Little Pink Starfish

Faced with the bizarre situation in front of him, BraisedSpicySnack’s first reaction was: that full-power mage must be hacking.
Because this was basically a death trap—there was no way to beat it!

The six of them turned and ran in the other direction. They didn’t get far before being sent back to their original spot, and in the end, were wiped out by a group of mobs.
They had gone in thinking they were confident in their skills and operations in the game, thinking they could fully clear the dungeon—but now they were defeated by the first wave of mobs. The psychological blow was hard to accept.

Except for Claude, the other five stood dumbly in place for a while before they snapped out of it.
As for Claude… he was feeling a little guilty.

BraisedSpicySnack had a decent level of mental resilience. After a moment, he opened the forum to check how other parties were doing. At this time, most of the stronger first-round test teams had already entered the dungeon. Only a few hadn’t gone in yet.

Seeing the flood of complaint posts about the dungeon pushing the little earl and steward CP threads down the list, BraisedSpicySnack let out a breath of relief—at least it wasn’t just them getting wrecked.

“Is this Jekko messed up or something? We didn’t even start attacking before he called his bros?”

“We had just hit him twice and he ran off to call people.”

“Oh, when he fought us he didn’t call for help, but still solo-wiped us, boohoo.”

“…”

BraisedSpicySnack frowned. “The mobs in this dungeon seem to have really high AI, just like the NPCs outside. Whether they call for help or not seems to depend on their mood.”

Not every strong team triggered him to call for backup. Some rushed in and fought for a while, and when Jekko found the players were hard to deal with, he’d turn and run to call others.
Some teams weren’t even that strong, and Jekko still ran to call people immediately.

There was… no pattern at all.

When BraisedSpicySnack mentioned the high NPC intelligence, Claude guiltily turned his head and didn’t dare look at him.
He just couldn’t shake the feeling that it was his exposed foot that ruined everything.

“Most players now have one skill, a few have two. Trying to stop him from calling people seems really hard,” said Nainai with a sigh.

Miledeer pouted. “This dungeon is actually really hard. Way harder than fighting mobs on Starfall Plains.”

“So the real question is, how did that full-power mage clear the dungeon solo?”

“Maybe because he was solo, Jekko didn’t call anyone,” suggested OldDreamLikeSmoke.

BraisedSpicySnack shook his head. “Someone already tested that. Sometimes even if there’s only one person, he still calls for backup. These dungeon NPCs call for help in random ways. But someone summed it up—if your gear is better, they’re more likely to call for help. It’s not really related to number of people.”

Zhantian couldn’t believe it. “So are we supposed to go in without gear?”

Then what’s the point of fighting!?

Nainai thought about it. “Actually… not necessarily. Like when Miledeer first pulled the mob, Jekko didn’t call for help right away. He ran back only after realizing he was ambushed. Maybe he has a scouting skill?”

Hearing that, Claude felt even more guilty and barely managed to say, “Anyway, talking about this now is useless. The next cooldown is seven days away.”

“True. Maybe someone else will figure out how to clear it before then.”

BraisedSpicySnack was still browsing the forum when he suddenly noticed a player’s post with high engagement and clicked on it.

“You’re all too stuck on conventional game and dungeon logic. He’s gonna yell for help—why didn’t anyone cover his mouth?”

At first, everyone in the replies laughed at the poster. Then someone uploaded a screenshot.

The image was… pretty wild.

A large, muscular player was holding Jekko tightly from behind, one fan-sized hand clamped over Jekko’s mouth just as he looked about to yell.
Hmm… the art style was strangely disturbing.

“What the hell is this, 18+?” someone joked in the replies.

Compared to that player, the skinny Jekko looked downright petite.
And that shot of a hand over his mouth? Kinda not safe for kids.

“Whether it’s R18 or not, it worked! They took Jekko down!” more players chimed in excitedly. “It’s doable. Don’t let yourselves be limited by conventional game mechanics—this is Bix Magic Cube, a very realistic game. A lot of things you can do in real life, you can also do in-game.”

Soon, even crazier screenshots and clips followed.
One team went in, threw ash into Jekko’s eyes, then rushed up and tackled him to the ground, stabbing a sharp dagger straight into his mouth.

The footage was so graphic, they had to censor the moment the blade went in.

“These NPCs really are tough. No wonder they have supernatural strength,” said the poster. “We jammed a blade into his mouth and he didn’t even die—he went berserk and nearly wiped us with an ult.”

“So it’s not an impossible quest. You just need to use your brain.”

“And if he runs off to call others, you’re screwed.”

“Luck is part of skill too. Even if he doesn’t call people right away, you can’t control him the whole time. You have to constantly watch his face and body language to guess when he’s going to call for help.”

“He even pretended to run away to get help but actually turned around and sneak-attacked one of my teammates.”

“…”

At this point, a player asked:

“Did you all forget this NPC is a basic mob?!”

All the players: “………………”

Could you NOT remind us of that frustrating fact?!

Some teams did manage to take out Jekko and move forward—only to find the next checkpoint had two mobs working in tandem. Even worse, those two would coordinate: one would hold off the players while the other ran back to call for help.

That’s right. All the dungeon NPCs had smart, human-like behavior.
They didn’t fight to the death like dumb mobs.
They’d run, ambush, and call their buddies.
If they couldn’t beat you 1v1, they’d gang up.

Worse, players discovered a major problem: sword-wielders who wanted to tank couldn’t generate enough threat, so mobs didn’t focus on them.
Only a few trash-talking players who pissed the NPCs off managed to hold aggro—face-tanking with insults.

“So what, every mob in the dungeon has to be silenced before they can call for help?”

Players were in deep despair. They didn’t even know how many mobs they had to defeat before reaching the first boss.

“There’s no way this is a dungeon we can beat at our current level.”

Maybe at higher levels you could kill the mobs before they could yell. Right now, players clearly weren’t strong enough.

“How did that full-power mage player pull it off?”

Many were asking the same thing BraisedSpicySnack had wondered.
But this kind of fully immersive game didn’t seem hackable.

“Don’t forget, this is a very realistic game,” a player said meaningfully.

“What do you mean?”

“If someone’s really good at fighting or killing in real life… what would happen if they entered this game?”

“And that guy never made a post on the forum, even after we’ve been calling for him. Maybe he’s… special.”

“Uh…”

Pei Sen saw this post and was torn between laughing and crying.
This speculation had gotten way out of hand—especially since people were now guessing if he was a real-life assassin.

“In real life, I’m absolutely a law-abiding citizen. Please don’t make wild assumptions about my job or identity, thanks.”

—Post author: FullPowerMage

The game’s built-in forum had a nice feature: posts were auto-tagged with the in-game ID. Since Pei Sen had changed his player name, he wasn’t worried about his identity being exposed on the forum.

After he posted, the thread exploded in seconds.
It quickly became the day’s HOT thread, with both beta testers and “cloud” players flooding in to take screenshots and ask for guides.

Pei Sen noticed his private messages had instantly hit “999+”, full of people begging for help, trying to make connections, or offering high payments for a walkthrough.

He ignored all of them.

A guide? Sure, he’d love to sell one—but he was a mage. What kind of guide could he give a bunch of swordsmen?

He scrolled through the forum a bit more, satisfied that all the dungeon talk had finally pushed the posts about him and the young master off the front page.
The sight was very pleasing.

In this good mood, he went to sleep soundly.

After staying up a full day and night, even he needed to rest and recover.

The next morning, Pei Sen woke feeling refreshed.
When he went to the young master’s room next door, he noticed the manor’s servants treating him a bit differently.

They were more respectful… and carried a strange new attitude. Pei Sen thought about it but didn’t bother to figure it out.

The two maids originally assigned to him—Kara and Linny—had been taken away, replaced by two unfamiliar ones. These two hadn’t served the young master before and looked extremely nervous.

Eagle seemed to be in a good mood. After their trip out, his appetite had grown.
Normally, it was hard enough to get him to eat one more bite—just like those kids who refuse to eat in the modern world.

But now, he finished his breakfast completely.

Apparently, the “doesn’t eat” problem in kids can be cured by a few skipped meals.

“Young master, would you like a bit more?”

Eagle gracefully wiped his mouth. “No, eating too much isn’t good for one’s health.”

That was a habit formed from his upbringing.

Not just Eagle—Pex was also wolfing down a steamed fish, head down, not even caring about the bones.

Thanks to his shadowcat constitution, fish bones couldn’t hurt him. He could chew them into dust easily. It was only indulgence that made him picky before.

After all, he wasn’t an ordinary cat. If normal cats didn’t care about fish bones, why should he?

“No more for you!” Pei Sen picked him up. This cat had to be at least thirty jin now. “You’re so fat you can barely walk.”

If he needed to be carried again next time, Pei Sen was absolutely tossing him into the pet compartment.

Pex widened his eyes and weakly flailed his short legs.

Wuwuwu—cat isn’t full yet! Bullying cat!

He asked Eagle if he wanted more, but not the cat!
So unfair!

Pei Sen completely ignored the cat’s pitiful look and told the maid to take the bowl away. “From now on, don’t feed him at other times.”

This cat needed battle training—and weight loss. That body was dragging down its capabilities.

Shadowcats were supposed to be sleek and able to blend into shadows anytime.

But Pex? He couldn’t do that at all.
He was too fat.

After breakfast, Pei Sen sent the maids out.
Eagle was able to read theology and magic books on his own now. In a short time, his grasp of magical language was almost complete.

Pei Sen glanced at his magic book. The time agreed with Kesso was up, but Kesso and Bersa hadn’t appeared. “Don’t tell me I have to go to Adrien City to find them?” Why did they seem completely uninterested in coming to the manor?

Pei Sen had hurriedly learned all the spells a beginner mage could learn from the book. His skill bar was now packed.

At this rate, by the time he reached level 40 and needed to upgrade to intermediate mage, there would be no barrier.
He checked his magic knowledge—it had already exceeded 100. What most mage players couldn’t achieve in a year, he had already done.

“High-level mages like Kesso… regular players can’t even get access to them.”
Mages were rare to begin with. Add to that their arrogance compared to the more approachable swordsmen, and getting them to teach you skills was no easy feat.

Pei Sen looked at the book cover. “Did something happen to Kesso?”

He also wondered why Sadin hadn’t come to cause trouble.

From Sadin’s attitude yesterday, Pei Sen had expected some pushback.
Not because Sadin was petty—but because maintaining authority in the manor meant he couldn’t just let a challenger like Pei Sen go unchecked.

Pei Sen’s only regret was that he hadn’t yet reached the threshold for advanced swordsman, so he couldn’t continue learning from Sadin.
But that didn’t matter. He’d heard that the young master’s friend, Earl Aiken, had some good swordsman guards. Aiken himself was a level 3 swordsman—even if that was due to alchemical drug abuse, it still counted.

Finding a good mage teacher was hard. But a decent swordsman teacher? Not that difficult.

“Young master, the manor seems unusually quiet today,” Pei Sen said, glancing out the window. Something felt off.

Eagle looked up from his book. “Don’t worry about them. They wouldn’t tell me anything anyway.”

Pei Sen: “…” Fair point.

But when Eagle finished lunch and was about to nap, Sadin arrived. His expression was unusually serious. Pei Sen figured he was here to cause trouble.

Instead, Sadin walked in and didn’t even glance at Pei Sen. In his eyes, Pei Sen was just an irrelevant little man.

“Young master, something has happened to the royal court.”

“Oh,” Eagle said calmly. After what happened in Aiken’s territory, the royal court being in trouble wasn’t surprising.

Sadin sighed. “His Majesty Leiser hadn’t recovered yet and has been assassinated again. The assassin hasn’t been caught. The king’s condition isn’t good.”

Eagle said coldly, “Did he die?”

Sadin was choked up. His young master’s words were getting harder and harder to respond to.

Pei Sen glanced at Sadin’s face. Looked like this Leiser king wasn’t dead yet.

“Though the situation isn’t optimistic,” said Sadin, “the Grand Duke hopes you can go to the capital.”

Eagle laughed. “He wants me to go to the royal capital? Why—so I can visit my dear uncle one last time?”

Sadin didn’t know how to respond. He sighed. “Things are getting unstable. The Grand Duke fears it’s not safe for you to remain here—”

“If it’s not safe here, is the royal capital any safer?” Eagle retorted.

From Pei Sen’s perspective, the capital was likely even more dangerous—right at the eye of the storm.

No wonder that Boswick dared to act against Aiken. So Leiser was already bedridden.
No wonder Viscount Frey was in such a hurry to see Eagle dead. If Leiser died, Eagle would be first in line for the throne. Frey, despite also being of Esmia blood, was more distant.

Plus, Eagle’s father had considerable influence over Leiser.

Sadin fell silent. He couldn’t exactly claim the capital was safer—but he understood why the Grand Duke wanted Eagle there.

If Leiser suddenly died, having Eagle nearby would help control the situation and prevent others from taking the opportunity.

The assassination was unexpected and ruined the Grand Duke’s plans.

“I wanted to return to the capital before and you tried everything to stop me.” Eagle looked at Sadin. “Now that I want to seriously be the lord of Ranno, I’m not going.”

Sadin tried again. “Young master—”

“I said I’m not going,” Eagle said coldly. “Has Leiser died yet? No? Then come back when he does. I’m definitely not going now.”

Sadin knew Eagle’s stubbornness and left with a frown.

Pei Sen looked at Eagle. “Young master…”

“Right, have the Bix tribe started building Casey City yet?”

“Yeah.”

Eagle smiled. “Pei Sen, next time we go out, let’s visit Casey City. Then we’ll go to Arzi and find that traitor Vargo. Kill him.”

Pei Sen frowned. “You already told Sadin. Won’t he send someone to deal with Vargo?”

“To him, the royal assassination is the top priority. Following Burke Angre’s orders is more important. As for someone who was involved in my attempted assassination and escaped? That’s just a nobody,” Eagle said softly.

In Sadin’s mind, only the words of Eagle’s father mattered. Everything else was unimportant.

Even knowing the situation in Arzi, he didn’t care.
Even if he knew Vargo had been released and might be in Arzi, he didn’t consider it a big deal.

“If I ordered it, Atwell would be willing to kill Vargo for me,” Eagle looked at Pei Sen. “But I don’t think it’s necessary. We can kill him ourselves, right?”

For some reason, Eagle remained cautious around Atwell despite his loyalty.
Though Atwell had followed him obediently for years, Eagle never truly trusted him.

Some things are hard to explain. Eagle’s instincts were sharp.
From the first time he saw Pei Sen, he had a feeling he could be trusted.
Atwell had served faithfully for years—but Eagle still held doubts.

As they spoke, Pex trembled nearby.
Go out again? He covered his ears with his paws. If he couldn’t hear it, it didn’t happen.

Cat doesn’t want to go!

Pei Sen was deep in thought. He knew things were about to get dangerous—after all, there were still Frey’s spies inside the manor.

“Young master, listen to me. If we’re going out again, let’s wait a little.”

“How long?”

“Half a month.”

Eagle looked at him. “Alright. I believe you.”

This “half a month” wasn’t something Pei Sen made up. The third beta test was ten days away. Soon, ten thousand players would swarm in.

With the Bix tribe growing stronger, that meant more forces they could use.

Handled right, these players could create effects the native residents never expected.

Pei Sen could recognize non-friendly units in the manor. Once players joined their faction, they’d naturally be able to identify opposing “NPCs.”

If used well, Frey’s agents in the Ranno territory would have nowhere to hide.

“Young master, by then, let’s completely flatten Arzi too.”

Eagle liked the sound of that. “Sure. But Arzi isn’t like Casey City,” he said calmly. “Based on Pal

ta and Soan’s situation, if we send the Bix tribe to flatten Arzi, they’ll likely resist.”

Plus, Arzi had lots of adventurers, mercenaries, and guarded merchants.

Casey City had Wallis holding back, so few resisted. But Arzi was different—more rebellious.

Pei Sen smiled. “Don’t worry, young master. If the Bix tribe could help Kesso flatten the city hall and Dragon Star Knights, they can flatten Arzi too.”

Back then there were just over two thousand players.
Now, with the third test, there would be over ten thousand.

The idea of smashing a whole city in battle? Exciting. The players would love it.

Also, the slave cave dungeon would soon become a respawn point—this was a set mechanic in Bix Magic Cube.
Every dungeon generated a nearby respawn spot.

Which meant a respawn point near Arzi—perfect for burying the whole city.

At this time, most first and second test players had already been wrecked by the slave cave dungeon. After failing, they had to wait seven days.

Most of the hurt players either returned to Casey City to work on construction quests or went to Starfall Plains to beat up wild leaping rabbits.

So far, no team had even reached the first boss, Kui Wolf.

Pei Sen glanced at his forum thread—it had already passed 100 pages.
His private messages, despite being cleared several times, still said “999+”.

Players were still begging for guides.

He curled his lips into a smile. “Bix Magic Cube is really fun, isn’t it?”

He was just waiting—for the third test to begin.