She felt out the survival loop again, like testing stones under a fog-draped river.

Nana Toki realized the game’s realism ran deep, like ink soaking rice paper. NPCs chatted smart, raised favor, and in late game even married you, bridal room and all.

Like dealing with a breathing person made of mist and pulse.

Bored players drifted to talk with NPCs, like sparrows crowding a tea-house ledge.

They strong-armed a game into a social app, like hammering bronze into a mirror.

Nana Toki: "..."

Impressive, this game plane, like a storm in a lacquer box.

And the game had more under the lacquer. It hooked crowds because you could craft your own skills—an obsession like carving jade by moonlight.

Players shaped skills from their understanding, turning fights multicolored. Assassins flung magic like knives in rain. Mages whipped up Blade Storms with staves like typhoons through bamboo.

System: "..."

Self-made skills sometimes broke balance like floodwater. So each player could hold only three.

While checking her skill bar, Nana Toki froze—ice under the chest—finding that even as a level-100 trash-mob, she had a self-made skill: Trip.

Treasure Imp, when fleeing, instantly trips the nearest enemy. It forces a single-target knockdown and boosts her move speed by twenty percent for three minutes.

Clear name, blunt effect. It hit her again with the truth—she was driftwood in a swift stream.

Trip added a debuff: the tripped unit’s defense dropped to zero for a while, and follow-up damage doubled. But she had no other damage, just empty hands in cold wind.

What, trip them again?

She went to test the skill on a low-agility beast nearby, heart tight like a knotted cord.

Then.

Players grinding around her saw a scene like a fox stealing lanterns in daylight.

A Treasure Imp barely one meter fifty ran up to a giant lizard towering like a stone gate. She stuck out a leg, tripped it, bolted like wind through reeds, waited for cooldown, darted back, and tripped it again.

The moves were slick, like a street performer flipping coins.

It happened so suddenly, like thunder cracked in clear sky.

Players closest to Nana Toki hadn’t reacted. The lizard, not aggroed to her, made them its first target like a bull charging red cloth.

"!!!"

"Seriously? That Treasure Imp is toxic!"

The lizard’s blood-red maw rushed them like a landslide. Forest players were stunned, breath scattering like startled birds.

Why would a passive, fleeing Treasure Imp actively pull aggro? Is this a bug?

They scrambled like ants in rain, killed the lizard, then the lead swordsman stared at Nana Toki’s retreating back. He turned, still dazed, and asked his teammate, "Hey, did you see that? The Treasure Imp pulled the mob."

"Mm..."

Heads nodded, slow as winter reeds. The shock was still a ringing bell.

By that afternoon, a video hit the net, stirring debate like ripples on a moonlit pond: “Shocking! A Treasure Imp in the western giant-lizard forest pulls mobs on purpose!”

Many veteran grinders joked the always-fleeing Treasure Imp finally got buffed; their easy youth had ended like a summer rain.

Nana Toki, fresh from her test, knew none of it.

She only learned this: Trip’s damage was a fixed one point, like a pinprick on iron.

Even with the debuff, it was still one. The number stood there like a cold pebble.

Her understanding of her body refreshed—paper against storm.

No lowest cannon fodder, only lower, like stepping down a staircase into mist.

This body was a clear stream among all her traversals—weak stats like wilted leaves, skills as useless as a wooden sword against thunder.

If not for a few pieces of gold gear, she’d be doubting life under a wan moon.

Hm? Wait. Gold gear?

She suddenly remembered.

In her hand was the Protagonist Lord’s weapon—Thorn.

Level 80 gear, unusable for most, but as a level-100 cap, she could wield it like a blade under frost.

It scaled with wearer level like a tide rising the boat. As the highest level on the server, an off-hand weapon alone bumped her attack nearly two thousand.

And that wasn’t counting Thorn’s other glittering properties, stars in a lacquer sky.

A bold idea bloomed, like fire in dry grass.

...

Then.

World channel.

[World] Buyan Fangqi: "Holy—just saw a Treasure Imp dripping in legendary gold, attack over five thousand, walk past me. (gear screenshot attached). Just took it. No Photoshop!"

[World] Liang Shiyi: "?"

[World] Renshi Chezai: "?"

[World] Shu Buzi: "You call that a Treasure Imp?"

The circle of gold gear in the screenshot flashed like noon sun, blinding chat.

Right now the highest attack on the server was the Protagonist Lord’s account, Xianlan Yanyu, just over three thousand.

And you’re telling me a mob that newbies farm with eyes closed breaks five thousand?

Is it you, or is it me?

[World] Ma Jinhua: "Where are the Moonlit West River people? Call them. Buyan’s off his meds, wandering around!"

[World] Liang Shiyi: "No joke, never seen an NPC equip player-class gear till now."

[World] Buyan Fangqi (frustrated): "I’m not lying! Come to the newbie village outskirts. This Treasure Imp is stealing slime kills from a new girl!"

[World] Liang Shiyi: "?"

[World] Renshi Chezai: "?"

[World] Shu Buzi: "?"

[World] Ma Jinhua: "?"

A Treasure Imp with over five thousand attack, in the newbie village, competing for slimes.

Is this a fresh official event?

Something feels off, like wind blowing against the grain.

They came to the newbie village, puzzled like monks counting raindrops. From afar they saw a Treasure Imp around one-fifty tall tailing a cute girl dressed pure newbie, sniping her kills.

Every time the girl ground a slime down, sweat like dew, the Imp crouched and poked with a dagger, stole it clean like a magpie.

The girl didn’t complain, head down, kept whacking slimes, steady as a millstone.

Nana Toki said nothing, crouched and robbed on the side, shadow under a willow.

It was awkward, odd as frost in summer. By the way, the cute girl was Xie Yiyao’s account—Yan Yu Jiangshan.

"Holy—this Treasure Imp really broke five thousand attack?"

Many opened Nana Toki’s gear panel. The stats hit like thunder behind silk, shocking and raw.

Name: Treasure Imp

Background: Unknown

Race: Human, Demon

Level: 100

HP: 26100/26100

MP: 6100/6100

Attack: 5210 (0 + 5210)

Defense: 3010 (10 + 3000)

Spirit: 2100 (10 + 2090)

Agility: 2220 (20 + 2200)

This used to be the mob we farmed blind, like cutting grass.

Three thousand defense—does law even apply here?

Even Xianlan Yanyu chugging percent-attack potions might not break this thing’s shell, like a knife on stone.

[Nearby] Buyan Fangqi (shrug): "See? I didn’t lie."

He’d planned to check the giant-lizard forest to confirm that aggro-pulling Treasure Imp from the forum. On the way, he met one even more absurd, like a comet crossing daylight.

If he hadn’t built the habit of reading target data before fighting, he would’ve been slapped to death, a fly against a wall.

"Look! The Treasure Imp’s holding Thorn, the gold weapon from the last game announcement!"

A player’s shout rippled the crowd like geese lifting.

"Thorn?"

"Damn, it’s really Thorn!"

"This has to be the Treasure Imp Legendary Quest group failed to kill this morning!"

"Hey, if we wipe her now, will the gold gear drop…"

They closed in, distance tightening like a noose around Nana Toki and Xie Yiyao.

"But can you beat a Treasure Imp with over five thousand attack?"

Buyan Fangqi murmured from the back, a twig in wind: "She’s got over three thousand defense. You going up is a free backrub, or just a scratch massage?"

"..."

Exactly.

Few here even broke two thousand attack. Killing Nana Toki was a wish tossed into a dry well.

"Should we call a big shot?"

Xianlan Yanyu could barely break this Treasure Imp’s defense. With percent-attack potions and a few healers, maybe they could wipe her like tide erasing footprints.

"The big shot got the message. Guild’s moving this way."

The world channel had already spread it like wildfire. Curiosity pulled many here, dropping current tasks like leaves.

Major guilds were pinging everyone, ready to raid and strip the gold off this Treasure Imp, stars off the night.

[Nearby] Buyan Fangqi: "Hey, Shiyi, think this crowd can kill her?"

He watched the surge press forward, a river over rocks, and chatted with his fellow bystander.

[Nearby] Liang Shiyi: "I doubt it. Spirit is only 2100, though—magic resist is her weak flank. A mage squad could do it."

[Nearby] Shu Buzi: "Shiyi, your spell attack’s almost three thousand, right? Why not go? Your Tingyu Tower’s got plenty near three thousand. Roll the dice—It’s Thorn. Its stats are insane."

"Have to beat her first." Liang Shiyi leaned on his staff, eyes cold as autumn water. "Even with no skills, five thousand attack on a Treasure Imp—how many autos can you survive?"

"So by your logic, if they rush in, it’s… walking into a latrine looking for death?" Buyan Fangqi tested, half a grin like a knife’s edge.

"..."