The president walks around with his finger on his chin, deep in thought.

I’ve been sitting in a closed room with him for an hour now. I assume it’s going to be some reward or something, but what’s taking so long?

“I got them, sir,” I suddenly hear Yamanda’s voice, followed by…

“Oh damn. Where the hell are we?”

“Probably where the dumbass president does all his scheming,” Vacinay replies to Hessien, who snickers in response.

The president, who was walking around trying to look like a cool mafia boss, immediately breaks character.

He grabs the table and screams at them, “I can hear you, you little shits!”

Vacinay lightly elbows Hessien and says with half a smirk, “He thinks he can hear us.”

His eyes twitch and I can smell the murderous rage building up. However, he takes a deep breath and sighs, “Why am I getting worked up by the opinions of children with barely functioning brains…”

“Excuse me?” Ghomas takes a seat and crosses his legs. “I’ll have you know, I am quite intelligent.”

I’ll let what this president just said slide for now. I’m feeling very generous.

He rolls his eyes and says, “You all are wondering why I summoned you here, aren’t you?”

I reply, “You had one of your damn presidential knights bring me here by force.”

As soon as that knight outside of the walls finished talking to me, some crazy handsome dude with red hair showed up and asked me to follow him.

I think I was mind-controlled since I followed him without thinking.

Indeed. In that moment, my agency disappeared, like that wasn’t me at all.

Honestly, what’s with people suddenly looking extra attractive? Did leveling make me able to see and appreciate faces more?

Anyway, after the president noticed we were in our own world(daydreaming, kinda), he forgot he asked a question and got to the point.

No way… he found out about what I did? Ha. No way.

“This little brat killed villagers and resurrected them as zombies then killed them again,” he says while pointing at me.

Eh.

I fold my arms and reply, “Baseless accusa—“

“Yuen told me all of it with one of his spiders.”

That BASTARD! I actually thought of him as a friend, kinda, and this is how he repays me?

Damn it… I’m definitely going to jail now.

Damn, damn, damn!

This isn’t fair! But, it kinda is fair since I committed mass slaughter, but it was an accident…

Vaciany asks, “Um… wait, she turned them into zombies?”

Hessien anxiously chuckles. “She can do a lot of cool stuff, but I don’t think she’s that cool.”

“That sounds scary as hell, not cool,” Ghomas replies while shuddering.

Okay, I do admit, without the context of the victims being innocent, it was kinda cool — except for the fact I had no control over them.

Wait! With my mind influence skill card, I could probably obtain a skill that allows me to control them.

Well, that would be the case if I wasn’t planning on never using that pseudo resurrection skill again.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Either way, I get to the point and ask, “So, why summon them? I assume I’ll be going to jail or court to testify for my crimes.”

He shakes his head and says, “Are you stupid? You’re a reality defender; I can’t afford to tarnish your image.”

Oh. OH! HELL YEAH, BABY!

How could I forget something so damn simple? As long as politics exist, there will be corruption. Hahah…

And if there is corruption, the powerful will keep those useful to them protected. In other words, I am one of the protected classes.

I sigh then take a deep breath of air.

I’m so happy that I want to fall on a soft bed and kiss it, kiss it really good. Like… really, really good.

“However,” he suddenly breaks my trance. “There will be consequences for your actions. I brought your comrades here to inform them that they will also be paying for your actions, Lumine.”

“Wut,” comes out of my mouth.

The other three are completely confused.

I ask, “Um… what will be those consequences?”

He grins, like the devil preying on its new victims. “Well… unless you all don’t want your image ruined by the public finding out about that village incident, you all would do as I say. Sure, you could probably try to kill me with Tanya, but the information will not die with me.”

Oh, that little son of a bitch!

Hessien says, “I don’t get it. We are very important to you. So if you tried to ruin our image, while also ‘using’ us, you would be scrutinized too.”

“Meh, I can just say you all will function as slaves. Boom, everyone loves me.”

… If I could hack into his mind.

Well, I don’t have any damn skill points, so that’s not an option. Not to mention, he most likely has counters for mind control since such powers exist in this world.

Since he is the president, he has to be paranoid, so I imagine he probably has his presidential knights hidden somewhere, ready to counter if we try anything funny.

Well, Yamanda is in sight.

He smiles and looks at each of us before asking, “So… loyalty?”

I grunt and agree, “Sure.”

Hessien and Vacinay agree. Ghomas, on the other hand, looks over each of us, puzzled. He turns towards the president and asks, “Um… isn’t it kinda weird we have to pay for what she did? It’s not like we were involved. You can make me an exception, right?”

“No exceptions.”

“But—“

“None!”

“Damn it.”

Sorry guys, I will make it up to you all asap. I already put Hessien in trouble again. I just keep making life harder for him.

And he isn’t even going to complain or anything. Even if I apologized to him, at most, he would ruffle my hair and say not to worry about it.

It’s kinda depressing to think of the amount of shit he endures because of me. If he even did remotely half of the stuff I did, I would have been so angry.

The president pulls back and says, “Before I dismiss you all, tell me your levels. For whatever reason, Yamanda failed to report it.”

He said the last part with anger.

I am the first to speak. “19.”

I point at the others, “they are all around the same level as me.”

To my surprise, Ghomas catches on quickly, kinda. Well, he just looks at the two others in a ‘what the hell is she talking about?’ way.

Vacinay nods in agreement. “I am level 18. But I am close to reaching level 19. I think Ghomas is at the same level as me.”

The president folds his arms and says, “Is it true or a lie?”

From behind the concrete wall, someone responds, “A lie, sir.”

You gotta be kidding me!

The president chuckles. “If you all don’t give me a truthful answer, no one is leaving here.”

Yamanda’s eyes widen. “Except for… me, right?”

“What about me?! It’s a damn full moon tonight, I was planning on staring at it the whole night!” I hear a new woman’s voice. She sounds young, younger than Yamanda.

However… it comes from above us.

I look up and see… nothing but darkness.

“Oops. Heyo, you can’t see me, but I am one of the presidential knights; the third strongest.”

I thought Yamanda was the third strongest.

Vacinay asks while poking at Hessien. “Uh… you heard that too?”

“Yup. A darkness manipulation skill?”

“Hey miss, can you control darkness?” Ghomas asks.

The woman responds hesitantly. “I have no idea what you are talking about…”

“Yeah, right!”

The president gets our attention by hitting the desk with his hand. “Your levels! If it weren’t for the weird level protection you all have, I wouldn’t be wasting our time with this nonsense, so make this easy for us!”

I cross my arms. “No.”

His eyes twitch and he just points at us and says, “Miss Xealir, make this fast.”

What the hell is he talking about—

I suddenly feel something cold on my lap.

Oh god, what the hell is going on?

I hesitantly lower my gaze to it, like there is a chance it can be a little red demon waiting to bite my face off.

However, It’s worse.

I kick back in a panic and end up falling on the ground. “Get it off me! Get it off me!”

I panic while trying to scrape the ‘thing’ off my lap.

Hessien and the other two get up, worried. But they are puzzled. Hessien asks, “I don’t get it. What’s there?”

They can’t see it?!

They can’t see a hand-sized cockroach hugging my damn lap, like it's a piece of fried chicken?!

I scream, “It’s trying to eat me! It’s going to eat me!”

“Trying to… going to…? Which one—“

“Both!”

Hessien is confused but he turns to the president. However, before he can make a threat, the president says, “Don’t forget the information I have.”

Hessien’s confident expression evaporates, and he turns back to me with his hands on his hips. “This is going to be challenging.”

That isn’t all. More cockroaches start to appear on my chest, shoulders, stomach, waist, foot.

Their wings buzz and they rub their front legs while smiling. I swear, I can also hear, “Don’t forget, eat the bones too!”

Okay, I give up.

I tell him, “My level is 23.”

From the wall behind him, the same person replies, “That’s a lie again.”

The number of cockroaches triples.