In a snap, Nana Toki let go of the Divine Demon Tower like a kettle taken off a rolling boil, packed up in a rush, and headed for low-level instances to look for the Leading Lady.

She swept the whole map like a storm skimming fields, and only at last, in the western Giant Lizard Forest, did she find the Leading Lady grinding in silence, cutting down mobs like reeds and nudging her level upward like a rising tide.

The other clearly hadn’t expected to meet Nana Toki there; the player Yanyu Jiangshan, piloting Xie Yiyao, twitched like a startled hare and tried to turn tail, but Nana arrived on her heels and dropped her with a forced trip, neat as a snare line in wet grass.

Why’s this dork running like a spooked sparrow?

Guilty conscience slithering in her chest like a snake?

Nana stared, puzzled, at the Leading Lady lying flat and clutching her staff, and before she could open her mouth, Yanyu Jiangshan, still on the ground, started pulling a dizzying pile of items from her bag and flinging them like colorful leaves in a sudden gust.

She threw and babbled, her voice trembling like a rain-soaked kitten: “I… I’ll give you everything, just don’t kill me, okay QAQ.”

Like Nana was some alley cutthroat coming for her life with a knife glinting like frost.

…

What on earth is with this dork?

Nana’s mouth twitched like a plucked string as she looked down at Xie Yiyao. “Why’d you run when you saw me?”

“You… you’re gonna rob me, so of course I run, duh,” Xie Yiyao whimpered, curling her head in like a quail, arms locked around her staff.

Lately she kept hearing folks in Langya say there’s a bug-tier Treasure Imp who ganks low-level players for their gear, vicious as a winter wind that strips branches bare.

She never thought she’d run into her today.

Thinking about dying once and having to level again made her heart ache like a bruise.

“I gave you everything on me, please don’t kill me,” she pleaded, still too scared to get up, lying flat as a fallen leaf and peeking up at Nana Toki with clear, watery eyes, like a puppy about to be abandoned at the roadside.

Afraid one dark look would mean the axe.

Nana Toki: …

Does this dork really have the nerve to flirt with someone’s boyfriend to farm those Longing Roses?

Also.

Who the hell would rob a level thirty-something newbie, huh?

I’m decked head to toe in golden legendaries, like sun on a mountain peak—why would I care about your handful of junk trinkets?

Nana drew a long breath, letting her mood settle like silt in a clear stream, and changed the topic. “Do you know they’re flaming you in World right now?”

“Huh?” The other blinked, foggy as a window in spring drizzle. “Why are they flaming me, duh?”

…

Yep, this dork is even denser than she looked, a steamed bun with no filling.

“Because you seduced someone’s boyfriend to push your Charm score,” Nana lied with a straight face, her tone smooth as ice.

“What’s a Charm score?” Confusion spread over Xie Yiyao’s cute face like ripples in a pond. “I don’t know anything.”

Lately the big-shot told her to focus on leveling, like a plow across a field, and leave the rest to him.

Other than that, she knew nothing at all.

Amazing, my Leading Lady.

She didn’t even know the event had started, yet the capitalist Protagonist Lord shoved her straight into first place on the Charm leaderboard, like a crane set among chickens.

Is this the treatment of fated leads?

Nana admitted she went a little sour, like biting a green plum. It was the second moment since crossing worlds that she missed Nesting Phoenix.

May the next world be the one where she and Nesting Phoenix sprinkle dog food like petals on a spring path.

System: …

“Look, this is her exact wording.”

Nana pulled up the World chat logs like a fisherman drawing in a net. “She says you seduced her boyfriend to boost your Charm and climb the charts.”

“Ha…” After reading, deeper confusion pooled on Xie Yiyao’s face like mist rolling off a river. “But I don’t even know her boyfriend, duh. I’ve been leveling here all day.”

From login to now, she hadn’t left the Giant Lizard Forest, like a stump rooted in place.

For a true newbie like her, leveling mattered more than any event reward, bright as a lantern in her mind.

She innocently opened World and typed a line, fingers pecking like sparrows, then lifted her head after ten seconds of effort, lost again. “Why can’t I speak in World, duh?”

…

This dork doesn’t even know how to use World chat?

Nana sighed, like wind through bamboo, bought a megaphone from the shop, and traded it over. “Try again now.”

“Oh…”

[World] Yanyu Jiangshan: I don’t know your boyfriend. Don’t make things up.

[World] Zhuqu He: Yanyu Jiangshan, you shameless fox! You know how many Longing Roses my boyfriend threw you. Don’t you dare play innocent!

[World] Chelizi: The one upstairs sounds far from normal.

[World] TomcatICan: Sis, don’t bother with that clown.

“See? She’s cursing you,” Nana coaxed, voice flicking like a willow switch. “Aren’t you going to clap back? If it were me, I wouldn’t hold back. I’d go right in. Best if you do it while looking like an innocent white lotus.”

“But I don’t know how to curse…” Xie Yiyao had been cursed out of nowhere, and grievance welled up like a brimming cup. “Why don’t they care about right and wrong?”

She truly hadn’t done anything.

Nana Toki: …

Because you’re a dork, that’s why.

Forget it.

Seeing the Leading Lady this adorably dumb, Nana didn’t want to nag further.

Let the Protagonist Lord handle it, like a mountain taking the storm; as for her, she’d drink and nap and not meddle.

“Hey… she’s cursing again. Now she’s talking about… uh, Treasure Imp? Isn’t that an NPC?”

Nana Toki: ?

What now?

How did I get dragged in like a fish caught in a stranger’s net?

She scrolled her World logs upward like turning a bamboo slip and found that when Yanyu Jiangshan stopped replying, that woman named Zhuqu He swung the spear toward Nana, the Treasure Imp, saying the men who voted for Nana must be brain-dead to like a string of game data.

A few of Nana’s little fans tried to speak up, sparks in rain, but they were soon drowned out by rubberneckers, washed clean from World.

[World] Zhuqu He: I don’t get men who vote for a game NPC. One Yanyu Jiangshan being a man-stealer is bad enough—can an NPC do it too? Have you never seen a woman?

[World] Zhuqu He: What’s so great about that Treasure Imp’s face and figure? What’s better than mine? How is she second on Charm? Are you blind? Is there an inside deal? Don’t want the rewards going to actual players?

[World] Zhuqu He: You dogs circling an NPC every day—does she feed you?

Nana read to the end with a calm face, cool as moonlight on a pond. The other’s mouth stank to high heaven, every line like muddy water splashing feet.

If she weren’t a person of rare restraint, she might have dragged the woman’s family into it already like thunder splitting a rotten tree.

“Big sis, aren’t you mad?” Xie Yiyao puffed her cheeks beside Nana like a pouting carp. “She’s too mean. How can she smear someone’s name like that?”

“Indeed.”

This one’s just itching for attention, like a stray dog yapping under the eaves.

Nana let herself think the worst of the other, a black feather in a white sky.

Maybe nobody’s boosting her Charm, so she’s jealous and jumped out to yap and gnash.

[World] Treasure Imp: Maybe your boyfriend willingly threw Longing Roses at Yanyu Jiangshan, you caught him, got mad, and made up stuff to drag her in World? She’s pretty likable, after all.

[World] Zhuqu He: Who do you think you are? What are the devs even doing? You get to talk in World and now you think you’re hot stuff? You little bully hiding behind power!

[World] Treasure Imp: Wild, I’m still second on Charm even like this. And you? Huh? Not in the top hundred? Is the data lagging? Can’t find you… oh, only a few dozen points, from quests. Then it tracks. If it were me, I’d go smash my head on a wall from embarrassment.

[World] IAmTheDemonKing: The Treasure Imp opens her mouth and you can hear the veteran yin-yang snark.

[World] AStrangeBlossom: Damn, 666, I’m in love with this Treasure Imp.

[World] FlatChestGirlsHaveMoreFun: Suddenly this Treasure Imp is kinda adorable, duh. Do I have a little masochist in me?

[World] Treasure Imp: Can you speak like a human? If not, go redo compulsory school, then come back. Sparring with you feels like I’m bullying you one-sided.

[World] Zhuqu He: Bang your mom!

[World] Treasure Imp: Sorry, per this NPC’s setting, I have no parents. Your swing doesn’t land. Honestly, watching you blow a fuse just highlights the vibe: a raging esports man-baby flailing in public.

Even through that thin World-channel pane, onlookers could feel the Treasure Imp’s yin-yang bite, cool and cutting as a night breeze in a bamboo grove.

And the truth matched Nana’s guess: Zhuqu He had found her boyfriend secretly paying to shower Yanyu Jiangshan with Longing Roses; she couldn’t swallow it, so she came to World to smear Yanyu like slinging mud at a white wall.

What she didn’t expect was an NPC snapping back, bright as a blade in sleeve.

The wild part? She couldn’t win. Nana’s clapbacks never used a single dirty word, like a teacher’s ruler tapping knuckles—precise and merciless.

Zhuqu He, by contrast, couldn’t say three lines without a bleep, like a kid playing house who runs out of words and can only spit “Bang your mom.”

The gap in firepower was plain as sun and shadow.