POV – Tobias

Walking back from the nearby market in Easy Difficulty, I felt like the Residential Zone wasn’t that terrible a place.

The last week has been relatively peaceful… mainly because we arrived in the Residential Zone through the Easy Difficulty teleportation beacon nobody paid us any mind.

Interestingly, there was an immigration area that had us register for picture ID’s that contained our names, difficulty level, and our ability.

Of course, I immediately lied about everything. Call me paranoid if you like, but I don’t particularly feel like handing out any potentially dangerous information.

Having an ID card is useful for when we need to bend into Residential Zone.

I don’t think they cared whether you gave your real name. For the ability though, they required us to describe our ability in detail and showcase it or agree to harsh taxes and other restrictions.

They assured us our abilities wouldn’t become public knowledge, but you would have to be a fool to believe them. Revealing personal information, such as your ability to anyone and containing that information in one place is almost certainly going to make it to become public knowledge eventually.

Whether it is from one untrustworthy personnel or unsecured file, it will be leaked eventually. Thinking otherwise is only being naïve.

If they didn’t care about it or it wasn’t going to be put to use, they wouldn’t have added heavy taxes on those who refuse.

I pretended to have a limited teleportation ability, utilizing the daily teleportation from my <Shoes of Comfortable Escaping> to satisfy their requirement to showcase my ability.

While revealing my artifact’s teleportation ability ruins any chance of it being used in a sneak attack, having someone underestimate me from misunderstanding my strength is also a useful tool.

Rin refused to disclose her ability due to not having a convenient way to bluff the inspection.

Well, even if she revealed her real ability, it would’ve been difficult to pass through an inspection. Her ability isn’t something that can be shown to others.

Thinking back, I feel back for anyone with completely passive abilities that cannot be easily shown.

Still despite fooling the guards by entering through Easy Difficulty’s teleportation beacon, the system wasn’t fooled. It wouldn’t let us collect a residence in Easy Difficulty and we were forced to head over toward Hell Difficulty.

Neither of our two captives tried anything. Either they realized it was impossible to escape or they were plotting to escape through another method.

Well, it doesn’t particularly matter.

The public safety here seems to be decent here. Despite Rin receiving stares from crowds when we walked around nobody has approached her or tried to even talk with her.

…Actually, I’m dumb.

It probably has nothing to do with public safety. Unlike on earth, might and power makes even wrong actions correct. If you anyone who says otherwise, you can kill them and your word becomes the truth. It’s still unclear how strict the regulations are around here.

If cute and beautiful girl like Rin is walking around freely, they’re probably either extremely powerful or have a strong backer. For normal people, it’s probably common sense to avoid approaching beautiful people.

Some powerful morons might exist that can ignore that rule, but Rin hasn’t mentioned running into them. Meanwhile, any weak morons would’ve been quickly weeded out.

They did read us a whole list of common sense illegal actions to avoid such as thief, murder, and rape.

However, a list is pointless if nobody tries to enforce it.

Words are cheap therefore it remains to be seen how good the public safety in this zone is. Scamming was on the list of illegal actions, so the safety in this zone is obviously a non-perfect.

Rin traded in miscellaneous items she’d been collecting for a coin currency that is apparently being circulated in this zone.

I don’t remember a currency existing for the Residential Zone, nor had I noticed the currency last time we were here but… whatever.

Anyway, I’ve been using that currency to purchase various items, mainly items to help Sidney survive in Hell Difficulty’s tutorial… I also managed to buy a custom-made evil black coat and cloak.

Mwahaha… I can finally look like a proper villain.

Granted, there’s not much point in looking like a proper villain. We are finished collecting the items to swap Sidney over to Hell Difficulty and we only need activate the system command and input the administrative code.

Unfortunately, that damn scammer has avoided my gaze. I couldn’t find his shop or him anywhere in the market place.

Annoying, but a gentleman’s revenge is never too late… not that I’m a gentleman, but the point stands. I’m willing to wait a few more days to begin searching while I finish preparing Sidney’s transfer.

Then I spotted him. The merchant scammer.

Blond hair, handsome face, charismatic personality, and a charming smile. Yet, staring at him, the rage bubbled under my skin.

Honestly, I wasn’t confident I would be able to recognize him after this long. Rather, the bubbling rage I felt when watching him ensured my recognition.

This is completely unlike my normally terrible luck. I wasn’t expecting to find him until a month or two of active searching.

Seems like he’s leading someone through Hell Difficulty area, probably another victim of his scams.

Smiling slightly, I don’t remember assault and battery on the list of illegal actions at the lecture.

Though, admittedly, I wasn’t pay close attention to it. I don’t particularly care about their imaginary laws when, in under a decade, the zones will collapse and society will breakdown.

Moving forward in stealth, I struck toward him while controlling my strength to only cause moderate damage.

I wouldn’t want him to accidentally die before I got chance to explain my villainous backstory.

Before my fist landed, a barrier appeared blocking the strike.

Watching his reaction to the sudden strike was amusing, he was mortified that I had suddenly attacked him out of the blue.

The barrier dissipated, while I brushed off my knuckles and clicked my tongue annoying at that barrier, “Tsk… Well, it’s good that you kept it.”

I would rather this scammer have my artifact than someone else. I can easily beat him up and take it back.

The man behind him suddenly moved at an impossibly fast speed; his sword sliced toward my throat.

I blocked with my elbow; instinctively reacting to protecting my throat.

A massive pain followed as the sword cut through my skin toward the bone of my elbow.

The hell?! Seeing him prepare to strike toward me again, I realized I didn’t have time to think of a proper strategy.

I hadn’t been prepared for a proper fight. Three months of being incautious in Easy Difficulty had caused some of my bad habits to seep into my bones.

God-hunter was currently inaccessible in my bag and my musket was tied my back, taking to long to untie in this situation.

With little choice, I winced in pain as I grabbed the blade of his sword with my left hand and pulled out the spear from my wristband’s inventory.

Ripping the sword from his hand, I discarded it behind me and I swiped the spear toward him with unnatural ease.

Blood dripped down my hand, but my recovery healed the wound caused nearly instantly when I let go.

However, my swipe missed the attacker and he retreated at an impossible speed picking up the bloody sword I discarded.

His black hair disheveled from the sudden rapid speed, his Korean face had an unnatural smile. “Instant recovery. Very interesting.”

This guy seemed excited?!

His voice caused a chill to go down my spine. The excitement he expressed seemed comparable to someone who had unexpectedly won the lottery.

“Do you want to die?!” I angrily scowled, his expression pissed me off. I was going to explain the situation to him though my evil villain monologue and prevent him from being scammed, instead this guy instantly tried to kill me.

This guy became excited when I successfully blocked his attack? Is he a maniac?!

I briefly analyzing him for information, something I should have done beforehand.

{Leonard Grant – Weak, beware of his speed.}

Never heard of him…

Whatever, the hard part isn’t beating him. It’s beating him without revealing my trump cards. Who knows how many eyes are silently watching from the shadows?

The brief stalemate didn’t last long, Leonard used his speed to rush toward me and tried to stab my heart.

I instinctively deflected the attack and stabbed the spear into his shoulder drawing blood.

When did I become so proficient in the spear?

I’d given up on the spear and avoided using it over the past three months, besides occasionally playing around… yet, it felt natural to use and my fighting style had improved dramatically.

That last attack was entirely instinctual and had stuck at flaws in his defense.

With that, he abandoned the frontal approach and began circling around me at rapid speed.

He tried charging toward me several times, but my body instinctively blocked and counteracted each time.

Then an annoyance occurred. In the corner of my eye, I spotted the merchant beginning to run away.

Opting for the quick solution, I teleported in front of him and kicked him in the chest.

Crack… The merchant flew into the distance hitting a stone wall.

Grimacing from the sound… crap, I’d instinctively raised my strength to the amount I expended when dealing with the other dude.

Maybe, it’s not as bad as it looks? He’s fine… probably. Doesn’t look like he’s getting up anytime soon though.

How am I going to do my evil villain speech now?! I had the villainous clothes and everything.

Focus, Tobias.

Dodge another strike from my opponent, I growled out in anger. “I know already.”

Livid at the loss of my evil villain speech, I decided to take my anger out on the maniac that attacked me.

I haven’t had a proper fight in months and this guy is actually powerful enough to kill me if I’m not careful.

Rushing toward him; he disappeared and a blade stabbed into my hand.

A cold sweat fell down my brow, I had instinctively blocked with my left hand and altered the blade’s trajectory. If I hadn’t blocked it, the blade would have sliced directly through my neck.

What the fuck is with this guy? He’s insanely fast and is aiming exclusively for killing blows.

I don’t know where I obtained awesome ninja instincts, but I don’t like relying on them.

That was a much faster attack than before… so apparently charging at him is stupid because he was only showing a fraction of his maximum speed.

Should I petrify him and be done with it?

After deliberation, I decided against it. If I constantly rely on petrification whenever I have problems, I won’t have actual combat experience for when I need it and I will need it.

Staring at the smiling maniac ahead of me, I scowled at him.

Since you want to kill me so badly, I’ll use you as a stepping stone.

Adjusting into a defensive posture, I taunted him, “Come on. I’ll kill you where you stand, you maniac.”

We fought with flurry after flurry, and slowly I gained an advantage in the fight. A specialty of mine is endurance and recovery. His specialty is speed. While it's difficult to hit him, when I do my attacks cause massive damage. Meanwhile his attacks caused very little damage to me and that damage recovers almost instantly.

One blow after the other, I slowly managed to wear him down through constant damage and exhaustion.

The choice to fight him head on wasn’t entirely cohesive with the singular thought of survival. However, Rin could’ve reloaded if I died. Finding a weaker yet still dangerous enemy to fight is a rare occurrence. He is a combat practice partner who I don't have to hold back against.

When it reached the point where he could no longer endure the damage I’d inflicted on him, the maniac gave up and disappeared into the distance.

Unfortunately I couldn’t trap him with barrier.

I'd been forced to utilize melee combat in this instance. A barrier would’ve been easily destroyed by an enemy of his caliber. Against an enemy that fast, I needed to be able to react quickly, which remove the option of utilizing other wards in combat.

Dismissing my spear, I took God-hunter out of my bag. I didn’t want to be caught off guard again, so instead of leaving her in my bag, I began carrying her around..

I could’ve died several times if I hadn’t been careful while fighting. Still, I managed to repel him without a large cost.

Additionally, I learned the public safety of this place isn’t that amazing. Otherwise that sort of murderous maniac would’ve been captured long ago.

Well, it cannot be helped.

I was about to leave when I remember that I still hadn’t dealt with the scammer properly.

When I rush over toward him, I sighed in relief as I confirmed signs of life.

I didn't find the <Glove of the Hated One> on his person.

However, the glove's barrier had clearly activated earlier when I attack him. I’m inclined to believe he changed the color and had a matching glove made to remove suspicion. Thus, I removing both his gloves and I stored them in my bag.

I’ll figure it out later.

For now, I’ll kidnap this scammer and get him to cough up all the information he knows about that maniac.