《WARZONE: Modern Warfare in a Fantasy World》 1 Selection Confirmed Towards the mid 21st Century, the technology has advanced to a point where the development speed was unfathomable. One of the most advanced industry was, of course, the entertainment industry. A company, Arclight Entertainment has developed the most advanced VR Helmet called Phantasm after their previous model that can easily simulate reality for the user. To celebrate their release they invested huge amounts of money to a game development company that created "the ultimate war simulation game" named Warzone. Warzone was marketed as a game where it mirrored Earth in a fabricated way. Players were to choose between 2 factions, Federation and The Empire. Their selections would send them to the countries as soldiers, equipped with nothing but standard military gear. The objective was to climb through the ranks, command your troops and dominate the opposition to rule the lands. Connor, a teenager who enjoyed reading all kinds of books and playing games. He liked war strategy games more than any other genre, it wasn''t that games were his everything. He had an above-average lifestyle. Had a group of friends, wasn''t too handsome nor too ugly. But he enjoyed brainstorming in the games, it was his most favourite activity after reading books. "I think it''s all set now..." Connor happily said wiping off his forehead with his arm. He had been cleaning his room and working on setting up his brand new Phantasm VR Helmet to play Warzone that was going to release in a few hours. After putting the helmet down he sat down in front of his computer and went to Warzone''s website to check for information. "Account Management... Forums... Support... Ah! Getting Started, here it is." he clicked the final option and was met with a small introductory video. The video began with the logo of Warzone. Then a female voice started talking in the background. "Warzone is an Action-oriented Strategy game where the player will have to select between two factions, Federation or The Empire. After your selection, you''ll be transported to your faction''s headquarters with your starting gear and starting rank of Private. Your ultimate goal is the elimination of the opposite faction. As a private, you have to obey the orders of your superiors. As you fulfil your missions, you will be promoted to higher ranks which in return will allow you to command soldiers, access authorization for all sorts of military vehicles and ability to wear different kinds of equipment. After logging into the game ..." the video continued with basic instructions on how to see your character stats, accessing the equipment management and vehicle list, tips on how to rank up etc. He glanced at the clock that was located in the top left corner of the website, it was 5:54 PM. Only 6 minutes left until the release of Warzone. Connor got up, walked to his bed and sat on it and started connecting the cables of Phantasm. After he finished connecting the cables, he put on the helmet and laid down on his bed. He opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness, the helmet was off. He grimaced. ''Can''t believe I forgot to turn on the helmet...'' he reached out to the back of the helmet and pressed a button. After a short moment, a bright white light enclosed his vision. Connor subconsciously closed his eyes and opened a few seconds later. He wasn''t in his room nor he was laying down anymore. It was bright all around, it seemed like he was put in a white room. "Thank you for purchasing Phantasm." a feminine sounding voice said. Connor scratched his hair, "Uh... you''re welcome?" "DNA registration is now complete." "User registered, Connor Ironheart." "Welcome to Arclight Library, please select your type of entertainment." As soon as the voice said that, a menu opened in front of Connor that seemed like a computer program, there were different kinds of options from action movies, adult movies, old mainstream VR games even a VR Chess! He quickly browsed through the selections and found what he was looking for, Warzone. He lightly tapped his finger to the transparent screen to confirm his selection. "Selection confirmed." "Loading Warzone..." 2 Loading Warzone "Urgh..." Connor grunted. Just as before, a bright white light enshrouded him and he found himself in somewhere else. ''I really need to get used to this.'' Connor thought. Connor was teleported to some kind of a forest. He looked around him but was unable to find anyone, just the sounds of birds chirping. ''Am I the first player or something? Wait, where is the faction selection screen anyway?'' ''Character'' Connor said in his mind, this was the command female voice taught in the instructions video he watched previously. ------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Connor Ironheart Rank: Private Faction: NULL Available Commands: Equipment, Recruitment, Vehicle Hangar, Inventory ------------------------------------------------------------- ''Faction... NULL? What the hell? It didn''t even give me an option to select it!'' ''Hold on a second, I didn''t even made my character yet...'' Connor looked down and checked his body, it was slim, average type of male human body. ''Wait a minute, the game directly copied my appearance? What, why? According to developers, we should be able to create our own bodies.'' Connor thought. Connor wondered and said ''Menu'' in his mind this was another option that was supposed to bring system menu which includes a feature to call Game Masters that work for the company and has administrative access to the game. This way players who are stuck in certain situations can ask the help of GMs to handle their issues. But nothing happened. "Menu" Connor shouted the word this time. But the same thing happened just as before, nothing showed up in front of him. He tried out other similar sounding commands but still, he wasn''t able to see the System Menu. Connor was surprised. ''What the fuck? Why can''t I bring the system menu?'' One by one, Connor checked if other commands such as Chat, Guilds, Faction Screen pretty much any feature that was advertised before after thinking of a few options he checked the final option. ''Inventory'' Connor thought. A blue screen with slots opened in front of him. ''Guess another feature is working as it should.'' Connor said to himself. Inventory seemed to be functional. There was only one item in his inventory. ------------------------------------------------------------- Private Supply Drop x 1 - Grants the player faction specific starting equipment. ------------------------------------------------------------- Connor mentally clicked on the Supply Drop chest, a few moments later the chest disappeared and revealed a few items. One by one, Connor checked the item details. ------------------------------------------------------------- M4 Rifle - Standard Issue Rifle, a must have for a private! Ammunition can be obtained from Equipment screen. 30 rounds per magazine. M9 Pistol - Standard Issue Pistol, small and easy to carry. 15 rounds per magazine. ''Private'' Standard Battle Gear - Provides the standard amount of protection. Has a camouflage system that will adapt to your surroundings to help you blend in. Battle Helmet will show you information when needed. Medpack x 5 - For curing heavy injuries, after the usage of Medpack your body will recover from most major injuries immediately. Recovery Syringe x 25 - For curing light injuries, such as small bullet wounds, knife wounds. After injecting, your body will slowly recover. Recovery Syringe will not heal major injuries. ------------------------------------------------------------- Connor quickly equipped the battle gear and weapons, suddenly his clothes changed. Battle gear looked just like a standard military gear. A standard vest, pants, shirt, everything. He quickly glanced over his body and made sure everything is in place. ''Pistol... holster... magazine... check.'' ''Rifle... sling... magazine... check.'' ''Vest... check.'' ''All check, ready to roll.'' he happily said in his mind. Only to be refuted by himself. ''Ready to roll... where?'' once again, he checked all the options. It seemed like every command that is not available on his character screen was disabled, he wasn''t able to bring them to his sight. He started checking the commands that were written on his character screen. ''Equipment'' Connor said. A shop-like menu opened, Connor quickly looked through the shop only to find almost everything required a higher rank. It appeared so that there is no currency, but what he needed was rank. The only items he could order as a Private was the same items he got from the supply drop with some extras such as ammunition, miscellaneous goods, MREs (Meal Ready to Eat) etc. ''Well... expected that much, I guess, how do I raise my rank though...'' ''Recruitment'' as soon as Connor said the command in his mind, he saw a screen that was very similar to him... This was basically an army recruitment screen you can find in any strategy game! There were a lot of options from a standard Rifleman to a whole Forward Operating Base. On top right of the screen Connor saw a number. ------------------------------------------------------------- Recruitment Quota: 0/0 - As a Private, you are unable to recruit any units or bases under your command. ------------------------------------------------------------- ''I seriously need to get my rank up...'' Connor thought. Afterwards, he checked the final option. Vehicle Hangar, however, he was met with a screen that was almost identical to equipment, just vehicles instead of weapons and all sorts of necessities. He thought about closing the screen and it did. As soon as the screen was closed, he heard a sound in the distance. Which he quickly reacted by aiming his rifle in the direction of the sound. Through tall grasses of the forest, a wolf suddenly jumped to the area Connor was standing, looked at Connor and growled. ''Seriously? A wolf against M4?'' he quickly aimed at the wolf and pulled the trigger which resulted in a loud bang. With wailing sounds echoing in the forest, the wolf suddenly dropped on the floor. A very small notification screen popped up in front of Connor''s vision. ------------------------------------------------------------- You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 5 reputation points. ------------------------------------------------------------- ''Oh, so this is how ranking works. Reputation Points... why they didn''t call it Experience Points though...'' Connor smiled inwardly. After the notification, Connor checked his character screen once again to see a new section called Reputation Points being added. However, it wasn''t in a way that Connor was expecting. ------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Connor Ironheart Rank: Private Reputation Points: 5 Faction: NULL Available Commands: Equipment, Recruitment, Vehicle Hangar, Inventory ------------------------------------------------------------- According to the screen, he had 5 reputation points. Which was what he expected. ''How much do I need to rank up though? Why I am not able to see that?'' Connor sighed. ''First things first, I think I should get out of this forest and find other players. I can''t deal with the wolves all day long.'' Connor slung his rifle on his shoulder and started walking through the forest. 3 First Encounter It was in the afternoon on a usual day. An inn located in the village of Ludhom, a group of men stood up as soon as they heard a loud bang. "What was that?!" Matt said. Matt was a middle-aged burly man who was the innkeeper''s brother at the same time, leader of the Ludhom Village Guard. Ludhom was a medium sized village under Kingdom of Astragon and was located near the Kingdom of Gemrich''s borders, covered in a lush forest. Ludhom''s main source of income was their farms, thanks to this, villagers were able to live a normal life every now and then... "Sam, get me Uncle Chris, Roland and Tim, tell them to get their equipment too, we need to check that sound out." Matt said turning into a young kid that was about 12 years old. Sam was his nephew, his brother Jim''s son. He was also working at the inn. "Got it Uncle Matt." Sam said as he rushed out the inn towards a building that resembled a small medieval barracks. A short time after Sam left, he came back bringing in 3 more strong looking men equipped with worn out mail armours and shortswords that seemed like they were about to break. "Sir! We''re here!" one by one the men stood in a line and saluted towards Matt. Matt stood up and walked towards the door, slowly patted Sam''s head and left the inn with his men following him. ..... ''Ugh... how long I''ve been walking for? Also, damn these flies... What kind of maniac developer do you have to be to implement fucking scratching into the game...'' Connor grimaced. Connor stopped and slowly leaned towards the closest tree he could find. He opened his inventory to take out a bottle of water that he got thanks to the equipment shop that he went through in-depth while walking through the forest. As he uncapped the bottle and started drinking it, he heard sounds of footsteps close to him and looked at the direction of the sound. "I think it came from somewhere around here sir!" One of the men yelled. Connor slowly took his pistol out of his holster and hid behind the tree as he looked through the bushes, he saw 4 men looking around as if they were looking for something and wearing equipment that looked like armour and weapons Connor saw while playing his old strategy games. ''I thought Warzone was in a modern, contemporary era, what''s with this equipment? Is this some sort of a launch event?'' Connor said to himself. As Connor was observing the group, he accidentally stepped on a branch in the bush and as it broke, the branch made a loud cracking sound. "I heard something! Over here!" One of the men yelled as he turned toward his group. ''Fuck!'' Connor cursed inwardly. In just a few moments, a man discovered Connor hiding behind the tree and pointed his sword at him. "You there! Step out!" man yelled toward Connor. ''Shit shit shit shit, at least they only have swords, I should stay a bit far away from them. It''ll be easy to handle them with my pistol.'' Connor thought as he stepped out towards the group. "Ah... hello! Are you guys a member of Federation or The Empire?" Connor said looking at the group. Matt was searching in the other direction when Tim discovered Connor, he approached the group and stepped in front of them facing Connor. "Federation... Empire... what are you talking about kid? Who are you?" Matt said. ''Are these guys NPCs? Players would definitely know the factions right? But it seems weird that there are NPCs that don''t know them...'' Connor thought this was due to the special "event" that was going on. "Uh... I am Connor, I don''t know what happened but I somehow ended up here. Where is this place? Who are you guys?" "Are you playing with us? Which village are you from, kid?" Chris interjected his words with a loud voice. "Also, what the hell is that equipment you are wearing?" "I''ve never seen a piece of equipment like that before, is it possible that he is a spy from Gemrich?" Roland said looking at Matt. ''Gemrich? What the fuck is that?'' Connor thought. "What is Gemrich? I swear I am not a spy or something." Connor said. "Kid, you are in Ludhom Village''s territory. That is in Kingdom of Astragon''s borders. We are also really close to Gemrich, that''s why Roland said you might be a spy. Although we are not in a war with them, no one knows what will happen tomorrow." Matt said. After stopping for a breath, he continued. "My name is Matt, I am the leader of the Ludhom Village Guard. We heard a loud sound coming from the forest and went to patrol the area to see what''s wrong, did you hear the sound as well?" ''Kingdom of Astragon, Ludhom... what? Isn''t it just Federation vs The Empire? Damn, did they write a huge lore just for this event...'' said Connor as if he was trying to convince himself. "Ah, yeah. It was probably me. A wolf was trying to attack me so I shot it with my rifle." Connor answered. Matt slightly frowned. "Shot it with a rifle? A crossbow? You don''t seem to be carrying a crossbow." Matt said eying Connor. Connor holstered his pistol that he was holding in his right hand and slightly moved his left shoulder and unslung his rifle. Chris, Roland and Tim quickly reacted by moving a step backwards with their swords still pointing at Connor. "Ah, don''t be afraid. I am not going to shoot you, here. This is my weapon. It''s called M4, a rifle." Connor said looking at Matt and showing his M4 to him. Matt''s eyebrows twitched. As he looked at the black thing that had a long stick that with a hole in the middle and a box of some sort hanging onto it. "Is this some sort of a magic wand? Are you a mage kid?" "A mage? Gemrich is using a mage as a spy?" Roland said silently towards Matt. ''Mage? Kingdoms? Villages? Medieval weapons? Did I accidentally picked the wrong game or something?'' Connor''s mind was in a very weird situation as he pondered over an over again. "Uh... I am not sure, I just woke up in the forest and the first thing I know is a wolf attacking me and I had to defend myself with my rifle. I have no idea about anything that you are talking about, sorry." Connor said facing Matt. He decided on getting more information about the "game" he is in as he had no other choices anyway. He tried opening menu again but it was still not working. "So you are saying the only thing you know is that your name is Connor, you have a weird looking magic wand and that you woke up in the forest?" Chris said to Connor, not hiding the sarcasm behind his words. "Yes, as unbelievable as it sounds, that would be correct." Connor said as he turned to Chris. Matt stopped and eyed Connor once again. ''He doesn''t really look like a warrior but he doesn''t look like a mage either. His weapon looks like a magic wand...'' "Kid, follow us into Ludhom. We''ll learn more about you there. It''s getting dark and this forest isn''t a place you want to be without the sun." Matt said in an indifferent tone. "Sir! What if he''s actually a spy?" Tim raised his opinion. "Enough you guys, he is just a teenager, are you afraid he''ll take you down, without a sword? Just take him to the village and we''ll continue our discussion there." Matt sighed and jokingly said towards his group. ''Wait, am I being arrested or something? Fuuuuuck... I don''t want to attack them or get arrested, I guess I''ll just follow them for now. Time to resign to my fate.'' Connor sighed inwardly. In the end, the group of 5 men started moving again in the forest heading towards the village of Ludhom, without expecting what was going to happen to them in the night. 4 Ludhom Village As the group arrived in the village the sky was getting darker, a boy who was around 12 years old came out of the village gates to greet them, of course. This was Sam. He quickly went to Matt and welcomed him just before eyeing Connor, his equipment took Sam''s attention. "Hey Sam, we are heading to barracks can you please go and tell James about him? It''ll be good if James can come to barracks." Matt said to Sam as he smiled. James was the village chief of Ludhom Village a man that almost everyone can call "Grandpa" although he wasn''t too old the aura he displayed was of an honest man. As they were going into the village, Connor quickly looked at the surroundings, some of the women and children were looking at them like they''ve never seen a person before. Connor observed the types of buildings, the way the village was built and even the tools they used while passing through a blacksmith and general store. ''This place really doesn''t look like Warzone... why would anyone even create an event like this? It doesn''t make any sense.'' Connor was dumbfounded, he was still thinking that this was an event. "Alright, Connor. We are going to head to barracks, I presume you won''t have anything against that?" Matt was looking at Connor. "No, I don''t have a problem with that." Connor said with an indifferent tone, he really did not mind. He could easily prevent anyone from doing something he didn''t want anyway. The group moved to the barracks, it was a small 2 story building. The entrance was comprised of the lobby, rest area and jail while the second floor was armoury and officer''s quarters. Although most of the members of Ludhom Village Guard were just normal villagers with some swordsmanship training and lived in their own homes, some of the officers had offices here for their professional work regarding the kingdom. Chris, Roland and Tim went to the rest area while Matt and Connor moved to Matt''s office. There were 2 guards waiting outside just in case something happens. A few minutes after they sat down, an old man walked into the office, it was James. As soon as he saw James, Matt quickly stood up as in to show his respect towards the village chief. "Chief." Matt said. James showed a bright smile towards Matt and lightly nodded at Connor as he walked to the wooden chair and sat down. "Hey there Matt, I heard you found someone in the forest?" James said while slightly peeking at Connor''s side. Matt glanced at Connor before looking towards James and started speaking. "Yes, this is Connor" he used his left hand to point at him. "Connor, this is James, our village chief." Connor also lightly smiled and nodded at the village chief. Matt quickly went over today''s events to ensure James knew about the situation. "So young man, I would like to hear the story from you, start from the beginning. Who are you, why are you here?" James said with a little suspicious tone. Connor didn''t mind his tone as he started to speak. "My name is Connor Ironheart, I woke up in the forest. I do not know anything about this place and I am sure this is not where I was supposed to be, as a wolf attempted to attack me, I used my rifle to kill it. This was the cause of the loud bang you heard in the afternoon." "A rifle, you say... What is that?" James looked at Connor. Connor shrugged. ''Do I really have to do this with every single person I meet?'' then he unslung his rifle from his left shoulder and showed it to James. And started explaining the rifle. "This is my M4 Rifle, Mr. Matt told me that it looks like a magic wand that mages use. Although I am not a mage, at least I think I am not a mage." Connor said to James. James slowly inspected the rifle and looked for markings that may represent any kingdom as most of the mages had their kingdom''s crest embedded into their magic wands. He found some sort of an image that looks like a crest. He slightly bent towards Connor to see the crest more clearly. He inspected the crest for a good amount of time but he wasn''t able to tell which kingdom it belonged to then, he turned to Connor and leaned back to his chair once again. "I see that you have a crest on your wa-- sorry, your rifle. Which kingdom does it belong to?" James asked. ''Huh? Kingdom? Crest? What is he talking about?'' Connor glanced at the M4 and checked the crest James was mentioning, it was the manufacturer''s logo. "Oh, this is the logo of the manufacturer." Connor said. "Logo? What does logo mean?" James replied. ''Oh... right... medieval era.'' Connor thought. "Uh... you could say that the crest of the manufacturer. It doesn''t belong to any kingdom but the person who made the rifle." Connor answered James'' question. "Oh, okay." James pondered over his answer but didn''t press on. "Ah, I want to ask you a question as well. As I said, I don''t remember or know anything about this place. I woke up in the forest in all sudden. Where is this place? What year, what month is it?" Connor asked James. James was taken aback. He still did not really believe that Connor didn''t know anything but he answered his question nonetheless. "We are in Ludhom Village. That is located in the Kingdom of Astragon. Our village is mostly dependent on farming as the land here is very fertile and there is a river nearby." he stopped for a second to take a breath, then continued. "Our village is also really close to Kingdom of Gemrich, which is currently at war with Kingdom of Ironhorn. The relationship between Astragon and Gemrich is not bad, but it''s not good as well. That is why Roland, one of our village guards suspected you of being a spy also we are currently in 5th Month of 592nd Allunian Year." ''5th month of 592nd Allunian Year? What the fuck? What is Allunia, I know about Kingdom of Astragon and Gemrich as Matt mentioned them as well... This really does not seem like an event. Hell, this really doesn''t seem like Warzone at all.'' Connor sighed inwardly. ''I still have some of the game elements active, I can''t logout, but I can use some of the features. So that means I really didn''t choose the wrong game, if I did. I probably wouldn''t have such features as Vehicle Hangar for sure... then... What the hell happened to me?'' Connor had a guess, but it was a guess that he wished wasn''t true. It was at that moment that village woke up with the sounds of bells ringing. Matt, James and some of the other guards downstairs were suddenly startled. Matt instantly got up and went downstairs. Connor was wondering what is happening when suddenly someone shouted outside. "BANDITS! BANDITS! BANDITS ARE COMING!" 5 Bandit Showdown James started speaking. "It''s probably those Silverhawks again. It''s a bandit group that raids our village from time to time to fill their bellies and sacks with food, they have about 30 men and our village guard only has like 10 battle ready guards. This is the 3rd time they visited this month... If this continues..." James sighed. As Connor and James were looking out the window, the village guards led by Matt quickly got out to the open field near the village gates. The leader of the bandit group "Silverhawk" himself came forward with his men standing guard behind him and started speaking. "Yo... my favourite villagers! How ya'' all doin''?" Silverhawk smirked. Silverhawk looked like a middle-aged man who had small but many scars on his face. He was on top of a horse and had equipment that was definitely outclassing the village guard. Matt frowned. "Silverhawk, this is the 3rd time you came this month, we don''t have any extra foodstuffs to give." he pointed at some of the worried villagers behind him and continued. "These people will starve without the food, there is still sometime before the next harvest." Bandits behind Silverhawk broke into a burst of laughter. "You fucking scum! Thank us for not taking your women!" said one of the bandits as he licked his lips with lust. Village guards who were standing beside Matt were fuming with anger, but unfortunately, it was a lost cause to attack the Silverhawks, they would wipe the floor with the bodies of the guards, not to mention what will happen to the villagers afterwards... Connor and James stepped out of the barracks and quickly arrived beside Matt. Matt turned towards James and started speaking. "They are asking for foodstuffs again, what do we do, chief?" James stepped forward and looked at Silverhawk in the eye. "You should go." he pointed at Connor and continued. "We now have a mage to defend our village, if you want your lives to be spared, leave now." Connor was shocked. ''What. The. Fuck? Why am I being put into use here?'' Connor quickly turned toward James and opened his mouth to speak. "Hey old ma-" he couldn''t finish his sentence as he was interrupted by Silverhawk laughing out loud. "HAHAHAHAHA! Mage? This skinny toyboy looking kid? My ass! If he''s a mage, then I am the King of Fucking Astragon!" ''Oi, oi, why the fuck are you insulting me, you fuck.'' "Toyboy? What the fuck happened to your face? Did you fuck with a bear or something?" Silverhawk frowned and pointed at Connor and started yelling at his men. "Tie him up, we need to teach this young one some manners." Bandits started walking forward with their swords ready to slash at any time. Seeing this, village guards stepped back a couple steps, it was unfortunate, but they knew they had no way to live if they were to fight. That kid just courted death. As the group of 6 bandits were approaching, Connor quickly unslung his M4 from his left shoulder. And clicked the safety button near the grip. ''You just fucked with the wrong toyboy.'' Connor quickly aimed the rifle at the closest bandit''s head and pulled the trigger. Which made the guards, James, Matt and some of the bandits cover their ears as the rifle shot a bullet with a loud bang. *BANG* ______________________________________________ You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points. ______________________________________________ Connor didn''t have time to read the notification he got as he aimed at the other bandits one by one and pulled the trigger of his M4. ______________________________________________ You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points. You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points. You have successfully eliminated the enemy. You have gained 10 reputation points. .... ______________________________________________ After managing the kill all the bandits that were approaching, he glanced at the notifications that almost filled his screen. ''Holy shit, these guys are literally dying to give me some reputation points.'' Connor sighed at the miserable pun. ''Well, if I was playing any other game, I''d probably say this is a really good XP farm.'' Connor thought as he smirked. As soon as the other bandits saw that the kid did something to their comrades with his magic wand, they were startled and started shivering. ''He killed Samuel by doing nothing but lifting his wand...'' ''Crap... we need to run.'' ''Fuck! I don''t want to die!'' Bandits were sometimes glancing at their leader and swearing in their minds, this was supposed to be an easy trip to get some fucking food. After seeing this, Matt stepped forward while unsheathing his sword followed by other village guards doing the same. ''Holy shit, I never thought this guy was so strong.'' Matt thought as he sized up Connor, he was standing in a weird pose and his magic wand was exploding every time he moved his finger, he wasn''t even chanting anything, this greatly shocked Matt and the other guards. On the opposite side of the teams, Silverhawk''s veins were so blue due to the anger. "KILL THEM! KILL THEM ALL! BURN THE VILLAGE!" Silverhawk yelled at his men standing behind him. All the bandits behind started charging towards the guards and Connor''s direction while yelling. The village guards were startled but soon they recovered after seeing their leader fighting one of the bandits, seeing this, they started to charge and attack as well. In the meanwhile, Connor was enjoying his time by farming reputation shooting the bandits one by one as soon as they attempted to attack him, he had killed more than 15 bandits. From what he could see, there were only 10 or so bandits were left beside the big kahuna, Silverhawk. Silverhawk watched as his men lied on the ground, blood flowing from their head. He looked towards one of the bandits, as he was about to open his mouth the bandit was shot right in the head, same as others. This greatly shocked Silverhawk. "RETREAT! RETREAT!" Silverhawk shouted as loud as he can. The bandits that were attacking the guards and Connor suddenly turned back and started to run. Seeing this, Connor smirked. He had one target that he wanted to take down. He aimed at Silverhawk''s chest as he was trying to gallop his horse towards the outskirts of the village. Connor pulled the trigger once again. A few seconds later, Silverhawk fell from his horse. Bandits around Silverhawk were greatly shocked as they glanced at their now dead leader. They continued to run, without stopping even for a breath. ______________________________________________ You have successfully eliminated the enemy leader. You have gained 15 reputation points. ______________________________________________ A notification showed up in front of Connor''s field of vision. It was different than the ones he saw before. ''Huh? Enemy leader? 15 points?'' Connor started pondering as another notification suddenly showed up with a fanfare. ______________________________________________ Congratulations Connor Ironheart! You have been promoted to Private First Class (PFC)! Unlocked: Recruitment Quota - You can now recruit 1 soldier from the recruitment menu. Unlocked: All-Terrain Vehicle (ATV) (UNARMED) ______________________________________________ Connor was utterly happy seeing this! He could recruit a soldier and ask questions about the event now! He checked is character screen to see if anything was different now that he was promoted. ______________________________________________ Name: Connor Ironheart Rank: Private First Class (PFC) Reputation Points: 230 Faction: NULL Available Commands: Equipment, Recruitment, Vehicle Hangar, Inventory ______________________________________________ He smiled and looked at his surroundings before he fixed his gaze at James. 6 Recruitmen The battle was over, most of the bandits were either dead or already ran away from the battlefield. Some of the guards had minor injuries while Connor didn''t even get a scratch. After checking the notifications and the outcome of the previous battle, Connor turned towards James with a look of enmity, latter noticing this quickly fixed his stance and walked over where Connor was standing. "cough, cough. Uh, yeah. Thank you for helping our village in this dire situation. Mister Connor." James said while smiling at Connor like a little kid who just got a big present. Connor frowned. "Yes, helping. You''re welcome." said as he emphasized the word ''helping'' towards James. James, as if understood, rolled his eyes in embarrassment. James sighed. "You see, Mister Connor, these people have been bothering us constantly and we were barely living by due to the constant tributes - as they called it - we have been giving to them. Seeing you arriving with a magic wand, I thought maybe I could scare them away." "Are mages that scary?" Connor asked. From the side, Matt joined in on the conversation as he walked to the group. "Mages? According to the legends, a mage can even lift a mountain with just a finger movement. Not many people dare to sour their relationship with them. Who would have known that they would attack directly..." he sighed as he looked at the dead bodies lying on the ground in their own blood. The sky was already dark, without the illumination of some torches hung near the walls, it would be pretty hard to see what is in front. James started speaking as he looked towards the sky and then slowly faced Connor. "The day is almost over, let''s go to my house. I have to at least be hospitable to our village''s benefactor." James said as he smiled. ''Benefactor, you say... Old man, you literally used me.'' Connor sighed inwardly. ''Well, I need to check the recruitment system soon.'' He nodded towards James as in response and they started headed to the village chief''s manor as the guards led by Matt started cleaning up the surroundings. Village chief''s manor was basically a glorified medieval wooden house in a rather big courtyard. The courtyard also had a shack that was just a bit bigger than a usual tent. As James and Connor arrived at the courtyard, James pointed at the shack and started speaking. "You can sleep in that shack if you want, sometimes we use it for the kingdom''s messengers who come to our village to bring news about the happenings in the kingdom. Come, you must be hungry as I am right now." James said as the latter nodded and they continued walking towards the glorified wooden house. After meeting with James''s wife at the door and waiting for the dinner to be served while exchanging some small talk and pleasantries they sat down in the kitchen. As he was eating a lavish meal for a village Connor started asking some questions to James. "I need some answers, what exactly is this place?" Connor asked. Lifting his face from the plate and facing Connor, James spoke. "I thought we already had this conversation, Mister Connor?" James said as he thought back, earlier in the day Connor had asked a similar story while they were in the barracks which he answered. "I know, but I want a more detailed answer, not just some run down summary. Also remember, our conversation ended abruptly due to some events." Connor refuted. ''I need some detailed information about the village and the kingdom it belongs to... I really hope this is an event.'' Connor thought. With a hint of guilt in his eyes, James continued. "Our village, Ludhom was formed about 40 years ago when the previous king thought no one was using the abundant farmlands out of fear towards the Kingdom of Gemrich." Connor interjected James while he was talking and asked another question. "What is the Kingdom of Gemrich?" ''I can understand not knowing our village but... a kingdom?'' James thought. "Kingdom of Gemrich is located in the east of Kingdom of Astragon and is filled with mountains. It is said that thousands and thousands of years ago a dragon in one of the mountains went crazy over something and nearly brought the mountain down. After this event, people found many caves in that mountain that was rich with many rare minerals. The first group of people who found the minerals started mining them. Due to the abundance, after years of mining efforts, the mines didn''t show anything other than even more minerals, in the end. The family who found the caves and turned them into mines, Caester family, settled near the mountain in which time turned into Gemrich. Of course, these stories are nothing more than a legend. The family is supposed to be extinct for the past few centuries anyway. The kingdom changed hands, so to speak." James explained right after he raised an eyebrow at Connor''s question. "You previously mentioned that this village is located at Kingdom of Astragon''s borders, can you elaborate?" Connor asked. ''Kid, how did you live so far...'' was the only thing in James''s mind. "Kingdom of Astragon was formed by the Astragon family. Our current king, Edward Astragon, is said to be a really kind and honest man. While our kingdom has one of the biggest borders, it is not the richest. The only thing that one can see a lot in Astragon are the farmlands. While this does not mean that our kingdom is poor, in comparison to Gemrich, it is less rich. notthateveryonehasagoldmineundertheirnoseanyway." James said. Connor did hear the man mumbling something before he stopped speaking. "Our kingdom doesn''t really have tales to tell similar to Gemrich, but I need to tell you, if you are looking to stay here in Astragon, I would suggest that you head to the City of Westland, Astragon''s capital. You''ll find more opportunities there for someone with your skills." ''Hmm... I might be able to find more information about the world if I head to Westland, first things first, I need to get this recruitment system solved.'' After some talks about the general world, Connor learned that the continent was called Allunia and there were 2 more kingdoms. Kingdom of Karshire, a very cold Nordic kingdom. And the Kingdom of Ironhorn, a militaristic kingdom that not much is known due to their strict borders. James told Connor he would be able to learn more, including about the current war between Gemrich and Ironhorn if he goes to Westland. To process the information, Connor asked to leave and head to the shack to rest. Entering the shack Connor was met with nothing but a bedroom. A small bed to the side and a nightstand right beside it. He quickly unslung his rifle from his shoulder and leaned it against the nightstand. He unholstered his pistol and put it on top of the nightstand as well. He sat on the bed as he remembered he can now recruit one soldier into his rank. ''Recruitment'' he said in his mind. A screen popped up in front of his view as always, as opposed to the previous screen, the recruitment quota now displayed 0 out of 1. Right under the quota, there was just a small, green button with text ''Recruit'' written on it. Although there were several other menu options with no text on them, they were greyed out and unclickable. Out of curiosity, he pressed the ''Recruit'' button. Suddenly, behind his transparent screen, he could see a man. He looked at the man, he was in his mid-20s, well built and had his combat gear with his rifle in his hands. But one thing was off... He had no faction specific gear, just like Connor. Connor was sure the soldiers should have faction symbols on their right arm and their uniforms should have distinct colour when they were not in combat. "Private Miles, reporting for duty sir!" Miles shouted as he saluted Connor with his rifle. Connor was surprised for a very short moment. In the end, he knew that the system had to generate the soldier somehow. While the man called Miles inspected him, Connor inspected him back before started speaking. "Private Miles, which faction do you belong to?" Connor asked him a question that was supposed to be answered easily, but Miles''s answer greatly shocked him this time. "I serve and belong to Private First Class Connor Ironheart, sir!" 7 Sentinel Connor had a stupified look on his face. ''Serve and belong to me? That sounds... little awkward there. I mean I understand the serve part but...'' Connor thought. "I am sorry, I asked which faction. Private Miles, not who." Connor repeated his question. Miles had a face that one could interpret as ''What''s wrong with it?'' He got into position and saluted once again, just to repeat his words. "I serve and belong to Private First Class Connor Ironheart, sir! It is both who I serve and my faction!" Miles replied. Connor sighed. ''I don''t want my faction to be called Private First Class Connor Ironheart... What should I call it...'' he thought for a while before finally speaking. "Miles, from now on you belong to Sentinel. This faction that will be under my command from now on." Connor said. Suddenly, several notifications that he had never seen before showed up on his screen. ______________________________________________ You have successfully created a faction called Sentinel. ______________________________________________ ______________________________________________ Congratulations! You have earned the title - Commander of Sentinel. ______________________________________________ ''What the hell! Faction creation?'' Connor quickly tried to remember the features of Warzone he read before starting the game. ''There should be a guild system and land system which can be created or managed by players but... factions? There should be only two.'' Connor kept contemplating. He didn''t even mind the title he had gotten. "Miles, what is our current location?" Connor asked the critical question. Miles stopped and looked around the room. "We are in... some sort of a wooden shack, sir?" he replied, completely innocent. Connor facepalmed. He couldn''t retort at all. He was tired and wanted to sleep. Today was tiring. He actually found it interesting to ''feel tired'' while he was in the game. ''Anyways, I guess we''ll head to Westland tomorrow or something.'' "Miles, I am really tired. I need some sleep." Connor spoke. "Understood sir! I will stand guard until you wake up!" Miles said as he readied his rifle. "That wasn''t really my intention... You don''t need to stand guard." Connor replied. "Impossible! Your safety is important sir!" Miles replied as if it was a fact. ''Argh... I can''t deal with this.'' Connor thought as he laid down on the bed to sleep. "Whatever, thanks Miles." As the morning arrived, the sounds of birds and people outside was easily heard in the shack. Connor slowly opened his eyes and got up from his bed. When he looked towards the corner of the room he saw Miles leaning on the wall looking somewhat tired. He wasn''t as tired as he looked, however, standing at one spot for hours would definitely make you feel tired. Seeing and hearing Connor stand up from his bed Miles quickly fixed himself and greeted him. "Good morning sir! The night has been really quiet!" Miles saluted Connor. "You don''t have to call me ''sir'' all the time Miles, just call me Connor. Our difference in rank isn''t that much, also. Good morning." Connor replied. "Understood sir! I mean, Connor." After getting up from the bed, Connor prepared his gear and equipped it. And got out of the shack. He saw James''s wife working in the courtyard, fixing the garden as he walked towards her, Miles was following behind Connor. As Lucy, James''s wife saw Connor she smiled, then glanced at the man behind Connor. She didn''t know who this young one was but before she could say anything Connor started talking. "Good morning, Miss Lucy. Where is James?" Connor asked. "I believe he went to the barracks to handle the matters about yesterday with Matt. You can find him there." Lucy replied. Connor thanked Lucy and headed towards the barracks with Miles following behind him. ''Who is the man with him? He looked like his brother.'' Lucy thought looking behind their backs. Connor and Miles quickly arrived at the barracks. They got in the building and saw James and a guard member sitting in the resting area and talking. James saw Connor and Miles going in so he quickly got up to greet them. "Good morning, I hope you had a good sleep." James said towards Connor before turning to Miles. "And who is this friend?" Connor looked at Miles only to see the latter looking around inspecting every detail of the building, he had been like that since they got out of the shack. Noticing their gazes Miles suddenly turned to James and introduced himself. "I am Private Miles, member of Sentinel, serving under my commander here." Miles replied. James looked at Connor and Miles back and forth until Connor started speaking. "Don''t mind him that much, he''s my subordinate." Connor said while lightly pointing at Miles. Seeing Miles nod in response James introduced himself. Although he had some questions about the situation, he decided not to ask. "Hello, I am not sure if Connor told you about me. My name''s James. I am the Village Chief of Ludhom." Miles only nodded. Connor started speaking to break the awkward atmosphere. "James, our plan is to head to Westland as we spoke yesterday. Do you have some sort of a map? How can we go there?" Connor asked. "We don''t really have any maps. But don''t be afraid. There are only a few roads leading outside Ludhom. If you follow one of the two that goes west, you''ll end up in Westland. The other one goes to the forest." James answered. "When are you planning to leave? Have you had any breakfast?" James smiled as he asked. "As soon as possible, like right now. We can eat on the road so we don''t really need breakfast." Connor replied. ''It is important to find out more information about this place. Looking at Miles, it seems like even he doesn''t know anything. Gotta talk with him on the road as well.'' James was not surprised. "Alright, come, I''ll show you the way." The group left the barracks and headed towards the gates, no one but the guards around the gates really paid attention to them. James led Connor and Miles to a crossroad not far from the village. And pointed at the road. "If you follow this road, you will see a fork. Follow the left one. After about half a day''s walk, there should be a small inn. You can rest there if you need." James quickly took a few silver coins out of his pocket. "Here, 2 silvers. This should be enough for some time." James said as he gave the coins to Connor. For a villager, 2 silver was not a small sum. It was about 2 weeks worth of food. Connor took the coins and thanked James before starting to walk towards the road with Miles. One thing James didn''t know that Connor had never thought about walking to their destination. He had a secret weapon after all. After ensuring he got far enough from the village and no one was following them. He thought about the ''Vehicle Hangar'' before a menu showed up. Looking at the menu, he only had one vehicle. All Terrain Vehicle, ATV. Which was basically a militarized quadbike. With special spots for hanging military backpacks. Although Connor wasn''t wearing any backpack as he had access to his inventory, Miles was wearing one. He quickly went over the menu to see how it is used. After grasping the usage he clicked on the button "Create" that was located right below the ATV. Same as Recruitment, he saw a vehicle appearing out of nowhere a few meters in front of him. If someone saw Connor and Miles doing this they would probably think that Connor was a Legendary Mage. The duo got on the ATV with Connor driving and Miles riding in the back. With that, they started heading towards their next destination. The city of Westland. Throughout the way, they discussed about the world they were in. Well, it was mostly Connor asking questions to Miles. Unfortunately, it appeared so that Miles did not have any knowledge of this place. This finally confirmed one thing that bothered Connor. ''Even the ''NPC'' created by the game system doesn''t know about the world we are in.'' ''This is not a game.'' ''Did I get teleported to another world?'' ''Did I die?'' Connor had all sorts of thoughts running through his head. It wouldn''t help to panic. He was here for more than a day already. The world, the feeling, the situation... It was all similar to the fantasy books he had read before. ''It will be really amusing if I see any kind of ''Adventurer''s Guild'' at Westland.'' Connor laughed which resulted in Miles giving him a weird look. They were still driving towards their location as Connor planned his course of action both in case this was an event and in case... it was not. There was a place called Adventurer''s Guild in Westland. 8 Westland Without needing to stop at the inn James mentioned, they could finally see Westland on the horizon after about 6 hours. They had stopped before once to refuel. Connor thanked at the inventory system once again. The duo decided to stop early on and hide the quadbike they were riding as he thought it would be a hassle to explain what it was. After parking the quadbike somewhere near the city and covering it with camouflage net Connor had gotten from the equipment store, they headed to the city gates. There were several other people, especially merchants waiting for inspection with their carriages and a few guards stopping on each one of the carriages one by one and checking every inch of them, occasionally yelling at some of the merchants regarding their goods. The line was not that long, but it was clear it may take some time. It was about 2 in the afternoon. Connor and Miles were discussing how they were going to act while waiting at the line. "Don''t hide your rifle, our gear already takes enough attention from surroundings. Stick close to me." Connor told Miles. As the line moved on, it was finally Connor and Miles'' turn. The guard was looking at his ledger with an indifferent face and started speaking. "Where are you coming from and what is your business here in Westland?" "We are a mercenary group called Sentinel. We are here for some work." Connor replied. The guard eyed Connor and Miles, they were wearing weird equipment but he was unfazed. He could see hundreds of people passing through these gates with things he had never seen before. He saw that they were not carrying any swords or axes, which was weird for a mercenary group, nonetheless. He allowed them in. "Alright, you guys can go in. Watch yourselves inside. If you ask anyone in the city, they can direct you towards the Mercenary Guild. I am not sure if you guys will able to find many jobs though. Most of the mercenaries went to Gemrich to make some quick money thanks to the war between them and Ironhorn. Only small time jobs around here lately." Guard told Connor. Connor thanked the guard and got through the gates. The City of Westland was huge! The streets were colourful and filled with citizens. Some of the citizens had stalls located around selling accessories like jewellery, some of them were selling leather clothes and some of them even had fresh fruits and vegetables. Connor stopped and watched everyone one by one, the buildings, the smell, the sounds of the people... It was all real. The feeling of belonging was something that can be never faked by any kind of VR helmet. ''There is no way that this is a game... But... one more thing, one final check. If that thing really exists. It means that I have somehow got into another world.'' Connor thought. Miles had similar thoughts with Connor, he was watching everything with his mouth open. Occasionally putting it back with the help of his hand. The duo walked along the street and discovering their surroundings before stopping in front of a vegetable stall. Connor started speaking facing the man selling the vegetables. "Hello are there any... are ther-" Connor was trying too hard to stop his laughter. The man raised an eyebrow at his way of speech. A few seconds later Connor coughed and regained a straight face, continued speaking. "Are there any Adventurer''s Guild around here?" Connor finally asked ''that'' question. "You guys are outsiders? Anyways, if you go through this alley and turn right, you''ll see a building with a wooden sign that has two swords crossing through a shield. That building is the Adventurer''s Guild." the man said as he shrugged, he thought these men were his customers but they had only stopped to ask for directions. ''I knew it! I fucking knew it!'' Connor started laughing out loud while some of the citizens gave them a weird look. Connor was both excited and shocked at the same time. He was excited because he felt like one of the novel characters that were trapped in another world. He was shocked because... he was the one that was trapped. He couldn''t access the system menu to log out or shut down the VR helmet. In the end, it seemed like he is going to be here for quite a while. Connor checked one of his pockets with his right hand and felt two circular-shaped pieces. ''We only have 2 silvers, if we are going to live here... we need to find some money.'' Connor thought. ''Wait, the guard said we can also head to the Mercenary Guild, what is the difference between Mercenary Guild and Adventurer''s Guild?'' Connor wondered, he quickly thanked the man who gave the directions and headed towards the Adventurer''s Guild. After a few minutes, they found the iconic ''two swords crossing through a shield'' sign and went in the building. It was a three-story wooden building that looked similar to the other buildings, but the atmosphere was grandiose. The entrance was also serving as a small inn-like restaurant. Connor quickly found his way to the lobby and arrived at the counter. There was a lady at the counter that looked about 20-odd something years old, she had dark-brown hair that was reaching to her shoulders, after seeing Connor and Miles arriving at the counter, she quickly got up. "Hello there, welcome to Westland Adventurer''s Guild, how can I help?" the girl said. "Hey, what is the difference between the Mercenary Guild and Adventurer''s Guild? We are from a village and never came to Westland before." Connor asked his question directly. As if she had heard this question several hundred times, she replied immediately. "Adventurer''s Guild is more suited for individuals and small groups. While Adventurer''s Guilds between the cities are somewhat connected, it is still counted as independent organizations. However, all the Mercenary Guilds are connected between each other and report to the kingdom they are located in. This is because of the fact that there are mercenary groups with hundreds, maybe thousands of members. Adventurer''s Guild would have a hard time tracking them, you know." the girl answered Connor''s question. ''Hmm... Adventurer''s Guild is focused for solo players who love to act independently while Mercenary Guild has a hierarchy of some sort.'' ''Although registering as an adventurer sounds good, according to the lady, they are not really connected and some are independent. This may hinder my progress at finding information. Mercenary Guild on the other hand... I guess we are definitely becoming mercenaries.'' Connor decided. Connor thanked the lady and asked for directions to Mercenary Guild before leaving the building. A few minutes later, they were in front of a building that was literally the same as Adventurer''s Guild with one distinct difference. Instead of the ''two swords crossing through a shield'' this building had a different symbol ''a helmet with a sword below it'' as soon as they stepped into the building, the air around them changed. The restaurant was filled with brawny looking men who faced towards the duo who just entered. Everyone had the same thought, two people, one of them who looked barely 20 years old while the other one was definitely above 20, what was their business here in Mercenary Guild? Connor and Miles had noticed their gazes, Connor gave Miles a small sign and walked towards the counter. A middle-aged man who looked to be about 30 years old stepped forwards from behind the counter. "Hey kid, if you are looking for an adventure, you are in the wrong guild. People mix us up from time to time. You need to check out Adventurer''s Guild instead." the middle-aged man said. Connor stopped and thought for a few seconds before saying something that surprised every mercenary in the room. "I would like to form a mercenary group." 9 Mercenary Every single person in the room stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Connor. ''Did this kid just say forming a mercenary squad?'' ''He looks like he would die from a single sword strike.'' "Forming a mercenary group? Kid, you sure you don''t want to form an adventurer''s party instead? This is not a place you can come to play you know." the middle-aged clerk laughed. As if everyone was waiting for him, the other mercenaries in the building started laughing as well. "No, I am serious. I want to form a mercenary group." Connor frowned. "Alright, whatever kid. You have to pay one silver for the paperwork." middle-aged man waved his hands as he passed Connor a form. The form was very basic, name of the mercenary group, the member count and the person in charge. Connor quickly filled the form and gave it back to the clerk, not forgetting to include 1 silver with it. Receiving the form, the clerk went somewhere behind the counter and came back a few minutes after with some sort of a card and handed it over to Connor. "This is your group''s identification. You have to use it whenever you are taken a request, whatever it may be. Just come and show it in the mercenary''s guild with your request contract. You can also check out the request board to see if anyone is looking for some mercenaries, can''t guarantee they''ll accept you though, kid." the middle-aged man said disdainfully. Connor grabbed ahold of the card and put it in one of his vest pockets. The people in the building had already gone back to whatever they were doing. Connor quickly walked over to the request board escorted by Miles. Skimming through the request board, there were many kinds of missions available. ______________________________________________ Cleanup beasts near Erith Village. Reward: 10 silver ______________________________________________ Assist Windermere Village regarding their bandit problem. Reward: 35 silver ______________________________________________ Escort Starkirsk Merchant Association to Kingdom of Gemrich''s Capital, Aurumpolis Reward: 15 silver ______________________________________________ ''We can get to earn some good money if we hunt down some bandits. But how many are there? It''s risky...'' ''We just came to Westland, it would be a waste of time to head to Gemrich, considering how long it took us to come here... It''s probably going to take some time, not really worth 15 silvers.'' ''Beast cleanup, seems like this one is the best choice for the time being. Killing some wolves shouldn''t pose a threat.'' Connor thought about some requests he read although there were several other requests they either required a bigger mercenary group or requests that Sentinel could not take. ''Why would someone request mercenaries to build infrastructure for a village?'' Connor shook his head. Connor grabbed the beast cleanup request and headed towards the clerk once again. The middle-aged clerk standing behind the counter saw the request contract in Connor''s hands just before Connor handed it over to him. "We would like to take this request as our first mission." Connor said solemn face. The man looked at the contract and quickly read it, after contemplating for a while, he rolled his eyes and scrawled something on the paper with a pen he grabbed from who knows where and stamped it before rolling it up and put it beside him. "Give me the identification card, kid." the clerk said with a tone full of disdain once again. Connor took out the identification card and gave it to the clerk, after receiving the card clerk put the same stamp he had put on the paper and handed it back to Connor. He took the paper that was beside him and gave it to Connor as well. "Alright, the stamp I put on your identification card and the contract show that you are the group that is tasked with handling the request. If you go to the village and actually manage to kill the beasts, ask the village chief to stamp the contract with his own and bring it back to the guild, we''ll give your reward here." the man said before turning somewhere else. Receiving the contract and the card, Connor put everything into his pockets carefully. Some of the bystanders in the lobby area were looking at Connor and Miles like they were seeing them for the last time in their lives. "Oh, and where can we get a map? I don''t know the way to the village." Connor suddenly asked the clerk who was writing some stuff on a paper. Without even glancing at him, the man murmured something and took out a rolled-up paper from one of the drawers located in front of him. And tossed the paper towards Connor. "1 silver." he scoffed at Connor. Connor took the paper from the counter and opened it to inspect. It was a map, but it was definitely drawn in a crude manner. ''This is what 1 silver map looks like I guess...'' Connor sighed. He handed the man 1 silver. All of their money was now gone, they had to finish this request to bring their finances to green once again. Connor and Miles stood at the side of the counter, they were He checked the map once again, Erith Village was located somewhere in the north of Westland. It appeared so that it would take them about 3 hours of travel with their quad to get there. Just as he was thinking of their route a brawny man covered with a plate armour walked into the mercenary guild. The sword on his back was probably as tall as Connor himself. The man was escorted by two more soldiers equipped with similar -but less shiny- armour. His appearance was basically yelling ''Look, I am a very important soldier dude!'' according to Connor. Seeing the group coming in, most of the mercenaries around had stopped talking or lowered their voices. The man quickly glanced at each one of the mercenaries before finally walking towards the counter. Connor and Miles had also looked at the man for a second before turning their heads back to the map. The clerk who was writing some papers quickly stood up as he saw the man coming in. "Sir, you''ve just come at the right time, I just finished writing the report for last week." the clerk said in a hurried manner. "Nice work, Robert. I hope there are not any issues regarding the mercenaries this time." the man said with a stern voice. "No, no, no, of course not. The performance last week was outstanding, our mercenaries were able to complete several important missions." Robert said. "Good, good." the man said before he glanced at two weird looking youths inspecting a paper that looked like a map. ''What the hell are they wearing? Is this some sort of a new armour?'' the man thought as he eyed Connor''s equipment, his eyes were stuck on one item that stood out the most. ''Magic wand? What is a mage doing here in Mercenary''s Guild? Their magic wands look new, I wonder if it''s the job of Special Division again...'' he was even more surprised after seeing Miles'' equipment, he had the same magic wand. Two mages, especially if they are members of Special Division in a Mercenary''s Guild at the same time wasn''t really a good sign. The man quickly walked over. "Who is your commanding officer?" the man asked at Connor. Connor raised his head and faced the man. "Commanding officer? What are you talking about?" Connor had a surprised face. ''Does he think we are soldiers in the army or something?'' Connor thought. "Kid, you should definitely watch your manners while talking to a superior officer." the man said. "Superior officer? I am sorry, but I don''t recognize you." Connor wore a dumbfounded look. "How dare you talk like that to your superior!" one of the soldiers following the man shouted out loud. "Kneel before Captain Audric of the 4th Infantry Legion!" the soldier shouted once again. 10 Kneel "Kneel before Captain Audric of the 4th Infantry Legion!" the soldier shouted. ''Our gear is really attracting some unwanted attention.'' ''I feel like this is going to be bad.'' Connor thought as he sighed inwardly. After his words, he saw that Connor and Miles didn''t even move a muscle. This angered him greatly, he started walking at Connor, intending to force him to kneel. As the soldier approached, Miles quickly unslung his rifle and pointed it towards the approaching soldier. *clink* Although most may not know what that sound was, Connor knew it. It was the safety of Miles'' rifle turning off. "Stop right there!" Miles yelled at the soldier. Startled, the ''magic wand'' was being pointed at him, the soldier could not continue his steps, he stopped midway between his commander and the duo. ''Miles... I just wanted to earn some money and gather information...'' Connor thought as he sighed and put his right hand on his forehead. As the ''debate'' between parties hit a stalemate, Miles turned at Connor and spoke with a clear voice. "Commander! You can''t let yourself being insulted!", Connor had told Miles to keep a low profile and only fight back when necessary. ''Commander? What rank is this kid?'' Audric started to think, he was angry at his subordinate who acted on his own. ''Kneel... kneel... huh.'' Connor was thinking about something just before a grim smile formed on his face. "Miles." Connor said as he slightly turned his face towards him. "Sir!" Miles replied. With a small motion of his left hand, Connor pointed at the left knee of the soldier who was standing between them and the two other soldiers. "Knee." "Understood!" Miles said before a loud bang covered the entire lobby. Some of the bystanders instinctively covered their ears. Audric and his lieutenant only saw a bright flash coming out of the magic wand. They were flabbergasted at the scene they are witnessing. Few seconds after the loud bang, sounds of armour hitting the floor was heard. The soldier was kneeling on his right leg while holding his left knee, trying to stop the blood. He had been shot in the knee, or in layman''s terms. He was kneecapped. Miles also had a smirk on his face, the soldier who looked strong and imposing with his armour yelled ''kneel'' at his commander mere seconds ago was now kneeling to Connor. Connor coughed twice before speaking. "Why are you kneeling to others than your commander, my friend? Aren''t you a proud soldier of the 4th Infantry Legion?" the mocking tone in his voice was very clear. The soldier couldn''t retort as he was drenched in sweat due to the enormous pain he felt on his left knee. Audric broke through his stupor and looked at his lieutenant. The latter felt what he meant he quickly unsheathed his sword and walked towards his downed ally. "Sir, his knee is damaged. It doesn''t appear to be critical. But..." lieutenant stopped for a second. "he may need to retire." he said as he looked at the soldier''s leg. "Miles, cover." Connor said as he took something from his vest pocket. "Yes, commander." Miles replied. Connor slowly walked to the downed soldier and his ally. The lieutenant immediately got up, stepped back a few steps and took a guard against approaching Connor with his sword. "Relax, I am going to give him some medicine, you don''t want him to die do you?" Connor said towards the lieutenant. Before he could even say anything, Connor took the syringe in his hands and stabbed it near the man''s knee before pushing it. "AHHHHH!" the downed soldier yelled in all sudden. Lieutenant did not know what Connor had done to his soldier, he only saw a small circular shaped object pressed onto the soldier''s body. He slowly advanced forward to intercept Connor. "Hold it! One more step and you become just like him." Miles said at the lieutenant who was slowly walking towards Connor with his sword drawn. After waiting for a bit, the bleeding on soldier''s knee slowed down greatly as a small gel-like substance started to cover his wound. "This will not heal him completely. Take him away and give proper treatment." Connor said. Lieutenant turned towards Audric and looked at him as if he was asking for permission. Audric slightly nodded, lieutenant immediately grabbed the soldier and put him on his back before leaving the building. "So you are mages after all?" Audric said towards Connor with a stern voice. "Nope, we are not. Just members of Sentinel." Connor replied. "Sentinel? I have never heard of that division in the army." Audric refuted. "Did you hear me or my companion here saying that we are in the army? You just assumed it. Your soldier didn''t even give us the chance to speak." Audric was slightly embarrassed, it was true. His soldier acted on his own towards some unknown mages and wanted them to kneel. "Who are you then?" Audric asked. "I already answered that question, we are members of Sentinel. A mercenary group." Connor replied while shrugging. "So you are telling me that you have a magic wand that can take down a soldier in seconds without chanting a thing and that you are not mages? On top of that, members of a mercenary group? I find that hard to believe, kid." Audric retorted. Two types of mages were common in the continent of Allunia, Battle Mages who are definitely members of Mage Legion in one of the kingdom''s armies and Academic Mages who were interested in researching and studying magic rather than using it. Many of the Academic Mages were also teachers, they taught students of their respective academies different forms of magic. These students would, later on, choose their path to become a Battle Mage or Academic Mage and the cycle continued. This has been the norm for several centuries. Audric was certain that these two in front of him were definitely not Academic Mages. Connor shrugged. ''Why do you people don''t believe us, what do you want me to do? I can''t just say I am a mage when I know nothing about them...'' "I have no reason to lie to you, we were just taking some contracts and checking our next mission on the map before you and your soldiers walked in." Connor spoke with a nonchalant tone. Audric eyed Robert, the guild''s clerk who was listening to their conversation. -like everyone else in the building- Robert nodded as if approving Connor''s claim. "Sentinel huh... what''s your name kid?" Audric asked. "Connor, Connor Ironheart." Connor answered. Audric pointed at Miles. "And him?" ''Are you planning on adopting us? What kind of questions are these?'' Connor thought. Miles had been standing with his rifle in his hand since the lieutenant and the soldier had left, observing their surroundings and most importantly... protecting Connor. "Miles. He''s one of my subordinates." As Connor was replying Audric''s question a squad of soldiers rushed into the building, seeing the scene, most of the bystanders immediately fled. A squad of fully armoured soldiers rushing into a place was not a good sign. Audric and Connor both looked at the door, the soldiers had their swords and spears unsheathed, ready to strike in any moment. Suddenly, a man stood out from the group. He looked about the same as Audric, middle-aged, muscular, tall, slightly tanned skin. It was obvious from the gazes of other soldiers that he held a high position. "Wulf, what is your business here?" Audric asked the man. "One of your soldiers came running into the barracks shouting that you were attacked by two mages and one of your soldiers was gravely injured, had to come to clean up your mess." Wulf replied. Wulf raised his right hand and pointed at Connor and Miles. About 10 soldiers quickly ran towards their position and encircled the duo, pointing their swords and spears at them. "You two are under arrest for attacking an officer and injuring a soldier of the Kingdom of Astragon." Wulf said. 11 Imprisoned "You two are under arrest for attacking an officer and injuring a soldier of the Kingdom of Astragon." "You two are under arrest" "Arrest" These words were clearly heard by Connor. ''First we get mistaken as mages, then soldiers now we get arrested. Can anything get even worse?'' ''Wait, that''s some shitty foreshadowing. Note to self, do not under any circumstance, say stuff like that.'' Connor reprimanded himself. Connor quickly began to think about their next actions. ''There are 10 men encircling me and Miles plus two big boys called Audric and Wulf. We can probably get rid of them but that would turn us into enemies of the kingdom¡­ It''s best if we go with them and explain our situation, worst case scenario¡­ we escape.'' Connor shrugged. ''Oh gods of Allunia give us your blessing for just one fucking time and keep me away from trouble- wait, there are gods here right?'' he shook his head. "Wulf." Audric started speaking. "It was one of my men''s fault for acting too ballsy. The kid even helped him with some magic item." Audric pointed at Connor as he spoke. "I don''t know or care about the details Audric, all I know that one of the soldiers of our glorious army got injured and who knows, he might have to retire after all." Wulf said, without a hint of emotion on his face. "Hey, aren''t you going to let us talk instead of this?" said Connor while pointing at the soldiers who were encircling them. "Commander, what are we going to do?" Miles said to Connor silently, he was aiming at one of the soldiers encircling them he was slightly surprised after seeing Connor having a carefree look considering the situation. "Lower your weapon, let them take us." Connor answered. Miles'' expression changed in an instant. "Don''t look at me like I ordered you to die, I know that you think we can take them down instantly. But it will not be helpful for us if we make an enemy out of a kingdom, yet. Who knows, maybe we can find something amusing in wherever they are taking us. Surrender for now." he elaborated as he raised his arms. Connor was thinking about some of the TV Series, Movies and novels he had seen in his world where main characters discovered their way in life or opportunities in prison. Miles nodded as he understood and lowered his guard. On the other hand, he thought about a word Connor said previously. Miles wondered what he meant by saying ''making an enemy out of a kingdom, yet.'' he shook his head, right now was not a good time to think. Seeing them lower their magic wands and raising their arms, the soldiers slowly began to approach. One of the soldiers turned back and looked at Wulf before the latter nodded. After receiving the approval of their captain, the soldiers quickly walked over to Miles and Connor and took their magic wands away from them. Connor smirked as he saw the men taking their rifles. He glanced at his pistol holster, no one even noticed that -not that they know what pistol is- he didn''t care. After ensuring they were unarmed, the soldiers brought metal bracelets glowing with a golden hue and put them on Miles and Connor. "Let me see you mages casting spells with this bracelets on." one of the soldiers mocked Miles. ''Repeat a lie often and it becomes the truth¡­ If this continues, even I may believe I am a mage.'' Connor sighed, having heard the conversation. After bracelets were put on the soldiers looked at each other and nodded, for all they know, mages without their spells were nothing more than ordinary humans so they didn''t bother with anything else. Wulf came over, observing the youths being apprehended. "Take them to the prison." Wulf ordered the soldiers. He turned to look at Audric and nodded slightly. The party left the Mercenary''s Guild quickly. Mercenaries and other bystanders had a surprised look on their faces, the group who took down a soldier with only pointing his wand at him surrendered to the soldiers. After half an hour, everything had returned to normal. ¡­. By the time they arrived at the prison, it was already evening. It was a building that just looked the barracks in Ludhom Village. The building was made out of stone, laid out on a considerable plot and was several stories tall. While entering the building Connor was able to see a sign that read ''Westland Garrison'' according to the sign, it was probably the headquarters of Westland''s City Guard. Connor and Miles were led to a floor with several cells, of course, they were stripped out of their clothing and were given plain white cloths, Connor was shocked as soon as they entered because the cells were actually pretty clean considering that this was a prison. Insides of the cell looked similar to the shack he had stayed back in Ludhom. There was a small gap on the wall, in this gap, there existed a wooden plank with a circular hole in the middle. This was definitely going to be their toilet for a while. Connor checked the other parts of the room, there was a bunk bed for himself and Miles, a small window covered with metal railings. Near the bunk bed, there was a small wooden bench. The guards left them to their own accord, they were told that someone high-up would visit them for interrogation in the next few days, there was no need to bother. ''For a prison, the place they put us in is actually very clean, I am not sure if that they don''t have any prisoners or just that they regularly clean this place, for some reason.'' Connor thought about both sides of the coin. Connor sighed. ''It seems like Warzone is long gone after all. I have arrived on a continent called Allunia instead of the game world. According to my observations, it just looks like medieval times on Earth with magic. This is definitely straight out of fantasy novels. Astragon, Gemrich, Ironhorn and Karshire. 4 kingdoms, two of them are at war, one of them is almost forgotten because of their location and dwindling population.'' ''Can I even live a normal life here? Hold on second¡­ do I need to live a normal life here? Some of Warzone''s game features are still¡­ operational.'' Connor thought and quickly opened to browse through the Vehicle Hangar and Equipment Store. ''Oh, I wonder what happened to the ATV we left on the outskirts of the city.'' he pondered for a second. A few seconds later he noticed a sub-menu located in the vehicle hangar, out of curiosity, he clicked it. According to the menu, he had one summoned vehicle and he could unsummon it, the menu also showed ATV''s durability bar which was full. He mentally clicked the unsummon button and the ATV disappeared, it wasn''t the ATV option disappeared, the whole sub-menu was gone. Forcing him to go back to the original Vehicle Hangar screen. Tilting his head in confusion, he continued to observe the Vehicle Hangar. After checking the hangar for a while he switched to Equipment Store. On both of the menus, most of the gear and vehicles he could see were locked due to his rank. Connor''s eyes were caught on something as he reached the end of Equipment Store. ''As you progress throughout the game, more choices will be made available to you.'' the note read. Connor raised an eyebrow at the note, he could already see a lot of military gear and vehicles and the rank requirement they had. And now the system was saying there''s more? Unable to comprehend, he shook his head to regain his consciousness, wondering what Miles was doing he looked up and turned left towards the wooden bench. Miles in response, turned and looked at him. ''Come to think of it, I never observed Miles carefully.'' he thought, since the time Miles was summoned he was almost always silent. Other than obeying orders and following Connor, he hadn''t said or done anything. Even when they were eating their MRE''s during the travel to Westland, he hadn''t said anything unless the conversation was started by Connor himself. "Miles, why are you so silent all the time? You look like a robot man." Connor asked in a cheerful manner. Before noticing something with his wording. ''Wait, he was summoned by the system, so doesn''t that make him an AI¡­ technically¡­ he''s a robot¡­ right?'' Connor was unable to comprehend Miles'' situation. Miles was slightly surprised and embarrassed at Connor''s words. "I¡­ don''t know. Commander, it just feels like I shouldn''t say anything unless told to." he replied. "Miles, what was it like before you were summoned?" Connor asked. "Summoned?" Miles tilted his head at the question. "You mean when I was recruited under you, commander?" Connor slightly raised his eyebrows in confusion before nodding. "I¡­ actually¡­ I don''t know¡­ I woke up in the shack we stayed that night with only one thing in my mind. It felt like there was a voice calling out to me, telling me my name and my purpose, to serve you, commander." Miles replied. Connor was perplexed. ''A voice telling you who you are and instructing you to obey me?'' in Warzone, the soldiers recruited using the system was supposed to be members of the faction player was in with a randomly generated background story for them. This was one of the main selling points of Warzone. Connor rolled his eyes before thinking back to the getting started video he watched before starting the game. ''Thanks to the groundbreaking multicluster quantum computing, experience Arclight Entertainment''s brand new Genesis Artificial Intelligence Automation (GAIA) technology. All the non-player characters you recruit in-game will be near-sentient beings with their own stories from the beginning of their lives to the moment they found themselves in the middle of a war. You can talk to them as if you are talking to a real human!'' the female voiceover happily said in the video as the recruitment system was being introduced. Connor scratched his head both out of excitement and confusion. He was excited as there were many unknown elements connected to the game and confused as he did not know any way of knowing them as he was not in the game at all. He had to wait until he gets to a higher rank and summon more soldiers to test out some of his theories. Until then it was just speculation. Connor felt tired after today''s events and because of the constant thinking, he felt like he was mentally drained. This time he told Miles that he was going to sleep and he should sleep too instead of keeping watch, none of them knew what would happen tomorrow. Connor laid on to the bed and quickly fell asleep. ¡­. In a castle located somewhere in Astragon. An old man with white hair and beard was sitting on his desk stroking his beard, reading the letter he had in his hand that was brought to him by a young girl that looked about 17 to 19 years old, she had a blonde hair. Her body was fairly developed, she was neither slim nor fat. She could easily be a high school beauty with her looks. "Casting lethal magic without an incantation in less than a second." the man stroked his beard again. "Healing a critical wound in a few seconds with an unknown magic item." he read some of the lines in the letter out loud. "Elicia, tell the servants to prepare my carriage, the contents of this letter are very interesting. We will visit Westland." the old man said towards the young girl. "Understood, Master Aldren." Elicia said before slightly bowing to Aldren. A few minutes later, a carriage with a group of knights was waiting in front of the castle. Aldren walked over to his carriage. "Archmage Aldren, we are ready to depart." the chief knight said before bowing to Aldren. 12 Archmage Aldren In the carriage headed that was headed towards Westland, an old man and young girl were sitting. "Master Aldren, why did you suddenly decide the trip to Westland?" Elicia asked. Aldren stroked his beard. "My dear apprentice, according to the letter some of my subordinates sent from Westland, there were two young men who somehow got into a small battle in Mercenary''s Guild and injured one of the soldiers." "However, what is interesting about those two is that apparently, they wore gear that no one had seen before. Including a black item that looked like a long wand but was not staff. One of the captains who witnessed the battle reported that one of the youths was able to take down a soldier by just pointing his wand at him." "Not to mention that according to the same captain, other youth who were talking with them walked up and used a strange item on the soldier, healing his wound almost immediately." Aldren replied. "Are you suspecting that they are rogue mages, master?" said Elicia. "The letter mentions that those two said they were members of a mercenary group called Sentinel that was recently formed. However, they do appear to be rogue mages. But what interests me the most is how were they able to take down a soldier in an instant without an incantation." Aldren said, his face wore a confused look. "I would like to hear their stories and see their skills myself." Elicia nodded at Aldren and looked outside the window of the carriage, the grand city was on the horizon. ¡­. Connor woke up after a good sleep. There were sounds of people talking, birds chirping and soldiers training outside. A flash of light was beaming through the window of the cell. He looked at the bed above him, Miles was still sleeping. He put on a smile. ''So you listened to me then.'' Connor talked to himself. It was the second day of their arrest. No one had come yesterday and they had no idea how long they were going to keep them here. ''With the items I could get from Equipment Store, we can just run off¡­ but¡­ is that the right choice? Maybe someone will come and talk about letting us out.'' Connor thought. About an hour later, a guard walked in with two plates that had some bread and something resembling a soup on it. Miles was already awake at this point. The guard who was standing in front of the cell opened the door, the guard who was carrying the plates walked in and put them on the bench. At this time, Miles was looking out of the window while Connor was sitting on the bed. Connor raised an eyebrow and thought. ''Isn''t this way of treatment way too good for prisoners who injured a soldier? The guard himself even put the food on the bench.'' "Friend, do you know what will happen to us? When can we get out?" Connor asked. The guard was someone that looked like in his early thirties or late twenties. He turned towards Connor and replied. "I don''t know, we were just told to treat you as guests by higher-ups. Although I don''t know how guests should be treated in a prison¡­ Not my problem." Connor was confused. The guard was right. ''Treat us as guests? In a prison? Woah, they must have a very twisted sense of hospitality.'' "Alright, thanks." this was the only thing Connor could reply considering the absurdity of this whole situation, the guard quickly nodded and left the cell. Miles walked over to Connor and asked what they were going to do. "We wait, for some reason they are treating us fairly well. I would like to see where this is going to go. Although I can''t say the same thing about the food." Connor said pointing at the plates sitting on the bench. He thought about using an MRE but later discarded the thought as it would probably gain the attention of the guard outside. Half an hour later, the room of the cell area opened again and two figures came in and walked towards the cell Connor and Miles was staying. Connor quickly noticed the situation as the guard who was sitting in front of their cell saluted facing something. ''So the higher-ups they were mentioning came at last.'' Connor thought. A few moments later, two figures came in front of the cell. One was an old man with white hair and beard while the other one was a beautiful girl that looked to be around 20 and was wearing a blue robe. Her blonde hair reaching her waist was blending so well with the blue of her robes. ''Are these guys the higher-ups for real? This more looks like a father taking his daughter on a zoo trip. Wait, are we the animals here? I have to admit she is very beautiful though.'' Connor thought. Although he wasn''t a type of man who would drool over any beauty Elicia had captivated him. Miles was sitting on the bench munching on some leftover bread, he looked at Connor who was eyeing the people in front of their cell. "Welcome to our humble establishment, how may I entertain our most esteemed guests?" Connor said. Ending the staring contest. Elicia frowned while looking at Connor, her master, Astragon''s most prestigious mage was standing in front of him, yet he was making senseless jokes. Aldren suddenly started laughing. Hitting his right knee with his right hand. "That is a really nice sense of humour. I apologize for putting you in this situation." Aldren said. Elicia quickly turned to Aldren, she had a shocked face. ''Master Aldren really found this funny? Everything about these men looks normal, I can''t even feel an ounce of magic from them. They didn''t even bow before him!'' Elicia was flustered. Connor waved his hand. "It is all in the past now, so what is the reason for this luxurious hospitality, old man?" Connor said. "HOW DARE YOU CALL MY MASTER OLD MAN! YOU MUST ADDRESS HIM AS LORD ALDREN AND BOW BEFORE HIM!" Elicia suddenly yelled. Her eyes glowing blue. A blue sphere of ice forming on her right hand. ''What the fuck! Why is everyone in this kingdom acting like this! First kneel, then bow, what next? Wipe their ass?!'' Connor was frustrated. ''Hold on a second, her eyes are glowing blue.'' he thought as he stared at her hand. ''Holy shit! She''s a mage!'' Connor was unsure on how to act, he finally witnessed a mage. After reading about them in novels and only watching some movies he was finally seeing one. Connor shook his head to regain from his stupor. The situation could go really bad at any moment. "Elicia, calm down." Aldren ordered with a silent tone. A few moments later, Elicia''s eyes stopped glowing and turned back into a normal blue pupil. "I apologize, master. I couldn''t take when you were being disrespected." Elicia said. Connor was ready to open his equipment store to get a pistol or a rifle, basically anything that could damage if things were to go wrong. Seeing Connor was acting very tense Aldren waved his hands to ease the situation. "Mister Connor, don''t worry. My name is Aldren. I am one of the Archmages serving the kingdom. I came here because I heard that you were able to use items and spells no one have seen before. But before that, which kingdom did you learn your spells at?" Aldren asked with a polite tone. He already knew who they were from the report of the captain he had read. Connor relaxed, but he kept on glancing at Elicia from time to time. "Nowhere. We do not belong to any kingdom. Also, we are not mages." Connor replied. "We? So you and Mister Miles are together?" Aldren asked as he pointed at Miles. "Although that sounds a bit weird, yes. You could say something similar to that. I am his commanding officer." Connor replied while Miles nodded. "I see, where did you learn your spells? I didn''t get an answer to that question." Aldren said. He knew that they were members of a mercenary group, so Connor addressing himself as the commanding officer was not something unexpected. "As I said, we are not mages." Connor was really frustrated at this, sooner or later he would need some kind of explanation regarding their gear. Aldren stroke his beard. "I see. I would like to see the abilities you demonstrated in the Mercenary''s Guild, including the magic item you used to heal the soldier. I have an offer that will benefit us both should you choose to accept." Aldren was especially interested in the healing item as healing magic was something rare and elixirs were expensive. To be able to use a healing item on an enemy soldier was interesting. Interesting enough, although they had searched them and their gear, the only thing they were able to get a hold of was their wands and clothing. Aldren knew that no one would like to reveal their secrets so they must have used some sort of magic to hide them. Elicia was surprised. ''Why is Master Aldren treating them like this?'' she couldn''t understand the reasoning of her master''s actions. Connor frowned at Aldren''s words. "An offer you say? What happens if we reject it?" Connor said. "You haven''t even heard my offer but¡­ if you were to reject, it saddens me to say that best case scenario, you would be sent to The Exiled Isles." Aldren replied. He wanted to scare them. After all, two unknown people with unknown backgrounds showing unknown skills was definitely interesting. They would be a great addition to his forces. Some of the other archmages would probably say a thing or two, but even King himself had accepted the Special Division. Exiled Isles was a neutral zone governed by several organizations that were supported by the 4 kingdoms. Some people called it the Demon''s Lair as it was the most detested place on the continent. All kinds of people were there, some were sent there because they betrayed their kingdom, some went there because they were serial killers, some were sent just because they offended a noble in one of the kingdoms. It was a place that no one wanted to be at. ''Exiled Isles? Although I have no idea of what it might be¡­ The name of the place on top of it being the best case scenario is somewhat tempting.'' Connor thought, he had some guesses about the worst case scenario and some other scenarios for sure. "What is the offer?" Connor asked. "I would like you to join Astragon''s Special Mage Division." Aldren''s reply shocked Connor and Miles, but there was one more person, who was going through many kinds of emotions. Elicia was surprised, angry and shocked at the same time. As Connor tried to comprehend Aldren''s words, something unexpected showed up in front of him. 13 Exiled Isles ''Hold on a second, sub-faction? There is no such thing in Warzone¡­ Well, faction creation didn''t exist too but I ended up making one, is the game elements changing? There is also no buttons for yes or no, it doesn''t seem like something that could be handled with a push of a button anyway.'' Connor thought, although there were no buttons, he referred them as one. "Old man, before that¡­ I have a question." Connor said. ''I wonder what kind of a place that Exiled Isles he said because for sure I don''t want to be someone else''s lackey. Especially with the system acting in a way it shouldn''t have.'' "What is The Exiled Isles you mentioned?" Aldren froze for a second. This kid did not know about The Exiled Isles, not to mention he had offered him to join Special Division which most mages in the kingdom would love to. The division had very experienced mages to help them train on top of being given a lot of funds for their research and gear, but this youth in front of him had asked about The Exiled Isles instead of accepting his offer. ''I need to make sure they join us.'' Aldren thought, he wanted to exaggerate most details about the isles to scare him. "On the barren lands of the far west, no nation or kingdom rules there, some people even call it ''The Forbidden Lands'' rumours say that no nation can flourish as the ground is so infertile, but there is a place called The Exiled Isles there. It is managed by several organizations that are backed by the four kingdoms. Although the area is supposed to be neutral, there are many underground organizations pulling the strings. Behind the city of Carcer are tens¡­ if not hundreds of islands. The city itself is rotten to its core, starvation and crime are normal things, being mugged while walking or even killed while walking is a normal occurrence in Carcer. The islands are not any better, filled with more detestable beings, not even worthy of being called human. The smell in the region is filled with pure death." Aldren spoke in an eerie voice. Although he didn''t see Carcer or the Exiled Isles himself before, he had heard some of the stories from the other mages, soldiers and nobles who had visited that place. ''Killing is a normal occurrence in Carcer? Death is in the air? You can kill and get away with it? Filled with prisoners who are there for doing nasty stuff?'' Connor thought as he rubbed his hands. Connor wore a huge smile, put his left hand behind his back, on his waist and slightly put his right arm in front of his chest in a horizontal manner before bowing towards Aldren. "Oh great Archmage, this useless, detestable one would like to be sent to The Exiled Isles." Connor had finally said it. ''Old man, you are literally sending me to the place I would love to go. I must thank you for giving me the best farming spot in the whole continent. Hell, I will be even doing a good deed by ensuring none of those people ever manage to get out of Carcer.'' Connor was grinning as he thought of the amount of reputation points he could get by just spending a day there. Aldren and Elicia was shocked. While Miles had an expressionless face, he was ready to follow Connor anywhere. Connor quickly stood up straight and stopped bowing as he looked at Aldren right in the eye. "Oh great Lord Archmage, I have chosen my path. I will not join you." Connor repeated himself. Aldren and Elicia were both in a stupor. It took them quite a while to regain their consciousness. Elicia didn''t speak a word while Aldren stuttered while asking. "Ar-ar-are you sure? It''s a very, very, extremely dangerous place." Aldren retaliated. He wasn''t angry because his offer was rejected he was rather shocked greatly. "Yes, I am sure. I would like to have my punishment in Carcer or the islands. Any of them are okay." Connor replied. Aldren didn''t continue the debate, he could feel that Connor was firm on his choice. On top of that, there was a way he could observe Connor''s real strength. His lips twitched upwards for a split second. "If that is your choice, what about you, Mister Miles?" Aldren asked Miles. "I only listen to my commanding officer, sir. And you are definitely not my commanding officer." Miles rebutted. Slightly bowing his head for a second. Aldren was bewildered at the level of loyalty he had for Connor. He was literally willing to die for him! "So be it. I wish you good luck." Aldren said in an honest manner. But in his mind, he had other plans for them. He would definitely let them go to the Exiled Isles, although it was some extra work. He had to talk with several people to guarantee their ''sentence''. Aldren waved his hand toward Elicia and they quickly left the cell room. "Well, that was easy." Connor said to Miles. To make sure the guard doesn''t hear it, Miles approached Connor and leaned towards his ear to whisper. "Commander, why are we going to such place?" Miles asked with a very silent tone. Connor with a grin on his face, answered. "Miles, do you remember when I said we can''t make an enemy out of a kingdom, yet?" Miles nodded in response. Connor continued. "But what if it was not a kingdom? And was some random organization?" Miles'' eyes widened. ¡­. Inside the carriage located outside the garrison Elicia spoke up after several minutes of silence. "Master, why did you attempt to recruit them into our division? They don''t even have the tiniest amount of magic in their bodies." she asked. Aldren laughed. "They might not have magic, but the reports say otherwise. In any case, I wanted to test them out in the Special Division, see if we can get any information out of them. I didn''t expect to be rejected almost immediately. Those two must be crazy to be wanting to head to Carcer." he stroked his beard. "Elicia, I want you to head out on a mission." Aldren said sternly. "I am all ears, master." Elicia replied. "Head to Carcer, watch over those two and observe their powers. Make sure to keep a note of everything. Also, try to get them back here in one piece if anything occurs." Aldren spoke. "But... Carcer... " Elicia trembled slightly, although she was a mage who could defend herself from some petty thugs, the thought of heading to the wrecked city filled with ''beasts'' was not something she would like to have. Aldren gave her a solemn look in the eye. "Understood, master. I''ll head to Carcer with them." Elicia said. 14 Journey to Carcer Another day had passed after their talks with Aldren. Yesterday night, a guard came and told them about how they will be exiled to Carcer today. According to the guard, the trip would take quite a while and a carriage with a group of soldiers had been assigned to them. "What about our wands?" Connor asked. Guard wore an amused expression. After taking their weapons, a few mages from Special Division had come and attempted to check their wands, wanting to know how it was made, including which materials used. As they were checking their rifles, they found how to take apart some parts by using their magic to manipulate the materials on the wand while thinking about why would someone would make their wand from pure metal, the item disappeared out of nowhere! Thinking about they made a mistake and activated some sort of magic to prevent inspection, the mage who attempted to take the wand apart cast a spell which would neutralize any spells cast in a small radius other than the caster itself before trying their luck again with the other wand. But the same thing had happened again. The wand disappeared while they were taking it apart. Guards who had witnessed this scene were told to tell the prisoners their equipment has been confiscated. "As you have used your wands to injure a soldier they are now confiscated by the kingdom and will not be returned. You should be happy that you get to keep your life." the guard said. ''So they actually want to keep the rifles for themselves.'' Connor was slightly annoyed before remembering something. ''Hold on a minute, if we consider the technology from what I have seen so far¡­ they don''t have to technology to manufacture ammunition.'' he grinned. ''It''s okay, they should not have much ammo.'' As they did not have a way to constantly produce new bullets, they would eventually run out of ammo before they could even realize how to use it, at least. This was what Connor thought. There was no way he could know that the rifles had already disappeared¡­ somehow. After the guard reported what their fate would be to the duo, the day ended. As the morning sun started to shine again through the window, another guard came in. "Time to move, get up." he spoke with a high voice. It was not shouting but it was definitely loud. Connor and Miles had been laying on their bed early in the morning. Hearing the guard, Connor got up while grumbling. He turned to look at Miles who was lying on the bed above, Miles was also looking at him at the same time, he had a huge smile on his face. He knew what Connor planned. They were going to have lots of ''fun'' on their ''trip'' to Carcer. Subsequently, they got up and washed their faces thanks to the small bucket of water. The guards brought them a clean set of clothes, not that they would need it anyway¡­ Connor planned to use equipment store as soon as there was no one around to gear himself and Miles up immediately. The duo, with several guards, left the garrison. There was a rundown carriage that looked like it was two separate carriages waiting for them. The convoy had four other soldiers on their horses. It was a standard prisoner escort. Two guards boarded the carriage before Connor and Miles, then a third one followed them behind to ensure they boarded too. After getting in the carriage, Connor noticed that it was similar to police cars back in Earth, in the middle of the carriage there were metal railings, similar to the ones in the cell. The guards were sitting on the other side of the railing. The convoy started to move after a short wait. Several minutes after the carriage had left, a small figure could be seen following them in the shadows. ¡­. It has been about ten hours since the convoy left Westland, heading to Carcer. It may probably take another day until they arrived. The warm spring air outside was affecting the guards and the horses pulling the carriage. Naturally, Connor was also affected. "Oi, Jack. Tell them to stop somewhere and rest a bit, I want to get the fuck out of this carriage for a bit." one of the guards said to the coachman through the open window. The convoy came to a halt and all the guards quickly got out of the carriage, it was late afternoon, it was the time when it would be really hot. "Hey guys, can we also get out? I may turn into a barbecue before we arrive at our destination and that is not something I would like." Connor said to the guards from the carriage as he looked at outside through the door. The guards looked at each other before one of them nodded, he unlocked the ''prisoner'' side of the carriage and took out Connor and Miles. In the distance, other guards who were riding horses near the carriage had already sat down, forming a circle, talking to each other and drinking from their waterskins. The group rested for about an hour and continued on their way, the journey would end tomorrow morning but that required them to take some rest at night. After travelling for a few more hours, the convoy halted once again and guards started to set up camps near the carriage. Connor and Miles were assigned to a tent, a guard was to stand in front of their tent throughout the night. After eating most of the dried meat and some other foodstuffs guards were given for the trip, almost all of them went to sleep almost immediately, besides the unlucky guard who had gotten the short end of the stick. As soon as they were in the tent, Connor could understand most of the guards had already fallen asleep thanks to the loud snores echoing in the camp. After ensuring that no one was watching them, Connor quickly opened the equipment store and started browsing through it. ''Can''t take clothes. Too much attention, rifles are out too¡­ Best thing I can carry on me is probably a pistol and a knife.'' Connor thought, after getting a few stealth holsters mostly equipped under the clothes, he settled on a Jagdkommando Tri-Blade and BU9 Nano. Jagdkommando Tri-Blade was enough for self defence easily, the knife was so powerful that one stab was probably enough to kill someone, this knife was basically designed to rupture every single blood vessel as soon as it was inside the body. Connor had also decided on BU9 Nano for medium range encounters, although it wasn''t as strong as other choices, it was the one that could be concealed the best. He took out two of both items and handed the other set to Miles. Connor was slightly taken aback because of Miles'' reaction. Well, in this case. His reaction was absolutely nothing, he took the items and put them in their holsters not minding how Connor literally took an item out of thin air. This somewhat surprised Connor. After ensuring their gears were ready for any action and was concealed, the duo laid on the ground ''beds''. Connor slowly closed his eyes to drift off to sleep. They were only a few hours away from Carcer, they would arrive pretty soon tomorrow. He wanted to regain some energy for his ''reputation points farming''. Suddenly. THUD A noise was heard from outside just before a loud cry. It was definitely a man screaming. Connor and Miles quickly got up and took out their weapons, knives on their left hands, handguns on their right. Shortly after, loud cries of men were heard however this time it sounded something like a battle cry. "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" One of the guards who was sleeping in the tent that was next to Connor''s suddenly yelled. "Raiders! Get up! We are under attack!" Although he yelled at the top of his lungs, most of the men were half-asleep, barely being able to get up. There was no time for them to get their weapons and equip their armour. Connor and Miles were still in their tent, they were able to hear noises of swords clashing and people yelling outside. A mere minute later the sound of cries turned into laughter. It was clear, one side had won the battle. Connor slightly moved the tent''s flaps and was met with a bloody scene, most of the guards he had seen just this morning were lying on the ground, either already dead or was in the middle of drowning in their own pool of blood. Several brawny men that looked like fantasy barbarians were going from one tent to other, stripping the guards of their half-equipped armour, taking their swords and spears as their prizes for their performance in the battle. Connor turned towards Miles. Miles had an indifferent face, just like a soldier who would have a considerable amount of battle experience, he wasn''t afraid of what was going on outside. Seeing his commander facing him, he turned towards him only to see Connor smiling innocently but the real expression behind that smile was nothing less than a devil. Miles shuddered. From what he had learned by being with him for some time now that if he was smiling like that¡­ something was bound to happen¡­ real soon. .... As the guards and raiders clashed, one figure was hiding in the shadows, far from the illumination of the moon. "This will be a great opportunity to see it." the figure said. 15 Monster Connor looked through the tent''s flaps, he counted 24 people out there, considering there were only 7 guards who were actually stationed in the garrison before escorting them, they posed no threat against the raiders. The smell of blood and death was rampant in the air. Connor saw that two of the guards was kneeling in front of a raider while the other raiders stood behind him, one of the guards was holding his arm, his left arm was slashed with a sword, while the other one was¡­ fine, he had just dropped and surrendered out of fear. The uninjured guard was unarmed, he had thrown his sword away in an effort to get the raiders to spare his life while the raider had longswords in each of his hands, it seemed like he was a dual sword wielder. He turned around and ordered one of the raiders behind him, then the latter threw a shortsword to the guard who was on his knees. "Duel me you pitiful soldier wannabe, if you win, you can go, alive." the barbarian said towards one of the guards. "Alexei, why do you want to duel this poor guy? Just slay him and loot them." a huge man walked between the crowd behind Alexei, everyone shut their mouths and made way for him to pass. "Boss!" Alexei turned around and bowed. "It''s just that I hate seeing people like him." he pointed at the guard. "They wear the kingdom''s armour and use its weapons. Boast to villagers and low-class citizens that they are the honourable soldiers and vanguard of the kingdom against outside threats while they are nothing more than a flea, without any skill. All they know is how to harass people." Alexei said. The man who appeared to be the boss of this raider gang laughed out loud, all other raiders in the surroundings came to watch the so-called duel. "Fine, you can have your fun. Please do entertain your comrades." the boss said to Alexei. "Ple-pp-please spare me." the guard put his hands up and begged, he was stuttering as if he was crying. "Tsk. What kind of a ''vanguard of the kingdom'' you are? You either fight to get a chance to live or I cut your head right here, right now." Alexei snorted. Afraid of being decapitated the guard shuddered before he slowly reached out to the sword that was thrown over near him by one of the raiders. He grabbed the sword and stood up, his legs were trembling. He was barely able to take a sword stance. "Ready?" Alexei asked. The guard was still trembling, he wasn''t sure if he could win. The person in front of him was clearly someone with battle experience while all he had done was to spar against other guards back in the garrison. He hesitantly nodded. Alexei took his stance, slightly bent his chest towards his legs and dashed towards the guard, and struck with one of his swords. CLINK. The sword was blocked by the guard, he was so happy! Even though the other party probably had more experience than him he was able to block the first strike, now it was time to counter-attack. Or so he thought. Alexei flicked his left wrist. The longsword in his left hand suddenly stabbed the man''s side. The guards face darkened in an instant, reflexively he took a step back and held his wound. He had already forgotten that he had blocked one of the swords. It took Alexei just a second before the other sword had finally cut through flesh. A bloody head fell to the ground. In a mere few seconds, the duel was already over. Alexei turned to the injured guard and asked. "Would you like to try your chance too or¡­" before gazing on his wound, he continued. "I see that you are injured." Alexei said, before sheathing his sword that was on his left hand. "Well, it would be unfair if I fought against an injured man with my full strength, I''ll only use one of my swords." he justified his actions. ¡­. Connor had been watching the whole scene unfold, luckily for him and Miles, all the raiders were busy watching their comrade getting rid of the guards. No one bothered searching the tents. He checked all the raiders he had seen one by one. ''They don''t seem to carry any bows, too bad for them.'' he smiled. All the raiders had melee weapons, some of them carried swords, some of them carried maces and a few of them had two-handed battleaxes, they were huge. ''They pose no threat to us, time to have some fun with these duels.'' Connor thought. Connor turned towards Miles and explained his plan, Miles was surprised. A moment later, however, he had a similar smile Connor had shown some time ago. A very mischevious one. ¡­. Connor walked outside from the tent and looked towards the raiders. "I WOULD LIKE A DUEL!" he shouted. He was looking straight at Alexei. This quickly grabbed the attention of the raiders who were gathered in the area to watch the duels. Some of them reached their swords and maces immediately but were dejected after seeing where the voice had come from. It was a teenager who was barely 20 years old, his body was very slim, although he had some muscles it was nowhere near theirs. For everyone, it was obvious he was overestimating himself. Some of the raiders started to laugh. "I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE!" Alexei replied. Some of the raiders were surprised. Alexei had accepted a challenge that wasn''t even worth speaking of. Some also felt bad for the kid. Instead of running away, he had come out to challenge Alexei? A few raiders shook their heads. The raiders'' boss was watching the whole situation, he had an amusing smile on his face. It was obvious that he was having fun. He waved his hands and told raiders to let him come and face Alexei. Connor walked over to where Alexei was, standing a few meters away from him. He was grinning all the time. As Alexei was in front of him, he made sure he was not close to any other raider, there were at least 20 meters between them. Connor took his tri-blade out and started waving it towards Alexei, as if he was changing between stances and showing off his skills. This action resulted in sounds of laughter reverberating throughout the camp. Alexei laughed before shrugging. This kid was overestimating himself too much. He unsheathed his other sword. He was dual wielding once again, he started waving his swords in a peculiar manner. For people who were versed in swordsmanship, what he was doing was quite obvious. He was constantly switching between many swordsmanship stances like a professional. This had also caught the attention of their boss. ''Your skills are nowhere near my swordsmanship. Observe the difference between your skills and mine.'' Alexei said to himself as he continued waving his swords. Connor was so happy that he wanted to cry, he was waiting for this moment. He coughed to clear his throat before he moved. Shortly after a loud bang was heard. "..." "..." A few seconds later, Alexei fell to the ground, blood was flowing out from his body. Connor dismissed the notification immediately, he knew what he had done anyway. Everyone was shocked. Before they could recover, lots of loud bangs were heard, every raider was falling down one by one. The ones who were still standing couldn''t even move their legs. They were so scared that they couldn''t move at all. Connor looked towards the tent he and Miles were located, in front of the tent Miles was aiming and shooting at every raider he could see. ¡­. Connor smirked, he actually wanted to test this for a while. Although there was a huge reduction in the amount of reputation points he was getting, he was still able to earn them even though he wasn''t the one killing the enemy. He started to go through raiders one by one, after yelling Miles to stop. ''Would not want to ruin my free reputation points. More the merrier.'' Connor said to himself while shooting one of the raiders who had just turned around and was attempting to run. He also hated the naming scheme of Warzone. Why was XP called Reputation Points? He constantly had to correct himself from saying experience points to reputation points. After shooting a few more raiders who were running he was out of ammo. Only three raiders were remaining, the boss and two of his closest henchman. They were at the very back of the crowd in the beginning. Seeing Connor suddenly stopped shooting, they assumed he was¡­ out of mana. Connor was mistaken for a mage once again. Connor quickly thought about opening his inventory, he had to get a magazine to reload. Connor frowned. Most of the games had this feature, he didn''t even bother to check before. He had given Miles two extra magazines but he did not even think about himself, for him it was just extra weight. As he was blaming himself, he saw the remaining three raiders running towards him. He turned towards Miles and yelled. "Miles, knee!" Several gunshots were heard once again. The men who were running towards Connor suddenly fell onto their knees. It felt as if their stamina has been drained out of their legs completely. One of them attempted to move his legs but he quickly fell as he was trying to stand up. After ensuring they weren''t able to get up or move at all, Connor gave a mischevious smile and walked towards Miles. Checking his surroundings several times to ensure there was no one else left. "Did you use the extra mags?" Connor asked. "I did commander, got 5 bullets left on my last one." Miles replied. "Alright, hand me the gun real quick." Miles gave his pistol to Connor. After receiving the pistol Connor walked towards the downed raiders and stood in front of them. "Monster!" "Stop, let us live, please!" "I''ll give you all the gold coins I have, let me go!" the men, including their leader who were on their knees in front of Connor. Were begging for their lives. Under their knees a pool of blood was formed, flowing down from their thighs. A few seconds later gunshots echoed through the camp. *bang* *bang* *bang* It was over. The night was coming to an end. ''It was a very rewarding night.'' Connor thought. ¡­. Elicia was horrified. She wanted to rush in to save Connor and Miles as soon as the guards had failed to deal with the raiders, as she was about to go in she saw Connor coming out with a smile on his face, intrigued, she held back. ''Strong.'' ''Very strong.'' ''Too strong.'' She thought about the same thing in many different ways. 16 Carcer Everything was silent. The night was slowly going away as the sun started to rise on the horizon. Amidst the bodies of the raiders, a panting sound was being heard. Raff was holding his bleeding left arm with his mouth agape. Two youths they''ve been told to send to Carcer were something he did not expect at all. He remembered what the guard captain had said to him before they got out of the garrison. "Those kids are mages but don''t worry, they got the bracelets. They are nothing more than young teenagers now." ''No¡­ they are more than young teenagers, they are more than everything.'' Raff thought. Even with the bracelets that were supposed to block mana flow on, he observed two men singlehandedly take down more than 20 equipped raiders. One of the kids started to approach him. ¡­. Connor was happy, he had gained lots of reputation points even before arriving at Carcer. He looked back at the corpses and started to think about the battle that took place. ''I should carry a backpack and knives with me. I need to have enough ammo and medical equipment in case of a prolonged battle.'' he said to himself as he nodded. His inventory being disabled in combat was a huge disadvantage for him. ''First things first, how the fuck am I supposed to go to Carcer now?'' he thought before remembering the injured guard, he started to approach him while taking a syringe out of his inventory. Raff''s eyes were filled with obvious fear. "Take your hand off your injury, let me see." Connor said. Raff started to tremble as he took his hand off from his injury, however, he couldn''t take his eyes off the kid. Connor inspected his injury and nodded, it was a basic slash wound, nothing critical at all. He pushed the syringe near the wound which resulted in Raff leaking out a short growl. After the syringe was used, the blood stopped flowing and the wound closed up completely. For a wound this size, the syringe may have even been overkill. As that problem was now handled, Connor opened his mouth to ask the guard the one important question. "So¡­ how do we get to Carcer?" he asked. Raff was surprised, all the other guards had already died and he was¡­ injured, although he was still wondering how did that item solve his injury and healed it in a mere few seconds. "We-we can''t go to Carcer anymore¡­ Everyone is dead, you will be courting death by going there like this." he pointed at his chest, he wore nothing more than simple cloth. It provided absolutely no protection against anything. "It''s okay, you have to choices, lead us or tell me how to get to Carcer." Connor said as he started browsing the equipment store and got his usual military equipment. Vest, shoulder pads, pants, rifle, sling and other necessities. He turned his head to see Miles in the same state with him, he quickly got another set of military equipment for Miles before closing his equipment store. Raff had already decided after hearing his choices, there was no way he would go to that damned place. He got up from where he was sitting. He looked at the carriage and the horses, and the road they have been following. He then started to talk. "If you follow this road to the south for about 2 hours, you will see a forest of dead trees in the desert. There should be a huge wooden sign that points towards Carcer, just follow that afterwards, you should arrive in Carcer." Raff spoke as he waved his arms to guide Connor through the roads. Suddenly, Connor saw a notification popping up in front of his eyes. ''Well, that''s convenient, if not a bit too convenient.'' he thought he didn''t have Map since he first began his journey in Allunia. But suddenly when he needed it, he unlocked it? It felt weird but¡­ it was useful anyway. ''Maybe because he described the way?'' he said to himself while he opened the map. A huge screen was in front of him with a small blue dot in the middle, he guessed that it was probably his current location. He looked around the map and found the buttons to zoom in and zoom out, he clicked zoom out several times to zoom out. After a few seconds, he saw the map on a grand scale but¡­ Everything other than the places he knew was blue, just blue. No information, no roads, nothing. He could clearly see Westland and Ludhom Village, even the roads between them. He could see the road they have been taking since they left Westland but everything else was just blue with no details. ''So¡­ I need to explore in the end.'' He thought that because the guard had described him the way to Carcer, there was a small yellow dot somewhere on the blue part of the map. This was probably Carcer. After ensuring which way he is supposed to go, he closed the map. "What are you going to do now?" Connor asked Raff. "I-I will take one of the horses and report back to garrison. What do you want me to tell them about you, sir?" Raff had addressed Connor as "sir" even though he was way older than he is. "Uh¡­" Connor had never thought about this part. Almost all of the guards assigned to escort him are dead with only one surviving, if he went back to Westland and lie about the report, blames Connor and Miles for killing the guards, what would happen? Not to mention that even if the guards told the truth about him going to Carcer alone¡­ This was a bet that he needed to take. "Just go and tell them that I went to Carcer on my own, don''t lie about anything that happened here." Connor said with a stern voice. Raff slightly trembled, even though Connor''s tone wasn''t harsh, it was enough for him to be scared. "Y-yes, sir. I will do what you say." he answered. "You can go now, I guess. Your arm should be fine, it was just a scratch anyway. Take anything you want here, I don''t care." Connor said before turning towards the tent Miles was wandering in front. After hearing Connor, Raff felt like he was spared from hell and without batting an eye, quickly he ran to the horses and mounted one of them that was near the carriage, turning back towards Westland, galloping. Connor walked towards Miles and opened his inventory. He equipped his items, including the rifle and backpack. He took out the other items and handed them to Miles. "Commander, what is our destination now? Are we changing our plans?" Miles asked. "Nope, we''ll take a quad bike to Carcer and continue with the plan. This was just a small delay," he answered before adding "although it had some positive outcomes." Connor smiled. Connor opened his equipment store to see if there was any difference, he felt down after discovering it was still the same. He got a few extra miscellaneous items that might be useful for them and did not forget to get another M9 and put it in his holster. Miles nodded and equipped his gear as well. Connor opened the Vehicle Hangar and summoned a quad bike. A four-wheel motorbike appeared in front of them. After he summoned it he realized that the sub-menu had reappeared. It was the same, it had the quad bike in it with the option to unsummon, he could also see the durability of the vehicle. He still did not know what happened after unsummoning, so he decided to give it a try. He clicked the unsummon button. In an instant, the quad bike in front of them disappeared, actually, it didn''t disappear, more like it slowly disintegrated, and again, the menu had disappeared. ''So this is how it works. Well, it is useful after all.'' Connor thought, he was also wondering about the rifles they had confiscated back in Westland. He couldn''t unsummon them. Connor summoned another quadbike and boarded it, looking at Miles and shaking his head as if saying ''get on''. The latter understood and quickly hopped over to the quad bike. Connor opened the map to check the way to Carcer one last time. He gripped the quadbike''s throttle. The duo continued their way towards Carcer. ¡­. Since the battle ended, Elicia was wondering if Connor would escape by killing the one last remaining guard, to her surprise, Connor did not kill the guard and used some sort of a magic item to heal him. But several moments later, something surprised her even more. Two teenagers who were wearing nothing but simple clothes suddenly taking out gear out of nowhere and equipping them not only that, they had summoned a weird looking contraption that had four wheels, similar to a carriage before it disappeared and appeared again. She had seen her share of legendary spells thanks to her master, Archmage Aldren who was a renowned mage in Astragon due to the spells he had created. She saw that the guard quickly got on a horse and followed the road that led to Westland while Connor and Miles went to the one that led to Carcer. ''So you are not running but going to Carcer after all?'' she thought, she remembered that they asked to be sent to Carcer themselves. After seeing that they are actually not escaping but heading towards Carcer, she started to suspect that they had accomplices there, Elicia sighed and continued observing and following. ¡­. A few hours later, it was almost noon when Connor and Miles saw a rundown city with cracked walls, crushed buildings and people with tattered clothes and dirt on them going in and out the gates. They had arrived at Carcer. "Alea iacta est." Connor mumbled to himself. It was an old saying in Latin. He had read it in one of the history books and liked the meaning of the sentence since then. His plan¡­ Sentinel''s plan, had begun. 17 Congratulations Connor and Miles got off their quad bike. After taking their backpacks that were hung on the back of the bike, Connor unsummoned it. As they started walking towards Carcer, they observed the gates of the city. Several people were standing guard, they were not even standing straight or checking the people going in and out. One of them was even drinking something that looked similar to wine. Which, it was. Probably. Connor sighed. This was going to keep them busy for quite a while. ¡­. As the guards were looking at some of the women going in and out of the city, they noticed two youths approaching the city with some sort of equipment that looked pretty fancy. One of the guards quickly ran towards them. "Stop right there. What is your business in Carcer?" the guard asked. It wasn''t everyday someone with equipment as fancy as theirs come to Carcer on foot, the guard was unable to determine if they were nobles or not, the equipment they were wearing was not something a noble would wear, in fact, it was not something he had seen before. "We are just travelling, enjoying the wonders of the world, you know?" Connor replied in a cheerful way. The guard frowned. ''Wonders of the world, in Carcer?'' he thought as he sighed. These people were crazy but there was no reason to care, as long as he could take some copper home, he was fine with everything. Another guard quickly joined in as they were talking. Seeing this, the previous guard suddenly froze and nodded. The guard did not have any positive characteristics. The best thing he could show off with would probably be his weight. "I see you are doing your job Robin, who are these people?" he laughed, accidentally spitting a few times. The guard called Robin quickly reported their previous speech to the heavily overweight man. He quickly smiled towards Connor and Miles before leaving. ''That was weird, he usually never comes out when he can barely walk with that huge lump of fat.'' Robin thought. Considered to him, Robin could pass as a strong man in his early adult years. But he was reporting to that fat lump instead. After that Connor asked a few extra questions. Finally, Robin allowed the men in. ¡­. "Commander, we are receiving too much attention." Miles said to Connor, they entered the city a few minutes back and were now walking through the streets. Connor looked around and noticed many eyes were on them, well, more like their equipment. After frowning for a few seconds, he smiled. "Awesome. If they decide to come and disturb us, it will only help us to advance in our plans faster than before." Connor said as they continued walking. Connor felt bad inside while he looked at the citizens of Carcer. Most of them wore tattered clothes and even that might be the best option they had. Children didn''t even get to wear much. Most of them were naked, playing with small ball-like toys, screaming and yelling at each other in the streets. The buildings some of these people lived looked like they were about to collapse, the shops that sell foodstuffs was so different than the ones in Westland, even the products they were selling looked nothing like the ones in Westland. Connor wanted to go to the nearest inn to gather some information and find a place to stay, they did not have any money for the time being, but Connor planned to make use of his Equipment Store to maybe produce and sell few items to ensure they have some money. He blamed himself for not taking the coins those bandits must have had after killing them. As they have arrived at the inn, Connor had an eerie feeling, they were definitely being followed. He smiled and walked through the door. If anyone wanted to attack him, they would just give him free reputation points which he would welcome more than anything. As he was about to head in someone suddenly shouted from behind him. "Hey kids!" a man yelled at Connor and Miles there were four other men near him encircling Connor and Miles. "Give all your equipment and coins if you want to live." the man in the middle said, taking out a dagger from his back and waving it towards the duo. Connor looked left and right, every single person in the surroundings were watching them but no one even thought about intervening. This was basically a daylight robbery! Seeing Connor looking left and right, the man sneered. "There is nowhere to run kid, just give everything you have and we will let you go." he said. Connor sighed, or at least that was how it was seemed from outside. ''Even though I don''t know if you exist, thank you, Gods of Allunia, for bringing even more reputation points to my doorstep.'' it was his real reaction to this event. Connor moved his right hand to his pistol holster and unlocked it. Men who were watching him were not afraid at all. He wasn''t carrying any swords and even if he did, they numbered five while they were only two. As Connor was about to take out his pistol another shout was heard. This time, it was a female voice rather than a man. "Hold it right there!" she yelled towards the men holding daggers. Behind her was a group of men and women holding shortswords, daggers, knives, several other types of small cold weapons. The group had twelve people running towards the men holding Connor and Miles. ''Huh? Gang fight?'' Connor was surprised, one second he was being robbed, one second there was a gang war about to erupt. At least that is what he thought. The man who was holding the dagger and yelling at the duo to give all their belongings to them was the first one to drop his weapon and run, followed by his companions. There were more than ten people charging at him with weapons, he did not even care about the dagger he had left behind in the slightest. The group quickly walked towards Connor and Miles. "Are you guys okay?" a young girl said, as she eyed Connor and Miles. She looked to be in her mid-20s had a dark brownish hair. Her clothes were not tattered as the others but it was still far from perfect. "Jeanne, you can''t make us go after everyone all the time." a young man stepped up behind her and started talking, he also looked to be in his mid-20s and he was carrying a sword. He was breathing roughly, obviously tired because of the way they charged towards just a minute ago. Jeanna gave him a stern look and started talking. "Keith, you can''t leave these poor people alone only to be robbed by thieves, remember, we need to protect all who we can." Jeanne said to Keith as he pointed to Connor and Miles mid-sentence as she mentioned ''poor people''. Connor found this amusing, instead of being mistaken for mages, they were now being viewed as poor people. He looked at his clothes first and then took a look at theirs, Keith noticed Connor''s actions this resulted in him wearing an irritated expression. "Poor people? Look at their clothes and equipment. Did your brother cloud your judgement? Look, Jeanne, I am just trying to protect you, everyone is here to make sure you are safe." Keith said as he turned towards the group of men and women. Connor and Miles were just listening to their conversation and did not say anything for quite a while. Connor locked his holster. He glanced at Miles and his pistol holster to see it unlocked. He pointed at it and said, "Keep it that way, for now." Miles understood Connor''s intentions and moved his right hand near the holster. Jeanne and Keith were still arguing about how safe the streets were, how Jeanne''s brother had changed her and that she was constantly risking her life to save others no matter the cost. Connor was starting to get annoyed so he decided to speak up. "Uh¡­ hey guys, thanks for the assistance I guess?" Connor said, but his thoughts were the exact opposite. ''Why, why, why my dear unknown Gods of Allunia? Why did you give me a chance to get reputation points and took it away immediately?'' he wanted to cry out of anger. Jeanne turned her head to look at the source of the voice and the source of the heated discussion between him and Keith. "Yea-yeah. You are welcome, who are you by the way? Your equipment is something I have not seen before." Jeanne said. "Connor. I am a traveller. Nice to meet you, miss... " Connor replied while smiling and indirectly asked. "Jeanne Goldburn. Nice to meet you." Jeanne answered, her words had a hint of wariness. She then turned towards Miles, waiting for him to introduce himself. Miles understood but instead of answering he turned to look at Connor with a questioning gaze. Connor nodded at Miles, seeing that he had received approval he then turned to Jeanne to introduce himself. "Miles, I am a traveller and a member of Sentinel." While travelling towards Carcer, Connor and Miles planned their future actions although it was more like Connor talking and Miles nodding, they managed to finally create a plan before they arrived. One of those steps of the plan was to publicize Sentinel and make their names known in the city. "Travelers? Do you have a place to stay?" Jeanne asked, she did not mind about Miles mentioning the faction he''s a member of because she had not heard it before and assumed it was sort of a traveller group. In the end, it was common for travellers to group up to ensure their safety. "No, we do-" as Connor was answering Jeanne''s question a loud shout was heard. "JEANNE GOLDBURN! WHY ARE YOU PREVENTING MY BUSINESS AGAIN?" Everyone in the surrounding area quickly turned their heads towards the voice. The voice came from a brawny, tall young man. The man had a group of more than 10 men behind him, armed with various weapons. Connor faced Jeanne and pointed at the man and his group. And asked a question with a single word. "Friend?" Jeanne spat on the ground. "Friend my ass, that psycho is the leader of Talon gang. It was probably them who tried to rob you earlier, Mugging is their main source of income." "Alright, that is all I needed." Connor said in a cheerful manner. The enemy group was more than 25 meters away from them. Connor could utilize all his strength. He unslung his rifle, checked the magazine and readied his weapon. Connor turned towards Jeanne and the group and said with a slightly loud voice. A face that was full of happiness. "Cover your ears." ''Probably non-existent Gods of Allunia, I take my previous statement back. I love you.'' Jeanne and her group were wondering why he had asked for them to cover their ears, he was playing with some sort of a black stick in his hands. Connor aimed his rifle at the group and pressed the trigger rapidly. Connor was happy because he had received his most favourite notification. One by one, he went through the people of the Talon gang. Every time he pulled the trigger, one more man fell down. Everyone in the surroundings were shocked, someone was in the middle of mass murder! It did not take long before several screaming women were heard. However, deep down, most of the people were happy. People who were suffering were the ones who made them suffer for a long time. Every time they would open their stalls, go to their work, get paid someone from Talon gang would end up in front of them to ask for a fee for their protection in these dangerous streets of Carcer. Out of everyone who was seeing this scene, the most shocked ones were Jeanne and Keith. They were the closest ones to Connor and Miles. Jeanne looked at Connor and Miles, one of them had a wide smiling face while murdering other people with his stick while the latter had an expressionless look. A few seconds later, every single man on the other side of the street fell down and a stench of blood started to radiate. Most of the citizens had already fled from the area. Suddenly a notification popped up in front of Connor. 18 Goldburn Connor was utterly happy after seeing the long notification! He quickly opened his character screen. ''Woah, it''s a lot different than before.'' ''Hmm¡­ 545 reputation points, I remember seeing the notification for Private First Class when I reached about 200 reputation points, is it like 200 per rank then?'' Connor was thinking about the reputation points while he was completely oblivious of his surroundings. Jeanne and the rest of the group were confused. The man who they were saving from a robbery several seconds ago completely obliterated the Talon gang in a matter of few seconds, not to mention he was laughing while he was doing it! What kind of a freak was he? As they were thinking about it, several people started coming out to look at the scene¡­ no, more like loot the scene. They were checking every dead body and making sure they didn''t have any valuables on them anymore. "We must go." Keith said to Jeanne. Although the city was fairly ridden with crime, after a commotion like this one should expect guards to come to check what was going on or maybe, join in on the loot. Connor put his rifle back to his sling and dangled it on his right shoulder. It was time to go. "You should come with us." Jeanne said looking at Connor, her eyes glinted. She was sure if they could recruit these two travellers into their gang, they could definitely get rid of a few gangs that harass the citizens and members of Goldburn. Connor was surprised. ''You just saw me killing people and now you want me to come with you? Interesting for sure.'' Connor wasn''t afraid of going with them. Although he was a bit wary of their actions, he knew that if he was a normal person there was no doubt he would get robbed several minutes ago. "Lead the way." Connor replied. Smiling at Jeanne. Keith was angry, "Jeanne! You can''t let them come with us!" he said as he pointed at the people who were busy looting the dead gang members and people who were just watching. "All these people have already seen them! They were the ones that got rid of Talon gang, what if their allies come to avenge them? We can''t put a fight against the Big Six!" in Carcer, there were six organizations who were handling the management of the city itself, although some of these organizations kept a neutral stance and prioritized other fields than robbery and illegal activities, some of them were secretly being funded by kingdoms for their "undercover activities" stealing important treasures, gathering information about enemy kingdoms and many more, all the kingdoms had similar goals. In the end, Carcer was a place that every kingdom sent their most despised citizens. "We can''t just leave them here to get killed Keith! I don''t want to see anyone suffer in the hands of those devils wearing human skin!" Jeanne was practically yelling at Keith at the moment. "They will come with us, this is my decision. Not yours." she finished the heated discussion. Keith sighed then snorted, waving at the group of men and women they had come here with to follow him. Quickly, they disappeared in the crowded streets. Connor was tapping his foot lightly on the ground in a rhythm. He was feeling annoyed. ''This is like watching a TV drama.'' he thought. Jeanne looked at Connor and nodded her head towards the street before she started walking. ¡­. Elicia was very tired. She was trying to keep up with Connor and Miles since the attack of the raiders. ''That weird thing they rode on¡­ it was so fast.'' she thought, she had to use almost tall her available mana to boost her stamina and agility just to keep up with them. Now, she had barely rested. These two were never out of action. Elicia gave up on the thought of helping them. She remembered her master, Archmage Aldren''s words. ''Help them if they need it? They¡­ they aren''t even humans.'' she sighed and continued observing the group. ¡­. Connor was led to a building that looked similar to the barracks back in Ludhom, several floors with different uses, there were a total of four floors. The first floor was used as an inn, as soon as Connor entered the place, he noticed many kids were eating and drinking merrily, some of them who were barely seven or eight years old was running around the tables and playing. A woman in her forties quickly walked over to Jeanne. "Honey, where were you? Your father was so worried! Apparently, someone destroyed that Talon gang. Some of the other gangs already started to take their place. Do not go out for a while. Let your father handle things." she said, from her expression and tone it was easy to understand that she was honestly worried about Jeanne. "It''s okay mom, I was there. It was him who took care of the gang, they were trying to rob him." Jeanne answered as he pointed at Connor. Her mother was shocked. She looked at the kid with one of her eyebrows raised, he looked so young¡­ How was he able to take down the whole gang alone? She had a hard time believing Jeanne, but there was no reason for her daughter to lie to her, on top of that the youth was wearing unconventional equipment. Connor nodded in response to her actions. He felt uncomfortable being looked at like that. "Hello, my name is Connor, and this is Miles. We are travellers." Connor said as he pushed his right hands towards her for a handshake. His left index finger pointing at Miles. Miles nodded. "Kate Goldburn, Jeanne''s mother." Kate answered as she shook Connor''s hand. Connor could not really understand her tone, it was not cold but it was not a warm welcome as well yet it was definitely not an indifferent tone. ''They are afraid of me?'' Connor asked himself. He then looked around the inn, while the kids were continuing to play some of the older ones were looking at him with wary eyes. "Nice to meet you." Connor said as he smiled. "Where is dad?" Jeanne asked Kate. Connor was probably the best recruit they could ever see, he single-handedly took down a gang that were bothering them for quite a while. If he joined them, they could definitely improve their status and help many more than they were able to now. "He went out some time ago to get more information regarding the Talon gang and the situation. Should be back soon, come, you must be tired. Jeanne, go see your brother after you eat. He was worried too." Kate said as she looked at the group. Keith stood by Jeanne since the beginning. He moved to the counter with Jeanne. Connor looked at Miles only to be met with Miles'' usual silent gaze. It was an awkward position. The atmosphere dissolved a few seconds later thanks to Kate. "You too, come. Let me give you something to eat and drink. You must be tired." although Kate was still unsure if Connor was really the person who eliminated the Talon gang, she wanted to treat them well. Since Jeanne grew up, she had always been good with her decisions, the best example of that would be Keith. Keith had joined their "gang" several years ago when Jeanne and her father, Luke had saved him. He was an orphan living in the streets. Now, however, he developed into a strong young man with good morals, he was always following Jeanne and protecting her. Connor thanked Kate and moved to the counter and sat together with Keith, Jeanne and Miles. "So¡­ who are you exactly?" Connor asked Jeanne. Since he followed her, he was able to observe their surroundings. The building, the people everything felt normal but there was one thing that completely felt off¡­ why were they constantly discussing about other gangs? "Well¡­ you could say that we are one of the rivals of Talon. We don''t really have a fancy criminal gang name or something. People just call us Goldburns. Oh, and we are not like your typical gang that mug people and kill for fun." she sighed while smiling. Jeanne pointed at the kids running around the tables, kids that are eating their food and laughing one by one. "We might be called a gang but our main purpose is to help children. You may not know if you haven''t visited Carcer before, which I presume you did not. A lot of children are left as orphans every single day because of the territory wars that go on almost every day. Each gang wants to have a bigger piece of the city and fight out often, unfortunately, regular citizens get caught up in this mess as well. Big Six, who is supposed to protect and regulate Carcer do not really mind this as long as they can fill their pockets." Jeanne started explaining about Carcer and Goldburn "gang". "Big Six? Who are they?" Connor asked. "Six main organizations in Carcer, some of them try their best to appear as good managers but they are just assholes. They don''t care about the city or its citizens. All they want is more money, every merchant shop you see while walking through the streets probably belong to one of them, some of them even secretly create smaller gangs to mug people and take all their belongings." Jeanne answered Connor''s question. About half an hour later, Luke walked in with several other adult men, some of them had bandages while some of them had their blood dripping from their fingers. ¡­. Many years later, although there were some arguments regarding the events, several well-known historians would say that this was how Supreme Commander Connor Ironheart started to change the continent of Allunia greatly. This was how it all began. In one small inn filled with children located in the back alleys of Carcer. 19 Party "Father! What happened?" Jeanne exclaimed as she ran towards Luke. Several other teens who were observing the children play quickly took them away to the upper floors. There were only several members who were uninjured. The rest were either already bandaged or had their injuries still open, leaking out blood. "Luke, are you okay?" Kate ran from the kitchen. The uninjured members quickly helped injured members sit, some of the youths quickly brought warm water and some alcohol with bandages. Luke was covered in blood, his left arm was bleeding, from the way it looked it also appeared to be broken. Taking a deep breath, he started talking. "I am fine, just a scratch." he said as he put out a weary smile. "Apparently someone managed to get rid of Talon gang in one go, this commotion spurred the organizations. It seems like someone was planning a big takeover. Several other gangs started an all-out war. We were trying to head over to Talon''s territory to ask some questions before one of the gangs attacked us. It seems like even Big Six is involved in this. Be careful, Kate, Jeanne, do not go out." Luke said before sitting down. They had lost some of their strong warriors. There was definitely someone pulling the strings behind the scenes, it was probably one of the Big Six. Although they appear to be working together, they were always plotting against each other. In the end, if there were fewer organizations to share your profits with¡­ richer you get. Connor and Miles were still sitting by the counter. As Connor heard Luke saying that someone took down Talon in one go, his lips curled into a smile. Jeanne and Kate were tending to Luke and other injured members of Goldburn. ''It appears like I triggered some sort of a secret mission or something. Well, at least it would be if it was a game. I guess.'' Connor thought, he was not expecting such a big scale war to start just because he took out one of the gangs in this city ridden with many. Though, he was fine with it. ''This all-out war would cause severe damage to possible obstructions to my plans. If there were no obstructions to face,... It will definitely be better for me.'' "So who was it that attacked you?" Connor asked Luke as he walked near him. Luke was stupified for a second, he looked at both Kate and Jeanne. "He is the one who eliminated Talon." Jeanne said, smiling. Luke narrowed his eyes. He eyed Connor. For him, he did not look like someone who could take down a known gang all alone. "It was the Skulls. Apparently, they were claiming the territory of Talon as we got there, they attacked us without any warnings. We managed to get away because they somehow managed to anger the Ruby Merchant Group and were attacked by them, giving us time to escape." Luke replied. ''Skulls, Ruby Merchant Group?'' Connor had noted the names in the back of his head but he had no idea who they were. He then turned to Jeanne. "Who are they?" he asked. Jeanne thought for a bit and started talking. "I think Skulls was a gang formed by an ex-mercenary band. I never encountered them on this side of the city, so I don''t really know much about them but from what I have heard, they mostly deal with humans. Brothels, slaves, that kind of thing. Ruby Merchant Group is one of the Big Six. They mostly focus on trading. I think they were supported by Gemrich, henceforth their name, Ruby. They also have a monopoly on the blacksmith industry in Carcer. If Skulls managed to anger Ruby Merchant Group, they must have somehow attacked one of their shops." Jeanne replied. "What do we do now, Luke?" Kate asked. Most of their members were injured, if someone attacked them they would probably stand no chance. "I don''t know. We should lay low for a while, our injuries will take quite sometime to heal." Luke answered, pointing at some of the injured men. "Father, what are we going to do about the children who are out there amidst the war?" Jeanne shouted, garnering the attention of many in the inn. Luke frowned. "Jeanne, we can''t help anyone when we are in a situation where we can''t even help ourselves. I know you don''t want them to get hurt but there is nothing we can do. You and your friends need to stay here." he said, pointing at several men sitting near the tables. "Your Uncle Hans and Torvik are already badly injured. It will take them several months just to even walk without pain again." Luke''s tone changed drastically as he was uttering the last few words. Torvik and Hans were his close friends, they were the ones who protected him after his arm was broke in the battle a few hours ago, Torvik even jumped towards a slashing sword just to prevent Luke from dying, he paid the price with his right hand. Hans was not better off too. His left calf was cut by one of the attackers, he would not be able to go out in the field ever again even after he heals. With them injured, there would be even fewer people to watch Jeanne doing her shenanigans. Keith and several other young teens were not strong enough to protect her so Luke had been secretly sending some of his close friends to watch over Jeanne all this time. Connor was listening to the conversation. ''Jeanne is too naive. This is how characters lead to their or their friends'' death in the movies. Come to think of it, I can now recruit 3 more soldiers.'' Connor remembered. He would have 3 more friends now that he had ranked up. He also wanted to check the weapon selection. ''The vehicle unlock might be a bit overkill for now¡­ It would draw too much attention.'' the HMMWV was a lot bigger than the quadbike after all. Although one there was one thing Connor was wondering, previously when he had unlocked the quad bike, there was a word in between parentheses that stated the quad bike was unarmed, he did not see a similar word for the HMMWV but he could not check it now. ''I need to get some privacy before recruiting.'' Connor said to himself, he did not want to reveal his trump card to anyone. "I will be back in a few minutes." Connor said as he walked towards the door, he turned and nodded towards Miles telling him to follow him. "Wait! You can''t go! It is not safe out there!" Jeanne shouted behind Connor and Miles. She had found a perfect candidate for her group. Connor was the strongest person she had seen so far. Although she did not witness Miles'' strength, he was wearing the same equipment as Connor, she assumed that he would probably be on the same level. She wanted to recruit these two more than anything, especially in a time like this. Connor frowned, he stopped his steps but did not turn back. ''Are you saying that to protect me or yourself? How naive can you be?'' he was getting annoyed at how Jeanne was acting. "I''ll be back." Connor said with a weird accent, before walking out with Miles. ¡­. Several minutes later, Connor found an empty alleyway. He told Miles to stay put and watch for any movements. Connor quickly opened his recruitment screen. He saw that the recruitment quota had increased from 1 to 4, he clicked the big recruitment button several times, suddenly 3 soldiers appeared in front of him. "Private Irene! Reporting for duty, sir!" "Private Frost! Reporting for duty, sir!" "Private Evan! Reporting for duty, sir!" Amongst the recruits, there was a female. This surprised Connor a bit, from what he had read about Warzone female soldiers mostly appeared at headquarters and did not handle field work. But he had no problems with it, for him, more loyal soldiers were definitely better. ''I hope they are not as silent as Miles.'' Connor thought while shaking his head, smiling. "Welcome to the party." he said. A notification popped up in front of him. 20 Sentinel Fireteam ''Fireteam Management?'' Connor was wondering what this option was, he quickly opened the menu. The menu showed the names of his current fireteam members and their ranks. This was not surprising for him but there was a small part on the right side of each name, it was a small box. He did not know what that box was, he tried clicking on it to no avail. Suddenly, a notification appeared. Connor raised one of his eyebrows and attempted to click the box again expecting a menu to open up this time, but it did not. Connor was getting irritated. He did not know how to change the classes of his soldiers. He closed the management menu, suddenly a lightbulb went off in his head, he had the urge to try something. What if the change was done through actions and not with a button? "Private Irene." Connor spoke. "Sir!" Irene replied as she saluted. "I would like you to take care of the job being the most important person in this fireteam, you shall be the medic." Connor said. "Understood sir!" Irene replied while saluting, suddenly her M4 disappeared and was replaced with an FN P90 a weapon that was renowned for being light and easy to carry, a medic had to be agile. This weapon provided them with both defence, offence and agility at the same time. Her gear had also changed, her helmet now had a red cross in the front, the same symbol appearing on her left shoulder. Connor was happy at the scene and quickly opened the fireteam management menu once again, he saw that next to Irene''s name there was a rod with a snake winding itself around it. A symbol that was known in the medical field. Connor had a slight smile on his face, he knew that he had seen this symbol in the hospital when he was young, this meant his idea worked. "Alright, next one¡­ Private Frost!" Connor said. "Sir!" Frost replied as he saluted. "You shall be the eyes of the fireteam staying out of sights, agile and strong enough to take out our enemies in one hit." Connor decided on Frost''s role. The plan in his mind was simple. Himself and Miles would take on the front, Irene in the middle and Evan in the back. Frost would be tasked with recon and long range advantage, watching the team. "Yes, sir!" Frost answered. Same as before, his gear started to change. His M4 rifle disappeared and was replaced with an M39 EMR Mk2. Which boasted near silent operation and top-notch accuracy with the brand new Accuracy Improvement, AIM sights. His uniform also had some changes. He now had a very low profile uniform that had an active camouflage feature. If the soldier laid down in position for several seconds, the uniform would start to melt into the surroundings, changing the colour. It was the perfect gear for a marksman. Connor noticed one thing that did not happen for Irene, Frost was carrying two weapons, on top of having his M39 EMR, he also had an HK MP7 PDW. Connor nodded, with this Frost could also utilize himself in close range battles. ''Medic and Marksman, survivability and long-range done, next.'' "Private Evan!" The last person was Evan. "Yes, sir!" Evan replied, saluting. "I want you to be the heavy firepower of the team." Connor said, with the medic and marksman done, they would require someone who could provide cover and suppression. What they needed was an automatic rifleman, Evan would be the one. "Understood, sir!" Evan replied, his gear started to change, same as the others, his M4 disappeared and was replaced with an M249 Light Machine Gun. His vest and backpack got bigger, he looked like a tank from the outside. Connor smiled. The fireteam was ready. They had a sniper, a medic and some heavy firepower. He thought about himself and Miles. He could already use any kind of weapon he wanted according to the latest rank up reward he got, although he hadn''t tried it yet. He had other plans for Miles, so it was better for him to keep his M4 for now. Connor and Miles would be the frontline for the fireteam. Connor looked at Miles, he was silently watching the surroundings to prevent anyone from observing them. He then turned to the three soldiers. "Alright, everyone good?" Connor asked. He wanted to make sure that everyone is ready for a battle. "Yes, commander!" the three shouted in unison, saluting. "Miles, let''s return." Connor said towards Miles, the latter nodded and Miles started to move towards the inn. Connor and the rest started following him. ¡­. Elicia was perplexed, she had to be very silent and still on top of using her mana to hide her presence from Miles but she was able to observe what was going on in that alleyway. She saw three people appearing in front of Connor out of nowhere. This was basically teleportation magic! She had never seen anyone using it, it wasn''t even possible for her. According to the legends, more than 500 years ago when The Great War happened, the amount of mana in the world had lessened. Many of the legendary mages had perished in battles, taking their secrets to the grave. Teleportation magic was one of the legendary spells that were lost in The Great War. Elicia bit her lip, the more she observed this group, more was revealed. Her understanding of mages was changing almost everytime Connor did something. If this only a portion of their true power her master Aldren did not even stand a chance against them. ¡­. The Great War was a series of battles that took place 592 years ago in the continent of Allunia. Although some details were lost through the time it is said that a powerful force appeared beyond the mountains and brought nothing less than destruction, famine and death. Some people referred to them as monsters, some referred them as saviours. The Great King, Alexander, The Grand Mage, Adium, The Strongest Warrior, Doras tried their best to repel the invaders back to their homeland, however, all of them had failed in their battles. Almost all of Allunia had collapsed, but then, something unexpected had happened. The invaders who almost destroyed all humanity suddenly retreated behind the mountains. Researchers argued that these vile creatures were from another continent, after the battle ended, the losses were critical but the humanity had somehow managed to win. Allunia had lost many kingdoms, great kings, mages and warriors in this period. Many explorers were sent to venture beyond the mountains to discover the true identity of these creatures, never to return... 21 The Troubles in Carcer By the time the group returned to the inn it was almost evening. As they walked in, Jeanne came running over. "You guys where we-" she cut herself off. "Uhh, your friends?" she said to Connor, looking towards the three soldiers. Hearing this, Connor sighed. "Yes, yes. What happened?" he asked. They were gone for about half an hour to an hour tops, what could have happened in this timeline Connor wondered. "Ruby Merchant Group attacked the Steelcrushers'' territory." Jeanne said before stopping. "And? Am I supposed to understand something from this? You do recall that this is my first time here in Carcer, right?" Connor replied, they have only knew each other for a few hours and were not even that close. Jeanne was way too childish and naive with her actions so far, this greatly annoyed Connor. "Ah! My bad, Steelcrushers is basically one of the big six that focus on their power, similar to how Ruby Merchant Group focuses on their trade. Two of the big six fighting each other is akin to two kingdoms fighting, only with fewer people." Jeanne answered, she was slightly embarrassed to forget that they had only met. "Rest here for today, you guys cannot travel anywhere in this state." Jeanne said. If the big six would get involved in a battle it was certain that the city would close down for some time. If she could get them to stay here she could ask them to join and help her and her family if the situation were to get worse. There were still a lot of injured people laying down on the ground to the side or sitting on the chairs. Irene approached Connor, she started to speak in a low voice. "Commander, shall I help these people?" her duty was to be the medic of the fireteam, from the way her commander has been acting these people seemed like allies so she wanted to offer her help. Connor was taken aback for a second. He grinned. Miles had never been proactive at all yet Irene had approached him without his order and asked for confirmation. Connor contemplated for a bit and shook his head as an answer. He did not want Irene to be seen as the magical angel that can heal people with a touch. Some things were best kept hidden, until necessary. After receiving the answer to her question, Irene nodded and stepped back to her previous location. Jeanne had been watching them but was not able to hear their conversation. Connor contemplated about Jeanne''s offer. Although they had constant supply of food, water and several other necessities they did not have a place to sleep. Connor could always get a tent from the equipment store but they were not going to sleep outside in the city for sure, especially in a dangerous time like this. Their weapons might be stronger but they were not invincible. Not to mention they have been travelling for hours already, even though he physically felt energetic his mental endurance was getting lower and lower. "Sure, we will stay here for tonight." Connor''s answer made Jeanne happy, now she could rely on these people in case something happened. Jeanne prepared 2 rooms for them on the third floor of the inn. Irene would have to sleep on the 2nd floor with the kids because of the current situation. The group quickly moved to their rooms. Connor and Miles were in one room while Evan and Frost slept in the room next to them. The day had ended just like that. ¡­. Elicia had been watching them for quite some time now. Her weariness reached to the levels she had never even imagined before. Every single time Connor''s group entered a building she had to increase the amount of mana she was using to be able to perceive and hear them, this put immense pressure on her mentality. She continued to observe them for a few more hours before finally giving up. ''They at least have a bed to sleep on, I hate you¡­'' Elicia said to herself before slumping to a nearby wall located in the completely empty alleyway. She fixed her position and sat with her legs crossed. She then slowly brought two of her hands together forming a triangle. A few seconds later, a blue sphere was formed inside her hands. This was the meditation method for mages, although they can wait for their mana to recover, this was another method that could be utilized to increase the amount of mana recovered by a substantial amount. However, there was one downside to this method. If the mage was disturbed when in this state, the mana gathered in the sphere would suddenly burst and cause serious damage to the surrounding area and the mage. She checked her surroundings and closed her eyes. ¡­. Connor flexed his muscles in his bed and slowly got up. He realised that Miles was not in the room. He looked outside the window. Everything looked the same as yesterday. ''I feel like I will wake up back at home every single time I go to bed.'' Connor thought. He sometimes would dream about the usual things that would happen back at home only to wake up and find that¡­ he was nowhere near home. He equipped his gear that was left by the nightstand. He made sure that each item was in the right place. All of a sudden, he remembered the weapon selection feature he had got before. He opened the equipment store to check the new weapons he could obtain. Once he opened the store, there were new sub-menus available to him other than rifles and secondary weapons. There were machine guns, snipers, submachine guns, launchers, explosives and several others. Connor had a slight smile on his face. ''Launchers? Maybe one day.'' he thought while shaking his head. Using a rocket launcher to kill some men would be too overkill, he justified his own decision. He changed his M4 Carbine for an HK433, a better, modular rifle that could be changed depending on the situation. Because of their current squad size, he wanted to be the all-rounder. He thought about giving the same weapon to Miles for a second before deciding otherwise, in the end, each weapon had their own advantages and disadvantages. Connor closed the equipment store and slung his HK433 on his right shoulder, he walked towards the door but stopped right in front of it. "Another day, another set of problems. Here I come." he mumbled before opening the door. Miles was standing guard at the door. Seeing Connor has woken up he quickly greeted him. "Good morning, commander." he said as he saluted. Connor returned the salute. "Good morning, did everyone report in? What is our current situation?" Connor asked Miles. "Frost and Irene are both battle ready." Miles said with pride before changing his tone to a slightly more embarrassed one and continued. "But Evan is still sleeping." he said, as the words left his mouth a loud snore was heard in the hallway of the third floor. "That is probably him, would you like me to wake him up, commander?" Connor laughed at Miles'' face and reaction. "No, no. Let him sleep for now, we will wake him up if there is a need." Connor answered, he was happy to see some normal people around who Miles was definitely not. "Where is Irene and Frost?" Connor asked him. Miles pointed towards the stairs. "Downstairs, commander." he answered. Connor nodded and walked downstairs with Miles behind him. ¡­. Irene and Frost were waiting by the stairs with their PDWs in their hands. As soon as they saw Connor and Miles walking down the stairs, they quickly turned with their right foot and left foot respectively before saluting in a coordinated manner. "Good morning, sir!" both shouted, still saluting. Their actions and voice garnered the attention of many in the inn. Especially Kate and Jeanne, who were behind the counter. Preparing foodstuffs. Connor saw many eyes were locked upon him as he walked down. He was slightly embarrassed at the sudden attention. He coughed and nodded at Irene and Frost. "Guys¡­ let''s not do that¡­ okay?" he said. Irene and Frost were slightly surprised, they looked at Miles for an answer. Miles pointed behind them with a nod. Irene and Frost looked behind them to see everyone in the inn looking at them with questioning looks. Connor coughed before smiling towards the crowd and walked to the counter where Jeanne and Kate were located. Jeanne took a glass of water and put it in front of Connor as he approached. "Good morning, you are not a noble or something, are you?" Jeanne asked suddenly, the way he was greeted was akin to a noble being greeted by their servants, with Carcer being a place filled with people who were exiled from their homes by the nobles, they were not in a favourable position. "No, I am not." Connor gave her a direct answer. He was not lying after all, he was not a noble. Jeanne smiled at Connor. "Cool, then there is no problem." Connor rolled his eyes at Jeanne''s attitude. "Any news?" he asked. Jeanne put her finger on her lip and looked up before speaking up. "Steelcrushers are gone." she said with a serious face and tone this time. "It is Big Five instead of Big Six now, somehow Ruby Merchant Group was able to take all their territory overnight. Some people say they beheaded the leader of Steelcrushers and hanged his head in front of their base. Rumours say that others are not happy about this and may band together to attack Ruby Merchant Group." Jeanne reported, she was wondering how Ruby Merchant Group suddenly got this strong to even take down Steelcrushers, an organization focused on weapons and boasted with their might. Connor sighed. "One less organization, less reputation points... " he mumbled to himself. Suddenly, a young man rushed into the inn. "Ruby Merchant Group is gone!" he yelled. 22 Warhounds "Ruby Merchant Group is gone!" he yelled. Every single soul inside the inn was bewildered. It was them who took care of several small gangs and even one of the member of Big Six, they were destroyed overnight? "How? Tell me the whole story!" Jeanne said as she approached the boy, skipping along the way excitedly. If Big Six was busy fighting each other then there would be no problems for her gang. Although she was wondering about the sudden downfall of Ruby Merchant Group for sure. Connor wanted to cry, Another source of reputation points was gone just like that. Kate brought the young kid some water, after gulping down the kid started to speak. "After Ruby Merchant Group conquered Steelcrushers'' territory, Jack''s Mercenaries and Council of Nobles became enraged and attacked them together. In just a few hours, they managed to completely wipe Ruby Merchant Group out. I have heard that Council of Nobles'' lost almost all of their power though. Rumour on the streets is that Rogue Guild are vying for their territory now." he said, These three were the original members of Big SIx. Jack''s Mercenaries was a mercenary group founded in Astragon and was sent to Carcer to maintain order when the city was first built. The leader, Jack decided to stay in the city after the construction was complete and they grew up to be the garrison of Carcer, most of the city guards and soldiers were their members. Council of Nobles were originally nobles of the kingdoms for several reasons such as treason, bribery or maybe insulting a senior noble they were stripped off their noble titles and were sent to Carcer to rot. Most of these nobles ended up coming together with the goal of turning Carcer and the Exiled Isles into their own kingdoms and manage it. The one that not many knew about, however, was the Rogue Guild. Not many saw them and survived to tell the tale. Of course, they had their own ways of operating. All thievery and smuggling in and out the city belonged to them. Any merchant who brought goods to Carcer was already used to some of their products going missing. The last faction was called Commoner''s Plight. They had attempted to rebel against the Big Five in the past but have failed, as a surprise for most citizens in Carcer, they had somehow managed to ally with the remaining factions after their failure and they managed to grow over time. Members of this faction were usually farmers who were the backbone of Carcer. Jeanne rolled her eyes, she was contemplating. Now that Ruby Merchant Group and Steelcrusher were gone there would be a great gap in maintaining order in Carcer. If she could take the initiative and ensure Goldburn''s position. They could help a lot more people than they were able to right now. Connor observed Jeanne, the greed in her eyes was obvious to him. He shook his head. He had to take action somehow to reap the reputation points from all this mess but for his plans, he must change his approach, he thought. "Jeanne, why do you, as Goldburns, take care of kids? And what do people think of you?" Connor asked, it was a very random question for Kate and Jeanne but it was very crucial for Connor. If the citizens support Goldburn, he could assist them and use their names to ensure his plan succeeding. Jeanne was taken aback, she did not really expect this kind of question out of the blue. "I don''t know, good I guess?" Some citizens of Carcer had good opinions about them, but some thought they were abducting children to be sold as slaves and thought they were treated badly. Connor nodded and looked around the inn, the children were running happily just as before, they did not care about anything that was going on in the world around them. People would definitely know of this. "Alright, Miles, time to go." Connor said as he turned his head to Miles. Miles nodded and looked at Frost and Irene. "Frost, get Evan." Miles said. After that, Frost immediately ran up the stairs to wake up Evan. "Wait, you can''t go! It is not safe!" Jeanne spoke loudly towards Connor. Connor rolled his eyes. ''Not this again.'' he sighed. "Please, stop commanding me and stop telling me what to do." shouted Connor. Jeanne was surprised, Connor had never raised his voice since she knew him. She wondered if she had bothered him before turning slightly red. They stood silent for a while as Connor gazed at Jeanne. "Reporting for duty, sir!" Evan quickly walked from the stairs, stood in front of Connor and saluted him. Embarrassed because he woke up late. "Good, time to go." Connor said as he turned towards the door, rest of the group following him. "We are going to scout around." Connor said in a soft voice. Aimed at both his members and Jeanne. He was looking at her. Jeanne looked up right into Connor''s eyes and nodded. The group left the inn and started walking in the city. Their goal was to scout the city and see if anything was different. ¡­. The streets were silent, the group saw citizens occasionally but it was nowhere near the number of people they saw yesterday. Suddenly, one of the citizens started to run towards them. "Sirs, I know that you are strong, hell I even saw two of you take Talon gang by themselves. Please, help us. Warhounds took our children, we can pay you with whatever we can. Just return our children to us." the old man said. Bowing towards Connor while speaking. Connor contemplated about this request. ''Should I help them? Helping them would certainly improve my standing with citizens of Carcer and let me execute my plan sooner I guess. Not to mention the possibility of reputation points.'' Connor decided. "We will help you, could you tell us where they are located at?" "I can do better sir, I can show you where they are." The man led them through some alleyways that were filled with filth, these were the poorest parts of Carcer. Filth and sickness were visible everywhere. After a twenty minute walk, the man stopped. "We are here, they are inside that building." the man pointed at a two-storey building that looked better than most buildings here. The street was filled with a putrid smell with cries of women, children and screams of men echoing from time to time. Connor frowned, it was easy to understand the reason for the cries as the sounds of laughter of men was mixed among the cries of young women. Without saying a word, Connor unslung his M4 and pulled the bolt handle, the rest of the team following him. Connor sighed. Since he appeared in Allunia, Connor constantly came across battles and was killing people left and right. He stopped and started to contemplate. For some reason, he was not feeling any remorse even after taking away many lives. Was he right because they were bad people? Was it because they were gang members? Or did he enjoy killing people? He could not find the reason for his phenomenon. In the end, he wanted to live a normal life, but something inside him was bursting with joy. He felt like there was another Connor inside him who wanted to conquer, just like the books he had read back on Earth¡­ Just like the games, he played back on Earth¡­ That Connor wanted to rule. He wanted to be stronger. Connor exhaled a long breath. He wanted to settle his thoughts. He did not want to be pushed around, he wanted to live his own life with his ways. The world he was currently living in was unknown to him, just as he was unknown to the residents. He wanted to change it. The group started walking towards one of the buildings. 23 Breach and Clear The group moved towards the building, the screams were still echoing throughout the alley. However, there was no one to be seen other than several citizens lying on the ground. Some of them hugging their knees, some of them hugging the person closest to them. The man who brought them told that this area was controlled by the Ruby Merchant Group after they captured it following a battle with the Steelcrushers. After the Council of Nobles and Jack''s Mercenaries united, these territories became a free for all zone as two groups were not able to come to a conclusion regarding the split of the territories. "Commander, are we going to breach and clear?" Miles asked as they were nearing the buildings, other than some of the windows on the second floor, every window and door was closed. There was no one standing guard outside the main door of the building. Connor stopped and facepalmed. ''Why didn''t I think of this?'' he said to himself inwardly, since the beginning he always rushed, not minding any kind of strategy. He grinned and turned towards Miles before nodding. Connor raised his right arm and pointed at Miles and Irene. After the two nodded he pointed at the left side of the door. "Stack up." he ordered with a low voice. Miles and Irene quickly moved to the left side of the door and readied their weapons, slightly leaning towards the door, seeing this Connor told Frost to take position somewhere so to have overwatch over the building, to take out any stragglers. Frost acknowledged before quickly disappearing. Connor looked left and right but was unable to locate him clearly. ''His adaptive camouflage is really good.'' he thought, smiling. He looked at Evan and started moving to the right side of the door. He took the breaching stance. Behind him was Evan, preparing to kill. Connor looked at Miles and made a fist with his left hand and imitated taking out a pin with his right hand. Miles quickly took out a flashbang and pulled the pin. He started counting down from three, motioning with his left hand. "Remember, breach and clear, no civilian casualties." Connor said. As Miles reached zero, Connor suddenly kicked the door before Miles threw a flashbang in. A mere few seconds later a loud bang echoed through the streets and the four rushed into the building. Moments later gunshots were heard, one after the other. The notifications filled in front of Connor''s eyes. Screams of women suddenly turned into screams of men and people dropping to the ground. In the team, most active was no doubt Irene. With her P90, she was floating like a butterfly while stinging like a bee. She quickly climbed the stairs leading to the second floor of the building, kicked one of the private room''s door down to see a young girl tied to a bed with a brawny man on top of her, he was busy getting up and wanting to take his gear to see what was going downstairs, this was his last thought as he was turned into a sponge shortly after by Irene''s bullets. She quickly glanced at the girl, a sound was heard from the next room, a middle-aged man hastily opened the door and left the room before seeing the hallway covered in blood, as soon as he understood what happened he ran back to the room and locked the door before jumping down from the window. .... Rainald yelped as he fell to the ground from the second floor. He felt something snap out of its usual place. He held his right ankle before he started to skip, trying to run away from the building. This was an incident that needed to be reported immediately, someone was vying for them. He was grimacing in pain when everything suddenly turned black and he fell to the ground. A man suddenly appeared behind him, dragging him out of the streets to an alleyway. .... Connor exhaled, it has only been a few minutes since they rushed into the building and the smell of death had already covered the rooms, he looked at several young girls hugging each other by the corner of the room he was currently in, those girls were only a year or two younger than him but they were living in a situation like this. He shook his head and turned his head towards the two gang members who looked like they were in their early adult years, their bodies were lying dead on the ground, filled with holes. He looked at his right hand with his palm open, covered in dust. "I killed someone, again." he whispered to himself. As he was thinking, Irene came in the room Connor was in. "Sir, all clear. However, it seems like someone escaped. One of the rooms were locked and the window was open." Irene reported, after coming in she had glanced at the girls hugging each other by the side. Connor looked at the ceiling before making a fist with his right hand, he pointed at the girls. "Check them, are they injured?" he ordered Irene. He was still contemplating his actions. Irene quickly slung her P90 and ran over to the girls and crouched beside them to inspect their bodies, they were wearing clothes that were deliberately ripped in some parts. Other than some bruises, they appeared to be fine. "Nothing bad, sir. What are we going to do now?" Irene asked Connor. "How many?" Connor asked another question before the answer. "Evan and Miles managed to find six girls downstairs, they are mostly fine physically but they would definitely require some mental treatment." Irene said with a voice lowered as she said each word near the end. "I cleared two rooms, one of them was the locked one. There was no one in it, managed to find a girl on the other one. In total, we rescued nine girls." Irene continued. "Alright, you and Evan, go outside and try to find the girls'' parents. You can also suggest them to go take refuge in Goldburn''s inn for now. Their choice though." Connor said, the girls he saw were barely his age, if the other girls were the same Jeanne would definitely accept them. "By the way, you said the window was open and the door was locked?" Connor said as he turned towards Irene, she definitely looked tired after all that running and gunning, but she was still looking like a small tiger. She looked to be about 24 years old, although her height was not that much, her skills as a soldier was excellent. Irene nodded. "Yes, I believe someone attempted to escape by jumping through the window, however, considering the height, they should be injured." she replied. "Where is Frost? Have you meet up with him yet?" Connor asked, Frost''s duty was to stay outside and guard the exits, making sure no one would escape. "Negative, we did not set a radio protocol so we have no contact with him unless we go outside." Irene replied. This answer caused Connor to facepalm mentally once again, a squad needed to keep in communication all the time, yet he had forgotten to have the radio system setup even though he had seen it several times in the equipment store. "Alright, take the girls out for now. I will go with Miles to find him." Connor decided. Irene started talking to the girls to calm them down, explained who they were and that they came to rescue them because someone had asked for their help. The girls started sobbing and eventually followed Irene out. Connor went downstairs to get Miles, he wanted to check with Frost to see if anyone had managed to escape, it was obvious that there would be even more firefight if anyone had escaped. As he arrived on the first floor, he saw Miles talking with Frost while Evan and Irene had started heading outside. Seeing Connor coming downstairs Frost and Miles quickly turned and saluted him. "Sir, there was one person who attempted to escape, I think that he broke his ankle so I managed to knock him unconscious and captured him." Frost reported. "Oh, where is he now?" Connor asked, he was both happy and sad at the same time knowing that there was no one who managed to escape. Frost pointed at one of the rooms in the first floor. "I put him in there, he is still unconscious but I can wake him up if you need him." he answered. "He can wait for now, lets just take care of the things in our hands." Connor said as he looked towards Irene and Evan taking the girls out. 24 Council of Nobles Rainald let out a small yelp as he woke up. He was lying down on the sofa. He looked around only to see that he was in a familiar place. He wondered if he was dreaming for a good few seconds before he noticed someone sitting on the chair beside him. After noticing he woke up, that man pressed a black necklace on his throat and started speaking. "This is Frost, he woke up. Over." the man said. Rainald attempted to move his body just to realise he was tied up. Unable to move, he started speaking. "Who are you? Who sent you here?" Rainald asked Frost. Frost did not give an answer and continued to observe Rainald. Unable to get an answer to his question, Rainald was a bit flustered. He eyed Frost, the man was using some equipment he had never seen before. Not to mention that they were able to take down the whole gang in just a few minutes. As he was pondering over that, he heard the door opening. Several other figures walked in, leading them was a teenager that looked barely 20. A woman and another bulky man were following him. The group and the man beside him had similar equipment. Seeing the team coming in, Frost turned towards Connor and saluted. "Sir, he woke up a few minutes ago. Only asked questions, I did not answer." Frost reported the situation to Connor. "Who are you, do you know who you are messing with?" Rainald exclaimed towards the group. "Nope, no clue. Who are you exactly?" Connor replied in a nonchalant manner. Rainald growled. "You are messing with the wrong people, kid." he said towards Connor, who seemed to be the leader of the group. "I am one of the hounds. Allies of the Council of Nobles, you attack us, they''ll rip you apart." Rainald said. "Council of Nobles? I thought everyone in Carcer hated nobles." Connor said, in the end, this was a place where all the despised people from all kingdoms would be sent. The ones who were pulling the strings of these exiles were the nobles. Rainald chuckled. "Kid, you don''t even know them? Oh, how I pity for you¡­ Let me explain how miserable your death will be." he said before giggling. "The council is made by several nobles from different kingdoms who have been exiled themselves. Together, we will rule over Carcer and turn it into a kingdom of our own." Council of Nobles was created several years ago after the founding of Carcer. The creators of the organization were originally nobles in the four kingdoms but ended up being exiled due to treason or going against the rules of the kingdom. Throughout the years, the organization gathered its strength and started founding many smaller gangs to empower themselves, even more, their final goal is to create a brand new kingdom and rule over it using Carcer as a stepping stone. "So?" Connor raised an eyebrow at Rainald. "That''s it? Anything else?" Connor asked him. Rainald was taken aback, even though he had named the faction he belonged to the kid in front of him did not show any kind of emotion. Everyone in Carcer knew that even though the Council of Nobles were not that strong themselves if the gangs they had were to merge, it would create the biggest and possibly the strongest organization in Carcer. "Why are you here?" Connor asked Rainald. "And how is that your business, kid? This territory belongs to us now, including everything in it." Rainald answered, sneering. After Ruby Merchant Group was obliterated the territories were quickly absorbed into the leftover organizations. Connor moved his right hand and started massaging his temples. The plans were getting out of control. Suddenly, his brand new in-ear radio started buzzing. *static* This is Miles, some of the rescued girls and their families left *static* also, Jeanne is here. Over. *static* In the room was Irene, Evan, Frost, Connor and the Warhounds'' member Rainald. Miles was waiting outside and handling the rescued girls'' situation as the de facto second in command. ''Is this not set up properly?'' Connor sighed. ''Jeanne is here? Well¡­ she can finally help us get rest of the civilians out of here, I guess.'' he thought. Connor pressed the button that was on his index finger with his thumb. "Understood, let me know when everything is clear outside. Also, ask Jeanne about the Council of Nobles. Over." Connor said on the radio. ¡­. Mies took his hand off his right ear where his radio was located. He was standing in front of Jeanne, behind her were several members of the gang bringing some supplies for the rescued girls and their families. "Commander is busy right now, but asked you a question." Miles said. Jeanne looked at Miles, she was surprised at how he spoke into the air and even received a reply in an instant. "What is it?" Jeanne asked. "Who is the Council of Nobles?" Miles replied. Jeanne shuddered, Council of Nobles was not in the list of the things she would like to hear about today. She did not know why Miles had asked a question like this. "Why are you asking that question? Did you see them?" Jeanne said. "Unrelated, please answer the question." Miles said with a stern voice and a face without a speck of emotion. Jeanne exhaled a long breath and started thinking. "I doubt anyone knows the origins of the Council of Nobles. I heard it was founded by some former duke that was exiled from his kingdom, some people say it was a marquess too. Still, no one knows the identity of the person anyway. They are strong, that''s all we know." she started talking. "How strong¡­" she stopped for a second and continued. "No one knows. They have tons of organizations reporting to them no matter how big or small. Rumour is that they even have organizations that are focused on spying and assassinations for them, not that anyone lived enough to tell the story anyway." Miles started thinking of a plan in his mind. If the organization was as strong as Jeanne mentioned, they might run into some issues. They had to be very careful. "Understood. Anything else?" he spoke towards Jeanne. Jeanne rolled her eyes. "You still did not answer my question. I really hope you guys did not make a mistake by attacking the Council of Nobles." she spoke solemnly. Everyone wanted to steer themselves away from them, in a time like this where even original Big Six was being obliterated one by one, going against one of them would be a big issue. As they were speaking, Connor, Irene, Evan and Frost came outside the building with a Rainald in handcuffs. Jeanne and Miles looked at them. Just a second later, Jeanne started asking questions. "Who is this guy?" she said as she pointed towards Rainald. ''Here we go again¡­'' Connor sighed. "Who is this bitch?" Rainald asked a similar question. Jeanne was getting angry at a visible rate due to the sudden insult. She walked up to handcuffed Rainald and stood a meter away from him. She pointed at him and spoke with a loud voice. "Watch who you are calling a bitch? I am Jeanne Goldburn! You vile scum!" she was also furious after hearing the deeds the men had done to the girls and their families. Rainald suddenly calmed down and raised an eyebrow at Jeanne''s answer. "Goldburn? That puny wannabe gang?" he said before he looked at Connor. "Seems like you guys are allies. Too bad you just signed the death sentence of those kids too." he smirked. Finally, he turned to Jeanne. "You think you can fight the Council of Nobles? Hah, just wait until they find out who attacked this place." Jeanne was surprised, she looked at Connor immediately and started yelling at him. "ARE YOU AN IDIOT? WHY DID YOU ATTACK THEM!" if the Council attacked Jeanne and her gang, it was impossible for them to defend the difference in strength was as clear as heaven and earth, day and night. Connor was annoyed. He squinted his eyes while looking at Jeanne and turned towards Irene, instead of answering. Irene looked at both Connor and Jeanne, she did not know the relationship between her commander and the girl but she could understand that Connor was mad. She quickly walked towards Jeanne in an attempt to defuse the situation. "Miss, we were scouting the city when a citizen approached us and requested help, our commander accepted. There is nothing to be mad about." ¡­. Among some of the citizens wandering around in the alleyway, a man wearing a hooded cloth was observing the people talking -or more like having an argument- in front of the building. He took out a pendant and said a few unintelligible words before the pendant turned into a black crow. The crow looked at the man with its eyes shining red. "Warhounds no more, eliminated by Goldburn." the man said in a low voice just before muttering a few more unintelligible words. After that, the crow''s eyes stopped shining red and it flew out of the man''s hands. 3 Rewrite - Prologue (A/N: Webnovel and ScribbleHub are not updated regularly. It will be updated on random occasions, if you would like to keep up to date with the story and get access to the chapters (like super early chapters) please join our Discord server or visit warzonenovel.com) In the early 22nd Century, the technology has advanced to a point where the development speed was unfathomable. One of the most advanced industry was, of course, the entertainment industry. A company, Arclight Entertainment has developed the most advanced VR Helmet called Phantasm after their previous model that can easily simulate reality for the user. To celebrate their release they invested huge amounts of money to a game development company that created "the ultimate war simulation game" named Warzone. Warzone was marketed as a game where it mirrored Earth in a fabricated way. Players were to choose between 2 factions, Federation and The Empire. Their selections would send them to the countries as soldiers, equipped with nothing but standard military gear. The objective was to climb through the ranks, command your troops and dominate the opposition to rule the lands. Connor, a 19-year-old who enjoyed reading all kinds of books and playing games. He liked war strategy games more than any other genre, it wasn''t that games were his everything. He had an above-average lifestyle. Had a group of friends, wasn''t too handsome nor too ugly. But he enjoyed brainstorming in the games, it was his most favourite activity after reading books. "I think it''s all set now..." Connor happily said wiping off his forehead with his arm. He had been cleaning his room and working on setting up his brand new Phantasm VR Helmet to play Warzone that was going to release in a few hours. After putting the helmet down he sat down in front of his computer and went to Warzone''s website to check for information. "Account Management... Forums... Support... Ah! Getting Started, here it is." he clicked the final option and was met with a small introductory video. The video began with the logo of Warzone. Then a female voice started talking in the background. "Warzone is an Action-oriented Strategy game where the player will have to select between two factions, Federation or The Empire. After your selection, you''ll be transported to your faction''s headquarters with your starting gear and starting rank of Private. Your ultimate goal is the elimination of the opposite faction. As a private, you have to obey the orders of your superiors. As you fulfil your missions, you will be promoted to higher ranks which in return will allow you to command soldiers, access authorization for all sorts of military vehicles and ability to wear different kinds of equipment. After logging into the game ..." the video continued with basic instructions on how to see your character stats, accessing the equipment management and vehicle list, tips on how to rank up etc. He glanced at the clock that was located in the top left corner of the website, it was 5:54 PM. Only 6 minutes left until the release of Warzone. Connor got up, walked to his bed and sat on it and started connecting the cables of Phantasm. After he finished connecting the cables, he put on the helmet and laid down on his bed. He opened his eyes to see nothing but darkness, the helmet was off. He grimaced. ''Can''t believe I forgot to turn on the helmet...'' he reached out to the back of the helmet and pressed a button. After a short moment, a bright white light enclosed his vision. Connor subconsciously closed his eyes and opened a few seconds later. He wasn''t in his room nor he was laying down anymore. It was bright all around, it seemed like he was put in a white room. "Thank you for purchasing Phantasm." a feminine sounding voice said. Connor scratched his hair, "Uh... you''re welcome?" "Please look towards the light." Connor''s eyes moved towards the light that was shining onto his face. "Iris registration is now complete." "User registered, Connor Ironheart." "Welcome to Arclight Library, please select your type of entertainment." As soon as the voice said that, a menu opened in front of Connor that seemed like a computer program, there were different kinds of options from action movies, adult movies, old mainstream VR games even a VR Chess! He quickly browsed through the selections and found what he was looking for, Warzone. He lightly tapped his finger to the transparent screen to confirm his selection. "Selection confirmed." "Please select your in-game faction." Connor was met with a screen as soon as he clicked on the icon of Warzone, the screen had prompted him to select between Federation or The Empire. ''Hmm¡­ they more or less look the same, but Empire definitely sounds cooler.'' Connor thought and clicked on the icon of The Empire. "Loading Warzone..." 4 Rewrite - Chapter 1 - Welcome to Warzone Suddenly, a bright white light enveloped his vision. Connor reflexively closed his eyes. In just a few seconds, Connor was able to open up his eyes and looked around him, he was in some sort of a military compound with soldiers running left and right in organized formations. "Woah¡­" Connor was surprised. "The technology has really come a long way." As Connor was taking in the atmosphere of the compound, a bright blue text popped up in his peripheral. *Welcome to Warzone.* Just as he was reading the text, a big bulky man appeared behind the text and started walking towards Connor. "What are you doing here, Private!" the man yelled. Connor looked at the man and his face crumbled. He had no idea what he should do. He looked down on his body to see that he was wearing some sort of military camouflage, on his shoulders were a single stripe while the person in front of him had three. *Warzone Tutorial, Part 1: Greet Sergeant Williams* ''Huh¡­ okay.'' As a fan of all-things-military, Connor snapped into attention and saluted the Sergeant. "Sergeant Williams, sir!" "That''s better Private. Welcome to the Empire''s number one training facility, Military Base Colonna." Suddenly, the Sergeant the surroundings disappeared and Connor opened his eyes on a zone that was all white, like a virtual space. *Warzone Tutorial, Part 2: Move around.* The Tutorial AI had instructed Connor to start moving around the virtual space, as soon as the AI had finished giving the objective, various objects such as small walls, barriers and wire fence. Connor looked at the tutorial text and started moving. First, he checked the movement on his arms, then legs and finally the whole body as he went prone, crouched and got up. ''Okay, that feels super realistic for sure.'' He wasn''t sure if he was getting tired or not. *Warzone Tutorial, Part 3: Pass through the obstacle course* Connor started moving towards the obstacle course where he had to jump over barriers, crouch and pass through walls with space under them, prone under a wire fence and make it to the other side without hurting himself. Connor managed to reach the other side without hurting himself and got up. *Warzone Tutorial, Part 4: Head towards the shooting range* Suddenly, in front of him, a shooting range had formed with lots of guns placed on the table in front of it. Connor walked to the table and looked at the guns. ''Lets see¡­ we have an M249, M4A1, AK15, SCAR-H, ACR, M107, SVD-M, M200 Intervention, MP7 and P90 hmm¡­'' Connor was pondering about what weapon he should take, he could either an Assault Rifle, a Submachine Gun or a Sniper. ''Let''s go with the classics.'' Connor took the M4A1 off the table. *Warzone Tutorial, Part 5: Shoot the targets* Throughout the shooting range, at various ranges, targets started to appear. Connor took a shooting stance where he positioned the M4 Rifle on his right shoulder and pushed on the stock of the weapon with his chin. Supporting the barrel of the gun with his left hand, he aimed at the targets using the iron sights of the M4 Rifle. And pulled the trigger¡­ no bullet came out, no recoil pushed him back. ''What?'' Connor was surprised, the gun was loaded but it wasn''t firing. *Warzone Tutorial, Please check your weapon''s safety* ''Oh.'' Connor smiled and turned the safety off on the weapon. He took the firing stance again and fired a shot, aiming at the target closest to him. The bullet hit the target just as a fanfare sounded out from the AI. *Congratulations on hitting your first target!* The tutorial then instructed Connor on how to switch firing types between semi-automatic and fully automatic and made him shoot a few more targets. After the shooting range tutorial was complete, the world became fully white again. Both the shooting range and the obstacle course had disappeared. *Congratulations on finishing the Tutorial. As a reward, you have been granted the "Warzone Package x 1" you will be sent to Military Base Colonna as soon as you open the package and verify your equipment.* *Arclight Entertainment wishes you fun while playing Warzone, thank you for purchasing Phantasm.* After reading the messages popping up one by one in front of him, Connor opened his inventory and found that there was one military camouflaged crate waiting for him. He selected the crate using his thoughts and the crate appeared in front of him. *Warzone Welcome Package You will be granted basic items such as; M9 Pistol ¨C Standard Issue Pistol, small and easy to carry. 15 rounds per magazine. You will be given 4 magazines. ''Private'' Standard Battle Gear ¨C Provides the standard amount of protection. Has a camouflage system that will adapt to your surroundings to help you blend in. Medpack x 5 ¨C For curing heavy injuries, after the usage of Medpack your body will start to recover from most major injuries immediately, however, this effect will be cancelled if you take any damage. Recovery Syringe x 25 ¨C For curing light injuries, such as small bullet wounds, knife wounds. After injecting, your body will slowly recover. Recovery Syringe will not heal major injuries. Damage does not interrupt syringe recovery. Credits x 500 ¨C Credits are the general currency used in Warzone. It is not faction specific and can be used anywhere, credits could be utilized to purchase weapons, vehicles, buildings and resources to maintain your base.* *Your main weapon will be chosen automatically through a list of various weapons.* As soon as the AI said this, a screen resembling a slot machine screen popped up. ''Even here¡­ huh.'' As the gaming industry had advanced in almost a hundred years, microtransactions have been one of the most profitable revenue sources for most game developers. Since 2050, games were all free to play with some sort of a microtransaction system implemented to cover the running costs of the company. A big ROLL button appeared in front of Connor''s peripheral. He pressed the button and suddenly, the screen started scrolling through various weapons. Just before starting slow down and stop on¡­ MP5 Submachine Gun. ''Uh¡­ Okay, I guess.'' MP5 was a weapon with a relatively high fire rate and was especially good on close range encounters. It was hard to control and successfully fire mid-range and its performance was abysmal in long-range. The loot box had also given him 2 extra magazines. Connor opened his inventory and equipped all the items he had. One by one, the items started appearing on his body. His MP5 was slung on his chest, his M9 Pistol in a holster on his right thigh. *Warzone Tutorial Completed* *Traveling to Military Base Colonna* 5 Rewrite - Chapter 2 - Traveling The same bright light that had interrupted his view came again. ''They really gotta do something about these loading screens¡­'' complained Connor. After just a few seconds, the bright light disappeared. Opening his eyes, Connor found himself in some steppe plains where no building or men insight. ''What?'' Connor questioned the AI who said that he was being transported to Military Base Colonna just before the loading screen was shown. Yet the place he arrived was nothing but green grass and small hills. /DEV-ERR-CRIT/ An error occurred while transporting the player to the previous area. /ADMINLOG/ Reporting account status to the Game Masters¡­ /ADMINLOG/ Report failed, issuing temporary account lockout. /ADMINLOG/ Lockout failed, flagging account for manual review. /ADMINLOG/ Account flagging failed. /SYS/ Account flags have been changed. /SYS/ Account features unlocked. /SYS/ Initializing NWI¡­ ''What the heck is going on?'' Just after the loading was complete and he questioned the AI''s capability of sending him to the right place, he was being bombarded by strings of texts that made absolutely no sense. He looked down on his body only to find out that his body did not exist. It was just a blob of white colour, somewhat representing the outlines of a human body. While Connor was pondering about what was going on and trying to make sense of some of the texts that were showing up on his screen, the world went completely black. *** Welcome to the NWI Character Creation Screen In front of Connor was a male human that was in a T-shaped pose. The model did not have any clothes or a speck of hair on its body. As Connor was reviewing the body, a menu came sliding from his left. Hair Face Body Body Shape Visual Features ¡­ ... NWI The menu on the left had various options, each focusing on one of the parts of the human body. Connor started clicking them and review them one by one. ''Hair¡­'' ''Body¡­'' ''Tattoos¡­'' ''Thighs¡­'' ''Damn! You can even customize the size of that?'' And finally, Connor pressed the button that was labelled NWI. Character creation complete. A text appeared in front of the male body as the body started to change. Increasing in height to about 180 centimeters, losing some weight, enough to be perceived as slim by others. The body suddenly started growing hair and the details of its face and the rest of its body started to appear. ''Yellow hair, blue eyes¡­'' Connor started to eye the body from head to foot. "What that''s me!" Connor could not even control his mouth and shouted his last thought just before the bright white light captured his peripheral vision once again. *** Welcome to NWI. That was the first thing Connor saw when the white light faded away. As soon as the message faded away, Connor started to look at his surroundings, he realised that he was not in those steppe plains anymore but near the walls of a shabby looking village. There was a road to his left. A road that leads to the gates of the village. A forest on his right. And behind him¡­ the forest. The road leading to the village was barely filled with people. The interesting part was that the people walking on the dirt road were wearing shabby clothes. Connor scratched his head. ''Okay¡­ what am I supposed to do?'' Connor looked down at his own body, only to realize that he was naked all along. ''Lots of errors and now I seem to be thrown near a godforsaken village fully naked.'' Connor tried to open up his inventory, in the first introduction video of Warzone, the video went through basic stuff such as opening up the character sheet, opening up inventory, skills tree and the chat to ensure that players who start the game when it launched could start playing immediately rather than having to figure out the systems and how it worked. As soon as he thought of opening his inventory screen, he could see the inventory screen coming up in front of him. ''Alright, so these features still work. That''s nice.'' Connor thought. The items he had earned after finishing the tutorial was there. He quickly equipped all the items one by one, starting with his armour. After finishing equipping all items once again, his MP5 was slung on his chest and his pistol was in its holster, where it belonged to. ''This armour should really come with a helmet¡­'' Connor complained. For some reason, the developers did not put a helmet in the welcoming package. Next, Connor thought about opening his own character sheet. He could see a 3D model of his own body. Next to it were his stats. He opened their details one by one. Strength: Increases melee power, decreases recoil. Vitality: Increases natural health recovery, increases resistance to poison. Intelligence: Increases learning speed, increases the ability to multitask. Dexterity: Increases stamina, increases weapon handling. Accuracy: Increases weapon accuracy, increases the range of weapons. Connor quickly skimmed over the stat descriptions one by one before closing the details page, these were already included in the introduction video. Next thing he was wondering was his default stats. Strength: 5 Vitality: 5 Intelligence: 5 Dexterity: 5 Accuracy: 5 ''Okay, these seem pretty standard.'' Connor thought after checking his stats, it was obvious that he shouldn''t have super high stats in the first place as Level 1. ''Oh, levels, right.'' Connor quickly glanced over to the next screen where the character sheet included the Level and XP required for him to level up. According to the introduction video of Warzone, every time he levels up he will be able to access more weapons and vehicles. And in the later stages, he can even recruit soldiers and buy buildings provided he has enough credits to afford them. Level: 1 Rank: Private Experience: 0/500 Connor was confused. ''The video said I should be able to level up by doing anything, as long as I am interacting with the game world. But how do I rank up?'' he asked himself before trying to access the help page. Help page is not available. Connor grimaced. ''Urgh. I should log out and check it on the internet and probably send a ticket to the GMs to actually fix my account and put me back in the training base.'' he thought. Connor used the same method of logging out, think about logging out and just confirm it when the text pops up. It was the same method for every single game and had become an industry standard at this point. If you were not in combat you could log out in 5 seconds after you confirm. Logout is not available. ''What?'' Connor frowned. ''What do you mean logout is not available?'' His character was not in combat, by common sense, he should be able to logout. He tried it a few more times to no avail. Most games had a contact GM button in the help page but help page wasn''t working on its own. Connor tried thinking about contacting a GM to see if anything would pop up¡­ nothing. ''What the hell am I supposed to do?'' Connor scratched his head once again. ''This is going to become a habit unless I manage to actually log out I guess.'' he thought while smiling. *growl* Connor heard his stomach growl. ''Oh wait, you have to actually sustain yourself. I forgot.'' He checked his inventory, only to find out that the welcome package did not include any rations. ''Cheapstakes.'' He thought about opening the in-game shop. Shop Newbie Cooldown: 01:59:59 ''Why the hell would you put a cooldown on a shop¡­'' "Urgh¡­" he audibly sighed. ''Well¡­ Can''t access the help page, can''t logout, can''t contact anyone. I''ll just wander around until they realize something is wrong with their systems then.'' Connor walked towards the road before turning at the village. He looked around the citizens passing by while walking. For some reason, Connor did not see any HP Bar above their heads. He could not access the information about NPCs passing by at all. ''Did they remove this feature after recording the video? I remember this being a thing.'' ''Well, let''s just keep going.'' Connor continued his steps towards the village gate, he couldn''t help but notice that some villagers actually turned their heads to look at him before lowering their heads a few times. ''Woah, I must be teleported in a poor area, these NPCs really look poor.'' Just a short time after, a small child barely reaching up to his legs approach Connor and put her hands up. "My lord, spare some coin?" Connor smiled. ''These NPCs look really realistic, that''s for sure.'' As he was about the answer the little girl¡­ "Ellie! Get back here! NOW!" Said a middle-aged woman while running towards Connor and the girl. After reaching the duo, she quickly grabbed the little girl and bowed towards Connor. "We apologize my lord, we did not mean to disturb you, please be merciful." the woman said while continuously bowing. ''Woah, what is going on?'' Connor was confused. "Hey, please get up, don''t bother. I don''t understand why you are this excited at all." he managed to say towards the bowing woman. "Thank you, my lord. Thank you." she managed to usher out before starting to run away with the little girl. ''Why is everything so weird today?'' Connor mused. He continued walking towards the gates of the village. 6 Rewrite - Chapter 3 - Esteemed Gues *growl* Connor''s stomach had growled once again. ''Urgh¡­ How the hell am I supposed to find my way¡­ They could''ve at least given the players a minimap.'' Connor continued walking towards the village. ''I don''t understand why these people keep looking at me like this though.'' he thought. It has barely been 5 minutes since he started walking yet he felt like they were staring into the depths of his soul. Another thing that Connor had noticed, every time a villager got close to him or he had to walk closer to them due to passing horses and carriages, which was interesting for Connor once again, everyone would suddenly drop their heads as if they were sorry to be in his way. After about 15 minutes of walking, Connor had reached the end of the road. The gates of the village, from a short distance, Connor noticed two guards standing and doing checks on various villagers coming in and out of the village especially stopping the villagers with carriages and asking for some sort of a bronze plate. One of the guards was receiving a bronze plate from the merchants, or that was what Connor had assumed, while the other guard was checking the villagers. The interesting part for Connor was that the guards were wearing somewhat shabby medieval clothing and holding some sort of a polearm that looked like a halberd. ''Woah.'' Connor thought. ''What''s with the super medieval look, with the wooden walls, halberds, horses and carriages and villagers with shabby clothes?'' Connor was mused. He looked to his left and right before moving his hands to touch his cheek. ''No one questioned my attire, yet kept looking at me.'' ''No one approached to speak with me, the only girl who did was swiftly taken away by, I assume, her mother.'' ''Warzone was supposed to take place in an alternate reality that''s for sure but it should be sometime between 21st and 22nd century. Not 12th.'' ''A glitch?'' It was a feasible answer, considering all the weird texts he had seen before he was sent to this place. This could be a faraway land, a developer test zone or a zone that have not had their technology upgrades yet. ''Hmm.'' Connor tried logging out again. Logout is not available. ''It should''ve been at least twenty- no half an hour since I tried logging out. How come it takes the developers this long to fix it?'' ''Help page?'' Help page is not available. ''Okay, none of these still work.'' ''What to do¡­'' ''What to do¡­'' Reflexively, Connor started tapping his right foot. While he was thinking, he realized that one of the guards who were standing at the gate started rushing his way. The armour he was wearing, even if it was not heavy, was still resounding clacking noises as he ran. The guard ran until he was right in front of Connor. The guard suddenly raised his right hand to his left chest before slightly bowing his head. "My lord, what brings you to our village?" the guard asked timidly. Connor was brought out of his stupor and looked at the guard. "Huh, yes?" Connor replied. The guard was surprised, accidentally losing his manners for a second. "Wha- Oh, sorry for disturbing you, my lord. I saw you standing still outside the village gates, you were tapping your foot so I thought you were summoning one of us to help you out." It was now Connor''s turn to be surprised. "Ah, uh¡­ Yeah¡­ no¡­ I was just thinking about a few things, sorry for alerting you." Connor managed to let out. The guard''s face changed. He saluted Connor once again. "I understand, my lord. I will now head back to my spot. Please do notify us if you need anything." the guard said before turning back like a soldier and marching towards the village gate. "What the heck just happened?" Connor said audibly. The guards'' attitude towards Connor had attracted some attention from the villagers around them. Some people followed the guard with their eyes while some looked at Connor. Several villagers had surprised looks on their faces, just as the guard had. As if reacting to what Connor said, some villagers flinched and quickly resumed their duties, afraid that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed young man was angry. Connor noticed the movement in the villagers. ''Okay, this is quite weird.'' *growl* ''I really gotta find something to eat.'' Connor started moving towards the village gates, there were at least a dozen villagers, some with horses and carriages, some on foot queueing in front of the guards before giving them their bronze plates to check. ''The bronze plates seem to be some sort of an identification paper. Well, plate. Not paper.'' ''Can I just shuffle my way through I wonder?'' Connor thought while he walked as if he was taking a casual stroll. Seeing the young man approaching the line some of the villagers moved their bodies to let the young man through while the guard who had spoken to him just a few minutes prior started yelling towards the villagers. "Make way! Make way!" Hearing the guard, villagers quickly started shuffling in the line. ''Okay, have to admit. This feels really good.'' Connor thought, he hated lines. Mag-bus while going to school, waiting in line for the cafeteria bots to provide them with their daily lunch at school, waiting in line in basically anywhere, Connor hated it. Connor had a minuscule smile forming on his lips. This did not go unnoticed by the guard who was approaching him once again. "This way my lord." The guard said in front of Connor as he pointed through the gates. "*cough*, Thank you. I can handle the rest." Connor replied, trying to find a good answer for the guard. The guard smiled and promptly replied. "Yes, my lord. I understand." before saluting and going back to the gates. After passing through the gate, Connor could now see the rest of the village. It was definitely bigger than he expected for sure but it would be wrong to call this village a town, or at least in Connor''s terms. Wooden houses everywhere, small wooden hawkers selling various types of stuff, ranging from weird stones to interesting and yummy looking food. The stench was¡­ intriguing for Connor at best. With so many different materials'' smell mixing in the air, it was impossible to ignore it. Connor eyed the village left to right. ''The village is¡­ well¡­ Exactly like I imagined. I remember reading some of these types of villages in the history books and seeing some of them on the TV shows and movies I watched¡­'' ''It appears so that I wasn''t wrong about thinking this was a relatively poor village.'' No matter how many glances you took, the village was really looking rundown, even though the streets were packed with villagers it was really rare to see someone smiling. *growl* ''Alright, alright, I am not going to ignore you anymore.'' Connor said to himself. Glancing at the nearest hawker, he walked towards the man''s stall. "Potatoes! Potatoes! Freshly farmed, only 7 coppers each!" "Lettuce! Selling Lettuce! Just arrived from the farmers! Only 5 copper each!" "Hey there, do you happen to know if there are any hotels or something nearby?" Connor asked towards the hawker. The hawker vigorously turned towards Connor. "What the fu- Ah! My lord, how this lowly peasant help you today?" The hawker was surprised to see such a person visiting his stall and accidentally had a slip of tongue, cursing himself and hoping that the young man did not notice. "Ah, hey. Sorry for interrupting your sales, I asked if there is a hotel nearby?" Connor asked. The hawker started fiddling with his fingers. "Ho- what? I am sorry, my lord, this lowly peasant does not know what that is." the hawker answered fearfully. ''What''s with this reaction?'' Connor questioned himself. "Uh¡­ Like, a building where people go to stay for a few days, maybe longer." Connor replied. ''So the NPCs do not know what a hotel is. Interesting.'' Connor thought. The hawker suddenly formed a smile on his face before replying to Connor. "Ahhh! Yes, my lord. We do have a place like that." hawker said then started pointing down the road. "If you keep going this way and then turn left from the Raza''s Armoursmith you should see the Sleeping Oak Inn. While they are not cheap, they are definitely the best suitable for your lordship." the hawker hastily answered Connor''s question. ''Ah. An inn. Right, those were the things in¡­ the¡­ medieval ages?'' ''Huh¡­'' ''What to do¡­'' "My lord?" the hawker inquired. "Yes, yes. I heard you. Thank you." Connor replied as he started walking towards Sleeping Oak Inn. In just a few minutes, Connor had reached the inn. It was a wooden building, the same as others, though it could be said that this building fared a bit better in comparison. It was a three-story building with glass windows whereas other buildings Connor had seen, some of them did not even have any glass windows on them. There was a big sign with two beer mugs clashing against each other. Sleeping Oak Inn As Connor was inspecting the building, a party of four came out. It was a party consisting of two men and two women. Clad in armour and weapons. "Thanks for the great hospitality as always Jeanne!" one of the women said while she looked back inside the building. Suddenly, she was yanked in the arm by her party member. "What? What is it?" the woman turned towards her party member and questioned. Connor realized that the woman who yanked her arm was pointing at him. ''What now?'' "Oh." was the only thing that came out of the woman''s mouth. Quickly, the party of four started walking and disappeared amongst the crowd, without paying any heed to Connor. Connor just raised an eyebrow and walked into the inn. "Be with you in a second!" Jeanne while picking up the dishes left on the table. After she picked up the dishes, she turned towards the guest. "Ah!" Jeanne accidentally raised her voice. ''Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.'' she froze. ''Alright, take it easy. This is your chance.'' she thought to herself. Connor was checking the interior of the inn before he heard the maid, as he assumed, suddenly shout. ''Okay, just like you always imagined. Jeanne, this is your chance.'' Jeanne pinched the ends of her dress and slightly curtsied towards Connor. "Welcome, esteemed guest. My name is Jeanne Goldburn. Maid of the Sleeping Oak Inn."