Chapter 11
Of course, no matter how much one might wish to “stir up trouble,” actively triggering quests is not actually easy. There are many restrictions; above all, one must not violate the logical progression of events, and players cannot become the protagonists of those events.
In other words, when actively triggering a quest, the central figure must be an “NPC.”
This was summarized by someone on the forums before Pei Sen transmigrated, though that was long after the server had launched. In the first few years after launch, players struggled just enough completing the various grueling main quests, let alone actively triggering side ones.
Eagle’s gaze fell upon Pei Sen. “You…”
Pei Sen smiled. “I’m sorry, young master, for only telling you now that I have Bix bloodline.” He sighed. “Originally, I never intended to reveal this secret to anyone, but for your safety, I had no choice.”
Eagle frowned and looked down again. The skeleton soldiers rushing in from outside the city had been blocked by those frenzied Bix tribesmen. Originally, the number of skeleton soldiers far exceeded that of the Bix tribe. Moreover, since skeleton soldiers were undead creatures, even if knocked down by those wooden swords, they could rise again after a while thanks to the lich’s power. Yet this group of Bix tribesmen displayed a madness so terrifying it sent chills down one’s spine.
Pei Sen was also watching the players below. Of course, players weren’t afraid of death; who playing an online game would fear dying?
However, since this was a fully immersive experience and their opponents were skeletons, some players initially felt somewhat intimidated. This was purely psychological fear. But once they closed their eyes and randomly used skills, even if killed by skeletons, there wasn’t much pain involved, and they could resurrect quickly. After experiencing “death” once, there was absolutely nothing left to fear.
Some players, in fact, never felt fear from the very beginning.
Coincidentally, the Lich’s army of skeletons approached from outside the city. During Bix Cube’s first closed beta, the initial respawn point in Kacey City was located just beyond the city walls. Thus, while the skeletal horde proved undying and indestructible, the players kept respawning endlessly. Though the skeletons were powerful, their movements were slow; although players required time to resurrect after death, their overall pace proved far quicker.
Moreover, this newly risen lich’s skill in commanding the bone army was rather weak, making the skeletons move with extreme stiffness. The players, however, were far smarter; they quickly grouped together, and a few even stepped forward to take command. For a time, an oddly stalemate ensued, with neither side able to gain the upper hand.
Pei Sen raised an eyebrow. Holding off a lich’s assault with merely two hundred players would definitely be a battle worth boasting about even a year or two from now. However, this was only possible due to the specific setting and environment.
The Lich’s attack direction happened to be right near the players’ respawn point, and in a city like Kaixi, where towering walls left only a single gate for entry and exit, enabling the players to leverage both terrain and their respawn advantage to hold firm against the bone army.
Clearly, Eagle hadn’t anticipated this either; he truly couldn’t understand why these Bixians would genuinely stand by his side, even willing to sacrifice their lives for him.
“Could it be that this Bixian race is inherently so mad?” he couldn’t comprehend.
Pei Sen smiled. “Young master, you may regard them as born warriors.”
The guards of the Golden Rose Estate held off the other assassins, while the players withstood the lich’s army of skeletons. For a moment, as Pei Sen stood beside Eagle atop the high tower, no further attacks came their way.
Frost drifted through the midair; under the sunlight, a rainbow shimmered with dreamlike beauty. On the streets below, assassins cloaked in black clashed with true knights, the biting sword qi unleashed by massive blades carving deep scars into the pavement.
From Pei Sen’s perspective, the entire scene resembled a spectacular fantasy blockbuster, brimming with excitement and brilliance.
Eagle stood beside him, his expression growing ever colder. After the lich’s appearance, he had expected Atwell and the others to activate their contingency plan and evacuate him immediately, since the goal of luring the snake out of its hole had already been achieved. Yet now that even the lich was being held at bay, it seemed the tide was turning in their favor. Thus, Eagle felt no rush to depart; he chose to wait a little longer. Soon enough, another realization struck him, and a mocking smile curled his lips. “Excellent. Not a single city guard from Casey City, nor even one of Wallis’s men, has shown up.”
Pei Sen knew who Wallis was—the lord of Kashi City. Some players had dealt with him while completing quests.
As the lord of Casey City, Wallis was technically Eagle’s subordinate; in his early years, Wallis had been a knight who swore fealty to the Langno family. In truth, Eagle’s fiefdom extended beyond just Casey City—it encompassed these three small border towns, including the desolate Starfall Plains, all belonging to Eagle. Even if Wallis was slow to react, by now, given that Eagle had been assassinated, he should have realized the gravity of the situation. If not deploying the city guard, then at least his own renowned Dragon Star Knight Corps from years past should have appeared. Yet none of them showed up, turning a blind eye to the fierce battle raging within the city.
Eagle, never known for his good temper, now pressed his lips tightly together, his ice-green eyes filled with murderous intent.
Pei Sen, merely thinking it over, also felt that the mayor of Casey City had gone too far—he wasn’t even willing to put on a show… But then again, considering how many players had been playing the game before without anyone knowing that Casey City belonged to Eagle, and how that mayor had always acted as its sole master, Pei Sen suddenly found the current situation not so strange after all.
“Young master…” Though thinking this, Pei Sen still wished to comfort the furious young noble.
Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure stealthily approaching Eagle!
It was Vesi, one of Vago’s men—a footman who had arrived at the estate with their carriage. Yet his demeanor was clearly suspicious.
“Young master, watch out!” Without hesitation, Pei Sen stepped in front of Eagle. After all, his primary mission objective was to protect Eagle Langno; if anything happened to this young noble, not only would he fail, but every player’s quest below him would instantly fail as well.
With a sharp “hiss,” the dagger pierced through Pei Sen’s clothes and sank into his abdomen. Pei Sen watched helplessly as his health bar plummeted dramatically.
There was no time for hesitation in such a moment. Pei Sen’s basic PK instincts remained intact; he swiftly cast a初级 Ice Blade. The razor-thin blade of ice instantly sliced through Vici’s throat, causing blood to gush out and stain Pei Sen’s clothes red.
…However, due to censorship effects, the scene lacked true gore. Instead of the deep red of real blood, Pei Sen saw only a pale pink hue, leaving him somewhat speechless.
If scenes of actual blood splatter were rendered with the same level of realism as the rest of the game, the content would be far too intense. Players from Earth, accustomed to living in peaceful societies, might easily be overwhelmed by such stimuli.
Pei Sen’s mind raced with countless thoughts in just a short span of time, and he silently sighed: for the vast majority of players, a game is merely a game.
“Pei Sen!” Eagle grabbed hold of Pei Sen, who clutched his waist. In truth, Pei Sen barely felt any pain; this character was set to the initial pain level of ten percent. Generally speaking, Bix Cube allows players to adjust their pain sensitivity, with a maximum of fifty percent and the option to completely block all pain sensations. Although the system discourages fully disabling pain—since even in real life, without the ability to feel pain, one might not even realize they are injured—this is, after all, a fully immersive game, and the official recommendation is to retain some degree of pain perception. Meanwhile, the players below, bravely battling skeletons, had mostly turned their pain settings down to the absolute minimum; even when killed, the sensation was hardly noticeable.
Eagle frowned as he looked at Pei Sen’s bloodied abdomen. Being someone with a strong aversion to dirt and mess, the fact that he reached out to support Pei Sen, covered in blood, already meant he had overcome a significant psychological barrier.
“I’m fine,” Pei Sen said, glancing at his health bar, which was now only half full. The bleeding effect caused by the dagger kept draining his HP continuously; after all, his level was still too low, and such a short health bar couldn’t withstand much punishment. He cast a freezing spell on his wound, directly stopping the bleeding by freezing it shut. Sure enough, his health stopped decreasing.
Bix Cube is a highly open-ended game; as long as a method is logical and you can conceive of it, you can give it a try. If something works in reality, it will most likely work in the game as well.
Moreover, Pei Sen felt that this was never truly a game world to begin with.
Seeing that he was unharmed, Eagle raised his head, cast a disgusted glance at Vici’s corpse, and called out, “Jeco!”
“Yes, Young Master.” From the shadows, another figure unexpectedly emerged.
Eagle’s gaze toward him was utterly cold. “This is your failure.”
The man named Jeco seemed about to explain, but ultimately fell silent. His duty was to protect Young Master Eagle, not the young master’s personal butler. When he saw Vesi intervene, he had intended to stop him, but since the personal butler had already taken the blade, Jeco hesitated and did not appear.
Eagle was already in a foul mood today. “Atwell too—still relying on those non-humans to hold back the lich! Where are his men? Where are the priests of the Church of the God of Light?” he said sharply. “Or do you also wish for me to die here!”
“Young Master,” a voice came as a figure descended slowly from the sky, with an elegant and unhurried demeanor.
Pei Sen looked at the handsome, refined silver-haired man and realized that in all his time at the estate, he had never seen this person before.
Unlike Keso, who wore an ornate mage’s robe that immediately marked him as extraordinary, this man’s attire could even be called plain. Yet his demeanor far surpassed Keso’s; a person like him could dress like a beggar and still appear every inch a noble.
“Sardin,” Eagle said, turning to the newcomer, “you saw what happened today.” His emerald eyes seemed to ignite with twin flames. “I will not let this go. Go back and prepare; I’m heading to the capital.”
“Young master—”
Eagle sneered coldly. “Don’t try to dissuade me; no one’s words will change my mind.” In this moment, he bore no resemblance to the unruly child not yet fifteen he usually was. “Doesn’t he want me dead? Then I’ll die in the capital, even if it kills me.”
Pei Sen was quietly huddled to the side, hoping to hear if there were any new stories, when he suddenly heard a “ding.”
“Ding, limited-time quest completed. Received 2000 experience points and one A-rank story chest.”
“Ding, congratulations on reaching level 7.”
Looking back, a vast radiance erupted as the Lich retreated; players cheered, nearly everyone bathed in the white glow of leveling up.
Of course, this white light was visible only to players. Just like with his ID, Pei Sen had chosen to hide his level-up effects, though other players’ game systems did not yet possess this functionality.
For now, he didn’t want to reveal to other players that he was also a player.
Pei Sen thought to himself that it seemed he couldn’t rush to leave the Golden Rose Manor; triggering an active quest would actually be quite advantageous with his current identity.
Eagle Langno appeared to be quite a troublesome figure.
In the game, troublesome NPCs are truly rare finds that one can only hope to encounter by chance.
Thus, Pei Sen’s gaze toward Eagle grew even gentler.
It was as if he were looking at a gold mine waiting to be excavated.