Nighttime at Mountain Water City was silent.

Green Skin, who was sleeping on the balcony with its limbs sprawled, could hear a sudden rustling. It stood up, eyes open, looking around and eventually determined that the sound was from the next window.

Tiny pale-white hands were carefully opening the window before a head with pale-green hair, gray-green eyes, and long thin ears looked inside.

"So, a despicable fellow." Green Skin grumbled—it was no wonder why he picked up a hateful scent.

It was a nasty halfling, a fellow resident of the forest.

Those halflings were utterly loathsome, however, and would try to steal food the goblins managed to hunt, and the goblins could never catch up no thanks to their speed.

On the other hand, the halfling was startled to see Green Skin after poking its head through the window.

A hobgoblin!

The halfling promptly shrunk behind the window.

A girl around 1.65m was standing behind the window, and she quickly asked, "How is it, Yoyo? Could you slip inside the living room?"

"There's a hobgoblin living next door, Master, and it's staring at me," the halfling said in grief.

A hobgoblin?

Chi Xiaomo frowned.

Why would he put his summoned beast on the balcony?

Even so, her teeth were gnashing at the thought of the man who had ratted her out to her father.

How outrageous.

Backstabbing even as an adult? Did he even know shame?

She had agreed to go to the playground at the suburbs with her classmates, but the other three had gone while she did not. The very thought of being mocked for not showing up left her quite upset.

She therefore decided to get revenge on Chen Yining by having her summoned beast sneak her own bra into his room, then say that it had gone missing so that Chen Yining would be utterly embarrassed when they find it in his room.

A pervert who steals the undergarments of the landlord's beautiful daughter…

Chi Xiaomo thought about that, unable to hold back an evil smile just then.

Halflings were swift and traversed forests as if they were flat land. While there were some differences between the concrete jungle of the city and actual forest, there should not be much difficulty.

Even so, Chen Yining's goblin being on the balcony messed up her plans since she planned to have her summoned beast sneaked her underwear inside… but now that her halfling had been spotted, there was no way it could sneak inside Chen Yining's house.

"Can you defeat that goblin?" Chi Xiaomo asked, her eyes blinking with expectation.

It was time for plan B since plan A had fallen through. All she needed was for her halfling to beat up that goblin.

Unexpectedly, the halfling shook its head firmly and exclaimed in panic, "I can't! It's a hobgoblin—I could try if it's a goblin, but I am definitely no match for a hobgoblin."

"Hobgoblin?"

Chi Xiaomo finally noticed the 'hob' in the goblin and asked perplexedly, "Is there a difference?"

"Hobgoblins are bigger, taller, bigger." The halfling searched hard for the right word from its poor vocabulary.

Be that as it may, halflings were smart—being deadly rivals of the goblins, he would know the extent of a goblin's fighting strength even if it was not sure of its own. Therefore, it was well aware that it would have the snot beaten out of itself if it bothered the hobgoblin.

"…"

Chi Xiaomo nodded muddleheadedly, rolled her eyes, and crashed into her own bed.

"Forget it… you can return inside the book, I'm going to sleep." With that said, she withdrew her halfling into her Summoner's Grimoire.

Meanwhile, Green Skin was still staring tightly at the next window, and its eyelids became heavy after staring for over ten minutes and finding no movement.

"I must have frightened it so much it didn't dare to come out." Green Skin laughed weirdly, shifting its sleeping pose on the balcony before continuing its great undertaking of sleeping.

Behind a curtain was the living room, where the gnome was sleeping on the sofa with one leg slung over it while its head dangled off the edge, a bubble hanging over its nostril amid its choppy snores.

***

In the outskirts, the forest had become lively once night arrived.

Predators were appearing everywhere, from beneath the tree roots, tree holes high above, and in the bushes.

The massive city that had suddenly appeared in the forest had drawn the attention of countless of those creatures.

Boom, boom, boom…

Rumbling footsteps and shaking branches formed a symphony in the forest.

A behemoth could vaguely be seen crossing the forest, heading toward the city ahead.

And yet, the behemoth was stopped by force in the split second that it was about to enter, its scarlet eyes staring tightly at the dark, vast and silent city just ahead from behind the lush tree canopy.

An invisible presence was extending out of the stone tablet at the heart of the city.

The behemoth stared at it for a long time and eventually left.

Even so, 'little ones' such as goblins, halflings, slimes, and gnomes did not sense that intimidating presence at all despite being at the edge of the forest as well, and crossed the border between city and forest directly.

***

The next day, the sleeping gnome was jolted awake no thanks to Green Skin.

The hobgoblin had somehow placed its foot over its nose, and even if the gnome's sense of smell was not that sharp, the stink woke it up regardless.

It was even left retching from time to time during breakfast, with its belly twitching inwardly.

That was why it glared at Green Skin with utter grief even as it ate.

Meanwhile, as Chen Jing finished his breakfast and started cleaning up, he told Chen Yining, "Brother, I think we should get some diesel and steel or we wouldn't be getting those anymore."

"Of course. Come here, Green Skin—wash the plates, I need to train your hands." Chen Yining stopped his brother just as he was about to wash the dishes.

"There's not much water left. Even though we did buy many buckets of water, we would use it up if we're don't use it sparingly," Chen Jing said.

"But we can't let them go unwashed, can we? There are not many plates around here, and we just need to hold back a little," Chen Yining said nonchalantly.

"What about placing a storage tank on the balcony?" Chen Jing asked.

"We're staying on the fourth floor, and there are thirty-three floors on this building. Do you have the skill for it?"

Nonetheless, Chen Jing racked his brains. "There's no lack of water in the forest, right? Surely you remember the lake we saw last time."

"It's too far away. Not only is it hours of walking, we would also have to journey through the forest—don't you think that it's dangerous?" Chen Yining heartlessly retorted.

"By the way, do you think the forest outside is owned?" Chen Jing muttered then. "It should be masterless since we transmigrated."