You're the Real Monster Here [Please Follow]

After taking a moment to work herself up, Bai Fu crossed the street and went over to An Ya and the two thugs.

"Are you all right?"

An Ya shook her head. "What about you, Boss?"

"I'm fine, but..." Bai Fu turned to the two thugs. "I have some bad news. On my way out, I saw your boss cornered by those Outsiders in a dead-end alley. I was worried something might happen, so I didn't stick around."

She let out a long sigh.

"Your boss probably won't make it. By the way, how did you end up provoking those Outsiders?"

The two thugs immediately protested.

"How were we supposed to know? We usually—no, our boss usually does so many bad things, we've lost count."

"If those Outsiders dared to kill our boss today, I don't even want to think about what they might do tomorrow."

"Sis Fu, you're all we've got now."

The two of them talked over each other until Bai Fu's head began to ache.

She hurriedly waved her hands. "What about your other two companions? Where did they go?"

Thug B's voice trembled. "They're dead. Their injuries were too severe. They died while we were running."

"What?" Bai Fu's eyes widened. "What a shame. What a terrible shame. They were perfectly fine people, and now... Sigh, it's all those Outsiders' fault."

If only she'd gotten out sooner. If only the players had gone a little easier on them, she might have earned a bit more experience.

Seeing her reaction, the two thugs finally relaxed.

Bai Fu had sighed over their companions' deaths. She clearly wasn't going to make trouble for them over their previous grudge.

Thank goodness!

Now that they'd let their guard down, all they wanted was a good night's sleep—one so deep they'd sleep like the dead and not dream at all.

It wasn't that they were tired. They'd been traumatized. Just thinking about what had happened made them tremble all over.

Those Outsiders were absolutely brutal. Even when they'd been beaten so badly they were nearly broken in half, they'd still laughed and said they'd kill them all. Even the goriest horror films handed down from the old era weren't that terrifying.

"Come with me."

Bai Fu called out, and the two thugs hurried after her.

They seemed a little chatty. As they walked, they discussed getting treatment.

"I heard that doctor Lin from Backwater Bay is a psychologist. Let's go see him in a few days."

"Will that even work? We could spend the money and get nothing out of it."

"We have to do something, don't we? Do you want to be haunted by nightmares for the rest of your life?"

"Who the hell wants that? But even if he fixes us this time, what happens when we run into those Outsiders again? We'll just end up like this all over again."

"I... What a disaster. Who brought those Outsiders here, anyway?"

After a long sigh, the two fell silent.

What was there to say? The thought of spending their whole lives recovering from the trauma the players had caused left them utterly depressed.

"Actually..." Bai Fu, walking ahead of them, broke the silence. "If you trust me, I can take a look at you."

The two thugs froze. "Huh? Sis Fu, you?"

Bai Fu smiled confidently. "I'm a Spiritual Energy Priest, after all. Treating a psychological disorder should be easy."

That did make sense, didn't it?

The two thugs' eyes lit up.

"Of course we trust you, Sis Fu!"

Bai Fu pointed at Thug D, who was walking ahead of the other. "Then I'll start with you. An Ya, cover your eyes."

Though she didn't understand what Bai Fu meant, An Ya obediently covered her eyes.

Bai Fu walked toward Thug D with a satisfied look. When they were only two steps apart, she suddenly raised her right hand.

Her slender fingers moved with lightning speed and clamped around Thug D's neck. The force sent him crashing into the wall behind him.

Bam!

The sharp sound of his head hitting the wall was accompanied by a spray of blood.

The next second, Bai Fu held a dagger in her left hand and mercilessly plunged it into Thug D's chest.

-5! -24!

Critical hit.

[You killed Thug (Common), gaining 120 experience]

Only then did Thug B realize what had happened. He stammered, "S-Sis Fu, didn't you say you'd treat us?"

Bai Fu pulled out her dagger. "I said I'd treat you. I never promised you'd survive. He never has to worry about nightmares again. Tell me, did I cure him or not?"

Thug B's face turned ashen. He made a move to grab An Ya, who was still staring in shock nearby.

Bai Fu had already seen through his escape plan.

If she hadn't been afraid one of them might get away while she fought them both, there'd have been no need to catch them by surprise. Not with her current strength.

Her Agility was 3, the same as Thug B's, but he was injured, and his stats had taken a hit.

She chased after him and knocked him to the ground with a savage charge.

Thug B rolled twice across the ground. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he pulled a dagger from inside his clothes. As Bai Fu came closer, he suddenly spun around and, with a roar, stabbed at her abdomen.

It was a sneak attack. He was sure Bai Fu couldn't possibly dodge it.

With her current reaction speed, Bai Fu really couldn't avoid it. All she could do was block with her right hand.

Pfft!

The dagger struck.

The expected dull sensation of a blade sinking into flesh never came. Thug B's eyes widened. He'd clearly seen the dagger strike the back of Bai Fu's hand, but it hadn't even pierced the skin. It had only drawn a little blood.

She'd caught the blade barehanded!

"Impossible! A couple of days ago, you couldn't even block one punch from our boss. How can you—"

"Surprised? Didn't see that coming?"

How about that? That was the beauty of putting every stat point into Constitution and having a Hardening buff!

Bai Fu reached out with her other hand, grabbed the back of the blade, and snatched the dagger away with a light tug.

Thug B saw Bai Fu step forward and look down at him, filling his entire field of vision.

It was the first time he'd realized how tall Bai Fu could seem, despite being much shorter than him. He was terrified, but he never got the chance to scream. Bai Fu stabbed him in the throat.

"Ghk..."

Thug B clutched his neck. Even as he died, he couldn't believe Bai Fu had become so powerful.

Damn it, she was an actor!

[You killed Thug (Common), gaining 120 experience]

That filled the gap in her experience.

"Once I level Spiritual Apprentice up to Lv. 5, I'll put all the attribute points into Constitution. I wonder if I'll be able to catch bullets from those cheap pistols with my bare hands."

Bai Fu was looking forward to it.

She went over to An Ya.

Two deaths were nothing in the chaotic Abandoned Cooling Plant. Things like this happened all the time, so An Ya wasn't shaken at all. She simply took Bai Fu's hand and checked it anxiously.

"Boss, I'm so glad you're okay."

"What could happen to me? Come on, let's go home."

An Ya nodded, then asked curiously, "Boss, how did you know that Outsider could call a whole group of companions to gang up on those old bastards?"

"Secret."

"Oh, all right." An Ya soon turned her attention to something else. "Boss, those Outsiders are pretty powerful, but they all seem crazy. They're not even afraid of dying. I think we should avoid them from now on."

Bai Fu explained, "Don't worry. They like acting crazy, but not in the way you think. Acting crazy is just how they express their feelings. Deep down, they're kind. At the very least, their morals are higher than the average person's around here."

An Ya opened her mouth.

Boss, things were already rock-bottom around here. Saying they were better than the average person here wasn't exactly reassuring.

"Besides, they're incredibly diligent and never complain. Give them a little something, and they'll work harder than oxen. If you smile at them while giving them orders and call them things like 'brave warrior,' they might even work without pay and bring you gifts."

"Huh?"

An Ya was a little confused.

People who paid to work? Did they really exist? Maybe she should find a few Outsiders and give it a try sometime.

"As for not being afraid of dying, that's even easier to explain. They're immortal. They can come back to life after they die."

The death penalty in Above the Stars wasn't actually light. When players died, they lost a certain percentage of their experience based on their level. They also had a resurrection cooldown, which grew longer with each death, ranging from zero to six hours. The cooldown reset every Monday.

That had put a damper on some players' more reckless ideas.

But the mechanic wasn't a problem at all for new players who were only level 1. They couldn't lose experience below zero, could they?

"Huh? They're immortal?"

An Ya was stunned.

It was hard to believe, but if it was true, then all the Outsiders' strange words and actions suddenly made sense. It also made sense that Boss had said the Outsiders were worth far more than the bounty offered by the Wildfire Gang.

"Boss, we're going to get rich!"

"Hmm?"

An Ya said excitedly, "Think about it, Boss! Those Outsiders can come back to life, right? We could work with them and take them to the Wildfire Gang to collect the bounty. Once we get the money, we split it with them—half and half! No, seventy-thirty! Each Outsider's worth 200. If we bring in a hundred, we'll earn... fourteen thousand!"

Her eyes began to sparkle.

With that much money, they could hire a private car and leave this place for Lynn, the nearby mega-settlement.

Bai Fu was stunned.

She thought back over everything she'd done in the past two days. She'd always felt she was being a little inhuman.

After all, she was constantly thinking up ways to make the players work for her. She hadn't realized An Ya had already gone straight to the triangle-trade version without saying a word.

An Ya, you're the real monster here!