Little Pink Starfish

Claude was first stunned, then so angry he almost coughed up blood. He sat at the respawn point for a long time before finally recovering.

Why was it always that BraisedSpicySnack? What kind of grudge did that guy have against him?

Back at the scene, BraisedSpicySnack was feeling quite smug. With so many hammers coming down in a frenzy, his surgical precision as an actual surgeon allowed him to land the final blow. Sure enough, the kill credit went to him.

After Claude was killed, the others simply went back to hammering walls with slight disappointment. They had no choice—they needed to earn more contribution points.

They didn’t think much of it, but to outsiders, the scene was downright disturbing.

Camis, for one, had decided he absolutely couldn’t keep doing this job. The once-steady knight was starting to feel like his worldview was cracking. His mental state was officially taking damage.

“Looks like you really have to be careful when accepting quests. Some might be total traps,” a player concluded.

“Yeah, this game’s totally different from traditional ones. If you just blindly accept every quest that pops up, you might end up regretting it hard.”

“Like the folks still in Starfall Plains. Pretty sure they’re still questioning their life choices, lol.”

The players were in high spirits, laughing at Claude’s misfortune while analyzing the current situation.

“So, Kui Wolf is considered an enemy faction NPC? Which faction is he with anyway?”

“No idea, but he seems like your classic scumbag slaver.”

“So that means the Thorned Rose faction we joined is the ‘good’ one?”

“Eh, not so sure. Look at what we’re doing.”

“Yeah… fair point…”

They were in the middle of tearing down an entire street, and some native NPCs were watching them with expressions full of grief and rage.

Even as the players were having fun, Camis felt chills down his spine—and so did Claude.

“What do I do now? I got kicked from the faction!” he moaned.

Players had already figured out that quests in this game were really hard to trigger. Now that Claude had lost access to the faction’s mainline quests, he had nothing left. Was he really going to have to go fight those deadly rabbits in Starfall Plains?

No way. Claude knew he wasn’t the combat-heavy type of player.

In real life, he was a rich kid with no real talents beyond his looks. He wasn’t as smart as his older brother, who ran the family business, but with money and low expectations, life had been pretty comfortable. Even this closed beta account had been bought at a high price. But this full-immersion game didn’t support pay-to-win mechanics—his cash power was useless here.

In just a few days, he’d already died multiple times. It was depressing.

Just then, he got a notification—someone was private messaging him.

“Getting kicked from the faction sucks, huh?”
Sender: BraisedSpicySnack.

Claude exploded. “What the hell is wrong with you? You kill me and then come mock me in DMs? Where’s your sportsmanship?”

BraisedSpicySnack replied, “No, no, not mocking. I’m trying to help you figure out how to fix this.”

Claude: “How?” He asked, eager for a solution.

BraisedSpicySnack: “Check your faction favorability. Did it drop into the negatives?”

Claude: “No, it’s just that all the favor I had is gone. Now it just says neutral.”

BraisedSpicySnack: “That’s not bad. Go back to the manor and try to rejoin the faction.”

Claude realized that made sense. He quickly got up and ran for the manor. Right now, everyone was working on faction mainline quests, and no one had unlocked any other storyline. For now, the players had no other real options.

This game had insanely high freedom, but players were still in the early stages of exploring. And Claude, not exactly known for his intelligence, wasn’t about to go off and pioneer some obscure new questline. Better to play it safe.

When he got back to the manor and met Neil again, Neil glanced at him but didn’t say anything. Soon after, Claude got a system notification—he’d successfully rejoined the Thorned Rose faction.

But before he could celebrate, he saw another message.

Claude: “Damn it! I got back into the faction, but the system says because I betrayed the faction once, I’ll get -10% rewards from all faction quests from now on.”

That debuff was brutal. He was almost in tears.

BraisedSpicySnack, seeing Claude’s update in chat, turned to the nearby players and said, “Welp, looks like we really do have to be careful with quests in this game.”

Honestly, he’d suggested Claude try rejoining the faction just to test the system. Did he actually care? Or feel guilty about killing Claude?

Of course not. It was just a game.

Compared to Claude, BraisedSpicySnack—top of his class and already successful in his career—clearly had brains to spare.

Pei Sen had been watching the whole drama unfold on the forums. He turned to Eagle and asked, “That human trafficker Kui Wolf in the city… is he connected to Varys?”

He didn’t believe for a second that a slaver would go negotiate with players over one street. That kind of move felt more like something Varys would do—someone who was heartbroken over Casey City being destroyed.

Eagle, setting aside his cat toy, replied lazily, “Probably.” He’d never cared much about these things before.

Pei Sen thought to himself, yeah, that city lord really is scum.

What he didn’t know, though, was that the guard squad sent by the manor was now totally freaked out—not because the players were too strong or anything, but because they were just too unhinged.

So when Camis came to beg Eagle for a different assignment that evening, Pei Sen was completely confused. Camis was a manor guard—his job was basically to keep an eye on the city guards and make sure they didn’t interfere with the players smashing things. It was a super chill job. The manor guards were far stronger than the city guards, and the city guards were all cowards anyway. What was the problem?

Yet there Camis stood, looking like he’d do literally anything as long as he didn’t have to go back to that job.

“Let’s hear your reason,” Eagle said, clearly disinterested.

Camis hesitated. Honestly, he felt embarrassed even saying it. As a knight, his mental toughness should be above average… and yet… He snuck a glance at Pei Sen, standing calmly beside Eagle. Pei Sen seemed completely normal. So why were the other Bixians so wrong?

“If you don’t have a reason,” Eagle said irritably, “you’re going back tomorrow.” He waved a hand, clearly done with the conversation.

In a panic, Camis said, “Young master—please send me to collect stargrass instead. I’d rather go to dangerous Starfall Plains.”

But Eagle said flatly, “No need. Not this year… don’t bother.”

Camis was desperate. “Young master—”

“Get lost.” Eagle had no interest in continuing.

Camis left dejectedly. Pei Sen caught up to him and patted his shoulder kindly. “Captain Camis, what happened out there?”

“It’s nothing, really… It’s just… those Bixians are kind of… terrifying.” He tried to phrase it nicely, but couldn’t find any better words.

Pei Sen immediately understood and gave him a sympathetic smile. “No need to be scared. They’re actually pretty weak. I’ll leave tomorrow’s shift to you, then.”

Camis: “…”

He was at his limit. That night, he went to find Sadin. After all, Camis was one of Sadin’s people.

Sadin listened to everything he said about the Bixians and pondered for a moment. “I’ve never heard of that race before,” he said thoughtfully. “But Pei Sen doesn’t seem unusual at all.”

“They’re nothing like Pei Sen!” Camis blurted. “They kill their own kind without blinking, and even after killing someone, they’re still smiling. It’s like… like…”

“They don’t care about killing,” Sadin finished for him. “Camis, you’re strong, but after years of protecting the young master, you’ve gone soft. Your will isn’t firm enough. Since the young master assigned you this task, just keep doing it. Their strength isn’t high—observe them for me. If anything happens, come report.”

Poor Camis had no choice but to go back and spend another day watching the players tear down Casey City.

But Varys was having an even worse time.

He wanted to stop the players but didn’t dare further anger Eagle, who was clearly still fuming over their last encounter.

“My lord,” Fel suggested, “The young master’s birthday is coming up. Why don’t we prepare a generous gift and offer a proper apology?”

Varys was reluctant, but he had no better option. “By the time we do that, half of Casey City might already be gone…”

The players were moving faster than Varys expected. In just half a month, half the city was already in ruins. Varys was now stomping around the city lord’s manor in a daily rage.

Pei Sen finally had to go meet the players in person—because the first group of extremely hardworking players had finally earned enough contribution points to redeem items from the faction store.

As Eagle’s personal steward, Pei Sen was now highly respected wherever he went. Even Neil, the manor’s logistics officer, treated him with extra deference thanks to past favors.

The players saw Pei Sen walk out in a sharp black suit and immediately started whispering among themselves.

“Damn, he looks like a serious NPC.”

“You didn’t hear the others? That’s the faction leader’s personal steward.”

“Ah, no wonder.”

“But the system lists him as a faction merchant NPC named Pei Sen? Weird translation—shouldn’t it be ‘Payson’ or something?”

“Who cares? The system gives us auto-translation anyway. It’s not like this is English. Sounding it out works fine.”

“True.”

The female players, however, had different thoughts entirely.

“Holy crap, this NPC is hot.”

“Like, really hot.”

In any game, handsome NPCs were always popular. Pei Sen’s looks gave him a serious edge. Before long, the forums were flooded with screenshots of him. Even players who hadn’t gotten into the game were screaming over him in the threads.

But some of the comments Pei Sen saw made him feel… uneasy.

“I wonder what the count looks like—hopefully he’s a total hottie too.”
“Ooooh, hot count x handsome butler?”
“I like it hahaha.”
“That pairing is cute. I love master-servant ships.”
“Come on, a guy called the Thorned Rose Count has to be good-looking, right?”
“Ahhhh I want to see our faction leader and his beautiful steward together.”
“I officially ship them.”
“+1.”

Pei Sen: “…”

He suddenly really didn’t want the players to see what Eagle looked like.

Not because of his personality—but because, appearance-wise, that young master really was flawless.

Gamers had no boundaries. Artists and writers in fandoms especially loved creating fanworks based on games. And sometimes… those fanworks could get very spicy.

Pei Sen was already getting a very bad feeling about all this.