Villain MMORPG: Almighty Devil Emperor and His Seven Demonic Wives - Chapter 1754: Step Aside, NPC!

Chapter 1754: Step Aside, NPC!

Villain Ch 1754. Step Aside, NPC!

Allen leaned against a crooked stone outcrop while the others squabbled over map angles and debated if the tiny burn marks near a fractured leyline meant anything at all. The cursed sky above was starting to flicker with purple fire again—storm coming. Or the system doing something funky. Hard to tell in this zone.

The five-minute hunt Elio asked for had officially turned into twenty.

And of course… It was useless.

Well—not completely useless.

Because some players did come. Of course they did. Fake Emperor cultists were like cockroaches at this point—scattering in the shadows, biting ankles when you weren’t looking, screaming edgy quotes they clearly rehearsed in the mirror.

This time, they came in smaller groups. Three to five per wave, at most. Manageable. Sloppy.

Still annoying.

Alex’s Mana had recovered to just above 50%, thanks to one of Rei’s pocket mana orbs and a few long gulps from those potions that always tasted like someone boiled a sock in soap. Yuna said she’d rather be stabbed than drink another one. No one argued.

They moved fast.

Ambush teams mostly. Stealth entries, smoke bombs, those damn illusion clones. Standard PvP circus.

But something was… weird.

The cultists—if you could even call them that anymore—weren’t just targeting the party randomly. No. Their patterns were clear.

They were interested.

Specifically, in four people.

Elio.

Red_King.

Alex.

And Allen.

Especially Allen and Alex.

Like moths to a bug zapper, they kept aiming for them with their opener combos, yelling dramatic lines like, “Your light must be tested, Silver Vow!” and “You bear the presence of the fallen throne!”

Allen stabbed one mid-sentence and didn’t even flinch.

Alex, on the other hand, just looked miserable.

“I don’t like being a symbol,” he muttered after the fourth wave. “Symbols get stabbed.”

“They also get fan art,” Red_King replied, grinning while spinning his sword like he was warming up for a raid dance. “It’s a trade-off.”

Meanwhile, Rei and Yuna… weren’t amused.

At all.

“They’re ignoring us again,” Rei said, blasting an archer across the field with a hard shove of wind.

“I know,” Yuna grunted, cracking a rogue’s ribcage with a spinning kick. “Do I have invisibility toggled? Did my prestige badge fall off or something?”

“They’re not even trying to taunt me anymore,” Rei added, shaking ash off her sleeve. “One guy said, ‘Step aside, NPC.’ NPC? I have a black hole spell, dammit.”

“You’re literally a nightmare with heels,” Yuna growled. “What more do they want?”

Red_King, of course, laughed. “Aw, the popular kids club making you feel left out?”

“They’re throwing monologues at Alex and Allen,” Rei pointed out. “And we’re just background NPCs apparently.”

“I feel like a side quest,” Yuna muttered. “One of those ‘defend the cart’ missions.”

Alex winced. “I’m sorry…”

Allen, naturally, didn’t say a thing.

He just moved through the ambushes with practiced ease. And this time… it wasn’t all blades.

No, Elio noticed.

Allen wasn’t relying on dagger combos. He wasn’t stacking bleed damage or triggering shadow trap debuffs.

He was using brute force.

Straight, clean melee.

He grabbed a player mid-dash, flipped them over his shoulder, and drove a knee into their spine before plunging a blade under the ribs. Instant kill.

Another rushed him with a polearm—Allen sidestepped, caught the shaft under his arm, twisted, snapped it with a twist of his wrist, and elbowed the attacker in the throat. Then stabbed him in the side of the neck.

He didn’t even activate skills.

It was all muscle. Positioning. Violence.

No wasted movement. No overkill. One hit. One corpse.

And Elio couldn’t stop watching.

His eyes followed every shift of weight, every dodge, every efficient burst of power.

But it made no sense.

No pattern.

No clear footwork sequences or repeatable rotations.

Allen fought like a musician with no sheet music—improvised, instinctual, flowing from kill to kill like it was all a dance choreographed in a language Elio didn’t know.

He kept trying to map it. Model it. Analyze range vs impact. Nothing stuck.

It frustrated the hell out of him.

Red_King finally noticed.

“Say, Elio,” he called out mid-fight, “do you have a crush on Allen?”

Elio blinked. “WHAT THE HELL, RED?!”

Red_King ducked a swipe and launched his attacker into a rock with a roar of laughter. “Just saying—you’ve been staring at him a lot.”

Alex peeked up from behind a glowing shield bubble. “I mean, it’s kinda true…”

Rei snorted as she blasted another would-be assassin off the ledge. “You do have that ‘mysterious handsome rival’ vibe going.”

Yuna chimed in, smug. “Rivals to lovers. Classic slow burn.”

“I swear—” Elio turned, his ears actually turning red. Shame. Or embarrassment. Or both. “It’s not like that. I’m just—curious.”

Allen, still wiping blood off his glove with a sigh, glanced over. “I noticed you watching.”

Elio groaned. “Because I was trying to understand how you fight!”

Allen blinked, genuine. “Oh. You won’t.”

“I know!” Elio threw his arms up. “It’s infuriating!”

Red_King cackled like a gremlin. “So romantic.”

Alex, still looking half-apologetic, added, “I mean… if someone fought like that in front of me, I might fall a little too.”

Yuna grinned. “There’s still time, Elio.”

Rei smirked. “Just don’t duel him naked like that one tournament glitch.”

Allen let out a rare, dry chuckle. “Please don’t.”

“Okay, okay,” Elio huffed. “Let’s all just breathe. I do not have a crush on Allen. I am, however, deeply, deeply disturbed that I can’t read his attack style.”

“That sounds worse,” Rei whispered.

“I hate you all,” Elio muttered.

Allen gave a shrug and adjusted his gloves. “If it helps, I’m not hiding anything.”

Elio gave him a long, skeptical look.

Allen smiled faintly. “I’m just a little harder to understand than most.”

That much was true.

But Elio couldn’t shake the feeling that understanding Allen wouldn’t be like unlocking a build tree or mimicking a combo.

It would be like staring into the dark and realizing it had teeth.

And it was smiling back.

Your gift is the motivation for my creation. Give me more motivation!

Thank you for the Magic Castle, William_Tex!

600 Power Stone = 1 bonus chapters

400 Golden Ticket= 1 bonus chapter

Magic Castle= 4 bonus chapters

Space Craft= 6 bonus chapters

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