Not far away, four men ran for their lives through the forest.
They weren't running well. More like stumbling, gasping, crashing through underbrush like wounded animals. Their clothes were stitched from dark brown hides, stained with blood and mud and things better left unidentified. The leader was a tall man with a potbelly that bounced as he ran, a tangled mane of brown hair, and what might have once been a white Taoist robe before it met violence.
"Hurry! Run, you useless wastes!" He barked over his shoulder, spittle flying. "Slow me down and I'll cut you all down myself!"
Empty threat. The other three knew it. They'd heard it a thousand times. But fear made their legs pump faster anyway as they watched their leader pull farther ahead, abandoning them like he always did when things went bad.
The shouting jolted Hunter awake.
He scrambled to his feet, kicking leaves into the air, heart hammering. For half a second he'd forgotten where he was. Then reality crashed back. Forest. Two moons. Soul-torture. Right.
"What now?" He swallowed hard and called out to the voice in his head. "System, are you there? Hello?"
Silence.
"If this is a prank show, I swear I'll sue." He said it to the trees, to no one, and felt better for exactly one second.
[SYSTEM] ONLINE. HOW MAY I ASSIST, MASTER?
The mechanical voice made him flinch. Still not used to that.
"I don't know. Maybe take me home?"
[SYSTEM] REQUEST: RETURN_USER_HOME [SYSTEM] RESULT: DENIED (TRANSPORT_FUNCTION: UNAVAILABLE)
Of course. Why would anything be easy?
Hunter wanted a customer service number so badly it physically hurt. Press one to scream. Press two to cry. Press three to speak to a manager about being kidnapped by a malfunctioning app and deposited in a murder forest.
He clenched his fists, nails biting into his palms. "Then what am I supposed to do? Where even am I?"
[SYSTEM] GEOLOCATION: NORTHERN WILDERNESS
[SYSTEM] LOCAL INDEX: BANDIT HIDEOUTS / REBEL CELLS / MAGICAL SECTS / FRONTIER VILLAGES
[SYSTEM] USER-MODIFIED GOAL: HERO_SYSTEM → BANDIT_SYSTEM (CONFIRMED)
[SYSTEM] OBJECTIVE: ASSIST HOST IN BECOMING "BANDIT KING"
"Bandit King." Hunter repeated the words, tasting how ridiculous they sounded. "I work in insurance."
Leaves rustled to his left. Heavy footsteps snapped twigs. Something big was coming.
A figure burst through the clearing.
"Thank God." Relief flooded Hunter's chest. "People. Actual people. I'm saved."
[SYSTEM] ACTION: MISSION_ISSUED
[SYSTEM] MISSION_ID: M-0042
[SYSTEM] TARGET: BANDIT_LEADER
[SYSTEM] OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE_TARGET
[SYSTEM] FAILURE_CONSEQUENCE: HOST_TERMINATION
[SYSTEM] REWARD: +3 BANDIT RECRUITS; REALM_UPGRADE=FOUNDATION; SPIRIT_ROOT=GRADE_B
The words appeared in Hunter's vision like a video game HUD. He read them aloud, voice going numb. "Kill... recruits... foundation realm? I can't kill anyone."
He'd never even been in a real fight. Once in middle school, maybe, and he'd cried after.
[SYSTEM] NOTE: HOST MAY REFUSE MISSION
"Thank God, System." A sigh escaped him. "I guess you're not all bad."
[SYSTEM] CONSEQUENCE OF REFUSAL: DEATH (TIME: SHORT)
The relief died in his throat.
"Screw you, System." He clutched his fist, ready to scream more complaints into the void, but the sound of approaching footsteps cut him off.
A tall bandit exploded into the clearing.
The man was huge. Muscled. Scarred. He had the look of someone who'd survived things. His eyes locked onto Hunter and narrowed with focus.
Hunter, by contrast, looked like exactly what he was: an average guy in torn work clothes, brown hair sticking up at weird angles, still half-asleep and completely out of place.
The bandit didn't hesitate. Didn't ask questions. Didn't waste time on words.
He lunged, rusty sword raised high, aiming to split Hunter's skull in one swing.
Time slowed down in that stupid way it does when you're about to die.
"Wait! Wait!" Hunter ducked on pure instinct. "Stop! Stop!"
The blade whistled past his head close enough to feel the air move. The bandit's momentum, all that muscle and rage and killing intent, carried him forward.
Straight into a boulder.
Face first.
The impact made a sound Hunter would never forget. Wet and crunchy. The sword clanged free from nerveless fingers and skittered across the ground, stopping at Hunter's feet.
"This has to be a joke." A sound escaped Hunter that wasn't quite a laugh. More like hysteria. He bent down, hands shaking, and picked up the sword.
It was heavier than he expected. Real. The weight of an actual weapon made to actually kill people.
He took two steps toward the fallen man. "Hey, buddy, are you okay? Can you hear—"
The bandit groaned.
Then he surged up in reflex, dazed and bleeding from the head, eyes unfocused. He didn't see Hunter. Didn't see the sword. He just tackled forward on muscle memory and survival instinct.
Hunter yanked the sword up.
He didn't think. Didn't aim.
Instincts moved his hands.
Steel slid into flesh.
The resistance was nothing like the movies. It felt off. Too easy and too hard at once. Like cutting through something that wasn't supposed to be easy to cut through but ended up being soft.
Warmth flooded over his knuckles. Blood. Actual blood. The sword suddenly felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
He waited for triumph, for the rush of adrenaline, for something other than what he got.
Nausea. Pure, gut-twisting nausea.
His legs tried to fold. Fear held him upright. The forest pressed closer, branches creaking, he was half expecting police officers to show up and scream freeze.
Blood poured from the wound. From the bandit's mouth. The man's eyes found Hunter's, wide with shock.
"You killed me." He coughed the words out, spraying red. Then he folded like a puppet with cut strings.
Hunter froze. Couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Could only stare at the blade in his hand, at the blood running down his arm, at the man he'd just murdered.
Because that's what it was. Murder. Accident or not, self-defense or not, the man was dead and Hunter had killed him.
No words came. His brain had shut down. The bloodied sword was the only proof he needed of what he'd done.
[SYSTEM] STATUS: MISSION_COMPLETE (M-0042)
[SYSTEM] REWARD: +3 BANDIT RECRUITS; REALM_UPGRADE=FOUNDATION; SPIRIT_ROOT=GRADE_B
The soft chime echoed in his skull, cheerful and horrible, while the remaining three bandits stumbled into the clearing.
They saw their leader. Saw the blood. Saw Hunter standing over the body with a sword.
Fear transformed their faces. Not anger. Not grief. Pure, animal terror.
Out here, the strong decided who lived. Their leader had reached the first level of Body Refinement, whatever that meant. Compared to them, mere mortals, he'd been superhuman.
And this stranger had dropped him like it was nothing.
The first bandit fell to his knees so fast it had to hurt. "Esteemed elder, please, spare us!"
The second followed, voice cracking with panic. "I have five children. Two wives. A goat. They need me. Please don't kill me."
The third hit the ground so hard his forehead actually bounced off the dirt. "I have seven children, three wives, two goats! Take them! Take everything! Just let me serve you, Master. I'll do anything."
Hunter stared at them through the fog in his brain.
Were they one-upping each other? Right now? With goats?
They pressed their foreheads to the ground. The sound of it, flesh on dirt, snapped something in Hunter's mind back online.
They thought he was strong. Powerful. Dangerous.
They had no idea he was about three seconds from throwing up.
"I should kill you lying rats." The words came out steadier than he felt. He was acting. Playing a role. Pretending to be someone who knew what they were doing. "But I feel generous. Maybe I'll only kill two of you."
"Mercy! Mercy! Have mercy!" They cried it like a prayer. "We'll do anything. We'll even pledge a slave oath."
[SYSTEM] CONTRACT OPTION: SLAVE_MASTER_PACT
[SYSTEM] CONFIRM: SIGN WITH 3 SUBJECTS? (Y/N)
Hunter's brain was still catching up to everything. Slave oath? Like actual slavery? That was a thing here?
But the System was waiting. And if he said no, they might realize he wasn't the terrifying master they thought he was.
"Do it." The words left his mouth before he could think them through.
A beam of hard white light launched from everywhere and nowhere at once. It pierced through the heads of all three men, blinding Hunter for an instant. When his vision cleared, something had changed. Something invisible but present, like a thread connecting him and them.
He knew, without knowing how, that their lives hung from his hand now. If they rebelled, if they even thought about betrayal, the oath would tear their souls apart. No afterlife. No reincarnation. Just nothing.
I should scare them. Make sure this thing actually works.
"You're my dogs now." He tested the words, tested the weight of it all.
All together, perfectly synchronized, the three men answered: "Yes, master."
[SYSTEM] PACT: SEALED (S-2001)
[SYSTEM] RECRUITS: +3 ACTIVATED
[SYSTEM] REALM: FOUNDATION — PENDING
[SYSTEM] SPIRIT_ROOT: GRADE_B — PENDING
[SYSTEM] STATUS: WELCOME TO BANDITRY, HOST
Good. At least the System isn't completely useless. Maybe these rewards will actually help.
[SYSTEM] DISPENSE: FOUNDATION_REALM_REWARD? (Y/N)
[SYSTEM] SUGGESTION: FIND SAFE LOCATION. PROCESS_DURATION=8_HOURS
Hunter looked at the prompt floating in his vision, then at the three men still kneeling in the dirt, then at the corpse cooling at his feet.
Not here. He couldn't do whatever "Foundation Realm upgrade" meant here.
"Where's your hideout?" He called to them, trying to sound commanding instead of lost. "I need a place to rest."
The first bandit lifted his head slightly. "Sir, the hideout is four miles north. You'll know we're near when we cross the river and see old ruins."
He was short and muscular, with a bald head and a face that looked like it had lost several arguments with sharp objects. When he spoke again, Hunter caught the name: Lex.
"Then what are we waiting for? Show me the way."
"Yes, sir!" Lex scrambled to his feet like his life depended on enthusiasm. "It's this way, sir."
They started walking. Hunter followed, sword still in hand because he didn't know where else to put it. The three men stayed ahead of him, probably grateful they didn't have to look at him.
His mind wandered as they walked. Back in Boston, his coworkers would be arriving at the office right about now. Grabbing coffee from the break room. Complaining about traffic or weather or whatever small thing made the day feel bearable. Living their normal, boring, beautiful lives.
Lives that would never include murdering someone in a forest.
I don't know what will happen to me. I don't know if I'll survive tomorrow. But the System says I can get stronger. Maybe that's enough for now. Maybe.
Nervousness gripped his heart. Fear for what came next. But underneath it, buried deep, was something else.
For the first time in a long time, he didn't feel like he was sleepwalking through life.
He felt awake.
And he didn't know if that was better or worse.