Little Pink Starfish

Eagle didn’t immediately process what he had just heard. Of course, to him, the war in Frost Maple Territory had happened five years ago. Still, he remembered the state of things when he left. After his departure, it was likely no one in the territory could command the Frost Maple Knights—meaning the Bix had to handle the war on their own.

Pei Sen had mentioned before that while the Bix were natural-born warriors—brave, fearless, and unafraid of death—they weren’t great soldiers. They were downright terrible at following orders.

Getting players to observe discipline was already hard enough. Without formal organization, things tended to spiral quickly. That was precisely why Pei Sen had worried they might lose the war and had rushed to establish the guild system early.

He’d hoped that with something like a Stronghold Token dangling in front of them, ambitious players would naturally organize and recruit others, eventually forming orderly groups.

But what Pei Sen hadn’t anticipated… was that some players would turn into complete maniacs.

“I swear our guild leader must’ve been a real-life officer. He’s been dissing Ichabod’s strategy since day one. LOL.”
“He’s insane. Led us on a diagonal charge and took out their base camp in one go.”
“No joke, our guild leader told us to sneak attack another noble’s base—turns out we went to the wrong place…”
“Then what?”
“We took it anyway. Bro, I figured it out—any noble base you capture gives you war merits. Doesn’t matter which.”
“Means we can just keep expanding. Not enough merits? No problem. We’ll just keep conquering!”
“Aaaah! I spawned on the opposite side of the Principality of Balst. You guys made it here?! Can I join?”
“Sure thing! I joined too!”

Pei Sen only skimmed part of the forum and immediately understood what had happened.

The players had organized themselves—but they weren’t following Ichabod’s lead at all. He was still the nominal commander, but in reality, everyone was doing their own thing.

Fortunately, Pei Sen wasn’t at Frost Maple during the chaos. If he’d been there, he might’ve had to issue mandatory system tasks to get anyone to listen. Even so, he wouldn’t have been as good at strategy as some of the real-life veterans among the players.

Like that guy who led a team to wipe out multiple noble bases—possibly a former military officer—whose command skills left even Ichabod in the dust.

Several ambitious guild leaders and their core members were exceptionally capable, too. Rather than compete for kills, they had split off to attack other noble territories—and succeeded.

Pei Sen gave Eagle a summary of the current situation.
“Nearly 90% of the Principality of Balst has been conquered, Your Lordship. Some Bix are even heading toward the capital.”

Why? Because players believed that taking down the highest-ranking nobles—including the current duke—would yield the biggest merit rewards.

With way more players participating than expected, war merits were stretched thin. The top player had only around 250,000 merit points. Ironically, someone who’d been hoarding faction contributions had already reached 280,000—close to the 300,000 needed for a Stronghold Token.

The token was still available at the quartermaster’s. No one was giving up now.

“Now? Quit? We’re so close to that token!”
“Plus, war quests give XP, loot boxes, and points. Maybe the next box drops the token!”

Pei Sen seriously suspected that if they conquered the entire principality and still didn’t get the token, they’d just… keep expanding.

Eagle asked,
“So, their enthusiasm for the war is sky-high, and they’ve practically wiped out all the noble lands?”

“Correct. Though I don’t think they can take the capital—there are supposedly two Sword Saints guarding it. That’s beyond what the Bix can handle.”

Players might be powerful compared to normal transcendents, but they still couldn’t stand up to peak-level combatants like Sword Saints.

Even though Balst’s capital lacked something like Esmia’s Eternal Wall, the players probably wouldn’t stand a chance against two Sword Saints. It would be like trying to take down Sadin again—they hadn’t managed to even scratch him.

Still, those Sword Saints couldn’t reclaim lost territory either. There were only two of them, after all, and even peak strength had limits.

Eagle shook his head.
“No need to take the capital. Let the last remnants of the Balst nobility cower inside. We don’t need that city.”

Dragging all of Balst into total war wasn’t necessary.

Pei Sen: “……”

The problem is—can you stop it just because you say so?

[System Notification: War status—can be terminated.]

Pei Sen: “……”

It seemed Bix Magic Cube itself thought things were getting out of hand. In just twenty days, the players had completely taken over.

This is why game mechanics spiral so fast.

Just as Pei Sen and Eagle arrived in a nearby town, a player proudly posted a screenshot of the Stronghold Token they had redeemed from Quartermaster Jack.

A girl. She was a habitual hoarder who’d saved up loads of faction contribution points. During this event, she had been online every day and finally managed to claim the token.

Moments later, all players heard the system chime:

Ding.
“First war mode concluded. Calculating player contributions. Rewards will include EXP, gold, merit points, and loot chests.”
“Merit point exchange available for 10 more days. After that, all unspent points will reset.”
“Faction contribution points may still be used to buy items from faction vendors.”
“Thanks for your efforts. Frost Maple’s lord and Thorned Rose faction leader, Eagle Lanno, has returned. Outstanding players will receive a special title from Eagle Lanno.”

It was a world announcement—the first official expansion war had ended.

Well… the first large-scale war, at least.

The players had done so well partly because Balst was small and weak. If they’d tried this on a stronger nation like Esmia, they would’ve been crushed early on.

“What the heck? We just got to the capital, and now we’re done?”
“The mission ended! They’re calculating rewards—obviously we’re done.”
“I guess the real ending trigger is someone redeeming the token. Once one person gets it, war ends.”
“Should’ve told that girl to wait! Maybe we could’ve taken the capital.”
“Dream on. That city had Sword Saints. Just like Sadin—you wouldn’t have lasted five seconds.”
“Are you dumb? We were gonna distract the elites and sneak in. That’s how our military bro did it!”
“Yeah right. You think strategy is something you can just copy? That place was definitely defended.”
“Guess we should go level up instead. Trying to beat a level 100 boss at level 30 is suicide.”

Meanwhile, in Balst’s capital, the two Sword Saints were already on high alert. They’d heard rumors of the Frost Maple lord bringing in swarms of transcendents who had razed the principality in mere days. Only a few areas remained unconquered.

As state-funded Sword Saints, it was their duty to act. But soon, they got word that the invaders had withdrawn—and breathed a sigh of relief.

A retreat was… good.

Back in Esmia, Eagle and Pei Sen were eager to return to Frost Maple.

If it were just Pei Sen, he could suicide-return to base. But with Eagle around, that wasn’t an option.

Worse, the nearby town they arrived at had poor public security. They disguised themselves as adventurers with black cloaks—but the place was full of real adventurers.

“This is Ferdelis Town—the largest adventurer hub near the capital. There’s also a so-called Mercenary Guild and a rumored Thieves’ Guild, but very few know the location of the latter,” Eagle said.

This wasn’t official geographic knowledge—he hadn’t been allowed to study magic or swordplay, but he had read plenty of travel logs and knew quite a bit about the land.

Pei Sen nodded. He’d heard of both the Mercenary and Thieves’ Guilds. Players actually knew more about them than nobles did.

He even spotted a few players in town—though not many. And unlike Pei Sen, no one else had the ability to hide their player ID tags, a feature unlocked years later. So in his eyes, their usernames floated openly above their heads.

Compared to snooty nobles, mercenaries and thieves were more accepting of “alien” players.

Still, only thieves could enter the Thieves’ Guild. Most players could only try to join the Mercenary Guild and pick up low-paying fetch quests.

Mercenaries were wary, too, and the starting rewards were pitiful.

Pei Sen looked at Eagle—pampered, refined, definitely unfit for a long cross-country ride in a rickety cart. The road back to Frost Maple would be rough.

Worse, a flashy carriage could attract bandits.

Should he assign an escort quest to some players?

As he was mulling this over, some nearby players noticed the two “NPCs” in black cloaks watching them.

And players were very sensitive to NPC attention.

“Uh, they’re totally staring at us.”
“For real?”
“It has to be a quest!”
“Definitely!”

They’d been ignored by NPCs so much that being noticed almost made them emotional.

Even if they couldn’t see the NPCs’ faces clearly—their cloaks looked a bit off.

“Excuse me… do you need any help?”

Pei Sen stared at the two cautious players. For a moment, he was struck with nostalgia.

Yes. This was what normal player-to-NPC interactions were supposed to look like.

The unfriendly treatment from native NPCs had forced players into this deferential approach.

He sighed. The newbies in front of him still wore drab starter gear. They were clearly struggling.

Alright, might as well recruit some help.

Ding.
[Regional Recruitment Quest Activated]
“Frost Maple steward Pei Sen has successfully rescued Thorned Rose Count Eagle Lanno. The two now require assistance and protection on their return journey.”
“Pei Sen has chosen to recruit Bix from Ferdelis Town to escort and protect Count Eagle Lanno on the road.”
“Quest cannot be canceled once accepted. Please choose carefully.”
“Successful completion grants a large gold reward, EXP, and a rare treasure chest.”

It was a regional system announcement, viewable by all players in and around Ferdelis Town.

In that moment, several players were almost moved to tears.