Zane casually tossed aside the sword stained with the exiles' blood, then turned his head to look at Danjin.
The girl who had once looked like a piece of flawless jade now had her skirt completely dyed crimson.
Drops of bright red dotted her fair, pretty face. The blood-tinted red in her eyes gradually faded back into a sky-blue color.
"Ugh, so annoying. The blade's chipped again…" Danjin muttered as she counted on her fingers.
"Washing the blood off my clothes will cost 1,500 coins. Repairing the weapon is 3,400 coins…"
Under Danjin's lead, the two quickly arrived at the exile camp she had mentioned.
Unlike when she acted alone, where she would first pretend to be weak and only strike after going deep into enemy territory, Zane's method was much more simple and brutal.
He just walked in with his sword and started killing.
Compared to Danjin, Zane had been on a battlefield before. He knew how to kill enemies faster and with the least amount of effort.
Very quickly, the exiles were cut down one by one by Zane and Danjin.
Watching Danjin mutter to herself about daily expenses off to the side, Zane voiced his confusion.
"How could it possibly take you three days to deal with these guys? It didn't seem that hard just now…"
Anyone who kills often knows that the hardest part of the human body is the bones. If you want to cut through bone, you usually need a lot more force.
But Zane flexed his wrist. Even after cutting down all the exiles here, his wrist didn't feel sore at all.
In response to his question, Danjin just smiled without saying anything.
The little thoughts of a girl were something Zane could never figure out.
Seeing that she had no intention of answering, Zane didn't dwell on it. He turned around and went to clean up the scattered corpses of the exiles.
By a certain stroke of luck, Zane had discovered a small bug in the system.
If you handed over a whole exile corpse directly to the system, you would only get 1 Star Sound.
But...
If you chopped a male exile into seven pieces, you could exchange them for 7 Star Sounds.
At that point, it wasn't even a question of profit anymore. This was straight-up insane profit.
And this didn't even include the Star Sounds you could get from the equipment the exiles carried.
Rounded up, one exile could basically be worth a full 10 Star Sounds.
Wasn't that way better than killing several monsters just to get one chest that only contained 10 Star Sounds?
Not to mention that chest might even be a mimic.
That was just ridiculous.
Imagine seeing a treasure chest and excitedly going to open it, only to be told it's a mimic?
Of course, that wasn't even the main point.
The main point was that as a mimic, it didn't even have a defeat CG.
If a mimic doesn't even have tentacles popping out of its mouth, does it even deserve to be called a mimic? It's like Jerusalem can't be without Tifa…
'Wait, something about that feels off.'
'Whatever, forget it.'
'Abandon the useless brain, enjoy a useless life.'
After a round of looting, Zane easily picked up over 600 Star Sounds.
Then he went through the exile camp's valuables one more time…
Glancing at Danjin, who was eating dragon beard candy, Zane let out a quiet sigh. This silly girl never used the exiles' money to repair her equipment. The cost always came from the bounty issued by the frontier for exterminating exiles.
Her daily expenses, combined with how she frequently had to replace equipment every few days, made her life quite tight.
As if noticing Zane's gaze, Danjin froze for a moment, then took out a piece of dragon beard candy from her pocket and walked over.
"This is the reward we agreed on. It got a bit damp though… don't mind it."
Zane took the candy she handed over. He didn't question why something freshly made less than half a day ago would be damp, and just started eating it in big bites.
He had to admit, after intense physical activity involving "discussing the meaning of life" with a group of people, eating something sweet really did help relax his mood.
Though, maybe it was just his imagination, but Zane felt like today's dragon beard candy was especially sweet.
It seemed like there were extra ingredients added to enhance the texture. It tasted a bit different from what the shop usually sold.
Seeing how enthusiastically he was eating, the hostility around Danjin gradually faded. She took out a water bottle from her pocket and handed it to him, then took out another one for herself and drank a few sips.
"Thanks."
Zane took the bottle and gulped down a large mouthful. Then he suddenly realized something. He looked down at the bottle in his hand, then turned to Danjin with suspicion.
"Why did you even prepare a water bottle for me?"
Danjin simply widened her eyes innocently, putting on a harmless, slightly silly expression.
Danjin doesn't know. Danjin just eats candy.
Looking at her pretending to act cute and clueless, Zane couldn't shake the feeling that he had been tricked again…
"Alright, since it's settled, then we…" Gulping down the rest of the water, Zane had just returned the bottle to Danjin when his expression suddenly turned cold. In a low voice, he said,
"Someone's coming."
Without waiting for her reaction, he grabbed her and pulled her into a corner to hide.
———
"Bro, those girls were seriously easy to fool."
A somewhat smug voice sounded along with messy footsteps, making Zane, who was hiding in the shadows, frown.
"Tell me about it," another female voice said.
"I didn't expect that just saying a few nice things and making a couple of harmless vows would actually make them let us go. I still can't believe it."
"It's just a shame about those parts we just got."
"Ah, what's the big deal?" another person chuckled smugly.
"It's not like those three girls can sleep hugging the beacon. Once they go far enough away, we'll just come back and grab more parts to sell."
The voices got closer and closer, soon reaching the depths of the camp.
"Why's the camp so quiet today?"
A mature-sounding male voice spoke as he looked at the empty camp, belatedly realizing something. One hand had already moved to the short blade he carried.
But before he could draw it, he got his answer.
"Demacia!"
Hearing the shout, the exiles suddenly turned their heads, only to see a white-haired boy jump out of the bushes, yelling strangely as he charged at them.
Behind him was a small girl with a face full of killing intent.
'Why is it another girl?!'
Caught completely off guard, they didn't even have time to develop PTSD before Zane and Danjin knocked them all to the ground.
After successfully gaining another 70 Star Sounds, Zane happily continued looting.
"Tsk, these guys eat pretty well. Besides coins, they even have bread…"
Zane clicked his tongue in amazement and casually tossed the bread into the system.
Unfortunately, it didn't give him any Star Sounds.
"That's weird. Isn't it a drop material?"
Zane scratched the back of his head, unable to figure it out no matter how much he thought.
The "date"… exterminating the exiles, was now over, so Danjin said goodbye to Zane and returned to Jinzhou City.
Watching her slender figure gradually disappear into the distance, Zane felt more and more that her purpose today hadn't been just about eliminating the exiles.