Ethan Grant was pretty casual during the closed beta—aside from his class and the ID he had to enter manually, he just picked all the default options.

Now that he was playing for real, he couldn’t be so careless anymore, or he’d have to pay to change things later.

He set everything up according to his preferences, then pushed open the other door in the room.

The brilliance of the stars sped past him, and he was stuck in a pitch-black tunnel for half a minute. Suddenly, his vision brightened—he had arrived in the demon realm.

A wave of noise hit him head-on.

Having spent over a month alone and desolate during the beta, Captain Grant stood at the respawn point, feeling a bit dazed.

The once deserted, silent realm was now bustling and lively, like a popular tourist spot during the National Day holiday compared to a street at three or four in the morning.

The previously lonely, ignored NPCs were now lost in a sea of people—he couldn’t even see a shadow of them.

The world chat was scrolling at lightning speed.

[World] Great Era: Awesome, it really feels like the wind is blowing on my face!

[World] Tree Shadow: Ahhh my god, the big vine tree in the demon domain is stunning [screenshot]

[World] Kite with Broken String: Damn, there are too many people, I can’t even find my way.

[World] Naughty Fox: Tch, check out the cherry blossoms in our spirit domain [screenshot][screenshot]

[World] Promise You a Lifetime: Male here, pro player, looks 8.5/10, looking for a lady to be my partner. I’ll help you level up and fight monsters—bounties in the arena are a piece of cake.

[World] Invincible: Report—!!! The spirit clan’s ears can not only be seen but also touched now! They’re fluffy!

[World] Minus One Meter: Yeah right, if you’re such a pro, why do you still need a leg accessory?

[World] Uncle’s Here: Youth is wonderful.

[World] I’m a Killer: Holy crap!

[World] Tomato Egg: Holy crap!!!

[World] Demon Guard: Damn, I’m into those ears! Looking for a spirit clan partner!

[World] Promise You a Lifetime: Me too! Spirit clan beauties, check me out!

The channel was flooded with talk about the spirit clan’s ears.

It was easy to imagine that, for a while, the spirit clan would be in high demand.

Ethan Grant ignored all the messages for now and walked forward.

He knew that the nearby wild zones would definitely have more people than monsters, so he squeezed into the crowd and managed to reach level 5 by doing quests, learning his first single-target attack, and then headed straight for the lakeside.

The monsters here were all level 8.

A three-level gap wasn’t too hard; the fights gave more experience and it was quieter.

Great minds think alike.

By the time he arrived, there were already a dozen people at the lakeside.

Although this wild zone was small, there was still space for him to stand, so he picked a monster and started fighting.

The first single-target skill for a Sealer didn’t do much damage—nowhere near as advantageous as a Warlord Swordsman—so it took him a while to kill.

Just as Ethan Grant was about to finish off the monster, a Warlord nearby used a skill and killed it.

He asked, “What’s your deal?”

The Warlord didn’t answer, just kept his head down and went on fighting other monsters, clearly trying to level up as fast as possible.

Ethan Grant knew that kill-stealing was inevitable at launch, so he decided to let it slide and picked a new monster.

But just as he was about to kill this one, an Assassin nearby suddenly jumped in and finished it off in two quick moves.

He raised an eyebrow.

The lakeside wild zone was split by trees into two areas, one big and one small.

He looked at the eight people in the bigger area, then at the six squeezed into the smaller one, thought for a moment, and tried fighting another monster—only to have it stolen again. He thought to himself, just as expected.

These eight people were in a party, and probably knew each other.

They wanted to monopolize this wild zone, but didn’t want to say it outright and seem unreasonable, so they used silent kill-stealing to force others out.

Since they didn’t want to make a fuss, that made things easier.

Ethan Grant stopped fighting monsters and started strolling leisurely along the lakeside.

He had a perfect sense for monster HP and picked tricky angles, leaving each monster with just a sliver of health.

After one round, he finished off six of their monsters, leveling up twice in a row.

Captain Grant felt it was even faster than fighting monsters himself, so, still unsatisfied, he went for another round.

The eight-person group: “……”

Ethan Grant said, “What are you all standing around for? Keep fighting.”

The eight of them were silent for a few seconds, then all turned to him.

Without another word, Ethan Grant turned and ran.

The next moment, the eight-person group started a vendetta and charged at him.

The surrounding players: “……”

William Bennett had just arrived at the lakeside and saw the scene from afar.

He saw seven or eight people charging forward aggressively, disappearing into the woods.

They blocked the view of the person in front, so from William Bennett’s angle, he could only see a head and guessed it was a group chasing someone.

He twitched the corner of his mouth. “What’s going on? The server just opened and everyone’s busy leveling, but someone’s already managed to pull so much aggro—did he dig up their ancestors’ graves or something?”

Chris Foster laughed, “Probably stole someone’s monster.”

The night the beta ended, a bunch of them got together to discuss where they’d be playing.

At the time, he was annoyed by a certain Sealer, and the “缘” (Fate) in “辰星映缘” struck a chord with him, so he decided to join this server.