The Kingdom of Saint Phidys, a small border town, Hanseter.
In the only unnamed tavern in town, the dim yellow light flickered erratically, and the air was tainted with the stench of rotting food.
In one corner of the tavern, several adventurers were gathered around a table, enjoying their dinner.
At the head of the table sat a burly man dressed in light leather armor. Beside him, five figures stood scattered about.
Most of these people were dressed similarly to the burly man, wearing armor and carrying either long or short weapons at their sides.
However, two individuals stood out slightly. One was a young woman in a silk robe, with long, ink-black hair. Her complexion was fair, and she wore a gentle smile, which seemed out of place in the noisy tavern.
The other was a young man in a grayish-blue mage's robe, with black hair. He was not particularly interested in the food or drink on the table, instead quietly flipping through the pages of a book in his hands.
"Come, come, come, drink up, everyone! I raise my cup to all of you!" the burly man called out.
"This time, with the new monster territory near Hanseter, I hope everyone can make a fortune!" As he spoke, the adventurers around the table eagerly raised their cups in agreement.
At this moment, a frail figure suddenly approached the table. Behind him, two young men with pale faces peeked around, glancing nervously.
"Johnny, boss, we've been carrying your luggage for two days, and all we've had is some creek water. Now that we're in the town, could you... share something with us?"
"I'm fine with it, but my two sons are really about to collapse," the old man said, his back hunched and his face lined with wrinkles.
The old man and his two sons were the servants hired by the adventurers during their exploration.
Although they were called servants, in reality, they were more like slaves—responsible for all the dirty and exhausting tasks, while also enduring constant beatings and abuse.
Still, despite this, countless commoners scrambled to offer their services to adventurers.
There was no other reason; in recent years, the kingdom had been plagued by disasters, and survival had become a daily struggle.
Seeing the old man beg, Johnny's expression turned cold. "You blind fool, daring to ruin my mood!"
Without a word, he slapped the old man across the face. The sound of the slap echoed, and the old man was sent flying nearly a meter away, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
He coughed painfully, nearly losing what few teeth he had left.
Despite the pain, the old man still knelt and pleaded, "Johnny, master, please, give us some food, have mercy."
On the table, there were roasted chickens and rich soup, but he had no courage to take any. He could only beg.
As the old man continued to suffer, the adventurers at the table began to look on with mocking expressions.
Johnny, at first grim-faced, seemed to find new amusement as his gaze swept around the room.
In a few quick strides, he pulled down a piece of rotten meat that was hanging from a beam above.
With a sickening "thud," the rotting meat fell to the ground.
Dark green liquid and wriggling maggots covered the piece of flesh.
"You're hungry, aren't you? Fine, have this! Take it!" With those words, the piece of meat was thrown onto the floor.
The old man and his two sons scrambled forward, their faces desperate, like starving dogs, as they lunged at the putrid meat.
However, as they saw the true appearance of the rotten meat, their expressions changed drastically.
"Master Johnny, this... this can't be eaten. It's already infested with the Evil Spirit Worms," the old man quickly refused.
For these three poor commoners, a piece of rotten meat would be considered a privilege, but the "Evil Spirit Worms" were the source of many of the kingdom's recent disasters. The food that had been infested with these worms, if consumed, could cause serious illness or even death. Who would dare to eat it?
Seeing their reaction, Johnny took a step forward. "You're trying to fool me, huh? I told you to eat it, and now you refuse?"
"Didn't you want food?" he sneered, then turned his gaze to the terrified young man behind him. "You, come here. Swallow it!"
As Johnny shouted, the young man trembled in fear, "Master, I'm sorry, we're sorry, we don't want to eat it anymore! We don't want it!"
He stumbled backward, trying to crawl away, but there was nowhere to escape in this cramped tavern.
Johnny advanced, step by step.
At that moment, the rather beautiful young woman spoke up. "Wait."
Her words immediately sparked a glimmer of hope in the old man's and his two sons' eyes.
They knew this beautiful lady.
She was said to be a priestess who wielded the power of holy light and possessed a heart full of compassion.
With her here, surely Johnny wouldn't force them to eat that poisonous meat, right?
Perhaps... she would even give them some food.
Hope rose in the old man's eyes, while the two young men gazed at the young lady's beautiful face, filled with gratitude and admiration, as if they had seen an angel.
The young woman smiled a malicious smile and said, "Go ahead, eat it. With my Holy Light spell, I can purify the toxins in the meat."
The priestess spoke those terrifying words in the sweetest tone.
"No... no... we..." The old man and his two sons were stunned. They tried to speak, but the words stuck in their throats, unable to escape. Soon, under the pure light of the Holy Light spell,
The three emaciated figures were forced to consume the rotten meat. Their expressions of pain, illuminated by the holy light, resembled a torturous scene from a religious painting...
"These people really deserve to die."
At the table, the young man in the mage's robe frowned slightly.
"When I played the game in my past life, I always thought the background of Gandanyir was too dark. The various cultivation resources were monopolized by the nobles, and the common people were not only poor but also powerless. They could only be ruthlessly oppressed."
"Now, I'm really seeing it firsthand... This is beyond inhuman."
Sivis coldly watched the scene before him, feeling slightly nauseous.
But he had no intention of stopping them.
There was no way—Sivis couldn't possibly defeat these adventurers!
He had only been forced to hide here because his domain was about to be attacked.
That's right, Sivis was the very lord of the monster territory Johnny spoke of, and he, too, was a transmigrator.
In his past life, he was an ordinary university student. One day, while playing the newly updated "Glamorous Beauties" version of the well-known single-player game Gandanyir, he chose the profession of Monster Lord as his starting class.
The result was—
As soon as the game began, he blacked out and found himself transmigrated into the world of Gandanyir, inheriting the title of the fallen evil god Naphras, becoming the villain of the story.
Originally, Sivis had transmigrated into the body of a nobleman's son, ready to indulge in a life of luxury and excess…
But upon coming of age, he suddenly awakened the title of an Evil God, yet with no actual power to speak of. He soon realized that the monster territory he was supposed to rule had already manifested, forcing him to move to the small border town of Hanseter in the Kingdom of Saint Phidys.
A monster territory was, in essence, a dungeon in the game Gandanyir.
In practical terms, this world had long been shaped by the ongoing battle between the Evil Gods and the Gods of Light. When the power of the Evil Gods manifested in the world, it gave rise to these monster territories.
Adventurers could enter these territories, defeat the monsters within, and gain blessings from the Gods of Light, which would allow them to quickly grow stronger. Destroying a territory would also yield various magical items and equipment.
Most monster territories were destined to be constantly challenged from the moment they were born.
During these challenges, if the monsters of the territory were completely wiped out and the core of the territory shattered, the territory's lord would die on the spot!
Right now, the target of this adventuring party was Sivis's territory.
If they succeeded, Sivis would undoubtedly die. Without any power, an Evil God was bound by the world's rules.
And here came the question:
Could Sivis's territory win?
His newly established monster territory only had about forty goblins, each of them at the equivalent of Bronze Tier 1 to 3.
Johnny's adventuring party, on the other hand, had an average strength of Bronze Tier 4, and their team was fully equipped with priests, mages, warriors, and scouts.
Could he possibly win this?
Looking at it, Sivis's face practically screamed "death"!
"If it weren't for me scouting the situation near Hanseter and then joining Johnny's party to take the mage spot, reducing the party's combat strength and even being able to stab them in the back when the time came…"
"Right now, I might as well just wait to die..."
He muttered to himself.
"I'm just an ordinary Bronze Tier 4 mage, and it still feels unstable..."
"Well, then it's all up to you… system."
Sivis's gaze shifted to one corner, where a semi-transparent light screen flickered.
[Lord System, at your service!]
[Current territory level: 1]
[Currently unlocked features: Scouting soldiers, Soul shop]
[Current task - Scouting soldiers: Search for monster soldiers in the territory who are no higher than Bronze Tier 5. Progress: 99.9%...]
[Ding! Congratulations, host! Scouting soldiers complete!]
[You have discovered soldiers: Lava Stone Demon Clan (Bronze Tier 5)]
[Please return to the territory to complete the transfer!]
"Finally, some results!"
"A big prize?? Bronze Tier 5 units!!"
Sivis's expression brightened!
At that moment, the sound of the old servant and his family's wailing reached his ears.
Johnny, out of the corner of his eye, noticed that Sivis seemed to be in a good mood.
This seemingly reckless brute of a man definitely understood.
Heh.
As expected, Sivis is one of us.
What he didn't notice, though, was that the mage in the party also kept a watchful eye on the other adventurers, celebrating their triumph.
Heh.
A bunch of scum.
With the Lava Stone Demons in hand, we'll have wiped you all out within three days, and your ashes will scatter.