The march back to the ghost town felt a little strange, but to be honest, everything was a little more unusual, even more than usual. Forget the fact that magic actually exists in this world, with all known limitations practically obsolete, life itself has become quite confusing, to say the least.

This means that my current circumstances are more than abnormal, even measured by the daily madness I see myself confronted with every day. How could I have guessed that the people I had beaten black and blue before would suddenly be in such a relationship with me?

Where had I signed up to be there benefactor? I can not remember signing up for something like this. The request to bring me the cadavers was nothing more than a joke, so how is it that these people were standing in front of me with the said goods over their shoulder?

How is it that these people didn't just come once, but offered me their hunting goods again and again? What kind of thought process leads these people to such decisions? The more I learn about this world and its inhabitants, the more questioning and confused I become.

What do these people expect from their actions? I don't believe that I can offer them something that would interest them. I doubt that they are the right audience for lectures about the people on planet Earth, and I also have no intention of simply sharing this knowledge.

This knowledge is one of my most important resources in this world and it would be more than unwise not to maintain this advantage. Even if I have the goodness to share all this knowledge with people, it does not mean that they are willing to do the same for me.

This kind of egoism ensures that no one can take advantage of me so easily. It is better to be safe than sorry, especially if the chance to say sorry might never come at all.

Blind faith is a mistake I will make only once. I have gained this kind of experience through much disappointment and bitterness in my former world. It is not necessary to open these wounds again. just so that I know what I have done wrong.

Doubt everyone and question everything. This is a path that makes you lonely. He who only sees hidden intentions and motives will never see what might have been and will only see what brought him to such an attitude in the first place.

And even if you are careful with everyone and everything in your life, in the end, you might protect yourself from many things, but the person who will suffer from this arrangement the most will be yourself.

There is nothing wrong with solitude per se, but you should still remember that man is a pack animal. Contact to others is something which should not be prevented, even with its inherent risks. Though this kind of advice only applies to people actually living on planet Earth and not someone like me currently stuck here.

This "second life" of min is a nice bonus and I will not use this time to explore my personality and try to find potential fixes for the flaws I had back when I was still alive. It would be too wasteful to spend my time, with something so utterly pointless.

" Can you please just stop feigning ignorance, does it not get boring to do something like this over and over?"

No, never. Of course, I was confused at first, when they came back and offered me the corpse of a monster, but as long as I benefit from it why should I refuse such an offering. All I had to do was sprinkle in some obscure tips and techniques and they started to see me as some sort of angel in human flesh. Just leave them wanting more and I can get them to do whatever they want in exchange for some words.

"Using your poison to weaken the monsters, you truly are despicable."

We already had this point, I will use every means to achieve my goals and in this case, I just needed to entice them. After all the methods I taught them, worked and gave them an experience of a lifetime. If that means, that I have to use a poison that causes hallucinations then so be it.

The best part is, that I did not even have to move a little finger, by utilizing the flying ants I could save myself a lot of trouble and no one noticed my interference.

Besides, I have no idea, why you are complaining about my methodology, I have managed to acquire a steady supply chain of monster meat, ensuring, that my body can finally heal without risking it falling apart.

So should you not praise me for not doing something stupid and ruining your effort to heal my body? Instead, you always criticize me and try to negate everything I have done, if I did not know you any better I would have thought you were opposed to everything I stand for.

" So you have me all figured out, huh?"

You do not have to show so much aggression towards me, whatever your goal you might have set out for me, it would be suicidal to work against you. So, please do not conduct yourself like a small child and just get to the main point.

" So boring, not even in the mood to bicker. So what is your true motive for coming out of the safety of the town? There was no reason to leave it and expose yourself to unnecessary danger."

Oh, worried about poor old me? But why are you asking something so obvious? I wanted to put an end to this kind of attention-grabbing show. I could have used it to promote my ideas, but it was neither the right time nor the right place for this kind of advertisement. I need these people to feel the immense pressure and the unrelenting circumstances that leave them with no other choice.

These criteria have yet to be met, so I am putting an end to this before the tool loses its shock value. But of course, that's not the reason I have left the safety of the town. If I only had the kind of goal, I did not even have to come here accompanied by Tom.

What I had been aiming for, was to confirm something with my very own eyes. Players indeed are lucky bastards, if they kill others they can loot the corpses, every time I had tried something like this I was left empty-handed.

" So, that is why you instilled them with this non-relenting kind of mindset, seeking vengeance for even the even smallest grievance. Why else, would those disciples known for their peacefulness and serenity suddenly become a violent brute."

Hey, I told them to endure all of those words and use those emotions to strengthen themselves. It is not my fault, that this awareness would have such an effect on them. How could I have anticipated, that their minds would be clouded like this?

" You had planned to use your poisons to stimulate them if things had not worked out. Please, if you demand me to treat you seriously, I ask you to treat me with the same level of respect."

Of course, I have to make back-up plans if something does not work out the way I had intended it to do. Since things tend to spiral out of control very fast, it would be unwise to leave things to fate. Especially if my goal is reliant on their part.

My plan came it fruition and everything else was not even needed. If I want to influence the upcoming competition, I first have to do the necessary research into it. This little play of mine is only a small part of the groundwork I have to do.

In fact, I have just secured a way to gather the necessary funds to start my little venture. If I can not gather the money by myself I just have to incentive others to do it for me. I can focus on other more important tasks when the pressing issues have been taken care of.

Who or how this problem is solved does is of little interest to me as long as it is taken care of. Doing everything by myself? I am not stupid enough to believe, that I am capable of such a thing.

" Certainly, you might have many deficits but you are not delusional"

Your ability to hide insults in your compliments is growing by the days, So this is how a proud dad must feel like, watching his children growing up. I would give you a hug if you had a physical body.

" So why did I have to burn those bodies? Wasn't that a just a big waste of my time?" This snide remark came from my side and Tom looked at me clearly asking for my intentions. Keeping everyone happy was not easy.

" I was doing them a favour. If others stumbled upon the battlefield, they would otherwise just see a pile of corpses killed by fists. Do you think, people would praise them for something like this? I had to provide them, with an excuse. Dieng due to magic is not nearly as problematic as losing your life being beaten to death."

This explanation should suffice, of course, he is not going to believe my goodwill for others, but just see it as a way to avoid the trouble, that would surely arise out of the shame and humiliation that would have been brought upon them.

That was part of the reason, why I asked him to burn these corpses, but the main reason was to cover up my tracks of the bodies being lotted and robbed of their valuables. I do not want others to gain, that kind of knowledge and use it to their advantage. Still, I can not escape the follow-up question, that would come without a doubt.

" Yeah, being beaten to death would have been held over their heads for a very long time. There is no doubt, that they would seek revenge for that."

Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click www.webnovel.com for visiting.

Thank you for stating the obvious. I am glad I do not have to spell it out for you. Though it would not hurt if his words were not spoken, as if he was speaking to an idiot. Even would not do something like this, although I had the qualifications to do so.

" Here take it." I threw him the bag with all of the loot we had obtained from killed players.

He caught it with ease and proceeded to put it away into his inventory. I have no idea, how a storage system like that actually works, but I decided to gloss over details like this since there are a lot of things that do not make any sense in my eyes.

If you think to deeply about things like this, I am only going to lose my head. Most can be solved by simply saying its a game and not pondering about it anymore. Whether the system actually bends the space around them and keeps their inventory inside of this space, or the system truly just saves the items and generates them if necessary does not matter to a small fry like me.

Nothing would change even if I know a detail like this. Spending my time thinking about the nature and customs of the players is way more efficient, then wondering about the things that make the world go round.

Besides as long as I lack the strength to change the system, I am only accelerating my demise. The Observer would not take any risks with me if I obtain knowledge, that I should not know about, then I am just digging my own grave.

I will be wiped out of existence in a matter of milliseconds if the Observer saw me as a threat to its plans. So it would be best not to dwell on things like this. Just do what you are supposed to do, in order to stay alive. It is that simple if you have no other choice.

Tom nodded and waved me goodbye before he and I parted ways. He continued to gather as many materials as he could, he might not know why exactly I was asking him to do something like this. But I am glad, he is not doubting my decisions.

The promise of a female slave, that he might meet on his journey seems like a good way to keep him at bay. Of course, this strategy does not fit his main goal, but he can obtain a girlfriend any time if my plan succeeds.

Looking back at my groupies who kept following me and staring with big eyes as if they were puppies, I could only smile a little, just thinking about all the things I could do with them. Strangely this smile was grossly misinterpreted and they bowed once more thanking me for my instructions.

These nutjobs considered me as something akin to the holy grail and treated me as such as well. Not that I could complain about their affection, but it felt a bit creepy at times being looked at like that. If I am not careful with their treatment I might end up with a knife in my back.

The thought alone made me shudder, just how far would these fanboys go to please me? I did not want to imagine how weird the situation could become, I did not want to cause my mind to drift into uncharted territory like that. Sorry, but I do not swing like that.

Arriving back in ghost town I look at the bone, that still refused to break, even after I had broken my hand multiple times, I was glad, that I had taken up the mantle as their benefactor because right now was the time to train them to deliver me as much meat as possible.

It is time to teach them how to hunt monsters correctly. Their current strategy is way too inefficient and I can not always help them from the sidelines by drugging the monsters, at least not with the current manpower of the ants at my disposal.

Looking at their eyes full of expectations, a soft string in my heart was struck. Even if I try to exploit them, at least I will make sure not to disappoint them. This much is just basic courtesy, to the ones who I admire.

Though I know for certain, that teaching them my tactics would be a pain in the ass and sadly my judgement would turn out to be correct, but I did not know about the struggle I was about to face.