Volume 2, Chapter 3 – You Just Like Bullying Me, Don’t You?

After wiping out the group of Graveyard Undead that had discovered the army’s trail, Tianyin’s party unexpectedly changed direction. After circling around, they started moving toward the route they had originally used to retreat.

『Eh… Samael, isn’t this basically running right into the Undead’s encirclement?』

Tianyin could tell from intuition alone that the army’s direction had shifted.

Sensing something strange about the whole maneuver, Tianyin couldn’t help but ask Samael about it.

「Well, this approach does make some sense, but personally, I don’t really agree with it~」

Yes, even though the saying goes “the most dangerous place is the safest place,” thinking you can escape the Undead just by that logic was, in Samael’s view, far too naive.

『Wuu… you don’t really agree? Samael, are you saying this plan is wrong?』

「Well, for me it’s wrong in several ways. Sure, this tactic might let them shake off the Undead for a bit, but it’s not a long-term solution.」

『Wuu… I don’t really get it…』

Tianyin looked blank. When it came to things like this, she was utterly clueless.

「Well, in short, this method might work for now. But the Paladin leading this remnant army seems to have overlooked one very important fatal flaw~」

『Fatal flaw?』

Tianyin’s eyes brightened with curiosity and expectation.

「If my instincts are correct, the ones most likely to cause instability in this army are those so-called ‘outsiders.’」

Outsiders.

That was what the people here called players.

At that moment, Tianyin couldn’t help but admire Samael, the founder of the Blood Knights, again. Her perspective on things was truly unique.

So far, among all the NPCs Tianyin had met, none had ever noticed this problem. They all treated the players as weak and insignificant beings that didn’t matter.

Yes, the players were weak.

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In this world, even with large differences in level, the weaker one wasn’t necessarily the one with the lower level.

On the contrary, sometimes the lower-leveled person could be stronger than the higher-leveled one.

The best example was back at the Northern Fortress, when Tianyin, under the Seven Deadly Sins’ Wrath state, had easily crushed the Frost Dragon Ysera, one of the Thrones, without even using a single offensive skill.

Though Ysera’s level wasn’t at its peak, her combat power still stood at the uppermost tier of the world’s pyramid.

Normally, no one could defeat Ysera so easily, let alone completely overpower her.

But Tianyin had done it. Though her level was low back then, she accomplished something unimaginable for ordinary people.

The reason was when Tianyin entered the Seven Deadly Sins’ Wrath state, her entire character template temporarily reached the Throne rank.

As another Throne, Tianyin had stood on equal footing with the Frost Dragon Ysera from the start.

On top of that, when Wrath was active, the one controlling Tianyin’s body wasn’t herself, but it was Samael, the founder of the Blood Knights and the embodiment of the Original Sin of Wrath.

So, Ysera’s crushing defeat had simply been a matter of being outmatched in battle experience.

In fact, if Ysera had switched into her humanoid form at that time, Samael wouldn’t have had such an easy victory. But the problem was that Ysera had underestimated Samael. Her massive body ended up becoming her own greatest hindrance against Tianyin’s small one.

All this was to say that levels, while important, only represented part of one’s power. The true measure of strength came from a character’s rank template, their innate attributes.

A character’s template determined their base stats. For Throne-rank templates, every attribute started at A+.

In other words, a level 1 Throne could easily crush a level 100 ordinary character.

As for players, their templates were all basic. Even the strongest of them were only one or two ranks above the standard whiteboard template.

That was why, to the NPC rulers of this world, players were no different from powerless commoners, too weak to draw any real attention.

Take Karl, the leader of this remnant army. In his eyes, players might have strange resurrection abilities, but due to System limitations and their overall “weakness,” even if there were problems within the ranks, he’d never think to suspect the “outsiders.”

『Problems caused by players, huh…』

Unconsciously, Tianyin recalled that before she had reached the Northern Fortress, she’d run into a group of players with the prefix “Kongjing” in their IDs out in the wilderness.

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And now, within this army, there were also players with the same “Kongjing” prefix in their IDs…

Faintly, Tianyin had a feeling that the players Samael mentioned, the ones likely to cause trouble, might be referring to those very players.

It was just a hunch, but Tianyin couldn’t shake the sense that if anything did go wrong, it would almost certainly be because of them.

After all, to players, this world was nothing more than a game.

“Uu… Master, watch out!”

Her little disciple Mengyao’s voice suddenly rang beside her. The sound snapped Tianyin out of her thoughts, and when she looked up, she found her vision suddenly shrouded in shadow.

Then…

Bonk!

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow…”

She didn’t know what exactly had happened, but the sharp pain on her forehead told her one thing clearly, her head really hurt…

“Master, are you okay?”

Her little disciple’s worried voice came from nearby.

“Wuu, I’m… fine… it’s just… my head really, really hurts…”

Tianyin instinctively squatted down from the pain, her already tiny figure looking even smaller as she crouched.

“Pfft… Master, you can’t really blame anyone else for that. You were walking while daydreaming and ran straight into a tree~”

Yes, just as Mengyao said, Tianyin had walked right into a tree because she’d been lost in thought.

“Wuu… I-I didn’t hit the tree because I was daydreaming!”

Tianyin’s adorable little face turned red, but she stubbornly refused to admit the truth in front of her disciple, clinging to her dignity as a Master.

Even though tiny tears sparkled in her jewel-like eyes.

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“I-I just… I just…”

As much as she didn’t want to admit it, Tianyin couldn’t think of a single good excuse to explain why she’d run into the tree.

“Wuu… fine, I ran into the tree because I was daydreaming… it was… it was just an act of nature, okay…”

Unable to think of a better reason, Tianyin ended up declaring it proudly instead.

“It’s just hitting a tree. Other than a little pain, it’s no big deal!”

As she said that, she instinctively puffed up her very flat chest.

“Pfft… silly Master…”

Seeing Tianyin’s adorably flustered expression, Mengyao couldn’t help but cover her mouth and laugh.

“Eh… What are you laughing at? Is me hitting a tree that funny?”

“I wasn’t laughing at you hitting the tree, Master. I was laughing because even after hitting a tree, you refused to admit you hit it～”

“Why do you always like bullying me like this… I’m your Master, you know!”

Tianyin felt she had endured this for long enough. Her little loli disciple always seemed to enjoy teasing her like this…

“How did I bully you, Master?”

“I said you did! You were laughing at me!”

“I was just laughing because Master is so cute. It’s normal to laugh when something’s cute, isn’t it~?”

Because she’s cute?

Do you think I’m three years old? That’s just another excuse for laughing at me!

Tianyin knew perfectly well that her disciple was laughing at her because she looked like a fool.

“Xiaomengyao, you think I don’t know? You’re laughing at me! Laughing at your Master for being an idiot!”

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“Pfft… but Master, you said it yourself this time. I didn’t say anything about ‘idiot’, you know, silly Master~”

“Wuu…”

For some reason, Tianyin suddenly felt terribly wronged. Along with the hurt, she even started getting mad at Mengyao.

“Master, are you angry?”

Though Tianyin’s expression didn’t look particularly upset, Mengyao, being a girl herself and someone who knew Tianyin well, could tell her Master’s mood had changed.

“I’m not angry. I’d never get mad at my disciple!”

“Master’s totally angry. Are you mad at me~?”

“I’m not angry!”

“Pfft, you don’t have to say it. Anyone can tell you’re angry just by looking. Well, I know I shouldn’t have laughed at you, but Master, you were just too cute, so I couldn’t help it…”

“You couldn’t help but bully me, you mean? Hmph!”

Tianyin puffed up her cheeks.

“No no no, how could I ever bully Master? I just couldn’t help it, so I teased you a little, that’s all. I really didn’t mean to bully you…”

Hearing her disciple speak so matter-of-factly, Tianyin couldn’t help but recall the first time she’d met Mengyao.

Back then, Mengyao had looked like a shy, timid little loli who relied heavily on her older brother.

So how had she ended up like this, a sly little loli who loved teasing her Master at every turn?

Just what… happened to her along the way?

Tianyin fell into thought once again.