Little Pink Starfish

Pei Sen lay on the bed, thinking leisurely. Players were, by nature, unpredictable. But once a quest system reined them in, the majority wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation.

He casually scrolled through forum posts, pondering his next move.

Then, he came across a particularly funny thread titled:
“Didn’t eat anything after entering the game, and now I’m getting a warning that I’ll lose mobility if I don’t eat soon?? Am I gonna starve to death?!”

Starve to death? Yep. In Bix Magic Cube, you could actually starve. Go too long without food or water, and you’d die just like in the real world.

Of course, the system was kind enough to give all new characters a piece of dry bread and a jug of water. This player had likely just forgotten to use it.

But it was already nighttime. With how the citizens of Casey City viewed players, it was unlikely anyone would take them in. And nighttime here often meant danger.

Not everywhere was like the Golden Rose Manor, equipped with magic crystal-powered lights. In this world, night meant darkness.

Pei Sen was sure someone like Kui Wolf wouldn’t let the night go to waste.

Still, players probably wouldn’t mind “triggering” such an event. But the outcomes? Well… unpredictable.

That said, players were now under system protection, unlike when Pei Sen had first entered the game, before such protections were in place. These current players could definitely throw Casey City into chaos.

Pei Sen scrolled a bit more before closing the page. He finally turned his attention to the treasure chest in his inventory. Honestly, he wasn’t that excited about it—this was a storage account anyway, and it wasn’t lacking in good items.

He’d always been the hoarding type. Others might toss stuff when their bags got full. Not Pei Sen. “What if I need it someday?” Even though Bix Magic Cube didn’t have a tiny inventory, Pei Sen still created alt accounts just to store more stuff.

He’d considered selling off some unused items before, but never got around to it. Now, all those hoarded items had become an unexpected advantage.

So while A-rank chests were rare, an A-rank chest below level 10 was unlikely to yield anything impressive.

Pei Sen opened it casually. As expected, no surprises. In fact, what he got was even worse than he’d dared to expect—as always, his luck was solidly “non-lucky.”

Soldier’s Sword
Physical Attack: 15–25
Magic Attack: 3–5
Durability: 100

It was a basic weapon for swordsmen, and pretty decent for the early game.

In Bix Magic Cube, weapons came with both physical and magical attack stats. Certain special weapons even had unique effects. Armor was similar, with physical and magical defense. The way to tell an item’s intended class was usually through the stat distribution.

A-rank chests guaranteed purple-quality items. B-rank gave at least blue (with a low chance at purple), C-rank at least green, and D-rank usually just garbage white-quality gear. The highest tier was S-rank, which could contain truly top-tier loot.

To be honest, just being able to trigger an A-rank active quest below level 10 was already incredibly lucky. But his level limited what kind of loot he could get. If it had been materials, that’d be fine—but weapons? Less useful.

“Right now, everyone in the game is a swordsman except for me. So maybe that’s why I got a swordsman weapon,” Pei Sen mused.

Normally, story chests had a low chance of dropping gear for a different class. But since the game didn’t even have a mage class yet—except for him—everyone else was a swordsman.

With that, Pei Sen had a pretty good idea of what was going on.

“Well, doesn’t matter if it’s my weapon or not—it’s not going to be anything amazing.”

He tossed the matter aside and fell into a peaceful sleep. As for the fresh wave of players, they were all still high on excitement—intent on staying logged in until they drained every bit of stamina.

Bix Magic Cube had a stamina cap—max 20 hours of in-game time per day. And to fully restore stamina, you had to be logged out for at least four hours. That was the upper limit, though most regular players only played about 10 hours a day anyway.

But ever since Pei Sen came to this world, he hadn’t been able to “log out.” Instead, he recovered stamina through sleep. And even better, he didn’t need four hours—his stamina drained slower and recovered faster than a regular player’s.

So while Casey City and the forums were reveling in chaos and excitement, Pei Sen had already drifted into a deep sleep.

After all, tomorrow he had to go serve the young master again.

---

When he woke up, for a moment, Pei Sen thought the events of the previous day had been a dream.

Morning at the Golden Rose Manor was always busy. Eagle, despite his bad temper, had a surprisingly healthy and disciplined lifestyle—unlike most kids his age.

Since he rose early, the whole manor had to move early too.

Pei Sen washed his face and rushed to Eagle’s room. Maybe because he had saved the young master again yesterday, the manor servants were extra respectful to him today. They all probably assumed he had a bright future ahead.

After helping Eagle get dressed, Pei Sen went to the kitchen to check on breakfast.

As a personal attendant, Pei Sen technically didn’t need to fetch food himself. But being new, the lower-ranking staff had bullied him into doing it anyway.

Today, however, a male servant was already waiting. The moment Pei Sen arrived, he smiled ingratiatingly. “You’re the young master’s attendant—no need to do chores like this. I’ve brought the tray outside his room; you can just carry it in.”

The man’s tone was extremely humble.

His name was Neil, one of the servants stationed outside Eagle’s room—mostly to do odd jobs. He especially liked ordering around the more timid maidservants.

With Eagle’s notoriously bad temper, most of the maids who stayed were, unsurprisingly, soft-spoken and passive.

Neil had been at the manor for years, still a second-class servant. But now Pei Sen, after leveling up, already had better treatment—comparable to a first-class servant. And since he was an “outsider,” his title sounded nicer—“butler” instead of “servant.”

Neil, despite acting high and mighty, clearly knew how to survive.

Pei Sen smiled, took the tray with one hand. “It’s fine. It’s not that heavy.”

The tray was actually quite heavy for normal people. Neil had struggled with it earlier, which is probably why he didn’t want to carry it.

But Pei Sen was level 7 now, with a Strength stat of 42—far beyond human standards. He effortlessly held the tray with one hand, cheerfully heading toward Eagle’s room.

Behind him, Neil stared, stunned by his brute strength.

“Sigh, I’m supposed to be a fragile, delicate mage…” Pei Sen muttered. Then stopped in his tracks.

Sadin, the manor’s chief steward, was standing ahead, watching Pei Sen approach. He seemed slightly surprised to see Pei Sen handling the heavy tray so easily.

Pei Sen walked up and greeted him politely.

Sadin eyed him thoughtfully. “You’re quite strong.”

“Yes—just born that way,” Pei Sen replied, trying to look a little shy. He didn’t dare mention that he’d only get stronger with more level-ups.

Then Sadin turned to Neil, who had followed behind.

“Neil, take the tray.”

“Y-Yes, Chief Steward.” Neil didn’t dare argue.

Watching Neil struggle to carry it, sweat beading on his forehead, the contrast with Pei Sen was painfully obvious.

“Hold out your hand.”

Pei Sen had no choice but to comply. Sadin’s hand was large and calloused. As an eighth-tier swordmaster, he had both talent and years of discipline. Reaching this level at his age was no small feat.

Compared to him, Pei Sen was still a nobody.

Even using all his strength, he couldn’t break free from Sadin’s grasp.

Finally, Sadin let go. Pei Sen didn’t complain out loud, but mentally he was whining—My hand’s gone numb! Thank goodness his pain sensitivity was set low; otherwise, it would’ve really hurt. He wasn’t sure if the steward had done it on purpose.

“Pei Sen, your magic talent isn’t that great. Why not learn swordsmanship instead?”

Pei Sen looked up, stunned. “Chief Steward, are you saying…?”

He couldn’t! He was a mage. He only had a mage’s stat panel. Even he knew how bad he was as a mage.

Sadin smiled. “Your magical aptitude is poor, but I think you’re better suited to being a swordsman.”

Pei Sen paused, waiting for a system prompt—but nothing came.

So… no job change?

Then something struck him—he only had a mage’s panel, yes, but he also had an NPC panel!

What if he didn’t switch classes as a player, but trained like an NPC would? What if he became a powerful swordsman the old-fashioned way—through hard work and effort?

Why not? Swordsman had a much lower entry barrier than mage. Sure, rising to the level of swordmaster required talent, but becoming a low-tier swordsman? Totally doable.

Pei Sen suddenly got excited. He looked up and said, “Teacher, I’d like to learn swordsmanship!”

Sadin: “…”
He hadn’t even agreed to take him as a student yet, and this guy was already calling him teacher like it was the most natural thing in the world.

But Pei Sen was already thinking:
“I may be a mage, but a mage who only wants to be a mage isn’t a good player!”

And behind him—

Eagle stood silently. Expressionless.
As if… preparing to unleash a storm.