Heh. If this plot keeps shambling forward, a few sour-lemons will pop up to pick a fight with the heroine, and the Protagonist Lord will slap them down like rolling thunder.

Nana Toki watched for a spell, her interest cooling like tea gone cold, then drifted back toward the Divine Demon Tower to do her old grind.

Watching the leads spoon sugar under the sun felt like gnawing on dog food; better to chase gold like a magpie after coins.

Word of Nana Toki ferrying people through the Divine Demon Tower spread across the server like wind through reeds, and players who couldn’t clear it yet wouldn’t pay up, so they reported her to the devs like tossing stones into a still pond.

Next came the crowd-pleasing thunderclap: a forced server logout for all, and a line of staffers with “GM” glowing above their heads sprinting over like geese in a flap; Nana Toki didn’t hesitate, drew Thorn in a silver flash, and cut down the GMs who reached hands toward her.

The GMs lay like toppled scarecrows, waiting for respawn: “...”

What’s with this Treasure Imp?

They revived and pressed in again, and Nana Toki repeated her old trick like a crane pecking grain—Trip, then a flat-face basic—auto-attacked them back into the dirt before ten heartbeats had passed.

“...”

[Ding! System Notice: ■■ Treasure Imp’s “Trip” has reached one hundred uses. Skill upgraded to “Trip EX.”]

The System chime crackled with static like rain on tin, so Nana Toki didn’t catch it all; she only saw an EX bloom after her Trip skill.

“Trip EX: The Treasure Imp, desperate to escape, instantly trips the nearest enemies in range, forcing a group knockdown like a snapped snare, and increases her own movement speed by 30% for three minutes.”

The change hit like a spring flood—single-target trip turned to forced group wipe-out, and the speed buff climbed another ten percent; just the debuff alone felt busted, and as the one who learned it, Nana Toki thought this skill was bugged past the pale.

Having a golden finger feels like holding the wind at your back.

Sighing like a willow in drizzle, she carved down the just-respawned GMs who tried to edge closer again.

Game GMs: “...”

We can’t inspect this Treasure Imp at all!

Realizing a handful of them couldn’t leash a bug-tier Treasure Imp, the GMs stopped hovering like flies, logged off, and dove into the central database to flip through her character data line by line.

Then.

They checked that Treasure Imp’s data three times, like monks turning beads, and found no bug to pin down.

“What... is going on here?”

One staffer floated the findings up the chain like a kite in clear sky, and the company higher-ups took it seriously in a heartbeat.

“Hold your horses for now. Table the Treasure Imp. That server’s level 85 cap’s still closed, right? Run a few events, ship a couple minor patches, then open the cap.”

The reply didn’t order a purge of that bug-like Treasure Imp; instead, it told them to run the river as usual.

This bug’s strange as a fox in mist; patching rashly might make the AI run wild, and players could be in real danger like boats in sudden squalls.

“But sir, the weapon that unlocks the level cap—Thorn—is still on that Treasure Imp. If we open the cap casually, won’t players on other servers kick up dust?”

“Don’t worry. We’ll launch a cap-opening event unlike any other server, and use that tide to fix the Treasure Imp bug. With a bug like the Treasure Imp around, players elsewhere won’t have much to say.”

“...”

After a round of talks, finally—

Maintenance ended. Players trickled back like birds after rain and saw Nana Toki’s bug still unpatched.

In fact—

Yeah.

With Trip EX under her belt, the Treasure Imp felt even more bug-tier, and the clueless players figured the devs had let the kite string go and were flying free.

Post after post boiled up like steam, and rage simmered close to quitting.

The devs were helpless as carp on a bank.

It’s not that they didn’t want to fix Nana Toki’s bug; they couldn’t. They couldn’t even delete the Treasure Imp’s source character—let alone fix it.

So they rolled out a few events, shook off the dust, and stopped answering that server’s complaints like a shopkeeper closing the shutters.

The higher-ups had already told them to let it be; whatever storm that bug-tier Treasure Imp brewed on that server, it wasn’t theirs to calm.

Luckily, this batch of events had some shine, easing eyes off Nana Toki’s bug like clouds parting for the moon.

They called it the “Most Beautiful Goddess Selection.”

It faced the whole server’s female characters, players and female NPCs alike, all swept into the net by default.

They’d complete event tasks to raise their Charm, and at the end, the top female player would get a server-wide custom title and a cornucopia of rewards.

Men weren’t left in the shade; they had space to play too.

Beyond women raising their own Charm, they could receive an item from male players called a “Passionate Rose” to gain extra Charm like dew on petals.

Men had to run event tasks to earn Roses as well; when it ended, the man who spent the most Roses would get a title and rich rewards—enough honey to make the hive buzz.

On opening day—

To Nana Toki’s surprise, players pushed her to second in the goddess race like a wave lifting a boat.

Sixty thousand Charm was ridiculous as a dragon on a chicken coop.

[World] Moonlit Spring River: “Why’s there an NPC on the goddess board? Damn! Devs hiding something?”

[World] GloomAndDoom: “Hiding your head much? The event notice said NPCs can join!”

[World] IAmCutePleaseTip: “Exactly, exactly! Treasure Imp is my goddess, what’s it to you!”

[World] SpringBreezeDrizzle: “Hey? Why not vote MistyRiversAndMountains? Is our guild leader’s chosen sis not cute enough?”

[World] FacePayFan: “Long live Treasure Imp! Senpai, look at me! Carry me through the Divine Demon Tower, quack!”

Players tossing Roses at Nana Toki did it because this NPC was a hoot, like a firefly blinking in chat; she could speak on World with emotes, fought like a storm, and if they made friends, maybe she’d help in future dungeons.

Nana Toki, blissfully unaware: “...”

No matter how her fans rallied, the throne in first stayed under the heroine’s account, MistyRiversAndMountains. On the men’s side, the Protagonist Lord led by a mile, five thousand contribution points ahead like a stallion breaking the pack.

That, naturally, was the power of money, heavy as gold bars on a scale.

Yep.

Those Passionate Roses could be bought. Didn’t see that coming, did you?

Ten gold per rose, ten Charm per bloom.

Daily purchase cap, 520 each per person; the Protagonist Lord rallied a squad to boost MistyRiversAndMountains, and money, like a river in flood, carried the heroine to number one.

Nana Toki: “...”

As expected.

Money works like a master key.

Still dragging teams through the Divine Demon Tower for coin each day, Nana Toki felt the sour bite like plum brine on the tongue.

Why does the heroine get a loyal little wolfdog like the Protagonist Lord? I want one too!

For the first time since she crossed worlds, she missed Nesting Phoenix like a swallow missing spring.

Whimper, whimper.

System: “...”

Even World Chat didn’t expect LeisurelyGatheringMist to have that kind of wallet-wielding sway, turning the event tide like a kingfisher’s wing.

This smokeless war looked decided, nails hammered tight.

Until a discordant voice drifted across World like a cold draft.

[World] BambooCutterLotus: “MistyRiversAndMountains, have you no shame? Seducing other people’s husbands?”

[World] BambooCutterLotus: “Isn’t LeisurelyGatheringMist’s support enough? You want other men to shower you with Roses too? Shame much?”

[World] BambooCutterLotus: “Your greedy face is ugly, MistyRiversAndMountains. One face in front of LeisurelyGatheringMist, another behind—aren’t you tired wearing two masks?”

A flurry of messages, and World Chat froze like ponds in frost.

MistyRiversAndMountains two-faced, and asking men with CPs to Rose her?

That melon was explosive as firecrackers.

[World] RollingPearlCurtain: “What are you even saying? She asked other guys for Roses now?”

[World] RiverTown: “No clue. I just learned this too. Confused, confused.”

[World] ShamelessLotus: “Don’t be ridiculous. With sis-in-law’s temperament, she’d never ask for Roses. Nowadays anyone with a mouth can spin lies?”

[World] TomCatICan: “True. Our guild leader asked us to vote for sis-in-law, but she didn’t agree. In the end only the leader contributed. Otherwise how do you think the little Imp only got seven or eight thousand Charm from us? Don’t make us laugh!”

[World] SaltyFishInPond: “Here we go, here we go. Another jealous one hating on sis-in-law! What is this, the third time?”

Plenty from Langya spoke up for MistyRiversAndMountains, but soon a tide of lurkers hungry for drama washed them under like reeds in flood.

Reading the scrawl of World Chat, Nana Toki felt a prickle of strangeness, like grit in the eye.

This arc wasn’t in the original, and that soft, silly heroine having a petty streak?

Nana Toki couldn’t buy it, not even with borrowed moonlight.