Little Pink Starfish

To deceive the natives, the prerequisite was to find a reliable excuse. Judging by the current situation, this group of undercover players hadn’t done very well. Most were too afraid of revealing flaws and didn’t dare get too close to the natives. A few did come up with excuses, claiming they had a unique skill that allowed them to hide away during rest so that no one could find them.

Even so, the natives remained skeptical.

One should never underestimate the intelligence of these natives—they were far from gullible “NPCs.”

“For now, it’s unrealistic to expect them to rise to high positions quickly.” Pei Sen came to this conclusion after some observation. When he glanced at Mí le Lù’s team, he couldn’t help but utter, “Hm?”

Turns out Mí le Lù’s instincts were right. That noble young lady really had developed some feelings for her. Mí le Lù was youthful and pretty, and had taken a knife for the young lady—her pitiful appearance naturally evoked sympathy.

It wasn’t uncommon for players in Bix Magic Cube to attract romantic entanglements, but due to system restrictions, most of them went nowhere—just meaningless flings.

After all, in the eyes of most players, NPCs were just NPCs. Taking a relationship with an NPC seriously? That would be insane.

Of course, some people did enjoy a bit of spiritual romance with NPCs, and the game developers didn’t really restrict that. The trouble was that these natives had such high intelligence that it was sometimes hard to tell who was playing whom.

Mí le Lù had no shortage of suitors in the real world, and she certainly wasn’t interested in any NPCs. Even though she sensed something unusual from the noble lady, she didn’t think much of it.

However, someone else did take note of the lady’s change in attitude.

“A filthy half-breed servant dares to charm the young lady!”

A woman with a twisted expression summoned her trusted aides. “Go kill her. Make sure you leave no trace. Don’t let the young lady find out.”

“Understood.”

Pei Sen watched with a speechless expression as Mí le Lù got wrapped up in such a melodramatic plot. The assassins sent after her were quite strong—all three were high-ranking transcendent beings. Truly, the Gate of Eternity was packed with overpowered individuals.

But they’d made one crucial misjudgment—they thought Mí le Lù was still recovering from her injuries and would be easy to kill. In reality, for a player, such wounds had long since healed without even leaving a scar!

“Who are you?!”

“You don’t deserve to know!”

Even though she was in perfect condition, Mí le Lù wasn’t a match for three high-rank foes. She did use her “Grand Summoning Spell,” but all her teammates were outside and couldn’t get in quickly enough. Unsurprisingly, she was killed.

“Damn it! I’m so mad. Do you know how hard it is to grind experience? I almost dropped below level 60—my god, that scared the hell out of me. I better get the team leader to help me farm later.”

Thinking there wasn’t anything urgent to do today, she respawned, gave her team a quick heads-up, and logged off.

The three assassins who killed her weren’t too surprised when her body swiftly turned to bones. In this supernatural world full of strange races, it wasn’t unusual. This self-proclaimed Bix race girl even said she could hide in total darkness where no one could find her. Their master never quite believed it.

They carefully dissolved her bones into ash and cleaned the scene thoroughly before preparing to leave.

“Mission complete. Let’s go.”

“Yeah.”

Pei Sen didn’t find out about the incident until the next day… Sure enough, when Mí le Lù showed up alive and well, the woman who was certain she had been killed remained outwardly calm, but went back and furiously interrogated her subordinates. The three high-rank assassins were stunned to see her alive and kicking, completely unable to make sense of it.

“Didn’t we kill her?”

“Yes. We even destroyed her remains—there’s no way we messed up.”

“Could it have been someone impersonating her last night? Or maybe the one now is a fake?”

“With our skills, we’d spot a disguise. It was her last night. It’s her now too.”

“Then how’s this possible…?”

The three assassins began to doubt everything they knew, while Mí le Lù herself was desperate to figure out who was targeting her.

Over the next few days, she had BraisedSpicySnack and the others take her out to farm XP—just to make up for the loss from dying.

Then she was killed again…

She grinded XP all over again… and was killed once more!

Mí le Lù was about to lose it. “Who the hell is targeting me! Do you have any idea how hard it is to level up?! Each death at level 60 costs me so much experience! I swear if I die again, I’m quitting! Is this noble lady’s side really that dangerous?!”

What she didn’t know was that the assassins were even more on edge.

“What’s going on? We’ve killed her three times already—why won’t she stay dead?!”

“Yeah! We were extra careful last time—we even mutilated her and scattered the bones in multiple places!”

“And yet here she is again!”

The Bix race’s undying trait hadn’t been widely exposed in the Gate of Eternity yet. The Bix Magic Cube likely wanted to avoid attracting attention from the major nations, and under the protection of the Merchant Alliance and the various merchant guilds, very few natives had discovered it.

Especially high-level players—they rarely exposed their immortality.

So now the three assassins were on the verge of mental collapse. Every time they killed her, she came back without a scratch. The last time, they’d even disfigured her, chopped her up, and buried the remains separately—yet it was still no use.

She appeared again, right before them.

It was horrifying beyond belief. To make matters worse, their mistress started to suspect them of disobeying orders. She replaced them with another group of assassins—but the result was the same. That noblewoman, powerful and influential, was infuriated.

“She’s a prefectural princess,” Pei Sen mused. “The young lady that Mí le Lù and the others are following is just a high-ranking official’s daughter who’s about to marry into a neighboring prefecture. The prefectural princess isn’t pleased about it.”

He wondered if he could take advantage of the situation to help the players gain more leverage.

“Most of the people around the young lady are actually the prefectural princess’s people. If someone managed to drive them away, she’d have no choice but to rely on BraisedSpicySnack and the others.”

“But if I can think of that, BraisedSpicySnack probably has too.”

As gods, they could provide more support to the players now, though only in a supporting role. After checking in on them briefly, Pei Sen turned his gaze farther away.

Toward the royal palace of Daxia.

But the place was shrouded in a golden-red mist. Pei Sen couldn’t see a thing.

The royal family of Daxia was protected by the Dragon Ancestor and the Flame Ancestor—Pei Sen simply couldn’t pierce through it.

The same was true for the Anser Empire. The palace where Emperor Gubis resided was similarly covered in dense black-and-white mist, completely blocking his view.

“If we want more influence, we’ll have to expand our reach.”

Pei Sen looked at Eagle, his eyes calm. “Young master, you go visit the War God and the Earth Goddess. I’ll go see the Dragon Ancestor and the Flame Ancestor.”

Since becoming gods, neither of them had visited the Divine Realms of the Four Major Gods.

Eagle looked at him. “What for?” He asked straightforwardly. He was also quite curious—what was Pei Sen planning?

Pei Sen thought for a moment. “I want to figure out whether the bloody war between the Anser Empire and the Summer Dynasty had the Four Gods’ tacit approval, or if it was orchestrated by other gods trying to weaken the Four Gods’ authority.”

There were some things that didn’t need to be spelled out. Eagle was smart—he would know what to do.

In fact, Eagle was better than Pei Sen in many aspects. He was born a noble, while Pei Sen was not. When it came to schemes or seeing through them, Pei Sen was no match for him.

“Alright. I’ll take a look,” Eagle said. He didn’t ask why Pei Sen wasn’t going with him.

Gods generally didn’t care about race or nationality, but from how they were addressed inside the Gate of Eternity, it was clear that the gods here were split into distinct factions.

Even if Night Ancestor and the Goddess of Mirror Void had a good relationship, they belonged to opposing factions. If conflict broke out, they’d quickly go from friends to enemies.

Eagle’s chosen god name leaned toward the Anser Empire, while Pei Sen’s appearance made it obvious he was from the Summer side. Acting separately would be more convenient. At the very least, based on appearance alone, Pei Sen wouldn’t be discriminated against by the Dragon Ancestor or Flame Ancestor.

Besides, Pei Sen found it strange. Gods in this world had their own peculiarities. The two nations had been at war for so many years without a winner—but even the gods were split down the middle. Why?

“Still, even if we don’t find out, it’s fine. We just need to expand our influence to better protect the players later…”

Pei Sen wasn’t trying to become the leader of the gods, nor did he care to uncover every secret. He just wanted to get a general understanding, keep himself busy, and increase integration.

The Flame Ancestor was said to be female and known for her explosive temper. After some thought, Pei Sen decided to visit the Dragon Ancestor first—although, from what he’d heard, that one wasn’t exactly friendly either.

The Divine Realms were vast and mostly empty. Everyone’s realms were spaced far apart, making the space feel desolate.

Pei Sen traveled quickly and soon arrived at the Dragon Ancestor’s realm.

“The God of Light and Death seeks audience—” roared the coiled dragon at the gates. The sound echoed far and wide, and Pei Sen flinched, instantly feeling secondhand embarrassment over his god name.

Before long, several elegant maids appeared—just like the celestial maidens of legend. They wore identical, flowing white dresses and carried golden silk ribbons. Smiling, they bowed to Pei Sen and led him inside.

This truly was one of the Four Major Gods’ realms—staggeringly grand in scale. Pei Sen walked for a long time before he reached a vast complex of majestic buildings.

Ethereal music played in the background. Graceful white-dressed maidens filled the scene, giving everything a lofty, luxurious atmosphere. Very different from his and Eagle’s Divine Realm… which frankly screamed nouveau riche.

He was just nearing the palace when a woman, dressed differently and looking like a higher-ranking maid, approached with an apologetic tone.

“Apologies. The Dragon Ancestor is currently occupied and cannot receive guests.” She presented a gift box with the utmost courtesy. “This is a gift from the Dragon Ancestor to congratulate your ascension.”

She was very polite, so Pei Sen didn’t argue. He accepted the gift and moved on to the Flame Ancestor’s realm.

Surprisingly, he was also refused there. A servant simply handed him a congratulatory gift and dismissed him.

“That’s strange… one being busy is one thing, but both of them?” Pei Sen began to sense something was off.

When he returned, he found that Eagle had also come back—just slightly later—carrying two gift boxes as well.

“You didn’t see those two Major Gods?” Pei Sen asked.

Eagle nodded. “Only received gifts congratulating our ascension.”

Pei Sen raised an eyebrow. “Great. I didn’t see them either.”

Eagle frowned. “All four avoided us. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“Exactly.”

Eagle calmly looked out over their Divine Realm. “If I’m not mistaken, other gods are watching us. And they’ve noticed the Four Gods didn’t meet with us.”

“This isn’t just a snub.” Pei Sen was clearly displeased.

Eagle smiled. “It’s not that simple. It’s very possible that the Four Gods… are hiding something.”

Pei Sen wasn’t slow. As soon as Eagle said that, he got it.

Even if other gods had suspicions about the Four Gods before, they didn’t dare test them—that was how much reverence the Four held.

As newly ascended gods, Pei Sen and Eagle going to visit the Four Gods was perfectly natural. It was customary, even. In the past, even weak gods like Night Ancestor had been granted an audience after ascending.

But now? All four refused to show. That was definitely not normal.

For the first time in a thousand years, this unintentional probe had broken the silence.

Pei Sen felt a slight chill crawl up his spine. Looks like I’ve triggered another unexpected change.

In other words, the butterfly’s wings had begun to flap.

If he and Eagle hadn’t shown up, would any of the other gods have dared test the Four?

Pei Sen thought not. After all, on the original timeline, even years later, no new gods had appeared. Players in the Gate of Eternity server remained sure of the Four Gods’ status—nothing had changed.

But now… Pei Sen and Eagle had shattered the stillness ahead of schedule.

“I have a feeling… we’ve stirred up trouble,” Pei Sen sighed.

But Eagle’s eyes sparkled. “If something’s wrong with those four, it might not be a bad thing.”

In terms of faith power—aside from the Four Major Gods, every other god was a junior compared to them.

But now, Pei Sen and Eagle were strong. Very strong!