On my second playthrough, they were full of malice towards me.

[Ding! Your Evil One "Irene" has successfully killed the [Greedy Kobold Miner], and you have gained 10 experience points for this.]

[10/100 points away from the next level]

Chapter 6 Erin

really.

Is it the same as in the game?

All the Evil Ones who sign a "contract" with him will have all the experience gained in battle belong to him, provided that they are in the "main queue", that is, he has to be nearby.

Liao Ji quickly glanced at the pop-up notification and then shifted his gaze to another panel.

[Maximum number of Evil Ones that can be contracted at the current level: 1]

[Number of contracts signed: 1/1]

【Eileen】

[Calamity Grade: ★★★ (Standard)]

[Current Trend: Guardian]

[Level: 10]

[Basic Attributes: Strength D+, Agility C-, Constitution C, Stamina D-, Psychic Ability D-]

[Advanced Attributes: Luck E, Affinity to Misfortune D]

【Skill:

(Normal Tier) Berserk Lv1 - Slightly increases own strength, stamina, and health regeneration speed, slightly increases agility, and reduces damage taken by 10%, but there is a 50% chance of entering the "Confusion" state when the skill is activated.

(Note: Abnormal status "Chaos" - uncontrollable, randomly selects attack targets between friend and foe)

[Authority of Calamity: None (Unlocked upon reaching "Cataclysmic" level)]

[Infrastructure Specialty: Waste Master III - Has a "small probability" of turning waste in the cluster into valuable resources]

With a thought, all the data of the afflicted "Irene" were displayed before his eyes.

to be frank.

Liao Ji sighed inwardly at this.

Unremarkable stats, simple and straightforward skills.

There were no unexpected surprises.

If I had to say something, is this "Luck E" for real? Although luck is a useless attribute in the game, this is the first time Liao Ji has ever seen a character achieve the lowest E grade in this attribute.

So, it completely disappointed him, who had secretly hoped that he would be given an incredibly powerful teammate after transmigrating.

If this were a game, as a true power player, Liao Ji would never waste his precious "contract" chances on Yilin at the start of the game.

After all, it's just a "normal" character. The initial three stars mean there's a gap in its potential. The return on investment is only high in the early stages. It's a classic type of transitional character used during the early game, the kind you use and then discard.

Of course.

In a single playthrough, he can restart the game countless times, repeatedly reloading saves to obtain a high-star, high-potential Evil One.

However, the current "second playthrough" obviously does not meet this condition.

Therefore, Liao Ji does not regret his decision.

Besides, low star and low rank are not without their advantages. At the very least, they consume fewer resources and are easier to raise. For example, just a small Turbid Crystal was enough to level up Irene to level 10, allowing her to easily solo kill the kobold.

The female scavenger stood there, staring at her hands in disbelief, as if she hadn't yet recovered from the incredible feat of kicking a dog-headed man away.

But Liao Ji inside the stone coffin had already started moving. Following his memory, he arrived at a shelf in the secret chamber.

"Luckily, we left quite a few of these resource points back then," Liao Ji muttered to himself.

Then he pulled a sharp sword from the shelf.

Uh

Describing it as a sharp sword is not quite accurate; it may have once been a sharp sword, but now it is covered in rust.

The Emperor's Sword

[Type: One-handed sword]

[Quality: D-]

[Equipment Effect: Increases the user's attack power by 10%]

[Special Effect: Weathered by Time - Breaks after ten attacks]

(The legendary sword that the Ash Emperor used in his youth, but it has decayed over time, though it is still a very precious historical relic.)

Good guy.

Isn't this the lowest-level equipment I had back in the early days?

After making a sarcastic remark about the prompt, Liao Ji forcefully threw the rusty sword toward the female scavenger's location.

"Eileen, catch!"

Pulled back to reality by her own name, Irene hurriedly took the sword.

wrong.

Wait!

How did he find out his name?

Holding the sword hilt, Irene finally came to her senses, but by then Liao Ji had already given his next order.

The sword you threw wasn't thrown away for nothing.

"Quick, don't let them get away, chase after them and kill them!"

Mutated humanoid monsters like kobolds, goblins, and merfolk are all bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong. Now, the remaining kobolds in the secret room, seeing the sudden burst of powerful strength from Irene, have replaced their greed with fear.

They showed no intention of avenging their companions. Instead, they frantically grabbed several items from the secret chamber and used shovels to try to climb up the hole from which they had jumped down and escape.

Of course, Liao Ji couldn't let them get away with it.

He had just taken a moment to count them. Excluding the kobolds who had been shot to death by the scarred man, there were exactly ten left. Once Irene took them all out, he could level up to level two.

However, the female scavenger in front of him did not move.

Instead, she glared at him with her dirty face but bright, sparkling eyes, practically screaming, "Why should I listen to you?"

Ugh.

I knew scavengers were unreliable.

Liao Ji shook his head inwardly and then changed his approach.

“If you don’t go after them, these stolen treasures will never be returned.” He emphasized the word “treasures.”

Following the black-haired youth's words, Irene's gaze was immediately drawn to the secret chamber artifacts in the arms of the fleeing kobolds, among which were quite a few tainted items.

Irene, who was reluctant just moments before, now drew her sword and gave chase.

She is in a hurry.

These are all priceless "legacy" items from the Great Emperor. Any one of them could probably sell for tens of thousands of Ash Coins. How can we let these ugly monsters get them so cheaply!

Never underestimate a scavenger's pursuit of money and treasure.

Irene was at least twice as fast as she had been at the beginning. It was clear that although she wasn't very skilled with a one-handed sword, her overwhelming strength allowed her to simply plunge the blade into the monster's vital points.

It only took less than five minutes.

As the last kobold was kicked to the ground from behind by Irene, and seeing the monster's pleading posture, the female scavenger showed no mercy whatsoever. She raised her sword high and stabbed it viciously in the heart.

puff!

When Irene pulled the sword out of the monster's heart, all she could see around her were the corpses of kobolds.

[Ding! Your Evil One "Irene" has successfully killed the [Greedy Kobold Miner], and you have gained 10 experience points for this.]

Congratulations on your upgrade!

Current Level: Lv2

[0/200 points away from the next level]

As the system notification appeared, Liao Ji felt a warm current surge from his body, which circulated once before gradually subsiding.

He quickly and carefully felt the changes in his body.

The results are

Minimal.

Perhaps the power only increased by less than 10%?

Sure enough, this is just like the game's setting!

Liao Ji rubbed his temples, feeling a bit of a headache.

Like most simulation games, the player, although the protagonist, is essentially a mascot in battle. However, Falling is a bit better. Although the protagonist's attribute increases are minimal with each level up, the protagonist has an invincible advantage: there is no level cap! And there's no need to break through when advancing!

When he completed the game on his first playthrough, the five top-tier Evil Evils he had raised had already reached level 90, while the protagonist he was controlling was already over level 150.

In addition to the previous copying skill, in the late game, the protagonist will be the one "on duty" over all the remaining Evil Ones. It's likely that even if all five of them combined, they wouldn't be able to defeat the protagonist they control.

The future is promising, the future is promising.

After comforting himself with this thought, Liao Ji quickly brought his attention back to reality.

Because right now, it seems he still has to deal with another small problem.

All I saw was...

The female scavenger seemed to be blinded by rage, or perhaps she was inflated by her newfound power.

After Irene stood up from the last kobold's corpse.

The blood-stained blade.