"You two are under arrest for attacking an officer and injuring a soldier of the Kingdom of Astragon."

“You two are under arrest”

“Arrest”

These words were clearly heard by Connor.

‘First we get mistaken as mages, then soldiers now we get arrested. Can anything get even worse?’

‘Wait, that’s some shitty foreshadowing. Note to self, do not under any circumstance, say stuff like that.’ Connor reprimanded himself.

Connor quickly began to think about their next actions. ‘There are 10 men encircling me and Miles plus two big boys called Audric and Wulf. We can probably get rid of them but that would turn us into enemies of the kingdom… It’s best if we go with them and explain our situation, worst case scenario… we escape.’ Connor shrugged. ‘Oh gods of Allunia give us your blessing for just one fucking time and keep me away from trouble- wait, there are gods here right?’ he shook his head.

“Wulf.” Audric started speaking. “It was one of my men’s fault for acting too ballsy. The kid even helped him with some magic item.” Audric pointed at Connor as he spoke.

“I don’t know or care about the details Audric, all I know that one of the soldiers of our glorious army got injured and who knows, he might have to retire after all.” Wulf said, without a hint of emotion on his face.

“Hey, aren’t you going to let us talk instead of this?” said Connor while pointing at the soldiers who were encircling them.

“Commander, what are we going to do?” Miles said to Connor silently, he was aiming at one of the soldiers encircling them he was slightly surprised after seeing Connor having a carefree look considering the situation.

“Lower your weapon, let them take us.” Connor answered. Miles’ expression changed in an instant. “Don’t look at me like I ordered you to die, I know that you think we can take them down instantly. But it will not be helpful for us if we make an enemy out of a kingdom, yet. Who knows, maybe we can find something amusing in wherever they are taking us. Surrender for now.” he elaborated as he raised his arms. Connor was thinking about some of the TV Series, Movies and novels he had seen in his world where main characters discovered their way in life or opportunities in prison.

Miles nodded as he understood and lowered his guard. On the other hand, he thought about a word Connor said previously. Miles wondered what he meant by saying ‘making an enemy out of a kingdom, yet.’ he shook his head, right now was not a good time to think.

Seeing them lower their magic wands and raising their arms, the soldiers slowly began to approach. One of the soldiers turned back and looked at Wulf before the latter nodded. After receiving the approval of their captain, the soldiers quickly walked over to Miles and Connor and took their magic wands away from them. Connor smirked as he saw the men taking their rifles. He glanced at his pistol holster, no one even noticed that -not that they know what pistol is- he didn’t care.

After ensuring they were unarmed, the soldiers brought metal bracelets glowing with a golden hue and put them on Miles and Connor.

“Let me see you mages casting spells with this bracelets on.” one of the soldiers mocked Miles.

‘Repeat a lie often and it becomes the truth… If this continues, even I may believe I am a mage.’ Connor sighed, having heard the conversation.

After bracelets were put on the soldiers looked at each other and nodded, for all they know, mages without their spells were nothing more than ordinary humans so they didn’t bother with anything else.

Wulf came over, observing the youths being apprehended.

“Take them to the prison.” Wulf ordered the soldiers. He turned to look at Audric and nodded slightly.

The party left the Mercenary’s Guild quickly. Mercenaries and other bystanders had a surprised look on their faces, the group who took down a soldier with only pointing his wand at him surrendered to the soldiers. After half an hour, everything had returned to normal.

….

By the time they arrived at the prison, it was already evening. It was a building that just looked the barracks in Ludhom Village. The building was made out of stone, laid out on a considerable plot and was several stories tall. While entering the building Connor was able to see a sign that read ‘Westland Garrison’ according to the sign, it was probably the headquarters of Westland’s City Guard.

Connor and Miles were led to a floor with several cells, of course, they were stripped out of their clothing and were given plain white cloths, Connor was shocked as soon as they entered because the cells were actually pretty clean considering that this was a prison. Insides of the cell looked similar to the shack he had stayed back in Ludhom. There was a small gap on the wall, in this gap, there existed a wooden plank with a circular hole in the middle. This was definitely going to be their toilet for a while. Connor checked the other parts of the room, there was a bunk bed for himself and Miles, a small window covered with metal railings. Near the bunk bed, there was a small wooden bench.

The guards left them to their own accord, they were told that someone high-up would visit them for interrogation in the next few days, there was no need to bother.

‘For a prison, the place they put us in is actually very clean, I am not sure if that they don’t have any prisoners or just that they regularly clean this place, for some reason.’ Connor thought about both sides of the coin.

Connor sighed. ‘It seems like Warzone is long gone after all. I have arrived on a continent called Allunia instead of the game world. According to my observations, it just looks like medieval times on Earth with magic. This is definitely straight out of fantasy novels. Astragon, Gemrich, Ironhorn and Karshire. 4 kingdoms, two of them are at war, one of them is almost forgotten because of their location and dwindling population.’

‘Can I even live a normal life here? Hold on second… do I need to live a normal life here? Some of Warzone’s game features are still… operational.’ Connor thought and quickly opened to browse through the Vehicle Hangar and Equipment Store. ‘Oh, I wonder what happened to the ATV we left on the outskirts of the city.’ he pondered for a second. A few seconds later he noticed a sub-menu located in the vehicle hangar, out of curiosity, he clicked it. According to the menu, he had one summoned vehicle and he could unsummon it, the menu also showed ATV’s durability bar which was full. He mentally clicked the unsummon button and the ATV disappeared, it wasn’t the ATV option disappeared, the whole sub-menu was gone. Forcing him to go back to the original Vehicle Hangar screen. Tilting his head in confusion, he continued to observe the Vehicle Hangar. After checking the hangar for a while he switched to Equipment Store. On both of the menus, most of the gear and vehicles he could see were locked due to his rank. Connor’s eyes were caught on something as he reached the end of Equipment Store.

As you progress throughout the game, more choices will be made available to you.

Connor raised an eyebrow at the note, he could already see a lot of military gear and vehicles and the rank requirement they had. And now the system was saying there’s more?

Unable to comprehend, he shook his head to regain his consciousness, wondering what Miles was doing he looked up and turned left towards the wooden bench. Miles in response, turned and looked at him.

‘Come to think of it, I never observed Miles carefully.’ he thought, since the time Miles was summoned he was almost always silent. Other than obeying orders and following Connor, he hadn’t said or done anything. Even when they were eating their MRE’s during the travel to Westland, he hadn’t said anything unless the conversation was started by Connor himself.

“Miles, why are you so silent all the time? You look like a robot man.” Connor asked in a cheerful manner. Before noticing something with his wording.

‘Wait, he was summoned by the system, so doesn’t that make him an AI… technically… he’s a robot… right?’ Connor was unable to comprehend Miles’ situation.

Miles was slightly surprised and embarrassed at Connor’s words. “I… don’t know. Commander, it just feels like I shouldn’t say anything unless told to.” he replied.

“Miles, what was it like before you were summoned?” Connor asked.

“Summoned?” Miles tilted his head at the question. “You mean when I was recruited under you, commander?”

Connor slightly raised his eyebrows in confusion before nodding.

“I… actually… I don’t know… I woke up in the shack we stayed that night with only one thing in my mind. It felt like there was a voice calling out to me, telling me my name and my purpose, to serve you, commander.” Miles replied.

Connor was perplexed. ‘A voice telling you who you are and instructing you to obey me?’ in Warzone, the soldiers recruited using the system was supposed to be members of the faction player was in with a randomly generated background story for them. This was one of the main selling points of Warzone. Connor rolled his eyes before thinking back to the getting started video he watched before starting the game.

‘Thanks to the groundbreaking multicluster quantum computing, experience Arclight Entertainment’s brand new Genesis Artificial Intelligence Automation (GAIA) technology. All the non-player characters you recruit in-game will be near-sentient beings with their own stories from the beginning of their lives to the moment they found themselves in the middle of a war. You can talk to them as if you are talking to a real human!’ the female voiceover happily said in the video as the recruitment system was being introduced.

Connor scratched his head both out of excitement and confusion. He was excited as there were many unknown elements connected to the game and confused as he did not know any way of knowing them as he was not in the game at all.

He had to wait until he gets to a higher rank and summon more soldiers to test out some of his theories. Until then it was just speculation. Connor felt tired after today’s events and because of the constant thinking, he felt like he was mentally drained. This time he told Miles that he was going to sleep and he should sleep too instead of keeping watch, none of them knew what would happen tomorrow.

Connor laid on to the bed and quickly fell asleep.

….

In a castle located somewhere in Astragon.

An old man with white hair and beard was sitting on his desk stroking his beard, reading the letter he had in his hand that was brought to him by a young girl that looked about 17 to 19 years old, she had a long blonde hair almost reaching to her waist. Her body was fairly developed, she was neither slim nor fat. She could easily be a high school beauty with her looks.

“Casting lethal magic without an incantation in less than a second.” the man stroked his beard again.

“Healing a critical wound in a few seconds with an unknown magic item.” he read some of the lines in the letter out loud.

“Elicia, tell the servants to prepare my carriage, the contents of this letter are very interesting. We will visit Westland.” the old man said towards the young girl.

“Understood, Master Aldren.” Elicia said before slightly bowing to Aldren.

A few minutes later, a carriage with a group of knights was waiting in front of the castle. Aldren walked over to his carriage.

“Archmage Aldren, we are ready to depart.” the chief knight said before bowing to Aldren.