained the Saintess as a character.
She had no idea what these people were doing.
"..."
Griff fell silent for several seconds before telling her the cruelest truth.
"Lady Saintess, they actually have been online this entire ti. They simply have not co to see you."
(To be continued.)
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