Early the next morning, Esdeath followed the clan’s caravan to Black Stone Town again to sell a cartload of Iron-Armored Rhino meat, horns, and fur, and to buy salt, iron, and other fresh produce to take back.
Trading takes a long time, so Alei gave Esdeath 10 keton and told her to go play around in town and buy whatever she wanted.
Esdeath had her own things to do; they agreed to meet at the grocery store at three in the afternoon before heading back.
Esdeath wasn’t very interested in food or entertainment; what she wanted most was to get stronger.
So, Esdeath went straight to the pharmacy, which sold medicinal packs that could temper the muscles and strengthen the body, though they were extremely expensive.
“The Muscle-Forging Body-Strengthening Pack costs 10 keton per pack.
Boil the medicinal pack over high heat, pour it into a bathtub, and soak for half an hour.
Once a day, initial results in a week, one course of treatment in a month.”
It was truly expensive.
This kind of medicine had to be used long-term to be effective, but a single pack was already very pricey.
A month required 28 packs, totaling 280 keton.
This was roughly equivalent to the annual expenses of a commoner family of three living frugally.
Even with only 30 keton on her, it seemed she would have to hunt more and sell the prey for money.
The villain system popped up at the right moment to provide a solution: “As a villain, how can you earn money yourself?
Rob a random person to be rewarded with ten villain points.”
Esdeath had a strange expression.
She was now certain that this villain system didn’t follow the beaten path and always issued tasks to do evil deeds.
However, what surprised her was that the system, which had always only issued tasks, actually spoke this time.
“Little Esdeath, how can you think that way?
The people who get robbed are only robbed because they are too weak and possess things worth plundering.
Just like when you hunt Danger Beast, it is because they have materials and meat worth plundering that you go to hunt them.”
“Survival of the fittest is the world’s simple truth.
It is precisely because the strong constantly plunder the weak, using their nutrients to achieve their own greater strength, that the strong live, the weak die, and the strong grow stronger.
Only then can a race screen for more excellent beings to survive, continue life, and evolve constantly.
This is where the rules of life lie; what a beautiful thing.”
Esdeath was suddenly enlightened by the system: “Yes, you are right.”
Since she had decided to rob, she naturally had to go buy some tools.
Esdeath went to the gunsmith shop, bought a mask and a black robe; since she was going to rob, she naturally had to disguise herself.
Doing these things in town would definitely be discovered by the Security Officer immediately, so Esdeath planned to ambush on the road outside of town leading into town.
Hunters often returned from this path with prey, or went out hunting, or were returning home after selling goods in town for money.
Esdeath ran to a small grove one mile outside the town, put on the clothes to cover her striking blue hair, and brought the mask and a bow and arrow to quietly ambush.
Whether anyone would pass by, Esdeath didn’t know, but she would just wait and try her luck.
Attacking here would neither attract attention nor be easily detected.
This was a job that tested patience, but Esdeath was lucky.
Before long, she saw a hunter carrying a hunting rifle walk out from the path, turned sideways toward Esdeath, completely unaware.
Good opportunity.
Esdeath activated the Eye of True Sight, drew her bow and nocked an arrow.
The arrow, capable of piercing a tree trunk as thick as a fist, instantly pierced the hunter’s head.
Hunt successful!
Esdeath ran out excitedly, dragged the hunter’s corpse into the small grove, and searched for his valuables.
However, he only had five keton and a few copper coins on him.
It was obvious; how could anyone carry a large amount of money on them?
Besides this money, the only valuable thing was the hunting rifle he carried.
Esdeath had seen this hunting rifle at the gunsmith shop; it sold for fifty keton.
Esdeath hadn’t fired a gun before, but for a first robbery, it could be considered a decent harvest.
Taking the gun and ammunition from the hunter, Esdeath put the black robe and mask into her bag, left the corpse alone, and walked back to the town.
Although this was called a robbery, it felt more like an assassination.
Compared to attacking openly, hunting from the shadows naturally had a higher success rate.
The effect was remarkable; the hunter was hunted down before he could even pick up his gun.
“Task complete, reward ten villain points!”
“Kill a hunter, reward ten villain points.”
Esdeath was thoughtful.
This was already the third person she had killed; she probably wouldn’t get villain points for the next one.
Gaining twenty villain points all at once, Esdeath exchanged them all for physical constitution.
Constitution was currently a weak point for Esdeath, and the Wave Fist also required a strong physique to unleash more strikes.
If she could unleash a three-hit Wave Fist, Esdeath’s strength could be said to have doubled.
The further one goes, the harder it is to increase the number of strikes for the Wave Fist, but each increase is a leap in ability.
Robbing passersby was actually not cost-effective for her; it was better to hunt Danger Beast.
If she was going to rob, she should rob the rich.
Esdeath suddenly remembered a task the system had previously issued: choose a passerby you dislike and finish them off.
The reward for that task was Time Reversal, which seemed like a magical skill.
Having already committed robbery, Esdeath had no psychological burden, so she sat by the side of the main road to wait for someone she disliked to pass by.
Half an hour later, a pair of hunters on horseback carrying rifles came from afar.
There were two of them, which was not easy to deal with, so Esdeath continued to wait.
Finally, a herdsman driving a flatbed cart came from the direction outside the town, seemingly coming to stock up on goods.
Esdeath didn’t say a word.
When the cart passed by her, she jumped onto it and drew her hunting knife, stabbing it through his throat with one strike.
The horse lost control and immediately started running wild.
Esdeath sat in the seat to take control, drove the cart back to the original place, and incidentally put the previous hunter’s corpse on the back seat, covering both corpses with a black cloth.
Then Esdeath drove the cart to a nearby cliff, untied the reins, removed the saddle, chased the horse away, and pushed the cart carrying the two corpses off the cliff.
Esdeath heard a thump and a loud crashing sound, then turned and left.
“Huh, why didn’t the task complete?”
The system appeared: “Little Esdeath, do you dislike him?”
“Not really, I just wanted to kill him to complete the task.”
“Since you don’t dislike him, of course that doesn’t count as completing the task.”
So, there were prerequisites.
It was getting late, and Esdeath couldn’t do any more tasks, so she returned to Black Stone Town, went to the grocery store, spent ten copper coins to buy a loaf of toast, and spent another five copper coins to buy a piece of cheese.
Esdeath sat on a stool outside the grocery store, eating the toast with the cheese, waiting for her father and the clansmen to arrive.
About ten minutes later, her father arrived with a cart of supplies.
“Esdeath, did you have fun playing just now?
What did you buy?”
“Mhm, the town is very fun.
I also bought toast and cheese; it’s very fragrant.”
“Good, let’s all go back together.”
Alei suddenly noticed the hunting rifle on Esdeath’s back: “Where did this gun come from?”
“Picked it up on the road.”
Alei felt something was wrong: “Honestly, how could a gun just drop on the road?”
“I killed someone, and the gun dropped from him.”
Alei pulled Esdeath aside and questioned her carefully.
After learning that Esdeath had robbed a passerby for money, he was both speechless and helpless.
Alei thought to himself: Esdeath has no compassion for people; she is a born hunter.
Forget it, in this chaotic world, being able to survive is the most important thing.
Alei let the clansmen drive the cart back first, took Esdeath back to the scene, and only felt relieved after confirming that the traces had been cleaned up.
“Don’t come to town recently.
Although this world is chaotic, it’s still troublesome to be wanted by the Empire.”
Although he said that, in the Northern Territory, where imperial military and political control was hard to reach, bandits were rampant, laws were almost non-existent, and killing and looting in the wild happened often; even if corpses were found, cases were often closed hastily.