Leveling Up by Executing Monsters

"Hmm... let me summarize. You’re saying that something happened to Elolo’s father, and now she’s being held captive by a group of unknown criminals, supervised daily by a cold, ruthless personal maid, and forced to take all sorts of lessons?"

Balderes read from the notes in his notebook, confirming the details with Lloyd.

Today was the day the two had arranged to meet, once again in a private room at the Dream Theater, mainly to report on the progress of the rescue mission.

"According to what she confided in me, yes, that’s the gist of it. Though there are a lot of things that don’t make sense..."

Lloyd spread his hands with a helpless shrug.

Last night, after Elolo was able to speak, she had poured her heart out to him for over twenty minutes. This was the situation she described.

It’s just that there were too many illogical parts. Why would criminals keep her locked up in her own room? And why would there be a cold, ruthless maid? Why would she even have to attend classes? And adhere to the standards of a proper lady?

And amidst all this, there was one core question—

Who exactly was Elolo?

Unfortunately, Balderes was even more of a shut-in than Lloyd. He spent most of his days holed up in his workshop, his knowledge was severely specialized, so he couldn’t make heads or tails of it.

In the end, all he could do was ask:

"So, are you still going ahead with your rescue plan?"

"Of course. I scanned her entire body with my inspiration. She’s just an ordinary human girl, except... never mind, that’s not important."

Lloyd had been about to say, ’except for the part where she’s a massive EXP pack,’ but he hesitated and held back the truth.

Just because she was brimming with Spiritual Contamination didn’t mean she wasn’t human. Her appearance was human, her internal structure was human, and her heart and mind were human. Her origins were just a bit mysterious. You couldn’t just revoke her human status over that, right?

’I practically feast on Spiritual Contamination myself, and aren’t I still an upstanding model youth?’

"Alright, since this is the Venerable’s directive... But, if she’s being held by criminals, just breaking her [Consciousness Lock] probably won’t be enough, right? Do you have a way to get her out?"

Balderes pressed on.

"I do."

Lloyd nodded.

But just as he was about to explain the rest of his plan to Balderes, the other man cut him off impatiently.

"Good. Well... good luck. I’ll be waiting for good news."

With that, he actually prepared to take his leave.

They didn’t even have their academic discussion about Orbits, which Lloyd had really been looking forward to.

"Uh... you busy today?"

"Yes. To be precise, I’ll be very busy for the next month or two."

Balderes replied, already turning to leave.

"Please convey my sincerest respects to the Venerable for me."

Lloyd couldn’t think of anything to say to make him stay, so he just nodded. He remained in the private room, rubbing his chin as he pondered.

’Is this guy... getting a lot of orders for his workshop?’

That wouldn’t be surprising. After all, his craftsmanship was truly excellent, worthy of a master. It was reasonable for him to be busy.

’But what if he was busy preparing one of his "extreme stunts"...?’

’Don’t tell me the next time I see him, it’ll be on a wanted poster.’

Just as it seemed he was about to get Elolo out, Lloyd couldn’t help but start worrying about Balderes.

’That guy’s field of research is really not right...’

’Whatever. He’s still more reliable than Elolo and should know how to weigh the pros and cons.’

Thinking this, Lloyd shook his head and left the private room. He then turned to the Attendant who was eagerly approaching him.

"Let’s go. Time to race!"

「A moment later...」

"What the hell? This guy’s vehicle is an Iron Man rowing a boat? How... how are we supposed to win this?"

"My points! Dammit! I’m going all out against him!"

"WAAAAAAH!"

Listening to their cries, Lloyd sat inside his work of art and shook his head helplessly.

Then, as soon as the countdown ended, he pushed the joystick, making the two-meter-tall iron giant outside raise its arms and begin to spin rapidly in place, turning into a ferocious, deadly whirlwind.

"Ugh..."

"Ah!"

"I fold! I fold!"

Dozens of points were easily added to his account.

After that was done, Lloyd approached another team of players who were playing for higher stakes...

"Huh? Look at that vehicle, why is there a guy sitting in a coffin?"

"Uh... even among the Hall of Fame players, he’s the weirdest one."

"Those two cute girls on his vehicle are so adorable! I could worship them!"

「A moment later...」

"Ugh!"

"Ah..."

"How come when I crash into you, you don’t even budge?"

Just like that, Lloyd racked up his three wins for the day in one go, scraping together over two hundred points from various innocent bystander players.

His Attributes, inflated all around, combined with the power of his dual [Twist] and [Veto] systems, plus a tiny bit of ’Honored Player’ privilege, made him seem like a final boss in any match with Tier Three players or below.

When others hit him, he didn’t move an inch. When he made a move, their vehicles were wrecked and they went flying.

You could say it offered zero gameplay experience; it felt like he was using cheats.

’Of course, I, Lloyd, did not cheat!’

With such a utilitarian playstyle, the points naturally came pouring in, just like how those Krypton Gold Mobile Game companies used to fleece him for his wallet back in the day.

’No, not fleecing. I won them fair and square!’

’After all, I’m not some despicable youth who preys on the weak.’

Lloyd corrected his attitude in his mind, then left the racetrack and returned to the attentive Attendant.

"I’d like to use this place to bring a friend of mine to my side. Um... I mean to my side in the real world."

"Hm? We don’t currently have that function. However, you are, after all, a rare Honored Player. Please allow us to deliberate..."

The Attendant then zoned out just like before. After about ten-odd minutes, he snapped out of it and replied with a beaming smile.

"Done. No problem. You just need to pay a few points."

As he spoke, he produced a redemption list. On it was the special invitation letter Lloyd had seen before, which could be used to pull someone from the real world directly into the Dream Theater, right before his eyes.

This special invitation letter cost 150 points.

Lloyd redeemed one without hesitation and then asked:

"And after I’ve invited the person in? How do I get them to return to the real world with me through the same exit?"

"You only need to pay an additional 50 points, inform the agent outside the door, and give him this letter."

The Attendant said with a smile, revealing a letter sealed with wax in his hand.

Lloyd used 50 points to redeem the letter and prepared to leave.

Perhaps because he had both earned and spent a lot of points there today, the Attendant didn’t try to make him stay as he had the past two days. Instead, he changed his tune.

"You must have realized it by now, haven’t you? Our existence, and the services we provide, can offer you a great deal of pleasure and convenience. In the future, we will continue to serve you with all our hearts and look forward to your true recognition."

Lloyd paused for a moment, then nodded and replied:

"Perhaps..."

The Attendant also nodded, still wearing that same enthusiastic smile.

But within that smile, there was now a hint of expectation, or perhaps, impatience.

After leaving the Dream Theater, Lloyd scooped up his little kitten, went down to the second floor, and found the clerk who was still dozing off.

"The Attendant inside told me to give this to you."

The man took it without a glance, crumpled the letter into a ball, and said impatiently:

"I know, I know. You’re really good at making trouble for me... Come back tomorrow."

"Not tonight?"

"Are you stupid? Don’t you sleep at night?"

"You..."

Lloyd was choked speechless by the guy.

If the guy wasn’t probably a tiny bit stronger than him, he would have taught him a lesson in the art of Zu’an right then and there.

...........

And so, Lloyd returned to his room early that night. He read an old book he’d picked up while waiting for Elolo to start crying.

But he waited until nearly eleven o’clock, almost finishing the book in his hands, and Elolo still hadn’t cried...

’Maybe she managed to get into a better state of mind last night?’

There was no other choice. Lloyd returned to the [Thought Realm] and tried to see if he could perform an [Infiltration] to get to her side.

’It worked?’

Lloyd quickly averted his gaze from the Spiral Tower pattern on the floor, then had the Tentacle Grass send over the Erosion Orbit before finally performing the [Infiltration] and arriving in Elolo’s chambers.

Tonight, Elolo was lying properly in bed, no longer curled up in a pitiful ball. It seemed she was able to sleep peacefully.

This made Lloyd hold back from touching her with his inspiration. Instead, he first inspected the Orbit in the room.

He had assumed that Elolo had broken free from the [Consciousness Lock] on her own, which was why she could sleep peacefully. But upon inspection, he found that wasn’t the case...

The key node, which acted as the ’lock cylinder,’ already showed signs of damage and Corrosion, but it would likely take another two nights for her to break completely free.

’Then she’s...’

Lloyd first channeled the effects of the Corrosion Orbit to continue working on the ’lock cylinder,’ then turned back and moved closer to Elolo’s bedside.

Only then did he notice that her delicate and lovely face had become ashen and pale, completely drained of color. Her once-pink lips were now dark purple and trembling slightly. Beads of sweat were constantly forming on her forehead...

She wasn’t asleep at all—she was on the verge of death!

Lloyd panicked. Throwing caution to the wind, he quickly covered her delicate body with his inspiration, intending to help her bear the Spiritual Contamination.

The next second, a sudden BUZZING rang in his ears, and a hallucination immediately appeared before his eyes.