The [Rights] and [Duties] of your [Guard Card] have been updated. Please refer to it to avoid offenses.

That was the first thing that met Blair’s eyes when she woke up. Despite not having her glasses on and the window hovering over a foot away from her, it was crisp clear. That made her assume it wasn’t an actual object that floated in front of her and more a window that was broadcasted straight to her brain or something of the sort.

Her understanding of all this sci-fi nonsense was almost nonexistent.

Before she put her glasses on, she summoned her Inventory and checked her newly-gained Guard Card. As she expected, even without her glasses, she could see it perfectly. Just to make sure, Blair crawled up to a sitting position and tried to overlap the pop-up with a desk, only for it to push closer to her eyes.

She couldn’t see the legs of the desk properly even when it was exactly where the windows were.

That made her wonder how it interacted with blind people. If it wasn’t triggered by eyesight, then they could possibly see it but when she closed her eyes, she couldn’t see it, making it difficult to make an assumption.

That wasn’t what was important now, though.

She needed to see the rules.

Rights:

Right to bear arms. Right to challenge anyone but the Mayor to a Duel at any time. Right to participate in the [Settlement Raid].

Duties:

To participate in at least 3 Duels per day. Killing a Monster will be considered participation in a Duel. [Current Count: 0/3] To be an active member of the community. To obey the directions of the Mayor and Council Members to the best of your abilities. Failure to abide by any of these duties will result in [Forced Expulsion].

At first glance, she didn’t see the difference. Only on the third repetition did Blair catch the difference: the rules wanted her to kill 3 Monsters or to participate in Duels. That didn’t mean she had to win, just start a Duel with someone.

However, if a Duel was to be started, it meant that one of the participants would lose a Card of theirs while the winner would get a new one.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the Mayor wanted the Guards to amass more Cards, whether that be in preparation for the next Monster Wave or the so-called Settlement Raid. By encouraging Duels, it gave them an avenue to gain more Cards without risking their lives.

The whole point of becoming a Guard was so that she could get Cards and learn to fight without risk of death whilst having a clear conscience.

That was no longer an option.

It was either win or lose —almost like a competition.

Blair hated them.

She glanced through the windows, which was now part of her morning routine thanks to the lack of toothbrushes and a hairbrush, for that matter. It now consisted of wiping her face with a wet hand and rubbing them together, then wiping it on her torn tank top recycled into a towel.

She spotted two people glaring at each other with the contempt expected of lifelong rivals down in the street and raised an eyebrow. One moment, they were standing there, yelling insults at each other and the very next moment, the both of them were gone.

Duels brought both combatants into a Duel Zone, which was a pocket dimension that was separate from the one they were in. It obviously meant that they wouldn’t be in the real world while they were in said pocket dimension, but simply disappearing like that was odd to see.

It didn’t take long before one of them popped back into existence, in the exact same spot he was standing in while the other one was nowhere to be seen.

The loser respawned where they were before the Duel, making it obvious who’d lost the Duel.

Blair didn’t bother to look at the aftermath. Instead, she took a seat behind the desk and looked down at the corner she now called home. It was certainly uncomfortable but compared to sleeping on a creepy-looking sofa that reeked, it was easier on her sanity to know that she was sleeping on something that looked mostly clean.

She made sure to wipe it rigorously with the used-up bandages after the blood was dried.

Her back still ached but it wasn’t as bad as the first day. Maybe it was her back getting used to the strain, or maybe it was thanks to the presence of Mind of Steel. Either way, it made her life more comfortable and that was always good.

After a quick breakfast and no short amount of time spent tying a bandage around her head to keep her glasses in place, Blair found herself jogging out of the building.

Deep down, there was that side of her that still liked jogging. The only part of it that she hated was the exhaustion, and she needed to be exhausted to increase her Stamina. It had to be decent if she wanted to survive in the upcoming Monster Wave and she’d already increased her Mana by repeatedly using Skills that drained Mana. That meant constant usage would increase it in some way.

She’d almost come to terms with the fact that she lived all alone in the building. No one made a sound and it was easy to hear if anyone was making a ruckus thanks to all the noises of the modern world being lost to time.

Yet she heard footsteps around the corner.

The moment she did, Blair’s thoughts got out of control. Her paranoid side instantly homed in on the murderer from before —whoever had killed Anna. They were still wandering around, and if it was a psychopathic slasher instead of a person that specifically had a grudge for Anna, it made it dangerous for all of them.

It was made worse by the fact that she ‘mourned’ Anna’s death, making her a possible target if it was someone that hated Anna enough to stab him before pushing him off a skyscraper.

All her worries were dashed when she caught sight of the man from before —the one that won the Duel, as he hadn’t reappeared where he started.

That reminded Blair of the fact that she didn’t want to lose any of her Cards. There was nothing disposable about them. All her items were useful and all her Skills would help her at some point unless it was Claw Retraction —she could do without that. Even if it was useful in some cases, if she was resorting to using that, then her chances of surviving would already be slim.

In hindsight, it was indispensable.

Almost expecting him to force her into a Duel, she stood there with furrowed brows, ready to summon her Steel Spear at any moment. However, he walked out of the building without even giving her a second glance —there was a single, cursory one, though.

Out of nowhere, a series of beeps resounded, forcing Blair to place her hand on the phone in her pocket. She knew full well that it was off but hoping to be wrong, she pulled it out of her pocket and stared at it.

The sound wasn’t coming from the phone.

There was only one answer: the Communication Card.

“Communication Card, appear,” she commanded. After summoning and storing her spear numerous times, it was almost second nature to her.

The Card materialized in her hand and she stared at it. Sure enough, the sound was coming from it and it was shaking rigorously. She didn’t know the first thing about operating this thing. It wasn’t taught in the Tutorial and it wasn’t exactly the most intuitive design.

“Communication Card, activate?” she said, unsure of whether it’d work or not. That was her best guess and if that didn’t work, she’d be at a loss as to what to do.

Would you like to accept a call from [Player: Riley Rouge]?

“Yes,” she said.

There was a click and Blair heard a voice she hadn’t heard in a while: her father’s.

“Hey there, pumpkin,” he said with a hoarse voice that she’d never forgotten.

The last time she ever saw him was when she was eight, before her mother broke up with him. Ever since, all she’d heard of him were from her mother badmouthing him.

“Dad?” she asked slowly, brows furrowed and eyes narrowed. There was a slight tremble in her voice as she spoke.

“It’s definitely easier to get in contact with you with these fancy things,” he said and she heard a far too familiar chuckle —he chuckled like that all the time.

The card was still in her hand yet she heard his father’s words clearly, as if she had headphones on. The ringing sound was coming from inside her head before she summoned the Card too, so it was clear that the System somehow directly broadcasted the sound to her ears.

Blair didn’t put anything past its capabilities after it started letting them use Magic.

“Blair Corbin. Definitely rolls off the tongue better than Blair Rouge, if I say so myself,” he said and took a deep, content breath. She could almost imagine the man with an annoyingly self-confident smirk.

“Lemme guess, your mom hasn’t called yet,” he said.

“No. No, she hasn’t,” whispered Blair.

“Well, she’s alive and well, in case you were wondering. Should’ve heard her reaction,” he said, and after a round of sniggering, he continued in a strained, high-pitched voice, clearly imitating a woman’s voice, “No, you will not talk to my daughter. Don’t you dare, you asshole!”

After a few seconds of uncontrolled laughter, her father finally calmed down.

“Then I hung up,” he said cheerfully.

Blair gulped and opened her mouth, but closed it after a few seconds of trying to articulate what she wanted to say. With a strained voice, she forced herself to speak up, which amounted to nothing more than a whimper, “Why?”

“Still, you’re almost like a hermit, pumpkin. What kind of teenager doesn’t have social media? Even if your mom banned it, there ought to have been that rebellious side of you just itching to do otherwise, no?” he asked.

“No,” she said as tears welled up in front of her eyes, blurring her sight.

“Hmm? That’s weird. Your mom’s attitude must’ve rubbed off on you a lot in the last few years,” he said.

“Few?” she half-whimpered and half-growled, “It’s been more than ten years!”

“Fourteen years, yeah, I know. But trust me, pumpkin, if I could’ve visited you, I would have. Living with someone that would’ve bitten my head off doesn’t exactly scream approachable, does it? Hmm?” he asked, “So how’s that loser Lucas been treating you?”

“He- he’s great,” said Blair and bit her lips. The tears that had welled up in her eyes were now coursing down her face and her nose was scrunched up, “He paid for all my tuition fees and bought me anything I needed. He gave me a roof over my head and- and he never hit me.”

“Yeah, that sounds like him alright. He’s a decent guy, even if he’s a jackass,” said her father and coughed a few times, then asked, “That said, you still in Ascot? Let’s see. It’s August so it should still be warm there. Don’t catch a cold. It’s real annoying since all the medicine’s expired.”

“Dad… where are you?” she asked, fully aware that he was too far to ever run into.

It was basically impossible to travel to another country since Blair was sure that all the planes were in disrepair —just like the cars. On top of that, the tiny city of New Ascot was now the size of a megalopolis thanks to the same location being cloned several times to separate them into groups of thousand.

“Back in England, obviously. And here it comes. Gotta go. I’ll call you again if I manage to score another kill. Good luck and try not to die,” he said jovially and another click resounded, concluding the call.

He still talked exactly how Blair remembered him to and his attitude was still the same.

It was surreal, almost like she was dreaming.

She pinched her cheek and pulled on it.

This wasn’t a dream.

She summoned her Status Card and looked at how many Credits she had, and spotted that she had 55. Whether that was a lot or not, she did not know, but 1 Credit let her talk for 10 minutes —that meant she could talk for 550 minutes, which was more than 9 hours.

It was enough to call everyone she wanted to talk with!

That’s when she realized she didn’t want to talk with anyone.

Her mother was last on the list of people she wanted to talk with and Lucas, her step-father, was toward the end of it. Her best and only friend from high school hated her guts now and the acquaintances she got to know in university were just that —people she knew but had no bond with.

Maybe her grandfather.

No, he was turning eighty-five this year and they were in a so-called Stasis until a Settlement survived 10 Waves, which was impossible as there could only be one Wave in a day.

At least she hoped so.

If they had to fight off 2 Monster Waves in a day, it’d be a disaster.

Blair tried to wipe the tears from her eyes but her glasses got in the way. She tried to pull it off, but the bandages that kept it attached to her head kept it tightly hugging her face.

She needed new glasses.