Little Pink Starfish

When the guards came to arrest them, the players fought back. Obediently surrender? They weren’t about to accept that kind of humiliation.

Usually, on the Yali Continent, there were players who got arrested and imprisoned, but to be fair, those cases were almost always due to players breaking the rules themselves.

This time, though, the players genuinely felt they’d done nothing wrong. It was the NPCs who provoked them first.

“Where there’s oppression, there’s resistance! Brothers, charge!” one player shouted, sword raised, rushing into battle, surrounded by a growing tide of fellow players.

To be honest, under the harsh laws of the Anser Empire, there hadn’t been a mass uprising of this scale in years. Initially, the ruling officials were too stunned to react swiftly, and by the time they regrouped to suppress the unrest, the players had already fought their way to the city gates.

“Arrest them all!” the governor shouted, his face flushed with anger. If this incident reached the emperor’s ears, given His Majesty’s temper, the consequences would be grim. The governor was fuming.

“This is too weird,” said a captain of the guard beside him. “My lord, the more of these people we kill, the more seem to appear.”

“No way… Sure, they’re calling for reinforcements, but—”

“Look over there! I swear I saw that one fall earlier. And that archer—the pretty one—I’ve seen her die twice already.”

The governor shivered. “Don’t scare me.”

To die twice and still be standing there, alive and well—that was beyond terrifying.

In the Gate of Eternity, Pei Sen sighed. He knew that once a large-scale battle like this broke out, it would be almost impossible to keep the players’ immortality a secret. They’d managed to delay the inevitable for a while, which had granted the players some precious time to grow. On the original timeline, players had been heavily suppressed right after entering the Gate of Eternity. It wasn’t until much later, once they’d learned the rules and how to lie low early on, that the server became relatively safe for newcomers.

Dispersing was the best way to hide their secrets—but scattered players could hardly influence the world, and their integration score would remain low.

“They’re really good at stirring up trouble,” Eagle laughed. “Well, now that they’ve been exposed, it’s not the end of the world. We have some standing now, don’t we?”

Just as Pei Sen was about to reply, a maid came in to deliver a message from the Goddess of Mirror Void.

“Gods still use such primitive methods?” Pei Sen was surprised by the parchment scroll.

“This is the most secure method,” Eagle said as he unrolled it. “For gods, there’s very little that can escape others’ eyes and ears. If she’d used direct communication, stronger gods might’ve eavesdropped.”

Pei Sen leaned over to read. “Looks like it’s something secret.”

“Yeah. A banquet of the gods,” Eagle raised his brows. “It’s probably not confidential to all—just the Four.”

Even if they believed the Four were probably already done for, centuries of fear still made the other gods cautious about them.

“Perfect. Let’s go to the banquet. I’ll bring up the matter of the Bix race,” Pei Sen said. “They’ll probably be trying to rally the other gods to confirm whether the Four are still present. If I make some requests at that time, they likely won’t say no.”

Eagle nodded. “Once we make it known that the Bix race is under our protection, some of their traits might even attract followers to our side.”

“Maybe.”

Of course, organizing a gods’ banquet wasn’t a casual affair. No one—except the Four Major Gods—dared to host all the gods in their Divine Realm. If the rest turned against the host and destroyed their realm, the damage would be catastrophic.

“They don’t even dare hold the banquet inside the Gate of Eternity itself,” Night Ancestor sighed, glancing uneasily toward the domains of the Dragon Ancestor and the Flame Ancestor.

The gods were still too afraid of the Four. The Gate of Eternity was their power base, and no one dared gather there to discuss rebellion. So the chosen location was a mountain near the border between the Anser Empire and the Summer Dynasty—not far from the site of the last war.

The Goddess of Harvest and the Martial Ancestor, who were hosting the event, had already gone ahead to establish a temporary divine residence in the mountain and shield it from divine surveillance.

Gods were cautious by nature. After sitting on their thrones for millennia, they weren’t prone to reckless behavior. They were, of course, preparing for the possibility that the Four were still fully functional.

In fact, this banquet was yet another probe. If the Four showed up, well, so be it. If they didn’t, then the topic of the meeting was clear.

Back in the Anser Empire, player chaos continued until the gryphon squads were deployed, finally scattering the players.

“This game might be a bit too free,” one player said, panting. “No quest markers, we just do whatever?”

“Where else can we go? We’re wanted in the Anser Empire. Let’s go to the Summer Dynasty—their merchant guilds are still fine, and we can at least do dailies.”

“Good thing I made my character look like a mixed-blood when I customized it. Otherwise, this would’ve been way harder.”

“But I picked a mage class! Advancing that in the Summer Dynasty is hard. Skills are hard to learn too…”

“Be optimistic. The two nations still have interactions. If we stay near the border, we’ll still run into people from the Anser Empire. Besides, it’s a game. You think it’s going to block you from leveling?”

“You’ve got a point.”

The group of players began trekking across mountains and forests, trying to reach the Summer Dynasty. What started as a standard RPG grind had turned into something else entirely.

In the wilderness, they quickly experienced a whole different layer of realism. Compared to the breathtakingly detailed cities, the natural landscapes—dense forests and wild terrain—were just as vivid, leading the forums to joke that the server had turned into “Survivor: Eternal Continent.”

“We’re not far from the border, right?”

“According to the map, yeah.”

“Hey, has everyone set their resurrection point nearby? If we die, don’t wanna have to run all the way back.”

“Hahaha, talking about those few poor guys who forgot to?”

“Yeah. But really, the nearby cities are dangerous. We’re all on wanted posters. But come on—there’s over a thousand of us. It’s not like they can recognize each of us. Blending in shouldn’t be hard.”

“The merchant guilds aren’t banned yet, but you won’t be able to get quests if you go back to the cities. Leveling up will be impossible.”

“Yeah. No dailies, no XP.”

As they chatted and walked, one player suddenly said, “Huh? What’s that?”

“It’s all foggy—I can’t see anything.”

“Does it show up on the map?”

“Nope.”

“Should we… go check it out?”

By the time Pei Sen realized the players were foolishly approaching the mountain chosen for the gods’ banquet—the one prepared by the Goddess of Harvest and the Martial Ancestor—they had already died and respawned at least once.

The players were confused. They hadn’t done anything, just walked up—and the system told them: You are dead.

Ding.
Optional Quest: Banquet of the Gods (30-day limit)
You have accidentally discovered the location of the gods’ banquet—a hidden gathering in the mountains where world-changing events will unfold.
The gods will convene here. Approaching is extremely dangerous. However, such valuable information could be sold for a handsome price. As members of the Merchant Alliance, you’ve sniffed out an opportunity—don’t let it slip away.
Option 1: Sell the information to Emperor Gubis of the Anser Empire. (Note: Since you are wanted by the empire, this is very dangerous.)
Option 2: Sell the information to Emperor Tianyin of the Summer Dynasty.
This is an optional quest. Players may choose whether to accept. It can be completed by individuals, small teams, or full parties. No penalty for failure. Successful completion grants experience, gold, a story loot chest, and a special reward: “God’s Favor.” Choosing Option 1 increases all rewards fivefold.

A crowd of players stared, dumbfounded, at the quest that popped up.

“Holy crap. This quest is insane.”

“Look at the rewards! Also insane!”

“Selling info is one thing, but to those two? No way.”

“Yeah, that sounds way too hard. I don’t think it’s doable.”

“But there’s no punishment if we fail. Might as well try.”

“Are you kidding? Fail this and we might trigger something terrifying. These two guys aren’t nobodies—I wouldn’t be surprised if they kill us so hard our accounts get deleted.”

“This feels like a trap.”

“Stop being such cowards. It’s a game! I’m in!”

“Me too. Let’s try the Summer Dynasty route. The merchant guilds there might still be helpful. I’ll go talk to the NPCs.”

“I’m in too! A real gamer takes the hardest option—selling to Gubis!”

“Wait, didn’t we have a group of high-level players who went undercover in various factions? Maybe we can reach out to them.”

“Shit, you’re right! I totally forgot!”

“Yeah, I think we’ve got people on both sides. This quest might actually be doable.”

“That means we have a real shot. Quick, accept it!”

“The biggest problem is the 30-day limit. No idea if we can finish it in time.”

“Totally worth trying. I’m gonna message the bigshots now.”

After issuing the quest, Pei Sen glanced again at the fog-shrouded imperial palaces of Daxia and the Anser Empire. Since the gods were about to stir things up, they might as well make some noise too.

Chaos was fine. Let’s see if things could get even more chaotic.

Tsk. Getting players involved in world-shaping events was the best way to deepen their integration with the world.

Pei Sen was eager to see how those two so-called wise and mighty monarchs would react when they heard about the gods’ banquet.

After all, while they sat upon the highest thrones of mankind, were they truly willing to remain mere pawns of the gods? That last war had clearly been orchestrated from on high.

Just a test—yet countless elite soldiers from both nations had died.

“Who knows, maybe something truly unexpected will come of it.”

Pei Sen smiled, eyes glinting with mischief.

Eagle looked at him. “Shall we head out too?”

“Yeah.”

As newly ascended gods, they decided to arrive a bit earlier than the rest. After all, new gods should act humble and diligent. Aside from Night Ancestor and her two allies, no one really knew what they were truly capable of.

That was just fine.