“So, if you can’t keep them playing up there, you decided to come up with a reason to have them play again down here. And you think I can be that reason. You want me to tick off enough people that they even beg and scrape to get their friends at the top level to remake on noob island to kill me.” Lucas was slowly starting to understand her plan. Noob island had a level cap, so if someone wanted to beat him or help their friends, then they would have to remake a brand-new character to do so. It would get them building new characters and thus extending how long they played the game.

“Not quite, but you’re almost there,” Xun Guan said leadingly. “I don’t need you to tick off players: I need you to make new game content.”

“New game content?” he asked skeptically.

“Yes, new game content. If this game is going to survive, it needs excitement. It needs a dungeon that is tougher than a walk in the park and, of course, a new boss that people want to kill.”

“So, the game needs a new villain . . .” Lucas rattled those words around in his head for a moment. “That sounds fine, but you’re going to need someone else.” He turned around, ready to leave the dungeon behind and return to his flower-covered hill.

Before he could take a single step, however, she had already jumped out of her seat, dashed across the floor and grabbed onto his arm. She turned him around and held onto his elbow so that he couldn’t leave, forcing him to look at her. “Please,” she pleaded, staring into his eyes. “Please help me. There is no one else I can turn to.”

“Nonsense,” Lucas insisted, “just bat your eyelashes and find some white knight to do your bidding for you. You don’t need me. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a grassy field, an afternoon snack, and a bottle of wine to tend to.”

“Actually, I still have your wine and your afternoon snack,” Xun Guan corrected. “But the reason I asked you to do this is that you’re the only one who has the actual stat potential to turn into a boss on this island. You’re the only one in the game with a negative level.”

Lucas froze. “You know then.”

“Yeah. I know. By the time you actually even hit Level 1, you’ll have at least 700 stat points more than every other player on the server. Even if you completely butcher your point distribution, you’ll still be more powerful than every other player. You have to realize that. Your broken character is the only one that is perfectly made to be a boss in this game. And that makes it perfect for the role of our game’s new noob island villain. Besides . . .”