Little Pink Starfish

The players’ discussions hadn’t lasted long—until Bix Magic Cube suddenly released a new announcement.

“Dear Players:

Since the closed beta of Bix Magic Cube, our game has received tremendous love and enthusiasm from players. With the one-week anniversary of the beta approaching, we’ve decided to launch a large-scale celebration event and pre-release the class selection and character customization system for the new server ‘Gate of Eternity.’

To help players better enjoy the game, we will also provide a background introduction and important notes for the Gate of Eternity server.

Thank you for your passion and support during the early stages of the game. We’d also like to remind everyone once again: This is a full-immersion game. Please focus on experiencing the immersive aspects of life within the world—

We are not just players. We are a part of these worlds.

Thank you.”

The announcement was short and contained very little information—players could scan through the whole thing in seconds. When Pei Sen saw it, several hours had already passed since it was posted. He had been so busy lately that he barely had time to rest, let alone check the forums. Even when he did get on, he mainly focused on updates regarding the Yasi Continent and Soulgreen Era to avoid being caught off guard by unexpected developments.

Reading the announcement’s mention of “immersive in-game life,” Pei Sen couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. From a player’s perspective, no one was more “immersed” than he was. He had once thought he would be a player climbing in strength—but now it felt like he was just an NPC running around putting out fires.

Still, one point in the announcement caught Pei Sen’s eye. Bix Magic Cube seemed to be urging all players to truly see themselves as part of these worlds. While that might be difficult to achieve, perhaps this was what the so-called immersion was meant to be.

In that respect, the Soulgreen Era had actually done the best job. Most of its varied “trial quests” gave players legitimate roles and jobs within that world, making it the most complete immersive experience out of all the servers. Despite the complaints on the forums, many players still found joy in that kind of integration.

Simply put, it was the feeling of being a real part of that world.

Unfortunately, while the last line of the announcement was the most meaningful, most players only saw the words “pre-release of Gate of Eternity’s class selection and character customization.” Of course—players always cared most about that kind of thing…

“This server’s updates are coming way too fast!”

“It’s fine, we can just go to another server later. Let’s grind to level 60 first. I think leveling on the Yasi Continent isn’t too hard. Doing dailies, running dungeons—it’s okay. But Soulgreen Era…”

“We don’t play Soulgreen Era for levels, okay? It’s the vibe. I love the social, cultural, and immersive background here—it’s a fantastic experience.”

“Yeah, I’m really looking forward to becoming a Soulhunter after my trial. I love all the Soulhunters—they’re so likable and admirable.”

“I know a Soulhunter girl who’s so charming, I think I’m falling for her. Sorry, Little Count!”

“Please, he’s not even a count anymore, and he ran off with Pei Sen. Just forget about him, sis!”

“I’m just wondering—how long did it take to prep this game before launch? With maps, NPC models, story scripts like Yasi and Soulgreen Era… it’d take years. I work in the industry part-time, and I don’t think even 10–8 years would be enough to build this kind of server quality. And now they’re launching a third one?!”

“I just love how you can travel between servers. Other games should learn from this.”

“This doesn’t even feel like a new server—it’s like a new map with inter-map restrictions.”

“Exactly. But I wonder what Gate of Eternity’s background will be. How many classes? As long as the entry isn’t as difficult as Soulgreen Era, I’m in.”

Pei Sen skimmed through the forum chatter. Classes? Gate of Eternity did have the most class variety out of all the servers—which was why it had become the most popular starting zone for new players in the original timeline.

Come to think of it, Pei Sen suddenly suspected this might be intentional on Bix Magic Cube’s part. To increase player integration, if the server quality couldn’t reach expectations, maybe they were compensating with quantity—attracting more players to increase fusion potential.

But even with more players, the results had still fallen short of the standard.

That said, in terms of class variety and gameplay potential, Gate of Eternity was unmatched.

This world was full of supernaturals, and compared to the others, it offered easier access to supernatural abilities.

Moreover, the Anther Empire and Great Xia each had completely different supernatural systems, providing a rich and diverse backdrop for countless class options.

In the Anther Empire, there were the standard mage, warrior, and rogue classes, along with agile and precise archers. But these weren’t ordinary archers—they were technically magitech archers.

On the Xia side, there were classes unique to the region, like the Lingyu. These spirit-weapon users wielded swords or sabers and fought at close range. They were similar to mages, capable of mid- to long-range spellcasting. The Lingying, on the other hand, were more like assassins in the shadows—agile like rogues, comparable to archers, but with much deadlier force.

Beyond that, Gate of Eternity had two very unique classes—semi-healers, so to speak.

Due to the suppression on Yasi, Bix Magic Cube had not released any pure healer classes until now, and players had gotten used to playing games without healers.

But it wasn’t always like that… In the original timeline, Yasi did eventually get Priests. And Gate of Eternity had its own healing-capable classes. These weren’t tied to the Anther or Xia empires, but rather to the gods of the Gate of Eternity itself.

Divine Attendants, servants of the gods, who borrowed some divine power. They sounded like Priests, but even they weren’t particularly good at healing. Still, they had a few healing-type spells—enough to be somewhat useful.

As for the more Eastern-styled gods like the Dragon Ancestor and Flame Ancestor, they had counterparts called Immortal Disciples, functionally similar to Divine Attendants.

Overall, these two classes were jack-of-all-trades types—part healer, part mage, part warlock. Not particularly strong or specialized in anything, but capable of a bit of everything. Truly oddball classes.

And yet, for skilled players, they were highly playable. Average players would probably just get overwhelmed by their sheer number of skills.

“The players are guessing Gate of Eternity is another big world like Yasi or Soulgreen Era—but it’s actually much bigger.” Pei Sen sighed.

This vastness made his job even more massive. Without his summoned skeleton army, he’d probably have collapsed from the workload already.

Eagle frowned. “You really don’t have to use those Abyssal creatures.”

The dark aura they emitted made him uncomfortable. Light and darkness were natural opposites. Ever since Pei Sen changed classes to necromancer, it was still tolerable when he avoided certain skills—but whenever he used those abilities, Eagle felt deeply unsettled.

Pei Sen smiled bitterly. “If we don’t use them, we’d have to hire people. We’ve got too many holes in our security, and we’re not in a good position to hire locals.”

Hiring players was one thing, but hiring native NPCs came with risks.

A group of skeletons, oozing death energy, was hauling cargo into a reasonably lively village. To avoid scaring the locals, Pei Sen had them all wear long black cloaks to cover their bony frames, with masks over their faces to hide their skeletal features—and the flickering red lights in their hollow eye sockets.

Honestly, even Pei Sen, as the necromancer who summoned them, found the sight a little creepy without the system to censor it…

That was awkward.

Probably the first necromancer in history afraid of skeletons and ghosts.

As for Peks, ever since Pei Sen started summoning these dark creatures, it had gone full puffball mode—fur bristled, hiding as far as possible from Pei Sen and his skeleton army. Its exaggerated cowardice had become so ridiculous that even Pei Sen lost the desire to tease it.

“We’re only pretending to do a delivery…” Eagle grumbled. “I get that a big caravan helps with credibility, but using onlyskeletons as porters is a bit too thrifty.”

To be fair, Eagle knew Pei Sen well. Beyond the whole “too risky to hire locals” excuse, Pei Sen also just wanted to save money.

If you had free labor, why pay for it?

That was exactly what Pei Sen thought.

Apart from being spooky, the skeleton army had zero drawbacks.

They were obedient, silent, and incredibly hardworking. In short, the perfect workforce.

Pei Sen was more convinced than ever that choosing to change classes before coming here had been the right decision.

By now, the sky was dark. Pei Sen glanced toward a still-bustling tavern in the village. “Let’s head there and listen for some news.”

Eagle wasn’t fond of those dirty, smelly, rundown taverns—but once outside, he never complained. He just nodded naturally. “Alright.”

After securing the cargo, the two of them made their way toward the tavern.

In the shadows, several figures exchanged glances, eyes drifting toward the clearly high-value shipment.

“That came from the capital. I heard they’re transporting it to Xia. One of the merchant’s servants is a capable Xia man.”

“Stuff like that’s usually worth a lot. Did you confirm whether they’re backed by anyone?”

“Not sure. They’re a newly formed trade alliance. They seem well-funded. Supposedly gave some gifts to a viscount, but that just makes me think their background’s shallow.”

“So, are we doing this or not?”

“Something about those guards feels… off.”

“They’re all cloaked in black, sure, but maybe they’re just shady thieves. They’re good at what they do, probably just eccentric. Nothing strange about that.”

“Forget it. This cargo alone isn’t worth the risk. Let’s go!”

In the darkness, a skeleton’s head creaked as it twisted sideways. The red light behind its mask glimmered faintly in its hollow socket.

Just as Pei Sen pushed open the tavern door, he paused, glancing back into the dark night.

A faint, meaningful smile appeared on his face.

Even in the Anther Empire, where supernaturals were common, necromancers were rare—more legend than reality.

Hmm… Hopefully they didn’t get scared out of their minds.

After all, even he thought they looked terrifying!