Is this really a Game?!

“Well you certainly didn’t pull any punches there, I’m guessing both of these guys have a couple of broken ribs, not that I have any issues with the way you did things, I would’ve done the same.” Wolf smiles at Reign while talking, he was surprised just then, seeing Reign allow Greenie to fight and then fighting the other guy by himself, not to mention doing it in such a ruthless fashion, he was impressed by Reign’s decisiveness.

“I learned some time ago that the best way to deal with people like them is to simply crush them, if you show any weakness they’ll come like hyenas at you.” Reign simply waves it off before facing everyone.

“So, it’s almost nighttime, I think we had enough action for the day, let’s rest and then tomorrow we’ll go to the Social Hub, I don’t know about you but me and Shadow need to check something out.” Reign looks at them all while talking, everyone nods in agreement while Shadows breath gets a bit hurried, he didn’t know what he was feeling, excitement at the fact that he might talk with his parents tomorrow, or fear that that may be impossible now.

(Whatever happens I have to be prepared, maybe they don’t have the Social Hub at their place, I can’t get overexcited.) Shadow thinks while walking to the castle with everyone, not noticing Reign looking at him with a worried expression.

(I hope they’re all right.) Reign thinks before moving his eyes away from Shadow and continuing on to the castle.

Far above them, on the top of the main tower, Eldar was standing and looking down.

“Those guys definitely didn’t let our expectations down, to think they would be able to take down a level 10 at this stage, incredible.” He says with sparkling eyes while looking at the group from above, behind him Jack inspects a map of the surrounding area that they finally made.

“That’s for certain, but more importantly, are you sure about this, you didn’t make any mistakes while scanning the area?” Jack squints his eyes at Eldar who turns around with a frown. “Of course not, you know I would never play around with something that important, it’s correct, we have a little town close by, I was thinking of sending them off there once they become stronger.”

“That’s not a bad idea, looking at the map I really can’t see any dangerous areas on the way to the town, a couple of days should be enough for them to level up enough to go there, the main question is, do we tell them now or wait till later?” Jack puts the map down with a sigh. Looking at his usually unreliable captain with a serious expression.

“I was planning on telling them tomorrow, it’s always a good thing to have an objective to strive towards, they’re not dumb, they’ll understand it’s too dangerous to go now, at least I hope so.” Eldar sits down and shrugs his shoulders, he had big expectations towards Reign and the others, he wasn’t willing to see them die so soon.

“I understand, I’ll tell them you wish to meet them tomorrow, they’ll probably go to the Social Hub, I’ll wait for them to leave before telling them.” Jack stands up from his seat, nodding to Eldar he turns around and leaves the office.

Reign was lying on the bed, thinking about the last couple of days and all the crazy things that have happened.

Lightning flickers on his hands, it has become something of a habit of his to play around with his ability every night, for some reason, it always calmed him down. The lightning was much stronger than before now, Reign felt that even without using a skill it could be used to deal damage to the enemy. 𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘦𝑡

Looking at the lightning he has an idea, making it dance between his thumb and middle finger he slowly squeezes it with them, trying to make it more compressed. Squeezing down he manages to turn the lightning into something resembling a marble ball. Letting it rest on his thumb he puts his middle finger behind it and pushes it down on the thumb, the finger gets a bit red as he pushes down hard, finally he flicks it forward, hitting the ball and making it launch at the wall.

Zziiip!

The lightning creates a trail in the air as it hits the wall, charring it black.

Ding!

[New skill created]

[Will you name the skill now?]

“Lightning bullet.” Reign smiles as he looks at the notification, a moment of thought was enough to give him the inspiration to try this move, seeing it work and getting a new skill made Reign happy. Deactivating the skill he turns around, closes his eyes, and goes to sleep.

In the morning Reign and the others have breakfast before leaving the castle and moving towards the Social Hub, Shadow was shaking a bit, filled with trepidation about what might have happened with his parents.

Reign comes to his side and pats his shoulder. “Hey man, you ready to go inside?” He asks the nervous Shadow as they stood right in front of the big building that was the Social Hub.

“Y- yes, let’s go.” Shadow gulps and tries his best to calm himself down, slowly he enters the Hub together with Reign.

“Wow.”

The inside of the Hub was very different from the outside, the outside look of the Hub was like a medieval inn, while inside looked very high tech with big floating screens shoving the main forum conversations. On the sides were cubicles and smaller screens were put inside them, together with two chairs and a desk.

“Well, let’s go to one of those.” Reign grabs Shadow by the bicep and walks towards one of the cubicles. Getting inside they both sit down and look at the screen. It looked like a simple chatbox, having options to filter the range of where people were talking from. The minimal range simply said safe zone, while the highest they could go so far was 200 km around them, looking at the multitude of people talking they now confirmed one thing, there were people close by, at least in the circle of 200km.

At the upper right corner, there was a button that read log in, Shadow clicks on it and gets a notification on the screen.

[Player Shadow has logged in, showing messages.]

The screen blacked out for a moment before going back to normal, Shadow could now see one more room on the screen, there was a red blinking dot on it, he touches it with his finger and the chat room changes, the first sentence he reads makes his eyes tear up in happiness.

[ Lee are you alright, it’s me, it’s dad, me and mom are both fine, please answer as soon as you see this son, please. ]

Reign logs in and finds a similar message left for him too.

[ Reign I hope you are alright, it’s uncle Hwang, me and auntie are both fine, answering me as soon as you see this ok? ]

Looking at the message Reign feels a familiar warmth in his body, using a keyboard in front of him he types a reply and sends it, Shadow does the same.

“See, what did I tell you, it’ll take more than some monsters and magic to take uncle down.” Reign smiles at Shadow who was smiling from ear to ear and pats his shoulder.

They both get up, paying the fee for using the cubicle and sending the message they go out to meet the others.

[ – 10 S coins ]

Getting out they see the others standing together with Jack and waiting for them.

“Hey, what’s up?” Shadow looks at Jack and asks him.

“The captain wants to see you guys, it’s important,” Jack tells them before turning around and walking towards the castle, seeing the serious expression on his face everyone hurried after him.

Knock Knock

Jack knocks on the door twice before opening it, not waiting for a reply.

“Hey, guys, nice to see you again, come one sit down, makes yourselves nice and comfortable ok?” Eldar smiles at everyone while urging them to sit down, after everyone had done so he moves closer and gets serious.

“This,” He says while showing them the map on the table. “Is the finished map of our surroundings, the first 100km that is.”

Hearing what he said everyone widens their eyes and jumps up to check the map out.

“Calm down, I’ll let you look at it all you want, let me finish first.” Eldar puts his hand up and makes them sit down, finishing that he points with his finger at one place on the map. “This place here is about 85km away from us, I have confirmed it’s a town, one that has a smaller safe zone.”

Everyone gets excited while listening to him, they already knew there were people around them by looking at the forum, but now they even knew the location of one place.

“What I want from you guys is simple, level up to 16 and go there, see if you can contact the people living there and see if they are interested in an alliance, and before you ask yes, you need to be level 16 before doing this, if it was anyone else I wouldn’t let them go before hitting level 20 but you guys have shown strength beyond your levels so I lowered it for you.”

He turns around and points to three spots that were in the middle between them and the town.

“These three places are the only things you will need to worry about, they’re the reason for the level requirements.”

Everyone nods as they suddenly receive a mission from the system.

[Captain Eldar has given you a mission.]

[Reach level 16 and go to the new town.]

Failing to do one of the two will result in the mission failing and you not receiving the rewards.

“Alright, we’re off to level then.” Reign suddenly jumps up and moves towards the door with everyone following him.

Jack chuckles at the side while Eldar smiles.