A New World, an immersive game experience

Or so Eldrian thought. Yet, Zaphreal did not ask for his help. Quite the contrary. "I called you here to inform you." The older man said. His next words hit Eldrian like a truck, for it was something he knew was true.

"You're just as much of a wild card as these scientists. Many want to stop you from running around as you are, but... well. Let's just say there isn't a consensus about you."

"I asked to you to come here because I wanted to show you we, or at the very least, a few of us here, can be trusted. Sadly, I know my words won't count as much, but I hope you can contact your old friends within the company."

"Specifically," Zaphreal continued, "if you can reach out to Joren, it would be for the best. The AI trust him more than any other developer."

"Why?" Eldrian asked, cautious of ulterior motives Zaphreal might hold.

"The reason is simple. Your current system is unique, but that is problematic."

Qiren jumped in here to explain further. "So far the problem wasn't major because The System, calling itself Ziraili, has been covering for you. However, to do so requires their active focus."

"With the new update, this will only become a bigger strain on them." Zaphreal continued. "And depending on how things evolve, you might be cut out from even more functions."

"Why would you care about this?" Eldrian asked.

"Because having an anomaly with a separate gaming system is questionable at best." Qiren replied. "Just think of it from the other players' perspective. It's unfair. If we allow it to continue as is, then we won't be able to fix the game."

"Fix the game?"

"You might not see it as one, but it is still what the public considers it. This new update is supposed to align with public opinion. Naturally, we can't ignore you if we wish to normalize things." Qiren clarified.

'I see...' Worried about certain functions of his unique interface, Eldrian had to ask. "But what of the unique functions I have? Scouting the enemy is crucial for the kingdom's defense."

"We know. We are planning on including the function in all the players' menus. It will need to be updated to accommodate everything else, regardless. Adding new functions as easter eggs is easy enough."

That was simple enough, but Eldrian felt confused. Was that truly all they wanted to share? What was the point of asking him to come here?

Airing his concerns, Zaphreal expanded a bit more on the reality of things. Sharing several possible futures depending on how things develop. However, in nearly all of them, he asked Eldrian to wait before acting. To contact them first.

By the end of it all, Eldrian wasn't sure how to feel about everything. He still didn't think he could fully trust them, but acting blindly would be just foolish and blind trust. Waiting a bit before doing anything seemed the best option available to him.

Yet, he could not shake the feeling that it was all too simple.

"Are you sure this is alright?" Qiren asked after Eldrian had left.

"Yes. It is best to ask him to stay out of it all. If he joins in on things, then all my predictions will become far less likely to develop as we wish. We can't predict how he will react. His actions often defy the norm."

Eldrian spent the rest of the time waiting for the update to finish at his sister's. Catching her up on everything and asking her to be careful.

Listening to her uni and work experience, Eldrian truly felt the vast chasm between his life and that of a normal person. Yet, he was happy that his sister did not need to constantly worry about things.

Sadly, he couldn't find it in himself to keep her in the dark. While he kept things as light as he could, focusing on the fact that he was no longer a wanted man, he had to warn her of the possibility of magic becoming a reality.

—

"That was more or less it." Eldrian said, conveying the news to those in the know. The update had finished and ANW was up and running again.

As one would expect, the NPCs (non-player-characters) felt awkward hearing that five days had passed, yet not a single second had flowed for them.

"Well..." Elizabeth frowned. Naturally, plenty of what Eldrian had shared was beyond crazy. However, it seemed crazy would be in their future. Bringing magic to Earth was certainly an insane idea.

"Do you think they will succeed?" Nikki asked. For now, the group had decided to keep the information between a select few in the guild, and, of course, the few NPCs who were also in the know.

"I honestly do not know. But mana already exists on Earth, even if it is limited. For now, we can only pray that things move forward slowly—and smoothly."

​ Problems were ever more likely if things spiraled out of control. A sudden increase in mana density would also prove problematic in countless ways.

Luckily, from the talk he had with them, Eldrian felt Zaphreal understood this. He couldn't accurately predict what the others in Miracle felt about it, but at least there was a voice of reason in the company.

"And what do you think this will mean for us?" Ceph asked, the first to recover from the news. Perhaps due to the fact that he was the most aware of what Earth was like.

"Hopefully, the company will change its mind. If the update is anything to go by, they are changing their plans. I doubt they'll bring the invasion to a close, but they might give us more resources to fight with."

Naturally, considering past invasions, even if they decided to end this one, it would take a couple of years. No invasion had been less than ten years, many had been up to a century long. It was expected that most kingdoms be lost and only the empire and a few key kingdoms remain as bastions against the invading hordes.

"Thus, we should place our focus on the new features." Turning to Elizabeth, Eldrian asked if she could use the enemy search function.

"Yeah, but it's more limited than yours. Only show dots around the city at the moment." Taking a look, Eldrian felt that her search function was simply on the wrong settings. After a bit of fiddling, they found the option to increase the radius.

"Wow, this is expensive." Elizabeth mumbled. Unlike Eldrian's map, hers cost coin and XP to unlock.

Actually, Eldrian's did now too. However, he had already figured ways around it. The coin cost was supposedly a consultation fee, but since he could change things without needing Ziraili's help, he could skip that cost. His trails were already coming in handy.

"It is, but this means we can have more monitoring the condition of the kingdom, which is great news."

The options available to Elizabeth were local, city-scale, regional, multi-regional, kingdom, multi-kingdom, and so forth. However, the cost of even just kingdom scale wasn't something a normal player could ever afford. Requiring ten thousand gold and 10B XP. To afford it without losing multiple levels, you would need to be at least level 45.

City-scale, on the other hand, only cost a hundred gold to unlock, and 50M XP. While still hefty, it was affordable. Regional had a sharp increase, going to a thousand gold and 1B XP. Certainly not affordable for everyone, but if each group of players could have 1 person with this unlocked, it would be a godsend.