In Terra, a Hunter and a Bad Woman

Was she... surrounded by people with Beastification?

What should she do?

Kill them all?

As she thought, Maria silently clenched her fist, her eyes gradually sharpening.

At that moment, Little Regret noticed that Maria was awake and sensed her killing intent as well, so she hurriedly appeared.

"Boss! Calm down! There's really no need to fight!"

After hurriedly stepping in to stop her, Little Regret finally let out a long breath when she saw Maria unclench her fist.

Amitabha. She had saved quite a few people again.

Wiping away nonexistent cold sweat from her forehead, she quickly spoke in order to make Maria forget about those people.

"Boss, do you need to settle the previous simulation immediately?"

"Settle the simulation?"

"Yes." Little Regret answered decisively, while unfolding a screen for Maria.

It listed several major things Maria had done in the forest, each with its own evaluation.

Among them, the highest-scoring event was hunting the Great Beast's phantom—the Three-Headed Hound.

The second-highest score came from her contact with the Puppy girl.

"Cer... berus? What a strange name." Maria murmured. "Was that the Puppy's name?"

However, before she could think for long, her toe bumped into something.

Looking down, she saw a round little ball.

Not far away, several scruffy children with bear heads were timidly looking over at her.

They seemed to want to retrieve their ball, but they were too afraid of the elegantly dressed Maria to approach.

Huddled together, they whispered among themselves, fear flowing through their eyes.

Of course, perhaps they simply did not want to approach someone who had been sleeping the whole time, then started strangely talking to herself the moment she woke up.

She looked sick no matter how one looked at her.

Maria lowered her head and quietly asked her system.

"Who... are these people?"

"Judging by their race, they should be Ursus... Ursus is a country on this continent, and its main population consists of these bear people."

"Population... are all the people in this world like this?"

Maria turned around in astonishment and questioned the system.

The degree of Beastification in this world was not particularly dangerous, but had it already reached the point of being hereditary?

That was rather frightening...

"Although it's strange, yes, this world is like that. Besides them, there are little dragon people, little rabbit people, little bird people, and some more unusual races."

"..."

"Boss, what's wrong?"

Little Regret was somewhat puzzled as she watched Maria suddenly fall into deep thought.

What was wrong? Had the boss not adjusted to this world full of girls with animal ears?

That couldn't be right, could it?

From what she had heard from her predecessors, didn't young people these days like this sort of thing?

Half-beasts with animal ears, a few animal-like traits, cuddling and nuzzling—wasn't that nice?

Why did the boss seem somewhat resistant toward these beast people?

Little Regret could not understand.

But Maria shook her head.

"Forget it. It's nothing."

"More importantly... do you know what these people are doing here? They seem to be waiting for something."

Looking back, Maria saw that although the refugees were wary of one another, some of them would occasionally raise their heads to look into the distance, as if awaiting something's arrival.

Were they expecting something?

Maria followed their gazes.

But unfortunately, aside from distant wasteland, there was nothing else.

Was there something nearby that she could not understand?

And Little Regret, now reconnected to this world, quickly found the answer.

"They should... be waiting for Lungmen's Mobile City?"

"Mobile City? Lungmen?"

"Boss, you're currently at the border between Yan and Ursus. Not long ago, a disaster suddenly broke out in Chernobog on the Ursus side, turning many Ursus people into refugees. They came here to seek Lungmen's protection in Yan."

Little Regret explained the current situation to Maria as concisely as possible. These people had gathered here because they had received word that Lungmen's Mobile City would stop nearby soon, so they wanted to try their luck and see whether they could get inside.

Many of them had brought their entire families with them.

But none of that had anything to do with Maria.

She silently left the spot. Only after those children retrieved their ball and went off to play did she turn back and continue questioning Little Regret.

"Everything I experienced before... was it a dream?"

"Not entirely... I merely used a dream-like method to send you back along the past timeline to do certain things... Everything you saw truly happened in this world."

"That Puppy girl was real too?"

"Yes."

Little Regret answered, but halfway through speaking, she suddenly froze again.

Then she broke into a mischievous smile.

She could see Maria's experiences too, so she knew exactly how Maria had treated the other girl in the dream.

And how long had it been since she returned to reality? Yet she was already asking about her?

"Boss, you aren't a tsundere, are you?"

Little Regret teased with a grin.

Clearly, however, she had still underestimated Maria's train of thought.

"Tsundere? I don't think those two words can form an adjective."

Maria corrected her misuse of words, then lowered her head to think amid the other girl's speechless silence.

"If all that was real... there should still have been a Great Beast hiding in that area, but I never found it."

"That battle made quite a commotion. It could not have failed to notice... yet it chose not to interfere."

"Did it not care? Or was that situation beneficial to it?"

Maria thought for a moment, then turned to Little Regret again.

"...Can I go back one more time?"

Maria planned to return and find the Great Beast truly hidden over there.

Never mind why this world had so many beast people, or whether there were any true humans at all.

Since she already knew Great Beasts existed, Maria intended to take a look.

If those Great Beasts were Outer Gods too...

Then she would kill them all!

But Little Regret looked somewhat embarrassed at that moment.

Your idea was good, but... sorry, I can't do that.

"Um... Boss, although I'm your system, I can't activate whenever you want."

"Hm?"

"Simply put, you just completed a story, so the next activation will have to wait a month. And I randomly capture scattered fragments of this world's past, so it's unlikely that I'll get the same place twice..."

Little Regret tried her best to explain her abilities to Maria...

Come to think of it, wasn't this something she should have clearly explained when meeting her host for the first time? Like terms of use—explain first, then use.

But Maria had been far too fierce from the beginning, so Little Regret had not thought of any of that at the time. She had only wanted to hurry up and fool her into using the system...

It felt strangely like boarding first and buying the ticket afterward.

But Little Regret did not regret it.

After all, she had seen Maria's strength.

One look was enough to confirm it: a pure boss, purely powerful!

What ordinary person started by brawling with a Great Beast?

Logically speaking, in order to take care of a newcomer, she had deliberately captured a relatively simple and safe location for her. Maria only needed to stay with the Puppy girl for a while, then escape the forest to complete the mission.

But who could have expected that not only did she want to leave, she wanted to kill the boss of the place before leaving?

That night, Little Regret had practically stared wide-eyed as Maria exchanged punch after punch with that gigantic Three-Headed Hound—and brutally beat it to death!

Powerful! Nothing more needed to be said!

While Little Regret was happily savoring that thought, Maria fell into a dilemma.

"So... how am I supposed to get to that forest?"

"I don't know about that... If all else fails, Boss, you could try the normal way? Just walk there directly?"

Little Regret offered her suggestion.

But it was only a suggestion. Her real focus was elsewhere.

"Enough about that... Anyway, Boss, shall we settle your rewards?"

Mission Settlement

[Settling your rewards]

[Major Event Completed: Hunting the Great Beast

Mission Evaluation: Perfect

Mission Description: Your compassion and kindness liberated the entire forest. From this day onward, that quiet forest would no longer be shrouded in mist. Your existence also invisibly saved countless pitiful people, granting them freedom.

Mission Reward: Luoyang (Weapon Blueprint)]

[Major Event Completed (2): Legend

Mission Evaluation: Excellent

Mission Description: Your story spread far and wide through your follower. Though she could not understand much, your name still circulated through Bolivar—a story of a Hunter hunting monsters.

Mission Reward: Bolivar personnel will possess a natural favorable impression of you (excluding special Operators)]

[Main Quest Completed: Traveler

Mission Evaluation: Excellent

Mission Description: A lonely child crossed this dangerous land because of a single obsession. She may have forgotten many things and encountered many new things, but she did not forget what everything she did was truly for.

Mission Reward: Rhodes Island (faction) favorability toward you increased]

Three simple panels appeared before Maria, each describing matters related to her.

But what puzzled Maria was that the rewards for these three things... weren't they a little too strange?

"Luoyang... a blueprint? And two strange descriptions."