After deciding to explore the town, urged by the sudden quest that the system had given him, Connor moved towards the door of the Adventurer's Guild and left the building. Facing the bustling street, Connor had to admit that he was pretty amazed at the sight.

'Explore the town… That is a bit vague… Right… What am I supposed to explore?' Connor thought to himself. Usually, in the games he had played beforehand, all explore missions gave a certain circle in the minimap or the map in general, however, this time, he did not even have access to any map. He started to walk around with the goal of exploring the town.

One by one, Connor followed the crowd. He passed through various streets filled with hawkers, clothing stores, weaponsmiths, armoursmiths, alchemy stores and to his surprise, there was even a bank. A relatively luxurious looking building with two heavily armed soldiers, not even close to the city guards who were standing guard and watching incomers to the town at the town gates Connor had seen prior. Connor heard various hawkers shouting throughout the streets.

"The best magic-infused necklace out there! Buy it now! Freshens your mind and gives fertility! Just 2 silver!"

"This sword right here is so sharp that it cut down a Warg in pieces before!"

"Old man, why is it here then?"

"Fuck off."

"Fresh cabbages! My cabbages! 5 copper!"

While walking, Connor suddenly realized that the surroundings were getting dark. Finally coming out of his stupor of watching the hawkers, he looked forward only to realize that he was in some sort of an alleyway. Dark and out of the streets and eyes of the villagers.

'Huh. This seems like a great place to rob someone.' Connor thought. As if he had jinxed his chances, he heard a sound that was similar to a dagger, or a sword being unsheathed.

'Did I just jinx myself?' he thought mentally as he turned around.

"Alright kid, you know the drill. All the money you have." A gruff voice resounded in his hears. Connor couldn't really pick up the detail of the man in front of him as the bright street was located behind the man and there was not enough light.

"Your money or your life."

"I will drink from your skull."

Connor was able to hear at least two more distinct voices in the alleyway.

'Okay, this is quite the… cliché.’ Connor sighed and unslung his MP5. Turning the safety off and aiming it towards the man in front of him.

“Oi, what are you doing?” the man with the gruff voice inquired while moving his dagger in front of him, as he was taking a defensive stance.

“Copying Indiana Jones, with an MP5 though.” Connor said as he pulled the trigger.

Suddenly, a loud noise of a gun going off echoed throughout the alleyway. Connor’s bullet had hit the man in the chest.

“ARGH! YOU FUCKER! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!” the man shouted as he broke his stance and tried to hold his now-bleeding upper chest with his left hand.

‘Huh, the mobs are quite tough. I thought they’d at least flinch back or something.’ Connor thought to himself before pulling the trigger 5 more times in a rapid succession… As he fired… ‘Come to think of it, why I can’t see a health bar or information? The only good thing this system does is just scam the players…’

ACHIEVEMENT EARNED:

Congratulations on eliminating your first enemy!

Rewards: 20 XP - 10 AP

‘Oh. Thanks. Wonder if I can spend my AP. I hope it is achievement points and not something else though.’

As Connor saw the sudden message popping up in front of him, the man growled and fell to the ground. ‘Alright, where are the other ones?’ Connor thought and turned around. The man was shot and killed in just mere seconds, without being able to react to anything after the second bullet. He was hit in the chest three times, one in the shoulder and one of the bullets had apparently hit him in the neck. One seemed to miss.

“RUN!” A voice echoed followed by the steps of a few people. Gradually becoming harder to hear. ‘So… That’s it? My XP just ran away.’ Connor thought, as he changed the safety on his weapon and slung his MP5 once again. Walking towards the now-dead ruffian that tried to rob him.

‘Alright, how do I loot?’ he thought to himself. Even though he got closer to the body, no loot screen appeared. ‘Loot’ he said to himself mentally, checking if there were any loot screens, to no avail, nothing happened. ‘Rewards, Bounty, Claim’ he tried other keywords to see if there were anything, alas, he was met with failure. ‘Manual looting?’ Connor thought to himself and crouched down near the man’s body.

Suddenly, he was hit with a smell. A smell that would definitely make some people frown, a smell that Connor was familiar with. Blood. It was the blood of the man. Looking down at his body, he realized that one of his bullets had pierced the man’s neck. The blood was now oozing out of his wound, gushing every now and then.

‘Fuck.’ Connor reacted. Even though games had started to get more and more realistic, he had never seen such thing in any other game he played. Usually, if a mob was killed by the player in-game, they would definitely bleed a tiny bit to give the impression of realism to the player. However, most games never dared to put any more detail for gore, afraid of any government restrictions. In the end, if a game was labeled for 18 or older, the market available for it was substantially less than a game that was 13 or older.

The man’s face was crumpled. His eyes open, mouth agape. He died with the thought of an unbelievable power hurting him, killing an experienced ruffian just like him in just mere seconds.

Connor looked at the man’s face and neck, still oozing blood and frowned. ‘Way too realistic.’ Was the only thing he could say. The smell of blood continued to linger in the air. Connor leaned down on the man’s body and started patting him down, seeing if there was anything of value. He had already taken the dagger that the man had and sheathed it on his belt. As Connor moved his hands on the man’s body, he could feel the lukewarm blood touching his hands, moistening his gloves. As he patted the man down, he was able to find something resembling a sack. It was a crude one for sure, but seemed to serve the purpose. He opened the sack to find some copper and a few silvers. ‘Ah, there we go.’ He thought as he put the sack in his pocket. Realizing that his hands were still bloody, he frowned once again. ‘Too realistic.’

Suddenly, he heard the sounds of armour clacking against each other closing in. A heavily armoured knight followed by 6 other knights with a crest on their upper left chest. “What is going on here!” the leading knight shouted as he unsheathed his sword and pointed at Connor’s back. Connor, seeing the man and his entourage raised his hands reflexively as he spoke. “I was walking through the street and these people attacked me out of nowhere, asking for me to give them all the money I have. I was able to take down one while the rest escaped.” Connor defended himself as he came out of the alleyway into the light. He realized that the ongoing scene was quite a spectacle for some villagers as people were gathering around to watch them. As he came out, the guards were able to get a glimpse on him. The heavy knight leading the guards frowned under his helmet for a split second before sheathing his sword, followed by the other knights.

“My lord. We heard loud noises coming out of this alleyway and were sent here to see what is going on.” The heavy knight respectfully explained the situation to Connor.

“Ah yes, just as I said. I was wandering through the streets and somehow ended up in the alleyway, this guy.’ As he pointed at the dead man. ‘Blocked my way and told me to I have to pay or I would die. I also heard at least two more guys saying similar things in the alleyway, I had to defend myself. Managed to take down this guy but the others ran away.” He explained to the heavy knight.

“He defended himself with that shitty dagger?” one of the knights in the back let out as he pointed at the dagger dangling on Connor’s belt. Eliciting a shrug from the knight next to him as a response. Suddenly, the heavy knight turned his head around and looked at the knight. The pressure of that look alone forced the knight to snap back into attention and shut up immediately.

Turning back to Connor the heavy knight spoke. “My lord, my name is Felix. As this situation happened inside the city, we need you to come with us to the barracks as we need to investigate what has happened.”

“Sure, I don’t mind.” Connor answered, the quest to explore the town was still there, being told to follow the knights to the barracks was not a bad thing, it could even finish the quest if he visited the barracks.

‘Huh… interesting.’ The heavy knight, Felix. Thought as he turned around and instructed the knights to seal off the area for a mage to come and investigate.

“Thank you my lord. Please follow us.” Felix said as he started moving, Connor following behind him and knights following Connor. Just in case…