“Are you truly an NPC?” Zero asked abruptly.

What a blunt question. Though I understood why he asked this question. As an NPC, we had too many emotions and our thoughts were quite complex, just like humans, so he naturally wouldn’t think that we were normal NPCs.

“If you think that we are NPCs, then we are NPCs. If not, then we are not.” I replied vaguely. It didn’t matter whether he thought we were NPCs or not. After all, there were people that wouldn’t kill NPCs because they thought NPCs were people like them, but there were people who killed NPCs just because they thought NPCs were just programs made of 0s and 1s.

“Your answer tells me that you are not a simple NPC.” Zero shrugged.

“Don’t think too much about it. Rather than NPCs, it is better to call us the denizens of this world, or the natives. By the way, why are you asking that?”

“No reason, just curious. So, where’s my reward? Fifty EXP Potion every day, right?” Zero changed the topic instantly. Hm?

“Wait, who said fifty? Twenty-one!” I refused. Was he kidding? A bottle of EXP Potion could profit me so much and he wanted to get fifty?

“You are really a miser! Fifty, or I’ll bring you outside and hang you so you won’t touch the ground at all!”

“…please forgive me. You can have fifty, just don’t hang me outside.” I yielded immediately. Guh, if everybody knew my weakness, they could threaten me easily!

“Fifty? Didn’t I say a hundred?” He raised it with an evil smile.

“Guh… fine, just take as much as you want from the room across this room! I don’t care!” I said, annoyed, and closed my eyes to avoid speaking with him any longer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t close my ears, so I could hear him laughing mockingly at me as he passed my bed.

“Alright, I’ll take everything in that room then.” He said as he exited the room.

…it seemed I forgot something super important… AAAHHHH!!!

“Wait a minute!!” I screamed and tried to move, but I couldn’t move. I remembered that I had something super important in that room!

“Woah! There’s a lot of money there! I never thought that you are so rich! Well, since you said that I can take all of them, I won’t be polite.” Zero said from the other room.

“No, at least left some for me!” I said panickily.

Zero entered the room again while laughing teasingly. “What? You think that I will really take everything? Though knowing that you have a lot of money, I want to borrow some if I need it.”

“…do whatever you want.” I was tired. Yep, talking with other people was really tiring. So, I closed my eyes and planned to sleep. Hm? Was it rude to sleep while I had a guest? Not really. It was normal for a sick person to sleep even though there were guests, right?

…

The tournament was divided into five main categories, which was Tank category, Warrior category, Mage category, Archer category and Healer category. Although the Players could change the Class only after they reached level 20 and went to the city, they still learned the basic of each Class. For example, for those who wanted to be a Mage, they could learn basic Magic such as [Firebolt] or [Petit Fire]. For those who wanted to be Healer, they could learn [Minor Heal] and [Antidote] and so on.

Speaking of which, Players and NPCs had a fundamental difference, according to the system. The Players had limitless potential, so they could learn anything they wanted by putting Skill Points into the Skill they wanted to learn. NPCs, however, couldn’t do that. There was no Skill Point for NPCs. If NPCs wanted to learn some Skills, their only choice was to learn by practicing incessantly. Also, every five levels, everyone, whether NPCs or Players, would get a Skill randomly. For example, my [Smokeless Breath] that I got when I was level 5. It was a random Skill that I got from the system.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Also, speaking of Skill that I got from the system, it seemed that the system had systematically knowledge about Skill and Magic. Well, I only had two Skills at the moment, so I wasn’t so sure. Anyway, the explanation the System gave was quite concise, like a textbook answer, while the knowledge that I learned by myself was like well, a freeform essay.

So, back to the main topic, the tournament was quite intense… was what I wanted to say. However, after watching for a while, it was not really interesting. For example, the battle between the tank was really boring. It was a battle royal, and I expected it to be something like a war. One Knight slashed left and defended his back before kicking the other direction, something like that. However, the reality, I felt like watching a battle royal between Sumo wrestlers. Yep, using their shield, they pushed each other like their lives depended on their shield. I didn’t think that was how a Knight fought, seriously.

As for Mages, they were even more terrible. Countless Magic flew left and right, and the worse, every Magic hit its target. No one dodged, or at least tried to dodge. They were just like a stationary glass tower that shot powerful bullet, but easily destroyed. Yep, they were so pathetic that I didn’t want to watch them anymore.

The Healers were a bit better. They didn’t fight, but rather, they showed off their abilities by healing their targets, who participated in the battle royal. Hm? It wasn’t fair for weak participants to get good Healer? I had to say that you shouldn’t rely on the Healer too much as getting hit over and over meant that you had no skill at all and you were out. Anyway, the competition between Healers were quite better than the others.

As for the Warriors, there were two types of Warriors. The first type, a type similar to Berserker, with their huge and heavy swords. And the second type, an Assassin type, which meant they moved fast. Well, there were balanced type too, but that was too boring so I didn’t want to mention it. Speaking of which, Zero was the balanced type. Though he leaned to the Assassin type more.

The Archers didn’t have to fight like the other Classes. They were having their competition outside the village, and the things they did was shooting an apple from far away while running. Yep, as an Archer, they should be able to do at least that kind of thing, so it was easy to get the result for the Archers.

Alright, I had explained all the tournaments there, but I didn’t explain how I know about it, right? It was because of my Smokeless Slime. I could share my senses with the Smokeless Slime and my Familiar Slime, so I used them to watch the boring tournament. Why didn’t I fear falling into the sky while sharing my senses with my Slimes? Of course, it was because I knew that if that were to happen, I could easily detach my consciousness from my Slime, so it was not a problem at all. However, if I detached my consciousness, my Familiar would move according to its instinct, and it was unpredictable, as it could be considered as a Monster. Perhaps, it would attack the villagers?

“Ah! Look! There’s a monster!” A little kid shouted while pointing at me who was watching from the rooftop near the Plaza. That kid sure had good eyes…

“What!? Monsters? Let’s kill it before it kills any of us!” A Player said.

“That’s right! We can’t let a Monster enter our village easily like this! It’s a humiliation!” Another said while preparing his weapon. Well, before they killed me, I should tell them that I was not a monster.

“Fellow humans, please don’t be alarmed. I am not a monster.” I tried to speak normally, but since using Slime’s body to speak was quite difficult, my voice became slightly weird.

“Ah! That Monster can speak! It must be one of the intelligent Monster! From the tutorial, the intelligent Monsters are high-level Monsters, even higher than the Boss in Urgent Mission!” A female Player exclaimed in fear.

Hm? Seriously? Was there something like that in the tutorial? Also, they didn’t believe me when I said that I was not a Monster?

“Calm down, fellow Adventurers. I come in peace!” I said.

“Yeah, right! That’s what every alien invader said in movies!” A glasses Adventurer said.

“Hey, even though it is intelligent, it’s battle power is only 5! It’s a trash intelligent monster! If we can kill it, we’ll get a ton of EXP!” A man with spiky long hair and Scanner on his eye exclaimed excitedly.

Hm? Did I become a public enemy?

*Wooosh

An arrow flew just beside me. Geh, scary!

“Kuh! Why won’t you listen to reason? Well, whatever, it’s my cue to retreat then! Cya!” I hopped down and entered the house from its opened window. Hmph, Monster could easily enter any house, but the Players couldn’t as it would be considered as trespassing!

“A-adventurers, please kill that Monster. You are granted permission to enter our house to kill that Monster!” The Village Chief’s voice told me that my plan had failed.

How could they think that a Slime would be a dangerous Monster? Was it because I spoke?

As I was thinking, a petite Warrior entered the house from the window I came in. It seemed he was an Assassin type, huh? After all, his weapon was Dagger and he was quite fast. However, it was not fast enough.

Slime was weak because they didn’t have high intelligent to control their own body. I spent countless years summoning Slime and controlling Slime when I was a Dungeon Master, so my control over Slime’s body was perfect. I could stretch or shrink its body easily, and using the principle of bounciness, well, I didn't know whether such a principle really existed or not, anyway, I could hop about easily and quickly.

“You are mine!” The Warrior shouted, but unfortunately, when he arrived at my previous place, I was on his back already. I used Pythagoras principle, cough… triangle kick? Anyway, I jumped to the ceiling and kicked the ceiling so I fell on him, before I kicked his body and made him lost his balance. Yep, he crashed into the wall, magnificently. As for me, I jumped outside the window and… returned from the same window. I was already surrounded!

Letting this Smokeless Slime die was not a problem for me, however, I shared the senses with this Slime, so if it was killed, I would feel the same pain too. Well, it wouldn’t hurt me but if possible, I didn’t want to feel any pain, so I didn’t want to die. As for detaching my consciousness from this Slime… that would be my last card. I wanted to have some fun with those Players first… was my true reason!

“Muahahaha! Foolish human! You can’t even touch me and you wish you can kill me? You should stay in your bed if you want to have such a beautiful dream! Muahahaha!”

Oops, another arrow almost hit me. The Mages couldn’t use their Magic since I was inside the house. And their number would be useless since I was inside the house too. Let’s see how they would kill me! Muahahaha!