”Good night, Lord Leo.”
The video was not long, only a little over a minute, but Leo was in a daze, as if something deep in his heart had been touched.
Twenty or thirty years ago, he was not yet a corporate slave, but a chuunibyou who could come up with an ID like “Lord Leo.” He especially liked nurturing games and the feeling of cultivating characters, and “Fallen Chronicles” was undoubtedly very attractive to him at that time.
Because unlike other nurturing games, Fallen Chronicles was completely random, which meant that each player’s world was different, and the characters they nurtured were also unique to themselves.
This was also why Leo didn’t go play the current “Fallen Chronicles II.” Being busy with work was one aspect, and the other was that he didn’t like nurturing games where everyone had the same waifu or husbando after gacha.
The reason he chose to engage in director-type work was also because he liked this feeling of cultivation.
Unfortunately, the gap between reality and virtual was very cruel.
Returning from memory to reality.
So… there are still people who cared about me.
After changing from a boy to a corporate slave, what Leo received the most every day were numerous tasks and a list of requirements from his leaders. Not to mention others, even he himself seemed to have stopped caring about himself, leaving only work.
Now, seeing the characters he had once invested emotions in and nurtured reappear before his eyes, sending sincere greetings, as if these virtual characters really had some mysterious connection with him, knowing that he was anxious, staying up late every night and unable to sleep, thus reminding him to take care of his health and get a good night’s sleep…
As a corporate slave, reason told Leo that this was just marketing by the game company, a means to sell nostalgia. It was probably a video generated by some high-end intelligent AI. After all, games were fake. How could characters in the game really send him messages?
But, what is this strange feeling!?
Leo got up from the bed, turned on the computer, clicked into the game he hadn’t opened for a long time, and pre-downloaded the installation package for the latest DLC.
He admitted that he was hooked.
After all, in reality, no one had ever cared about him. Sometimes, occasionally immersing oneself in some virtual fantasies wasn’t so bad, right?
Of course, Leo let the computer download by itself and quickly crawled back into bed. He didn’t choose to play immediately.
After all, didn’t Lily tell him to rest well and not stay up late?
“Good night…”
In the dark room, Leo muttered softly, as if wanting to convey his voice to somewhere farther away.
And miraculously, this time, his mind was unprecedentedly calm. The anxiety that had previously hindered him had disappeared.
This time…
He slept very sweetly.
Leo was not an isolated case.
Renji sent such a “unique” email to each of the tens of thousands of “Fallen Chronicles” players.
As Renji had thought, after twenty or thirty years, things had changed.
The former players were now corporate slaves with busy and stressful jobs like Leo, parents who had started families and had children, lawyers who had become social elites, and top-notch chief physicians in the industry.
Of course, there were also authors who got stuck in writing every day and were scolded by readers, and those who were still good-for-nothing shut-ins.
There were… Those who had already passed away due to accidents and mishaps.
The reset version of “Fallen Chronicles” launched by Alliance was not done with great fanfare. This niche game that once had only tens of thousands of players indeed did not need too much public attention.
Retrieving the players’ save files was the first step. This was a bit difficult on the Blue Planet, so Renji chose to divide his forces.
Miyuki continued to stay on the Blue Planet, while he used the “cloak” that had been repaired by Miyuki to bring the succubus back to Fallen Chronicles World.
Renji and Lena began their journey on the World Tree together.
It was somewhat similar to the succubus diary back then.
They went to those parallel worlds on the Mother World Tree, the worlds of other players, bringing the seeds of the Child World Trees to their worlds, and then cooperating with Miyuki on the Blue Planet to establish new connections for these worlds.
In this way, they had the means to allow those former players on the Blue Planet to return to their worlds again, that is, the window to log in to the game.
What was left was how to get the players to come back.
As Renji had said before, “Fallen Chronicles” was a nurturing game. Players who could clear the game, to a greater or lesser extent, Renji believed that everyone must have invested quite a bit of emotion in it.
This feeling for the world, this feeling for the nurtured characters, might have faded a lot, become blurred, or even forgotten after twenty or thirty years.
What Renji needed to do was just add a little more push, a little more touch.
Calling the Mother of Miasma Lilith to join the team, Renji used Lilith’s ability to recreate the power of the Spirits of Old in other worlds.
The characters who had once served under the players as “saviors” were able to reappear. Although this was not a resurrection, only a temporary summon, it was already enough.
Whether for Renji or for these spirits.
Telling the truth about the players to these spirits, and using the player information collected by Miyuki to let them see the true appearance of the saviors on the Blue Planet.
The purpose of doing this was precisely to create the video that Leo saw earlier. This was also the most appropriate way of reunion that Renji could think of.
Renji had originally thought that this would be a bit difficult, requiring him and Lena to do a lot of psychological work on these spirits.
But to his surprise, the vast majority of the spirits, these characters who had once served under the players, did not express much intense reaction to such a truth. On the contrary, many spirits were more concerned about the players in the other world.
Even if these players had already shed that layer of “savior” halo and become seemingly just ordinary people.
No… Some players, such as failed authors, unemployed vagrants, shut-ins, etc., were even worse than ordinary people, complete and utter good-for-nothings.
Why could they infinitely tolerate the players, infinitely love the players, regardless of what the players’ true appearance was in reality, as if in the eyes of these characters, the players were always that one and only savior?
Renji, as a player, indeed might not quite understand.
But Lena’s subsequent words made Renji understand.
“Suppose on your world, there was a leader who could work tirelessly, disregard himself, not embezzle a single penny, even not take a salary, not have his mind corrupted by fame and fortune, and truly wholeheartedly strive for the country and his people. Wouldn’t you be like this person?”
The player was indeed such a character.
At least the players in “Fallen Chronicles” were like this, and this was already enough for the characters to overlook all the other flaws of the players.
Fortunately, the number of players in Fallen Chronicles was not large. With tens of thousands of players corresponding to tens of thousands of worlds, Renji and Lena could still barely handle it.
If there were one more order of magnitude, this plan might not have been feasible.
Additionally, this was still a process spanning several months, meaning that they had to continue holding out for several more months under the onslaught of the Source Lords.
However, whether it was Lena, Miyuki, Suthia, Nova, Zero… and the many spirits who were summoned to jointly resist the invasion of the “Source Lords,” none of them had the slightest complaint.
Because what Renji was doing was precisely the meaning of their struggle.
He wanted to re-establish the bond between the players and the worlds. This was also a process of mutual redemption.
The players who had once been “saviors” had saved their worlds. Now, they also hoped to help, whether it was the corporate slaves with anxiety and insomnia, the decadent and gloomy shut-ins, or the failed authors who were scolded every day, to become the light in the world of the “players.” Even if it was only in memory, being occasionally remembered could give them some kind of motivation and courage to move forward.
Finally.
With the curtain falling on the 9,465th world, the list of players given to him by Miyuki finally ended, and the invitation letters for the “Fallen Chronicles” DLC were sent out.
The reason why there were tens of thousands of players, but the final number was 9,465, was because it subtracted the deceased players and those worlds that had been completely devastated by the “Source Creatures” beyond repair.
Renji had already done his utmost.
As for whether the players were willing to return and help him fight this final battle with the “Source Lord” for control of the World Tree…
That could only be left to the bond.
freew(e)bnovel.