It was an abrupt meeting because all of Maria's subordinates had gathered together to first report things to Ash who then rushed over to her and requested an audience after sounding all anxious and worried.

Once the meeting started, Maria sighed after glancing at her subordinates who were visibly nervous at the activities of the players that they received from various reports which didn't seem to make any sense in their eyes. Instead of causing a whole bunch of chaos, they were going around the towns and villages nearby Heltania City, and helping the residents out?

Even though this was supposed to be a good thing, they didn't forget what their Empress told them. The players were a chaotic factor that was unpredictable. Right now, they may be helping out the people and not causing any trouble, but later, they might be doing something else and causing a lot of trouble.

Maria felt like it was her fault that her subordinates were all acting this way. Even though the players were a chaotic factor, it didn't mean that the chaos they'd bring would all be bad. One example of the players being a good factor for her nation was the contribution they were making to the Dire's economy. There was a rise in sales traffic of various different products and services in Heltania City since the players' arrival and this trend was only continuing to rise as more and more players began coming to Vanhal and choosing the Dreyra Continent as the place they were going to start in.

She sighed and quickly addressed the worried vampire duke along with the rest of her subordinates, “Calm down, Ash. I know everything already, so don't be too worried. The soldiers are doing as we planned, yes?”

“Yes…most of the players arrived in the area where we first arrived in Vanhal, the Blood Plains. Most of them have gone to Heltania City or to one of the nearby settlements. For those that went to the city or towns, the soldiers ordered them to head over to the nearby villages instead.”

"Good, everything's moving according to plan?"

"For the most part, yes."

The Dire's soldiers that were acting as city and town guards were all directing the players over to the villages in the area around the Blood Plains. Even before the whole fiasco with the [Identity Crisis] quest that was generated by the system, Maria had already planned for the players to go to the villages where she would round them all up and have her subordinates mark anyone that seemed suspicious.

The system only helped her by generating the quest to get IDs to enter the cities and towns, so there were no conflicts when the soldiers disguised as guards asked the players to move to the villages.

Maria wasn't just going to let all the players head into any of her cities or towns right away since some of them might start some trouble when they get in. She wanted to mark these people first and that was why she wanted to round them up in the villages where the villagers could act as her eyes and ears to judge the players while giving them out quests.

The NPCs who were helping Maria out in this endeavor had their jobs lightened a whole lot thanks to the system generating quests for the players. Thanks to the quests and their generous rewards, the players became extremely obedient which was so convenient. The obedient players that only followed the quests were temporarily marked as 'good' players while the ones that were purposefully trying to start some trouble or weren't doing their quests were all flagged by the NPCs gathering intel as people that needed to be observed or even detained.

Maria was making full use of her power and copying a certain country's security system methods to help her keep track of the players that she deemed could be problematic. Since she had become the leader of one of the two main powers of the planet, this was all fortunately possible as long as her subordinates executed her commands well.

Thankfully, things were moving along quite swimmingly because her subordinates were all very capable people. One of Maria's subordinates came in half an hour later to report that the first batch of documents from the villages that 'marked' the players had finally arrived, so she quickly dismissed her other subordinates and told them to start filing those reports and organizing them.

Once they were finished, Maria wanted her people to execute the next step of her plan which was only the monitoring of the individuals flagged in the reports as dangerous or suspicious. After receiving their orders, everyone quickly left except for Ash whom Maria asked to stay behind since she had a few things to say to him.

“The plan will proceed as we’ve previously arranged. Nothing's changed. In fact, things have become a whole lot easier for us thanks to some help~”

Ash didn't know where this help was coming from, but he only bowed in agreement with his Empress, “Yes, Your Majesty. I'm glad that everything's moving along as you've envisioned, but are you certain that we should open up Transylvania to them?”

“Of course we should, Ash. Didn't you read the reports from Heltania City? It hasn't even been a few hours, but all the businesses there are booming! The players are spending left and right without a care and are contributing greatly to the city's economy! We naturally need to bring all of that good fortune over to Transylvania! Of course, there will be a screening since we can't just accept anyone into the capital," Maria said with a smile on her face.

"A screening?"

"Yes, I've already arranged a custom questline for the players using my authority as the Blood Empress. Only those that complete this questline can enter Transylvania and the only way to obtain the first quest of this questline is to have a good reputation with the people of Heltania City and receive it from the city's City Lord.”

“That's an excellent plan, Your Majesty!” Ash asked. "However, if we limit the entry to the city, will it not cause some dissent from the rest of the players that couldn't get in?"

"Hmph, I don't care. If they can't even get the starting quest and complete the questline, then they simply aren't worthy!"

"I understand, Your Majesty."

“Even though things are still calm right now, make sure to keep a close eye on the players. If any of them try anything funny, you know what to do..." Maria uttered coldly. "I don’t need any troublemakers on my continent."

Now this was something he expected the most from his Empress, so Ash nodded and gladly said, “Yes, Your Majesty. It will be done.”

“Mhm. Anyway, you can go now, Ash. I’ll be going out with Cali and Lilah to meet a few of my friends. I trust that no one will screw things up while I’m out having my own fun, right?”

“Please trust in us, Your Majesty, and may you have a pleasant time on your outing.”

After saying this, Ash bowed and quickly left the hall. He and every other executive-level figure of the Dire all had their work cut out for them now that the players had arrived in Vanhal. These players were a chaotic factor that couldn’t be completely controlled no matter what Maria did, so the best thing she and her people could do was monitor them and lead them towards a path that would benefit their nation the most.

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This was the solution Maria had decided upon with her subordinates after months of thinking and planning. She didn’t know if it would work since it revolved around the premise that she needed to have the power to give the players quests, but thankfully, the system was working in her favor and even generating random quests on its own for the players.

There were plenty of other contingency plans in case this one didn’t work, but Maria could scrap all the other ones since their main plan was set in motion with the help of the system. Now, she could leave her palace with her mind at ease and go do her own thing, like help out her friends arrive much quicker to Transylvania.

Maria decided that beyond doing that, she wasn't going to help them out in any other way. She didn’t want to show any blatant favoritism because that would only dissuade others from trying to find opportunities in her land.

If they saw her trying to prop up Lizzy and the others, the rest of the player base would think that only the Fallen Angels guild, along with those other guilds Maria was close with, would reap the most benefits on her continent, while the rest would just get scraps. She couldn’t have that so Maria was going to make her friends and family members do the quests just like everyone else, though she would be there to help out a little just to hasten the process.

Maria quickly summoned both Cali and Lilah to her side before smiling when she received a few notification messages from her friends.

Lizzy: Mary, where are you?! Sky: Maria, I got separated from a few of my friends. They say they’ve landed in Vanargand, which direction is that from the Dreyra Continent? Lilith: Mary? Me and my friends landed on the Vanargand Continent! How do we get from here to Dreyra?!

She read through all of the messages and quickly replied to each of them. She told Lizzy that she was on her way to Heltania City, the place they agreed to meet at, with Lilah and someone special.

To Sky, Maria told her that, unfortunately, her friends were on the other continent and said to her that she could help her get over there if she wanted to go there, or she could help her friends move to this continent to reunite with her, since there was already another group who wanted to move to Dreyra from Vanargand anyway.

Sky agreed to the latter, so Maria quickly sent a message to Lilith. She asked if Lilth and her friends could group up with Sky’s friends and head to Dreyra together. Once they grouped up together, Maria instructed that all they needed to do was head towards the Dire-occupied Territory that was on the Vanargand continent and take a ship to the Dreyra continent.

Unfortunately, Maria still hadn’t finished constructing a teleportation gate that connected her nation’s main land with the Dire colony on Vanargand. Moving by ship was the only reliable mode of transportation to get from one continent to the other at present.

The teleportation gates on both continents were still under construction, but if they had already been built, Maria would probably have taken over the Vanargand continent by now because, with a fully functional teleportation gate, she could move troops and supplies from Dreyra to Vanargand with ease. This was the only thing Maria found rather regrettable, but unfortunately, not everything could go according to her plan.

“Ah, there’s a few more…From Gerald and…big brother Mika?! I-I didn’t know he played Unitale! What the heck?” Maria exclaimed in surprise when she read Gerald’s message which stated that he and Mikael were on Vanhal together.

“How come I’ve never heard anyone say that big brother Mikael was playing Unitale?”

Once she replied to all of the messages, including the ones from Gerald and a few others, Maria walked out of the hall and took a carriage to the Bathory Duchy. A lot of things had changed in the duchy, but it was mostly its infrastructure which was now much more advanced and neatly organized than before.

After a quick visit to check up on Carmilla, Maria continued moving towards Heltania City. A good few hours had passed inside of the game since the players had arrived, so there were quite a few players now inside of the city.

Since they had agreed to meet up in the city, Maria assumed that her friends had already gotten their IDs. Unfortunately, Maria couldn’t just hand over the first part of the Main Story Quest to them because the system didn’t allow it and the only way they could receive the quest was if they aligned themselves with the Dire and racked up enough 'Good Reputation' with the nation.

After that, only then would she be able to 'hand' them the first quest of the planet's Main Storyline. This was the same for the rest of the players, including the ones on the Vanargand Continent. This was actually a good system because it ensured that Maria wasn't able to be nepotistic about the planet's Main Story Quests whether she liked it or not.

Even though she didn't want to show any favoritism to her friends, it was inevitable that she would considering that's just how people acted. When you were with your friends, just about anything goes. Fairness and morality were just blatantly thrown out the window. Thanks to the system, however, she could confidently say to her friends that she couldn’t help them out with the Main Story Quest at all and had to be fair about the whole process.

This honestly saved her from the guilt of rejecting her friends when they eventually asked her for some help with the Main Story Quest. Since the system didn't allow it, she was helpless to do anything and could innocently just say that her hands were tied. With the system involved, her friends would naturally understand her position.

However, it was only the Main Story Quest that had a restriction placed on it. Maria could still help out her family and friends in many other ways. Previously, she had compiled all sorts of information regarding the continent she was ruling and now, she was going to give all this information to her friends. The information would definitely give them get an edge when searching for hunting spots, dungeons, mining fields, etc. Who knows, it might even help them get clues about the sub-quests for the Main Storyline.

Maria decided that she wasn't going to withhold the information. Other players could get their hands on it as well. All they needed to do was find the hidden information brokers that Maria had placed in all the cities and towns of her nation and they could buy it from them. These information brokers were deemed as hidden NPCs by the system, so if players wanted to find them, then they needed to either be lucky or smart.

“It hasn’t been long since I’ve last seen them, but it feels like it’s actually been forever…”