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Usually, when Players hurt NPC, they would be penalized. However, there were many times, especially in the story of quests in the world of the game where NPC were evil villains, in such case, NPC would be branded as “Bandit” or even “Monsters” and be allowed to be exterminated if they threatened a Player.
As of now, despite being a human, Jeremias was obviously evil and has killed Lily three times already. It was more than obvious he was a foe, and therefore, a red brand appeared above his head, which only Lily could see…
[Bandit: Can be exterminated to receive a reward.]
The System seemed to not be biased towards NPC, if they dared to become villainous and threaten Players, with all the rights they had to hurt others, then Players would also acquire the rights to hurt them back.
“Unnggh…! I heard Players can’t hurt people!? Why did you hurt me?! Is this… What is this?!” Jeremias was shocked, he was too unexperienced with Players to know the truth of the System’s intricacies.
“You cry too much! You’re like a spoiled brat!” Lily angrily said, she raised her hammer as dirt, rocks, ores, and crystals suddenly sprouted out of the ground and from her inventory, temporarily fusing with it as she conjured her [Rock Hammer] Earth Spirit Spell!
CLAAAAASSSSHHH!!!
The enormous hammer hit the floor, as an enormous shockwave broke the sound barrier for a split of a second, shacking the entire cave. Jeremias panicked, as he gritted his teeth, running away from the falling boulders that the tremor provoked.
“Well, no matter! I’ll leave you fighting my Drakon while I go elsewhere.” Said Jeremias, as his body suddenly was enhanced with his darkness and miasma. “(Killing these rats wasn’t even my top priority anyways, that is getting into the Roots of that one tree supporting this forest!)” He thought, quickly summoning a large snake made of shadows and miasma, which he jumped over and ordered to slide through the caves and run from the scene. “You Drakon, fight her until you can break through the walls behind her and kill her village!”
His last command reached his enslaved Drakons, as the five enormous draconic monsters quickly freed themselves from the boulders over their bodies. Covered by powerful scales, their defenses were amazing. No matter how much chaos Lily’s spells caused, the damage she dealt was pitiful even with her buffs!
…And she was out of MP.
CLAAASH!
The enormous foot of one of the Drakon reached her in an instant, crushing her into the ground and flattening her body like a pancake.
“ROOOARR!”
The Drakon roared victoriously, as the other four began to march towards the walls. However, within ten seconds, Lily appeared a few meters away from the Drakon that killed her, quickly conjuring another of those enormous arms.
“[Titan’s Fist]!”
TRUUUUMMMM…! .𝙘𝒐𝒎
An enormous fist made out of this cave’s materials emerged once more, hitting the Drakon as it appeared right before their faces, throwing them away and back into the cave where they originally were.
“[Mountain Wall]!”
TRUUUUMMMM…!
Right after that, a big Mountain Wall reappeared, closing the path for them to reach the village of the Brownies and Gnomes. Lily was gasping for air, despite dying and reviving all the time, her Satiation bar was going down without recovering. Back then players that revived would have their satiation healed to 100%, but now it could only recover up to 30, the bare minimum.
She had been using so much energy that her Satiation was already at 30 each time she revived, she had to eat something to not feel so tired. She quickly tried opening her inventory to see any food the game could have given to her, but before she could even do anything, a deadly dark breath reached her, vaporizing her in an instant.
BOOOOOMMMM!!!
Ten seconds passed, as Lily’s mind continued moving faster every seconds, thinking about new strategies. She had to strategize with what she had at hand, using the environment to hold the monsters where they were!
She constantly conjured [Mountain Wall] as she was being killed, constantly stacking them up, making it more difficult for the Drakon to break them with their brute strength, and each time they did, she made more and more. Ultimately, she was being constantly killed as she made one or two Mountain Walls, for nearly half an hour.
“Ugh… My head hurts…” Lily sighed, slowly standing up, finding herself atop one of her Mountain Walls, as the Drakon greeted her from afar, opening their jaws and roaring at her, several rays of darkness reached her, as she managed to create two more walls before being vaporized.
BOOOOOMMMM!!!
Three walls broke, but the other two held off, the Drakon swiftly tried to break them, only for Lily to appear again, generate a big hammer made of the cave’s components, and shake the entire cave again, making several boulders fall from above, which inhibited the Drakon’s movements for a few seconds as they tried to get out of their small predicament.
“My head hurts more and more as I revive… Ugh, I should log off… But if I do, the people there will die… NPC can’t revive, right? I can’t let them die…” Lily sighed, remembering the memories she built with the Brownies.
It was just a few hours, but for her it felt like she had gone into a whole different world, and became a different person altogether, someone she always perhaps wanted to be. This was a beautiful chance to restart again, to become someone new, someone she wanted to be…
Those adorable brownies, and the grumpy gnomes were all good people. Lily knew this was a game, but she was way too invested now to leave them to their deaths. It was the same feeling when someone loved characters from series or novels and suffered when they died the same way a real person died.
“Planta… hurry…” Sighed Lily, as she was about to be devoured once more…
Until she heard Elayne’s voice.
“LILYYYYYYYY!”
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