Bald, fierce and armoured, Mikkel Meinhof left his own hut, also a cheap, humble one constructed from wood, straw, and several worn nails. He met the same scenario as Chen Mo; a horse-drawn carriage would pass by, sweeping loose dust from the ground before hurling a scroll towards Mikkel's doorstep.
Beneath his feet, beside the wooden steps, were bushes of blue roses, faintly swaying. He didn't pay much attention to that, he only bent down to pick up the scroll and unfurl it slowly.
After a brief skim, he decided this was useless and crumpled it up without hesitation. He'd throw it back through the door he came from, until the crumpled piece of royal message rolled across the ground, and ultimately tapped on the feet of Mikkel's assigned NPC. A naked blue-haired lady, bound tightly by Mikkel himself onto a pillar with rough nylon ropes. Securing the NPC is an objective of the game, so binding her in a fixed position was simply efficient, just not very humane.
But why would Mikkel care? He trampled on the blue roses without pause, crushing petals beneath his boots, then began roaming the town, in a more cautious and deliberate manner than Chen Mo's sprinting.
He'd turn multiple corners until the dirt paths gradually converged into cobblestone streets. Here was the first time he noticed a Northern enforcer, donning the upward-pointing arrow badge.
That Northern enforcer, dressed in heavy steel armour, with his head completely obscured by a hexagonal helmet, was collecting taxes, until his sight found Mikkel. He would approach along with a colleague.
"Where's your badge, Southerner?" the enforcer inquired rudely.
Mikkel had left his unique badge back on the bed where he woke up.
"And where's your honour?" Mikkel shot a question back. Unlike the enforcers' helmets, Mikkel's revealed his own ferocious face, and especially those lion-like hazel eyes that were glaring intensely.
Mikkel would arrogantly grab onto the inquiring enforcer's helmet and yank it off violently, throwing it to one side without restraint.
Clink! Clank!
The metal thudded sharply on the cobblestone.
The lack of a helmet revealed a scarred NPC, with terribly thin hair and a severely asymmetrical face.
[Name: Eric Thompson]
[Threat: B rank]
[He's a royal enforcer.]
Some passersby almost chuckled at Eric's ugly appearance beneath the helmet, and Eric would notice them immediately.
"You—" Eric growled with his molars grinding. His gloved hand quickly found the hilt of his greatsword and unsheathed it, stepping into a stance against Mikkel, "That's assault, Southerner. I shall claim your head."
"Try." Mikkel drew his silver axe, that was previously slung behind his back. The axe would thump heavily as Mikkel dropped it to the floor, even cracking the cobblestone underneath from its sheer weight. Mikkel smiled smugly.
Eric's colleague, another knight named Troy, would step behind to allow Eric all the fun of cleansing Southern flesh.
But Mikkel was an A+ rank to their B ranks.
"Harh!" Eric swung.
Mikkel evaded almost without effort. He was about to retaliate, but then hesitated slightly. If I kill him right now? Wouldn't I be enraging the entire Northaria? Hehe, HAHAHA!
Mikkel laughed out of nowhere, as he was clearly proud of his own plan. He'd allow Eric to keep swinging his greatsword, even forcing Mikkel back further and further step by step.
Whoooosh! Whooooosh! Whooooosh!
The blade split the air multiple times, but only the air. Mikkel's agility was simply too high for Eric to do anything meaningful. And to make matters worse, Mikkel decided to activate his AA, "Tier 1, Unjust Laws. Third."
Suddenly, Mikkel's agility increased almost threefold. Mikkel avoided the blade's trajectories perfectly, almost as if he could foresee the future itself.
Watching the two pace further away, Troy would also slowly follow behind them.
Whilst avoiding the relentless attacks, Mikkel even had time to watch where he was heading. He'd lure the attacking Eric and the following Troy into an alley.
Once they were deep enough inside this narrow alley, until Mikkel was confident that no other enforcers would be able to see them, "Tier 1, Unjust Laws. First!"
Mikkel finally swung. Eric caught it: Mikkel's axe gleamed sharper when Mikkel articulated the word 'First'.
The heavy axe swung a clean arc around his neck. Physics didn't even register the hit until a second later, when blood splashed in all directions, and Eric's stunned head began sliding off its body.
Eric's separated self thudded onto the floor with a dull sound. Troy behind immediately knelt in surrender, "OH SHIT! SHIT! PLEASE! SPARE ME! I... I HAVE A FAMILY!"
Mikkel ignored him completely and stepped forward to the collapsed corpse. His fingers quickly found the privileged badge bearing the upward-pointing arrow symbol, then ripped it off of Eric without hesitation.
"You want citizenship??" Troy stuttered as he placed both his arms in the air submissively, trembling, "Here! Here! I have another badge! Take it!"
Troy wasn't ripping it off his chest himself though, but rather inviting Mikkel to approach and claim it himself.
"Remove your sword and kick it to me." Mikkel instructed coldly.
Troy complied, for his life depended on it. He unsheathed his blade, dropped it onto the ground, then kicked it over a great distance until it slid beneath Mikkel. Mikkel didn't pick it up, but instead he advanced, intending to claim Troy's badge.
Troy's upheld hands slowly reached for his back.
Mikkel was close enough now.
Troy seized the chance, unsheathed an emergency tiny shiv, then swung straight for Mikkel's chest with desperation.
"Tier 1, Unjust Laws. Second." Mikkel muttered.
CLINK!
The shiv hit an unstoppable, unbreakable bronze armour. Not a crack, not a dent, not anything at all from the impact.
"H-huh?" Troy stuttered, confused and panicked.
"Fighters without honour, reliant on tricks." Mikkel spoke, but it wasn't to Troy himself. Mikkel would snatch the shiv from Troy's hands, then plunge it straight through the gap in Troy's metal helmet that allowed sight. In other words, the shiv pierced through Troy's eyes mercilessly.
Mikkel would simply throw Troy's limp body onto the ground as he bled to death, then continue talking to Noah, who had just arrived at the entrance of the alleyway, "These are what pathetic weaklings use. They understand their helplessness, so they choose to abandon dignity for survival.
"That's who Xiao Bai is, Noah, she is a schemer without pride."
Mikkel stomped on Troy's head then squeezed harder, until the hexagonal helmet dented inward, brutally crushing Troy's head.
Then, Mikkel would rip Troy's badge off of him and offer it to Noah.
The stern, armoured and caped Noah Baader however, would deny it, "We need the unique badges to access crime scenes as investigators."
"Tch." Mikkel threw one of the badges in hand away, then pinned the other on his left chest.
"Where's your unique badge?" Noah questioned with an exasperated expression.
"Left it. Don't need it. It's an A rank game, Noah. I can kill that werewolf blindfolded. You're new, you don't understand this." Mikkel explained as he sauntered forward, eventually towering over Noah slightly.
Noah remained calm, his gray eyes staring as he spoke, "Our first task requires the badge. We need to investigate the crime scene."
"See. That's something you don't understand." Mikkel would retort without hesitation, "Tasks are fuckin' useless. As long as the final objective is achieved, the game is done.
"And what the fuck is up with the cape? Trying your best to look like a jackass?"
Noah's armour, forged from hardened magma, just had a new addition: an orangish-red cape, resembling flowing lava. He had purchased this just now after scrolling through the Store.
He ignored his superior's rude remark, then debated, "The final objective is to solve the case. How will you solve the case if you can't even access the most important location?"
"Urghhh..." Mikkel rolled his eyes, "You'll fucking do that. You'll do the gay ass detective shit, find me the werewolf, and I'll kill it. Understood?"
"Sure." Noah's agreement didn't carry any emotion.
"The game's second priority anyways. No, puhhaha," Mikkel was amused by himself again, "The game's third priority. Fucking the emo Asian slut is first, then stealing the reaper's clout is second. Let's go find them."
...
The two would amble abreast, northwards towards Northaria. The buildings surrounding them turned more and more grand, while the integrity of the pavement beneath their feet became more and more refined and pleasant.
Until, there he was.
"Hehe..." Mikkel couldn't believe his eyes, "HeheheHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" He burst into hysterical laughter, so loud that pedestrians, merchants, and enforcers all around would turn their heads to watch him.
"I THOUGHT...! HAHAHA...." Mikkel couldn't contain himself at all, "YOU'RE NOT EVEN A SCHEMER! YOU'RE JUST PLAIN STUPID!!"
Mikkel was of course, referring to the 148cm goth girl, standing idly on the mouth of Klein's Bridge.
"Or... Or... Hahahaha..." Mikkel guffawed so much that he almost lost his breath, "Haha... Or were you attracted by my offers? You like me? You want your slave to be raped in front of you? Or do you want to be raped yourself? Hahahahahaha..."
Chen Mo's expression was as emotionless as ever. Noah beside Mikkel was just as shocked as Mikkel, but not amused in the slightest.
"Noah... Noah... Haha..." Mikkel patted Noah's shoulder, then jabbed an index finger at the goth girl ahead, "... Kneel that yellow monkey down."
Noah complied, "Tier 1, Blazing Runes."
After the chant, several characters from a nonexistent language began to form, in the colour of flames. They surrounded Noah, and floated through the air elegantly.
Noah would command their movements with merely waves of his right hand, until all the blazing runes were lined up neatly into a circle in front of him.
"Tier 2, Arson." Noah chanted his Tier 2 AA. He'd feel dizzy from the large cost of AE, but thanks to his high vitality, the wooziness wore off within a second.
A fireball began forming at the centre of those floating runes. It burned vigorously, as it grew in size, begging to be released.
Noah aimed his fingers at Chen Mo, then flicked them.
The fireball roared into a beam of flames, soaring forward at an extraordinary speed towards Chen Mo.
WHOOOOOOOOSH!!
Two hands smashed into a horse-drawn carriage, then yanked so hard that an entire wall of wood was torn off.
That wall of wood would shift swiftly until arriving right between Chen Mo and the beam of flames.
The beam scorched the wooden barricade, dispersing on impact, and pushing its holder back a couple steps.
Once Noah's ability wore out, the beam of flames halted.
The wooden barricade was consumed with violent orange flames, and was then hurled away with great force, down Klein's Bridge until extinguished by the busy river beneath.
Between the Aryans and Chen Mo was an emerald-eyed woman, dressed tactically, with her raven hair bundled up messily behind her nape.
Eryn, Chen Mo's saviour, would look behind herself to find the short emo girl. Then, she spat, "Five grand, you're an asshole."