Elf Kingdom: Game of the World Tree

*What a good kid, but unfortunately, he just talks too much.*

Looking at Demacia with a face full of grievance after being blacklisted by two female players, Li Mu shook his head with a smile.

He exchanged a few words to ease the awkward atmosphere, then walked toward the gathering place of the Nature's Heart Guild members with a few guild companions...

A lot of people came from the Nature's Heart Guild.

Li Mu's arrival naturally caused a small sensation at the scene.

As the Guild Leader of Nature's Heart, he quickly mingled with the guild members he recognized, and laughter frequently came from the gathering point of Nature's Heart.

"Brother Mu! Is that Brother Mu?!"

While Li Mu was meeting and greeting the guild members, a voice filled with surprise came over again.

Li Mu turned his head and saw a girl in a purple evening dress being surrounded and escorted by a dozen players.

She looked to be in her teens, like the main character of the scene, with delicate and cute features, resembling a porcelain doll, with a hint of innocence between her eyebrows.

However, a differently parted hairstyle added a touch of maturity to her appearance. This maturity mixed with that hint of innocence didn't seem out of place but instead made her appear vigorous, youthful, and beautiful.

*This age…*

*This temperament…*

*This outfit that clearly didn't come cheap…*

*And this highly recognizable loli voice…*

"Little Xian Miao?"

Li Mu raised an eyebrow.

"Bingo! You got it! My name is Chen Guoguo, ID: Little Xian Miao~! Haha, after collaborating so many times in the game, I finally get to see your real face, Brother Mu!"

The young girl was very happy.

Li Mu also smiled,

"Yeah! I didn't expect you to be so young. *I feel like I'm getting old*."

"Humph! I'm not that young!"

The girl pouted, her cheeks puffing up adorably.

Then, she clapped her hands happily and took the arm of another girl next to her, who looked about twenty years old.

The other girl was about 1.7 meters tall, with a clean appearance. She had her hair in a ponytail and wore thick glasses, giving off an extremely competent vibe, along with an intellectual beauty.

"Brother Mu, guess who this is?"

Little Xian Miao chuckled.

Li Mu was momentarily stunned, then laughed and said,

"It must be Gu Gu Niao, right?"

The only female player who could be this close to Little Xian Miao was Gu Gu Niao.

Uh, there was also Feng.

However, Li Mu thought the girl in front of him looked more like Gu Gu Niao in terms of demeanor.

Though Feng, the always-smiling player, was undoubtedly a hidden master—likely the strongest Druid player across the server—Li Mu always felt he couldn't quite understand her. He would even feel a bit reserved around her sometimes... *It was a bit of an odd thing, now that he thought about it.*

*Perhaps it was the aura she brought into the game from real life, but who knew what she did in reality.*

Upon hearing Li Mu's guess, the girl with glasses nodded gently and said to Li Mu,

"Gu Qing, game ID: Gu Gu Niao."

Indeed, she was Gu Gu Niao.

Gu Gu Niao's self-introduction was brief, and her voice was slightly tense, but Li Mu detected a hint of joy in her tone.

Well, she was also an old acquaintance of his in the game.

The two had frequently taken on Saintess Alice's quests together, teaming up to take care of kids.

Uh… Elf Clan kids.

Even though they hadn't met in real life, they were very familiar with each other's voices.

"Haha, finally got to meet you in person, the top student of the Elf Kingdom!"

Li Mu joked with a laugh.

After exchanging a few words, his gaze rested for a moment on the members of the Mengmeng Committee behind Little Xian Miao, and he asked,

"Didn't Box Lunch come this time? And what about Feng? Little Xian Miao, didn't you say she put a lot of effort into organizing this gathering?"

"Feng had something come up and couldn't make it."

Little Xian Miao pouted.

"The captain too, something came up at home and he couldn't come."

Another male voice said.

Li Mu looked over and found that it was a tall, thin boy who had responded.

The boy looked to be seventeen or eighteen, with a somewhat scholarly air, and his smile was very clean, exuding a strong bookish vibe.

He gave Li Mu a shy smile and introduced himself,

"Hello Brother Mu, I'm Hu Lu, my real name is Hu Lu as well—it's a homophone. My hobbies are gaming and reading, but... ever since 'Elf Kingdom' came out, it seems like I'm only gaming."

"Hu Lu?"

Li Mu's eyes lit up,

"So it's you! Box Lunch's teammate, the strongest Elf Mage in the whole server!"

"Hey, hey, hey! The strongest Mage is clearly me, alright? My combat power rating is more than a thousand points higher than his! And I have the highest enemy kill count in the battlefield!"

Little Xian Miao interjected discontentedly.

"Oh, come on, Miao, you're entirely relying on equipment to crush your opponents."

Demacia jokingly teased.

However, this earned him a roll of the eyes from Little Xian Miao,

"Demacia, your orders are not going to be discounted for the next two days."

"Holy crap! Miao, I'm sorry!"

"Hahaha…"

The place was full of laughter.

New players continued to come and greet them.

As the most famous player of 'Elf Kingdom,' Li Mu indeed enjoyed such treatment.

He met many player comrades he had fought alongside in the past.

There were both men and women, extroverts and introverts.

Everyone was very excited and full of enthusiasm.

He even met Transforming Ji Gang, the Guild Leader of the Autobot Guild, a sunny eighteen- or nineteen-year-old boy who seemed to have just started his college freshman year.

Of course, he also met Fried Tomato, who had always not seen eye to eye with him.

This player, who had always felt shadowy to him in the game, turned out to be a baby-faced youth in reality. The two even shared a small drink, completely mending their previous disagreements.

After all, 'Elf Kingdom' was unlike other games. Although there was competition among players, there was more cooperation.

Furthermore, the massive influx of players from the fourth test led to a subconscious banding together among the old guilds from the closed beta.

With this in mind, the small conflicts of the past dissolved with a drink, becoming nothing.

As time went by, more and more players arrived at the venue…

Some young, middle school-aged teens; some older—there were even middle-aged men in suits in their forties.

Both genders, all ages, and different professions gathered here because of one game; it truly was fascinating.

*Maybe when most players first arrived, they felt a bit apprehensive and reserved, even unfamiliar and uneasy.*

*But as they gradually found their friends from the game and began to integrate their in-game identities into reality…*

*Gradually, that indescribable feeling of familiarity and closeness brought everyone closer together.*

Thus, the entire venue was engulfed in laughter.

*Come to think of it, although most people hadn't met in real life, they probably knew more about each other than some of their real-life friends.*

*Becoming friends in a virtual world already meant having compatible traits.*

*Given a chance, becoming friends in the real world was naturally a matter of course.*

Li Mu sat on a sofa in the venue, drinking a slightly sweet fruit wine.

He watched the lively scene at the venue, listening to the sounds of jubilant laughter and the excited shouts from those playing board games, his smile growing softer.

*Being able to dive into this game's world…*

*Was truly wonderful.*