Alexander walked until he was out of sight. Then, he collapsed. A mixture of crying, laughing, and hyperventilating ensured. He felt himself dissociating. The world spun. The violent images raced through his mind. Why did I say that? Why didn’t I care? He tried desperately to gain some sort of ground in his mind. But there was nothing.

Hours passed, and Alexander continued to exist in this torment. He writhed. His vision blurred. He felt like the world was pressing down on him. His mind was unraveling. Still, as time went on, the effects subsided some. And eventually, he felt well enough to stand.

It was evening now, the sun barely showing now. The dim hues made it difficult for him to navigate his way back through the forest, but the beacon on the motorcycle aided him. As he walked, he opened up his menu and looked through his messages.

You defeated the slavers! x1 level up!

You showed some brilliant tactics out there! +2 Wisdom!

There were also some messages from his friends Jacob and Jessica. Jacob had invited him to some overworld parties. Alexander politely declined, not wanting to be awkward at any kind of event. He also had things to do. Jessica sent a couple pictures of her in the fighting cages with a couple notes of farewell. Alexander shot back a message of his own congratulating her. As Alexander exited the message windows, he took a second to look at his stats.

Strength (STR) 60 +5

Dexterity (DEX) 27 +0

Constitution (CON) 40 +0

Intelligence (INT) 57 +0

Wisdom (WIS) 22 +0

Charisma (CHA) 15 +0

Willpower (WIL) 53 +0

Perception (PER) 28 +0

In addition, he still had the fifteen credits left, the two items– Prizes and The Death Knight’s Hand,– and all of skills were the same. Still, with the one level up from the encounter, he gained five skill points, bringing him to a neat 100 points. He grinned.

Alexander reached his motorcycle, sat down, and breathed a sigh of relief. His hand was throbbing and he still had a bit of limp, but he’d survive. He opened his menus, navigated to his class screen, and selected “Demon Form.” He pressed acquire, then accept.

Alexander didn’t expect much to happen, but when nothing did, he was a little disappointed. There was a short video that explained how the form worked and how to activate it, but there was no surging of energy. Disappointed, he got back on his bike and started his trek back to Woodstock.

He got back to Woodstock without a hassle, turned his bike in, boarded the train, and was back in Chicago in no time.

When he got off the train, he headed out into the damp and somewhat dark train station. The flickering LED lights added just enough light for him to see and walk around, so he made his way to the nearest administrator terminal. He turned in his three leaves and got a cheesy reward screen.

Congratulations adventurer! You have successfully collected three goudeleaves! You’ve gained x200 credits!

Alexander looked at it again. That’s it..? He didn’t even get any levels. He looked at his experience bar. It certainly went up, but he was sure that after killing three man-sized spiders, killing some slavers, and returning with the leaves he would get more. But nope. Nothing. He sighed. At least I’ve got some coin now.

As Alexander turned away from the terminal, something caught his eye. Three men, all in suits, were looking around while talking to an eir-piece. He cocked his head as the men looked around intensely. The second they saw him, though, they laser-focused and walked towards him. Alexander stood still. He didn’t know what to do.

“Are you Alexander, the Mountain Man?” One of the men asked.

“Yeah, sure. What’s all this about?” Alexander almost stumbled over his words.

“Approximately four hours ago we found a group of freed slaves in the Woodstock area. They were all talking about a man named Alexander, wearing only a kilt.”

“Ok…”

“We’re delegates from the UNAA, and we came to personally thank you.”

Alexander blinked. “Huh?”

“The UNAA takes a hard stance against slavery, and upon hearing of freed slaves we came to personally thank you. If you take a look in your menu, you may notice that your relationship with the UNAA has turned to ‘friendly.’”

Alexander opened his menu and found the area that contained all his known factions. All of them displayed a gray “neutral,” except for the UNAA. It was now a blue “friendly.”

“So what does this mean?” Alexander asked, slowly.

“It won’t give you direct benefits, but you’re more likely to get UNAA quests, and vendors might accept you more easily if you display your affiliation status. Along with that, we’d like to give you one hundred credits for your troubles.”

Alexander saw a message pop up in his menu.

Trade request! UNAA soldier gives 100 credits. You give nothing.

Alexander hit accept, then accept again. He now had a total of 315 credits.

“Thanks.” Alexander said, still unsure of what exactly to do.

“Of course.” The UNAA delegate responded. “Still, we heard of the manner in which you dealt with the slavers. We’re not saying you did anything bad, but you certainly shook up the prisoners.” The UNAA delegate gave a stern look at Alexander. Alexander looked blankly back. “Anyways, that’s about it. Good luck out there, and if you need anything don’t be afraid to reach out.” The delegate then handed Alexander a card, which automatically disappeared when Alexander took it. A new contact was added to his menu.

“Thanks.” Alexander said as he looked at the name. Rycker.

“Of course.” And with that, the delegates left.

----

Alexander was unsure of what to do next. He looked around aimlessly for a while, walking in random directions. He just didn’t know what he wanted to do. But then, as if fate was on his side, a message popped up in his menu. It was from Jade.

He opened it quickly and read the contents.

Hey. Call me when you get the chance.

Alexander immediately called her.

“Hey where are you?” Jade asked.

“In Chicago, why?” Alexander shot back.

“Perfect. I have a quest I need some help with, and you’re just the man I need.”

“Why’s that?”

“You’re the perfect distraction.” Alexander could hear the grin in her voice. “I’m actually in the area myself. Let’s meet up; I’ll send you a location.”

“Sounds good.” Alexander said. He was unsure of what to do, so he just went along with it. He was tired of being thrown around in this world, but as long as he didn’t know what to do, he would take any chance he could find.

Alexander met Jade at a taco shop. She was wearing the same armor from the tutorial, but she had some new weapons on her side. When she saw Alexander, she motioned to sit down at the table she was at.

The taco shop was a bit away from the downtown area, and there was enough greenery to make the joint look nice. It was a small shack with two workers inside and tables outside.

Alexander sat down and looked at Jade. Her helmet was off but her hair and expression casted a shadow on her face, obscuring her visage.

“So, what’s this mission?”

“First, I’m going to level with you.” Alexander gave her a weird look. “I knew you were in Chicago; I heard a guy with only a kilt saving some slaves and I just knew.”

“How did you even-”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jade moved on. “Still, there’s a reason you defeated the slavers so easily.”

“What do you mean?”

“They probably didn’t show any class abilities.” Jade started, then Alexander lit up with realization.

“Which means they’re not level fifty yet!” Alexander shot back.

“Very good.” Jade gave him a sardonic smile. “Most people in this game didn’t finish the tutorial like we did; that means the level average is something like twenty.” Alexander leaned in. “As you might have noticed, getting experience outside of the tutorial is incredibly hard too. Usually, you have to join a guild or something and join group raids to see substantial progress.”

“Yeah the quest I did gave me fuck all.” Alexander agreed.

“Exactly. Which means you’re at an advantage. Still, there are many powerful people in this game. Be careful.”

Alexander nodded.

“And the quest I’ve received is to kill one such man. They call him the Riverman.”

“Huh?” Alexander raised an eyebrow.

“The short and dirty of it is this; just like in real life, the Mississippi river is crucial to the local economy. But there’s this one insanely powerful man who is acting like some kind of shitty troll bridge on the river. He’s in St. Louis, and he works for the local dictator called the Bloody Baron.”

“The Bloody Baron?” Alexander asked while flipping through his notes.

“Yeah. Missouri is mostly wildlands, but St. Louis is under a dictatorship. This Bloody Baron rules with an iron fist, and he has complete control of the river in his region. He’s what’s mainly stopping the UNAA from expanding south. They’ve set up military bases in southern Illinois, but they’re not ready to go to war just yet.”

“So they put a bounty on this guy?”

“Not exactly. The UNAA may seem powerful, but they’re stretched thin. You probably haven’t been there yet, but there’s a dark underbelly of some of their major cities. Here in Chicago, there’s a great deal of crime, but the UNAA has decided to work with local criminal organizations to keep the peace. So, instead of putting a bounty on this guy and risking a war, they’ve asked their connections to put a bounty on the Riverman.”

“And we’re going to collect the bounty?”

“You bet your ass. Que in one Obadiah Shaw. He’s a local criminal lord here in Chicago, and he’s the one who put out the bounty. So far, many have tried, and many have died.”

“So if we kill this guy, we get money, rep with the criminal world, and some good favor with the UNAA.”

“Precisely. Plus, we’re gonna hit a couple criminal hotspots along the way. I’ve got a full quest planned out from Obadiah himself. Prepare yourself, Alexander, we’re going to kill a lot of people.”

“What are we targeting?”

“Mainly slave outposts. Both Obadiah and the UNAA are anti-slavery, so we’re gonna pay a visit to some of the more well known outposts.”

“But how are we going to handle them? It’s only us.” Alexander was starting to think about this plan.

“Again, we’re way ahead of the curve. Plus, we only need to destabilize them, not raze them to the ground. Here’s the plan– we head south, targeting a few criminal bases that both Obadiah and the UNAA dislike, then we kill the Riverman. Both of our benefactors gain a great deal of influence, and we get a ton of levels and riches. What do you say?”

Alexander thought for a moment. But then he realized he had literally nothing better to do.

“I’m in.”