“Finally, my plan is coming together. It's been three days, but it's been all worth it, soon all of my efforts will be pay off.”

In the snow-covered forest, high up among the trees and sitting on top of a large branch, is a small purple haired girl. Concealed under a black cape, she attentively watches a slowly approaching carriage on the road below.

It’s quite fancy looking if I had to judge it myself, perfect carriage for some noble onee-sama, and those people escorting it must be adventures. Although they look kinda scrappy, they may just be the low ranks. Well, that works for me. Bandits already surrounded them from all sides, it’s only a matter of time before they strike. Then, in the most desperate moment, I will jump down and defeat all the evildoers and save the day.

It took a while to find this opportunity, fantasy novels would make you believe that you will conveniently find a carriage in need of saving immediately, but reality is really cruel. I couldn’t find anything for an entire day, just an endless forest. On a second day, I found a bandit camp.

It was a great opportunity, they will have to rob someone eventually, and I will get to jump in like a hero. I stayed hidden near their camp, waiting for an opportunity, but my patience was tested. My time as their neighbor wasn’t pleasant, especially when they went to relive themselves under the tree, I was hiding in. It took them two whole days to do anything. How do they pay their bills when they just slack around for days?

But at least it’s finally over. My opportunity came, there’s a carriage with an underwhelming escort and a large group of bandits in front of them. All the pieces aligned perfectly.

One of the bandits jumped out in front of the carriage. I leaned forward in excitement, watching the exchange with bated breaths. This is it.

“…”

“They are taking their time.” Looks like they are talking. Surely, they are just threatening them, so they give up their gold without resistance. I need to have patience. It’s not the time yet.

“…”

“Alright, he is leaving... Wait, why is he leaving?” I glanced at the other bandits, but it didn’t seem like they were preparing to fight either.

“…”

“Where are you going, Guys? Guys?” All of the bandits slowly retreated back into the forest, letting the carriage pass through only with a slight interruption.

“Are they bailing out? Do those bandits not know how to rob properly? What exactly happened there? Did you ask them for money and because they refused, you left? Is that it?”

After jumping down from the tree, I ran after them. I have no idea why they left, but I will know soon enough. I am getting my answers from them, one way or another!

Following the familiar route, I arrive at the bandit camp. I walk to the middle of the bandit camp unnoticed. They can’t see me because I have a high-level stealth cape equipped, that’s how I could stay here unnoticed until now. But its effect will break when I attack or even talk to someone. Not that it matters here.

I am here to give that bandit leader guy my piece of mind.

---

 

My men and I returned to our secret camp in a small forest clearing. As we arrived, I put away my axe and took a quick drink from a water skin. We received a new order from our financial backer. From now on, we need to decide on stricter patrol routes, we can’t let anybody else pass through this route undetected.

But before I can finish my though, I am interrupted by an unfamiliar voice. “So, can anyone explain to me what happened back there?”

I turn around, right behind be I see a particular figure. Everyone else also looks over, stopping their work instantly.

“Huh, what is a kid doing here?”

Hidden under a dark cape with flashy purple hair stands in front of me a little girl. Purple hair isn’t common, I don’t think I have ever seen anyone with that hair color. Wait, what is she doing here?

“How did she get here?”

“Who brought their kid with them?”

“SHUT UP! I came here for answers now explain yourself why didn’t you attack that carriage? You even had the numbers advantage, and those adventures didn’t look that impressive.”

“Huh?”

What is she talking about, was she following us back to our camp as we returned? But how did we not notice her? My men are vigilant, they would not miss a child following them.

“You ruined everything I worked towards! I could have already saved the day while making heroic poses and telling cringe one-liners, and they would look at me and think that I was cool. I would have saved noble lady, and I would call her onee-sama while acting cute. Then she would introduce me to her parents, and they would consider me to be a hero or something. Then she would pet me every day and we would be together all the time. We would buy a cuddly pet or something, and we would cuddle with him together. Our relationship would grow while I would be all like a mysterious figure, acting cool all the time. Then she would ask me to get married, but I would turn my back to her and say some epic one-liner about something unrelated like war or something. Then we would break up, and I would RP walk out of the door, never to be seen again…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“What?”

I understood most of the words on their own, and yet the meaning behind them eludes me. Is this the so-called noble speech, I heard so much about? The rest of my men are similarly speechless, and they are waiting for me to respond.

Could it be that some noble lost their child in a forest? That might explain the hair color, but how could something like that even happen? What other explanation could there be?

Wait, let’s not get distracted. Now the most important thing is to decide what to do with her, how would we even go about returning her? And what if she doesn’t have parents, we will have to find a way to send her to an orphanage. On a foot that is a quite a while away, not to mention that I can’t afford to send my men away right now. We won’t be able to escort her any time soon. How are our food supplies looking, can we afford to feed another mouth? We might have to change our plans.

This is getting complicated. Maybe I should ask for a help from… Ugh…

---

 

After arriving at the bandit camp, I tried to talk to them, I tried to reason with them. But my pleas were getting ignored. They just stood there staring at me, refusing to respond. After getting annoyed by their unresponsiveness, I just slashed them to death.

The ground was littered with bodies and blood. Their organs are falling out of their bodies and the smell of blood permutes into the surroundings.

It’s a little more gruesome than I expected, yep, lest just not look at them. I turned around… … much better.

But I can’t waste any more time, I still have to meet with my onee-sama. Just need to catch up, there’s still a hope for us, we can still achieve a happy ending.

---

 

But how did we get here?

It all started just right after my most anticipated game was released, it was a new MMORPG set in a fantasy setting. There were some features that made me really excited, so I ended up playing for a whole night.

Everything was going great, release of the game proceeded smoothly, and I was in a great mood. However, right before I wanted to go to sleep, I looked at the game’s forum. And there I found something that made me delay my sleep, right on the front page with a whole twenty likes was someone with a stupid opinion. With regained vigor, I put away my pillow and picked up the keyboard, ready to correct his wrong opinions. So, I wrote a response.

But to my surprise, the offender responded back in the record time and what's more, he was doubling down! I cracked open an energy drink, ready to dismantle his opinions with facts and logic. We battled for hours, each of us refusing to back down.

And it was then that my life was changed forever.

I got into a heated argument on the forums over a video game. It got a little out of hand, but that wouldn’t be a problem usually, as for most arguments over the internet. But things escalated beyond the level I thought possible.

The surrounding room shifted, blinding light surrounded me, and in a flash, I arrived in an unfamiliar place.

Giant pillars, impressive statues, floating waterfalls surrounded by endless clouds. And in the middle of it all a big throne with an impressive looking man. But his expression shown rage directed towards me, I froze on the spot, unable to comprehend the situation.

What broke me out of my trance was when I noticed a laptop in his hand. It was then that I realized the identity of my opponent. Turned out that he was not just another internet troll, but a literal god, and he summoned me to his realm.

My thoughts cleared up and a sense of calm washed over me. It all makes sense now, he probably thought that he can intimidate me to win over an argument. However, he held all the wrong opinions, and I knew I could easily dismantle any of his attempts.

What followed was much of the same, our arguments just moved to a verbal format. In a fit of rage, he made a bet with me. If he wins, I will have to admit my wrong, and he will take my soul or something. However, if I win, he will reincarnate me as my in-game character into a fantasy world. Well, at first, I asked to be reincarnated into the game world, but apparently that wasn’t very realistic. Even god doesn’t have a budget for that. So we agreed on a random preexisting fantasy world.

We decided on the rules, and we signed, according to him, an unbreakable contract. So, neither of us can back down nor break any rules.

All we had to do to win was to reach max level in the game first. From our exchanges on the forums, it became obvious to me that he wasn’t the greatest player. It seemed like an easy win. Yet, he had one major advantage I didn’t realize at the time, he had no need to sleep, so he can grind 24/7. Not only that, but I couldn’t let someone else play on my account because he added a clause against that.

We used our characters we already had, mine was a cute loli with a purple hair. At first, it was a close race. But what he lacked in skill, he could make up in play time, and it seemed that he would come out on top in the end.

But then I asked one of my friends for help. He, in a stroke of full genius, got a great idea. We mass reported him with multiple accounts for an account sharing, and he got banned soon after. They probably looked at his play time and didn’t ask any questions, that moderator likely won’t have a next life.

Because of the rules on that magical contract, he couldn’t use his powers for the duration of the bet. If he could, he would do something to get himself unbanned. Thankfully, I made sure to close all the loopholes I could think of when we wrote the contract.

I almost reached the last level and that would mean the end of the challenge and my win. But why would I do that? I disabled experience gain in the settings and started grinding.

Grinding for as many different items I could, I wanted to get everything that seemed useful because when the challenge ends, that’s it. What my character has, that’s what I get to keep, I made sure to include that part.

So, I spent as long as possible farming items. Based on terms of service, the ban duration for account sharing is two months. That’s my time to get what I need, and I made sure to use it well.

I didn’t just focus on min maxing my gear, sure I got a pretty good gear, but my main focus was on getting as many utility items as possible. Items that are not even that good in the game, but would be in a real world. After I got everything, I changed my build from mage to be more of an all-rounder. Just in case. Even if it will lower my overall combat power a bit. In the real-world, raw strength isn’t everything.

Mentally and physically exhausted, I did it. Against all odds, I hit the max level.

---

 

“It’s here.”

I finally caught up with the carriage, I can finally find my onee-sama. The carriage came to a halt next to a cliff with what looked to be an entrance to an underground mine. The carriage doors opened, and I stopped to watch with an anticipation.

But the first thing I see is a figure of the old man walking out, and he closed the door behind himself right after. There was no one else in there!?

“Old wrinkly dude, get off my screen, I have been scammed!” I gasp in shock at the sight, all my efforts evaporating in the instant. I did all of that just to get an old man? While I pondered errors in my ways, everyone left for the cave. “I mean, I am already here, so I might as well follow them, I can at least pretend that I didn’t waste so much of my time doing nothing.”

 

I walked thought the mine/cave thing it was a long slightly sloped tunnel, and I could see a source of light at the end of it. As I reached its end, I arrived in a large natural cave.

Looks like this will be more interesting than I thought. So, what do we have here? Bunch of obviously evil cultists, check… Some people in cages in need of saving, check… And oh, is that a cat girl! Bingo.

In one of the cages is an undisputed cat girl. I can beat evil cultists, be a hero and I even get cat girl out of it. Perfect. Ok, ok, slow down… maybe I should check this place out first, before making any rash decisions.

There are other people too, but how do I save them? How far off we are from civilization? What if they are hungry, can I find any food for them? What about injuries, travel, what if they are from different places?

“…”

“…”

“…”

Man, this sucks. Can’t I just leave them here and take only the cat girl with me?

I moved towards the cages on the other side. I beelined it through the group of cultists, and they unconsciously dodged out my way. This cape is so wonderful, you can just walk in anywhere with it. Not only, they won’t notice you, but they will also even move out of your way without even realizing.

I stop in front of one of the cages and look inside. There she is a genuine cat girl. I can’t wait to save her, but will I have to deal with other prisoners too? That’s a lot of people to deal with, what to do.

Ignoring them is still an option… but what if she has a morally good character? I would get an angry cat girl instead.

There’s some commotion among cultists, they all scramble towards the middle of the hall.

“How is this possible, they should have guarded the road?” And that old guy from earlier just ran past me talking to himself. What are they doing? Are they starting some kind of ritual?

Well, whatever, not my problem, back to cat girl. She has white fur, and her ears look fluffy. I really want to touch them. But that would dispel the stealth effect. I will have to wait just a bit more. How should I time it to make the best impression? I will get only one shot at it. Should I act cool or be cute, or maybe I could be like an authoritative figure…

“Charge!” A loud shout echoes across the cavern as a group of armored knight looking dudes charge out of the tunnel entrance. With their swords drawn, they charged towards the cultists without slight hesitation.

And cultists… wait, since when do they have tentacles?

Some of the cultists shape-shifted into a half human a half tentacle arm… thing… tentacles instead of arms… wait what are they even going to use them for… no wait! Aren’t all the prisoner’s girls? What kind of dirty things did they plan to do to them?

While I was still recovering from my realization, the battle raged on. But why are they getting mowed down so easily. The knights are winning, and it’s not even close. Even though they look horrifying with all those tentacles, they seem kinda weak.

So, it looks like knights will save the day. But if they win… what about me?

“…”

Oh no, not again! My cute fluffy cat girl! What do I do now? Maybe I will have to wait for another opportunity, I can’t jump in anymore. I mean, I could kill everyone… but I would rather not start my villain arc just jet. The Knights keep gaining more and more ground, the fight is already decided.

What do I do? Do I miss another opportunity? Should I just give up?

No, no, no, I won’t give up, not this time. Perhaps I have to rethink my approach. Maybe… if I can’t force it, perhaps I just have to go with the flow.

---

 

“It’s clear.”

“Clear.”

“That should be all of them. Half should focus on saving survivors and the rest should secure the area.”

The scene in the cave was horrific, bodies littered the floor and there were large pools of blood mixed in with a purple goo.

One of the knights ventured deeper inside the cavern, lighting his way with a torch, he inspected the area, searching for anything out of place. Making a sudden stop, he noticed something near the back of the cave.

“There’s one more survivor!”