Null walks towards the edge of town, and changes into the things he will be wearing out in the wilderness. Out there he will be on his own, which will be a prime target for bandits. New Reality is a MMORPG. There aren't many things you can do on your own, and the game subtly forces you to rely on other people. Null has spent the last 5 years in-game to ensure that he will not have to rely on anyone for anything.

He changes into a dark gray short cloak that covers his head and arms. It's not as long as the previous cloak, so he can move more freely for hand to hand combat. He also takes out gauntlets that look like they belong on batman, and combat boots that have a hidden blade on each foot. He also possesses powerful armor. Blacksmiths can wear any type of armor without class restrictions when the class hits intermediate, but due to his main class, Null is not allowed to wear heavy armor, so this light metal armor that only covers the chest and back has been refined to the best of his abilities and strengthened.

Null had purposely made it so he doesn't look too powerful, but also doesn't look too weak.

His motto is “Any attention is bad attention for a loner.”

On his way out of town, he hears people forming parties.

“We're looking for a warrior! Has to be at least level 100!”

“Looking for a cook!”

“Need a thief! We're heading towards a dungeon!”

Null shakes his head listening to them.

He thinks, 'Why must people rely on others? The strongest only rely on one's self.'

While Null is thinking, a person walks up to him.

“Hello. You're an assassin right? I barely noticed you even when I was next to you. We're looking to level grind. Wanna join us?”

Null nonchalantly says, “I'm a librarian.”

“...Oh. Okay then. I think the level grinding party has been canceled because of,.... things... forever... Sorry.”

The guy walks away. This is one of the best things he likes about the librarian class. Whenever he says he's a librarian, people go away.

He leaves Holdendale thinking, 'I have no allegiance towards this place, but I somehow feel sort of melancholic for leaving. Maybe it's because there were people here that helped me. Well enough of that.' Null leaves.

******************************

Null has been walking for around 3 days. He has no specific place he's heading to, but is just walking randomly along the dirt path. He isn't in any hurry, so he's walking leisurely, looking around trying to see if there are any plants that he hasn't seen before. He walks during the day, and when nightfall hits, he sets up a tent and sleeps.

It wouldn't do him any good to move about at night because of bandits and monsters with night vision. He eats some of the bread he made, and hunts rabbits to get meat. When morning hits, he puts away his tent and continues moving. Just when he was getting comfortable, Null then hears a rustle in the bushes. This makes Null pause. He then hears rustles in other bushes and trees.

The people coming out the bushes look like your stereotypical thieves. It looks like there are 11 on the ground and 5 in the trees. The ones in the trees all have arrows pointed at Null.

One of the thieves says to Null while brandishing a sword. “There is a toll to go through here. Drop everything that you have and you can go.”

Null sighs. He sighs not because he's about to get mugged, but because he's about to waste precious equipment.

Null says indifferently, “I have to warn you. Once you attack, I won't stop. I don't show any mercy towards those who attack me. Once you attack, your life is forfeit.”

The thief laughs, which causes all the other thieves to laugh.

“These foreigners are always so arrogant until we shut them up. Your bluff won't work on us. You're only level 74. Don't you know that the rogue classes have Person Identify?”

Another thief says, “Well he's only level 74. He's practically a newborn. He probably doesn't know. Let's teach him our ways.”

The thieves on the ground start running towards Null. The archers in the trees load their arrows.

Null says, “Remember. You brought this upon yourself.”

Null's look changes into one that's about to squash bugs. Null may not like people, but he wouldn't start anything with them if he doesn't have to. He's afraid that his hatred would get the better of him. Towards those who attack him? He would never show the same mercy. Null is ruthless.

The archers shoot at Null's position. While they fire their arrows, Null manipulates the mana in his legs for strength, and jumps high in the air. The arrows pierce the ground at where Null once was. The thieves who were running towards his position got to where he just was. Null takes out two round objects from under his cloak while still airborne. He throws them at the archers. The next 2 things happened simultaneously.

When Null jumped, he had released a sleep bomb on the ground. When the thieves were focusing on him in the air, the sleep bomb started detonating. The 2 round objects that he threw were explosive bombs, but not those weak gunpowder bombs. Null has been experimenting with different chemical objects to see which made the best bombs.

He had found 2 plants that made an extremely explosive material when put together. He had designed a specific type of bomb container for them, which mixes them together when hit hard on contact with a surface. By the time the bombs made it to the archers, they exploded and created a 0.7 meter blast radius, killing them instantly, while the bomb on the ground released a gas covering the thieves. The thieves on the ground didn't fare much better than the archers in the trees, as they were falling asleep. They tried with all their might to stay awake, but they eventually succumbed to sleep.

Null makes his way towards the sleeping thieves, about to kill them. When it looks like Null would win, more thieves come out from behind bushes and trees behind Null. They number at about 30.

Null thinks, 'Looks like the other thieves were just bait huh? Well, this situation hasn't changed.'

Null takes out his best work. Those gauntlets that he has on are due to years of trial and error.

Null had found a loophole to ensure that he could fight at full strength even with his librarian class working against him. Null cannot hold a handheld weapon without stats being severely reduced. Ranged weapons also lose 30% attack power when fired, but it doesn't say anything about weapons that are on your hands, and the gauntlets are classified as armor.

Null sees the 33 man strong group running towards him. He makes his left hand into a fist and aims his forearm at them. When they got close, he pulled a cord with his right hand on the left hand gauntlet, which sprayed small needles out of openings above his left arm. 21 of the bandits are hit from the volley. The rest were spared from being behind someone else. Now, those needles fired out get their power reduced by 30% because of his class, but the needle's power isn't what Null is after.

One of the bandits sees Null next to him. 'When did he get so close?'

The bandit slashes at him in a frenzy. It looks like Null is trying to plead with him asking him to stop.

“What are you doing!? I'm on your side!” Null pleads.

“No you're not!” The bandit says with a blood thirsty grin.

He loves seeing his enemies beg for mercy. He slashes at Null until he kills him. The bandits then starts to laugh until he sees someone on the corner of his vision. He looks. Null then appears again. The bandit is surprised.

“I just killed you! What's going on!”

He slashes at Null again. The person once again pleads. Other people watching are flabbergasted. The number of bandits attacking their own number 5.

“What's going on!?” A bandit exclaims shocked.

He looks at Null. “What did you do!?”

Null answers him. “Ah. I just made it so that the enemies see a hallucination of me among their allies. It starts losing its effectiveness when the enemies hit level 150, but for you I think it will be just fine.

I've never tested it out against humans before. Looks like its a success.”

“Why are you telling me your poison's weakness?”

“Because I know you won't live long enough to tell anybody. Haven't you noticed that it's harder for you to move?”

“Urrgh. Dammit!”

That bandit was hit with a paralyzing needle. The needles give different effects depending on what you're hit with. Some in contact with those needles got paralyzed, some see hallucinations, and some get hit by some type of lethal poison. The needles have a different poison, and don't mix very well when making potions, but when each of them is put in the same body, it displays its most lethal effects. When 2 different types of lethal poison are put into the body, it only takes 12 seconds for the poisons to kill them. The 21 bandits all succumb to the poison and die.

There are now only 12 bandits left. The bandits are now wary of Null. If they see him try to fire those needles again, they'll be sure to dodge. Null doesn't want to fire another round of needles. The needle launchers are only good for two shots before they have to be reloaded, and to fire them for just 12 people would just be a waste. Null rushes towards them. He moves his fingers a certain way and 3 blades come out of each hand. The blades aren't affected by the 99% reduction, because the system classifies it as part of the armor, and the system only classifies weapons that Null is holding in his hand, not what is covering Null's hand. Null is happy it worked, but Null thinks he would never ever let Ptah ever be his lawyer.

The bandits attempt to surround Null, but he's moving too fast. The bandits are moving where Null wants them to move. He shows false openings, then rapidly moves out the way manipulating his mana for dexterity. When Null has the bandits where he wants them, he slashes at the bandits with his blades. Each of the blades are coating in his most powerful poisons. One causes hallucinations that distort your vision greatly. Another is a paralyzing poison far greater than the one on the needles. Another is one that shaves off 400 health per second. All Null needs to do is hit them once, and their deaths are guaranteed. He deals with the remaining bandits in 8 seconds.

Null is level 74, and there isn't a person on the planet right now that can face Null on the same level, hidden class or not. Even a person 10 levels above him right now would stand little chance, and that's saying something since power rises quadratically in New Reality.

Null sighs and thinks, 'The average leveled person here was only level 60, with the highest being around level 80. I hope this isn't going to be a constant thing. I would need to make a lot more needles just in case.'

He looks through the bodies of the dead thieves. He doesn't find any useful drops. All he found were some daggers, swords, and some low level poison.

Null thinks, 'Well it's not like they were that high leveled.' and continues on his way.

Around a considerable distance from Null were the 2 people that were tailing them. They were both shocked.

The merchant speaks. “Hey, have you seen any of those things before? Like those gauntlets and the designs on those bombs?”

“I have not.”

“I am starting to believe that he is telling the truth about creating those weapons.”

“I am too.”

“So now that there is a good chance he actually made those things, where do we go from here?”

“There would be no reason in tailing him anymore. I say we back off. We were only following him to see where he got those items. We can bargain with some guild for the information that we have and make a lot of money. Intermediate in 3 classes is unheard of. I say we just leave.”

“Yes, lets leave him for now.”

They head back into town.

***************************

For the next two weeks, Null kept running into thieves. At first he found it slightly invigorating to field test his equipment, but now he just finds them annoying. They all give the same tactic: Bait, then main force. Their strategies which they thought were clever were obvious to Null. They all have the same uniform too, so it must be some organization that's doing all this.

Null ponders what to do about it. 'Maybe I should find the organization and wipe them all out. They have caused me enough trouble. Well, I'm pretty sure the people on these paths are mooks, and probably wouldn't know where the main headquarters is at.'

After all his walking, Null finally makes it to a town. The guards look on edge.

“Halt!”

Null stops.

The guard then asks, “What business do you have in Wakefield?”

“I'm here for rest, and maybe to take a visit to your shops.”

Maybe it's because Null is hooded, but the guard looks like he doesn't trust him.

“Well try not to cause a lot of trouble. We have been having a lot of problems with thieves lately.”

“Okay.”

Null looks around the town. The population here is a lot smaller than the town he started in. This town looks like it only has around 5000 people. This place also has a lot of higher level players than in Holdendale.

'Guess this is where a lot of people go after starting in Holdendale.'

He looks around the town. The NPCs look kind of down. Some are slumped in front of houses asking for food. Some are asking if people are clerics so they could heal their family. Null hears one conversation going on.

“I thought you said you were a cleric! What do you mean you can't heal my husband!?”

“I'm sorry. I'm not that high leveled a cleric yet. You're going to have to go to someone else.”

Null sighs. 'What's going on in this town? Thieves? Hunger? Sickness? Well that's not my problem. I do need some extra money. I need to buy more iron ingots after using my needles on the thieves. Let's see what I can find on a job board.'

He looks around and finds it.

'Hmm. F-rank mission to gather rabbit skins, an E-rank mission to capture or kill 20 thieves. Ah, here's a good one. A D-rank mission to subjugate all the thieves. Well what do you know? A job that conveniently appears that I was going to do in the first place.'

Null takes the form and goes towards the house of the person that wrote it. He knocks on the door. A little while later, a sad looking old man comes out.

“Yes, what can I do for you?”

“I'm here about the subjugation of the thieves.”

Just then, a light shone in that old man's eyes.

“Really? Please, come in, come in!”

He sits Null down at the table, and gives Null some water. Null isn't going to drink it, as he trusts no one.

The man noticing that Null isn't touching the drink says, “My apologizes. This water is all I have. A lot of our farmers have been getting sick.”

“No it's fine. So about this bandit subjugation.”

“Right. For some reason, we have been having a lot of trouble with bandits lately. They have been getting more aggressive. Other players have tried to undertake this mission, but they considered it too much trouble and not enough of a reward. This is happening at the same time as around a quarter of our farmers getting sick. It's really a travesty. We don't know what's going on. Will you accept this quest?”

Quest: Bandit SubjugationQuest Information: The bandits have been really active lately. The old man has given you quest to subjugate all the bandits.

Reward: 5 silver ores

Quest Rank: D

Penalty if refused: Decreased affinity with old man.

Do you accept?[/size]

Null thinks, '5 silver ores? I can trade that for over a thousand iron ores. I could even raise it more if I smelt it. How convenient.'

“I accept.”

You have accepted the quest.

Null travels in the forest. Unlike before, he is brazenly showing off some of the stuff that he has. Some of the items are quite valuable. It only took around 4 hours for the thieves to take the bait. An arrow strikes near his foot. 10 people come out of the forest. An archer in the tree, who looks like a young boy says, “Drop your stuff and take a hike!”

Null doesn't waste any time. He throws a lot of objects behind him. They are all filled with sleeping gas. They explode and the main force falls asleep. Null then fires his needles at the bait force. He made sure this time to make them non lethal. They are covered in a paralyzing poison. The person in the tree shoots an arrow at Null. Null blocks the arrow with his gauntlet and throws a throwing knife covered in paralyzing poison at the archer. It hits him in the arm.

“Dammit!” The young archer falls out the tree, and Null catches him.

The archer looks at Null defiantly saying, “You'll be marked for death if anything happens to me!”

Null picks up some needles and puts it up against the boy's throat.

“You are not in any position to be making threats.”

“Grrr.”

He drags the paralyzed boy and throws him towards the other paralyzed people.

A person asks, “What do you want from us?”

“Information. It's the only reason why all of you are still alive. Consider yourselves lucky. I hear that there has been a sickness that has affected around a quarter of the farmers in Wakefield. What I found strange is that it's only the farmers that farm on the West side of town, the same side where the thieves mainly hide out in. You guys have also been acting strange lately. Is there anything going on?”

“I won't talk! You can't make me!”

“Well that's fine. I can either kill all of you and go to the next batch of thieves, and keep doing this until you are all wiped out, or I could ask you nicely and you can give me the information I need. It really doesn't matter to me, so which do you choose?”

The bandit can see it in Null's eyes that he's serious. “Fine. Our top guys and our leaders have gotten sick. We usually go after high profile people, but since all our powerful people have gotten sick, we've been running out of supplies and have been forced to step up our robbing. We had no choice but to go after low level people.”

“Yeah. I thought that was the case. Okay. Next question. Is there anything those high level thieves and the farmers have in common? Is there a common place you guys go to?”

“Hmmm... Well, the main base and the farmers on the west side share a water pump. They usually leave each other alone.”

“Good, now we're getting somewhere. My subclass is alchemy and I might be able to sort this whole thing out.”

The guy is skeptical. “Why would you help us after we attempted to rob you?”

“Because of the reward of the old man. That's all. You not robbing people as much will also benefit me.”

The man is seemingly satisfied with that answer.

Null then says, “The paralysis poison should wear off in a few minutes, then you'll take me to the water pump, then your base. Maybe I can cure your leaders.”

“Thank you! You're a saint!”

Null then remembers something. “Oh yeah. Before we leave, I'll trade you everything that you have in exchange for your lives. You attempted to rob me, so its only fair that I take your things. I've wasted a lot of ammo on all of you.”

The guy chuckles. “Surely you kid.”

Null moves his fingers, and blades come out his gauntlets.

“I don't kid.”

"*gulp*"

After Null liberated the items from all the thieves, they take him to where the water pump is.

“Identify.”

Infected Water Pump.Touching this Water Pump is not advised. It will make you bed ridden for a long time. It started happening around 5 weeks ago, when a sick farmer was working. The disease can be cured with herbs found in this area.

He then takes out some charcoal and paper. He draws the water pump in all different angles, then relies on system assist to give the measurements. When he's done, he activates his Blueprint skill. He puts all the different perspectives of the drawing into the Blueprint.

It then makes a 3-D blueprint of the water pump that's an exact replica of the infected one.

'Okay. Before I can build it, I need to find a cure for whatever this is.'

Null uses his alchemy mixing skill to see what ingredients he'll need. He takes out a sheet. The sheet only has a tiny speck of each of the ingredients he has collected in all so far. When Null uses his Potion mixing skill, some of those specks glow yellow.

'So these are the ingredients I need.'

Null writes down all the ingredients that are glowing on the sheet. He then uses the Ingredient Finder skill to find all the ingredients. It only took him an hour to find the amount of ingredients he needs. Luckily it was all common herbs. It's takes him around 3 hours with the Potion Creation skill until it showed that the potion turned green which meant it was a success.

Null uses the blacksmith skill along with the Instant Forge skill with system assist to turn the iron ingots that he had into an exact replica of the water pump. He used clay to form a mold, and a crucible along with his mana to melt the iron.

He gives himself the antidote in order to work on the pipe. He did this in order to show 2 things: One, that this thing really is the cure and it will not poison their leaders, and two, in order to be safe and not worry about the infected pump. He replaces the pump and all goes well. The thieves then take Null to a hide out. The thieves are not going to their main base, as bringing him there would be stupid.

They bring their leaders, and they are fed the antidote one by one. Null tells them that they should be fine within a day. After he leaves the hideout, Null goes to the old man in Wakefield and gives him the antidote.

The man says, “Wait. You made an antidote of the sickness for us?”

“I didn't do it for you or the villagers. The reason the bandits were so active is because the leaders were infected with the same disease. I made this so the bandits could stop in order to complete my mission. I had a lot left over, and given the option of giving you all the cure, or throwing it in a river, giving it to you was the slightly better choice.”

“Okay, but why give it to me? I'm not sick.”

“I'm giving it to you to give to the villagers. Here are paper cups so you can give the correct dosage.”

“Thank you, but if you were to do it yourself, you could gain lots of fame and rewards! Why don't you do it yourself?”

“Yeah, no thanks. I do not want fame, and I do not need any extra rewards. I told you already. The reason I made it in the first place was because of the bandits, not for the villagers. Besides, people thanking me and complementing me makes me feel itchy.”

“Oh thank you! Thank you! I will be going now to deliver the antidote to all the sick villagers!”

“Yeah, sure.”

Null leaves the house.

A day passes. Null heads back to the hideout. When he does, a bunch of people instantly surround him, but one of them recognizes him.

“Oh it's Null, we've been expecting you. Please, come this way.”

They take Null into a dim room. If Null wasn't confident he could kill them all, he never would have come here. The place was dim and eerie. When he went in, the thief leaders came out, all good as new.

'I might actually have to try if we start to fight.'

They then bowed to Null.

The top guy speaks.

“It's thanks to you Null that we have been cured of our affliction. I hope you can take this as appreciation for what you done.”

Null takes it.

“Identify.”

Good quality assassin's cloak.Limited to Assassins. Can increase stealth by 50%.

The guy then says, “It won't give you any stealth since you do not have a rogue profession, but I saw how much you liked short cloaks.”

“Thanks. As for the reason why I'm here, could you guys scale it down with the robbing?”

“Don't worry. We usually only go after high profile targets like the super rich or the corrupted. With our top people sick, we had no choice but to go after the weak, but now that will no longer be the case.”

“Good.”

The archer kid who Null had swiftly defeated said, “Next time we meet, I will be formidable!”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Null is leaving, and the leader says, “If there is anything you need from us, we'll make sure you get it from us at a discount. Take this thief mark as proof of our friendship. Now thieves associated with us will not attack you, and you can find some of our local branches next to some towns around here.”

“Yeah, I'll keep that in mind.”

Null goes back to the old man.

“You mean the bandits will no longer be a problem?”

“Yes. They usually only go after high profile targets, but couldn't as their top guys were sick, and had to rob other people in order to survive.”

The man starts to cry. “You, you did so much for us, how can I ever repay you?”

“Just give me the promised reward. I don't need anything else.”

He gives Null the 5 silver ores, and something else on top of it.

“What's this?”

“These are called jet boots. Now, I don't know what a jet is, but it does make someone run 15% faster. These are my prized possession.”

“Um, thanks.”

Null leaves the old man's house. The town looks completely different. The people who looked down are now happy and dancing around. Null scoffs at them and says disgusting while looking for the job board, unaware of his slight smile.

-------------------------------------------------------

Author's Note: Man. Oh man. Null is looking pretty OP huh? And that's only his first form.

I just wanted to squeeze out how powerful Null has become.