The players barely had time to mourn the end of the Blood Festival. On the morning of the third day after it ended, an order from the Transian People's Army changed every player's status from civilian to "reservist."
The conscription order didn't just appear on every player's interface. In a grand display of ceremony, elite military police trained by the "Three Slackers" rode out on horseback to deliver it personally to every player who logged in.
The order was brief, but its stern tone came through clearly. Below it were the signatures and seals of Murphy, Mirian, and Maxim. Even the newbies who had only just started playing—Fire Bro and Yuan Someone among them—now understood one brutal fact.
War was coming!
The newbies were assigned new "leveling zones." The development team's thoughtfulness had taken the form of a series of guided "Swamp Cleanup" quests posted on the bulletin board outside the Administrative Office. The quests led the newbies into the Filthy Swamp, which had temporarily calmed down, and directed them to gather at Wolf Fort, where the kobolds were clearing out the area and rebuilding.
Hogg's clan had already prepared a wide variety of quests for them, including clearing out the skeleton army wandering the swamp and the troublesome beasts, gathering supplies to maintain the roads, and the ever-hated escort quests.
Given the Filthy Swamp's vast size and the many strange creatures living there, Murphy wouldn't need to worry about finding a "newbie leveling zone" for quite some time.
Hogg's clan wanted to take control of the entire swamp, but they were severely short on manpower. That meant there were endless quests for the energetic little players to tackle. The Bloodclaw gnolls had long since gotten used to the players' ways, and they would surely prepare rewards the newbies would