Second World

”Hey! Why are you so quiet now?” Bowler continued his taunt. ”Come and get me! All you chickenshits only there to go against one woman? There is no lowlife who is more lowlife than you lots!”

”Asshole! You want to die!”

”Annoying little prick!”

Several of the gang members were getting restless as well.

Boulder was more clearheaded. ”Ignore him!” He said. ”There is nothing that he can do aside from yapping his mouth. His turn will come soon. Let him enjoy his own talking a bit longer.”

The gang cooled down after Boulderʼs words.

Bowler sent a few more insults, but it didnʼt seem to have any effect anymore. The gang members were not even looking at him any longer. Fox had ignored him altogether and went back to provoke Flame. He could see Flame was getting restless again. He didnʼt think he could hold her back any longer.”

”Bro..! Where are you?!” Bowler sent a message again to Jack in his panic.

”I am here!” He got a reply, but not in the form of a message. Jackʼs sound reverberated in the neighborhood. Fox who was passionately throwing insults at Flame paused and looked over to where Jackʼs voice was heard from.

The place was brightly lit as it was still noon, but the slum road itself had much dirt. A lot of wind was blowing at this time, lifting the dust up from the road and covered the distance. Jack came out from a cloud of dust obscuring the street, walking calmly towards them.

Fox laughed when she saw Jack trying to act cool like some kind of a knight in shining armor. She mocked him at once, ”haha, here comes the savior, eh? What can you do? Even if you are very strong, there is not much use if you canʼt attack us! Or do you want to receive criminal imprint and deal with the guards of the city?”

”Guards of the city?” Jack lifted his brow, ”do you mean guards like them?”

Jack pointed to behind him as several shadows were seen from inside the dust cloud. Not long after a squad of guards in full armor appeared. They were following behind Jack as he continued to walk towards the Weary Wolf gang. The gang members were dumbfounded, whatʼs going on? Why are the guards coming here, why are they following a player?

Boulder calmed everyone down, ”the guards were simply having a round. He was just using the coincidence to fool us. Stay in your formation.”

Hearing their leaderʼs explanation, everyone thought it made sense. Some even threw a mocking grin to Jack as he approached. One of them scoffed, ”you think you can trick us? Your childʼs play is laughable!” They then laughed as they made fun and pointed at Jack with disdain.

Jack was looking at them calmly like he was witnessing a bunch of fools making fun of themselves. He shook his head as one of the guards came over to him. ”Are they the ones causing trouble?” He asked.

”Yes, sir, they are blocking the road preventing my friend from passing through,” Jack said to the guard.

When the Weary Wolf gang heard their conversations, their laughter died down. Some who were further away couldnʼt hear so they continued laughing but soon they stopped in confusion as they saw their other friendsʼ faces turned grim.

The guard who spoke with Jack waved to the other guards. He seemed to be their squad leader. The guard which numbered around twenty started to surround the Weary Wolf gang people. The squad leader guard came towards the Weary Wolf people. Boulder immediately came out to talk to him, ”sir guard, whatʼs wrong? We havenʼt done anything wrong, we didnʼt attack anyone.”

The squad leader guard looked at him and said sternly, ”move aside!”

Boulder was stunned, but he didnʼt dare to disobey. He and his people immediately make way for the guard, who passed through and came to Fierce Flame who was also standing in confusion.

”Miss,” the guard greeted her, then asked, ”I was given a report that you were being harassed and denied passage out from this place, is that true?”

Flame was unsure for a moment but she immediately replied, ”yes, they had been blocking my way for hours already.”

The guard nodded, he then called a few NPCs from inside the bar and asked them a few questions as well. Bowler who had been making his way to Jack arrived by his side and asked, ”this your doing, bro?”

”Yep,” Jack answered.

”What did you do?”

”They thought they could take advantage of the system, but they donʼt really get the whole picture of the rules yet. The system already had a failsafe against this kind of thing. All we have to do is just find a guard and report it to them. They will come and sort things out.”

Bowlerʼs face was brightening, ”so we can do like that? Damn, if I have known, I would have gone searching for a guard once this started.”

Jack nodded, ”you shouldnʼt be too stuck to the idea that this is a game, despite many of the rules following the game system. This place is much like real life where there can be many solutions to a problem.”

”Smart ass, I remember you were also confused as to what to do before I told you about this,” Peniel sound was heard beside him.

ʼCan you please let me have my moment here?ʼ Jack retorted.

The squad leader guard had finished asking the NPCs who had witnessed the ordeal. They concurred with the report. He then gave the order to his squad, ”these Outworlders had violated the law of free passage on public property. They are hindering and creating disorder. Take them all back to the station! Anyone who dares to resist will be marked as criminal and are entitled to be put down where they stand!”

All of the Weary Wolf gang membersʼ faces turned pale. They turned to Boulder and Fox, asking what they should do. The duo was also shocked, they didnʼt expect things would turn out this way. Should they run? Should they fight back?

Although they outnumbered the guards, the guards were all level 50. One hit from them would be enough to send them to their graves, and they would be marked as criminals, which meant they would lose their freedom in the city. They had to go outside the city wall or stay hidden else they were captured and imprisoned. But if they do nothing now, would they get imprisoned?

They were not sure, the research they had learned and heard from were just when players got attacked by other players. They didnʼt know what was the penalty for obstructing passage in public property.

After making some fast considerations in his mind, Boulder finally decided to not risk fighting the guards. He told his members, ”we have no choice. Do not resist the guards.”

”Wise move,” Jack said to him with a smile.

The gang leader glared at him with hate but didnʼt say anything.

After being frustrated for quite some time, Flame didnʼt let go of the chance to throw some salt into the wound as well. She said to Fox, ”Have a nice stay in the prison. When you come out, letʼs do this again so we can send you back to prison again where you belong.”

Fox was fuming with rage, she hissed at Flame, ”donʼt you think you have won, you stupid bitch! This is not over! Just you wait, Iʼm gonna make you regret one of these days!”

”I will be waiting,” Flame retorted with a mocking grin as the gang was being herded away by the guards.

Once they were gone, Flame rejoined Jack and Bowler.

”Thank you,” she said to Jack. ”I donʼt know if I would have stayed my hands any longer if you hadnʼt come with those guards. How do you know that we can make a report and ask for help from the guard?”

”Yeah,” Bowler agreed as he looked at Jack.

”Nothing special,” Jack replied. ”I just considered this as if back in real life. What we should do when encountering such a problem. We will go to the police, no?”

Bowler threw him a thumb up. ”You are the man!” He said.

”Do you know how long the guards will detain them?” Flame asked.

”Two days. If they repeat the offense again, it will be longer the next time.” Jack replied with the information that he had gotten from Peniel before.

”And how do you know that?” Flame asked again.

”Um… The guard told me. Say, are you guys on the way to submit your quest?” Jack asked to divert the topic.

The two of them nodded.

”Me too,” Jack said. ”Letʼs go to the Association together. How about we do the next quest together?”

😉