AN note:

~ [Unison] ~

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[An offer?]

"Yes. I want you two to act as guards during an exchange. In return, I will give you an inventory. Sounds good?"

[Inventory?]

"Inventory is an organized dimensional bag. Here you can store things separately, and access at your own discretion."

'Something isn't right.'

[Sounds expensive.]

"It is. It easily costs 30 gold. And in this time, earning 30 gold is not a matter of joke."

Yep, something clearly is not right. She is a trader. And no trader in their right mind will give away their wares. For now, I should let things play out.

[Okay I accept the job.]

~ Me too. Can you give us job specifics? ~

"The exchange will be done inside a certain place. Your job is to keep watch outside, fight if needed."

~ Simple enough. Can you tell us what we might face? ~

"A bandit group named 'Ribbons'."

'Bandits? Should be easy enough.'

~ Anything we should watch out for? ~

"You should watch out for their leader. He is an evolved."

~ Evolved? ~

She stared at us for a minute before continuing.

"Seriously did you live in a hole in the mountains?"

~ No. ~

"Then how come you don't know about these things?"

'Well we can't just tell her about world jump now can we?'

[Let's just say we come from a distant place.](Mike is whistling while averting his gaze)

"Then can I assume you don't know about anything? Like about the war 300 years ago?"

~ Nope. Not a thing. ~

"I seriously think you lived... ah... forget it."

~ Can you tell us? About the war? ~

"(Sigh) Okay, Listen carefully. About 300 years ago, there was a great war between nations for natural resources. All types of weapons...... viral, poison, nuclear and what not were used. The war lasted for about 10 years. When the war ended, side effects from all those weapons became apparent. Some people got physically or genetically modified, some whole new race came into existence, some place became uninhabitable, some new inhabitable place emerged, things like that."

~ Whoa, that's some war... ~

"Now, why am I telling you all this? Cause the term 'evolved' specifies people with special abilities. Special abilities they received from the effect of the war."

~ What special abilities? ~

"Many kind of abilities. Teleport, telepathy, telekinesis, pyro kinesis, enhanced physical properties, dynamic camouflage, element generation and manipulation, space and time manipulation, shape shifting and many more. There may be some type of abilities I never even heard of."

[What ability their leader has?]

"Pyro kinesis. And he is quite powerful."

[I see. Anyone else?]

"No. Others were using conventional firearms. Any other questions?

~ No. ~

"Exchange will take place at tomorrow noon. Till then, do whatever you want."

I exit the bus. Rohit came out with us.

"Allow me to introduce you to others."

[Thanks.]

"Before that, tell me any abnormal feat you achieved in that forest."

[Huh?]

~ Well, we killed two bears with our bare hands. Does that count? ~

"Bears? Don't tell all those I am carrying are bear meats?"

~ Yes. Although mixed with a bit of wolf meat. ~

"Wow. Even I am impressed."

[But why do you need to know something like that?]

"You will understand in a moment."

Rohit took us to a guard. He was manning a heavy machine gun mounted on one of the Humvee. He waved and called out to the man.

"Hey Guru, got a minute?"

"Sure."

"Meet our two hired help. This is Kaushik (gesturing at me) and he is Mike (gesturing at mike). Kaushik, Mike .... Meet Guru (gesturing at the guard). He is one of the guards responsible for manning the MG."

Guru scanned our gears for a moment. Then averted his gaze as if uninterested.

"Really now? Two newbies with blades and without any guns? You would have done better to hire farmers than them."

'Oi...' (Tsukkomi)

"Sure I will hire farmers if any of them can kill a full grown bear with their bare hands."

"Yeah sure I will let you know as soon as I find... WHAT? You.... You serious?"

"Quite."

Guru promptly climbed down from gunner seat and run up to us in the blink of an eye.

"Nice to meet you (Shaking my hands). Nice to meet you (Shaking Mike's hand). Please pardon my earlier comment. I am called Guru (Saluting in military pose). As you can see, I am a guard working for crimson caravan."

~ Likewise. ~ (sweating at the sudden change of attitude)

[Nice to meet you too. Don't worry about the misunderstanding. It happens.]

"Ah... ahahahahaha (scratching his head) ...... yeah right it happens (scratching his head some more) ...... ahahahahaha...."

After talking with Guru for a bit, we left. Next, Rohit introduced us to the cooks (both are females and quite good looking), other guards, drivers, and some other people. Most of them were sarcastic because we lack any firearms. But, when they heard we killed the two bears with bare hands, they became friendly. Apparently they don't mind as long as you are not useless.

Rohit transferred all the meats to the cooks. Mike asked (pestered) one of the cooks for a feast tonight. She looks about 5-6 years younger than me. She said there is more than enough meat so they have no problem with a feast. Mike thanked her for her thoughtfulness (kissed on both of her cheeks within seconds, she blushed after five seconds and hid behind the other cook).

After introducing us to all the people in the camp, Rohit excused himself. We had nothing to do so we started talking with cooks and gathered some useful informations.

First about this world. It seems there is no magic. Yes you heard me right. NO MAGIC. You do not chant some spell and things do not happen out of thin air. But before the war, this world was very advanced, to the point where everyday machines ran on nuclear power. After the war, many of those advanced machines were lost or hidden away or simply got buried in ruins. There seems to be many people who wield special abilities. Abilities to do things beyond normal human capabilities. This world is also bigger than our previous world, almost by five times.

After talking with the cooks for an hour, we left and went to talk with the guards to find out about the current situation. Luckily, I spotted Guru taking a break from his job.

[Hey Guru.]

~ Yo. ~

"Hey Kaushik (nodding at me), Mike (nodding at Mike). Introduction complete?"

[Yeah. We have nothing to do since the exchange is tomorrow, so we are slacking off to our heart's content.]

"Good for you. What's your job description?"

~ Keep watch during exchange. Kill every enemy if things go sour. ~

"That's it? You don't know what the exchange is about?"

[No, we didn't ask Alice as she looked like she doesn't want to tell us.]

"Well it's understandable. Don't worry, it's not some confidential information. It's just that, for her it will be hard to talk about."

'If it's not confidential, then I can ask about it.'

[You know what it's about?]

"I sure do. But before that, let me get a cup of coffee."

[We might as well.]

All three of us got a cup of hot coffee from the younger cook. The cook blushed again when Mike thanked her (landed another kiss on her cheek but this time she did not hide).

"Haha don't tease her too much Mike or we will get jealous."

~ Eeeeeh.... But she looks so cute blushing. She is almost like a little sister. ~

"She is our little sister. Now enough of teasing her, we should get back to our topic."

~ Can we do that after I kiss her one more time? ~ (pleading with puppy eyes)

"Sure, if you want to starve tonight."

~ Come buddy, we have an important topic to discuss. ~ (got all serious)

"Your friend sure is lively." (Sighing)

[I know. Now tell me the reason behind the exchange.]

"We started from Necropolis 10 days back. Things were relatively easy until two days ago those bandits ambushed us. They were quite well armed. But it seems like they didn't know that we had heavy MGs both at front and back. We held our ground quite well. Until their leader came."

He stopped and took a sip from his cup.

"It's not our first time encountering an evolved. But that person is quite proficient at using his ability. He first shot some kind of fire lance. One lance went through Mohan's right shoulder who was manning the heavy MG and other through Robin's head who was driving. Robin died on the spot. Then he landed on the Humvee and erupted a pillar of fire around the car."

He stopped and took another sip.

"After 3 seconds, the flame died out but now he has knocked the other two guards cold and put them on his shoulder. We couldn't fire as we might hit them. Then all of them fled after demanding a ransom."

He took another sip.

"The ransom is 5000 gold. Prisoner will be killed if not paid."

[........... And she agreed to pay the sum?]

"Yes."

'What?'

My brain started to work at hyper speed. If I remember right, Alice said 30 gold is quite a sum to earn. Then what 5000 gold is? No, more importantly why is she going so far for two prisoners? Don't tell me, those two and Alice are blood related?

"They are my daughters, but not my blood relative. I adopted them."

I snapped my neck to see Alice is standing behind us. Two streams of tears are flowing down her cheek. I see. She is quite business minded. But more than that, she is a mother. Even though paying that much might cause her caravan go bankrupt, she is still willing to do so to keep her family safe.

That does it. I have made my decision.

[Did you know Alice?]

"Huh?"

~ That you are a lucky woman? ~

"What?"

[If you did, then it's good.]

"What are you..."

~ If you didn't, then even better. ~

"What are you talking about? Did you go crazy?"

Alice is asking in a confused voice.

[Rejoice Alice. Rejoice as you are one of the first.]

~ Who will be witnessing the beginning. ~

"Beginning? Beginning of what?"

Alice is not confused now. She has a worried look on her face.

[After all]

~ It's the beginning of the ~

Both of us stand up and speak in unison.

~ [Legend of the invincible duo.] ~

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AN Note: This marks the end of volume 0. Please comment and let me know your opinions. Oh and late "Merry Crismas" and early "Happy new year".