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Matthew really didn't intend to kill the Demon King today.
Of course, this also had something to do with Hages' good habit of liking to tell the truth.
According to the normal process, when the Goddess Squad defeated a Demon King, there were two outcomes—driving him off, or killing him.
Killing an S-rank Demon King was very difficult for a goddess not far apart in level from him, so Matthew helped Ares kick Hages back to the Demon Realm, which counted as having done his utmost.
He missed the premiere of 《Borrowed Friends》.
Matthew, preparing to go back and watch the rerun, said, "Alright, alright, you don't need to say any more."
The Shar Pei dog Hages said, "I can also treasure hunt!"
As soon as he said this, he immediately burrowed into the ground, and came back carrying a piece of gold ore in his mouth, setting it down at Matthew's feet.
Gold ore was roughly equal to gold coins, and gold coins were equal to circulating currency.
There was still plenty of time before the first episode rerun of 《Borrowed Friends》, so digging up some gold ore before heading back would be no problem at all!
So Matthew touched the dog's head and said kindly, "Seems like you're of some use after all."
Hages didn't dare to lick this person's hand, sticking out his tongue and blinking his big cute eyes, acting all obedient in every way.
Lord Matthew said, "It's decided, I'll take you back with me, but you must be obedient. If you get killed by another goddess, I won't acknowledge you as my dog."
Hages nodded repeatedly, "Thank you, Lord Matthew—no, thank you, Master!"
Matthew said, "From today on, you'll be called Little Black."
The S-rank Demon King Little Black said, "Thank you, Master. What a lovely name."
"Once we're home, be a good dog."
"Woof woof, woof woof woof."
"Also, your three tails look a bit strange."
The Three-tailed Hellhound lost one tail each time he died.
The Shar Pei dog Little Black immediately said, "Master, these are just decorations."
With two soft "pops," Little Black yanked off two of his tails, then, gritting through the intense pain, grinned and burrowed back underground to dig for gold ore.
Due to the nature of his identity, Matthew couldn't seize wealth from Different Worlds by force, but receiving gifts through impermanence was fine, and so was earning money in a casino.
But the first was too troublesome, the second was too troublesome, and as for the third, playing cards was similar to playing video games—just one of his hobbies.
When Matthew went to a Different World or the Human Realm to mine and mint coins, he could exchange them for circulating currency once he returned.
Still not as convenient as making money from cards, °°……
But having someone else do the mining and minting for him was a different story entirely.
|'-')!
"Ding"~
Notification: Congratulations, currency exchange successful!
Notification: Your circulating currency has increased by 20 million!
Back at the Male God's Cabin, the Demon King Little Black went off to play by himself, while Lord Matthew flexed his fingers, ready to start tormenting people.
In Human Realm No. 39, there was a game called DNF. A few months ago, Matthew had thrown in 30,000 gold, and it hadn't made so much as a ripple.
The circulating currency arrived in his account.
The player Matthew logged into his Asura account—enhance, enhance, enhance, augment, augment, augment! Within a single day, the 20 million was completely spent.
Matthew's personal attributes had no effect on the game's built-in data, but with 20 million poured in, his ultimate frenzied berserker named "Bull Demon King" was glowing all over, decked out in flashy effects.
Farming dungeons was boring—using money power to farm only made things faster or slower.
To show off real skill, he'd have to head to the arena.
"Heh heh heh heh, bring up all of this old man's Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Porsches, and Maybachs!" Matthew laughed in front of the screen.
Before long, a match was found.
His opponent was some scrub with a giant gun.
One minute later, the fight was over, and the Bull Demon King never even got to see the enemy.
"Again!"
This time he was matched with an Elementalist not even three feet tall, who ran and darted around at incredible speed—the Bull Demon King fell dead.
"Again!"
The third match, an Asura internal battle.
Finally matched against a melee fighter!
"Take my Rolls-Royce charge!"
"Take my Bentley slash too!"
"One more Maybach burst combo!"
Three hits landed, but hardly any health was lost.
Normally, with Matthew having injected money power into the Bull Demon King, the opponent should have died from a single poke.
Matthew: (⊙?
"Could it be I'm not doing this right?"
He logged out and back into the game.
Farming dungeons—everything was normal. It was only during PK that his money power didn't seem to work.
Not until Matthew spotted it—the words "Fair! Duel! Zone!"
In other words, once inside the arena's dueling zone, no matter how many tens of millions of money power you threw at it, you could never land a single hit dealing hundreds of thousands or millions of damage.
"Why didn't you say so sooner?!"
The Shar Pei dog Little Black, who had been dozing at Matthew's feet, perked up his ears, then crashed through a window and flew off, landing right in the Goddess of Destruction's back garden.
"Which bastard broke this old lady's fence?!"
Little Black decisively bolted. Running straight home would be too easy to trace, so he ran to the commercial district first, then circled back around to the Goddess Residential Area, snatching along the way a little dress the Otaku Goddess had just finished sewing.
The Goddess of Destruction ranked among the top three S-rank goddesses—even Little Black at his peak would have been no match for her.
She was even more reckless and unyielding than the Goddess of War, because she was strong enough that she had the qualification to walk the path of pure, unrestrained recklessness.
Having been dragged to the Goddess World, Little Black had already resigned himself to his fate—that man had a bad temper, and staying by his side meant being ready to get beaten at any moment.
The upside was that he no longer had to scheme against this one or that one. That man really was Invincible—with him around, no one could hurt him.
Back at the Male God's Cabin, Little Black instantly turned obedient, tiptoeing over to curl up at that man's feet, and went back to dozing.
……
"Ladies and gentlemen, amid everyone's anticipation, the Goddess of War, leading her Hero Team, has defeated the S-rank Demon King Hages, successfully saving the people of the Water Blue World—let's cheer with all our hearts!"
"Roar"!
"Roar, roar"!
"Goddess of War, hooray! ..."
"Lord Ares, mighty and magnificent! ..."
Amid the waves of cheers rising one after another, Ares, now changed back into her leather outfit, walked out of the Teleportation Portal with a hint of bashfulness—alone; the hero Gangze and the three heroes from Different Worlds who had helped her defeat the Demon King did not follow.
Ares said, "Gangze has found the person he loves. The Water Blue Demon Race still has remnants left, the Blade Kingdom's new king has just ascended the throne—with all these things piled together, they probably won't be able to come see everyone anytime soon."
The hero Gangze had fallen in love with a priest girl from the Goddess Squad, and that girl liked him too.
Between the two of them, one was the team's strongest fighter and the other was their only healer, so they communicated with each other the most—it wasn't unusual for feelings to develop over time.
Since Gangze originally came from the Human Realm, staying in Water Blue permanently might cause a number of problems.
But while the Gangze from the Human Realm was an orphan, the Water Blue Gangze was a Strong Expert close to Max Level—the two of them living in Water Blue would definitely be far easier than returning to the Human Realm, so the remaining problems weren't really problems at all.
As for the other two heroes, both their fathers were high-ranking officials and generals of the Blade Kingdom.
They very much wanted to take this opportunity to visit the God Realm, but unfortunately they had too many pressing duties to allow it.
So Ares had no choice but to return alone.
On the steps before the Teleportation Portal, Ares listened to the applause and cheers of the God Realm residents, along with the rumor that "the Goddess of War is about to Advance to S-rank goddess," and her ears flushed red.
Others might not know, might just fill in the blanks themselves, but as the one directly involved, Ares knew all too well—though the Three-tailed Dog Demon King Hages had indeed been slain by the Dragon Slaying Holy Sword, it wasn't actually she who had killed him.
According to the rules, unless a goddess willingly sacrificed herself, she simply had no way to fight a Demon King head-on.
✦✦✦