As if hell itself had consumed his body, everything hurt, it hurt like a little bitch. His whole being became agony. He screamed and wept with tears and grabbed his head that almost shattered from the impact. But slowly and surely the pain was decreasing. His entire body was aching but he still managed to stand on his two feet. Had this been the real world, Bold would have definitely died. But luckily it seems his body was made to be a little sturdier in this world. Right now, he only has 56 HP left out of 100. 

He observed his body with his leftover eye to see that it was filled with blue blood. 

Is this some sort of censorship? Well, at least it isn’t pink. 

He looked up at the edge of the cliff that he fell from. Bold wasn’t sure if his attack had killed the beast or not. It didn’t matter either way. If the beast wasn’t crazy enough to chase after him again it was enough of a result. He looked around his surroundings. The ground he was standing on was perfectly flat. He didn’t even know where he was heading while he was chased by the ape and now he was pretty sure that he was lost.

Carrying his bruised body he walked into depths of the woods again. After strolling in the dark forest for a few minutes he saw strange black figures a few meters away. Bold immediately hid himself behind a tree and peered cautiously at it. A person who wrapped himself up in black robe was standing next to a caravan. After a few seconds of idling, they climbed into it.

Alright, let’s get the hell out of here before he sees me... But... Maybe there is something interesting in there.

He didn’t want to endanger himself further but he was also curious to know what was up. So, he chose the middle path of all the choices and slowly approached the caravan while crouching. When he reached near it, the horse at the front of the caravan neighed loudly and the black-robed person emerged out of his shelter. Bold yelped and retracted a few steps back. The robed man looked at Bold. He had a red demon mask on his face.    

“Ahh, umm sir. Where is the exit to this forest?”

He was so fear-stricken by the man’s mysteriousness that chills went down his spine.   

“That way” said the man casually with a low voice, as he pointed with his finger towards Bold’s left side .

“R-Right. T-thanks”

Bold robotically walked towards where the man pointed. But he couldn’t help but be curious.

“Umm, mister?”

“Yes?”

“What are you doing here all alone?”.

“Hmm, I have a meeting to take part in”.

“In the middle of the woods?”

“Yes. It’s not something to take place in public”

“I see”

The masked man again looked at Bold.

“Are you interested, young man?”

“In what?”

“Money...power. I’m just asking if you’re interested in business. Regardless of the quality of said business”

The man’s mysterious voice became hauntingly alluring. N-no said Bold’s thought but he did not utter them aloud. Perhaps, in his deeper being, he was interested.            

“I’m listening” said Bold.

“Good, good. Listening is a good quality to have. Some people are so pushy, so restless and so easy to judge others. They let golden opportunities slip by their fingers. Would you come inside, my child?”

Bold’s body froze.

What if it’s a trap? What if it’s not, dumbass? Finally, we’re reaching our goal of getting stronger

“There is nothing to fear, kid. I’m just a humble man who has a quest to give” came the man’s voice from inside the caravan.

Bold gulped and climbed into the caravan. When he entered the hood made of sheets he saw the robed man sitting at the corner. He brought out a black notebook and offered it to him. Bold gave him a doubtful gaze and took the notebook. 

“What is this? A death note?”

“Its called the black note”

“Huh, that’s lame. Should have just called it bible black”

The man seems to internally groan and combed his hair with his fingers. Bold regretted the silly things he said and opened up the notebook.
    
“Wha-what is this?!”    

There were pictures of men and females on each page of the notebook. And next to the pictures were descriptions of how much gold their head was worth. Bold’s hands became sweaty and his face became grey.

“Your targets. You want some gold, right? If you bring the heads of these people we’ll reward you good”

“I-I think I’ll-”

“Do not decide too early, young one. Keep the book to yourself. And here, take this as well”

From his dimensional bag the man pulled out an amulet.

“Paint this amulet with the blood of the target that you have killed. It will immediately notify your location to us.”

Bold silently grabbed it and put it in his bag.

“Who are you, sir?”

“Haha. Do not ask such foolish questions. My profession prohibits answering that inquiry”.

The two of them shared silent looks at one another until Bold felt awkward and jumped out of the caravan. He went away without looking back. The man did not utter anything after him.

And about half an hour later he could see the forest thinning. And within a few minutes he was standing on a stone slope, out of the forest. He went along the path laid out before him and it was not long before the scenery of the village rose up ahead. The first thing he did was to find a medical center as fast as possible. But the only hospital that was found gave him an infuriating answer.

“No sir. You have to pay first to get into our healing pods”.

“B-but. I don’t have any cash with me. I am broke”.

“That’s your problem sir. If you take a good nap and a well feast your HP will rise up in no time”.

“Are you serious? I got stabbed in the fucking eye”

But before he could act out violently two muscular bodyguards appeared in front of him. Bold shrieked immediately and ran out of the hospital on his own.

“Goddamn it. I need a job then”

He found an inn at the center of the village. Raising his stomach and putting a brave face he opened the door and walked up to the counter.  

“May I do a job?” he asked from the bartender.

Seeing his bloody clothes, balloon-like belly and bastardly face the man retorted.

“I’m afraid there is no job for us to give you sir. And even if we did have. It’s not like there aren’t any better alternatives than you”.

Could have left the last part to yourself, bastard.

Putting his hands into his pockets Bold vigorously walked out of the inn. From the town folk, he had heard that there were only three inns in this village. But Bold did not have the strength to search for the other two. He was tired, his back ached terribly and his wounds churned and reminded him to rest.

“That does it”

From close by he found a worn-out woven bedsheet. Placing the sheet near the door of the inn, he lapsed onto it. Trying best to ignore the breezing wind and his burning wound, he lied there. But the longer it lasted, the realization arose in him that he was only fooling himself that he could sleep. But before he could get up, he heard a young man’s voice. 

“Hey, you awake?”

When he opened his eyes he became aware that a young adult with yellow hair and grey eyes lavishly looked at him with curiosity. He wore neatly clean sweaters and dark trousers.

“Y-yeah”

“It’s not a very good idea to sleep out in the open. And with such wounds too”

Bold scanned him suspiciously but the man had a visible innocence brimming from his face.

“Well, I, uhh. I don’t have money”

“I can see that. Otherwise, why would anyone be sleeping outside of a literal inn”.

Bold scratched the back of his head with bashfulness but the man smiled and pointed to the door.

“Follow me. I’ve already ordered a room. It’s one bed only. But considering your position, can you afford to be picky?”

“Uhh, okay”.

The two of them waltzed into the inn. The bartender eyed Bold with sore eyes until the yellow-haired young man raised his hand and said “He’s with me”.

“So, what’s your name?” asked the young man as he walked up the stairs.

“Bold”

“My name is Mikhail. Nice to meet you”.
 
Mikhail opened the door to his room and the two of them entered. Mikhail looked out the window towards the vivaciously red sunset.

“You know. As much as this world is virtual, it’s so darn pretty” mumbled Mikhail almost to himself.

When he looked back, Bold was slumped on the bed with all four limbs scattered towards multiple directions.

“Hehe. Looks like you had a rough day, big guy?”

“Y-yeah. I got attacked by a crazy ape monster in the forest”

“The animas. I was attacked a few times too. But somehow, I’m still standing here”

Mikhail threw himself on the bed as well and looked at the ceiling blankly.

“So, Bold. Where are you from?”

“Came here from the Mallimou”

“Okay, not exactly the answer I was expecting. You’re Asian right? And Bold’s such a strange name for an Asian”

“Oh, umm. I’m from Mongolia”

“I see. I’m from Russia”

The two of them awkwardly lied under the silence until Mikhail brought up another topic: 

“Got any hobbies?”

“I like games, and tv shows, the net, et cetera”

“Heh, that sounds similar to mine”.

Again the dampening silence. Bold could have brought up something to talk about but his mind was drawing a blank. Until he decided to go with the only option he had: 

“Thanks man. Would have been really hard to sleep in the streets”.

“Nah, no problem. If anything, I’m surprised how the people of the inn weren’t kind enough to let you sleep here. There seems to be a few empty rooms”.

“Cause they’re all asses… probably. Been encountering a lot of asses here even tho it’s just been two days since I got here”.

“Only, two days huh? Must be really rough for you right now. I was paranoid and perspiring when I first got here. It’s been three months since then. I’m getting a little used to the cold vibe of these people now”.

Bold didn’t bother trying to find any other topic as drowsiness began to dawn on his consciousness and soon he was sleeping. When the next time he opened his eyes, it was pitch black. He felt a blanket on his body and someone soundly breathing next to him. It was probably Mikhail. He had to note that Mikhail’s breathing was a lot louder than a normal person. Without waking him, Bold stepped out of the bed and opened the door and walked down the stairs.

He got out of the inn and encountered the fresh air and the spring breeze. The wet wind that whirled throughout his body had completely awoken him out of his slumber. The slight tinge of blue in the vast darkness of space above him created an aura of mysteriousness. This really was a brutal but beautiful world. In front of the inn were an empty fountain and an enormous field with cemented ground. With no one prancing around at this hour, it made a nice training ground for Bold. 

He freely swirled around the area, kicking and punching air while picturing the vicious men he had encountered before in his mind. Letting his nimble fingers run across his wristboard he activated his shagai shoot and nailed a few shots into the dreamy sky. Pink bullets and beams blasted into the air like fireworks. And during the shooting he realized that his other eye was okay. Things weren’t so bad after all! 

He would gain strength in no time. To defeat his enemies and march forward out of this horrendous death game.

But what enemies tho? Hey, I just remembered. The target book. Could give it a look.

Indeed. He still had it with him. He didn’t plan on taking anyone’s life but curiosity had a grasp on him so he dug into his bag and brought out the book. Flipping through the pages he examined the faces of each man and woman cautiously as if role playing as a detective. As he scrolled through each page he was dumbstruck when he accidentally flipped through a certain someone’s image.

You gotta be shitting me.

He flipped the page back. It wasn’t an illusion. He was clearly not daydreaming. Mikhail’s picture was there, clean and crisp.

“Target value – 1900 gold”

Sweat poured down his chin.

Oh hell yeah, I’m rich.
No, GOD. The hell am I thinking? I can’t kill that guy. He’s my friend. A friend who I barely know, yes. A friend that I just met yesterday. A friend that may or may not be trustworthy.

He looked back towards the inn. The lights of the room were off. Mikhail was probably still sleeping.

You know, If I go there and wink wink, nudge nudge, him no one will know what happened. 

He shook his head to throw away the nonsensical thoughts and placed the book into his bag. Instead of entertaining those creepy thoughts, he opted to try out his horse summoning spell. Imagining with all his might he tried over and over but to no avail. As much as he was trying to concentrate on his spell the thoughts about squealing Mikhail and getting the cash had completely disturbed him to the core. It seems as if the more he tried to restrain the thoughts the more prominent the suggestions became.

He grabbed his head in vain. Troubled by his thoughts and desires he stared at the rising sun. And just as he had feared, Mikhail, the man himself was now standing in front of the inn with a friendly smile and a welcoming hand wave.

“Hey, you training?”

“Ugh, yeah”

“You don’t have any cash, right?” asked Mikhail.  

“Yeah”

“Well, should we search for a job then? It’s mandatory to have cash so you wouldn’t end up like yesterday. And besides, you need better clothes” said Mikhail.

“Yeah.  Also, My HP isn’t full”

“Oh, how much is it, now?”

“80 from 100”

“Oh, that’s fine. You don’t feel any pain now, right?”

“Well, yeah. I guess”

“Then why bother. Let’s go”

The two of them hurried across the village and arrived at the transaction center. They both quickly entered. But Bold was not received in a welcome way. 

“You’ve deserted the very first cargo you received. It was full of minerals used for weaponry. So how come we deem you as trustworthy? It’s a good thing that we didn’t ask you to pay for any of this. Now get lost” said the old woman sitting behind the application desk.  

“Come on, why be so rude? My friend here got attacked by an anima on his way” said Mikhail.

“You wouldn’t be attacked if you didn’t diverge from the road”

“Wait, how did you know I diverged from the road?”

“Bold!” exclaimed Mikhail.

“Exactly” roared the woman.

Bold pursed his lips and begged with puppy eyes.

“Please, I beg of you, mam. It won’t happen again”.

Seeing the innocent smile on Bold’s face the wrinkles on the woman’s face stretched a bit.

“Alright, just remember that you got lucky. There is been a lot of bastards who just simply sell our cargo in the black market without delivering it to its original destination”

“I understand, mam. It must be pretty hard”.                            

“The second time is the last kid. If you screw this up don’t ever show yourself here again”

“Umm, I thought three chances was the way things usually went?” said Bold politely.

The woman’s face suddenly became cold and stony.

“Don’t push it kid”

After the woman applied them for the job and took their fingerprints and pictures they were led into the cargo room. From there they carried two giant wooden boxes on their back. This time full of food and rations. They went outside of the department and headed to the forest. Mikhail casually sang a song as he trotted happily. Bold followed after him. But his intentions were much more sly.