The moment the options appeared, Ize hardly hesitated for a second.
C-rank difficulty!
This was the lowest-difficulty villain option he had seen to date!
Moreover, the content… was exactly what he wanted!
He had always adhered to the “Way of Caution,” but “caution” did not mean cowardice or limitless endurance.
The indiscriminate accusations and moral blackmail from these bratty children had already stoked a fire in his heart.
More importantly, this kind of chaos and internal finger-pointing would severely weaken the team’s combat effectiveness and morale. On a night fraught with such peril, it was undoubtedly fatal.
Rather than wasting his breath on pointless explanations that the other party would never listen to, it was better to solve the problem in the most direct and “efficient” way.
Since you say we are the bad guys, then we will be “bad” for you to see!
Furthermore, he could earn precious Villain Value!
As for why Ize didn’t choose the lowest-difficulty NPC option this time…
Besides the C-rank Villain Value, the most important reason was that it felt “satisfying.”
Ize was “cautious,” but he wasn’t an idiot. This time, the villain option was only C-rank difficulty and allowed him to vent his frustrations. Why wouldn’t he choose it?
“Crackle–!”
Several thin yet blinding streaks of blue electricity suddenly coalesced in the air. The Tier 2 Thunder Magic [Flash Bolt] acted like precision-guided arrows, carrying a piercing boom as they mercilessly struck those children who were throwing stones and cursing the loudest!
“You monsters in children’s skin, die!” Ize’s voice was ice-cold, carrying a deliberately crafted decisiveness.
The lightning flashed, and the smell of ozone and charred flesh immediately filled the air.
The few children who had been shouting the loudest didn’t even have time to scream before they slumped to the ground, stiffened by the lethal electric shock. Their bodies twitched slightly as the breath of life rapidly dissipated.
Killing them with a single strike of lightning meant these “monsters in children’s skin” left without feeling much pain. Ize felt that he was still being kind.
Of course, Ize did not carry out an indiscriminate attack.
Those children who hadn’t thrown stones at them or spoken words of “moral blackmail” should all be good children, right?
In truth, Ize wasn’t certain, but he believed that even in the darkest places, there would be a glimmer of light.
Among this group of children, there had to be some whose values were still within a normal range.
In an instant, the entire square fell into a dead silence.
Emma covered her mouth, her eyes filled with unbelievable horror: “…”
Luke’s mouth hung open as he looked at Ize, then at the charred corpses on the ground. His brain was a total blank.
Sarah was even more abruptly pulled back to reality from her deep self-reproach by this sudden turn of events. She looked at Ize, her eyes first blank, then quickly replaced by massive shock and anger:
“Ize! What… what are you doing?! Why did you kill these children?!”
Her voice trembled with agitation, and the wound on her arm that had just been stabilized by healing magic seemed to throb with pain again.
Luke didn’t dare to interject at this moment. Although he felt Senior Ize’s methods were overly cruel, deep down, a certain feeling of frustration seemed to have been vented along with those bolts of lightning. There was an indescribable… sense of smoothness?
Emma also chose to remain silent. She looked at Ize with a complex gaze, containing both disapproval and a faint, undetectable sense of helplessness regarding the current chaotic situation.
Facing Sarah’s questioning, Ize’s expression didn’t change. He even explained in an unusually calm tone, as if stating a simple fact: “Senior Sarah, I am clearing out potential threats and ‘monsters’.”
He pointed his finger at the charred corpses: “According to my careful observation, the words and actions of these children had become severely abnormal, straying far from the scope of normal human behavior. I suspect they had long been infected or manipulated by that unknown monster through some mental means.”
He paused, continuing to weave a seemingly logical narrative: “The monster behind this is extremely cunning and excels at attacking the heart. It manipulated these children, using words to disturb our mindset and create internal conflict. It even deliberately controlled a child to lung toward those monsterized adults to create a gap in our defense, leading to your injury, Senior. All of this was clearly a calculated move after determining that you are our strongest combatant, intending to weaken or eliminate you first! Its intentions were truly malicious!”
Ize spoke with absolute certainty, as if it were an established fact.
Regardless, the dead can’t testify. The truth of the matter depended entirely on his words.
Most importantly, this explanation could most quickly calm the internal strife and Sarah’s self-reproach.
Sarah’s brow furrowed, her face still carrying doubt: “Is it… truly like that?”
Logically, she felt Ize’s explanation was a bit far-fetched, but emotionally, she desperately craved a reason that could liberate her from the guilt of “slaughtering” and being forced to face the accusations of children.
Luke suddenly slapped his thigh, looking as if he had just realized something: “I see! No wonder you shouted ‘monsters in children’s skin’ before you attacked, Senior! I was thinking, how could normal children be so ungrateful! It turns out they were controlled by monsters long ago!”
Just then, a little girl who hadn’t participated in the accusations or stone-throwing and had been shivering in a corner, stepped forward cautiously.
Her small face was dirty, but her eyes were exceptionally clear and bright, starkly different from the dull or terrified looks of the other children around her.
Ize’s heart tightened, and his sharp gaze swept over.
Had he gambled wrong?
Was there a survivor who slipped through the cracks?
Was she coming to expose him?
He secretly went on high alert, ready to strike again at any moment.
However, the words the little girl spoke left him stunned.
“What… what this big brother said… seems to be right.”
The little girl’s voice was timid, yet it carried an unusual clarity. “They… they used to be my playmates, but… but these past few days, they became so strange… they would lose their tempers over nothing, and the way they looked at people was so scary… I didn’t even dare to talk to them anymore…”
She raised her head, looking bravely at Sarah: “Big sister, you gave us food and protected us. You are good people… It was wrong for them to treat you like that.”
With the little girl leading the way, the other children who hadn’t participated in the attacks or were simply frozen in fear seemed to find a leader and began to whisper their agreement: “Yes, Rinko is right…”
“Big brothers and sisters are good people…”
“Those who threw stones… they… they became so scary…”
Ize looked at the little girl named Rinko, feeling greatly surprised in his heart. This was followed by an indescribable sense of relief and… admiration.
This child had not only not been frightened away by his thunderous methods just now, but she had also keenly perceived his intentions and actively cooperated, providing a perfect “witness testimony”!
He crouched down, meeting Rinko’s eyes at her level, and asked in a low voice: “Rinko, tell big brother, why were you willing to stand up and speak for me just now?”
Rinko blinked her bright eyes and replied just as quietly: “Because… because if I didn’t say that, big sister and the others would be very sad and troubled… and those people… they really did stop acting like my friends…”
Her gaze carried a maturity and a hint of sorrow that went beyond her years.
Ize understood clearly and gently patted Rinko’s head.
This child understood everything.
She knew those children might not have been controlled by monsters, but were simply twisted by fear and grief. However, she knew even better that this group of people was their only hope to completely escape danger.
This level of insight and decisiveness was astounding.
With the “testimony” from Rinko and the other children, the doubt on Sarah’s face finally dissipated for the most part, replaced by a complex emotion of relief.
She took a deep breath, looked at Ize, and her eyes held gratitude and lingering fear: “Junior Ize… thank you. It’s thanks to your keen observation and decisive judgment, otherwise, we might have actually fallen for that cunning monster’s plot.”
She was not only thanking Ize for “seeing through” the conspiracy, but also thanking him for pulling her out of the mire of a moral dilemma.
Ize wore a perfectly timed humble smile: “You flatter me, Senior. My magic talent is mediocre, and my combat power is limited. I can only do my best in other areas and act as everyone’s ‘eyes’.”
As he said this, his face didn’t flush and his heart didn’t race, as if those decisive, lethal lightning strikes had nothing to do with him.
Almost as his voice fell, the system notification sounded again:
[Detected that the host’s behavior simultaneously meets the criteria for ‘Comforting Sarah’ and ‘Using extreme measures to clear unstable factors.’ It is determined that Option 1 and Option 2 have been completed simultaneously. Reward: Protagonist Value +10, Villain Value +10.]
Ize’s heart jolted. He could actually complete both at the same time?!
This undoubtedly opened a door to a new world!
This meant that, provided his own safety was ensured, he could perhaps operate more flexibly to obtain both types of precious points simultaneously!
Powerful magic and martial arts exchanged with Protagonist Value…
Absolutely loyal monsters and selectable monster bloodline fusions exchanged with Villain Value… these were all tangible things that increased his survival rate!
He immediately questioned the system in his mind: “System, confirm. Are the monsters exchanged with Villain Value absolutely loyal? Can monster bloodlines be saved and selectively fused?”
[Response to Host: Randomly summoned monsters are absolutely loyal to the host. Randomly drawn monster bloodlines can be stored, and the host will decide whether to fuse them and the timing of the fusion.]
The system’s intelligence really was quite useful… He had previously had many concerns regarding the Villain Value rewards.
Now, the system had answered them one by one.
The immediate crisis was temporarily resolved, but Sarah’s brow did not unrelax. She looked worriedly into the depths of the darkness: “There is still no news from the people of the other academies. I’m worried that something might have happened to them.”
Luke immediately volunteered: “Senior Sarah, you’re injured and need to rest. Senior Emma needs to protect the children. Senior Ize… well, he needs to maintain the lookout. I think I should be the one to go scout the surroundings! I’ll be careful and report back immediately if I find anything!”
Sarah pondered for a moment. Feeling that Luke had a point, she was just about to nod in agreement.
“Wait a moment.” Ize suddenly spoke, interrupting their arrangements. Under everyone’s confused gazes, he said calmly: “I’ll be the one to go.”