The group hug was ongoing. Lily could use her [Evil God’s Happiness] level one skill to invert Scarlett’s karma, loyalty, and personality as she was now physically touching her. Even though Lily had gotten better stats, the range of this skill was less than 1 meter, and she could probably use it 3 or 4 times a year. Scarlett had never allowed Lily to get close to her and that Stardust asked her to not touch Scarlett either. In short, Lily had a difficult time being able to invert Scarlett but now…

“Scarlett… you went from -95% to 0% loyalty,” said Stardust. “ I see… so the fear of permanent death made you change your ways?” << Talian’s permanent death threat on unloyal NPCs may force them to become loyal to me… I should find other ways to increase their loyalty to me instead of using force.>>

“You told me long ago that I can use chaos and destruction against our enemies right? It’s the only reason why I want to serve you,” replied Scarlett. “ Well… I want to live...”

(Lily) << @#$%! I was supposed to turn your -95% into +95% loyalty towards my husband! Whatever this is fine. I guess a 0% loyalty doll with -75 karma is better than 0% loyalty and +75 karma. Evil dolls are so much better. They are more willing to do drastic measures and can be used by me to achieve my goals. Monica, Talian and now Scarlett will become my new closest dolls.>>

Lily was planning on becoming the leader of all the evil NPCs that Stardust would create. Naturally, if any of them were to think of betraying Stardust… they are going to wish that they were dead. Since Stardust had explicitly said that he doesn’t want to lose any NPCs, Lily had taken that as an order and wouldn’t be able to kill them so she will have to resort to other cruel methods to force them to obey. 

Although it was true that Lily twisted her husband's wishes to suit her needs earlier when she helped Talian kill Scarlett. Lily’s reasoning during the inter-NPC conflict was that she was only stopping Violet from attacking Talian which was true. Lily would never believe she was even 1% responsible for causing Scarlett’s permanent death as it was all done by Talian. Talian was such an amazing doll for Lily to use. Without a complete set of strict rules imposed on her by Stardust, Lily was going to find loopholes for everything as long as it suited her needs.

The group lasted until almost sunset.

Stardust spoke, “alright everyone, that is enough, let’s eat something.”

All the girls broke free except for Lily and Scarlett. Lily was pulling Scarlett off of him but she kept trying to hug Stardust for even longer. The others took notice and pulled both Lily and Scarlett off of him.

Lily was smiling on the outside but, << @#$% you Scarlett. What with you and Talian both trying to seduce my husband! @#$% you girls. Stardust will never cheat on me you @#$%!@# idiots.>>

Scarlett grinned at Lily. She was still going to create chaos and destruction within the party, just at a more tamed level.

The party enjoyed their dinner together. The morale of the party was at an all-time high now that Scarlett stopped being a menace to the party. Talian was still a big bully to any NPCs that were deemed too disloyal to Stardust but she was super nice to everyone who supported Stardust which was pretty much everyone except for….Monica. Talian was now planning on bullying Monica since she was at -45% loyalty. Lily was going to approve of Talian’s bullying and it looks like Scarlett wanted to join in on the bullying. Monica was going to have to seek comfort and hide behind Stardust and the other NPCs to avoid the bullying. The evil NPCs were always messing with each other, unlike the peaceful unity of the neutrals and good karmic NPCs.

During dinner, Queen and Scarlett had revealed their classes to the party, Queen the ‘politician’ and Scarlett the ‘mind-mage’. Everyone was pleased to know about their classes and how they can use their abilities to the fullest in their goal. Now all the NPCs’ classes were known to everyone.

The next goal of the party was to overcome the countless sand elementals as they wanted to venture deeper into Desert Area 3.

Stardust said, “Let’s grind for more sand elemental cores, I want to create more NPCs with them since they have a pretty cool special ability. We could use their tunneling ability to create an underground passageway for the party to bypass the sand elementals on the surface. But we would likely face underground monsters.”

The next day, the battle party had collected 2000 sand elemental cores. It took a long time to grind for it.

Stardust and all his NPCs gathered together for the creation of 2 more NPC to the party. There were 3 well-established factions in the party, the positive karmic NPCs, the neutral karmic NPCs, and the negative karmic NPCs. They all wanted NPCs to be created in their karmic faction.

The evil karmic NPCs were kinda weird since they all borderline kinda hate each other. (Lily, Scarlett, Monica, Talian) Yet they all still wanted to have more evil karmic NPCs in the party.

1000 sand elemental cores were used in each NPC creation.

***** NPC 12 Kate *****    

Base Attribute: Sand Elemental (1000 maximum monster cores used)

Class: none

Stats:    

Physical Power: 300    
Physical Speed: 300    
Physical Defense: 300    

Magical Power: 300    
Magical Speed: 300    
Magical Defense: 300    

Resistances:    
[ Heat Resistance LVL 9]    
[ Sand Resistance LVL 9]
    
Physical Skills:    
        
[ Burrow LVL 9]    
[ Vibration Detection LVL 9]    

Magical Skills:    
    
[ Mana Generation LVL 9]    
[ Magic Mastery LVL 9]    
[ Sand Magic LVL 9]    
    
Special Skills:    
    
[ Sand Life LVL 2]    
    
Karma: 56
Loyalty: -57%

****** NPC 12 Kate end *****

 

***** NPC 13 Yano *****    

Base Attribute: Sand Elemental (1000 maximum monster cores used)

Class: none

Stats:    

Physical Power: 300    
Physical Speed: 300    
Physical Defense: 300    

Magical Power: 300    
Magical Speed: 300    
Magical Defense: 300    

Resistances:    
[ Heat Resistance LVL 9]    
[ Sand Resistance LVL 9]
    
Physical Skills:    
        
[ Burrow LVL 9]    
[ Vibration Detection LVL 9]    

Magical Skills:    
    
[ Mana Generation LVL 9]    
[ Magic Mastery LVL 9]    
[ Sand Magic LVL 9]    
    
Special Skills:    
    
[ Sand Life LVL 2]    

Karma: -8
Loyalty: -53%

***** NPC 13 Yano End *****    

 

(Author’s note: I’m sorry for increasing the story complexity with more and more NPCs. There will be no more NPC stat sheets for every new NPCs. Only the important NPCs’ stats and skills will be shown. Other non-important NPCs may just become background characters with no names.)

Kate smiled at everyone while Yano looked to the ground uninterested.

Kate said, “ Let’s be friends, everyone!”

(Yano) << Why are there no men? Will I ever find my soulmate?>>

Stardust put his hand to his forehead. << @#$% I got two more disloyal NPC. I hope they won’t cause trouble as Scarlett did.>>

Lily is hyper-aware of Stardust’s body language. << Oh so we have two more traitors to the party? Don’t worry my husband! I can invert these dolls to be loyal to you.>>

Stardust revealed, “ Kate has a karma value of 56…” 

Team positive karma NPCs cheered in excitement! 

“but she has a loyalty factor of -57%”

Team positive karma NPCs halfheartedly stopped cheering.

“ Huh, that is strange? I will never do anything to harm my friends!” exclaimed Kate.

Lily walked towards Kate, “ don’t worry Kate. We will all love to be your friends!” Lily’s [Evil’s God happiness level 1] skill was used for the first time. Kate’s personality, loyalty, and karmic value were now inverted. It was an irreversible change, the original Kate was lost forever. 

(Lily) <<You are such a wonderful doll now, Kate. I will not use my inversion on Yano because having -8 karma is better than +8 karma. Talian will bully Yano into being a loyal doll for Stardust.>>

***** NPC 12 Kate *****
Karma: 56 → -56
Loyalty: -57% → 57%
*****

“ Wait everyone,” said Stardust. ”Kate’s karma and loyalty factor changed…It’s now at -56 karma and 57% loyalty.

(Stardust) << This shouldn’t be possible! The karma value is something that can’t be changed so easily… unless someone used a skill on Kate? Did one of my NPC develop a skill to forcibly change an NPC’s loyalty and karma value to protect me? No… it shouldn’t be possible…None of the NPCs should have any NPC altering skills… but if it were possible… Was it Lily? The changes happened to Kate when Lily approached her. Could my wife be hiding NPC altering skills from me? I appreciate her wanting to do what is best for me but… I’m going to tell her not to ever use that skill again without my consent. It’s selfish of me to ask my stronger NPCs to tame the disloyal and negative karma NPCs since I am very weak myself. But I don’t want to lose any original NPC from Lily’s interference.>>

“ Please let me clarify,” said Kate. “ I don’t want to be friends with everyone. Instead, we should all be enemies. Relying on your friends to help you will make you weak. You can only rely on yourself to be strong.”

Team negative karmic NPCs were happy with Kate.

“Now I don’t have to bully you into being loyal to Stardust anymore,” smiled Talian.

“Hehehe Kate is going to be a fun girl,” giggled Scarlett.

“Do what is best for yourself, Kate.” acknowledged Monica.

“Isn’t she so amazing, my dearest husband!” Lily smiled at her husband while hugging him.

“...yeah she is,” said Stardust.

The neutral NPCs (Remi, Queen, Violet) were okay with her since she was loyal to Stardust. But the positive karmic NPCs (Marla and Luna) were not happy with Kate.

The party ultimately welcomes the two new NPCs, showing them everything that they have been doing to survive in the desert.

 

*****

 

A few hours later, Lily had gathered all the NPCs with negative karma for a secret meeting. They now comprised 7 out of 12 NPCs or 58% of the party. In other words, evil karma NPCs are a slight majority.

***** Negative Karma NPC *****

( NPC’s creation # - Name - Karma )

5 Lily - ???
11Talian -80 extreme evil
9 Scarlett -75 very evil
12 Kate -57 evil
10 Monica -52 evil
6 Queen -10 neutral evil
13 Yano -8 neutral evil

***** Negative Karma NPC end *****

“Thank you for gathering everyone,” smiled Lily. “ I declare myself as the leader of the evil NPCs. Even though Queen and Yano are both more neutral than evil, I included them to bolster our numbers. You will all work hard to support me and my husband’s lovey-dovey life.”

None of the evil NPCs opposed Lily being the leader, it's more like none of them even cared about who is the leader. It wasn’t like this group even needed a leader to begin with.

“Hahaha,” laughed Talian. ”If you're the leader then that must mean you will take full responsibility for everything we do right? Since you are Stardust’s wife, you will be the best fall girl as he wouldn’t want to punish you as harshly.”

“What are you talking about?” retorted Lily. “ I am the leader of the evil NPCs but I’m not the fall-girl. All of you are responsible for your own failures. I must maintain my perfect purity and angelic image for my husband.”

“ So we do the crimes you asked us to do while you take no responsibility for it?” asked Kate.

“ That is right!” beamed Lily.

“ Sounds good,” nodded Kate. “I would like master Stardust’s wife to be free of crimes. Everyone else will take part in sharing responsibility for our future atrocities.”

“ I’m not taking part in any of your psycho shit,” disagreed Queen. “ Lily, do you seriously think Stardust is that much of an idiot? He’s not going to be happy with you doing these kinds of things behind his back, you know.”

“ I’m only doing things that will benefit him,” disputed Lily. “ It’s best if everyone doesn’t tell me what they are planning to do and stealthily carry out my will for the party. As you all know, more evil and traitorous NPCs could be created in the future. We must bully all of them into submission and force them to join our supergroup.”

Scarlett was panting hard at the possible future developments of the party. << It will be so pleasurable to see the conflict between Lily’s evil faction and the good NPC faction. The more NPCs there are, the bigger the chaotic shitstorm!>>

“ Can we bully Yano now?” asked Scarlett.

Lily grinned, “ yes with everyone here, we can easily overpower her.”

The psychos of the party Scarlett, Monica, Talian and Kate surrounded Yano. They were going to use gruesome torture on Yano to force her to submit. Naturally, the four of them will take responsibility together if Stardust chooses to punish them.

“ There is nothing you girls can do to make me submit,” glared Yano with unwavering resolve.

Queen moved in front of Yano to protect her, “quit it girls! Stardust will not be happy to know that you are using violence against his NPC!”

“ Hey the two neutral NPCs are trying to protect each other, let’s bully both of them,” said Scarlett.

“ No, we only need to bully disloyal NPCs,” said Monica.

“ If Queen gets in our way, then we have to use violence against her as well,” said Talian.

The four of them charged at them, and Queen abruptly got out of the way. Yano was prepared to fight to the death against her would-be torturers. Queen ultimately was too weak to confront them and stood aside. Lily was also turning her back against this scene and began walking back to the camp.

Violet was eavesdropping the entire time and sent them a wind message,” you girls better not hurt Yano or else Stardust will punish you all heavily.”

The four ignored Violet’s warning and attacked Yano. They quickly subdue Yano onto the ground, using attacks to inflict the most amount of pain onto her without killing her. Talian and Kate’s sand attacks to slash bleeding wounds onto her. Scarlett’s bone daggers slashing and Monica using her blood magic to slash at her as well. Yano was on the ground bleeding out dangerously, both her eyes were gouged out and her limbs were crippled. Even her tongue was ripped out eventually. Despite her terrifying shrieks of pain, they didn’t stop torturing her.

All the other positive karma NPCs were now rushing towards their secret meeting location. Violet wind message shouted, “STOP YOUR MADNESS! You can’t force NPCs to be loyal to Stardust by torturing them!”

The torture lasted for a short 5 minutes before the rest of the party had reached them. Stardust was not amused by what happened to Yano and quickly went to heal her. Yano’s loyalty factor didn’t even change one bit. Team evil wasn’t fazed by the torturing of Yano but team good was. Another big rift was happening between them. The unity of the NPCs earlier proved to be futile. Scarlett was enjoying herself at an even bigger shitstorm that would occur in the future. If nothing would be done, perhaps another internal NPC conflict could break out again. 

(Talian) << Yano is still a disloyal NPC. The four of us should kill her next time, there is no way Master Stardust will punish all four of us with death.>>

Stardust and all his NPCs were gathered together once again. Lily ran up to hug him and Stardust hugged her back in kind. Team good NPCs were disgusted that Stardust was still treating Lily this nicely after she allowed this to happen.

(Lily) << Why are the positive karma NPCs disgusted with me. There was nothing I could do to stop Yano’s torturing. They were going to do it even if I never told them to. I take no responsibility for Yano's suffering. Yano also deserves it for being a disloyal doll. Stardust seems to understand me! >>

Marla was furious, she pulled Lily off of Stardust. “ Yo Stardust. Lily went against your wishes and betrayed you. She allowed them to torture Yano and she is the leader of the evil NPCs. You should punish her as well as the perpetrators.”

Lily was pissed and was about to refute her but her husband Stardust spoke up for her.

“ No, Lily did nothing wrong,” stated Stardust as he went back to Lily’s side. “ Even if Lily told them to stop, they wouldn’t have listened to her. Even if Lily and Queen tried to defend Yano, they would only get hurt during the battle. Although less damage could have been done to Yano.”

“BUT LILY TOLD SCARLETT THE FOUR OF THEM, THEY CAN OVERPOWER HER!” yelled Marla. You heard it too with Violet’s wind listening going to your ears as well!”

“It is the truth,” said Lily. “ I did want them to bully them but it could mean so many different things. I never expected them to use pure violence, I thought they were going to give her reasons to be loyal to my husband Stardust.”

“It’s fine Marla,” said Stardust.

“ No it’s not fine at all master Stardust,” disagreed Violet. “ Lily was the one who called them all to this secret location to entrap Yano.”

“Huh? I did but I didn’t force them to come,” said Lily.

“Lily, you are using such warped reasoning to escape your responsibility for Yano’s suffering,” said Violet. “ Do you think we will fall for your tricks? Stardust can’t you see that Lily is being extremely manipulative?”

“Violet, don't be an idiot. I already told you I didn’t know they would use violence on Yano,” said Lily. “ Even if I never called for a secret meeting with them, wouldn’t the four of them find an opportunity to torture her? Besides, don't you think I deserve some credits for making this happen so soon and fast?”

“Credits for Yano’s suffering?” said Violet. “ Are you stupid?”

“No… credits for exposing the four evil NPCs that are willing to use violence on Yano!” declared Lily. “ The sooner we figure out their true nature, the quicker we can deal with them. My husband, Stardust, it is time to punish them!”

Even though the ‘leader’ of the evil NPCs was throwing the four of them under the bus. Scarlett, Talian, Monica, and Kate had no problems with it.

“Lily is right,” agreed Stardust. “ They were most likely going to torture Yano in discreet ways if Lily haven’t made their secret meeting so obvious to expose them early and fast. Yano may have suffered even more under their hands.”

“Master Stardust, are you telling us that you had Lily do this for you?” questioned Marla.

“No, she did this on her own,” replied Stardust. “ But it’s fine because I will become more ruthless in dealing with the evil NPCs now. It was so idealistic of me to believe that the evil NPCs wouldn’t blatantly defy my wishes.”

The four evil NPCs were beaming in joy that their master Stardust was going to become more ruthless. It was the direction that they wanted him to take to ensure his well-being.

Luna was in tears the entire time but they had finally stopped when Stardust wanted to be more strict with the evil NPCs. << Yes! No more psychos being allowed to do whatever they want in this party!>>

Stardust declared, “ from now on any more gruesome torture on any of my precious NPCs without my consent will result in permanent death. All perpetrators will not be able to escape this punishment even if they had a small part in it.”

(Talian) <<There goes my plan of killing Yano with the four of us. Oh well, this is a pretty good development for master Stardust. A more ruthless and tyrannical master is what we need. We should keep pushing him in that direction.>>

Team evil karma NPCs bow before him and will follow his ruthless commands.

Team good karma NPCs also agreed with this.

Team neutral also agreed except for one NPC, Violet.

(Violet) << Why is this happening? I understand it as a safety measure to prevent evil NPCs from rampaging in the party if we imposed severe penalties instead of the previous Stardust’s leniency. But why do all the evil NPCs look so happy with master Stardust. Why do I get a bad feeling about this… This should be a good thing… yet I get the feeling something more sinister is brewing here…>>

“Yano I’m sorry for allowing this to happen to you,” apologized Stardust. “ To make it up to you, I will oblige to your request. Originally I was going to create male NPCs when we have an established base but the next 13 NPCs will be male.”

“Thank you, Stardust,” said Yano.

(Yano) << It was extremely painful… but it was worth suffering for. I will be able to potentially find my soulmate soon.>>

Yano’s Loyalty: -53% → -21%