Little Pink Starfish

Pei Sen was ecstatic—and he wasn’t the only one. The other players were just as thrilled, for one simple reason: getting a quest in this game was ridiculously hard.

Sure, there seemed to be plenty of unique NPCs, but actually receiving a quest from them? Extremely rare. The guide NPCs only offered tiny tasks with little to no EXP. Most of the NPCs in Casey City treated players like monsters—running away the moment they saw one. At that rate, only players with god-tier charisma could even hope to land a real quest.

Only a few had been lucky enough to get roped into quests because Kui Wolf had his eye on them.

So when the faction main quest arrived—it was like rain falling after a long drought.

“But wait, if we’re joining this faction, there should be an opposing one, right? Can’t we choose?” a player asked.

“Choose? Dude, you can’t even find another faction on the map.”

“This game’s way too open-ended. It’s nothing like a normal MMO!”

“It’s not just VR. The NPCs here are scarily intelligent. I’m guessing it’s because we helped that Eagle Lanno guy fight off the lich that this main quest appeared!”

“……”

That theory actually made the most sense. Everyone noticed the key faction NPC listed was none other than the young noble they had protected in that timed mission: Eagle Lanno.

So logically, this faction quest was probably a direct consequence of the players’ earlier actions.

“There’s probably no choice right now,” said player BraisedSpicySnack, glancing at the players he’d gotten friendly with. “We triggered a timed protection mission on day one. This is likely a follow-up. For now, as new players, we’re locked into the Thorned Rose faction. Maybe more options will come later.”

“Agreed.”

Thus, without exception, all 200 first-wave players surged toward Golden Rose Manor.

—

Meanwhile, Pei Sen had already handed a brand-new set of blueprints to Eagle.
“Young master, before we can build, we must first destroy. Didn’t you say you wanted to tear down your fief? Doing it now won’t raise suspicion—it’ll just seem like you’re finally acting on that intent.”

Ding! Player Pei Sen submitted [Casey City Construction Blueprint – I]. Contribution Points +1000.

Pei Sen understood clearly: this 1000 points was already the doubled reward from his bonus. It showed just how hard faction contribution points were to earn. But since Eagle was the faction’s figurehead, Pei Sen naturally belonged to this faction—unlike other players, who started out as “neutral.” He had a major head start.

Eagle looked surprised. “You can draw blueprints?”

“Yes, young master,” Pei Sen smiled.

This was his original profession. He had assumed it would be useless here… but now he remembered the design studio he had just started with a partner before he transmigrated.

It was a painful memory.

As an architect, Pei Sen had worked tirelessly for years before finally co-founding a studio—only to find himself transported to this fantasy world.

The blueprint he handed in was a prototype—just part of a larger plan. He wanted to see if the system would accept it and whether there would be any reward.

Now that it worked? He could keep designing.

“And young master, I can teach Neil how to craft some materials. But first, we need people to ‘clear out’ the designated area.”

Destroying all of Casey City to rebuild it was a bold move—but to Eagle, the destruction was actually the fun part.

“Destroy first, then be reborn?” Eagle chuckled, clearly delighted. “Excellent. Let’s tear down Casey City first. In fact, I’ve changed my mind—I won’t kill Walis just yet. I want him to watch as I destroy the city… then I’ll kill him.”

City Lord Walis had always treated Casey City like it was his own private property. Even though he knew Eagle was technically the real lord, he still acted like he ruled the place.

If Eagle tore the whole city down—and Walis didn’t realize it was part of a reconstruction plan—it would probably break him.

“We can get the Bix tribe to help,” Pei Sen added. He estimated that it’d take about a month to demolish Casey City. It was early autumn in this world—the lingering heat of summer still present, and the nearby farmlands were nearly ready for harvest. Even if residents were driven out, they wouldn’t immediately starve.

Besides, the original inhabitants of Casey City weren’t exactly honest, hardworking folk. Anyone who could survive under the oppressive rule of Walis and the underground syndicates like Kui Wolf’s was likely far from innocent.

Truth be told, the atmosphere in Casey City was so toxic that Pei Sen didn’t think there were many residents truly worth saving. It was practically a den of sin, where most people were either connected to or spying for the criminal factions.

One month to destroy the city—and by next month, the second wave of testing would begin, bringing in 2000 more players.

The biggest difference between players and native NPCs?
Players don’t care about morality. Offer them a reward, and they’ll do the work.

And those rewards didn’t even have to come from Eagle—the game system would handle that. For Eagle, players were ultra-cheap labor.

As someone who had played this game for years in his past life, Pei Sen understood players better than anyone.

Sure, the majority would accept the tasks for the rewards, but there would definitely be a few players who weren’t interested in any of it.

Yep. The hardcore combat players. All they wanted to do was fight monsters, not play construction simulator.

“Young master, we’ll need a lot of materials during construction. We’ll also need mages to assist. The Starfall Plains have plenty of resources that mages can use, right?”

Eagle nodded, “Yes, but the Starfall Plains are dangerous.”

“What about the outer edges?”

“Those are better, but the area’s so desolate that even adventurers tend to avoid it.”

Compared to Starfall Plains, adventurers in the Kingdom of Esmia had far more lucrative areas to explore. The plains, located beyond the Askin Mountains, weren’t exactly top-tier hunting grounds. There were just… better options.

But Pei Sen didn’t think this was a problem.

The players—whose respawn point was just outside Casey City—couldn’t explore too far just yet. So the outer edges of Starfall Plains made the perfect early-game training ground.

Even better, it was time to teach the players that combat in a full-immersion game was nothing like keyboard mashing.

This world was real enough that even hunting animals would be a surprising experience.

Pei Sen was certain the combat-focused players would soon be humbled by the most innocent-looking wildlife.

After all, the creatures here were far stronger than anything on Earth. Even a cute little bunny that resembled a wild rabbit might actually be a Savage Jumping Rabbit, a level-1 magic beast that dropped Wind-elemental magic crystal fragments.

Fun stuff.

“Young master, how many mages do we actually have at the manor?” Pei Sen asked. Ever since arriving at Golden Rose Manor, he’d only seen Kesso and Kesso’s apprentice, Bersa.

Eagle thought for a moment. “Sadin mentioned we have a mage team. But they’re weak. Around seven or eight beginner-level mages and a few dozen apprentices. Only three mid-level mages. As for high-level…”

He paused, looking disgruntled. “Only Kesso.”

He sounded disgusted saying it—but Pei Sen was stunned.

In this world, mages were extremely prestigious. Even magic apprentices were respected. Adventuring parties would welcome a mage trainee with open arms.

But the manor’s mages? Total freeloaders. Even when Eagle was nearly assassinated, none of them had done anything.

The real muscle of the manor came from the guards—mostly swordsmen and knights under Sadin and the security chief Ichabod. Their entire squad was elite.

There were also elite assassins like Aken and Jekko, who were almost never seen but could be hiding in any shadow.

Compared to them, the mage group was… trash.

Golden Rose Manor was already a strong power in its own right. Pei Sen now realized that Duke Burke Angre hadn’t exactly abandoned his son.

The level of manpower protecting Eagle wasn’t something a mere “borderland count” could possess.

So for players, joining Eagle’s faction was definitely a good deal.

At that moment, the players finally arrived at the Golden Rose Manor. Naturally, Eagle didn’t bother meeting them. The one temporarily managing them was the newly promoted Steward Neil. Even Pei Sen didn’t show up.

Neil led six male servants to greet the players in the front hall. Per Pei Sen’s instructions, they nervously interacted with the bizarre and energetic Bix people (aka players).

Thankfully, the manor’s staff had been warned in advance. While overwhelmed, they managed to hold their ground against the players’ nonstop weird questions and successfully handed out their tasks.

“You can accept both combat and construction missions!”
Players were ecstatic. Some had even formed squads. Though everyone was a swordsman class for now, grouping up still made them stronger.

Combat Missions: Head to Starfall Plains to collect materials.
Construction Missions: Very simple for now—flatten Casey City.
Players could also learn basic life skills like logging and gathering from a servant standing next to Neil.

More advanced construction skills weren’t available yet—Pei Sen hadn’t taught them to the staff.

Pei Sen didn’t need to micromanage the players. With the in-game forums buzzing, he could learn everything.

He already knew that around 50 players had headed to Starfall Plains, while the rest had grabbed giant hammers and stormed off toward Casey City.

Smash the city. Demolish everything. This was Step One of the construction quest.

Wait—wouldn’t this anger the NPCs? Wouldn’t it damage the players’ reputations? Couldn’t this lead to revenge from locals?

LOL. Do players care?

Absolutely not.