Second World

Hearing Jackʼs words, Suicide snickered, ”Donʼt you expect to be let off lightly just because you are acting polite. You have to pay a large fine and being imprisoned an ample amount of time!”

Suicide then turned to the sergeant, ”You! I command you to imprison him not less than one week!”

The sergeant furrowed his brows further and replied with an irksome tone. ”We might not be able to touch or arrest a noble without a strong enough violation, but that doesnʼt mean we are yours to command! You should do well to remember that.”

The sergeant then turned to Jack and said, ”as for the answer to your question. A verbal or light offense against a noble will only be given a warning. If one is caught doing the same offense again despite the warning, one-day imprisonment will be given. The next repeats will each be given three days imprisonment. A serious offense, as in an assault, will depend on the damages afflicted. The lightest, as in an attempted assault with no damage inflicted, will have the perpetrator getting a fine of 10 gold coins and ten days imprisonment. If the damage is serious, the fine can go up to 50 gold coins and four weeks imprisonment. Killing a noble, well, the death penalty will be the punishment.”

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”I see. Hm… 10 gold coins and three days imprisonment. Rather light punishment,” Jack said.

”Yes, I agree. I am amazed that you can receive the punishment with such calmness,” Suicide said to Jack with ridicule.

”Oh? Wait. Do you think I will be the one that gets punished?” Jack asked.

”Who else would it be?” Suicide replied. He couldnʼt believe there was someone that was this slow. He then saw Jack took something out, something that was oddly familiar. It took him a while to recognize that the thing was Themisphere Kingdom Faction Badge.

”Good sergeant, can you please check the rank of my badge?” Jack said.

The Sergeant observed the badge for a moment before he exclaimed, ”viscount!”

Suicide almost doubled over hearing it. Viscount? He had become a Baron just yesterday. That was even after getting the support of his guild in completing faction quests. Because even now, there were very few people that had gotten the invitation to join the kingdom faction. He had managed to join due to a freak accident of encountering a special quest that put him in touch with a noble and gaining his support.

Seeing the nobility badge in Jackʼs hand, the sergeant seemed to understand Jackʼs notion. He then looked at Suicide and smiled. He preferred the polite Viscount outworlder compared to this arrogant Baron one. ”There is another penalty in regard to the assault offense, I didnʼt mention before because I thought the question was only about an offense done by the common citizen. If it was an offense between two nobles. The one that perpetrated the offense will have its rank stripped by one rank.”

”Oh? That is also such a punishment?” Jack was surprised. In his mind, he warned himself to not offend any noble without an extremely good reason. He remembered when he cut away Walterʼs arm in the past, a good thing he had everyoneʼs support at the time. He had to refrain from doing things like that next time if he didnʼt want his noble rank to be downgraded.

Suicideʼs face turned pale hearing it. He would not be able to explain to his guild if he lost the progression which the guild had helped him achieve.

”Take him!” The Sergeant instructed his men.

”Wa–wait! It is just a misunderstanding, no damage was done. We were only having a verbal quarrel!”

”Oh? I clearly remember you tried to hit me twice with that mace you are still holding. Itʼs only that your aim was so bad that you ended up hitting your own self,” Jack said.

Suicide Prayer, realizing he was still holding his weapon, quickly stored it back into his inventory. ”No, it is just a warning attempt. It was not an assault!” He said.

”Do you take me as a child? I also saw your swings when I arrived. Or do you want to say that I have a problem with my eyes? Take him!” The sergeant repeated his order.

His men went up to Suicide, he didnʼt dare to resist. All of these native soldiers were higher level. Also, resisting them would just score him a heavier penalty.

”Wait!” Jack called out.

”Yes?” The sergeant asked.

”Good sir, if I recall correctly. He did say that these others here are his people. They come with him, they will leave with him. Since he is leaving with you, I think it is proper that they should follow as well.”

”Yo… you…!” Suicide was brimming with rage. His peopleʼs faces were pale as well now. They were in the middle of doing a guild quest that had a time limit. Getting imprisoned now and failed the quest would cause a penalty to the guildʼs reputation.

The sergeant grinned after hearing Jackʼs words. ”You are right, sir Viscount. Men, take those people as well!”

As the soldiers ushered the group from Six Rings of Prosperity away, Jack waved to them as he said, ”give my regards to Luck Holder, will you?” Luck Holder was one of the coalition leaders belonging to the guild Six Rings of Prosperity who died by Jackʼs sword during the battle of Crestfall Plain.

”You are still as brash as I remembered,” Paytowin commented after everything calmed down.

”And you are less overbearing than what I remembered,” Jack uttered, but then he regretted it. He didnʼt think his words through before saying. Paytowin was having a glum expression.

The fact was that Paytowin used to be both his friend and rival in past games. They were both independent experts who distanced themselves from guilds. The two of them were actually enemies at first, mainly because of their two very conflicting ideologies in gaming.

Paytowin didnʼt simply choose his alias, he literally embodied the name. He was the pinnacle archetype of a pay-to-win player. Whenever he started a game, he would spend a huge amount of money to secure a huge advantage right from the start. When he felt he was lacking, he would continue to pour in money to stay ahead of others. He felt no shame of it. In fact, he was proud of it. Hence, his name.

Jack, on the other hand, was the kind of player who could only pay for his expertise with the other type of currency, time. Other than the time he needed for work, eat, and sleep, all his remaining time was spent in games.

Jack used to despise those players who just spent money to get ahead of others in games. Paytowin used to look down on players who didnʼt have enough money to win against him. The two often clashed. But through their run-ins, there were also occasions where they worked together, to complete collective quests or fight a difficult boss. Over time, the two learned to respect one another, as they found that they both had a common similarity, which was their love for fun gaming.

They didnʼt know each otherʼs real identity at first. That happened in a freak coincidence during a gaming convention. Jack somehow recognized the habit Paytowin often committed during gaming when he saw a public game testing in the convention. Jack called out to him afterward and it turned out the guy really was Paytowin in the game.

The two became friends in real life but most of their friendship was still spent in the gaming world. Thatʼs because in the real world, the two social circles were vastly different. Paytowin or George in the real world was the only son of the owner of a very successful international shipping company.

Georgeʼs parents often complained about his gaming habits, they wanted him to be more serious in his career and take over their empire, but George still stole some time to go into games whenever he had the chance to. That was also why he couldnʼt spend as much time as Jack in games and thus resort to the method of using his money for an advantage. After knowing his reason, Jack didnʼt find his pay-to-win attitude to be so abhorring any longer.

In this current world, however, Paytowin had lost the leverage that had often provided his edge. There was no option to exchange real-world money for items or coins or anything in this world. All the wealth that was possessed by one in the past world, was gone.

As a matter of fact, as Jack thought about it, their roles could be said to have been flipped over. Paytowin now had no choice but to use time and hard work to become an expert, while Jack had seemingly become more like a pay-to-win player, considering his benefits of getting the second class, Peniel, and all the other advantages he had acquired at the start.

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