The Law of Conservation of Smiles

Arthur was one of the most unconventional knight-type characters when it came to combat techniques.

Most knights excelled at close combat. Whether it was heavy weapons focused on offense, sword-and-shield setups balancing attack and defense, or lances, axes, and halberds suited for charging into battle, they were all weapons commonly used by knight-type characters.

Even Princess Knight Arthur, who had already been gender-swapped, normally used classic knight weaponry like spears and swords to fire off beam cannons.

Yet Arthur from Demon World Village was an oddball Magic Knight who specialized in mid-to-long-range throwing and could cast spells with special armor.

Whether it was a Knight Spear, a short knife, magical flames, or even off-hand defensive equipment like shields, Arthur could turn anything into something throwable.

And now that Cheng Tian had put on the same strawberry-patterned briefs as Arthur, he naturally possessed the corresponding ability as well.

[Knight's Throw: Template Skill, Active Skill. The fragile Knight Armor that shatters after a single hit made Arthur a rare Magic Knight specializing in mid-range throwing, granting him the ability to throw the vast majority of Cold Weapons.

By consuming MP, you may create a throwable based on the Cold Weapon/shield currently equipped in your main-hand or off-hand Equipment Slot. The throwable will perfectly inherit the corresponding weapon's damage and gain its respective traits. The weight and size of the throwable's template will affect throwing speed, throwing range, and throwing rate.

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

Among the weapons Cheng Tian currently possessed, only Vampire Killer, the long whip, did not qualify for Knight's Throw. As for the Gentleman's Cane he had acquired not long ago, although its weapon damage was the lowest of all his weapons, the Special Effect it gained after being converted into a throwable had already been demonstrated.

A Gentleman's Cane throwable had a small chance of casting "Polymorph" on the target it struck, though it could only affect one target at a time and required no additional consumption.

Whether it was a problem with Polymorph itself or something else, units transformed into ducks still retained some of their original traits.

The stupid, clear-eyed college student became an ordinary white duck with nothing remarkable about it. The zombie became a Zombie Duck resembling a dried sausage, while the Man-eating Flower struck by Cheng Tian's throw became a plant duck that could only move within a fixed range.

Cheng Tian first threw out the Gentleman's Cane with his left hand. When he saw the Man-eating Flower turn into a plant duck, he could not help but freeze for a moment. Then he exerted force with his right hand and flung forward the throwable formed from the Goblin Cleaver.

Besides granting Cheng Tian the Protagonist Template, Arthur's Proof had also loaded Arthur's throwing techniques into him. Like the Vampire Hunter template, this sort of basic technique loading was hidden and would not appear directly on the panel.

The Goblin Cleaver's damage was roughly the same as a Hand Axe's, except its upper and lower limits fluctuated more wildly. That single slash directly chopped off the plant duck's head.

If one examined the wound at that moment, one would find scorch-like marks on it.

Clearly, Cheng Tian had stacked Vampire Killer onto the Goblin Cleaver. However, because the weapon types were so vastly different, it had only granted a pitiful three or so points of Holy Damage. Yet those three extra points of Holy Damage had been perfectly replicated onto the throwable.

Cheng Tian was truly strong at that moment. Ignoring his panel and looking only at his skills, he had already begun to surpass the Novice Player category and reached the level where he could face a D-rank Dungeon head-on.

If another zombie horde on the scale of the previous one appeared, he could clear it alone.

There were still unopened graves along the road leading to the cemetery exit, and new zombies would crawl out of them as usual. But the key was that no more zombies would spawn behind Cheng Tian. Unable to form an encirclement, the zombies could no longer pose any threat to him.

However, after trying two or three ranged throws, Cheng Tian stopped throwing. He pulled out his whip again and killed the enemies blocking his path at the lowest possible cost.

Because he knew exactly what he was about to face.

Beside the cemetery exit, a completely red creature with wings on its back, somewhat resembling a gargoyle, sat silently atop a stone pedestal.

This was the culprit that prevented 99 percent of Demon World Village players from even passing the midpoint of the first stage: a Red Demon, an existence exceptionally rare in Demon World Village's gaming history that had risen from a Grunt Unit to the protagonist of a spinoff.

Strictly speaking, the Red Demon Clan was the true ever-present Grunt Unit race throughout the entire demon realm faction.

Although the relationship between the Red Demon Clan and the Demon King was theoretically closer to employment, their status as ever-present Grunt Units destined the vast majority of them to remain at the very bottom.

As for monsters like zombies, Red-Eyed Crows, and Man-eating Flowers, they were merely human-world objects corrupted by magic. They were not even worthy of being classified as part of the official demon realm faction.

Yet even as ever-present Grunt Units, they were still demons. In terms of total player kills throughout gaming history, the Red Demon Clan far surpassed all its peers, even its superiors.

Its popularity was so high that Red Demon even received its own spinoff trilogy and made guest appearances as a BOSS in games such as SNK vs. CAPCOM.

It was likely because of that popularity and terrifying player kill count that it transcended its original setting and was judged by Chosen Space to be a Demonic Unit with an Elite Template.

Yet one fundamental thing about Red Demon had never changed: its race was actually classified as a gargoyle.

As the name implied, in its resting state outside of combat, Red Demon would maintain a statue-like state where nearly all bodily functions came to a standstill. As long as no one entered its guard range, it would remain a statue.

The fact that Chosen Space had set "Kill Elite Red Demon" as a Side Quest led to one conclusion: at least in the current dungeon, it was not an enemy players had to face. They could simply take a detour and avoid it.

According to the space's rules, Main Quests could be cleared as long as one found the right method. Side Quests, on the other hand, were partly equivalent to challenge quests, and their death rates were actually higher than those of Main Quests.

At the very least, killing Elite Red Demon was not something a Novice Player could face.

At that moment, Cheng Tian pressed himself against a tombstone, crouching low as he stared intently at the sleeping Red Demon in the distance. He could not help inhaling through his nose, while his body began to tremble slightly beyond his control.

How should he put it? Reason told Cheng Tian that going around Red Demon was the safest choice. No matter what, he should preserve his stamina first. After all, there was still a Cyclops that had to be defeated for the Main Quest. Only by safely clearing the dungeon and leaving alive would anything have meaning... but Cheng Tian's bodily instincts gave him the answer first.

Fight! (Meaningless close-up)

Red Demon, assigned a guard duty by its superiors, slept soundly. Even the previous Chain Trigger berserk outbreak among the zombies had failed to attract even a trace of its attention.

But suddenly, a human presence appeared within its senses.

Though Red Demon was somewhat lazy, it still actively lifted the seal on its statue state. It flapped its wings twice, wanting to see which reckless human was about to die at its hands...

Before it saw the person, it heard the sound first. The typical clanking of metal armor pieces colliding reached Red Demon's ears ahead of anything else.

Arthur?

In Red Demon's memories, the knights of the human kingdom had basically all died out. Only the Human Side's strongest Arthur remained, having stolen the map at the cost of severe injuries and fled into the cemetery.

...Could this finally be the day that I, Captain Red Demon, rise to prominence!?

The moment that thought arose, a smile uncontrollably appeared on Red Demon's face, and its beak-like mouth opened wide.

Then it saw Cheng Tian charging straight toward it at explosive speed, fully armed, his visor raised to reveal a vicious grin—and having no idea who the man was.

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