Little Pink Starfish

Compared to the quiet and tight-lipped guards, it was the onlooking players who were truly left speechless.

They weren’t too surprised to find that the man in the black cloak was Eagle, but halfway through the scene, most players started to feel sympathy for the young earl.

Elopement? Please. It was clearly just a pitiful little earl who’d run off with his personal steward to take a look at his own territory.

And that steward named Sadin? He didn’t look like a servant at all. Wasn’t he even more intimidating than the little earl?

Tsk, tsk, he was practically a scheming courtier who’d taken control of a child emperor…

By the time it got to the end, everyone just felt even sorrier for the little emperor.

“This entire manor, and not even one steward actually treats him as the true lord of the land. That’s just too sad.”

“The only one he can probably trust is Pei Sen.”

“Only Pei Sen really sees the little earl as his master.”

“Wuwuwu, he’s really so pitiful. What kind of god-tier romance is this?”

Players: ???

That last sentence—something’s not quite right about it, right?

Meanwhile, over on the forums, while some players were getting emotional about the “divine romance,” others had more practical concerns. Why wasn’t the quest marked complete yet?

Exactly. The events of that night were all laid out now. So why was the quest still incomplete?

That was weird.

“So, in other words, the young master didn’t just come out to patrol his territory,” said a female player named Lilith.

“Maybe it really was an elopement, hehe,” said another player, Aiwei, eyes lighting up.

“Come on. If the quest isn’t marked complete even after revealing an elopement, then it wasn’t elopement or a patrol. So what exactly did the little earl sneak out for?”

Lilith thought for a second. “Ah, romance. He ran away from home with his personal steward. Maybe they went to Starfall Plains to look at the stars!”

“Ahh, that’s so romantic.”

“My only trusted one, Pei Sen!”

“My only master, Eagle!”

Other players: “…”

The quest couldn’t be completed, and the players were a little disappointed. But today’s CG drama more than made up for it.

“Looks like Bix Magic Cube’s story writing is really solid. Our faction leader is the little earl. There might be a quest later to help him fight back. Did you hear Pei Sen mention a key person? Viscount Frey.”

“Oh, right. Said that guy sent spies into the manor.”

“Exactly. We might actually get to help the little earl regain power.”

“Now that I think about it, that sounds kind of exciting!”

Some players didn’t go back to the manor and instead rushed to post the scene online. Bix Magic Cube had built-in screenshot and video recording features, so the entire cutscene was recorded from multiple angles and uploaded to the forums.

Even players who missed the scene could now fully catch up.

The video was crystal clear, with even the dialogue recorded perfectly. It caused a total explosion on the forums.

“Is it just me or is something kinda off between the little earl and that personal steward?”

“What do you mean off? Looks perfectly on point to me.”

“Aaah, I knew it. They’re actually together!”

“It’s real! Pei Sen really likes the little earl. And the little earl really likes Pei Sen too!”

“I ship it. Gorgeous couple!”

“…”

The forums were a complete disaster zone.

Pei Sen sat calmly in the carriage. At this point, he was beyond caring. The only trouble now was that just looking at the thread titles could make your heart race, and some posts were even worse when you opened them.

“It’s fine. Probably just a temporary exaggeration,” Pei Sen told himself.

He looked across at Eagle, who was barefoot and already asleep, curled up on a cushion.

For someone as delicate as the young master, just one day out had completely worn him out.

There were two maids in the carriage. Neither dared disturb him. Normally, the servants were already afraid of Eagle, but after seeing him talk back to Sadin today, they were even more cautious.

Even though his current sleeping posture wasn’t exactly noble, no one dared to comment.

Eagle was curled up in the seat. At fifteen, he was already over 1.8 meters tall, but curled up like this, he seemed small.

Still just fifteen…

Pei Sen sighed and motioned for one of the maids to bring over a blanket. He gently laid it over Eagle.

No matter how mature he acted, he was still just fifteen years old.

He then looked over at Pex, who was sprawled out on his back, snoring lightly.

The cat seemed to sense it was about to return to being a pampered noble pet. It slept like it owned the place, even snoring softly. No concern for appearances at all.

After all, it wasn’t an ordinary cat. The maids didn’t dare get close to it either. One of them even gave it a tiny towel blanket.

Pei Sen wasn’t too familiar with what kind of creature a shadowcat was, but he was sure it was a magical beast. Different from normal animals, stronger, tougher—an upgraded version of a regular creature.

Eagle being exhausted made sense, but this cat? It had slept the whole time and still looked dead tired. That wasn’t right.

“Guess it’s time to start training you. You’re seriously useless right now. No regular cat is this lazy.”

The cat lazily opened one eye, looking confused.

Why are you picking on the cat? Cat’s just sleeping peacefully.

Pei Sen stared at it. After running one dungeon, Pex had leveled up ten times. It was now level 12, but still acted like a cowardly little pet that wouldn’t even fight a regular dog.

“You can’t keep living like before,” Pei Sen said seriously.

Pex blinked slowly. What are you talking about? Cat doesn’t understand.

Honestly, if not for this dumb cat, Pei Sen figured they wouldn’t have been found so quickly. It had totally exposed their position and was completely useless during the whole trip.

Next time, it better be helpful.

Under Pei Sen’s gaze, Pex shivered hard.

Master’s stare is terrifying. Cat wants to switch owners. Cat doesn’t want to fight. Doesn’t want to train. Doesn’t want to be strong.

Cat saw nothing but darkness in its future. At times like this, only a big steamed fish could heal its wounded heart.

Soon, the carriage arrived at Golden Rose Manor. Pei Sen looked at the still-sleeping Eagle, then at the two frail-looking maids. He had no choice but to carry him himself.

Luckily, at level 25, Pei Sen’s strength stat was far above average. Technically speaking, he was already a superhuman.

Eagle might look tall, but he was very thin. Carrying him didn’t feel heavy at all.

Pei Sen, under the gaze of the guards and Sadin’s icy glare, carried Eagle back inside.

He adjusted his posture to make Eagle sleep more comfortably, completely ignoring everyone’s judging looks.

They were clearly thinking things like “this is so undignified” or “so not noble,” but so what? Eagle had lived a noble and elegant life all this time—had it helped him?

Aside from the people in the manor, some players were still hanging around nearby, unwilling to give up on the hidden quest. They were hoping to find more clues before it failed.

When they saw the carriage return, and Pei Sen carrying Eagle inside, they instinctively started recording.

Back in the manor, Pei Sen immediately felt the pressure he hadn’t sensed outside. Even after a day and night of no sleep, running dungeons, he’d felt freer than he did in this gorgeous prison.

He carried Eagle into his room. Atwell silently entered, gave Pei Sen a bottle of holy healing potion, and said, “Use this on the young master’s feet. It’ll heal him quickly.”

“Alright,” Pei Sen nodded, eyeing the high-quality potion. Tch, using this for feet? Kinda extravagant.

Atwell left. Pei Sen knelt down to apply the potion, but Eagle woke up and saw him.

“Pei Sen,” he said. “Put the potion away.”

Pei Sen looked up just in time to see a soft white light glow on Eagle’s chest, healing his feet instantly.

“If you could do that yourself, why didn’t you—”

Then he realized. Eagle needed to keep the wounds to make the story believable. Unless Pei Sen had carried him the entire time, there was no way the kid could’ve walked that far and still been unscathed. Plus, it gave him something to throw in Sadin’s face.

Eagle winked. “Now we’ve scored a free potion. I heard these are expensive—might come in handy later.”

Pei Sen: … Figures you’re already thinking about next time.

Now that he was awake, Eagle felt uncomfortable. He took off his cloak and said, “Pei Sen, come bathe with me.”

“Alright.” Pei Sen stood up to get him clean clothes.

Eagle couldn’t help himself and said again, “Pei Sen, from now on, move into the room next door.”

Pei Sen paused. He already had his own small room, but it was a bit farther away.

Next to Eagle’s bedroom was a small suite. Mary occasionally used it, but most of the time she stayed elsewhere.

“You’re my steward now. You’re qualified to live there,” Eagle said seriously. “Besides, I’ll feel safer with you close by.”

Pei Sen thought for a moment, then nodded. “Alright.”

While watching Eagle bathe, Pei Sen checked the forums again. Right now, the trending topic was a screenshot of him carrying Eagle back into the manor.

“Princess carry?” he muttered. These players really had nothing better to do. Just because the young master looked like a princess didn’t mean he wasn’t a boy.

Still, buried among all the chaos, Pei Sen finally found a post that caught his interest—it was dungeon-related.

He knew the place where he and Eagle were found was close to the dungeon’s location. Some players had followed them and discovered the dungeon crystal wasn’t hard to spot.

Curious players were bound to poke around. No surprise it got discovered.

The post was titled “Full Dungeon Guide” but only had one sentence: break the crystal to enter.

Once inside…

“I saw the announcement that someone solo-cleared this dungeon. I figured it couldn’t be that hard. We had three people, so it shouldn’t be too bad, right?”

“Total despair. As soon as we went in, we met this guy named Jekko. Maybe the first boss? He solo wiped us.”

“Totally hopeless!”

Once the dungeon was discovered, most players ran there immediately. It was more exciting than building towns or gathering.

BraisedSpicySnack quickly formed a team. Though they missed the first-clear, they weren’t in a rush to go in—they wanted to gather info.

But most parties that went in were crushed by Jekko.

“The max party size is six. Dungeon cooldown is seven days, no matter how far you get,” said BraisedSpicySnack. “Good to know.”

Their group had five people. MidnightGhost hadn’t logged on due to IRL issues.

“Let’s just fill the sixth spot temporarily,” he said.

Then he saw Claude just came online.

Claude was the same guy who got kicked from a faction and killed by BraisedSpicySnack more than once. But his strength… wasn’t bad.

“Carry me, guys!” Claude joked.

“Sure thing,” said one of the girls, smiling.

They weren’t super familiar with Claude, but based on his level, he was probably a first-wave tester like them. Close enough.

When Claude arrived, the other five were already waiting in full armor sets with gear bonuses. Claude, meanwhile, only had a couple pieces and looked like a total casual.

He felt a little insecure but quickly adjusted his mindset.

Alright, time to leech off the big shots.

They entered the dungeon—and immediately regretted it.

Because Jekko? Not a boss.

Just a normal mob.

Who summoned a whole crew of equally strong mobs.

Every single one had boss-level stats.

So if that guy wasn’t a boss, what the hell was?

And that solo-clearing mage—did he hack the game or what?