Over the next few days, the girls trained their skills. Rainbow was teaching Scarlett everything as nobody trusted her. Scarlett was quickly becoming a formidable front-liner as that what she enjoyed doing the most. She probably can’t beat Rainbow yet with her many random skills but it was only a matter of time before she became the 2nd strongest in the party next to Marla. Stardust was also willing to help Scarlett grow and learn… and Marla reluctantly started training her when she saw that Scarlett was also a fighting maniac like her. Scarlett and Marla would often spar together with Marla crushing her every time. Since Scarlett always fight until the brink of death, it allowed them to push themselves to their limits. Stardust had to heal them every time.

(Scarlett) >

Lily tried many times to invert Scarlett but failed miserably. Scarlett was extremely wary of Lily and kept her guard against her the highest. Day or night, it doesn’t matter, Scarlett was fully alert to counter Lily with her poisonous dagger. Because of Scarlett’s dangerous threats, Lily can never approach her. Rainbow did tell Scarlett about Lily’s past betrayal. So Scarlett knew that Lily was only pretending to be nice to her and the rest of them and that Lily was rotten inside.

(Scarlett) >

The rest of the girls were slowly getting used to Scarlett as so far she didn’t do anything horrendous yet. Scarlett was not allowed to cook food by herself as everyone fears that she would try to poison them. She was another fearless fighter when fighting against the enemies of Desert Area 2.

Lily was going to hug the girls whether they wanted one or not. It was her grand master plan to be able to invert Scarlett without anyone suspecting a thing!

Rainbow was the easiest girl to hug since she was extremely friendly to all the NPCs.

Marla was also easy as she thought of Lily as her little sister that must be protected. Marla doesn’t think Lily would ever betray them again since she was Stardust’s wife.

Violet didn’t mind hugging Lily. It could make Lily see her in a better light and cooperation was key to greater survival.

Luna was very reluctant to let Lily hug her. But Lily apologized heavily to her and how she wanted to become bestie with her! So she accepted as long as Lily makes amends to her. Unfortunately for Luna who saw this as a chance of a budding friendship, Lily only saw it as a chance to polish Luna into a capable NPC to use as she pleases.

Queen wanted to get away from her. But seeing Lily chasing her all over the camp for 30 minutes, made her gave up and hugged the frail girl.

Remi was an extremely hard girl to hug. She flat-out refused to hug Lily. Only when Lily promised Remi that she can have fun with baby Stardust along with other demands that she gave in to the hug.

Scarlett was extremely wary of hugging Lily. No matter what Lily did, Scarlett would always avoid it. Bribery and trickery didn’t work. Lily tried getting the others to restrain her but they wouldn’t do that and were somewhat scared of Scarlett. Even her husband refused to force Scarlett to hug Lily. Her husband did say that all the girls should have the power of consent to whether they wanted a hug or not.

***** Lily’s hugging (easiest to hardest) *****

Rainbow - Marla - Violet - Luna - Queen - Remi - Scarlett (failed)

***** End *****

During dinner time, Lily was about to surprise hug Scarlett from behind but Scarlett quickly pointed her poisonous dagger at her.

“ Let’s hug Scarlett,” desired Lily. “ I want to make amends to you. We can become very good friends and I will help you accomplish your dream!”

“ Nobody can accomplish my dream for me,” replied Scarlett coldly. “ Only I can do it.”

“ I understand… I will wait for the day you are willing to hug me,” said Lily. She snuggled even closer to Stardust and buried her face into his chest as she cried.

Scarlett was smirking at Lily, she was having a good time toying with Lily and would never let her hug her. The chaos in Lily’s heart was only making her more excited as she knew that Lily was fake crying about it. She was probably the only girl in the party so far who understood Lily’s corrupt heart the most. Scarlett doesn’t know about Lily’s secret skill but wasn’t going to give lily any chances to hug her since she was so desperate too.

Since then Lily stopped trying to forcibly hug Scarlett, and everyone continues their usual duties. Four more days were spent training and experimenting with the new desert plants.

No other usage was found other than food and ink. The ink was also used by Luna to give some color to their clothes to make them look cute. Luna was getting more skilled at making clothes and started making more fashionable unpractical dresses for everyone. It surprised Stardust that Luna obtained [Tailor skill LVL 7]. Was Luna some sort of clothes-making genius despite not having access to better tools and materials? Everyone now had cute clothes besides Remi.

Scarlett teased Lily with a sinister smile when she gives Stardust intimate touchings. Yet Lily held a calm expression when she saw what Scarlett was trying to do. Stardust doesn’t let her go too far though.

(Lily) >

7 days of training had gone by without any issues since the creation of Scarlett. She had not once tried anything funny like poisoning their food or destroying any precious resources. Scarlett has been incredibly helpful to the party. She was quite friendly to everyone which made everyone wondered if she is an evil girl or not. During this time, Lily was also being extremely friendly to everyone and tried to help in every way she can. The two supposedly evil NPCs were truly strange. The rest of the girls didn’t ostracize them and worked together with them. Stardust was happy that his two evil NPCs were extremely friendly and helpful.

This place was getting stale after 7 days so they gathered everything useful to make preparations to leave. The berry bushland was quite large, and there were still many berry bushes far out on the horizon. Thanks to Queen’s near-perfect memory in creating a map of the current explored areas. The group was able to better scout out new areas and not get mindlessly lost in the endless sands.

They head on forward to new lands.

They got to a new area of the berry bushland. Once the temporary camp had been successfully set up. Marla scouted alone to find any suitable prey to kill. She ran extremely fast without the bone-plated armor slowing her down.

She spotted a group of desert apes eating and collecting the berries. When they spotted Marla charging at them, they fled in all directions. Marla threw out her bone sword at a frightening speed with her [ Weapon Throw LVL 6]. It shot through the air with a sharp whirring sound. The range of the thrown weapon was shorter than the bow but it had tremendous power. Since the ape didn’t look back, it cleanly pierced through its chest and struck the ground in front of it, making a small crater. Blood and guts splash all over the ground. Marla quickly ran up to it and recollected her bone sword. Then she threw it again at another fleeing ape, killing it in the same manners as the first.

The apes ran quite slow compared to Marla. Marla was just like a desert tiger with unparalleled power and speed. Her tough training regiment to become stronger had proven fruitful. She didn’t want to experience failure anymore since she failed defense against the desert ape horde. It triggered her instincts to annihilate these desert apes.

“ COME BACK HERE COWARDS!” shouted Marla as she chased the 3rd closest ape. Since it couldn’t outrun Marla, it tried punching her with all of its might. But Marla expertly dodged its strike and cleaved the desert ape vertically from the head down to its crotch. The two sides of the desert ape fell to the left and right. Marla’s hands felt the recoil from her deadly slash and her bone sword shattered afterward.

Since her weapon was broken and the others were getting further away. There wasn’t any point in chasing after them. But Marla wasn’t done. She sprinted towards the 4th desert ape, pouncing on him. Heavy punches upon heavy punches on its poor face until it was completely misconfigured and dead. Bloodstained Marla’s hands. Her rage wasn’t over as she chased and caught up with a few more desert apes. Because they ran in all directions, Marla had to exert more energy to catch up to each of them.

Marla scared the shit out of the desert apes so badly that they all stopped running away. None of the desert apes would be able to outrun Marla. Even if it took her two hours to annihilate them all, she was going to do it. All the spread-out desert apes came to a similar conclusion as they looked at each other and began charging at Marla from all directions. She smiled in anticipation. The remaining 7 desert apes did their best to attack Marla together. But Marla was a fighting genius and dodged most of their attacks while landing deadly blows to each of their heads, knocking them out of the fight. The unconscious desert apes on the floor will be killed later after she killed off the concious survivors.

The desert apes landed a few hits onto Marla but she was mostly shrugging off their attacks as she brutally snapped two of their necks. The desert apes were being brutally killed. One of the whimpering desert apes was trying to crawl away before Marla stomped on their head, putting it out of its misery. She was all bloody from fighting like a berserker.

She takes a few minutes to regain her stamina from going all out against the weaklings. Then a giant centipede swarm was charging at Marla. They saw the easy loot and thought they could steal it from Marla or kill her. Marla took out her spare non-poisonous bone sword. She didn’t use it earlier because she was afraid of using too much strength and breaking it.

The giant centipede swarm attacked Marla but she was keeping her distance from them. She was slashing several of them in halves every time. The centipedes were not able to surround Marla as she was too fast for them. Marla kept slashing at the attacking centipedes and their numbers kept falling until half of them were dead. Sensing defeat, the giant centipede swarm retreated.

“ Hah! You thought you could steal the precious loot from me,” boasted Marla.

Soon a pack of desert wolves also saw the easy loot and thought they could defeat the exhausted Marla.

The wolves sent out their fox slaves to test Marla’s power. The foxes snarled and charged at Marla from all directions. Marla smirked and did a 360-degree sword slash to counter all the foxes. The foxes were heavily wounded from this exchange. While the foxes were distracting Marla. The wolves snatched away two desert apes and ran off with them.

“ YOU COWARDS! Stealing my loot while I’m distracted!” roared Marla. “ I should have brought along the others so we could better defend our loot...”

She wanted to charge after the wolves but they were pretty fast. So she killed off the wounded foxes that couldn’t run anymore. It was best to bring the loot back to camp and not let them go to waste or stolen.

In a distance, Violet and Scarlett were running towards Marla. However, Violet was running at a distance behind Scarlett.

“ Marla is sooooo strong and hot!” cheered Scarlett.

“ Marla doesn’t need our backup after all,” said Violet.

“ Thanks!” smiled Marla. “ Since you two are here, please help me carry off the loot back to camp. I will stay here and guard the rest.”

“ Of course we will!” beamed Scarlett.

“ Will do!” agreed Violet.

When Scarlett was walked past Marla. She took out her twin poisonous daggers in each hand and attacked Marla. It was a great opportunity for Scarlett to kill Marla after she had been fighting enemies non-stop. Marla was too slow to react and she received two minor wounds. Regardless, it was a success because Marla will now die from the poison and lose all her skills and stats. A heavy blow to the party for losing their strongest member.

“ SCARLETT YOU @#$%^!” shouted Marla. She took her sword out to defend against the onslaught of Scarlet’s dual dagger slashes.

Violet grew angry as well but remained calm. She readied her bow and poisonous arrows to kill the traitor, Scarlett. She was careful to not accidentally shoot Marla as she was engaged in melee combat with Scarlett and was moving around a lot.

Normally Marla would have the upper hand in these kinds of spars, but since she was poisoned. Scarlett could just back off and let her die from the poison but she pressed on her attacks anyway.

Scarlett was having a good time fighting against the supposedly weakened Marla. >

Soon Marla gave Scarlett a huge wound down her chest with her bone sword. And Violet had shot a poisonous arrow into Scarlett. Scarlett finally stopped attacking as she clutches onto her slash wound and arrow sticking out of her.

“ Ahhhnnn I still can’t win against you yet,” grinned Scarlett as she was dying from the poison. “ This will help you prepare for future sneak attacks.”

“ DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I WORKED FOR MY SKILLS AND STATS!” raged Marla with tears coming out of her eyes. “ NOW I WILL LOSE EVERYTHING!”

“ It was worth it to see you this angry Marla,” smiled Scarlett as she fell to the ground.

“ Pfffttttt! with this, Stardust wouldn’t let you live anymore,” glared Violet. She shot a few more poisonous arrows into Scarlett.

Scarlett eventually died and became an NPC core. Losing all her skills and stats for her betrayal. Marla was supposed to die from the poison but she didn’t at all. Marla was quite confused and when she investigated Scarlett’s daggers, no poisonous cactus needles were attached to it.

“ This Scarlett… she intends to manipulate Stardust further with this incident of her death!” realized Violet.

“ But why would Stardust even believe in Scarlett? The two of us can vouch for each other on the truth of the matters,” assured Marla.

“ It’s not just him but the rest of the party as well. She is trying to create distrust amongst each other. Hopefully, everyone won’t fall for Scarlett’s manipulative ploy.”

“ Well, it had only been 7 days since Scarlett’s creation. I supposed she didn’t lose much skills or stats if she died this early,” sighed Marla. “ I can’t believe she would betray us so fast.”

“ ...yeah… let’s hope that Stardust will choose not to revive her…. But knowing him… he will revive Scarlett,” sighed Violet.

If Marla and Violet chose to dispose of Scarlett. It would only damage their party’s morale and Stardust may never be able to trust them ever again. It was better to bring her NPC core back and explain things properly.

Marla and Violet carried off as much loot as possible to the camp. They also pocketed Scarlett’s NPC core into their bag.

Marla and Violet got back to the camp. Stardust healed Marla before she and Rainbow went off to collect the remaining loot before it gets stolen. Violet was explaining to everyone the truth behind Scarlett’s death. Everyone believed in Violet completely. But Stardust still wanted to revive Scarlett and have her explain her side.

When Marla and Rainbow brought back the remaining loot, everyone gathered around. Biomass was collected. Scarlett’s NPC core and clothes were placed on it.

Stardust revived Scarlett. She threw her arms around stardust while crying, “ I’m glad you chose to revive me! Marla and Violet lied to everyone. They want you to get rid of me because they think I’m dangerous. You have to believe in me Stardust! I only want what is best for the party! But if you don’t trust me then… I understand…. You can get eliminate me.”

( Violet) >

“ SHE’S LYING!” shouted Marla.

“ Why would Scarlett lie to us?” asked Lily. “ Scarlett is a good girl! I bet this is a scheme by Violet and Marla! Stardust please believe in your wife’s intuition.”

“ I… believe in Marla and Violet,” said Luna.

Lily took Luna’s hands and pleaded with her, “ but it makes zero sense for Scarlett to ever attack Marla. You saw how Marla defeated her every time in their spars! And this time it was Marla and Violet against Scarlett. Am I wrong, my bestie?”

“ .. no you’re not wrong...it’s just…”

“ Isn’t this too convenient of a ploy by Marla and Violet? Haven’t Violet ever suggested to do a dirty scheme to take down Scarlett,” asked Lily?

Luna was silent and immediately remembered Violet asking Queen if she wanted to die in a plan to get rid of Scarlett. She was starting to have doubts and trust issues if this was the case for Violet and Marla. Lily doesn’t know about this but thought that the rational girl Violet may try something sneaky like this. All because Violet was trying to convince Stardust to not choose her. The interactions between them led to Lily thinking that Violet could play dirty as well.

(Lily) >

Queen was also having doubts about the truth… not knowing who to trust except for Stardust as he was the most trustworthy person in the party.

“ Girls let’s please stop fighting each other,” begged Rainbow. “ We can’t let the party self-destruct like this!”

Stardust was silent as he didn’t want to doubt any of his NPCs.

“ I don’t like this…” said Stardust. “ The only truth I see in this situation… is that Violet wants to get rid of Scarlett…”

Scarlett flashed a sinister smile knowing that she successfully manipulated Stardust.

“ Master Stardust!” shouted Violet. “ Please believe in me!” I’m only telling you the truth! I don’t mind if you want to get rid of both me and Scarlett for me to prove my trust and loyalty for the party!”

“ … Only because Scarlett betrayed them first,” finished Stardust.

“ Then I will get rid of the traitor right now,” said Remi with her poisonous needles in her hands. But Stardust stopped her from attacking. She was too eager to kill the traitor and have all of their worries disappear.

“ Actually my husband. Violet could have schemed against her. Luna, did Violet ever suggested an evil scheme to get rid of Scarlett?”

“ She…she...” choked Luna as she held back tears and didn’t want to incriminate Violet.

“ Did Violet ever suggested a plan to get rid of Scarlett to any of you girls?” asked Lily.

“ She did to me,” admitted Queen.

Lily surmised, “ you see my husband. This is the simple truth that Violet schemed against Scarlett. We all know that Scarlett cannot defeat Marla on her own, more so against Violet as well.”

“ Is that true Violet?” doubted Stardust.

“......... yes it’s true. I did scheme against Scarlett to get rid of her,” confessed Violet. “ But I didn’t scheme against her for this incident! I’m telling you the truth Stardust. It was Scarlett who attacked Marla first.”

“ Perhaps it was self-defense,” suggested Lily. “ You two brought back her twin daggers that you said she used right? The poisonous needles were also removed from it, meaning she didn’t intend to kill anyone. Violet did you told Scarlett to not bring poisonous weapons on herself because you didn’t trust her?”

“ ...well yeah I did… just in case…” admitted Violet.

“ Then I believe Violet is the mastermind behind this,” concluded Lily. “ It’s easy to blame it on Scarlett since she had negative karma and loyalty. So far she hasn’t done anything to hurt any one of us right? Only Violet wanted to hurt her.”

“ Violet is-is that true!?” asked Marla. “ Then when I was slash by her daggers… and didn’t die...”

“ It’s true that I told Scarlett not to bring poisonous weapons but I’m not the mastermind!” said Violet.

“ Then should I get rid of Violet then?” asked Remi.

Lily said, “ even if she was the mastermind. We should forgive her.”

“ Everyone…I’m being perfectly honest with you all! Stardust you can get rid of me and Scarlett to solve everything then,” said Violet.

“ NOOOO!” screamed Rainbow. “ We will find a way to resolve the conflict without losing any of us!”

“ Violet I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself!” demanded Marla. “ Stardust, I pledge my life the truth that it was Scarlet who attacked me first! If you get rid of Violet, then get rid of me as well!”

“ But if you put all the facts together,” added Remi. “ Violet will have the most to gain from this. I’m sorry Violet but I believe you are the mastermind. My emotions will not distract me from the truth. Since everyone is afraid of Scarlett will harm them, it’s reasonable that Violet thought to scheme to get rid of her to ease us of our worries. So far Scarlett hasn’t done anything wrong. Also Marla… Violet could have instigated Scarlett into attacking you.”

“ I didn’t instigate Scarlett into attacking Marla!” shouted Violet

Lily demanded, “ please Scarlett, you better tell us the complete truth! Violet instigated you right? You shouldn’t accept your death too easily!”

“ ...yes she did,” admitted Scarlett. She was looking away while holding back her laughter. It looks like she was crying on the outside but inside she was having a good time.

“ NO I DID NOT!” shouted Violet. “ Why didn’t you bring it up from the start with your other filthy lie? She’s obviously lying again!”

Queen retorted, “ but Scarlett is not trying to win the argument. She was perfectly fine with Stardust getting rid of her. Only when Lily defended her and made a logical case for her to be innocent.”

Marla gritted her teeth. >

The discussion over the true mastermind was heating up.

***** Mastermind Debate *****

Scarlett is the mastermind

- Violet

Violet is the mastermind

- Lily

- Luna

- Queen

- Remi

- Scarlett

Neutral Stance

- Rainbow

- Marla

**** End *****

> (Stardust)

“ Violet…” said Stardust.

“ Master Stardust,” cried Violet. Tears were streaming down her face as everyone was starting to turn on her. Scarlett was also crying too yet didn’t say anything about it.

Stardust asked, “ how did you instigate Scarlett into attacking Marla?”

“ I DIDN’T DO IT!” screamed Violet. She was starting to lose her mind.

“ There are many ways for her to do it,” said Lily. “ One way is that Violet must have threatened her to attack Marla or else she would murder her with her poisonous arrows. Violet must be running behind Scarlett as she didn’t trust her.”

Violet was no longer talking anymore but cried. Since she wasn’t refuting what Lily was saying anymore, it was now taken as fact.

“ It’s true… Violet was running behind Scarlett when she came to me,” added Marla as she poured more gasoline onto the fire, incriminating Violet further. “ Could Violet really be the mastermind!?”

It was quite amazing to see the entire party shifted from believing Violet to Scarlett.

Queen said, “ Earlier Violet wanted to chase after Marla and support her in case she gets into trouble. So she asked Scarlett to come with her. The more I think about it, the likelier that Violet was the mastermind.”

“ Hmm I was busy making rabbit pelts with Lily beside me and Luna,” said Stardust. “ Remi was sleeping in her tent as she always does during the daytime. Rainbow was trying to obtain the herbalist skill by examining the desert plants. Queen was lazing around while staring at her map. So Violet was alone with Scarlett the entire time to hatch her master plan?”

“ Then… are we getting rid of Violet now?” asked Remi.

“ NOOO! EVEN IF VIOLET DID IT! WE HAVE TO FORGIVE HER!” yelled Rainbow and she hugged the crying Violet even more.

Stardust asked, “ does anyone have anything more to say before I pass judgment?”

Everyone nodded their head. Everyone solemnly accepted in their heart that it was Violet who was the mastermind.

“ Violet…is telling the truth. Even if the evidence is stacked against her. This ploy is too convenient to incriminate Violet while letting Scarlett be innocent. Just like how this was a perfect opportunity for Violet to be the mastermind. It’s also perfectly convenient for Scarlett to take advantage to create chaos and dissonance in this party. Unfortunately, Violet also saw this as an opportunity to get rid of Scarlett, giving her a clear motive that was plain to see for all of us here. Since Scarlett wasn’t fighting back, everyone thought it was Violet. But don’t be fooled.”

“ Master Stardust” cried Violet as she crawled over to clung onto his legs. “ Y-you believe in me!”

Everyone was stunned at Stardust’s judgment. Then they all cried as they truly didn’t want to get rid of Violet either. Except for Lily and Scarlett.

(Lily) >

Scarlett was trembling. >

“ Probably because… I was once in the same shoes as Violet long ago,” said Stardust. “ I don’t want to talk about my past but… please believe in my intuition everyone. Violet is truly innocent in this incident!”

“ My husband’s intuition is never wrong!” hugged Lily. “ Let’s all believe in him!”

Everyone looked at each other before agreeing with Stardust completely. The stacked evidence against Violet fell apart. After all, how could they not want to believe in Violet who did so much for them?

“ Ok I’m tired of standing here,” said Remi. “ Let me get rid of Scarlett right now so I can go back to sleep!”

Scarlett stood up in a panic and ran 3 steps away before Marla held her down.

“ We are not getting rid of Scarlett either,” said Stardust. “ She suffered enough, dying and losing all her skills and stats. Scarlett, please don’t do something so foolish like this ever again. If you want to create destruction and chaos… you will need allies like us to enable you to create even bigger destruction and chaos.”

For the first time, Scarlett felt her heart shaking. Marla stopped holding her down as Scarlett got up and embraced Stardust. Earnest tears were coming down her face. Stardust could have gotten rid of her without anyone questioning it, ending her life short. The dreams and aspirations she wanted to achieve would have ended right here and now. In the end, Scarlett truly wanted to live and not die so easily. Life was truly a precious thing after all.

“ maybe you are right… I do need allies to create more destruction and chaos.”

This scene had warmed the hearts of all his NPCs. Except for Lily, she hated how these bitches were always trying to hug her husband.

***** NPCs Loyalty Change *****

Lily: 100% (no change)

Rainbow: 99% (no change)

Marla: 95% → 97%

Luna: 89% → 92%

Violet: 80% → 99%

Remi: 62% → 70%

Queen: 20% → 35%

Scarlett: -95% → -97%

***** End *****