The profiler, the scammer and DHB (8)

Fortunately, I exchanged most of my cards before the end of the scenario and reached third place in the rankings in less than a day.

The top 3 could now be called the trio of anonymous players.

I have around 30 cards from the chickens now. As I thought, my method was far more efficient than individually finding and hunting chickens while running away from vipers, even more so since there's nothing in particular to help us differentiate who belongs to which camp apart from the card with our name on it.

Having achieved my purpose, I got up and headed back to my camp, leaving Leraje.

Thankfully, I wasn't attacked by vipers on the way.

The foxes' camp was a big store around the same size as the Fnac.

Before entering, I straightened my posture, forcing myself to walk naturally instead of stiffly limping.

Pain is relative, pain is relative…

I exhaled deeply and pushed the door open.

Let the scam begin.

This is the last step of my plan. I have to do it well.

I entered and deliberately walked slowly to the center of the room, as if I was relaxed, while glancing around with a condescending gaze.

"Are these the only ones of you left?"

There was no answer as some group members simply stared at me with different feelings and others ignored me.

Don't talk too much, act with confidence but don't be too arrogant either…

Imitating my father's usual behavior, I turned toward someone looking in my direction and asked him a question.

It's funny how the person the person I deem the least worthy of respect is also the one I mimic when I try to get others' respect.

"Did you decide on a leader here?"

When you talk to a crowd, it's better to single out someone if you want to receive answers or else nobody will feel concerned by that question.

Since I can't attract the attention of everyone here, I have to involve the most important person in this place—their leader—to make people look at me. After all, talking to someone with authority is more efficient in my current state than causing a commotion and using violence.

Since I'm not strong, I can only pretend to be strong.

"Yes."

"Bring him to me."

The other person frowned at my order, not intending to obey.

"Who is this?"

"Who does she think she is?"

"Our leader doesn't need to bother with such matters."

I heard people chatting behind me.

What do you mean by 'our leader doesn't need to bother with such matters'? We're not in a movie.

So far, the only thing the leaders I've met until now did is to monopolize the cards of other group members to increase their own ranking. A camp doesn't even need a leader.

I made a provoking smile.

"I thought you were smart, but I guess I overestimated you."

I took in the irritated reactions of other foxes into my eyes, then pointed to the door.

"Have you seen the corpses outside? Now, people can casually kill each other."

People glared at me.

"Are you threatening us?"

They raised their voices and angrily spoke up at the same time. However, instead of retorting anything, I stayed silent.

People with authority usually don't speak loud, because they don't need it. Raising my voice like them would only make me look less imposing.

If two people argue, someone yelling means that they lost control of the situation. In that case, they can't succeed in convincing the other since nobody would bother listening to the arguments of someone screaming at them.

My goal here is to take control of the situation to scam the others into thinking that I'm strong without even using violence.

I waited for them to calm down with a cold smile.

It took them at least one minute to shut up.

Then, I spoke up in a low voice.

"I'm not threatening you, I'm simply stating facts."

I put my hand into my pocket.

"You asked who I am? Then I'll tell you."

I then slowly took it out and showed them all the chickens' card I had.

"I am the person with the most cards in this camp, the anonymous person ranked third in the rankings."

With a taunting face, I calmly looked at them one by one.

"Do you have enough confidence to take me on?"

Nevermind, I didn't need to speak to their leader now. Everyone's gaze was already on me.

I continued, planting seeds of doubt in their minds.

"I didn't appear in the rankings until today, then suddenly reached third place and gathered all these cards. How do you think I got them?"

I simply told the truth, letting their own imagination mislead them.

"So, now, you have two choices."

I raised one finger.

"Either you willingly give me you cards…"

I paused before tilting my head while raising another finger.

"…Or I'll take them myself."

Maybe intimidating people is one of the rare things my father taught me when I was little.

If he were a little less irresponsible, perhaps I would be able to take him seriously.

I guess it's also his fault that I'm completely desensitized to facing dangerous people. That will really get me in trouble one day.

"Do you want to take the risk?"

An old man finally stepped forward. From the way the others turned their gaze to him as if he could solve everything, he seemed to be their leader.

I shouldn't underestimate him because of how he looks. Everyone can increase their stats with the system now.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but even so, we can't give you our cards."

"Are you still thinking that you can beat me with numbers?"

The old man stared at me.

As expected.

"But, do you really think I got all these cards in so little time by only fighting one on one? Why would I come here if I wasn't completely confident?"

Putting back to my pocket the chickens' cards I was holding, I took a step forward and spread my palm with a serious expression.

"Hand over the chickens' cards you got if you don't want to end up like them."

That is to say, to end up perfectly fine since I'm not in a state to fight right now.

The leader glanced at someone on the side. The person in question nodded.

"She's telling the truth."

So someone had a skill that lets them see through lies?

That should at least back up my words. Luckily, I was careful with what I said.

Looking around, I found someone who looked particularly cowardly and made him give me the chickens' cards he had as an example.

Then, I did it a few more times and the cowards in question stirred the doubts of others to justify themselves. They said things along the lines of 'she had the power to go up to third place, what if she kills us if we don't obey?'.

With a few examples and some people fanning the flames, the others followed suit and my scam succeeded.

Wow, I thought it wouldn't work.

My father was right, people are best at spreading doubt among themselves. Once a seed is planted, you don't need to do anything and they'll make your words even more convincing.

If it were him in this situation, I'm sure he would've been able to convince them with even less words.

As expected, even though he acts very 'carefreely', my father is actually the scariest person on this planet.

I shook my head and sat down once I collected everyone's chickens' cards, thus reaching first place in the rankings.

Convincing people is so tiring. I'm not doing it again.

Meals were distributed depending on the original number of people in the camp. For example, if they were 50 at the beginning of the scenario, then 50 meals would be distributed even if 30 people had died midway.

Thanks to this, even though it had been a while since meals last appeared and some people tend to take more than one portion without caring about the others, there was still food left.

While waiting for the scenario to end, I ate something and looked up at the rankings.

The system window's color had now become a darker green and slightly reddish.

[1. -Writer-]

[2. -Anonymous Player-]

[3. -Masked Knight-]

[4. Player #51945737: Martin Typhon.]

It looks like his team members gave him the cards they exchanged in the end.

[5. Player #71571259: David Goliat.]

Even though he had been robbed twice, David the thug seemed to have gone up again as well.

I didn't know if something had happened to Thomas, but he wasn't in the rankings anymore.

I didn't know the rest of the names in the top 10 either.

As the scenario neared its end, I stared at the timer.

[00:10]

There shouldn't be any problems now.

[Imagination Lv.2 is activated.]

「However, there was something Ena had forgotten.」

Suddenly, an ominous thought was shoved into my mind.

Did I just jinx it?

[00:07]

「The best way to complete the scenario was to take advantage of its loopholes.」

I frowned, checking the rules to search for what the problem could be. However, it was too late now. I didn't know what was wrong nor would I even have enough time to solve it.

[00:03]

I turned my gaze back to the rankings.

[1. -Writer-]

[2. -Anonymous Player-]

[3. -Masked Knight-]

[4. Player #51945737: Martin Typhon.]

[5. Player #71571259: David Goliat.]

Even if someone had manipulated their scores and took first place at the last moment, I would only receive less rewards. My group not completing the scenario as a whole wouldn't affect my individual score either.

[00:01]

Then, the scenario ended.

[00:00]

My eyes widened as the reason why my skill warned me was laid out before my eyes.

[You don't meet the conditions.]

[You have failed the scenario.]

[You won't be rewarded.]

[1. -Anonymous Player-]

[2. -Masked Knight-]

Out of 10 names, except these two, 8 persons suddenly disappeared from the rankings and were replaced by others, including me.

…What?