Vol. 3: Chapter 26
At 7 PM, the system finally posted the official event wrap-up.
System: The [WarChief Invasion] event has now concluded.
System: The top 3 players on the final leaderboard are: 1. Lila, 2. Hazel, 3. Rena. Special rewards have been sent to your inventories. Please check them.
System: The Points Redemption NPC will remain in your starting village for 3 days. All unspent points will be cleared afterward.
System: A total of 10,865 starting villages were conquered by the Burning Horde. These fallen villages are now territories of the Thunder Horde. The Thunder Horde is currently a neutral faction to all players.
Players were overwhelmed by the flood of notifications, but the last one caught everyone completely off guard.
"Neutral? What does a neutral Thunder Horde mean?"
"It means we can go in and out as we please."
"It's more than that. It means there are probably a ton of new quests waiting for us in there."
"Haha, I'm so tired of human female NPCs. Time for a change of scenery."
"Wonder if Orc chicks wear skirts… hehe. And I've always wanted to know what female Tauren... you know..."
"Bro, you're down bad."
"My man's thirsty for that fresh farm milk, huh?"
"That's a cursed thought, bro. I'm just curious what it's like to bang a female orc."
"You're even more cursed."
"+1"
"+2"
…
Just as the players were joking around, the real bombshell dropped.
System: New races are now available. Please discover them for yourselves.
An announcement that short could only mean one thing: it was huge.
The players who had been shitposting instantly shifted gears.
"HOLY SHIT, NEW RACES!"
"What new races? How do you unlock them?"
"Is this just for new characters?"
"Fuck it, I'm telling my son to create an account. Wait, can a five-month-old baby register?"
"Are you serious? If it's true, I'm deleting my character and rerolling right now!"
"Maybe it's a questline that lets you race-change!"
"Dude… the starting villages conquered by the WarChief! The quests have to be there!"
"You're right! I'm heading over now."
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"Wait, where's the teleport node? Is there a link?"
"Dammit, does that mean we have to run there on foot?"
"You guys have fun chatting, I'm out."
"I'm already halfway there, suckers."
In an instant, a quarter of the server's population started making the trek toward the Horde-occupied territories. Among the players who had lost their home villages, more than half of them were on the move.
When Godpath first launched, the default player race was Human. Only a select few had, by some twist of fate, become a special race.
There was Glytter from Crimson Bloom, an Elf; Gilded Hand, the leader of The Assemblage, was a Dwarf; and AlphaShade from the Aethelgard server was a Werewolf. In certain niches, these races were far superior to humans, and over time, the idea that "Other Races > Human" had taken root in the minds of many players.
Even Lila felt a spark of temptation and considered trying her luck. But one thing worried her. If she really did change her race, would Starlight Village still accept her? The thought made her hesitate.
I should talk to Kael about this, she decided. He's the Fourth Chieftain; he might know something about Starlight Village's internal settings.
Lila glanced at her friends list and saw that Kael was still offline.
Meanwhile, the members of Crimson Bloom were in a heated discussion of their own.
"Are you guys gonna check out the Horde villages?"
"I really want to, but I have no idea how to get there."
"I do! My village was one of the ones that got taken over. I'm heading back right now."
"Awesome, take me with you!"
"Me too, me too!"
Lila thought for a moment, then posted a short message in the guild announcements.
"If anyone finds a quest to change your race, feel free to start it, but don't complete it just yet. I'm going to find out if changing races will cause any conflicts with our status in Starlight Village."
"Got it, Guild Leader," the members replied in unison.
With that, Lila logged off as well.
Kael hadn't logged on since the afternoon. He was busy dealing with his old lease. Not for the villa at Cypress Point Estates, but for his previous place at the Oakwood Apartments. He'd gotten a call earlier.
"Kael, where the hell have you been!"
It was Zoe, his former landlady.
"Do I need to report my whereabouts to you?" Kael had replied with a chuckle.
"What happened to your apartment door? There's a hole kicked through it!"
Kael was baffled. "My door? A hole? It was perfectly fine when I left."
"How long have you been gone? I heard from Chad that you stole his girlfriend!"
Kael was speechless. "Then I'm pretty sure he's the one who kicked a hole in my door."
"Forget the door for a second. Where have you been all month? You haven't paid your rent! I go on one vacation abroad and you just disappear on me!"
"Oh, I moved. I'll wire you the rent money right now, just a sec."
"You think I care about the damn rent?" Zoe snapped, her voice rising with frustration. "Just give me a straight answer!"
Kael was confused. She had, in fact, just been talking about the rent.
When he didn't respond, Zoe's voice grew louder. "I'm asking where you went! Is what Chad said true? Are you living with another woman?"
Kael scratched his head. "Uh, well, that's not entirely accurate, but… it's not entirely wrong, either."
"You…" Zoe paused, then said through gritted teeth, "One hour. Same place, same spot." She hung up before he could answer.
Kael just shook his head with a wry smile and tossed his phone onto the couch.
His luck used to be abysmal. In-game, he could never get a good drop. In his career, he'd been framed by a coworker. In his finances, he'd been convinced by that same colleague to yolo his savings into a meme coin that promptly crashed by 99%. In his love life, he’d been brutally dumped. At his lowest point, he was surviving on a single hamburger every three days.
Zoe had been his saving grace. She was always finding excuses to waive his rent. Help her fix the washing machine, and a month's rent was waived. Help her pick out an outfit for a date, another month waived. He was deeply grateful to her. Without Zoe's help, his life would have been infinitely harder.
It was why, even after a month of living at Cypress Point Estates, he still hadn't officially moved out of his old place. A lot of his important documents were still there.
He had planned on logging back in to turn in his quest to the First Chieftain, but it looked like that would have to wait. He took a quick shower, changed his clothes, and headed downstairs. He saw Gable standing outside the villa and waved her over.
She hurried to his side. "How may I help you?"
"I need a set of car keys. I'm heading out."
Gable glanced at him, then pulled out a ring of keys, selected one for a Mercedes SUV, and handed it to him. "Will you be back for dinner?" she asked casually. "Should I have the chef prepare something for you?"
"No dinner for me," Kael said. "I'm not sure if I'll be back tonight."
Gable said nothing more. As Kael drove away, she looked up toward Lila's window.