Second World

"Hey! Why are you so quiet now?" Bowler continued his taunt. "Come and get me! All of you chickenshits just to go beat up one woman? There are no lowlifes lower than you lot!"

"Asshole! You want to die!"

"Annoying little prick!"

Several of the gang members were getting restless as well.

Boulder was more clearheaded. "Ignore him!" He said. "There is nothing that he can do aside from yapping. His turn will come soon. Let him enjoy his own talking a bit longer."

The gang cooled down after Boulder's words.

Bowler sent a few more insults, but it didn't seem to have any effect anymore. The gang members were not even looking at him any longer. Fox had ignored him altogether and gone back to provoking Flame. He could see Flame was getting restless again. He didn't think he could hold her back much longer."

"Bro..! Where are you?!" Bowler sent a message again to Jack in his panic.

"I am here!" He got a reply, but not in the form of a message. Jack's voice reverberated around the neighborhood. Fox, who was still passionately throwing insults at Flame, paused and looked around to figure out where Jack's voice was coming from.

The slum road was pretty dirty and the noon sun was beating down drying everything. A strong wind was blowing, lifting the dust up from the road, swirling it around and obscuring everything in the distance.

Jack appeared from the cloud of dust walking calmly towards them down the middle of the road. 

Fox laughed when she saw Jack trying to act cool like some kind of a knight in shining armor. She mocked him at once, "Haha, here comes the savior, eh? What can you do? Even if you are very strong, that's not much use if you can't attack us! Or do you want to receive a criminal imprint and deal with the guards of the city?"

"Guards of the city?" Jack lifted his brow, "do you mean guards like them?"

Jack pointed behind him at several shadows that could just be seen inside the dust cloud. Not long after, a squad of around twenty guards in full armor appeared out of the dust. They were following behind Jack as he continued to walk towards the Weary Wolf gang.

The gang members were flummoxed.

"What's going on?"

"Why are the guards coming here?"

"Why are they following a player?"

Boulder calmed everyone down, "The guards are simply on their rounds. He's just using the coincidence to fool us. Stay in your formation."

Hearing their leader's explanation, everyone thought it made sense. Some even threw a mocking grin to Jack as he approached.

One of them scoffed, "You think you can trick us? Your child's play is laughable!" They laughed as they made fun and pointed at Jack with disdain.

Jack was looking at them calmly like he was witnessing a bunch of fools making fun of themselves. He shook his head as one of the guards came over to him. "Are they the ones causing trouble?" he asked.

"Yes, sir, they are blocking the road preventing my friend from passing through," Jack answered the guard.

When the Weary Wolf gang heard this conversation, their laughter died down. Some who were further away couldn't hear so they continued laughing for a while. But soon they stopped in confusion as they saw their friends' faces turn grim.

The guard who spoke with Jack waved to the other guards. He seemed to be the squad leader. The guards started to surround the Weary Wolf gang. The squad leader approached the Weary Wolf people. Boulder immediately came out to talk to him, "Sir guard, what's wrong? We haven't done anything wrong, we didn't attack anyone."

The squad leader looked at him and said sternly, "Move aside!"

Boulder was stunned, but he didn't dare to disobey. He and his people immediately made way for the guard, who passed through them and went up to Fierce Flame who was also standing in confusion.

"Miss," the guard greeted her, then asked, "I have received a report that you have been harassed and denied passage out of this place, is that true?"

Flame was unsure for a moment but she promptly replied, "Yes, they have been blocking my way for hours already."

The guard nodded, he then called over a few natives from inside the bar and asked them a few questions as well. Bowler, who had been making his way to Jack, arrived by his side and asked, "This your doing, bro?"

"Yep," Jack answered.

"What did you do?"

"They thought they could take advantage of the system, but they haven't really gotten the whole picture about the rules yet. The system already has a failsafe against this kind of thing. All we have to do is find a guard and report it to them. They will come and sort things out."

Bowler's face was brightening, "So we can do things like that? Damn, if I'd have known, I would have gone searching for a guard as soon as this started."

Jack nodded, "You shouldn't be too stuck on the idea that this is a game, despite many of the rules following the game system. This place is much like real life; there can be many solutions to a problem."

'Smart ass, I remember you were also confused as to what to do until I told you about this,' Peniel complained beside him.

'Can you please let me have my moment here?' Jack retorted.

The squad leader had finished asking questions of the natives who had witnessed the ordeal. They backed up the report. He then gave orders to his squad.

"These outworlders have violated the law of free passage on public property. They are hindering people and creating disorder. Take them all back to the station! Anyone who dares to resist will be marked as a criminal and be in jeopardy of execution where they stand!"

All of the Weary Wolf gang members' faces turned pale. They turned to Boulder and Fox, asking what they should do. The duo was also shocked; they hadn't expected things would turn out this way. Should they run? Should they fight back?

Although they outnumbered the guards, the guards were all level 50. One hit from them would be enough to send Weary Wolfs to their grave. And they would be marked as criminals, which meant they would lose their freedom in the city. They'd have to go outside the city wall or stay hidden or they would be captured and imprisoned. But if they submitted now, would they get imprisoned?

They were not sure; the research they had done, and things they had heard from others, was just about what would happen when players got attacked by other players. They didn't know what the penalty was for obstructing passage on public property.

After considering things quickly, Boulder finally decided to not risk fighting the guards. He told his members, "We have no choice. Do not resist the guards."

"Wise move," Jack said to him with a smile.

The gang leader glared at him with smoldering hate but didn't say a word.

After all the frustrations of the day, Flame wasn't about to let go of the chance to throw some salt into their wounds as well. She said to Fox, "Have a nice stay in the prison. When you come out, let's do this again so we can send you back to prison one more time. It's where you belong."

Fox was fuming with rage, She hissed at Flame, "don't think you have won, you stupid bitch! This is not over! Just you wait, one of these days I'm gonna make you regret everything you've done!"

"I will be waiting.  Bye-bye for now," Flame retorted with a mocking grin and a wave as the gang was herded away by the guards.

Once they were gone, Flame rejoined Jack and Bowler.

"Thank you," she said to Jack. "I couldn't have held out much longer. If you hadn't come with those guards, it would have ended badly for me. How did you know that we could make a report and ask for help from the guard?"

"Yeah," Bowler agreed as he looked at Jack.

"Nothing special," Jack replied. "I just considered the situation as though it happened back in real life. What would we do if we encountered such a problem? We would go to the police, no?"

Bowler threw him a thumbs-up. "You are the man!" He said.

"Do you know how long the guards will detain them?" Flame asked.

"Two days. If they repeat the offense again, it will be longer the next time." Jack replied with the information that he had gotten from Peniel.

"And how do you know that?" Flame asked again.

"Um… The guard told me. Say, are you guys on the way to submit your quest?" Jack asked to divert them from the topic.

The two of them nodded.

"Me too," Jack said.. "Let's go to the Association together. How about we do the next quest together?"