Game of the World Tree

“Sigh, what have the players been teaching him? How did he end up like this?”

Observing Thranduil through his designated star within her cosmic network of faith, Evé was left utterly dumbfounded.

To think that this rascal learned how to hoodwink female players using his charm and discreetly schemed how to make them do his chores without them even realizing it…

This wasn’t the kind of Elven royalty that I wanted!

Her original intention had been to utilize the combined knowledge of Alice and the players to produce an elven royalty that would possess the integrity and nobility of traditional Elves, while also acquiring the out-of-the-box thinking and shrewdness of the players, thereby giving Thranduil a much broader perspective in life…

However, clearly things turned out way differently than her original vision.

Moreover, this wasn’t the end yet.

Eve’s divine sense remained fixed on Thranduil, even as he mingled with the players until their barbecue party drew to a close.

Through her observation, she ascertained that Primordial Elves do indeed possessed extremely high talents, and they also obviously had a higher capacity of intellect in comparison to their other normal fellow elven brethren.

It was evident in how Thranduil effortlessly tricked Alice when she checked up on him, describing the barbecue party as a fruit party instead, and making the Saintess thoroughly believe it without a shadow of a doubt.

She also saw him mingling among the players with a smile, holding a goblet full of fine wine as he made rounds with every player present within the party.

By the end of it, he had garnered a great deal of favor from everyone and freely obtained several sets of newly developed properties from Moe Moe Committee, alongside a premium pair of white gloves made of wolf skin.

Then, he sold them to other players who came later to the party…

Furthermore, Evé also saw Thranduil rubbing shoulders with some veteran players, whilst effortlessly pulling out all sorts of risqué jokes from earth, which in turn made them laugh boisterously.

These veterans then treated him like a brother, and as if capitalizing on this newly formed brotherhood, Thranduil shrewdly convinced them to willingly accept a ‘special’ task from him that initially appeared to be really prestigious but in actuality, just grants very low rewards.

Clearly, Thranduil was the one who organized the party, but from start to finish, he almost did nothing. All the party preparations and grunt work, including the final clean-up, were done by the players themselves without them even realizing it.

Thranduil accomplished this by employing a range of cunning verbal tactics to subtly deceive the players. Nonetheless, the players themselves remained blissfully unaware that they had been invited to the party only to end up as his willing, cost-free laborers.

Meanwhile, Thranduil was enjoying it all with a smile from beginning to end, and no one was the wiser.

Along with Aél’s two little sisters, who had been following the Primordial Elf, the three of them merrily enjoyed the party to its fullest, with the latter teaching the two girls even more peculiar things…

Sometime during the latter part of the party, a minor incident occurred wherein Alice and Berserker were unexpectedly invited by some players and stumbled upon the barbecue stall. There, they caught Thranduil and the two little girls eagerly drooling and waiting for the roasted meat to be cooked.

In that instant, Alice’s expression swiftly changed.

Although the natives had gradually become more accustomed to the Chosen One’s penchant for meat after interacting with them for some time, turning a blind eye to it was one thing, but seeing it firsthand was another experience entirely.

Especially more so since this time, it was Thranduil, the Elvenkind’s sole royalty, who was caught red-handed!

However, Thranduil, this conniving rascal, still managed to appease Alice with just a few words, while at the same time also discreetly pinning the blame onto the players for the incident with the barbecue.

He discreetly shifted the blame to the two Northeastern players he had invited to attend the barbecue party, who were actually the ones in charge of cooking the meat.

These guys were greeted with a scolding from Alice, but in the end, they were still really grateful to Thranduil for coming to mediate the situation and diffuse the Saintess’ ire.

As an apology, Thranduil also assigned them the ‘special’ task with low rewards, which the two happily accepted.

Everyone present at the party had seen the commotion and how Thranduil handled it, which made everyone praise him even more and appreciate his social aptitude.

“Thranduil is really awesome.”

“Yeah, not only is he handsome but he’s really so cool too!”

“I’m really grateful he gave us this special task…”

In response, Thranduil just merely smiled charmingly, waved his sleeves as they fluttered through the air, and left gracefully, his back exuding an aura that’s practically oozing with “my job here is done.”

Leaving everyone in complete awe as they watched his departing figure slowly disappear into the distance.

Evé: “…”

“Yep, he’s thoroughly crooked…”

She muttered, while shaking her head in sheer disbelief.

At the same time, this whole ordeal left her completely puzzled.

If she remembered correctly, she had forewarned Alice in advance, when teaching Thranduil along with the players, not to impart any strange knowledge or habits to him, lest he develop in a strange direction…

So how did Thranduil end up like this?

Apart from his appearance, he is no longer an elf on the inside, isn’t it?

Sure, he has the necessary skills as a leader, but what about his habit of drinking and eating meat, especially his black-bellied personality that masks his shrewdness with a smile?

Just who teach him all those dirty and lewd jokes?

Taking a deep breath, Evé quickly began to investigate what knowledge Thranduil had been taught this entire time…

When she first allowed the players to become Thranduil’s teachers, she had specifically made a requirement that the players must first record in a log all the knowledge they were imparting before teaching it.

Therefore, she quickly dug up Li Mu’s record logs…

“Let’s see…Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance¹…? I can sort of understand why Thranduil needs to learn this, but what on earth is ‘The Thick Black Theory ²? And ‘I’m Not Teaching You to Cheat ³’ what’s that about? is Li Mu afraid that Thranduil won’t be devious enough?”

Looking at Li Mu’s record logs, she was at a loss for words.

However, upon seeing the anecdotes and personal commentary of Li Mu and the reasoning behind why he let Thranduil read these books, Evé in a way understood his intentions…

Essentially, Li Mu felt that the elves were simply too naive and needed to learn to become more cunning.

Of course, that’s just how Li Mu wrote it in his records, but Evé seriously doubted that was his only intention. If she were to guess, this guy probably did this with the ulterior motive of testing the full extent of the NPCs’ capability to learn things.

However, even if it was him, Li Mu probably didn’t expect that his student could learn these things so quickly, right?

After all, among the players who were unknowingly hoodwinked, Li Mu himself was included as well…

With just a paltry reward of 100 contribution points, Li Mu happily accepted the task of helping Thranduil clean his house.

Incidentally, Thranduil’s residence is also located in the Chosen City. It’s a stunning three-story villa, constructed by the Moe Moe Committee’s Construction Division.

Evé roughly estimated that the house’s price was at the very least worth 200,000 contribution points…

Anyway, it’s definitely not something an ordinary native elf could acquire.

As for where Thranduil learned all those dirty jokes, Evé also figured out the source.

Because this rascal hangs out with the players almost every day, he must have learned it from them…

“It’s sort of amazing in a weird sense… Fortunately, as a primordial elf, his loyalty to me won’t ever change, and despite his tendency to manipulate players to serve his personal purposes, he still maintains a moral boundary and refrains from engaging in truly reprehensible actions.”

Evé consoled herself within her mind, while also deciding from that moment on that the other primordial elves would absolutely not be allowed to be taught by players anymore.

And if, by any chance, they were to be taught, she would personally select the teaching materials herself!

“Speaking of which…those two little girls have also been corrupted by Thranduil. Sigh, I wonder how Aél would feel when he finds out.”

Thinking of the two adorable little girls following behind that black-bellied rascal, Evé could do nothing but shake her head incredulously.

This discovery made her curious as to whether this trio were the only elves that had undergone these peculiar changes.

With slight apprehension, she began to inspect the other green stars within her faith network one after another…

Moments later, upon further observation, Evé also found out that some of the other normal native elves had also undergone some significant changes under the influence of the players.

Some of them have indeed been influenced, learning various entertainment activities and lifestyle habits from players such as playing poker and tabletop games like Warewolf ⁴ which is quite popular at bonfire parties.

Without her realizing it, these things have slowly become popular among the native elves…

Evé even saw some elderly elves setting up tables on the streets of Florence, playing what appeared to be mahjong with four similarly aged individuals gathered together…

There was even a group of elderly people in the vicinity crowding around, watching.

Watching these old elves excitedly slap down wooden mahjong tiles, while joyfully shouting, “Hú Le!” ⁵

Eve: “…”

To say that this scene was eye-catching would be an understatement.

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【 SIMPLY TOO EYE CATCHING 】

¹ 资治通鉴 – The Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government (Zizhi tongjian) is a comprehensive historical text that covers Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD. Its purpose is to offer guidance to rulers based on historical precedents.

² 厚黑学 – Thick Black Theory is a philosophical treatise written by a disgruntled Chinese politician and scholar born at the end of Qing dynasty.

³ 我不是教你诈 – I’m Not Teaching You to Cheat is a book published by Liu Yong . This book mainly teaches people how to behave better by telling some stories.

⁴ 狼人杀 – Werewolf is a multiplayer strategy tabletop game that uses language description to promote and compete in eloquence and analysis and judgment

⁵ In Mahjong, “胡了” (hú le) is often exclaimed when a player wins the game. It means “I won” or “I’ve won.” It’s a colloquial phrase used to announce victory in the game.

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