Reo tucked his hands into his hoodie pockets as he floated slowly along the path on his hoverboard. The soft white buds in his ears echoed out a catchy EDM song as he mumbled quietly to the beat. There were still people going around on different forms of transportation even at night as the town was a bit lively.
After going back to the inn and reporting to the Old man, he hadn't hesitated to log out after confirming that Myra was alright. He left Amba with her just in case and retired to the room to lay down and exit the game.
After having dinner with Hina and their mom, he had put on a pair of black shorts with a grey hoodie and left the house with his hoverboard.
The time was about 8:30 and the night air was a bit cold. The full moon would be out in a few days but the reality was, no one paid attention to such things. The earth was lit up with a light of its own!
The streets were filled with bright signs and adverts for different things ranging from products to services to news about the world. The bright colored streets and fairly loud surroundings was not something someone would attribute to a small town but that was the reality of this world.
If someone was to pay more attention to these signs, they would notice there were two main focuses. Martial arts and Age of magic!
After the threatening events and problems that nearly brought about a global world war and the creation of the world government, the values of the world changed drastically for some reason.
The government had suddenly put in requirements to all functioning schools across the globe.
"Teach martial arts!"
This law was fully enforced by the higher ups with no space for negotiations. Any and every resisting forces were quickly and easily silenced and after a few years, it was accepted as the norms.
An average person who had gone through all forms of education would finish with an average level of fighting and self defense skills. It got so serious that it became a stringent requirement for some jobs.
Nobody could understand the reason and most people just accepted it as it was, the leaders of the world must have had a reason, right?
The next was the attitude to games, a mass influx of adventure and combat games suddenly flooded the market and the world government also put in agendas to support the market.
New technology was seen been put into play almost every day and large amount of finances was pumped into it. The average man couldn't understand what was going on and there were a lot of rumors going about but no viable reason was given.
After some time, a faction of the world government fully supported the advent of virtual reality through CORIM tech. and they had eventually succeeded with the development of Age of Magic.
Following the launch of the game, the world government had once again, made a lot of noise and agenda on the game.
As ground breaking as the invention was, people couldn't understand why it was paid so much attention, the only people who were satisfied with these developments were probably the gamers and youths of the generation.
There were a whole lot of other things that had changed but these were the strangest and the most controversial.
This was the kind of world Reo and all the people of his generation were born into. A world that still seemed strange to those of the older generation who had grown up in a world where everything seemed to make a bit more sense
Reo ignored all the ads about new forms of martial arts, people boasting about how they could teach you a powerful move in 3 hours and the more than frequent news updates about the world of AOM and the latest gossip about rankers.
He weaved through the masses of people as he neared his destination, a small coffee shop just by the corner. He had just arrived opposite the building and was about to go across the street with other night prowlers when he saw a familiar figure walking out of a cyber café a few meters down the street.
It was a girl wearing a light brown turtle neck and a black pair of jeans. She had on glasses that framed her dark onyx eyes and her long black hair was tied up in two long braids down her head. Her skin looked somewhat pale but that only made her look like some ethereal beauty and her lips were a rosy pink.
'Sara Fujino?' Reo's eyes perked up as he saw her.
She had on a pair of large headphones on her head and held a small gadget that looked like a smart book in her hands as she left the café. She had an annoyed look on her face as she clutched the book close to her chest and walked down the road quickly as if she couldn't bear to stay there anymore.
Reo was lost for a while as he didn't expect to see her there and before he could decide whether he should go over and say hi, she had already walked down the path and turned round a corner.
He just chuckled mockingly at himself before turning to cross the street with the others as soon as the sign showed it was clear. It didn't matter if he talked to her anyways, he was probably misunderstanding things.
He came down from his hoverboard and picked it up before folding it into a more compact form and walked into the coffee shop.
He instantly noticed Natsu at the back of the shop as soon as he entered, the boy always seemed to be radiating an invisible form of energy around him. Natsu smiled and waved at him to come over.
Beside Natsu sat a boy who looked around 16 and shared very similar features as him with his dark brown hair been slightly longer and his eyes having a softer shade of brown. He was a little taller than Natsu though but unlike his brother's vibrant attitude, he looked meek and shy.
"Ren, it has been too long. Where have you been hiding these past few weeks?" Reo called out to the boy first as he took a seat opposite them at the table.
The boy looked a bit flustered as he stammered out an answer. "I-It's not like that Reo nii-san. I….it was…. I was just…."
Natsu laughed at him as he answered his question. "Don't mind him. He has a competition coming up soon and has been practicing hard. His Laijutsu is so good now, he can draw his katana out and sheath it so quickly you would even forget to blink!"
Ren seemed to squirm under the praise of Natsu and Reo's impressed eyes. "It is not that amazing, you are still better than me nii-san"
"That's only for now" Natsu chuckled.
"Of course, you are definitely better than your retard of a brother" Reo nodded approvingly as he ignored Natsu's murderous gaze.
"Though you should have still called Hina, she was really worried about you"
Ren seemed slightly dazed at this sentence before mumbling under his breath. "We spoke recently, I apologized"
Reo and Natsu just smiled as a waiter came forward with an order made by Natsu previously.
"Here's your mint tea you useless piece of shit, we will take coffee like real men" Natsu arrogantly proclaimed.
Reo took the porcelain cup and took in a deep whiff of the mint before taking a sip. "You would never understand true culture you retard"
Nastu took a sip of his coffee before bringing out his phone from his pocket. He tapped on a few things before dropping the phone on the table and a 3d model of a map projected itself in the air from the screen.
Reo focused his attention on the map and although he still hadn't checked the maps he had retrieved from the red mage back in Laron, he was able to determine that it was a map of the northern part of Gorm kingdom where he presently was.
"You already know of your situation so it is clear that travel would be far more troublesome for us now." Natsu quickly pointed out.
Reo grimaced as he remembered he was currently been hunted across Gorm by the entire player base because of Amba.
"I am around here right now" Natsu pointed out an area that looked like treacherous cliffs and canyons that went right down the border of Gorm at its western part cutting straight down south.
"I would come out from these cliffs in a few days and would head straight to Kurn" he nodded his head decisively.
"Kurn? We are not changing the meet up?" Reo asked confused.
Natsu nodded. "I got some information recently and thought about it carefully. Where did you say you were taking the priest girl again?"
"Aysver, it's to the south as far as I know" Reo looked down the cliffs on the map as he sipped his tea.
"The player base in Aysver has been quite noisy recently, things might be heating up" Natsu's eyes seemed to sparkle as he mumbled to himself.
Ren just sat silently by the side as he sipped carefully on his coffee drink filled with too much milk.
"That's perfect! We would meet up at Kurn in a few days." Natsu finally made up his mind.
"And how would we make our way south from there?" Reo looked up to ask.
Natsu chuckled. "The walled city of Kurn has been facing some turmoil of some sorts recently. Now that I think about it, it must have to do with what is happening in Aysver."
"What is happening in Aysver?" Reo's interest was piqued, he hadn't been constant in checking the forums for information.
"There seems to be some political upheavals in the kingdom and there are traces of external factors been involved. The situation is rather grim for them" Natsu calmly explained as he picked up his coffee cup.
"The surrounding Kingdom's such as Gorm have been conflicted for a while on how to react to such a thing. Should they assist the royalty in preserving the kingdom or should they assist in its fall? Either decision would lead to them taking military action which might backfire if they take the wrong decision"
"And that is where we come in." Natsu chuckled at this.
Reo quickly put one and two together as he thought of the situation. "They want to use summoned?"
"Exactly! We are basically superpowers out of anybody's control and work purely for profit. Considering our large numbers and that we are basically a cheap army. We are more dispensable than their own armies and are far better than resident mercenaries." Natsu fully laid out the situation as he blew on his coffee to cool it down.
"All walled cities have at least one teleportation portal that belongs to the lord. They are normally not easy to access but with this mass recruitment, they have decided to use it to transport the summoned to as close to Aysver as they possibly can"
A smile formed on Reo's lips. "So, we're getting a free ride?"
Natsu chuckled mischeviously as he nodded. "And what a comfortable one it will be, under the noses of all those despicable guilds."
They laughed heartily to themselves as they sipped out of their cups. Ren just stared at them silently with a complicated expression on his face.