The sea of black parted beneath the sickly orange glow of the torches, the synthetic cloth burned roughly, and the hands of the other 4 shook as they carried such torches into the screaming dark. Only Jacob moved with confidence, his silhouette powering through the night, slipping in and out of the light as he marched towards the screams; flashes of silver could be seen in his left hand.

Apart from the periodic screams that ripped through the night, the forest was dead, only the soft whimpering of the little girl could be heard above the cold silence. Madeline was never the physically strongest, but the girl’s weight was nothing compared to the crush of guilt that came when thinking about leaving the little girl in the dark. She knew that walking towards danger was ill-advised, much less taking a bleeding little girl into such danger, but who else could look after her in this new world. No one. Only I can, Madeline thought with such confidence that it bordered on delusion.

“Hey, what’s your name?” Madeline spoke to her chest where the little girl cried softly.

“Merce.” She sniffled out.

“Alright Merce, I’m Madeline” Responding as she struggled with Merce’s weight, “I am going to put you down, hold my hand and stay close alright.”

Merce’s hand was clammy and covered with mud, yet she grasped Madeline’s hand as if she was her life jacket in a dark ocean.

They continued to walk in silence, the piercing screams still rang out through the dark, yet they grew fainter and fainter as the pale moon began to crawl through the dim stars.

Madeline wished to speak and tell everyone what to do when they reached the screams, yet she did not, not only for the difficulty in translating, but also for the miasma like atmosphere of fear that crushed her throat and dried out her mouth. So, they walked in silence, images of what the screams entail slowly brewing within her mind, eventually morphing into a concoction of her deepest nightmares made manifest.

There could be anything within this forest, from something as simple as a broken leg in a ditch, or someone stumbling upon wild orcs, even some sort of dark fae enacting a malignant curse upon lost wanderers; it was a new world, and the mystery was much more fear inducing than the situation should have been. Still, they walked onwards.

The once constantly ringing screams petered out into whimpering that flitted through the pale trees.

Jacob, at the lead of their group, stood shock still for a moment then burst out in a dead sprint, bellowing as he ran into the dark.

“You bastards!”

Jumping in shock, the anguished shout extinguished one of the flames with Tenzin dropping his torch in shock, with only two sources of light the five teenagers and one child followed on in Jacob’s footsteps.

As the group ran to catch up, Madeline started to lag behind still holding Merce’s hand while she huffed along.

Madeline could not see what was happening, but she heard scuffling and the pounding of footsteps, a few moments later Pooja shouted an accusation, which was followed by a sharp clap then a meaty thud.

The sound died for a moment or two, as Madeline reached a small embankment, she debated leaving Merce below the climb, yet she thought being alone in an unknown forest was worse than being together walking into danger.

The silence was killed by an echoing bang which trailed off into a pop like sound.

She didn’t know what happened, but the sound felt as if it signalled some sort of bubble of truth in this new world being, for a lack of a better word, popped.

Finally, she crested the embankment as Merce attempted to pull her up, the little girls bruised face, was now pale and wide eyed as she kept looking back to where everyone else was. Merce’s bruises and bloodied face looked even more nauseating with that expression her face.

Madeline felt her blood go hot.

Upon the wet ground lay three bodies, Pooja clutching her bleeding nose, while Syun stood over her protectively, a green skinned small creature lay face up body down, it’s thin neck twisted, and a blonde-haired man flat upon the ground, his once flowing hair mixing with the mud on the ground, and the dark red blood flowing from his brain, Jacob crouched a few feet away, retching all the while.

Madeline took this all in instantly, the pounding beat in her head growing all the stronger. A few steps behind stood Tenzin and Junko facing off against four people, two women and two men, all wide eyed with their hands up.

Merce clutching her hand all the tighter, Madeline walked over to look at the small green creature, a goblin she thought as Madeline looked at her diminutive green body; her body was covered with deep lacerations surrounded by dried blood, her cheeks running wet, and her glassy eyes peering into Madeline’s as if she was begging for help. It was too late now.

Looking down she saw her cloth dress ripped into rags. They wouldn’t dare, Madeline thought as she ran over to Jacob, the second there is no authority people devolve into animals, he stood back up wiping his mouth, and opened his mouth to talk.

“Take her.” Madeline interrupted while passing Merce away.

Jacob spoke, but there was silver object glinting on the floor, a gun, a revolver she thought as she picked the weapon up.

Madeline would have normally asked many questions about Jacob’s gun and why he had it, now though she just marched towards the four people, no not people scum, the bloodied mud squelched underfoot, the pounding in her head was getting heavier, yet the gun in her hand was as light as a feather.

The four were glancing around, looking as if they were about to try to escape from Junko and Tenzin.

Madeline fired into the sky.

Fear came over the four people, and they froze.

She pointed the silver gun towards them, “Get on your knees.”

“Wait it’s not what it looks- “A woman with cropped brown hair began before getting interrupted by the merciless sound of the gun clocking.

“Do not make me ask again.”

The four kneeled.

Madeline thought about how evil people can be, they wake up in a new world, and the first thing they do is commit violence, senseless violence. She would ask why, but they did not deserve the privilege to speak. Someone needed to stop people from breaking the natural order of the world, and it was she knew how too.

“Everyone come here.” She intoned trying to hold her rage in.

Pooja, Syun, and Jacob walked over, after Jacob placed Merce away from the dead bodies and the four kneeling criminals.

“We need to take them to the police.” Jacob spoke still pale from his killing of the blonde-haired man.

“Does it look like there’s any police here.” Pooja spat, “Back home we’d handle this ourselves.”

“Handle?” Syun questioned quietly.

The only response was a hard look.

Madeline spoke before the conversation could move away from justice and into right and wrong, “Jacob.”

“Ye- Yeah.” Eyes wide glancing at the four kneeling.

“What did you see?”

“It was dark, and I couldn’t really see and I’m not too sure because- “

“Junko, what did you see.”

“That one there,” pointing to the blonde corpse, “was climbing off the bakemono creature, while the others were laughing.”

Tenzin summoned up a wad of phlegm and sent it violently crashing into the chest of a man with short blonde hair.

“No, no, no, we weren’t doing anything like that at all.” Pleaded one of the boys, a big boned man with blood stained up to his elbows. “We were just running with everyone else, and that goblin jumped out at us, anyone would have done what we did. Please, it was Veronica’s idea anyway.” He started to cry seeing the lack of reaction from Madeline’s group.

Veronica, the girl with the cropped hair, pounced on the overweight boy, “You fat fuck, it was your stupid theory about this being a game world.” She spat straddling his chest, “He told us that the monster over there had a fucking gem inside of it, that could unlock this stupid fucking system.”

“Boost.” The boy whimpered, “and I wasn’t exactly wrong, the mob hunting did have an appreciable effect on our system.”

“By making it call us evil.” Veronica said punctuating each syllable with a sharp punch.

“Stop please stop.” The boy begged, “It gave us grades for our stats,” turning towards Madeline he continued to beg through broken teeth, “Help me and I’ll tell you how we did it.”

“He’s lying, I didn’t get anything.” The clean, unbloodied, dark-skinned girl muttered.

They watched in silence as the boy was beaten half to death.

Eventually Tenzin broke, “Enough.” He said dragging Veronica of the bleeding boy, “We need to bring these people to the proper authorities.”

“No, we need to make them admit their crimes and punish them.” Pooja spat back.

“How is it a crime to kill a fucking monster.”

“It didn’t scream like a monster.” Tenzin spoke softly.

“And you all tortured her.” Junko added.

“You heard fat fuck.” Veronica continued pointed to the shivering boy, “I got that level boost as well, good for fucking nothing until I unlock it, but it looks like killing that thing might be worth it.”

“Vee, please stop antagonising them.” The dark-skinned girl more to Madeline’s group than to her fellow criminal.

“Did you watch.” Madeline almost commanded the girl to tell the truth.

The dark-skinned girl did not speak, and that said enough for Madeline.

Still Veronica did not think it was enough and laughed out, “The bitch did more than watch, see that cut right below it’s belly button, yeah Sarah thought the XP gem would be in its womb.”

She went to speak more, but enough was enough and the barrel of the silver revolver found itself staring at Veronica’s face.

She closed her mouth.

It was opened back up with a click of Madeline’s soft finger.

Blood, bone, and brain exploded out of Veronica’s head, and forced Madeline and the rest of her group to look away.

Sound blurred, emotions blurred, feeling blurred into a singular ringing need for justice that bordered on hatred.

It burned through her body.

Madeline turned to see a male body with long blonde hair, jumping underneath the corpse of the man with short blonde hair, the one that Jacob killed, she clicked again, the reaction was not nearly as violent, but the bodies dropped and the corpse of the was cuddling the quiet man with the short blonde hair.

She moved on and looked towards the dark-skinned girl that was running, and clicked again, bright blood came bursting out of her stomach as she hit the floor screaming. Madeline thought about firing again, yet the ringing screams still echoed in her head. An eye for an eye. Madeline let the girl continue to scream.

A final bang rang out in the lightening forest as the body of the crying large boy was left twitching in the muddy floor.

Five corpses, and Madeline made three of those, should I feel guilty? Hearing the cry of the dying dark-skinned girl, she thought not.

The ringing lessened and the sounds of retching could be heard behind her, some good people are not ready to do the right thing, she thought as she walked over the dark-skinned girl who still crawled away, her entrails lining her path, the girl crawled quickly and soon Madeline was away from her people and standing above her body.

Madeline watched the blood flow start to slow, but rather than collapse the dark-skinned girl glowed for a half moment and began to stand up.

Momentarily, for Madeline planted a foot upon her back.

“Wait please, it’s belief.” The rapidly healing girl spoke, colour returning to her face.

The ringing returned, after all the acts these people have done, the system rewarded them with powers.

The girl continued to speak, yet she blocked it out.

‘And I believe you deserve death.’ Madeline attempted to say, though all that came out was a harsh hiss. She fired again. And again. And again. The girl jerked, and the body went still.

It wasn’t enough, so she clicked once more, but the righteous crack never came, empty, she thought as she walked back towards the four corpses.

Behind her stood all her people excluding Tenzin and Merce.

Tenzin stood alone peering off into the forest, looking towards the corpses, towards Madeline, and back again, she could see he thought about speaking, but he realised now was not the time for words, Madeline thought as his hand twitched, as if to point out into to the forest. He took a look at the crying form of Merce and let his hand drop, the boy with the hard, weather-beaten face, walked over to Merce, knelt down, and cleaned her bloody face using water from his sheepskin container.

Merce looked up as she finished drinking, her soft features peering at Madeline, wide eyes she kept looking towards bloody gun in her hands.

Madeline turned away from the girl.

A grave was being dug for the unnamed goblin, Madeline joined the silent funeral, she bent down, and joined in digging. The silver revolver was not the best as a shovel, but it was useless as a weapon, so she dug and dug and the silver wore away, and the mud coated the revolver and eventually her arms, still she dug.

Even little Merce returned and joined in with the digging, yet both her and Tenzin would not stop looking at Madeline, and she could not imagine what they thought.

She did not need to know their thoughts, only their obedience in her goal of ridding this new world of monsters like these people.

A just world. She thought as Junko and Pooja placed the small goblin in the shallow grave, she felt the dawn on the back of her neck.

It was a cold dawn.

Three Core Traits Gained

Just- You have a strict sense of right and wrong and you ensure people get what they deserve based upon a pre-existing code.

(Resolve Increase, Minor Wisdom Increase.)

Ruthless- You have your goals and there is very little you will not do to achieve these goals.

(Small Resolve Increase, Minor Endurance, and Minor Intelligence Increase. Small Charisma Deduction.)

Proud- A sense of one's own proper dignity; immovable and unshakeable.

(Minor Charisma Deduction.)

Determined- Nothing can stand in your way. Your Will is law. Your Belief is reality.

(Large Resolve Increase.)

Proud and Determined consolidated into Authoritative

Authoritative- You have a significant presence, when you speak, people are forced to listen.

(Major Charisma Increase.)

Madeline felt the urge to look at her full status screen, find out the differences between the various increases and deductions, and more importantly understand the system and what everything meant.

She got back on her knees, The grave had to be filled, the mangled form of the goblin had to be laid to rest.