Day 4 NIGHT

None of his assailants had anything useful on them. They only had tier 1 equipment, which he already had and didn't need, and they had also neglected to buy any potions.

At least they were greedy, he thought, smiling. Markus had just scored the jackpot: over 50k credits.

He hadn't bothered to clean up the bodies, however. On the outside, it would seem like the guards were against PKing, right? Unfortunately, this was only a small fraction. After so many cycles of players, NPCs, and enemies, most of them had just accepted the inevitable and instead focused on maintaining their city. Whenever a player keeled over in their city, they would send guards to remove the bodies and examine their anatomy, hoping to find something that they could trade. Past cycles had included vampire fangs, pixie wings, and orc skin.

Of course, the players usually didn't know about these sorts of things. And even if they did, they were unlikely to tell others about it. After all, as time went on, the game stopped being an MMO and became an FFA instead. Markus found that out the hard way.

And now, he was on his way back to the hotel. Turns out the library had closed 3 hours ago.

"Those fucking bitches! I'll cut their heads off!"

A man with no shirt or pants stood in a forest. All he had was his underwear and a small dagger. Written on a stick nearby were the words, "Later, sucker!" The remnants of a campfire were nearby, as well as the imprints of 3 bodies.

Caden was walking on his own, picking fruits off trees, when he had heard a noise. He turned around, dagger at the ready, to find 3 girls with ripped clothing smiling at him.

He had shared his food with them when they asked. He had helped them kill monsters. They had thanked him and given him the go-ahead sign. And when he woke up, all of his food was gone, along with the girls. His shirt and pants had been taken off late that night and were subsequently stolen by wild animals, thinking it to be food.

At the moment, however, he was trying to make a fire. He tried unsuccessfully to turn leaves into clothes like in the movies, even calling out words like "craft clothes" in an attempt to evoke a response out of the system.

His futile attempts to make fire were blown out by a breeze. The rage in his head boiled over and he began screaming out at the world.

Caden broke down suddenly, cradling his face in his hands. "It's not fair! It's not fair!" He muttered to himself over and over again. His head was filled up with voices, some whispering, while others laughing. They were ridiculing him, shouting at him for being a fool, laughing at his naivety. One voice cut through all of them, however.

"If it's not fair, then I'll make it fair!" He growled, his lips curved upward in a smile. Caden bent down, finding an indentation in the dirt. He began to follow the tracks, smiling all the while.

Caden crouched in the bushes. Underneath the night sky, a fire flickered, with a group of players sitting around it. He recognized the three girls from the night before, as they seduced two men in front of his eyes. They began to undress, and Caden watched closely, looking for an opening. The fire crackled, masking his sound as he crawled on the ground, knife in hand. Small gasps and moans filled the air, the flames flickering away.

The fire disappeared and all went dark. The players woke up from their trance, muttering to themselves. One of the men got up and moved back towards the edge of the camp.

Caden made his move, plunging his dagger into the man's back. The man's eyes opened wide and opened his mouth to scream. Only his muffled shouts were heard as Caden covered the man's mouth with his hand while he stabbed the player over and over again. His eyes shone with an eerie light, though it was too dim to see him clearly in the night.

The three girls were aware by now that something had gone wrong, but the other guy wasn't. The girls got up, ready to go, while the man groped around in the darkness. "Hey! Where'd you girls go?"

Not another word came out of the man's mouth as he choked on the dagger protruding from his throat. Caden had heard and seen the man clearly in the night and had thrown his dagger at the guy. The man choked for a few more seconds before finally collapsing to the ground.

The girls heard the body crumple to the floor and got into a panic, scattering. The grass rustled as they ran through the forest.

What the hell happened?! Did they both just die? Jessie thought as she ran, clutching the clothes she stole off that kid a few days ago. He was so naive, so eager to share his things, so how could they say no? The dumb bloke showed them everything he had, ripe for the picking. When he was out from her superb technique they got off in the night with his stuff, ready to beg the next player they met for help.

Someone bumped into her and she fell to the ground, wheezing. Dixie must have bumped into her, as the blow felt around the same weight as her. "You dumb fuck, watch where you're going!"

A sharp pain in her calf told her it wasn't Dixie. It felt like someone had hammered a nail into her foot.

"W-wait! I'm just a defenseless girl!" She screamed and turned around, but the figure was too hazy to make out clearly.

The person behind her laughed, tossing something at her. She looked at it and screamed. Dixie's crying gaze looked back at her, the blood on her neck still wet.

Caden then tossed another thing at her. She grabbed it hesitantly, pricking herself with it. What the..

"Okay then. Let's make this fair."

"What? No, wait, w-what do you-" Jessie stabbed outwards, causing Caden to cry out.

"Ha! Got you, you fucking piece of shit!" She ran up to him and swung downwards.

"Sike." Caden stabbed her in the gut, before grabbing her by the hair and cutting her head off.

Just one more.

Unlocked Tip The Scales!

A group of people ran through a forest. Behind them, a cloud of monsters moved swiftly after them. One stumbled and almost fell, but kept going.

"Switch in, Team 2!" A loud, stern voice cut through the air, as another group of people sprang out of the bushes and behind trees with shields made from iron to combat the monsters. As the monsters neared, a ball of fire burnt the ones near the front to death, while bombs and arrows cut the remaining ones to pieces.

A humanoid monster stepped out of the bushes. He wore heavy armor and dark pants, as well as jewelry around his neck and arms. He was blue-skinned and around the size of a large adult human, close to 2 meters tall. No visible weapons could be seen on his person, but he did have the attire and pressure of a fighter.

"Too slow. Ron, you need to run faster. Take a quick break, then get ready." A few groans were heard but disappeared the moment the instructor turned his head towards the sounds.

Behind them, a towering city loomed. Its walls were made of some kind of unrecognizable material, as it glistened in the sun yet at times would cover and shield the city from view. Inside the city, several apartment buildings, paved roads, and hundreds of floating lamps could be seen, suspended in the air.

Igor, the instructor, had around 2 months to get the new batch of players battle-ready. At the rate they were going, however, he had hope. Some of these humans had already unlocked the leaderboard, and one of them was rank 4. It was a bit odd, however, that the rank 4 human had been able to unlock a unique skill so quickly, as well as find a temple, but it didn't matter. What mattered wasn't just that human, but the majority.

Actually, now that he thought about it, where was that human anyway? For Gulak's sake, was he-

An aide ran up to him from the side. "Sir, there's a human causing a disturbance in the middle of the square. Shall we knock him out again?"

He sighed. "Do it."

Day 5, morning.

Markus stretched his back as he got out of bed. He hadn't been training as much recently, and it was getting to him. His arms and legs were both sore and they ached as he got out of bed. He could feel the bones popping in his back as he stood up.

When he went to the guild, he could see players training as well as just sitting around and talking to each other. After five days in the game, all of them had accepted the situation they were in, and they now began to form groups more earnestly than before. When he walked in, however, it all went silent as they fixed their gazes on him. They hadn't forgotten what he had done during the hunt, nor had they forgiven him. From now on, they would suspect him if something went wrong or someone was missing.

Of course, he didn't really care too much. Most of them had done some kind of horrible act too, so who were they to judge?

"Stop right there, evil villain!"

He stopped walking and turned around. Standing in front of him was a kid that looked like they were going through puberty. The child held an iron sword and pointed it at Markus. "In the name of justice, you will be vanquished!"

Markus looked at the kid, swatted the sword away, and flicked him on the forehead. The kid fell on his butt a few meters away, his face red.

"You shall now pay the price, wicked sinner!" The kid got up, looking triumphantly at Markus.

Nothing happened. The seconds ticked away and the child's grin faded.

"Why isn't it working?!"

Hmmm...Seeing how confident he looked, it's probably a unique skill. And judging from how he looks now, there are probably stricter requirements than he thought for it to activate.

Markus thought to himself. Should he kill the kid now? He shook his head. It wasn't worth risking it since he knew almost nothing about the unique skill, and-

"Hey! You bastard! What the hell did you do?!"

-no matter how annoying the kid was, killing children was-

"Listen to me!"

-was

"Are you listening?!"

Okay, maybe it wasn't against his moral codes, but still. Killing people that did almost nothing to you wasn't usually a good idea, especially when they had unique skills.

"Shut up, you little shit! I'm trying to do something here!" A man yelled from a table, tapping furiously at a few blue screens in the air.

"Come on, come on," the man muttered underneath his breath. He had a crazed look in his eyes as he pressed down on the screens over and over again.

"You shut up, old man! You can't tell me what to do!" the kid retorted.

In the meantime, while the fight had devolved into a shouting match between the kid and a bystander, Markus had taken the daily quest and left the guild. The rest of the players had already gone back to what they were doing and were ignoring the two idiots as they argued over irrelevant matters.

Markus walked down the street until he arrived at a rather old building. It was a bit of an exaggeration to even call it a building, however, since it was around the size of a shack, with no windows and half a door. Inside, a goblin sat behind a table missing a leg, sound asleep.

He entered the building and tapped on the desk.

"10 more minutes."

He tapped on the goblin's face, flicking his head a few times until he woke up.

"Alright, I'm up! What do ya want?" A scowl appeared on the goblin's face as he rubbed his eyes.

"How many books on fighter skills do you have?"

"We've just got the one, it's on that shelf over there. Now is that it or can I get some sleep?"

"Do you have a book on summoners or mages in general?"

"We don't have one on summoners but there is a book for mages. By the way, I wouldn't suggest taking that combo. You'll have to-"

"I'll be fine."

"If you say so." The goblin shrugged and laid his head down on the desk, going back to sleep.

There weren't too many books in the library, as he had guessed. If the city didn't have good defenses, that meant that the leader of the city thought that it was more important to increase the technology rather than the defenses. So if the leader thought this way, then the odds of a building such as a library even looking good were slim.

The contents of the room were simply the table, a small wooden shelf, and 10 books. He looked through the books quickly and found what he was looking for: a book with two metal gloves on it, and a book with a brown staff on it. Where the title should have been on both were a couple of indecipherable scribbles.

He sat on the floor and began reading, or at least tried to. A different world would naturally have a different alphabet, and it's not like he bothered to train his Reading skill in his past life. Originally, he had learned how to fight from a teacher, but in goblin cities, the only trainers you would find were for warriors, crafters, and rogues. That was also the reason behind the size of the books. Both books were the size of a standard chapter book.

He skimmed through it, skipping the beginning since he knew the basics. The first page of the fighter book was simply a number of boxing stances, with a short figure demonstrating the hook, jab, straight, and uppercut. The figure held their hands in front of their face and bent over slightly. A few scribbles on the page detailed how to do this, but since he already knew how it didn't matter.

There were some techniques that the book detailed but would not work for Markus. This was because goblins tended to have shorter statures than humans (they were around the size of children) and so they could use their height to their advantage.

As he looked through the various stances, he made a mental note to add the ones that he didn't know to his skill list. There were elbow and knee strikes, the roundhouse, axe, and jump kicks, there was a move where you basically step on your opponent's chest, and there were a number of different chokehold techniques.

The elbow and knee strikes would be the most useful at the moment, while the kicks he'd learn after that. When he'd eventually get to Lvl 10, then he would learn the throws and chokeholds.

Well, that is, if nothing went wrong. Since the future had obviously changed, something was bound to happen.

"So, how's X-500 doing?"

"Pretty good. He hasn't reached the power level of X-276 and X-245 yet, even though he has more knowledge."

"I feel like we should have done 100 instead of 500."

"400 more players won't make a difference. Besides, we raised the difficulty."

"We had to do it ahead of schedule though. Plus X-485 found a loophole. We might have to speed up the deadline as well."

"Well, then what do you want me to do? We can't raise the difficulty anymore or speed up the schedule any further. X-201 isn't set to unlock the Third Party quest line until in a year."

"I'll ask the heads if they can add in any new temples. The returners shouldn't know how many different kinds there are. Until then, just keep watching."