The Law of Constant Smiles

Arthur is one of the most unconventional existences among all knight-class characters when it comes to combat techniques.

The vast majority of knights are melee-focused characters, whether they wield heavy weapons emphasizing offense, balance attack and defense with a sword and shield, or specialize in charging into battle with lances, axes, and halberds – all common weapons for knight-class characters.

Even Princess Knight Arthur, who has been feminized, normally uses typical knightly weapons like spears and swords to unleash light cannons.

But Arthur of Demon World Village, however, is a peculiar magic knight specializing in mid-to-long range throwing attacks, capable of casting spells thanks to special armor.

Whether it's a knight's spear, a dagger, magic flames, or even a shield used as a secondary defensive item, everything in Arthur's hands can become a throwable object.

And at this very moment, Cheng Tian, who is wearing the same strawberry four-cornered shorts as Arthur, naturally possesses the corresponding abilities.

[Knight's Throw: Template Skill, Active Skill. The knight's armor, so fragile it shatters with a single blow, has made Arthur a rare magic knight specializing in mid-range throwing, possessing the ability to hurl most cold weapons.

You can consume MP to conjure a throwable object based on the cold weapon/shield currently held in your main and off-hand equipment slots. This throwable will perfectly inherit the damage of the corresponding weapon while gaining its properties. The weight and specifications of the throwable blueprint will affect its throwing speed, distance, and rate.

Each throw consumes 5 MP. After a consecutive number of throws, there will be a cooldown period of at least 5 seconds.]

Among the weapons Cheng Tian currently possesses, only the Vampire Killer whip is not compatible with "Knight's Throw." As for the Gentleman's Cane he recently acquired, although its weapon damage is the lowest among all his weapons, its special effect when transformed into a throwable has already been demonstrated.

The Gentleman's Cane throwable has a small chance to cast "Polymorph" on the target it hits, but it can only affect one target at a time and requires no additional cost.

It's unclear whether it's an issue with Polymorph itself or some other reason, but units transformed into ducks still retain some characteristics of their original form.

The foolish and pure college student turned into an ordinary white duck with no distinguishing features, while the zombie became a zombie duck resembling dried jerky. The Man-eating Flower, hit by Cheng Tian's throw, transformed into a plant duck that could only move within a fixed range.

Cheng Tian first threw the Gentleman's Cane with his left hand. Upon seeing the Man-eating Flower turn into a plant duck, he couldn't help but freeze for a moment. Then, he put force into his right hand and flung the throwable conjured from the Goblin Cleaver forward.

Arthur's Proof not only granted Cheng Tian the Protagonist Template but also loaded Arthur's throwing skills onto him. Similar to the Vampire Killer template, the loading of basic skills like these is implicit and doesn't directly display on the status panel.

The Goblin Cleaver's damage is similar to the Hand Axe, just with a wider range of fluctuation in its upper and lower limits. This swing sliced off the plant duck's head.

If one were to observe the wound at this moment, they would find it had scorch-like marks.

It was clear that Cheng Tian had chosen to stack the Vampire Killer onto the Goblin Cleaver. However, due to the significant difference in weapon types, it only granted a meager amount of Holy damage, around 3 points. Yet, this additional 3 points of Holy damage were perfectly replicated onto the throwable.

At this moment, Cheng Tian is truly strong. Judging solely by his skills and not his status panel, he has already surpassed the novice stage and reached a level where he can directly confront D-rank Dungeons.

If a zombie horde of the previous scale were to appear again, he could clear it alone.

On the path leading to the cemetery exit, there are still unopened graves from which new zombies would crawl out. But the key point is that no more zombies would spawn behind Cheng Tian. Without the ability to form a pincer attack, the zombies could no longer pose any threat to him.

However, it can be observed that after attempting two or three long-range throws, Cheng Tian stopped throwing and instead took out his whip again, dispatching the enemies blocking his path with minimal cost.

This is because he clearly understood what he was about to face.

To the side of the cemetery exit, a creature that was entirely red, with wings on its back, resembling a gargoyle, sat quietly on a stone pedestal.

This was the culprit that prevented ninety-nine percent of Demon World Village players from passing even the mid-point of the first stage. It was an extremely rare existence in the game history of Demon World Village, a common soldier who had risen to become the protagonist of a side story – the Red Demon.

Strictly speaking, the Red Demon Clan is the truly "all-attendance" common soldier race within the entire demonic forces.

Although theoretically, the relationship between the Red Demon Clan and the Demon King leans more towards an employer-employee dynamic, their designation as "all-attendance common soldiers" means that the vast majority of them are at the very bottom.

As for monsters like zombies, Red-Eyed Crows, and man-eating plants, they are merely terrestrial objects corrupted by magic power. They aren't even worthy of being classified within the formal demonic forces.

However, even as common soldiers, they are still demons. And in terms of the total number of players killed in game history, the Red Demon Clan far surpasses all its peers, and even its superiors.

In fact, due to their immense popularity, the Red Demons even have their own trilogy of side story games and have made cameo appearances as bosses in games like "SNK vs. Capcom."

It is likely due to this popularity and terrifying player kill count that they transcended their original setting and were classified as elite template demon units by the Chosen Space.

But one fundamental aspect of the Red Demon has not changed: its species, which actually falls under the Gargoyle classification.

As the name suggests, Gargoyles maintain a stone-like state when not in combat or resting, with almost all their abilities completely dormant. As long as one does not enter their guarding range, they will remain in this stone state.

The fact that the Chosen Space set "kill the elite Red Demon" as a side quest allows us to draw a conclusion: at least in the current dungeon, it is not an existence that players must confront. It can be bypassed by taking a detour.

According to the rules of the space, main quests can be completed through various methods, but side quests are often akin to challenge missions, with a higher mortality rate than main quests.

At the very least, killing an elite Red Demon is not something novice players can handle.

At this moment, Cheng Tian pressed himself against a tombstone, crouching low as he stared intently at the slumbering Red Demon in the distance. He couldn't help but inhale through his nose, his body beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

How to put it... Reason told Cheng Tian that bypassing the Red Demon was the safest option. He needed to prioritize conserving his stamina, as there was still a Cyclops to defeat for the main quest. Only by safely clearing the dungeon and surviving would everything have meaning... But Cheng Tian's body instinctively provided the answer.

Fight! (Meaningless close-up shot)

The Red Demon, assigned a guard duty by its superior, was sleeping soundly. Even the chain reaction of the previous zombie horde triggering a rampage hadn't drawn its slightest attention.

However, suddenly, a human presence appeared in its senses.

Though somewhat lazy, the Red Demon actively dispelled its stone seal, flapped its wings, and intended to see which foolish human was about to die by its hand...

As a result, before its eyes could see, its ears caught the sound of typical metal armor parts colliding.

Arthur?

In the Red Demon's memory, the knights of the human kingdom were practically all dead, with only Arthur, the strongest of the humans, remaining. He had stolen the map at the cost of severe injuries and fled into the cemetery.

...Could it be that today is finally the day for me, Captain Red Demon, to rise!?

The thought arose, and an uncontrollable smile appeared on the Red Demon's face, its beak-like mouth opening wide.

Then, it saw Cheng, fully armed, with his mask open to reveal a ferocious grin, charging directly towards it at full speed, completely unaware of who it was.

For some reason, the smile on the Red Demon's face vanished.