"You are not dead?" Jim was the caller.
"You just arrived?" Wilson responded with a question.
"How come you are not dead?" Jim asked another question. Wilson ignored the question and put out his own:
"How come you are just reaching the city?"
"It's a long story." Jim responded and Wilson totally agreed with that particular answer.
"Mine too."
"Let's talk later, yeah?"
"No problem. Where are you going?"
"To meet my friend..."
"That one you spoke about, that resides in Tiger City?" Wilson cut in with a question.
"Precisely." Jim answered. "Now, if I'm not reading this map wrong, Vox should be somewhere within the next two to three kilometers." He murmured to himself.
"Can I come?" Wilson asked.
"You have nowhere to go? You just arrived?" Jim asked.
"Yes!"
"Okay. Stay close." Jim told Wilson and began to move forward. Before he could take his fifth step, a man of average height and looks coupled with a mohawk approached Jim and stood in front of him, blocking his and Wilson's path. He was the same mercenary from before who thought he saw himself in s place called 'Valhalla'. Apparently, he did not even have a proper understanding of Valhalla.
He looked at Jim, down at his phone and back up at Jim's face. Wilson clenched his fist and walked to the side slightly, so that he could throw a punch at the mohawk guy if necessary.
"Are you Jim?" He asked.
Jim did not respond.
"Do you know Vox?"
Jim's expression finally changed just a bit but mohawk guy noticed the change.
"Vox has been expecting you. He is worried sick that you had died or gonna die or something in the 'dying aspect'.
"Anyway, you can call me Charlie. Come with me. I will lead you to the bar he works at." Charlie, the mercenary with the mohawk, offered to take them there, out of the kindness of his heart. Too bad, they did not believe him. After all, this was Tiger City where almost anything goes..
"Oh common. Look around you. Nobody will dare to fight another within the first three kilometers radius of the gate. It is an unspoken rule." Charlie said.
Wilson looked at Jim, Jim looked at Wilson.
'What do we do?' Wilson questioned Jim with his eyes.
"Let's just go first, yeah?" Jim answered with a shrug.
"That is great. I thought I would have to think of ways to convince you." Charlie said with a sigh and walked ahead.
Jim stood beside Wilson and whispered.
"If sh*t goes wrong, you can take him, right?"
"Maybe." was Wilson's whispered answer.
"Okay! My life is once again in your hands, Wilson." Jim said and stepped forward to follow Charlie who was now a distance away.
Wilson followed after Charlie as well, maintaining a distance of one and a half feet from him.
'This distance should be enough for me to see him coming.' He thought to himself.
In the end, he and Jim realized that their caution was unnecessary because Charlie never even thought to harm them to begin with and he took them straight to Bart's Bar. It was already late evening when they got there and it was business rush hour because several large groups of hunters had returned from either the plains or the forest farther away, nearer to a very very distant town that
frequently made profitable deals with Tiger City's government.
Some of the group of hunters had come to celebrate a successful hunt while the other groups had come to drink away their sorrows.
"This, my friends, is Barnes Bar. Walk a little further down the road and you will see a big, beautiful hotel. That is Horr's hotel. They share a good business relationship with this bar." Charlie went on to give a brief history while they neared the bar's entrance.
"Barnes Bar and Horr's hotel both started as small time businesses. They were originally business rivals, always competing against each other until Bar made a discovery. Horr was not fighting him due to business but because of a rumor that the other competing motel and hotel businesses in the same large business street as them had spread.
"When Bar told his rival about the discovery, Horr, who was well known for his short fuse and bad temper coupled with a strong, huge physique, was without a doubt, insanely angry. He was going to go fight with each of those rumor mongers but Bar came up with a better idea.
"A year later, there were only two business owners left in the large street. Bar and Horr had put all the others out of business, acquired their landed properties and expanded their business.
"Since then, they have cooperated with each other, helping each other's businesses grow. Bar with his all-purpose bar of pleasure.." Charlie said with a wink, the continued "...and Horr with his hotel and rented apartments. Recently, they built a paid parking lot in the open space that separates and borders both their properties. These two men are the kinds of people we should learn about when we talk about business legends. Don't you think so too?"
"Yes. Yes, I do." Wilson said, amazed by at such
"What about Vox? You said he works here." Jim asked.
"Ah, Vox!" Charlie said with an adoring look on his face as he hailed. "The great, fearless, death-seeking machine with a flair for comedy. Hahaha."
"These two businesses are protected by more than half of the hunters and mercs in Tiger City. Everyone around these parts know that Barnes Bar and Horr's Hotel cannot be trifled with unless one does not mind facing off against at least half the total number of hunters and mercenaries in this city. The reason for this protection is Vox."
"What do you mean?"
"Vox started his own unique business, one that only someone like him would dare to do, at Barnes Bar." Charlie said, trying to be mysterious.
"He found a way to monetize trouble making?" Unfortunately, Jim ruined the fun with an accurate first guess. Charlie's face dropped as he answered.
"Yes."
"How? Does he get paid to cause trouble for people?"
"Uh... why don't you ask him when you see him?" Charlie said and walked into the bar, closely followed by Wilson and then, Jim.
Charlie entered and yelled; "Vox, is this the friend you've been waiting for?"
Vox, whose back was facing the entrance, turned around and looked at Charlie, then Wilson, then..
"Jim!" Vox cried out, and ran to give Jim a big hug.
"Awwnn, so sweet!" Wilson said, his facial expression was quite frankly, blank though while Jim was hugged so tight, his face looked like he was trying to take a hard painful sh*t. All the men in the bar, who had turned to look, all burst into laughter.