Cruel Truth

[Faith Points: 11086 (-100)]

[Daily Increase: 108~128]

[Daily Consumption: 100]

Elevating a common-grade soul to Black Iron-level consumes 100 Faith Points.

If Leon's Faith Points had only been in the three-digit range before, he might have felt a twinge of heartache.

But now his strength is not what it used to be! Thanks to the gold coins dropped by a certain fat rat, his Faith Point reserves are quite abundant, and he could easily upgrade all 100 players in the entire server to Black Iron without any pressure.

As for himself, he's not in a hurry for the time being.

The Faith Points required to upgrade from Steel-level to Silver are ten times that of upgrading from Bronze to Steel, which is 100,000 points. For him at this stage, it can be said to be an astronomical figure.

Instead of saving up until the Year of the Monkey, it's better to let the capable players improve first.

Secondly, he has only recently been promoted to Steel, and there is still a long way to go before he reaches the level cap, so there is no need to rush to upgrade his "talent" to Silver.

Soul level only affects the upper limit of extraordinary power, not the strength itself.

"...Hiding in the cave all the time is not a solution, we have to find a way to develop some believers."

Hopefully Jack can bring him some surprises.

Just as Leon was pondering, the players in the Demon Lord Territory also noticed him one after another.

To be precise, they noticed Sarah behind him.

That tender face and petite body made people feel pity, and the cat ears gently swaying on her head made countless Skeleton Soldiers' skull eyes glow with scorching green light! What's the situation?!

New NPC?! Seeing the players looking over, Leon didn't waste any more time, cleared his throat directly, and said straight to the point.

"Citizens of the Great Cemetery, I, your Lord Demon Lord, now have an announcement to make! From today onwards, the first store in the Great Cemetery is officially open, and only Hell Money is accepted for payment—"

Before Leon could finish speaking, the entire mine was filled with the creaking sound of bones rubbing together.

"Oooooooo!"

"Cat Girl!!! Cat Girl!!!"

"The Dog Devs still understand me!"

"Mine!!! All mine!!!" (Screaming)

"So cute!!!"

"Damn it! I want to rua her so badly!"

"Can I touch her ears? I can wash my hands first!"

Looking at the group of skeletons swarming up and screaming, the fur on Sarah's head had already exploded, and a low growl of "huh huh" came from her throat.

If Leon wasn't standing next to her, she probably would have had a stress reaction.

"Quiet! Everyone be quiet!"

Leon, his forehead covered in black lines, never expected that this group of fellows would be so hopeless. In the end, he had to use his authority to forcibly calm down the players present.

Where did all the reliable players go? Did they all go to play another game? Leon didn't know where to start after being interrupted halfway through his previous speech.

"In short, she, like you, is a citizen of the Demon Lord Territory. I don't want to see my citizens hurting each other."

"I will be watching here at all times. If I find anyone bullying her, or buying things without paying, or stealing my treasures... I will make them regret coming into this world."

Very good.

Leon felt that his impromptu performance was very BOSS-like, and he couldn't help but feel pleased with himself for two seconds.

The only regret was that none of the players were paying attention to him...

In a corner of the Demon Lord Territory, several adventurers locked in a cage were watching from afar.

Although they couldn't understand what the Demon Lord was saying at all, they could clearly feel the difference in treatment.

Chris had an obvious look of jealousy on her face, and she gripped the stone window with both hands, like a resentful woman.

"Ah... men are all like this. Just because she's a little cuter, the treatment is completely different."

Lexon, who was sitting in the corner with his arms crossed, glanced at Chris.

"Are you sure it's just because of that?"

Although he was also a thief, he at least had the awareness that his skills were inferior and he was willing to accept defeat.

Even if he was executed, he would have nothing to complain about.

However, what he didn't expect was that Chris, completely misunderstanding his meaning, was completely triggered by his words and glared at him fiercely.

"What do you mean by that, you bastard?! Are you trying to say that I'm not attractive? Do you believe I'll gouge out your eyes, stuff them in your mouth, and force you to eat them!"

Lexon looked at her speechlessly, unable to retort for a moment, and simply closed his mouth and said nothing.

It wasn't just Lexon who closed his mouth, but also Am beside him.

This guy hadn't said a word from beginning to end, just staring at Lord Demon Lord, a hint of longing faintly written in his fearful eyes, as if he was expecting some reward.

Greyhound, as always, cowered in the corner in fear, holding his head in his hands, looking outside for a while, and looking at his teammates for a while.

Crazy...

They're all crazy!

As the only normal person here, he wasn't sure how much longer he could hold on.

After the cutscene ended, Leon hung the "No Feeding" sign next to the store, then took Sarah to the stone counter where she was supposed to be, and told her some precautions.

For example, don't eat things that players hand you randomly, and how to tell if a Skeleton Soldier has paid.

Also, what to do when encountering unexplainable problems, and how to call You You for help when encountering Skeletons harassing her, and so on.

At this stage, the vast majority of players were poor ghosts, and all the money in their pockets added up wouldn't be enough to buy a Steel Dagger worth 20,000 Hell Money, so Sarah's work shouldn't be too busy, and she could familiarize herself with the job first.

And the subsequent development was just as Leon had expected. After seeing the store's shopping list, a group of players immediately exclaimed "Black Shop".

"Holy crap! 60,000 for a non-enchanted steel longsword?!"

"How is this even more of a ripoff than Mount & Blade 2?!"

"This is too much! Too much!"

"MMP! I might as well forge it myself!"

Seeing the agitated skeletons, Sarah looked scared, glancing around for Leon, only to find that he had already slipped away.

At that moment, she suddenly remembered what Leon had said to her when he left. After hesitating for a long time, she finally plucked up her courage and squeezed out a shy murmur.

"Meow..."

In just an instant, the originally agitated skeletons quieted down.

Looking at the skeletons frozen in place, Sarah blinked her eyes in confusion.

Was that word some kind of spell?

However, just as she was thinking this, the skeletons, which had been quiet for less than two seconds, erupted once again!

"Aooo!!!"

"Again! One more time!!!"

"Louder! My brother didn't hear you!"

The clamorous rattling sound was like firecrackers, and the fanaticism written on each face was different from usual.

Suddenly, a Skeleton Soldier took the lead, standing out from the sea of skeletons and jumping onto the shop counter.

"Brothers!!! I can't take it anymore! For the Cat Girl, I'll even kill the Demon Lord for you to see—"

Before he could finish his words, a streak of emerald light struck the top of his head.

The transparent ghost was seen leaving his body, and in a short while, it floated near the core of the Demon Lord Territory.

Boar-Headed Knight: "Damn it! Why is it Lord Demon Lord's Excommunication again?! No—what the hell did I do?!"

Hu Wan looked at him with a subtle expression.

"What did you do, you ask? You jumped onto the counter and scared the NPC into a stress response."

Gou Shi even had a cheap smile on his face.

"Hahaha! It's you again! Tell me! How come you're always around when we're cracking down on prostitution!"

Looking at the remaining time in jail, the Boar-Headed Knight let out a pig-like wail.

"Bro, I'm innocent!!! Lord Demon Lord, I'll never dare to do it again! Let me out!"

Too embarrassing!

The Minotaur Warrior shook his head, pretending not to know this guy, and quietly walked away.

The miserable wailing echoed in the mine, adding a touch of faint sorrow to the evil and horror of the Great Cemetery.

Although he sympathized with this guy's experience, Leon didn't have time to pay attention to him for the time being.

He had more important things to do now.

After the previous test, he had confirmed that not only could players gain experience by killing monsters, but he, the Demon Lord, could too!

And not only that, but gaining experience through grinding monsters was much faster than meditation! Back in the Demon Lord Academy, Leon vaguely remembered Ige or someone mentioning to him that, aside from the extremely high mortality rate, the front line was actually a good place to improve one's strength.

Often after a great battle, the surviving demons could gain more or less growth.

Especially those demons who slaughtered a city or a village, many of them evolved into quite terrifying existences.

Although the academic explanation was that this was because the instinct to survive stimulated the individual's potential, and at the same time, the slaughter on the battlefield pleased the Demon God Bayeri, passively triggering the sacrificial ritual, and so on.

However, Lin Te·Aisaike's system gave a completely different, cruel, and cold explanation—

When an individual with a soul kills another individual with a soul, they can grow! This has nothing to do with faith.

It is a law that exists universally in this world! Just like gods killing gods can absorb each other's Faith Points, mortals can also plunder the extraordinary power from mortals! Even if the proportion of this plunder is not obvious due to the insignificance of individual power, and there is no quantified representation, so that most people simply do not notice it, or even if they do, they attribute it to other reasons.

For example, gaining a new understanding of power in a life-and-death duel, or stimulating potential under the instinct to survive, etc...

Actually, none of that is true.

It's purely because one person or monster becomes the experience package of another person or monster.

Leon had reason to believe that since his predecessor transmigrator could discover this truth, Saint Siss, as a local, and the third-generation Demon God had no reason not to discover it... It's just that both sides tacitly chose to conceal it, and covered up this naked truth with creeds and beliefs.

And the reason why they did this was not difficult to guess.

From the standpoint of a lord or knight, compared to killing demons on the battlefield, they actually had a lower-risk strategy with their strength and authority... such as wielding their knives against the weaker ones within.

Conversely, the same was true for Hell.

Hell was originally a jungle society where the weak are prey to the strong. If the demons knew that there was such a convenient way to improve their strength, the High-level Demons would probably slaughter most of the Low-level Demons attached to them in an instant.

In that case, order would be gone.

From the standpoint of Saint Siss or the Demon God, this was obviously not what they wanted to see.

Therefore, they would use various methods to restrain the Chosen Ones and power classes under their command, including but not limited to issuing divine decrees, setting laws, strengthening divine power, and so on...

And for those who violated their will, whether they were people or demons, they would not hesitate to eliminate them as a warning to others.

After all, no matter how strong a person or demon is, there is ultimately a limit.

What's more, the mutual annexation of extraordinary power itself involves huge losses.

In a sense, Leon also benefited from this rule.

If the demons in Demon City used their extraordinary power unscrupulously, it would have been impossible for him, a human, to live to be eighteen years old.

Not to mention the distant future, he wouldn't even be able to pass Professor Lilith's test.

As for why Lin Te·Aisaike leaked this information to him, it was not difficult to understand either.

Because this was indeed the optimal solution for an individual—the fastest way to speedrun another world was to kill, kill, kill.

Killing with magic increases mental power, killing with physical attacks increases strength... The more powerful the opponent, the more experience points they provide. The efficiency of improving strength in this way far exceeds exercise and meditation.

Just like farming isn't as efficient as warfare for accumulating wealth, the entire experience system is designed to imply this.

The reason the Calamity System can't filter players might be because it prefers those who are "defiant but not too defiant" to come in and stir things up, rather than players who are neutral good or better.

Just as the "God of Machines" said at the beginning—

Let this world feel pain!

He wasn't joking.

He wants to unleash a true calamity! However, even so, Leon isn't one to be easily manipulated.

Lin Te has his own demands, and he has his own ideas.

Of course, it's too early to talk about that now.

No matter what he's planning, he needs to improve his strength as soon as possible.

And compared to the hard-to-provoke Thunder City, the traitors in the Maze are clearly easier to bully.

That's right.

He's going to start stealing monsters from the players!

After entrusting the NPC shop to Sarah, Leon went straight to the depths of the mine, using a relatively open cave as his magic workshop, and hung a "No Entry" sign at the entrance.

After doing all this, Leon then instructed You You.

"You You, find a few players and have them drag a few Cave Spider corpses from the warehouse to me. You can decide on the task rewards, I've already given you the design ideas."

The player named "One Leaf Knows Autumn" got him a lot of Cave Spider corpses, which will come in handy now.

"Okay, Lord Demon Lord!"

You You responded and quickly arranged the task, then asked curiously, "By the way, can I ask? What are you going to do with the Cave Spider corpses?"

They don't look very tasty.

Taking out the cauldron, silver knife, mortar, and pestle for preparing potions from his suitcase, Leon gently raised the corners of his mouth.

"It's nothing."

"Just making some necessary preparations for farming monsters in the next dungeon." - (I slipped too much yesterday and fed the tiger, so there's only one chapter today. Can I count it as a 2-in-1? I'll post it in advance and go to sleep. T.T)