On the road to the city called Discordia―the place where the action was actually happening―Maria bumped into a few people traveling to and from the city.

She did try to greet a few people but she only received the same treatment she got from earlier at the village. It was actually pretty depressing because people didn’t talk to her.

Maria had forgotten about her passive skill but that was only because no one back in her faction fell under her [Charm] so she was never able to notice how potent the passive skill actually was.

Since no one was trying to be friendly with her, she directly ignored everyone on her way. Red was such a large mount that he left behind a noticeable impression on anyone they passed by.

They soon arrived at the city and after a quick inspection that didn’t feel like an inspection since all the gate guards did was stare blankly at her, Maria, Lilah, and Red passed through the gates.

The first thing she needed to do was report her presence to Goddess Gaia who Death said was hidden somewhere in Discordia City.

It was quite ironic that her only temple was located at the starting town of the planet but she didn’t live there but instead in the town created by the two factions that were constantly waging war against each other and ripping apart her planet.

Maria ignored the Colosseum Arena that was situated at the highest point of the city despite her desperate urge in wanting to go there right away. She had to report her presence to the Goddess first because she didn’t want her quest to fail.

However, despite spending a large amount of time looking through every nook and cranny of the large city, Maria wasn’t able to find this goddess.

Death did tell her that although Gaia was the planet itself and its consciousness had gone dormant, there was a small part of the planet’s soul that was separated and moved into the body of one of the planet’s natives.

“Jeez...where do I even look? All the NPCs are just the same. They just start staring blankly at me when we make eye contact. It’s so stupid!”

Maria was at her wit's end when suddenly, she saw a child being thrown away by a stall owner because they had apparently stolen something.

“Get away, you brat! If you have no money, then you get no food!”

“Ah!”

“All you lesser beings are just like this! Unappreciative to our cause and only know how to leech and steal from us!”

Maria frowned when she saw the stall owner raise his hand, intending to beat the young child. He had already pushed her away, berated her, and taken back what was stolen from him so anymore was only him venting and being heavy-handed, not something Maria would just let go especially since the person the large man was beating was only a child and a girl at that.

“Hey!” Maria called out.

Hearing someone call out to him, the stall owner turned around and shouted in an angry voice.

“What? Do you know this―”

Before the stall owner could finish his words, his expression quickly turned blank when he caught a glimpse of Maria.

“Hmph!”

Maria flashed next to the bewitched stall owner and lightly pushed him away. Of course, her ‘light push’ was different because the stall owner was flung across the street. It surprised the passersby when they saw that happen.

It did look like the dainty hooded girl only lightly pushed the man but the end result was quite different from what they expected. The players nearby saw what happened and they began analyzing Maria’s strength.

The only way someone could do that to an NPC that was at level 100 was if they possessed an STR value that was at least double that of the NPC and that wasn’t something ordinary players could do.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

They guessed that this person was one of those hidden rankers or was already on the leaderboard but was moving around incognito. However, everyone was familiar with the top 50 players and none could recall a ranked player that had 8 black wings.

Maria didn’t pay any attention to the people around and just tossed a few gold coins onto the food stall’s tray and took a few things from it before walking over to the young child.

“Here,” Maria said as she offered the freshly baked loaf of bread to the girl.

“Hm?”

The scrawny little girl looked up at Maria, dead in the eyes. She sized up Maria for a moment before slowly taking the loaf of bread from her hands. Maria was quite surprised because, unlike the other NPCs that previously interacted with her, this little girl didn’t freeze up and become stupid like the others.

The little girl began eating the bread with amazing gusto and she finished the entire loaf in a blink of an eye. After she was done eating, Maria handed her a small bottle of water that she took from her inventory.

“Drink.”

“...Thank you.”

Maria waited for the little girl to finish drinking before standing up to leave. Some of the players around took notice of what she did and thought that she was doing a quest or something.

It was the first time anyone ever saw such a quest so they wanted to approach her but suddenly, a large Red hound appeared from the corner of the street and moved next to the hooded girl before sitting down next to her.

“Let’s go, Red.”

Maria floated onto the back of her pet and was just about to leave before the little girl that she helped earlier called out to her.

“Wait!”

Maria looked down at the girl before asking, “Is there something else you need, little girl?”

“You...are you looking for the Goddess?”

“!”

Maria quickly floated down next to the girl before bending down and asking, “Do you know where she is? How about you tell this older sister where she can find her?”

“...If you follow me...I can show you,” The little girl immediately replied.

Maria readily nodded before dismissing Red back into her pet space. “Lead the way.”

She had spent nearly half a day just looking for any traces of this elusive goddess so any kind of lead, no matter how small and insignificant it may seem, Maria wasn’t going to hesitate to grab.

The players overheard the little girl’s words and they grew interested in the ‘quest’ Maria was doing. When the scrawny little girl led Maria down an alleyway, a few players tried following after them.

Maria noticed the players following her and she began leaving small traces of her shadow on the walls and ground that she passed through and pretended that she didn’t know anyone was following her.

“Master...we’ve got some rats on our tail…” Lilah quietly whispered after she perched herself on Maria’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about them. I’ll take care of them in a bit.”

“Alright.”

After Maria moved through a few alleys and finished counting how many players were secretly following her, she raised her hand and clenched it into a fist. The shadows that she had planted during her walk through the alleyways began to move and activate.

When the players noticed the black spots on their bodies, it was too late. The shadows Maria had planted immediately turned into spikes that pierced through their bodies, causing massive damage numbers to appear above their heads.

"W-What the fuck?!!"

"Shit! She's attacking us in the city!"

"She's not afraid?!"

Most of the players that were following Maria were greatly injured while a few unlucky ones even perished.

*DING*

You have killed a player! +100 Chaotic value! You have killed a player! +100 Chaotic value! You have killed a player! +100 Chaotic value! You have killed a player! If your chaotic value rises above a certain point, your status will change to [Chaotic]!

"Tch, what the heck?" Maria clicked her tongue in annoyance after reading the system messages in front of her. "I didn't know that they'd be this weak! I didn't even send out a proper attack!"

Maria noticed that the players who were following after her started to hesitate while some of them even retreated since they didn't want to deal with the game's death penalty. The players who were killed luckily didn't drop any of their items, but they did lose a lot of EXP. Luckily, they were in a safe zone area, so they didn't have to deal with the logout penalty. The surviving players were hesitant to continue forward because they didn't want to mess with a ruthless person like Maria who didn't hesitate to attack even though they were inside of a city, and seeing their hesitation, Maria retrieved her shadows and mumbled, “...That takes care of all the bugs.”

She picked up the little girl in front of her and quickly said, "You're too slow! Just tell me where to go!"

"...O-Okay!"

While the players were hesitating on whether to continue their pursuit, Maria quickly dashed away and soon, she lost all of the rats that were following her. The little girl led Maria to a secluded part of the city and they arrived at an abandoned and half-broken building that looked somewhat like a temple.

“Here we are…” The little girl said as she jumped down from Maria's embrace. She unhesitatingly entered the broken temple and Maria followed after her, eager to see the goddess who was the subject of her quest.

Once she arrived inside, however, Maria was a little bit disappointed. All she saw was a very rundown and broken temple with a single altar in the middle that was somewhat intact though it appeared that even a little push might cause it to completely collapse.

"Where's the goddess?"

The little girl didn't answer her and instead did something that caused Maria to raise her eyebrow.

She floated up and sat down on top of the fragile-looking altar before she started glowing with an intense light. The child's scrawny body began to change and the little girl that Maria carried here disappeared and what replaced her… was still a child, but this one looked much healthier than the previous one.

“Welcome to Gaia, Saintess of Death’s Order,” The child said as a halo of light shimmered around her body.

“Gaia?” Maria asked with a skeptical look on her face.

“I am this planet's goddess, Gaia.”