Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 276 Entering the City (5k4)

Red Maple City Church? Asylum?

Thomas was a little confused, but he quickly reacted.

The priest in front of him, named "Maiyev Seville", seemed to have called the players "refugees" before - that might be some kind of background setting, for example, their "adventurers" were refugees who fled here due to war, which was a very reasonable development.

The clergyman in front of him also said that their empire seemed to be at war with the "Dark Principality"! This made Thomas more convinced that his guess was correct.

——This is the sense of immersion! Thomas, who has rich experience in RPG games, has already silently figured out the rest.

It seems that the fortress city at the end of the field of vision is the so-called "Red Maple City", and the Red Maple City Church is the first extraordinary force that their players will encounter! Thomas was somewhat excited and decided to follow Maiev into the city to see what was going on.

The majority of players share the same idea as Mayev, and a few players do not like this "forced plot" and are ready to make a move. But after thinking about the two players who were beaten up by the priest Mayev before, they suppressed their desire to commit suicide.

What these players are thinking now is...

——We can’t defeat him. Even if all players join together, we may not be able to kill “Maiyev Sevis” even a drop of blood… How about we go into the city with him to see what’s going on? If we can complete some quests, level up, and gain some extraordinary powers in the city, it won’t be difficult to escape then…

Forbearance! The main theme is forbearance!
The players all had their own plans in mind, but no one stepped forward to attack Mayyev and other clergymen.

Afterwards, Thomas watched Mayev mount his horse again, while the other clergymen he brought came behind these "refugees" and formed a triangular encirclement of them.

The clergy "escorted" these "refugees" and moved slowly across the battlefield on the gravel plain, arriving at Red Maple City about half an hour later.

……

Red Maple City Church, Glorious Church, inner courtyard.

Inside the bishop's throne, Luo Zheng was in the holy room, paying attention to the movements in the [Player Forum] and [World Channel], while watching the scenes transmitted back by the foggy shadow of the "Shadow Raven" on a foggy night.

Shortly after the internal beta test started, Luo Xiu had roughly confirmed what changes had occurred on his panel after the [Closed Internal Beta Test].

Luo Xiu, who had a player panel, also unlocked the [Player Forum] and [World Channel]. He could see what the players were discussing enthusiastically, but he couldn't post or comment himself.

Because he is essentially still an NPC, he only has control over some of the functions of the player panel, and does not have the so-called "account UID"... This is like the "you can only comment after logging in" on many platform websites in the past life. He is now in a state of being able to see the content but "unable to log in".

Similarly, he can also summon the UI interface of "God's Destiny", but all the options are in the (gray frame, crossed out) state, and he cannot "exit the game".

However, Luo Xiu had already gotten used to this world. He was just making a small attempt, and it didn't matter if he failed.

After the internal beta test started, the most important change was the newly unlocked [NPC exclusive template].

[NPC-specific template list——]

[Display template control, enabled]

[Task publishing function has been enabled]

[Favorability adjustment, enabled]

[Skills/skills teaching, now open]

[Propose transaction function, enabled]

[Organization/Faction function, enabled]

【…】

He unlocked many new functions, most of which were the same as the "NPC functions" that Luo Xiu had imagined.

For example, "display template control" can modify the displayed character panel within a certain range, and is mainly used when players use the detection function on NPCs.

In fact, the only things that can be modified by "display template control" are the display name and the content of "active display".

If the level difference between the player and the NPC is too great, or if the difference between the "Perception" and "Resistance" attributes of the NPC is too great, the player will not be able to see anything other than the name displayed by the NPC when using detection.

But if "active display" is set, players can see these contents by detection without meeting other prerequisites.

Luo Xiu didn’t want to “actively display” anything for the time being, but he made some changes to the name displayed on the panel, changing the default “Luo Xiu Durant” to “Luo Xiu Carlos”.

After that, if he wanted to interact with players again as Shengyuan's "Ashura", he would have to change his name again on the panel... Luo Xiu planned this.

In the "task issuing function", he can personally formulate and issue commissioned tasks to players.

According to Luo Xiu's current NPC level of "Leader NPC", he can issue tasks of "nightmare" difficulty or below to players, and the task rewards can also be adjusted within a certain range, ranging from 1 to 50000 experience points.

But there are some limitations - the experience points reward for issuing tasks to players is not generated out of thin air, but requires 10% of the experience points that overflow from the current NPC level. In other words, if the reward for a "nightmare" difficulty task issued to a player is set at 50000 points, 5000 of them need to be deducted from Luo Xiu's own experience. Although this will not cause Luo Xiu to "de-level", it does require careful consideration.

But of course there is a way to deal with this. Luo Xiu has already preset a solution for this - "Spiritual Spring"! As long as there is a way to make players willingly "pay tribute" to the experience they have gained, in order to achieve this goal, some other preparations are needed.

As for other functions, such as "favorability adjustment", "skill/skill teaching", etc., they are just as their names suggest and are not too complicated.

However, the brand new NPC templates have independent settings for these functions. Luo Xiu has also linked them together, setting up the completion of commissioned tasks to increase "favorability", and "favorability" is bound to "skill/skill teaching", "trading" and so on.

After completing all these settings, Luo Xiu turned his attention back to the "Adventers".

Under his instructions, almost half of the church's clergy had left the city to bring back those "suspicious refugees."

The locations where those "adventurers" landed were relatively remote. In Luo Xiu's memory, no natives had discovered them when they first arrived.

In other words, the church is 100% sure that it will have "first contact" with the players who "land" outside Red Maple City. This is the advantage of foresight.

Looking at the images transmitted back by Wuying, the priests who had been sent out had almost all come into contact with the "Adventers" and brought them back to Red Maple City.

Then, it’s time to move on to the second step…

While consolidating the plan in his mind, Luo Xiu stood up from the desk, left the monastery, and walked out of the bishop's throne.

……

Thomas and other players, led by the priest Mayyev, have arrived at the gate of Red Maple City.

While being escorted to Red Maple City, Thomas and several other players who were immersed in the experience tried to ask Maiev some questions.

Later, they discovered that the "priest" in front of them was not as solemn, majestic and unattainable as he looked. On the contrary, Mayyev was actually quite talkative and answered all the questions raised by the players.

Thomas learned some relevant background from Mayyev.

The Nolan Empire where they were located was engaged in a "Judgment War" with the neighboring "Dark Principality". The Red Maple City, located on the border of the Nolan Empire-Songyuan Territory, was one of the frontline fortresses in the Judgment War.

The situation in Red Maple City is now quite serious. There are dark troops outside, waiting for an opportunity to strike, and there are various enemy secret organizations lurking inside, which may cause damage to the city at any time.

But in such a serious situation, the "three major bases" of Red Maple City - the Red Maple City Church of the [Glory] destiny, the Border Court of the [Supreme] destiny, and the Fangbei Court of the [Wisdom] destiny joined forces to stabilize the situation, smashed the enemy's conspiracy time and time again, and preserved Red Maple City to this day.

And Maiev belongs to the Red Maple City Church of the [Glorious] Destiny - the high priest of the church he follows is called "Roshu Carlos", the strongest among the extraordinary people stationed in the three destiny locations.

While listening to Mayev say this, Thomas was also thinking about other things.

...In other words, the fates of [Glorious], [Supreme], and [Wisdom] are the three starting families that a beginner can choose? Hmm... I wonder if there are other fates...

When Thomas was thinking about this, the panel naturally emerged in his mind and he opened the [Player Forum].

As expected, someone has already posted a sharing post about the discovered destinies - some people have already learned about the destinies of [Lost], [Bitter Tea], and [Red Lotus], but these three destinies seem to be established as illegal in the empire.

At this moment, Mayev was showing his ID to the guard at the city gate. While Thomas was waiting, he switched to the [World Channel] in his mind and happily chatted with the players around him.

"So this is Red Maple City. I wonder if this will trigger any main quests?"

"It should be possible. I've never seen a game that doesn't provide main quests..."

"really"

"The one upstairs, the soul wandering is missing brother Ada"

“Indeed.” “I’m more curious, is there any way to become extraordinary after entering the city?”

"really"

"I think that the destiny of [Glorious] might be very strong? You all saw it, right? Just now, that priest threw the brother with the ID 'Chasing Wind 666' to the ground, eh?"

"really"

"I'm going to say it soon..."

"Chalou, the essence of human beings is——"

"really"

"..."

Thomas watched the players chatting with great interest. Soon, the priest Mayyev finished negotiating with the guards, came back, and said to the players:

"You can go into the city now."

"After you enter the city, don't look around, and don't leave the team. I will take you to the church first to get new clothes and food."

After saying that, Mayev walked towards the city. The players followed him, looking around without taking his words to heart.

……

The medieval-style houses on both sides slowly appear in front of the players.

Because of the war, many house owners have fled to other places, which has left many windows covered with thick dust and most of the potted plants on the windowsills have withered.

However, even though there was a depressing atmosphere in the city, the guards were still patrolling meticulously in groups of two.

Occasionally you can see pedestrians in civilian clothes walking on the streets. Their faces reveal fatigue, but there is still hope in their eyes, and they have not lost motivation for life.

Thomas recalled that the priest Mayyev did say that "the situation in Red Maple City is serious", but he also said that under the leadership of the three major garrisons, the city has won victory after victory in the enemy's terrorist attacks.

What entered Thomas's field of vision was the real appearance of the city at that moment, which made Thomas vaguely think about something.

Of course, he soon saw the homeless man who was slumped against the wall of a house, spinning a bottle of wine with a dejected look on his face.

"...My home is gone...My house is destroyed!" The wanderer shouted with dull eyes, half whispering and half roaring.

"War... hiccup... damn war... how could those guards just let the enemy sneak in like that! We've clearly won time and time again... how come there are still waves of enemies sneaking in!"

"All the taxes we pay are fed to dogs! ...Hiccup."

"My house... woooo... my house... hiccup... that's the house that three generations of the Boltan family have worked hard to save up! Woooo..."

"..."

Thomas saw the tramp immediately raise the bottle and take another swig.

The alcohol content of the wine seemed to be quite high, and the tramp began to stagger.

Not long after, the patrolling guard spotted him, trotted over, cursed, "You damn bastard, what nonsense are you talking about again," grabbed his arm and carried him away.

Thomas looked at the back of the homeless man being carried away, and then looked at the clergyman Maeyev. He didn't seem to have any emotions about this, and his face was still serious.

"What happened?" Thomas took a few quick steps to Mayyev's side and asked.

As a player, he did not have any emotional investment in the scenes he saw, he just wanted to learn more about the background so that he could be familiar with the possible plot.

Mayev glanced at him and said calmly:
"Half a month ago, the 'Executioner' of the Black Army sneaked into Red Maple City, led the Black Fangs and Fang Heads, and caused serious damage to a large area of ​​the city."

"The man just now was the eldest son of the wealthy businessman Mr. Boltan. After his father passed away, he left him a house that covered nearly half of the street, and young Boltan made a living by collecting rent."

"However, because he had nothing to do for a long time and had a relatively stable and high income, Boltan Jr. became addicted to gambling. Under the inducement of his friends, he lost almost all of his property in an underground gambling house."

"Before the war started, he only had one house left. He had planned to sell the house, rent a house somewhere else, and live on the savings from the previous sale of the house. But the war suddenly came, and the enemy invaded Red Maple City, tearing down his only remaining house into ruins."

"Then - just like what you saw, little Boltan collapsed. He first ran to the city lord's mansion and made a scene, accusing the guards of neglecting their duties, which led to the enemy's invasion. Then he demanded compensation for all the real estate of his ancestors, including the ones he lost in gambling."

"Not surprisingly, he was kicked out of the mansion. He then came to the church and asked us to come forward to 'judge' Lord Nelson's crimes, but we sternly refused."

"But we didn't kick him out directly. The rules of the Holy Court and the teachings of the high priest all teach us to be kind to people in difficult situations. We wanted to introduce him to a relief center and help him find a job as a worker, but he suddenly said that he wanted to stick to the merchant honor of the Boltan family and said that we were in collusion with the mansion, and then he left the church."

"Haha, I didn't expect to see him here again."

"..."

Thomas was a little surprised. He didn't expect that a simple question would make the priest in front of him talk so much.

However, he did understand the general background.

After listening to Maeyev's words "immersively", Thomas felt that his understanding of the plot had deepened.

……

As Mayev and Thomas were talking about this, they were moving towards the church.

Finally, a solemn and majestic cathedral appeared in Thomas's sight.

It was a Gothic-style cathedral with spires reaching into the clouds and a majestic facade divided by vertical lines, making it appear tall and straight.

The church's porch is broad and solemn, the stained glass windows shine with colorful light under the sunlight, and the holy images on the stone carvings on the walls are lifelike, exuding a mysterious and solemn atmosphere.

Mayev led the players into the church and came to the inner courtyard.

Outside the vast courtyard inside the church, there was a light curtain of flowing Jinhua. It seemed to be some kind of barrier? Thomas tried to detect it, but could not detect anything at all.

The players saw that the "Priest" Maiyev walked to the front of the barrier.

He raised his hand, a golden light flashed in his eyes, golden light patterns appeared on the back of his hand, and his fingers gently touched the surface of the light curtain.

——Buzz! The light curtain flashed with ripples like water, and the golden light flowing on it gradually faded, and Mayyev walked in.

"Come in, I have lifted the 'Golden Barrier'." Mayyev then turned around and said to the players.

The players then walked into the inner courtyard, looking around curiously.

In addition to numerous sacred buildings that seemed to be of similar style but could not be named, Thomas also saw many clergymen walking solemnly through the inner courtyard, busy with their respective duties.

Thomas detected the priests and found that most of them could indeed detect relatively complete results. All priests had a [Glorious] destiny, and most of them had one or two destiny. So far, he had not seen anyone like Mayyev who could not detect the number of destiny.

This means that Mayev should be at least a priest of the "Triple Destiny"! Thomas guessed that the "high priest" they followed should be a priest of the "Quadruple Destiny"!
In addition to the novel buildings and clergy, Thomas soon saw other players who had "landed" near Red Maple City.

Those players were also guarded by "priests" in front and behind. A group of dozens of players had gathered in more than a dozen groups in the inner courtyard.

The priests brought them to a magnificent statue shining with golden light. There was an altar there. Thousands of players had gathered around it, seemingly waiting for something.

"Come with me." Mayev's voice then rang in Thomas' ears, and the priest in front of him led them to stand around the altar.

"What are they waiting for?" Thomas asked Maiev.

And when this question was asked, Thomas observed that a look of reverence and piety appeared on Mayev's face.

"Lord Rossou Carlos." Mayyev said solemnly, "He is the 'high priest' of the church and the one we follow devoutly."

……

(End of this chapter)