Little Pink Starfish

Pei Sen and Eagle didn’t remove their hoods casually—clearly, these six mages in front of them were dangerous. If the manor found out that the two of them had disappeared again, Sadin would undoubtedly issue a search order immediately.

Judging by how quickly they were caught the last time they had just returned from a dungeon, Pei Sen figured that as soon as he took off his hood, Sadin would quickly discover it.

As for Eagle, Pei Sen had hoped he would just stay quietly in the back and keep silent, lest these arrogant mages act without restraint.

However, this young master clearly wasn’t going to follow his wishes.

Eagle had the same idea, but removing his hood also served another purpose. As a count with actual authority, even the most unreasonable mages had to show him some respect. After all, they were still within the Kingdom of Esmia, where mages didn’t completely outrank the nobility. No matter how powerful they were, they still had to give nobles a bit of face.

“Who are we?” The young brown-haired mage wasn’t swayed by Eagle and Pei Sen’s striking appearances. He was handsome himself and used to getting favorable treatment because of it. With a touch of jealousy in his tone, he sneered, “You’re not qualified to ask who we are.”

Pei Sen instantly had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, Eagle flew into a rage. “Standing on my land and daring to say I’m not qualified? I don’t care who you are—get out of the Lanno Territory now!”

Standing on my turf and looking down on me—who gave you that confidence?!

Eagle’s temper had slightly improved since he met Pei Sen, but his arrogant and willful nature wasn’t something that would change overnight. As the saying goes, “A leopard can’t change its spots.” No matter how obedient he might appear on the surface, this troublemaker was still very much a troublemaker.

He really didn’t show even the slightest bit of courtesy to these six lofty mages.

“Your land…” The female illusionist mage frowned. “Are you Count Eagle Lanno, Lord of Lanno?”

Eagle smirked coldly. “What, do you want to debate with me over whether I’m qualified to ask your names? Sorry, I have no interest in knowing who you are. Leave my land immediately—you are not welcome here!”

The brown-haired young man muttered discontentedly, “Just a small-time noble from some backwater territory… what’s so great about that…”

As a noble mage, most aristocrats treated him with courtesy, even if they didn’t actively try to befriend him. No one would casually offend a powerful mage.

However, Eagle Lanno clearly wasn’t a typical aristocrat.

Pei Sen looked up at the sky. This guy… is really stepping on every single one of Eagle’s landmines.

The male mage with a sinister expression wasn’t too pleased with Eagle’s forceful tone. He stiffly said, “Oh, so you’re a lord. We’re from the Mage Association, and we have a letter from the president—”

“I don’t care about your Mage Association or its president,” Eagle interrupted more forcefully. “I don’t even want to see the letter. Leave immediately—I don’t want to see you on my land again. You’re an eyesore.”

Pei Sen: “…”

Young master, that’s way too blunt.

To be honest, these people were far from being visual pollution. Especially those four young mages—they were annoying, sure, but still quite good-looking.

The illusionist’s face darkened. She’d never encountered a situation like this before. Her gaze toward Eagle was now cold as ice. But she and the sinister male mage still retained some sense—they didn’t lose their rationality and attack a noble of the kingdom outright.

A quick glance around showed that some commoners were already sneaking glances in this direction. Having lost face, the mages probably wanted to save a bit of dignity and leave. However, they still had tasks to do here, so they couldn’t just go.

For a moment, they were stuck in an awkward situation.

They’d been thoroughly humiliated—leaving now would be disgraceful. But staying meant failing their mission.

“It seems I was being too polite, calling you ‘Count.’ If you—” The hot-tempered male mage finally lost patience and pulled out his staff.

Pei Sen immediately stepped in front of Eagle, eyeing the mage warily. His hand clutched a scroll—an advanced earth-element scroll, mainly defensive, capable of blocking a high-level mage’s attack.

Scrolls like this weren’t cheap. Pei Sen really didn’t want to use it unless absolutely necessary.

Where are the players who were supposed to take this quest? Why aren’t they here yet?

In fact, the players were rushing over. But there weren’t many players around Adrien City because the city didn’t have a respawn point.

Since the third beta test had launched, a few players had started showing up in Adrien. The reason was simple: Casey City and Arzi Town had no viable commercial zones. Casey City was still being rebuilt, and Arzi was a complete ruin. The closest commercial hub they could use was Adrien.

After all, a game without a commercial zone wasn’t really playable. Some players weren’t even that interested in combat—they preferred wandering around, exploring cities, or trading.

Plus, there was the famous Lucy’s Pie Shop in Adrien. Delicious pies that wouldn’t make you fat! Nearby was a tavern where even cheap ale could offer real-life teetotalers the joy of endless, consequence-free drinking.

Players were curious about the Redcrab River too. Though there wasn’t much to do there, it was still a point of interest.

The reason players hadn’t arrived yet was simple—it was still early in the morning, maybe around 7 or 8 a.m. Many people weren’t even awake. Those who were were mostly the “grind squad”—hardworking types focused on completing quests and earning in-game currency. Most of them were still back in Casey City.

But as the mission started getting posted to forums, more and more players began arriving—some were pinged by friends, others had been planning to log in later, but now decided to go immediately.

“Who’s got the nerve to mess with our little count?”

“Don’t forget—someone posted last night that the young count and his steward ran away again… guess they ran into trouble.”

“So this triggered a random event?”

“We tried to tail them yesterday but lost track. Turns out they went to Adrien.”

“If we had followed them, we could’ve triggered the quest too…”

“I’m respawning at a nearby dungeon and running here, but I doubt I’ll make it in time.”

“Try anyway! You might just make it!”

Players chattered while racing toward the quest marker.

One particularly lucky player was BraisedSpicySnack—he’d already been in Adrien due to a world boss event. Though he had to log off urgently and missed the boss fight, now he was free to dive fully into the game and stumbled upon this event.

“Hey, you’re here too?” he called out to a group of three familiar players—Designer, Architect, and SketchyBrush.

These three weren’t combat-focused and spent more time talking to NPCs and gathering lore. So it was no surprise they were already in Adrien.

“You get everything sorted at work?” Designer asked.

He knew BraisedSpicySnack in real life and was aware that the guy had been on extended leave.

A gifted surgeon at a prestigious hospital, BraisedSpicySnack had been clashing with a senior director and took the opportunity to step away. Now, he was seriously considering staying away for good.

“Yeah,” BraisedSpicySnack replied. “No more hesitation. I’m not giving up on this game.”

“So, you’re giving up your brilliant future?”

“Don’t sound like my parents, jeez.”

“Well, to regular folks, it does look like that.”

“But come on—the top pet hospital offered me 100K a month and 50% cut per surgery. Pet surgeries can cost way more than human ones. No med-mal worries either.”

Fast money, peaceful work environment, obedient patients, no medical disputes.

Pretty much perfect.

High-level pet surgeries were often out of reach for standard vets—but easy for someone with his surgical skills.

He was confident he could quickly become a star in the pet medical world. The field was underdeveloped, after all.

And “Bix Magic Cube” just nudged him into making the leap.

A fully immersive world like this could seriously change lives. He sensed players might gain more than just entertainment from this game—but couldn’t quite put it into words yet.

Designer chuckled. “As long as you think it’s worth it.”

He was considering quitting too. He’d saved enough to be jobless for a decade or more.

Now, hundreds of players were converging, surrounding Eagle and Pei Sen, confronting the six mages.

The young male mage scoffed. “These are your reinforcements? Count, you’ve overestimated yourself.”

He was a top mage from the Association. These guys looked weak.

But illusionist Joanna frowned. “Royce… something feels off about them.”

Illusionists are sensitive to emotions, as illusions often work by targeting sensory and emotional perception. Killing with illusions involved breaking someone emotionally.

From the moment these seemingly ordinary people showed up, Joanna noticed the surrounding commoners’ emotions spike.

To a startling degree—enough to match her strongest group fear illusion.

Yet these people looked harmless.

Why would the townsfolk fear them so much?

Had they committed atrocities here?

Unlikely. In fact, they hadn’t harmed anyone—except each other.

And thanks to recent rumors about the Bix people, their fearsome reputation had grown wildly exaggerated, leaving the entire Lanno Territory psychologically scarred by them.

Take the young lich who’d been recently looted—he’d reactivate his trauma just by seeing a Bix.

Meanwhile, players were still trying to figure out how to protect their little count.

“These NPCs don’t look local.”

“Is this another world boss? Sure looks like one.”

“Adrien world bosses are a pain—respawn point’s too far.”

“So what’s the quest—just protect him? But the mages haven’t even attacked.”

“Do we wait for them to make the first move?”

“Maybe I should try increasing the young count’s favorability…”

But getting NPCs to like you in this game was tough.

One guy had spent weeks trying to win over Kames the guard captain. When he finally reached 30 favor, the system chimed in congratulation. But after doing a mission to raze Arzi, his favor dropped to -15.

What the hell?

Apparently, the trauma of Arzi triggered Kames again.

So much for grinding favor…

So far, only Pei Sen had managed to unlock Eagle’s favorability. And even then, it didn’t mean Eagle would do anything he asked.

NPCs in this game had absurdly high intelligence and dynamic relationships. Favor could rise or fall based on subtle factors players couldn’t even anticipate.

Eventually, a player stepped forward dramatically.

“Evil outsiders! If you want to harm our Count, you’ll have to go through my corpse!”

BraisedSpicySnack facepalmed. What a cheesy line… must be from reading too many game scripts. But it worked—Eagle actually looked at him for a second.

“It’s working?!”

Others jumped in:

“That’s right! We’ll die before letting you hurt the Count!”

One after another, players began shouting declarations of loyalty.

Pei Sen nearly laughed out loud.

The mages were stunned. Are these people insane?

Evil mages? Go through their corpses?
They hadn’t even done anything yet!

The mages were from the Mage Association, not some dark cult.

And yet, these players looked seriously ready to fight.

“These people want us to strike first…”

“They’re trying to trigger the protection quest…”

“Why haven’t the mages attacked yet?”

“Maybe the mission needs more players?”

“Or maybe Sadin will show up soon and drag the Count back like last time?”

“Don’t let that happen again!”

“If they won’t attack… we can! It’s a realistic game after all.”

Suddenly, players’ eyes turned cold.

If the NPCs wouldn’t start the fight, they would.

They drew their swords.

Royce and Joanna, sensing something, tightened their grip on their staffs.

“Let’s go, boys—CHARGE!”

The young mages looked on, stunned.

“How did things end up like this…?” the female mage whispered, taking a step back in disbelief.

What the heck is wrong with these people?!