I'm a Bandit Now

The morning sun spilled across the earth, mingling with the dawn breeze. A new day brought a new air; as far as the eye could see, the world was lush and green, brimming with boundless vitality.

A figure stood beside the road, his hair a tangled mess like a chicken coop, weeds stuck in it. His face was blotched with grease and grime as he gazed into the distance, a green, unripe fruit the size of a fist clenched between his teeth. A shaggy cyan beast hide was draped over his body, and farther down, both legs were exposed to the air, planted one before the other.

A longsword hung at one side of his waist, and a small pouch at the other. Taken as a whole, he looked as imposing as Beggar Su.

"Hmm, which way should I go?" Diya took a bite of the green fruit and chewed hard, muttering as he did, "Hmm, legend says men go left and women go right, so I'll go left."

With that, Diya bit into the fruit while striding off toward the left. The left happened to be the direction of the rising sun. Diablo would not awaken for another three days, and Diya calculated as he walked.

All of a sudden, Diya stopped and looked into the distance, his eyes narrowing slightly. Up ahead, some shadows were moving, but they were too far away, giving them a blurred, unreal quality. Faint voices, almost vanishing on the breeze, reached him, enough for Diya to be sure that people were walking this way.

"Looks like there are a few people. What should I do?" Diya muttered, then started walking again, moving faster toward the front.

This was the Feifei Mercenary Group's very first job since opening for business: escorting a carriage from Luo City to Brost City.

The Feifei Mercenary Group had four people in total. Mm, to be precise, four students still in school who had only come out for training—two boys and two girls. They had formed the Feifei Mercenary Group in Luo City, planning to carry out a three-month training journey in the form of a mercenary group. This was usually the method many academy students chose for their training.

However, because their mercenary group had only just been established and was very low in rank, it was difficult for them to receive any challenging missions. Students who had just come out for training were like students fresh out of university, full of passion, each of them longing to find work where they could really stretch their arms and legs.

But facts were facts. Regardless of academic background or ability, the vast majority of jobs one could find were not to one's taste, which resulted in the awkward state of being too high for the low and too low for the high.

The Feifei Mercenary Group was the same. After drifting around for half a month, they finally recognized reality. It just so happened that a mission to escort a carriage had been posted. It was a lowest-level mission, because the carriage carried only ordinary goods that needed to be delivered from Luo City to Brost City. Not only was the quantity small, the items were also common, so even if there were bandits on the road, they basically would not rob this sort of carriage. It would waste time and bring no profit.

For such a low-level mission, with the pay also low, any mercenary with a bit of strength would not accept it. In the end, only these few rookies had no choice.

They had already been away from Luo City for two days. During these two days, the Feifei Mercenary Group followed closely beside the carriage, all the while hoping a few bandits would appear and give them a chance to show off. Otherwise, the five-day journey from Luo City to Brost City would be far too boring.

"If I'd known, I wouldn't have taken this mission."

"Yeah, it's way too boring. And this lousy carriage is so slow, it's no fun at all."

"Bandits! I want bandits! Hurry up and send us some bandits!"

"We should have bought a few camel-horses first," a weak voice said.

The old man driving the carriage listened wordlessly to the mercenaries shouting. Although they were several very young mercenaries, as a powerless commoner with no martial force, he did not dare to cut in and could only focus on driving the carriage.

The carriage and Diya gradually drew closer to each other. Diya also saw the other party's people. There were five in total. Four were walking—two men and two women—and by the look of them, they should all be cultivators. The other was an old man, sitting on the carriage and driving the camel-horse, with nothing unusual about him.

Diya slowed his steps and walked straight down the middle of the road, vaguely hearing the voices drifting over.

"We finally saw someone."

"Is that a person? Why does he look so strange?"

"He must be a savage. Otherwise, why would he be wearing beast hide, with his hair all messy? He looks like he's never bathed."

"Is he really a savage? So scary."

"Don't be scared. We're cultivators. If there are no bandits to practice on, a savage isn't bad either. But why does this savage look so strange? He's eating fruit and isn't afraid of us at all."

"Idiot, this guy definitely isn't a savage. How could there be savages in a place like this?"

"Then what do you say he is?"

"Maybe he's the latest trendy kind of bandit," one fellow said with certainty. Diya was suddenly speechless. First he was taken for a savage, then for a bandit. Fine. In any case, he had originally planned to rob them, so being a bandit did not matter.

"Don't come over! If you come any closer, I'll hit you!" one of the two girls shouted at Diya. Her small face was full of panic, and she pointed a short staff at Diya with a flustered tone. She wore a blue robe, and on the left breast of the robe hung a badge of two small icicles. She was impressively a Guardian Rank ice mage. As the mage pointed at Diya, she backed away, then hid behind the other three.

Diya could not help finding it funny. There was actually such a timid mage. He shifted his gaze and looked at the other three, and could not help being stunned. These days, when had genius-level figures become so worthless? The moment he came out, there were four Guardian Rank cultivators, and judging by their ages, they should be about the same as him.

An ice mage, a wind rogue, a water swordsman, and a fire archer. At this moment, apart from that ice mage, the other three were all glaring at Diya. The rogue held his dagger in a reverse grip, the swordsman pointed his longsword at Diya, and the archer had already nocked an arrow and drawn the bow, aiming at Diya as well.

"Everyone, don't be nervous." Diya smiled faintly, but that filthy, pitch-black face made him look extremely odd. The ice mage hid behind the fire archer and secretly peeked at him, then immediately cried out in alarm and ducked back in.

"Who are you?" The archer was the other young woman, with fiery red hair and fiery red leather armor. She looked quite scorching. "Don't be scared, don't be scared. He's just a savage."

"Me? Originally, I was just passing by," Diya continued with a smile, revealing white teeth.

"Oh, so you were passing by. Then what are you now?" the swordsman asked foolishly.

"Now I've turned into a bandit. You have gold coins and silver coins on you, right? Taking off your clothes works too. No, making you strip is too immoral. Just hand over the gold coins," Diya said gently.

"So you really are a bandit. Then don't blame me." The archer released her right hand, and the arrow shot straight toward Diya. Diya's longsword left its sheath, and with one slash, he split the arrow and sent it falling to the side, making the members of the Feifei Mercenary Group pause in surprise. They knew they had run into a troublesome opponent.

"You're a swordsman too, looks like. Let me deal with you." The water swordsman charged over and thrust sharply with his sword. Diya also thrust out with his own sword, knocking aside the other's longsword while continuing to stab toward him. Suddenly, amid the terror of the swordsman and his companions, Diya stopped. The tip of his longsword rested against the water swordsman's neck.

"Now hand over your gold and silver coins," Diya said. In his heart, however, he was thinking something else. These people looked like they had decent strength, but their combat experience was truly terrible, and their teamwork was awful too. Especially with a timid mage among them—she not only could not threaten the enemy, she would drag down her companions. But that had nothing to do with him. On the contrary, it saved him quite a bit of trouble.

"Don't attack. We'll give you the gold coins," the wind rogue hurriedly said. He took out two glittering gold coins and a dozen or so silver coins from his body. The swordsman was drenched in cold sweat and did not dare make any move. The two girls could only take out their gold and silver coins as well.

"No money pouches? Put them in the pouches and throw them over," Diya said. The three could only do as Diya said, tossing the money pouches over. He weighed them in his hand. They had a bit of heft—not bad.

"Since your companions are cooperating so well, I'll let you go," Diya said. "But shouldn't you put your weapons on the carriage first? If I get frightened by you and accidentally... that wouldn't be good."

The three fellows did as Diya said and placed all their weapons on the carriage. As for the driver, he had long since hidden off to the side, feeling utterly vexed. If he had known earlier, he never would have hired this kind of mercenary. They had been subdued in an instant.

"All right, then that's that. Goodbye." Diya withdrew his longsword and conveniently knocked the water swordsman's sword off to the side with one strike. He took a large step forward and quickly left, sheathing his longsword along the way and tossing it backward. It happened to fly toward the archer, who had just picked up her bow and arrow again and was about to shoot, frightening her into hurriedly dodging aside. By then, only Diya's back was already left.

The four of them looked at one another, utterly ashamed. Just now, they had still been talking about wanting to run into bandits, but who would have thought that the moment a bandit appeared, he would deal with them in two or three moves and rob them of their gold coins too?

"Don't let me run into him again, or I definitely won't let him off," the archer said fiercely. Gritting her teeth, she picked up that longsword and then threw it hard onto the ground. It happened to land by the ice mage's feet, and the ice mage picked it up.

"There's a name on it. The two words are Porter," the ice mage said.

"Porter. That bastard is called Porter. I already know his name. I'll make sure he gets what's coming to him." The archer young lady's temper flared again. She snatched the longsword and was about to throw it away, but the water swordsman stopped her. He raised his own longsword and pointed at the notch on the blade, then drew Porter's longsword. Its surface was completely smooth, without even a trace on it.