Genshin Impact: Watch me turn the tables and kill my servants at the start!

As Fanes carried Yae no Miko to the city gate, before he could even sit down properly, a loud bang came from the direction of the castle tower.

Boom! The sound wasn't like thunder; it was more like something had fallen from the sky and hit the roof, causing the stone slabs on the ground to tremble slightly.

Faenes sat on the wind slime and turned to look back—the sky above the castle tower was still clear, with a few clouds drifting lazily by, not a single dark cloud in sight.

The guards at the gate also looked up in that direction, their expressions shifting rapidly from confusion to alertness, and they all gripped their spears tighter in unison.

Fanes patted the wind slime on the head: "Come on, let's go take a look."

The wind slime slowly rose and drifted towards the castle tower.

When he got closer, he saw what was going on—there was a sizable dent in the roof of the side hall of the castle tower, several tiles were broken, and wisps of smoke were still rising from the edges, as if it had really been struck by lightning.

The palace door was half-open, and several servants stood at the door, hesitant to go in or out, peeking out. Faint noises could be heard from inside, but they were not very clear.

Fanes jumped off the wind slime and landed on the steps at the entrance of the side hall. Yae no Miko leaped down from his arms and followed beside him with leisurely steps, pushing open the half-closed door.

The inside was a complete mess.

The table was tilted, and the documents that were originally on it were scattered all over the floor. Several chess pieces rolled to the corner of the wall, and the porcelain vase used for flower arrangement fell over on the tatami mat, with a small patch of water soaking it.

Lei sat on the cushion in the center, the terminal panel in front of him still lit, the screen frozen on the word "Defeat," next to a dismal match record—seventeen wins (victories against AI), one hundred and forty-four losses, the most recent record being a glaring ninety-seven-game losing streak. (Also, this is a prototype created by Sandoni himself, so the quality is probably better.)

Lei Ying's fingers tightened slightly around the machine, making a soft creaking sound as she gripped the edge of the control panel, but her expression remained calm and composed, though the wrinkles between her brows were much deeper than usual.

Fanes and Yae no Miko stood silently in the doorway for two seconds. Fanes broke the silence: "...What's going on?"

Lei Yingdian slowly raised her head to look at them, the light in her purple eyes seeming to gather like electricity. Her voice was unusually calm, like the last calm before a storm: "Someone cheated."

After hearing this, Yae no Miko's tail tip twitched slightly. She walked to the table and glanced down at the record of wins and losses. The numbers on it were so clear they were almost blinding. A sense of understanding quickly spread across the tips of her tail and ears.

Yae no Miko jumped from beside the table onto the edge of the cushion, squatted down next to Lei Yingdian, and tilted her head to look at her profile, her purple pupils carrying a calm smile that said, "You've finally met your match."

"You didn't get completely destroyed, did you? Ninety-seven consecutive losses, Ah Ying, that number ranks in the top three of all the embarrassing things I've ever seen you do."

Lei tightened his grip on the panel, and a faint clicking sound came from the edge of the panel.

"The opponent I was matched with in that game was clearly using cheat tools. My normal gameplay speed couldn't have been interrupted that many times in a row. If..."

"If what?"

Yae no Miko squatted on the cushion, tilting her head to look at her. Her voice was a little softer, but the sarcasm in her tone was still clear.

"If you were really good, you wouldn't have lost. Being bad is being bad, and being stubborn won't change the fact that you've lost 97 games in a row. You're just a country bumpkin who can't play games. You're all smooth and skillful when you practice swordplay, but when you pick up this thing, it's like a rusty knife."

Lei's gaze shifted from the panel to Yae no Miko's face.

Fanes was still standing at the door. After seeing the change in that gaze, he instinctively shrank half a step behind the door frame, and then said in the direction of Yae no Miko, "Being bad is the original sin."

Fanes didn't know why he spoke at this moment. But the words were already out and couldn't be taken back. Lei Yingdian's gaze shifted from Yae no Miko to Fanes, and the light in his purple eyes noticeably increased by two degrees when the words "Being bad is the original sin" were uttered, like a blade that had been drawn half an inch and was reflecting a cold glint under the light.

Lei put down the panel in her hand and stood up. Her movements were unhurried, but Fanes noticed that her posture was more upright than usual, and her shoulders were slightly open.

Then he made his move. With his left hand, he scooped up Yae no Miko—the pink fox was held by the scruff of its neck and suspended in mid-air with its four legs hanging down naturally, its tail not yet having a chance to burst open—and with his right hand, he lifted Fanes by the back of his collar, lifting him off the ground.

Faenes kicked off mid-air, but before he could even speak, he was thrown towards the door by a powerful force. His vision spun in an arc, clearing the threshold before landing on the floor of the corridor outside the side hall, his back hitting the ground first and rolling half a circle before coming to a stop.

Immediately afterwards, a pink ball of fluff landed next to him along a similar trajectory, bounced once on the ground, rolled twice, and stopped right at his feet.

Yae no Miko lay on the ground, her tail still not fully fluffed, her purple pupils reflecting the lingering shock of "I was actually thrown out."

The door to the side hall slammed shut behind them. The corridor was quiet for a moment, with only the chirping of cicadas in the distant courtyard and the faint sound of a tile on the roof cracking slightly.

Fanes lay sprawled on the floor, staring up at the ceiling of the corridor. After a while, he turned over, sat up, dusted off his clothes, reached out and picked up the pink fox that was still recovering, put it back in his arms, and stood up to walk down the steps of the corridor.

The wind slime was still crouching at the bottom of the steps, and when it saw him come out, it swayed slightly, as if to check if its master was injured.

Fanes straddled her and placed Yae no Miko on his lap. He looked down at the fox in his arms, who was still in a daze: "No grilled eel tonight. We'll go back and cook instant noodles. I'll see how this new military ration tastes."