Is this really a Game?!

Carlo and Marco left the building right away and made their way toward their safe zone. The two didn’t hurry however and slowly walked past the many buildings as the moon shined in the sky. It was currently evening and they were going to travel back to their territory tonight. Of course, they weren’t going alone, three cloaked figures were moving behind them, and each of them had the cloaks and other stealth items Reign had gotten from his adventures in Riplas.

Some items weren’t even needed as both Wolf and Shadow had their own items as well. Wolf was previously teleported to a world whose technology was similar to Earth’s before mana appeared, with the powerful mana outbreak, and without the system at the beginning of everything, not only did all electronics stop, but people were almost completely helpless against the powerful monsters that arrived.

It was on the 3rd day after the outbreak that the system had found the planet and integrated itself into it, creating safe zones and allowing people to become stronger more easily. More than 60% of the population died in the first 3 days however and the situation was bleak. Even though the events happened over a year ago on the planet, it was still incredibly hard for them to push back the monsters and reclaim land, because of that, the system made missions to mercenaries that would often come and help them out. A couple of powerful people had even managed to take some territories and push the monsters back, but they were quite rare.

From what Wolf had found out, there were only 2 seeds of hope that were found on the planet, perhaps there had been more in the first days, but without a safe zone and any way of knowing about their powers, they were killed easily. The planet also changed, with mana being everywhere, the plants grew larger every day and the whole planet started expanding. Many died thanks to the natural disasters that happened as a result of the planet growing larger.

It was only then that Wolf understood just how lucky they were. The system was there since the beginning and the people of Earth had a fighting chance against the monsters that appeared. Safe zones allowed the weak to survive and the powerful to rest while the system itself made it much easier to become more powerful.

As for Shadow, he was transported to a steam-punk world. The many types of machinery of that world didn’t need any electricity to work and as a result, they were fine even after mana appeared. Huge cities were built after the people there found mana cores that could be found in Tier I monsters and above. The mana cores were excellent sources of power and with them, they were able to build stronger and bigger constructs.

There were even two classes that were specific to that planet, the “Tinkerer”, and the “Mechanic”. Both were quite similar to each other as both classes were closely linked to machines and constructs. The Mechanic however was a class that would allow the player to get more knowledge and build powerful machines that could help out in battle. The Tinkerer on the other hand was a class that was an expert in making strange weapons and armor.

A Mechanic could overwhelm his opponents with the sheer number of machines he had built while the Tinkerer would overwhelm them with incredible power and defense from what he had created. Long-range weapons, middle-range, melee weapons, weapons that could act by themselves, turrets, armors that had weapons installed in them… a powerful Tinkerer could make all of it.

After spending some time there and even fighting against some mechanics and tinkerers, Shadow was able to get a lot of experience against them, he also made sure to steal as many of their constructs as he could in hopes of letting the people here choose the class. There were bound to be people that were smart but didn’t want to make potions or normal weapons or armor, if these machines could interest them, perhaps they could try out one of these classes.

Even though those classes were rare and usually wouldn’t appear during the class trial, if people already had knowledge about them, then just maybe they could get it, if not during the trials, then maybe at level 20 when you get another chance at switching your class.

Even though the two had brought a fine number of items, it still paled a bit compared to Reign who was in a special position where he visited numerous battlefields and had access to thousands of different items of all kinds. The sheer number of items that Reign brought back was in the hundreds and even though most of them were useless to them, they could always sell them to the players or put them up for auction.

As the three followed Carlo and Marco, they made sure to not be seen by anyone, if the enemy knew that they were coming along with the two, they would probably not attack them. Even without them showing, there was always the possibility of the enemy sensing that something was wrong and not attacking them.

Greenie was going with Loreno, he however was not going alone. Neil, Cameron, and Elijah were going with him with their teams. Each of the teams was incredibly powerful and it shouldn’t be difficult for them to defend against anything the enemy might throw.

Even if two Tier I fighters attack them, they should be fine as Reign had sent Greenie to buy a multitude of different potions in order for them to be ready for anything. He also bought some very expensive one-time-use items that looked similar to bombs. The bombs, although had a short explosion radius, could inflict massive damage to the enemy.

It took Carlo and Marco about 3 hours to get back to their safe zone. Thanks to Carlo releasing his mana pressure, no monsters attacked them and there was no reason to slow down during the trip. Soon the two entered the safe zone while Reign and the others waited outside. It was currently 2 after midnight, and the plan was for the people to get ready and start the trip at 8.

The trio made their way into one of the abandoned buildings and made camp there. There were some monsters inside the building, but they were quickly dealt with by Shadow whose ability was perfect for killing without producing any noise.

Even without them releasing their mana, the nearby monsters wouldn’t dare get close to the room they were staying in. That was thanks to the natural aura around the three who were Tier I fighters. It couldn’t truly be explained in words, but simply being close to any of them would make weaker beings shudder in fear as they could sense that there was something dangerous that was close to them. That would make it easy for Reign and the others to rest before following and joining Carlo during their trip to Doncaster.

Reign and the others simply used the system to make an alarm clock. Thanks to their status as pioneers, they had many more functions in the system opened compared to others. There was also the fact that they were amongst if not the most powerful humans on the planet currently, which opened even more functions for them.

The three slept as the night passed uneventfully, nobody tried attacking them or doing anything in the safe zone and soon the system woke them up. It wasn’t really pleasant to wake up in such a way, the system would simply speak to them in order to wake them up, but since the words were spoken directly inside their heads it was incredibly uncomfortable.

They quickly looked outside the window and were able to see that tens of people were already lined up in the territory. More people were slowly coming to join them and soon they all started walking out of the territory. Reign and the others followed after them before entering a forest. Thanks to their equipment, it was easy for them to simply join the large group as their presence was very faint and it was hard for people to see them in the lush forest.

If someone was stronger they could perhaps sense that someone had just appeared next to them, but most of the people in the center of the group were quite weak and it was impossible for them to do so.

‘The first part of the trip will definitely be smooth, the enemy will probably wait until we enter the grasslands before doing anything.’ Reign thought to himself while observing their surroundings. Since the enemy could tame and use monsters then it would be hard for them to do anything in low-level areas. Even in the grasslands, they could only hope to use large numbers of monsters to attack the group and kill some of them, instilling fear in the hearts of the others.

‘Well it doesn’t matter, the moment they attack, I will be able to sense them, after that it’s game over for you bastards.’ Reign flashed a dangerous smile as they continued their trip. After about 2.5 hours they finally entered the grasslands.𝘦𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘦𝑙．𝑜𝑟𝘨