A few minutes later, Al was walking down a muddy street.
Behind him, six guards fanned out, their faces set menacingly as they slapped the cudgels and staves they held against the palm of their hand. 'THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!', the sound echoed, announcing his arrival to the villagers who hesitantly emerged from the houses arrayed on both sides of the street.
With his hands behind his back and his face hidden behind the skull-like mask, he struck fear in everyone who stood in the direction he looked. His long cloak swept behind him, and his long hair rose and fell lazily with the wind. He had no weapons, but he didn't need any to look dangerous.
'Type of supporting characters: Indoctrinated' meant that unlike the people in his last odyssey who had simply been playing a role, these were individuals who truly believed that they were the netizens of a medieval village. There was no clear way to ascertain what kind of characters an odyssey would have, but the general consensus was that indoctrinated ones were better because they tended to react in ways that could be anticipated. The only reason behind the existence of the other sort was that it was apparently costly to brainwash people temporarily into thinking what was needed, so in short odysseys, this cost was saved if it was decided that it wouldn't make too much difference.
'Well, at least I won't have to handle any more pitches…'
Thinking of the family filled with supporting characters whose card he had left at home, he wondered whether he would ever need them. Such families were all employed by top tier heroes and villains who could afford the cost, and at least at present, he couldn't even think of paying them.
He was paying attention to the town that he had set out to study, but at the same time, his thoughts continued down the line that had begun and traveled to the poor state of his family's finances.
In the new world, almost all foreign currencies had been scrapped. He had heard that the initial idea was to directly introduce a new one that had intrinsic value, but the leaders had managed to convince the demigods that abrupt abolition of fiat money(paper money) would cause more trouble than it was worth. Hence, as a stopgap method, the dollar had been adopted as a global currency while the government worked with the demigods to convert it, too, to something that would please the gods.
If that was all that had changed, the economy might not have changed too much… but the addition of one of the most unique aspects of New Earth had made it so that no such thing was possible.
And that…was the introduction of Faith.
Formerly, faith was just something that could not be proved. Now… Faith was a universal form of power whose existence had resulted in an intrinsic value being present in each and every human.
He had heard many philosophers argue that this was one of the best things about the modern world. Before, millions of humans lived in the worst conditions possible, their value reduced to what could be obtained illegally by killing them and harvesting their organs. Now…any human alive could go to one of the temples or churches present throughout the world and swear themselves to the service of a deity, securing themselves a source of food and shelter for as long as they lived. All they would need to do was pray, daily.
This had resulted in a large subset of humans using the opportunity to obtain a life that they could live through without any worries. They would not have any luxuries, true, but they would never need to worry about their basic necessities.
As for the reason behind all this… there were only theories, but one that was widely accepted was that praying would result in a connection being created between the power in the air that every human could absorb and the deity that was being prayed to.
No one knew whether the deities even needed this power, but it was a fact that the demigods had all set up churches and appointed opportunistic people who became, more or less, glorified salesmen. It was these salesmen who had tried to tempt Al into swearing himself to their Churches, and if he was not able to follow his plan of acing all his odysseys, it was these salesmen whom he'd have to go crawling to, defeated.
He would no longer have too much freedom, but at least, he would not have to flip the switch and give up on his mother.
Heroes and villains were paid when they joined a temple or church, so the backup plan was to at least gain enough notoriety to be worth enough to sustain himself and his mom. The way things were, he had enough money to do so for two months, so in that time, he had to achieve something.
'If only initiate odysseys directly paid money instead of granting rewards… I can try to sell the rewards, but I have to keep them first…'
"You! Stop right there!"
A loud voice interrupted his musings, making him look up to see that a man had jumped into the path in front of him.
The restructuring of the world had made it so that people of all ethnicities had mixed together. From just the way this man looked, Al understood who he was, but still, he waited for him to announce himself.
His hair was a golden yellow that shone in the sun. It fell to his shoulders, and before speaking, he brushed it back almost tenderly.
'Is that supposed to be attractive? To me, he looks like a horse flicking its mane…'
He was garbed in a cloak with the same shade as his hair, and the leather armor underneath showed itself when the wind blew. He seemed muscular, but it wasn't to the point where the muscles were bursting out of his clothes.
"I'm here to free these good people from you, villain! Mark my words! You will die by my hand!"
His words hung in the air between them like a wall. For a moment, no one moved. The people stared, transfixed, at the hero who had returned to them, but when Al observed the ones closest to him, he saw that the fear they felt was still strong enough to smother the seed of hope that might have been planted due to his words.
Without waiting for an answer, the hero turned and began to walk away. This seemed almost like the perfect ending to the first encounter between a hero and a villain… but Al had anticipated that something like this would happen.
Six more thugs sprang out of the people in front of the hero. They had been moving in concert with his group, and they had been ordered to reveal themselves if anyone challenged the mayor.
The hero froze in his tracks, and as he took a step back, Al raised his hands and shouted "You might have thought that I would let you go to weave cunning plans that will bring you down… but I'm not like other villains. Get him!"
His words had much more affect than those of the heroes. The people all shrunk back, afraid of what might happen, and after half-turning his head, the hero cursed.
"Fuck, I knew the risk, but it was too tempting!"
Al seemed to have broken the persona that the man had put on, revealing his inner, doubtful self. It made him remember that he was going up against others who were also going through their initiate odysseys, and right now, he almost pitied the one in front of him who couldn't be more than 20 years old.
He almost dismissed his opponent as a weakling… but then, the man put a hand in his cloak and took out a handful of coins.
He threw it in the direction of his underlings. As gold glinted in the sun, the eyes of the six widened and their gaze left their target.
Using the opportunity well, the hero began running. He was already past the thugs by the time they recovered, and with fear, all six turned to Al before turning around to give pursuit.
The turn of events had surprised him, but the first thought that followed his recovery… was one of excitement.
'I'm up against someone competent, huh? Well, this should be fun…'
He almost turned around to go back, but then, a certain idea came to him.
'You're not the only one who's smart… watch this.'
With this thought, he raised his hands again and addressed the people, and as his deep voice that had been changed by the voice regulator echoed over the town, he heard the hero curse even though the man was a few hundred meters away from him.
"People of Bellview! Is this person the one you are going to entrust with your hopes? Look at how he turned his tail and fled! Pathetic! If you trust him, all that awaits you is death! Remember this moment! After all, what's to say that he won't run again, abandoning you in the future? Ha! Be good, and I'll treat you well! But if even one of you plot against me… I'll let the fate of those who have defied me before give you a clue! Good day, and farewell!"