The morning after the global event, Stellar didn’t rest. And neither did Lyra. She barely had a moment to breathe.

  The Administrator had sent word through Cryssa. Three hundred thousand new players from the second Beta would be arriving in Stellar.

  Though Stellar could accommodate up to six hundred thousand residents, barely one-sixth of that number lived there. Despite its size, Stellar’s position on the northern frontier of the Arkavia Kingdom made it an unpopular choice for settlers. Too far and too risky. Most only visited as temporary tourists, and few ever stayed.

  Over generations, Stelluna had transformed patches of empty lands into housing. But now, the knights were gone, the nobles had stopped visiting, and the Starlace Order remained in her estate, serving quietly as maids. The houses they built stood mostly empty.

  A few had been repurposed as inns last month when the first Beta launched. The rest were either still under renovation… or worse, still vacant plots waiting for a reason to exist.

  There was no way the vacant homes and empty plots could be converted into inns and markets in just three days.

  So Lyra focused on what she could do. She pored over maps and blueprints, sketching out zones and paths, calculating flow and resource spread. The infrastructure could come later. For now, she’d turn the chaos into a framework, and leave the rest to the players later as a main quest to build Stellar together.

  Of course, deep down, Lyra wasn’t sure any of this would actually work.

  “…Are you sure this is a good idea?”

  Lyra asked softly, arms crossed, her eyes flicking over the crude sketches of town layouts spread across the table before her. The parchment rustled faintly as the breeze from the open balcony stirred the edges.

  Cryssa sat nearby with her usual sunny grin, nodding enthusiastically.

  “Absolutely, Sis! We’ll give the players daily wages. And once the development’s done, we reward them with your Favorability!”

  Lyra blinked.

  “Right... that Favorability thing. I still don't fully get what it is.”

  “It’s simple! Favorability reflects how you feel about each player, individually. Like… how you view them as people.”

  Lyra furrowed her brow.

  “I see them as mercenaries. Strangers who came here to help, but it’s not like I know them.”

  Cryssa tilted her head.

  “Ayla’s a player too. But you treat her as if she is your own sister, don't you?”

  Lyra shook her head slightly.

  “She’s different. She saved Stelluna last month. And she helped save Stellar again during the wyvern attack. That’s not something just anyone could do. But the others just cleared out goblins. Your Order could have handled that alone with zero casualties. So… honestly, I don’t think they did anything that exceptional.”

  Cryssa’s eyes lit up.

  “Exactly! That’s the point. If they help rebuild the town, you’ll have a reason to change your view of them!”

  Lyra frowned.

  “But the whole reason we’re doing this is to give them a place to stay. Isn’t it a little strange to increase my views toward them just for doing something that benefits themselves? And besides, don’t they only want access to Stelluna’s library in the end? Can’t we just… give it to them? Why complicate things?”

  Developing the town would bring more fortune to Stelluna, but it wasn’t urgent. The current taxes and inns’ fees already kept things profitable. So developing the town looks like it only benefits the players.

  Cryssa paused. For a moment, her smile softened with something more thoughtful.

  “Because to them, this world is entertainment. Like how we buy tickets for a show, they ‘pay’ by helping us. That’s how they earn accomplishment.”

  Lyra, not being tied to the system like Cryssa, had no knowledge to understand how Favorability worked. And it was hard to explain.

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  A soft voice spoke up from behind Cryssa.

  (“Umm… sorry to interrupt.”)

  Both Lyra and Cryssa turned.

  Ayla floated a few inches above the floor in her ghost form, arms folded neatly in front of her, her expression serene but intent.

  (“May I explain it with a different example?”)

  Lyra nodded.

  “Go ahead.”

  Ayla floated closer, the soft glow of her form gently illuminating the scrolls on the table.

  (“Have you ever gone to a restaurant in disguise, and found a waitress who treated you with kindness without knowing who you were?”)

  Lyra tilted her head slightly.

  “Yes… I’ve done that a few times.”

  (“And what did you think of her?”)

  “That she was a hard worker and genuinely kind.”

  Ayla smiled faintly.

  (“That’s Favorability. She was a stranger, until her actions shifted your view. Then what if you saw her treating a poor-looking customer with the same respect, regardless of status?”)

  “I’d think she’s truly professional,” Lyra replied, thoughtfully. “That she’s someone with real good character.”

  (“Exactly. Your Favorability to her has increased again. Now imagine you learned that same waitress lost her job, and has a sick mother at home she needs to care for. What would you do then?”)

  Lyra’s expression softened.

  “If I had the means… I’d offer her a job and help her buy the medicine.”

  Ayla nodded.

  (“That’s the result of high Favorability. It’s built from small truths. Not grand gestures. It’s your feelings changing as you get to know someone. Offering her a job is a hidden reward for consistent sincerity.”)

  Lyra fell quiet. Her eyes drifted to the window where sunlight filtered through the shifting clouds.

  “I think I get it now…”

  She locked her gaze to Cryssa and Ayla.

  “Even if I know the players just want library access, if I see them putting in the effort to help the town grow… it makes me want to give them something in return. Just like I’d help the waitress buy medicine for her mother. But if I hear they treat the townsfolk with disrespect…”

  Cryssa chimed in, her tone bright and reassuring.

  “You can deny them access, or give them extra conditions. It’s completely up to you. Just let it happen naturally. They’ll come to you on their own. You don’t have to force anything.”

  Lyra nodded slowly, her gaze drifting toward the open window, where the wind stirred the curtains in lazy waves.

  “I understand now. But… giving access to that many people at once would turn the library into a noisy marketplace. Is it alright if I limit access? Maybe only allow the most diligent players in at first?”

  Cryssa’s face lit up.

  “That’s even better! You can assign tasks over time and gradually open access to everyone. Most players probably won’t be rushing to read books anyway. The harder it is to get access, the more they'll appreciate it.”

  Ayla hovered nearby, listening in silence, her expression more solemn than usual.

  In her previous life, she had witnessed entire player-reclaimed towns fall again, overrun by monsters because their defenders simply weren’t strong enough. Too many times, players failed escort missions, not from malice, but from weakness. Wanderers were left behind, lost forever, because no one could protect them.

  She and Cryssa wouldn’t let that happen again.

  Not this time.

  If they wanted to save as many survivors as possible, they needed to ensure the players grew stronger and fast.

  Thankfully, players were forbidden from harming native NPCs. It was a core rule embedded into Dream Land Online. Even the most reckless or toxic players couldn’t directly hurt them. Escorting missions, too, were protected, treated by the system as official quests.

  Their worry wasn’t that the players would turn against the natives. It was that they might fail to protect them.

  That’s why they needed access to power. And that power lay in skill books.

  In Dream Land, players could learn new skills in two ways, either by finding skill books or by training until the system acknowledged their mastery.

  The latter was slow and inefficient, but common for non-mage players. They could just swing their weapons with similar patterns multiple times, then the system will acknowledge and improve it with a proper aura. However, the mages couldn’t do anything without practicing mana. They rely on spell books entirely. And that’s the reason why most mages couldn’t shine in this game.

  The skill books required access to libraries, purchasing books from the starting towns’ shops, rewards from quests and dungeons, or monster loot with a low chance drop rate.

  Most libraries in the world had long since fallen. In the regions outside the starting towns, libraries had been razed or their advanced sections sealed behind broken, irreparable wards.

  And the inner areas of the libraries in starting towns were locked down. They required a key item. But who could even find such a key in a world this vast? Players couldn’t break in either. The system wouldn’t allow players to use force inside any town where natives resided.

  But Stellar and Selini were different. Because Stelluna managed their libraries personally. That’s why opening them, even gradually, was important. Besides, it was a good chance to encourage players to treat the natives better, through Favorability.

  Dream Land Online had no class restrictions. Players weren’t locked into narrow roles. A swordsman could learn magic. A tank could learn healing spells. A mage could learn archery if they wished. Though, most of them only focused on one or two roles.

  The only limits came from racial traits. Elves and vampires, for instance, couldn’t use aura to channel sword skills. Juggernauts, dreadknights, wolfkin, and catkin lacked the ability to manipulate mana. Atlanteans could only use water-based abilities due to their physiology.

  But humans were versatile. They could wield both sword and spell. They were born with balance.

  Ayla herself had already learned skills from every skill book available in both the Stellar and Selini libraries. Not that she used them, aside from ice spells. She didn’t even need the books to relearn them, her past life’s memories made it effortless.

  But the players weren’t like her.

  They needed guidance, training, and knowledge.

  Most of all, they needed to awaken their potential.

  And that brought Ayla and Cryssa to the final piece of their plan.

  Advanced Mode.