Little Pink Starfish

Pei Sen was excitedly scrolling through the forums while thinking about the faction contribution points mentioned in the game quests. According to the information, these points could be used to purchase items… so there should logically be a faction merchant. But he had no idea who that merchant was, even though he was already considered an internal member of the faction!

Just then, Eagle suddenly asked, “Pei Sen, you’re a Bixian too. If you want these people to work, what kind of rewards should you offer them?”

Pei Sen paused, thought for a moment, and said, “Young Master, is there anything in the manor that’s no longer being used? Like discarded weapons, armor, or maybe some leftover materials… Or maybe there are blacksmiths or carpenters in the manor? We could have them make a few things. Nothing fancy—just something simple as a reward would do.”

Eagle nodded. “As the lord, I have the right to forge weapons, but only basic iron ones. I could also ask the mage apprentices to craft some low-grade magic inscriptions.”

Magic inscriptions could enhance weapons and equipment. Pei Sen’s eyes lit up. “Young Master, there’s no need to bother the mage apprentices for now—I can draw the inscriptions myself.” Although the ones he knew were only entry-level, they were more than sufficient for players below level 10.

Unexpectedly, the brat snorted. “No way. Where would you find the time for that? Just let the apprentices in the manor handle it.”

Pei Sen: “…”
He actually wanted to do it! Not only could he practice and improve his skill level, but if players bought magic inscriptions crafted by him, he might even get some rewards!

His progress in magic inscriptions and magic circles had stagnated because he hadn’t had access to the materials needed to practice.

But the young master wouldn’t agree.

To him, having Pei Sen by his side was the most important thing. He’d barely tolerated him spending time drawing magic circles—there was no way he’d allow him to do anything more.

Pei Sen tried every trick in the book to persuade the brat to let him do it, but it was all in vain.

Seeing how disappointed Pei Sen looked, the brat lifted his chin and said, “Alright then. Since you’re a Bixian, you can be the one to hand out rewards to other Bixians.”

Eagle didn’t actually want Pei Sen to be occupied by anything else.

And just like that, Pei Sen suddenly found himself becoming a “Faction Merchant NPC.” When this title popped up on his NPC panel, even Pei Sen was startled.

Along with this new role came a note: “When players exchange items using contribution points, 10% of the contribution points will be collected as commission.”

That was easy to understand—for example, if a player spent 1,000 contribution points, Pei Sen would receive 100 points. However, the items in the shop weren’t his personal property—if he wanted something from it, he had to use his own contribution points just like the players.

At the moment, there weren’t many great items in the shop, and everything had limited stock. Most of the goods were discarded or surplus equipment from the manor’s guard unit—but the guards at the manor were extremely high-level. Even the equipment they threw out still looked pretty powerful.

The lowest-tier item was the “Damaged Iron Sword (Golden Rose Manor make—though slightly worn, still incredibly sharp).” It could be used from level 8 and had slightly less attack than Pei Sen’s Soldier Sword. It was still purple-tier gear.

The highest-tier weapon was the “Gale Sword (Damaged),” which required a level 40 swordsman to equip. Even Pei Sen was amazed by its attack power.

Of course, since these were items replaced and stored away by the manor, most were labeled as “damaged.” Normally, players might get angry receiving broken gear, but these players didn’t care at all.

What did “damaged” even mean? It was just a label. Players cared about stats and item quality. Who cared if it was “damaged”?

A broken artifact was still infinitely better than a flawless piece of junk!

In addition to weapons, there were various armors, a few gauntlets and waist guards, and even a small number of rare accessories—likely produced by the mage group.

As a faction merchant NPC, Pei Sen found he had access to an exchange panel. Players gathering materials in Starfall Plains could trade those for contribution points. Most of the listed items were standard, but the last one caught his eye: Stargrass.

Its description read: “Count Eagle Lanno’s favorite flower is blooming stargrass.” It had no other apparent use—likely something Eagle personally wanted.

“Well, he’s still not even fifteen years old yet…” Pei Sen sighed. “Come to think of it, isn’t his birthday coming up?”

To the players, this was nothing more than a game. Pei Sen used to think that way too. But now that he was trapped in this “game world” and had been in the manor for so long, he realized these so-called NPCs were actually living people. He was in a psychologically complicated place.

Take the bratty, hard-to-please Eagle—
The more Pei Sen got to know him, the more he realized that beneath the temper and arrogance, the kid was honestly kind of pitiful.

His life had turned out this way simply because no one had ever given him the freedom to choose.

After lunch, Eagle took his usual nap. Pei Sen snuck off to find Sadin the steward, since he still had to learn swordsmanship from him. Sadin wasn’t always at the manor, so Pei Sen had to make the most of the time.

At first, Sadin was a bit awkward about being called “teacher,” but gradually got used to it. He noticed that Pei Sen had remarkable strength and assumed he might be talented. Given Sadin’s personality, once he agreed to teach, he took it seriously—every lesson was solid and thorough.

“As expected, becoming a swordsman without the player panel is no easy feat,” Pei Sen muttered, his arms sore and weak.

Unlike other players, Pei Sen had an NPC panel. That was why he tried learning swordsmanship from Sadin. Still, unlike player swordsmen who had shortcuts, Pei Sen had to work hard like any local NPC—only through training and dedication could he become a true swordsman.

If it weren’t for the system’s granted physical capabilities and his naturally high strength stat, he probably wouldn’t even be able to handle it.

Modern people really are too soft.
In this world, strong local swordsmen had to grind their way through years of relentless training. Some worked hard their entire lives just to reach that level.
Compared to them, players were truly the embodiment of “effortless success.”

Training was so exhausting that Pei Sen was drained by the time he returned to Eagle’s side in the afternoon. The brat noticed his tired state and got annoyed, making things even harder on him. When Pei Sen finally got back to his room that night, he almost passed out from fatigue.

Still, he remembered that today was the first day players were taking on the faction’s main quests. He quickly climbed into the forum to see how things were going.

Players were demolishing buildings in Casey City with remarkable efficiency.
They didn’t care about the resisting residents—but neither did they go out of their way to hurt them. For the most part, players only cared about the quest. Anything unrelated was irrelevant. Of course, there were always a few who, when provoked, wouldn’t hesitate to kill NPCs. However, thanks to the city guards and manor guards sent over, most of those urges were quickly suppressed.

Still, some hostile glares were cast their way—but players didn’t care at all.

They couldn’t be bothered.

Accompanying the players to Casey City was a guard captain under Sadin. Several members of his team had once trained under Defense Officer Ichabod. In terms of fighting power, they completely outclassed the city guards. With their protection, even though the city lord Varys wanted to intervene, he dared not act rashly.

Even so, Guard Captain Camis found the Bixians a little terrifying.

They were indeed diligent—more so than any slaves he’d ever seen being whipped. Even though the manor only provided basic lodging and meager rewards (barely enough to hire a frail old laborer in the city), these young, strong workers didn’t seem to mind. They were even satisfied with the rewards. They would rush in, eager to start, fearing they’d do less than others.

Among these ragged folks were many beautiful women—or at least, Camis thought so. They didn’t seem like they should be doing this kind of work, yet there they were, hammering walls with terrifying force.

Even the men among them, based on their appearance and demeanor, far surpassed ordinary commoners. Some even tried to befriend Camis along the way. He realized that nearly all Bixians had received some education. He was seriously puzzled—why would a group of well-educated, attractive young men and women with even some swordsman training be willing to do such grueling labor for so little?

Hammers slammed endlessly into walls. The residents of Casey City watched with resentment, but the dusty foreign workers only hammered harder.

In a single day, this efficient demolition crew took down an entire street.

When they returned to their lodgings at the manor, they found they could now view the faction store catalog. Though they didn’t yet have enough contribution points to buy anything—and hadn’t met the faction merchant Pei Sen—the items listed had them drooling.

Compared to the demolition crew, the team that went to Starfall Plains had a much rougher time. They never imagined that monster-hunting could be this hard!

It made them question the meaning of life.

Normally, starting enemies in games were easy pickings, right?

“We might as well go back to the city and smash walls—at least it’s simple and gives good XP,” one player lamented on the forum.
“Our whole party got chased by a rabbit.”
“Same here—boohoo, we couldn’t even win. That rabbit was vicious!”
“Thank god it’s just a game. One poor guy in our party got kicked to death by the rabbit—his head got squashed flat.”
“You’re telling me that thing was a rabbit?!”

Screenshots on the forum did, indeed, show a rabbit—gray fur, red eyes, even kinda cute.

It tilted its head as if to say: Welcome to Starfall Plains. In a fight? You’re all trash.

In just one day, the players were utterly demoralized, both physically and mentally.

Pei Sen laughed so hard he forgot how tired he was.
Combat in a full-immersion game wasn’t as simple as they’d thought.

More importantly, Pei Sen didn’t even believe this was a real full-immersion game anymore.

“Bix Magic Cube… what are you, really?”