"You want to kill a Devil Archduke?" Li Mingxue had been eating snacks when Chu Lian ran over and told her this. She froze for a moment, but did not seem particularly concerned. Only after chewing and swallowing everything in her mouth did she think for a while and begin speaking.
"Mm, it's not impossible. But it'll be extremely difficult. You need to understand the difference between a Devil Archduke and a Demon Archduke. Both belong to the side of evil, but Devils live by their wits, unlike Demons, who rely on brute force. Anyone capable of becoming a Devil Archduke is either extraordinarily cunning or an incredible strategist. Every single one of them is practically a living Zhuge Liang.
"So if you're thinking of scheming against one, it'll probably notice what you're doing before you've even put your plan into motion, then come up with dozens of ways to counter you. Sometimes you'll watch it seemingly walk straight into your trap, only to realize not long afterward... Who the hell was scheming against whom in the first place? They're masters at manipulating people's hearts and tempting others into corruption.
"Worst of all, even when one is standing right in front of you, most of the time you won't even be able to bring yourself to kill it. Because they'll offer enough in exchange to keep themselves alive. They'll buy their own lives..."
Li Mingxue spoke at considerable length. Chu Lian listened attentively, sorting through all the information in her words. Only after a long while did she ask, "So you're saying my idea of tricking it into walking into a trap and then weakening it won't work?"
"Wrong. It'll absolutely work, and the chances of success aren't even low. You need to understand that the smarter someone is, the more they tend to overthink things. And the more they think, the more choices they see, but that also makes it easier for them to be deceived by certain so-called appearances. The deception might not last very long, but even an instant is enough to make them take the bait and let you accomplish what you want. The prerequisite is that you can accurately predict how it'll think."
Li Mingxue took a sip of tea, neither particularly agreeing nor disagreeing with Chu Lian's words. She had experienced far too much and had encountered several Devil Archdukes before. She knew perfectly well just how troublesome these creatures were and also... how stupid they could be.
Precisely because they were intelligent, these creatures often considered far more possibilities than ordinary people, only to end up capsizing in the gutter. Of course, reading people's hearts was what Devils excelled at most, and conspiracies were their specialty.
But when it came to traps, these arrogant and conceited creatures often overlooked something important. And the mistakes they made, along with the methods they used to fix them, could be remarkably stupid and ridiculous.
Perhaps it was because no creature could truly be perfect. A Devil Archduke's brilliance and paranoia were inseparable. Scheming one to death was extremely difficult, but getting one to step into a trap was nowhere near as hard.
"Do this first... then this... and finally..." Li Mingxue quietly explained to Chu Lian how she should deal with the Devil Archduke. As she continued, a peculiar smile gradually appeared on her face. I wonder which Archduke of Hell this is. If it's one of the three-digit Archdukes, then things are going to get interesting. Little Lian'er will absolutely play it until it breaks.
"Mm, there's one more thing you need to know. No Devil Archduke that descends here will arrive in its true body. So even if you kill one, at most you'll leave it weakened for a while. You won't cause any truly serious damage to creatures whose lifespans are measured in tens of thousands of years and who are extremely skilled at hiding and protecting themselves." After saying that, Li Mingxue pinched Chu Lian's cheek and sent her on her way.
If it doesn't descend with its true body, then it'll be a clone? Why have I been running into more and more enemies with clones lately? Am I eventually going to have to fight someone like Naruto? But I'm not interested in fighting people with cheats. Fighting those kinds of opponents is just exhausting. Chu Lian lifted her little butt off the sofa and walked away while thinking.
When she reached the second floor, she saw Yaya waiting for her, then glanced toward the room at the far end of the corridor. Kurumi Tokisaki should still be resting in there. Mm, I need to find Chu Chu and the others and discuss what to do next.
"Come on, let's go upstairs." Taking Yaya's small hand, Chu Lian led her to the third floor. There was a large room there that had been remodeled so extensively that more than a dozen people could lie around inside and play games together without feeling crowded. Chu Chu and the others were currently fighting hard in there, trying to clear that stage while Chu Lian was away.
However, Chu Lian did not have much hope for them. Dark Beasts were originally creatures unique to the game, among its most distinctive native life-forms. Their tails were both the most valuable parts of their bodies and their strongest weapons. Unfortunately, those tails were also ridiculously easy to destroy...
Yet many quests did not require players to kill Dark Beasts at all. Instead, they demanded that players acquire their tails. The problem was that once a Dark Beast realized it was doomed to die, it would inevitably sever its own tail. Aside from immobilizing it completely in an instant, there was currently no other solution.
Of course, the ability to achieve something like that would only become available in the middle and later stages of the game. During the early game, players simply had to obediently follow the Huntsman's code of conduct. As a result, trying to capture a Dark Beast in the early stages was absurdly difficult.
Chu Lian considered herself fairly knowledgeable about the game. Without her, trying to capture a Dark Beast would be harder than climbing to the hea...
With that thought still unfinished, her body froze the moment she opened the door.
Because she saw the girls sitting on the bed, chatting and laughing together. Their entire conversation revolved around how they had just captured a Dark Beast and even completed some hidden class quest...
There was absolutely none of the helplessness Chu Lian had imagined they would experience without her.
Mm. She should be thankful that thought had not continued all the way until she greeted the girls. Otherwise, she would have died of embarrassment.
She had never imagined that all these girls, who had only recently started playing the game, would actually manage to clear that stage.
Well, she herself had not exactly been playing for long either. She had mostly relied on experience from games she had played before. She was not completely hopeless, but she was definitely still a beginner.
In that case, wasn't it perfectly normal for the girls to be better at the game than she was...?
Chu Lian comforted herself inwardly. It definitely was not because she was a gaming newbie. Absolutely not.
"Big Sis, you're back!" Chu Chu was the first to throw herself at Chu Lian. Completely ignoring Yaya, who was puffing her cheeks behind her, Chu Chu wrapped both arms tightly around Chu Lian's waist and rubbed her cheek against her body over and over, looking incredibly clingy.
"You!" Just as Yaya was about to explode, Chu Lian wisely tossed her straight into the summoning space. She could let Yaya back out after she cooled down. Letting her stay here right now would only cause trouble... She could probably coax her afterward, right?
Whatever. Even if Yaya got angry, Chu Lian could not let her back out right now, or things would truly descend into chaos. After all, Yaya was capable of jealousy, but so was everyone else. Chu Lian had no desire to genuinely end up with a knife through her chest. She had already handled that previous night with six girls as well as she possibly could. If something like that happened again, she would not be able to deal with it.
"Hmph, I knew Big Sis loved me the most." Still rubbing herself against Chu Lian, Chu Chu was extremely satisfied with her decision to throw Yaya into the summoning space.
"Stop messing around." Chu Lian lightly knocked her on the head, then walked to the window and looked at the girls, who were still chatting enthusiastically. All the complicated emotions in her heart faded away, leaving only a faint sense of joy and warmth.
They had all begun adapting to this life together. They would no longer lose interest in everything simply because one person left temporarily, nor would they sit there blankly without knowing what to do.
Now that they shared common interests, even Kurosaki Satsuki and Cai Ya, whose personalities made them especially unsociable, had begun interacting with everyone else. The white-haired girl still instinctively avoided Chu Lian's eyes whenever she saw her, and Cai Ya still rolled her eyes at her from time to time. But this was good. This was very good.
"Lian, we cleared it." Inori was sitting to one side, fiddling with her pistol while listening to everyone else talk. When she saw Chu Lian approach, she spoke gently.
"I know. That's great. I was actually worried you wouldn't enjoy playing as much while I wasn't here." Chu Lian shook her head and sat beside Inori, pressing Chu Chu's head aside when she tried to poke it between them. Then she clapped her hands.
"Hm?" Hearing the clap, the other girls stopped talking and turned their attention toward Chu Lian, wondering what she wanted to say.
"Well, you should all know that I captured a girl not long ago. Mm, her name is Kurumi Tokisaki. Her background is actually similar to Inori's. Her world was destroyed too. But unlike Inori, who wandered through the dimensional universe, Kurumi found her own way to another place and became an assassin. I happened to be her target this time. Unfortunately for her, she failed and got captured by me."
Hearing this, the girls glanced at one another and nodded. They already knew that much, though they still did not understand what Chu Lian was trying to say.
"The thing is, she has a wish. She wants to revive the sisters who died when her world was destroyed. That's why she chose to become an assassin."
"And?" By this point, the girls had already faintly guessed what Chu Lian was thinking. Cai Ya was the first to speak. She wanted to see what excuse Chu Lian could possibly come up with for adding another girl to her harem right in front of them.
Yaya had been an accident. Although her behavior toward Chu Lian was extraordinarily perverted, the others had still classified her as a bodyguard.
But this girl was different. They had seen her before. Her beauty was every bit Inori's equal, and she possessed a unique allure that made all of them feel deeply threatened.
They absolutely could not let her join them so easily. Otherwise, their own positions might be shaken yet again. And so, for once, they united against the outsider...
Mm, Liu Yanran's heart was firmly on Chu Lian's side. Whatever Chu Lian wanted to do, she would never interfere.
Li Xiu'er had a gentle, yielding personality and would not make decisions on Chu Lian's behalf, much less stop her from doing what she wanted.
Kurosaki Satsuki's thoughts were difficult to discern, but she probably did not care. What might happen in the future was unclear. At the very least, for now, she still did not want to directly confront her own feelings.
As for the two girls sitting beside Chu Lian, each had thoughts of her own. Chu Chu had her sights set squarely on becoming the mistress of the harem, while Inori simply trusted Chu Lian to handle everything and had no intention of joining the commotion.
That left Ruriko Nana and Lux Lyle, who were purely enjoying the show. When Cai Ya spoke up, they immediately joined in, simply because they wanted to see how Chu Lian would deal with this.
"Ahem. Well... Isn't her dream a good one? And she's doing what she believes is right, so I just wanted to help her..." The moment Chu Lian said that, Cai Ya cut in.
"So you agreed to help revive her sisters, and in exchange, she'll become yours?"
Cai Ya was far too familiar with this pattern. Kurosaki Satsuki, Ruriko Nana, Lux Lyle, and even Anna had all ended up beside Chu Lian in more or less the same way. It was impossible for them not to recognize the routine. They could only blame Chu Lian for being far too practiced at this sort of thing.
"Well, you can't exactly say she'll become mine. It's just a transaction. I'll help revive her sisters, and during the three years it takes for them to return, she'll serve as my helper. Once the revival is complete, whether she stays or leaves will be entirely up to her." Seeing the situation taking a dangerous turn, Chu Lian explained everything in one breath so they would not keep interrogating and criticizing her afterward.
"Isn't that the same thing?" Cai Ya narrowed her beautiful eyes. Was what Chu Lian had just described really any different from Kurumi becoming hers?
"It's different!" Chu Lian protested.
"And how exactly is it different this time?"
"At least... at least... Mm, at least this will be a huge help to me. She's a Heaven Rank powerhouse. With her around, everyone will be safer, won't they?" The argument was logically sound, but it still failed to convince anyone.
The fundamental problem was simply that Kurumi Tokisaki was far too beautiful and far too seductive. If Chu Lian claimed that Kurumi's appearance had played absolutely no role in her decision, none of them would believe her.
"Fine. The biggest reason is that I know about her... Just like I know a lot about Inori. I know where she came from, what her world was like, some of what happened in her past, and what she truly wants. Once I tell you all of that, you'll probably understand why I want to help her." Chu Lian raised her head and stared at the lily-patterned wallpaper covering the ceiling. After thinking for a long moment, she finally decided to tell them some of what she knew about Kurumi Tokisaki.
"Kurumi Tokisaki, the Worst Spirit, is someone who wields the power of time. She..." Seeing the girls fall silent, signaling that they were willing to hear Kurumi's story, Chu Lian steadied herself and stared straight ahead. Her voice was very, very soft, but the story she told made every girl listen attentively.
"So you're saying her goal was actually good, but the way she went about achieving it was a little..." After hearing everything Chu Lian knew about Kurumi's past, Cai Ya remained silent. Li Xiu'er seemed to want to say something but ultimately did not. Only Liu Yanran noticed that the atmosphere had become somewhat awkward and took the initiative to speak.
"Mm. But now, everything she wants to do is solely for the sake of reviving the Spirits who died. No matter how difficult it is, she intends to see it through. That's her responsibility, and as the last survivor of that world, it's the one thing she wants to accomplish more than anything else." After saying this, Chu Lian stopped speaking and left the girls to decide for themselves.
"How about this, Chu Lian? Promise us that until we've accepted her, you won't develop any special relationship with her. If you can promise that, then we'll accept her." After Liu Yanran spoke, she fell silent again. Cai Ya still refused to say anything. Chu Chu looked left and right as though the matter had nothing to do with her, while Inori mischievously took Chu Lian's little hand and traced circles on her palm.
Li Xiu'er watched their reactions and understood that they had actually already accepted the idea. They merely needed someone to say it aloud. Not wanting the atmosphere to remain like this, she took the initiative and made the proposal.
"Mm, I can promise that..." The moment Chu Lian said those words, the matter was settled.
At least for quite a long while, she would not have to worry about this particular issue anymore. After all, winning over Kurumi Tokisaki was an absolutely MAX-level challenge. Chu Lian had no confidence whatsoever that she could pull it off.
And now that this matter was temporarily resolved, it was time to bring up the other issue. That was also the main reason she had come here in the first place... at least, the main reason on the surface.