"Is this… supposed to be so kind of joke?"
Anan pulled her head away in mild disgust. Perhaps, in her eyes, this form of hers was the very image of disaster itself.
"It's not a joke. So, Ms. Anan, now that you've finished showing off your dragon transformation, what exactly is bothering you?"
Carl knew that Anan was being driven by a certain anxiety. That anxiety was what had made her hesitate over whether she should accept Oath's official storyline and beco a featured gacha unit.
"This is what's bothering ," Anan said, her voice muffled in her dragon form. "Under the plague's erosion, I'm no longer sure I can keep maintaining my human form, or my sanity."
"Once I lose control, the entire City of Glory, no, this entire region, will beco a wasteland. Even the Abyssal Knights will be affected by . They'll turn into monsters, and this whole area will beco another Abyssal Frontier."
Based on Carl's understanding, the Abyssal Frontier referred to regions that had been overrun by monsters infected with the Calamity Plague.
In the later stages, Elysium would need to send in players, or groups like Anan's Abyssal Knights, to relocate all those monsters. If relocation was impossible, they would have to kill them by force, seal them in a state of suspended animation, and then transport them elsewhere. Only after that could the region be discarded into Netherworld Village.
"So you're afraid that if you lose your sanity, you'll rampage in this catastrophic form and destroy everything around you."
"In that case, Ms. Anan, wouldn't it be better to release your anger and negative emotions while you're still sane?"
Carl's next words made Anan's pupils contract.
She lowered her dragon head toward Carl again and questioned him in a deep, muffled voice.
"Do you understand what you're saying?"
"I an it exactly as I said it. Ms. Anan, there's no need to keep hiding your true form. Just let out all the emotions you've been holding back."
There truly was a strange, almost sinister charm in Carl's voice. It was the kind of voice that could tempt soone toward corruption.
"Even if it destroys the City of Glory and everything around it, let it out. Becoming a world-ending boss sounds pretty interesting, doesn't it?"
Wouldn't a normal resident of Elysium, after seeing Anan's calamitous form, do everything possible to convince her to suppress her emotions so she would not destroy the beauty around her?
But Carl's answer was simple.
Then destroy it.
Because that would be more interesting.
"I know you have plenty of resentnt toward the Holy Nation! But the people of the Holy Nation are still living, breathing human beings! If I go berserk, none of the residents in the City of Glory region will survive," Anan said, her tone turning extrely serious.
"Don't worry about that. I'll have the players evacuate them in advance. Whether it ans relocating the residents of the City of Glory or providing them with shelter, as long as you give an early warning, Ms. Anan, I'll do everything I can to save them."
Carl was quite confident about this.
After all, Netherworld Village was currently desperately short on manpower.
If the residents of the City of Glory moved there as spirits, or even in their original NPC forms, the players would definitely welco them.
"So you're saying it doesn't matter if I beco a monster, and it doesn't matter if my Abyssal Knights beco mindless beasts, simply because it would be 'interesting'?"
Anan still could not understand why Carl was encouraging her to destroy everything.
"Of course not. Ms. Anan, didn't you co to the City of Glory to cure the Calamity Plague inside you?"
Carl pointed out the reason Anan had been pushed into this corner in the first place.
"You ca here to cure it by absorbing the players' positive emotions. But the reason you're so troubled is probably that, at this stage, you've discovered that none of those emotions can truly cure you. Not the excitent of pulling a rare unit, not the satisfaction of completing a side quest, not even the relief of clearing an Extre Abyss challenge."
"But you know the players can produce an emotion that does help you. You must have absorbed it before. Let guess. It's the sense of achievent and exhilaration they feel after winning an intense PvP match in the Trial of Glory?"
Carl's analysis silenced Anan instantly.
A low rumble ca from her throat, as if signaling for Carl to continue.
"But the amount of that emotion is too small. The TTK, Ti To Kill, in Oath's PvP is extrely short. Because of the ga's stat inflation, a match between two player teams can basically be decided within two minutes."
"Add in the imbalance caused by pay-to-win chanics, and emotions like the thrill of battle or the satisfaction of defeating a powerful opponent beco even rarer."
At this point in his analysis, Carl finally found an opportunity to reach out and touch the dragon scales beneath Anan's chin.
In that instant, Carl felt Anan's entire body tremble slightly. Even the ground shook for a brief mont.
"So, Ms. Anan, you can absolutely use this form to let the players challenge you!"
Anan had also considered the thod Carl ntioned.
She lightly ground her teeth together, sending out a small burst of sparks, then said,
"What good would a challenge do? In my eyes, the Saviors are nothing more than a group of spoiled children. Their battles in the City of Glory right now are just make-believe."
"In that mode called Extre Abyss, if my Abyssal Knights show even a fraction of their true strength, the Saviors imdiately start complaining that 'all the budget went into the monsters.'"
"The Headmaster's side has been constantly reminding us to hold back as much as possible in this version, just so the Saviors won't feel humiliated after being crushed."
"Hmm."
After hearing Anan's complaints, the corners of Carl's mouth curled upward again before he could stop himself.
"That's normal. Oath's combat system itself isn't fun. Most of the ti, players are only interacting with a character's numbers."
"And those numbers are bought with real money through pay-to-win systems."
Carl patiently explained why the players reacted so strongly. Anan could understand the terms Carl used, such as "players" and "pay-to-win."
"So when the Abyssal Knights reveal stats that completely overpower the players, the players naturally complain that the Abyss monsters are power creeping way too fast. They say things like, 'Even my 6 5 Hasumi can't beat this!'"
Hearing this, Anan once again turned her massive golden vertical pupils toward Carl and asked,
"Even when I make my Abyssal Knights hold back as much as possible, the Saviors still complain that it's too hard."
"It's as if, to the Saviors, suffering even the slightest setback in battle, or failing to steamroll a true apex-tier enemy, is so enormous injustice."
"How can you guarantee that when my Abyssal Knights and I face the Saviors at full strength, they'll give everything they have to defeat us instead of running away?"
This was what Anan was truly worried about.
Once she and her Abyssal Knights went berserk, Oath's official team would never treat them as open-world bosses for players to fight.
They would be far too difficult for the current version's players.
They would simply be abandoned, discarded like trash in places the players would never reach.
"All of this is because Oath's combat system isn't interesting enough. It's not that players can't handle hardship, and it's not that they can't handle challenging real powerhouses."
"It's because Oath's combat system doesn't encourage players to defeat powerful enemies through their own skill. It's purely a stat check."
At this point, Carl made a promise to Anan in an extrely serious tone.
"So even if you don't believe right now, that's fine. But I promise you, if you ever go berserk, I will design a system for the players. A system that lets the weak overco the strong, and lets them experience the pure thrill of combat."
"Let them challenge you. Let them give everything they have to defeat you. What they'll gain is the joy of overcoming a powerful enemy, a feeling a hundred tis more addictive and exhilarating than these make-believe battles in Oath."
Hearing this, Anan wavered once again.
Carl approached Anan again.
After receiving her consent, he pressed his cheek against her scales and whispered to her,
"So, Ms. Anan, you aren't trapped without a way out. If you can no longer suppress the anger in your heart, then release it. Destroy everything around you."
Anan's enormous body trembled slightly again.
At that mont, she deeply understood how terrifying Carl Agata truly was.
It was as if Carl were whispering into the ear of her, a living catastrophe,
"Kind Anan, pure Anan, good girl Anan, obedient girl Anan, go ahead and rampage to your heart's content. It doesn't matter even if you destroy everything."
Because I will save you.
My players will save you.
"Of course, rember to tell in advance. I'll begin the rescue operation first. Destroying the City of Glory is one thing, but we can't allow innocent civilians to get hurt," Carl added.
"I don't need you to remind ," Anan replied, although she did not imdiately agree to Carl's proposal.
At this point, Anan and Carl left her Mindscape together.
She also transford from that kingdom-ending dragon back into the form of the little flower girl.
She had thought her true form would frighten Carl.
To her surprise, she was the one who ended up being frightened.
"So, what kind of storyline did Oath's writers prepare for you? Can you show it to now?"
Carl had already extended his olive branch to Anan.
Now it was ti to see what kind of olive branch Oath had offered her.
"Here."
Anan handed Carl an extrely thick script, along with Oath's future version roadmap.
"Allow to critique it."
Carl imdiately began flipping through the script and the roadmap.
(To be continued.)
◇ You can read the ahead chapter on Pat if you're interested: p-atreon.c-om/Blownleaves (Just remove the hyphen to access normally.)
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