Volume 5, Chapter 61 – Are There Still Players?

「Alright, alright, if Xiaoyin thinks it’s suspicious then it’s suspicious… but in the end it was just your own imagination, you know. Look, you swung several times and every hit was a total miss~」

『Wuwuwu… shut up…』

Tianyin’s small face was bright red.

And with Samael lecturing her like that, Tianyin tried to muddle through by confusing the issue, using her cuteness as a smokescreen.

Of course, for Samael, who was already used to Tianyin constantly selling cuteness, this kind of tactic had absolutely no effect.

『Wuu… honestly, and whose it was before who kept going on and on about how she had to stick to her original heart… I, I was just following my heart here!』

「Alright, alright, Xiaoyin’s right, my bad.」

Samael did not seem to want to argue with Tianyin and only answered her words with something that sounded a bit perfunctory.

While the two of them chatted along the way, the main city that had just repelled the army of players appeared in Tianyin’s field of view.

Although it was still quite far, Tianyin could already see the ordinary soldiers up on the walls who were still cleaning up the battlefield.

As the distance shrank, with her sharp perception she also caught sight of the silver haired young girl Yivrea standing on the wall, talking with Julius.

The moment Tianyin spotted Yivrea and Julius, the two who were standing on the wall also saw Tianyin.

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“Yivrea!”

Feeling Yivrea’s gaze land on her, Tianyin immediately waved happily at her.

Several seconds later, Tianyin arrived on the city wall at an extremely fast speed and met up with Yivrea and Julius.

“Xiaoyin, are you alright?”

Looking at Tianyin right in front of her, Yivrea’s pretty face was full of delight.

The gem-like eyes, the instant they saw Tianyin come up to her, Yivrea immediately stepped forward and, under Tianyin’s somewhat flustered gaze, pulled her tightly into her arms.

And because of the height difference, by pure bad luck, Tianyin’s small face was forced straight into a soft expanse…

“Wuu…”

The moment Yivrea hugged her tight, Tianyin started struggling, trying to break free from the silver haired girl’s embrace.

“Pft… Xiaoyin doesn’t really look like she enjoys being hugged by me~”

Seeing Tianyin apparently trying to wriggle out of her arms, Yivrea let out a soft laugh and loosened her hold in turn.

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After escaping from Yivrea’s arms, Tianyin’s cute little face was already completely crimson.

“Wuu… it’s not… it’s not that I don’t like being hugged by you, Yivrea, it’s just that you were smothering me just now…”

“Ehh, so that’s how it is… that said, Xiaoyin, aren’t you a Throne-tier? A Throne-tier shouldn’t get suffocated that easily, right?”

“Wuu… if I say I’m going to suffocate then I’m going to suffocate… honestly…”

In fact, just like Yivrea had said, Tianyin as a Throne-tier really would not suffocate that easily. The real reason she said that was because, the instant Yivrea hugged her and she felt that softness, a huge sense of defeat had surged up out of nowhere in Tianyin’s heart.

And this sense of defeat felt even more intense than when that player had run off right in front of her.

‘But speaking of which… wasn’t my soul supposed to be that of a boy? So why am I instinctively feeling this kind of defeat that only a girl should feel?’

Tianyin could not help thinking of that damned loli-fication plug-in the System had forced on her.

“Ma, let’s not talk about that for now… I’ve taken care of all those outsiders. So, what are you planning to do next? Do you want to join Dawn?”

Back to the main topic. After temporarily tossing aside those random thoughts in her mind, Tianyin extended an invitation to join her faction to the Yivrea and Julius in front of her.

Faced with Tianyin’s invitation, before Yivrea could open her mouth, Julius, who had been silent all this time, showed a somewhat troubled expression.

“Um… actually, the army of outsiders attacking over here is only a small part. To the southeast of our main city… over there is where our main forces are, and our main forces are currently surrounded by the outsiders’ main army… so we still need to rescue the people over there…”

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“I’m really sorry, but I’ll handle this matter personally. Once it’s done, I’ll persuade everyone to join Dawn…”

Julius spoke with sincere attitude.

As far as Tianyin could tell, there was not the slightest hint of deceit in what Julius was saying.

Of course, Tianyin did not really take it to heart when Julius said he would settle the rest of the matter himself and then join Dawn.

Because when Tianyin heard that the player army attacking the main city was just a small portion and that the main force was in another location, she immediately set her sights on that player’s main army, which was still some distance away from here.

After all, those players were an endless source of EXP for Tianyin. Just now, after repelling this invading player army, her level had jumped up by ten in one go.

You had to know, player levels in general were already lagging far behind Tianyin.

Even though there was a huge gap in level between the two sides, Tianyin had still managed to force her way up by ten levels, relying on ten times EXP gain and the sheer number of players.

So, for Tianyin, was that distant player army not the best “helper” she could ask for in rapidly raising her own level?

Of course, Tianyin also intended to bring the neutral NPCs on Yivrea’s side into Dawn. So whether from sentiment or reason, no matter how you looked at it, she had to personally take action to deal with those players.

“Really, there’s no need to be so formal, Julius. I can take care of the outsiders’ main force myself. For me, no matter how many of them there are, they still aren’t my match. So don’t worry about it and just let me help you directly~”

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“T-This… how can we trouble you like that…”

Julius did not know about the fact that Tianyin received ten times the EXP for killing outsiders. So when he heard Tianyin sounding all ready to jump in and help, his eyes turned a little red.

“Th-Thank… thank you…”

Not just Julius. Yivrea, standing to the side, also wore a deeply moved expression after hearing Tianyin’s words.

“Xiaoyin, I want to thank you too…”

“Wuu… you really don’t have to thank me that much~ I don’t really like those outsiders either, and if I just watched you all handle that huge army of outsiders by yourselves, honestly, I’d feel bad about it…:

Of course, Tianyin was telling the truth here. It was just that she was only saying part of it.

She did not bring up the whole EXP reason. Besides, Tianyin knew very well there were some things she just could not say out loud herself.

“Let’s leave it like this for now. You two keep cleaning up the main city, I’ll be right back~”

When it came to wiping out that player’s main force, Tianyin only used “I’ll be right back” to show how lightly she took it.