"Huh? Trouble broke out?"
Chris only learned about the clash at the docks on Casarina Island from the players' game forum. Reading all the smug comments in the thread, he had no idea what to say.
Honestly, when the first advance party headed for Casarina Island, Chris had known the new players would cause trouble. He just hadn't expected them to cause this much.
The reason was simple: players had never been the mild-mannered sort. New or old, they were all the same. The only difference was that veteran players exercised a little restraint. When something pissed them off, they kept their retaliation measured and avoided killing people casually.
Because killing people cost Reputation Points.
New players had no such concerns. They had no restraints, no reverence for the "reality" of this world, and none of the painstakingly cultivated "Reputation Points" that brought veteran players tangible benefits and needed protecting.
To them, this was more like an absolutely "free" sandbox. All NPCs were merely slightly more advanced monsters or props, and the only rule was "as long as I'm having fun."
Chris rubbed between his brows, looking through the forum posts with a growing headache.
The posts were full of comments like "That felt fucking amazing," "Got some gear drops," "An NPC dared to get cocky?" and "Next time, I'm killing every one I see." They brimmed with the revelry of people who recognized no limits.
And the players who had gone to Casarina Island had actually undergone several rounds of screening. They were already the less troublesome ones, with at least some gaming ethics.
Yet even then, something had gone wrong.
What was going on?
Chris frowned deeply, instinctively feeling that the players' anger had flared a little too fiercely and too quickly.
He closed the bragging threads and