*The rush for the [Olympian] title has ended in disaster. Nations of Earth, knowing that consecutive titles made each one harder to obtain, spurred on both retired and previous athletes into obtaining these titles. Having learned a lesson in adaptability, the Olympic Trials Committee were the first to start sponsoring other fields of excellence.

– A chess champion? Really? What’s next, a bowling champion? @Mykare (Verified, Realm 3)

– I got the [Child Prodigy] title. It comes with a moderate boost in mental pursuits. @AkselLarsen (Verified, R1)

*Aksel Larsen, would later be known as Atellion the Null Mage. The bowling champion did not get a Trial sponsorship.

“Mphh,”

“Shut up! I haven’t driven a manual in ages!”

Ryan still had the old man on his lap. He didn’t dare move Jecharim off him. He also didn’t try to stop the old man from head-butting him. Just using a palm to stop the old man from cracking his skull against a realm two skull.

“Stop it, old man. That’s really annoying.”

He wasn’t expecting that to stop Jecharim from head-butting him, he was fully egging on the old man, hoping the erratic actions would stop any would-be heroic sharpshooters.

The original reason Ryan hadn’t knocked out the old man was because he had zero idea how much force to use. Last thing he wanted was to accidentally break the old man’s neck.

He still remembered how easily Jecharim’s arm snapped.

Ryan drove through the first city gate. An archway of enchanted stone, weakened by the fact that it was in a levelled zone. It could still survive a bombardment by an eighth realm adventurer. He shuddered at the turrets on the top. This was a city still designed for war in the end.

He made sure to follow the route that kept him well within the leveled zone. Ironically, this route was the one used for mass evacuations during wartime.

Chieftain Ami had kept her word. The streets were completely clear of both Realmers and other vehicles.

It wasn’t as if cars were that common in The Realm. Most cities opted for electric trams and trains as their means of transport.

He gave a grin and waved at some of the Realmers that were peeking from buildings and taking videos. A child screamed and ran back inside.

I’m really scaring the children now.

He called Chief Ami’s number through his own phone as he reached the secondary gate of the city. The one that led to the outside of Ulverra proper.

She picked up immediately. Ryan put on his Artigan voice.

“If I see a single drone or vehicle following me, I’m going to drag the old man around monster infested areas and keep using him as a shield. Otherwise, I’ll let him go with the truck once I’m clear. Keep the adventurers off my back if you want to keep them alive.”

He hung up without waiting for a reply.

Once he left the gates and the city was well behind him, he put the old man into the passenger seat and tied his hands to the convenient handlebar attached to the ceiling of the truck.

He sighed and finally relaxed.

One million dollars richer, not that he could use it without finding a way to launder it first.

“Mmmph mph!”

Ryan turned to his hostage.

“Oh alright, but if you start screaming the gag’s going back on.”

—

Sector Two was roughly twenty percent larger than the entirety of the United States. It had been added to The Realm when the Tyrants first completed the Second Trial. The land had come with great forests, monsters and some very confused elves.

The latter of which did not contest The Realm against the pioneers.

Despite the war and periodic Realm invasions, it had resettled into a great forested landscape. Monsters roamed free in leveled zones, cultivated in a way to challenge new adventurers. Even Realmers, mostly elves, that wanted to keep some of their old culture alive would hunt in the leveled forests.

A truck drove on the neatly paved roads, the forests quite a ways ahead. Endless bunkers and emergency housing dotted the landscape. They stuck out like a sore thumb, so did the truck. It lurched as he sped up.

Ryan fucked up the gear change again.

“Let me drive you, idiot.”

Old man Jecharim had his arms tied but was no longer gagged. Ryan scoffed.

“Oh, yeah? How do you know how to drive? Huh?”

Cars were rare in The Realm. They had to be carried piece by piece from Earth by adventurers and would take up precious portal allocation. By the time industrial factories had started to go up, they’d already made it so that their cities didn’t rely on cars. Plus, the lack of readily available oil meant that cars had been far too expensive for the average Realmer.

Jecharim scoffed back.

“Hmph, I’ve been here since the settler generation. They used to use us to make these roads.”

Ryan narrowed his eyes at his hostage.

“I bet you want to make us crash, you angry old man.”

“Hmph, I’d be doing both of us a favor.”

“I knew it!”

“That’s not what I meant!”

They rode in angry silence for a few more minutes. Ryan had memorized where to go. He just needed to get far away from the city as possible and just lose himself in the great forests. He just had to keep driving past the endless emergency bunkers first.

The old man shook his head.

“You have no idea what you’re doing, do you?”

Ryan froze, then tried to play it cool.

“I got away, didn’t I?”

He did get away, didn’t he? Ryan had appeared in the middle of the biggest city in The Realm, confused the shit out of Gamielle, and ran off with a million dollars. He wanted to laugh his head off. Hell, he would be laughing his head off… if it weren’t for the old man next to him.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“And here I thought you were some sort of crazy bastard. You’re just a fucking brat, aren’t you?”

Ryan froze again. Old Jecharim was too sharp to let that pause go.

“Guessed it in one, did I?”

“Alright, I’m putting the gag back on.”

“Don’t you dare! I’ll bite!”

As demonstration, Jecharim clacked down with his pearly white teeth. Chomping his teeth at him. Ryan decided not to play with the childish old man.

The old man sniffed.

“You’ve never done this before, have you?”

That caught him off-guard. “Do people normally have experience taking Realmers hostage?”

“Hmph, even I could tell that the lady Chief figured out you had no balls.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ryan fell for the bait. He’d been wondering why Ami had done a 180 in her attitude during their negotiations. Jecharim just snorted.

“You should have at least threatened them by cutting off my fingers!”

The veteran said it like it were a simple matter of fact.

Ryan was once again, flabbergasted.

“Did you want me to cut off your fingers?! Am I really getting ransoming advice from my own hostage right now?”

The old man had a screw loose. Ryan shook his head and rolled his eyes in disbelief—

Jecharim’s foot flew up and tried to kick the steering wheel. Ryan stopped it before it had even come close.

He still hadn’t let his guard down.

“Nice try. Next time you do that, I’m tying up your legs… No wait, I’m going to do it now.”

He stopped the truck. Old Jecharim tried to kick at his face, but it was futile. The physical difference between a regular person and an adventurer in the second realm was like that of an adult compared to a child.

Jecharim spat in his face.

“No. balls.”

Ryan wiped away the spit in disgust. He glared at the old man.

“I can still demand more money and start sending them fingers.”

“Then do it.”

Both the Realmer and Earther looked at each other, a stalemate. The old man showed none of the fear that he had displayed in the shop. Well, that was concerning, his Epic’s passive should’ve still been on.

He shook his head and broke eye contact first.

“Thought so, you pussy.” Jecharim snorted.

Ryan sighed, then took out a knife from his thigh strap.

“Alright, fuck it. Let’s start with the pinkie.”

“Y-you!”

Jecharim started spluttering, pulling himself back with sudden surprise and fear. Ryan reached over the for the old man’s hands, then looked the terrified Realmer in the eye.

And grinned.

“Gotcha.”

“You little shit!”

Ryan laughed as he started the vehicle again. He’d gotten used to driving the truck pretty quickly. He had driven Milo’s manual transmission before, and his supernatural muscle memory learned the movements quickly, once he’d made the first mistakes.

“It’s not too late, you know.”

Did hostages normally talk this much? Veterans. Ryan turned to the old man and raised an eyebrow.

“To turn myself in?”

“What even is your plan? To survive in the leveled zones all the way to the top? You think you can solo a king and then the dragon? Then what? Are you going to challenge the Tyrants? They’ll smite you down the moment you step foot outside the leveled zones.”

Ryan just shrugged, dismissing the old man

“I’ll tell you my plan when I figure it out myself.”

“What a stupid waste of talent. The Manager chooses you, and you piss it away like this.”

Ryan laughed. The old man glared at his laughters. Ryan kept laughing until it stopped being funny.

“Oh, old man, you have no idea how funny that is.”

“The hells is that supposed to mean?”

“If the Manager chose me, then he knew all this would happen, wouldn’t he?”

Gamielle’s voice whispered in his ear. “Careful, there’s no need to break the old man’s heart with the truth.”

Ryan rolled his eyes. Of course she was still watching and listening. The public still thought of the Manager as some sort of impartial guiding god. Ryan gritted his teeth as he bit back a retort.

Jecharim took that pause as a sign of weakness.

“You are given choices! It’s why adventurers like you get to choose! You choose your classes, your skills. You even get to choose your own species! How can you blame the Manager for your own decisions?!”

Ryan stayed silent, stewing over the words. The old man was so frustratingly wrong… and yet right at the same time. That was the thing, he agreed with him.

“People like you are the worst.” Jecharim muttered darkly.

Ryan’s response was just as quiet.

“Really? I didn’t take your fingers. I tried to donate to charity.”

“You’re like the rest of the folk from the Settler generation.”

Ryan frowned and turned to Jecharim. The old man wasn’t looking at him, he was just staring blankly ahead.

“I was there when you and your people came to us, saying you needed to protect us from the other people of your world.”

The old man was lost in his own world, dredging up memories from a different, darker time.

“You conscripted us into your war, made us into slaves. Called us primitive natives behind our backs while you violated our lands and took everything from us.”

“That wasn’t me, old man. That was before my time.”

Jecharim snapped out of his daze, the old man turned to Ryan. He looked at the fully geared [Rogue], up and down.

“Look at you. Do you think you’re any better? Treating our world like it’s your playground?”

Ryan gripped the wheel tighter. He thought of Zedart’s words and wondered when he would have to kill someone for real.

No, that was a copout. He’d already done it. Even if he hadn’t killed Garbolt. He’d at least ruined his life. He’d ruined three lives already. All because of the fucking Manager and the Witch Tyrant.

“Do you think-”

“Shut it, old man. My hands aren’t clean, and I haven’t once thought I was doing the right thing.”

Jecharim paused from his rant. He blinked, then looked at the silent [Rogue]. No longer laughing and no longer looking like he was having the time of his life.

“Then why are you doing all this?”

The [Rogue] sighed.

“That’s what I’m planning on finding out. Then… then I’ll figure out what to do from there.”

They drove for another twenty minutes. The roads leading into the leveled zones extended far, with ghost towns and empty bunkers reserved for retreat. Ryan had finally cleared them and was driving a maintained path with thick trees on each side.

The great forests of the budding Leafstalkers.

He got out of the car and untied Jecharim and sat him in the driver’s seat. The old man crossed his arms, still glaring at him.

Ryan took out Jecharim’s phone and called the Chief’s number. Radio towers extended far in the relatively safe Second Sector. She picked up.

“Okay, I’m going to drop off the old man here. He can drive home.”

“I don’t know how to drive a vehicle!”

“I knew it!”

Chief Enforcer Ami finally said something in the speaker.

“What’s going on? Jecharim, are you alright?”

“I’m fine! The blacklist is a big pus-”

Ryan put his hand over the old man’s mouth and whispered so the phone wouldn’t pick it up.

“If you don’t want more innocent people to die, then you should stay quiet.”

Ryan let his eyes peek out through his shadowed hood. Both of them met eye to eye, and the stubborn old man finally seemed to accept that he didn’t have the full picture.

Ami’s concerned voice broke through the silence.

“Jecharim, stay in the car. We’ll have units out for you soon. Artigan, thank you for keeping your word.”

Ryan took a breath. He spoke with as much seriousness as he could muster.

“I will kill any team that comes after me. This is the only warning I’ll give. If they come at me and haven’t heard it. That will be your fault.”

“Understood.”

Ryan stared at the phone. They both knew it wouldn’t be enough. Adventurers choosing not to hunt a monster for a bounty? Those people didn’t deserve their Trial slots.

“Pleasure doing business with you.”

He hung up.

Ryan gave Jecharim’s phone back to him and closed the door. Then he took out his own adventurer issued phone and cut it to pieces. He wasn’t going to let them track him through that.

The door of the truck opened up behind him, and Jecharim stepped outside.

“So, what’s the plan, kid? Where are we off to now?”

Ryan just looked at the old man. In absolute disbelief for the third time.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep