After Joe compleated those modifications he exited virtual studios expecting to feel hungry, however, he did not. He theorised that he didn't feel hungry this time as his body went into making his avatar for virtual studios, so it technically did not exist during that time. However, that was all he could come up with. His spectator still enabled he saw through the radar on the spectator hud that people were still a way away from where he was so decided to log into the alternate realm to get started on his plans.
"Entering the alternate realm," Joe said as he prepared to go back in.
{Alternate realm transfer routine wants to transport user's soul, does user wish to accept Y/N ?}
"Yes," Joe said before his vision turned dark once again as he returned to the alley in vendors street that he left off in last time, immediately getting up and turning to leave. As he left the alley he could see that quite a few villagers had smiles on their faces, unlike last time when they showed partial dread. He overheard conversations as he went to leave vendors' street about how grateful they were about the lostworlder putting up the barrier around vendors' street as it has already stopped many outworlders going into the buildings allowing them to have a peaceful breakfast and a place for many to come without worry of outworlders.
Joe made his way out of vendors' street and saw that there were certainly fewer people in the village compared to yesterday, but he could see on his radar that was because many of them were in groups hunting monsters only leaving those who had completed quests and getting new ones, those that were buying or selling equipment that they obtained and the lifestyle players.
Joe walked up to the village blacksmith and saw some lifestyle players who intended on being blacksmiths themselves grouped around the blacksmith learning the basic blacksmithing skill as they watched him work as he explained all the things he was doing. The blacksmith was a dwarf that stood 5' 2'' and had an attire befitting what people would think blacksmiths would wear as well. With most of his arm hairs burnt off as well as his singed beard, it's clear that he had been doing this for quite some time.
"verbal command: activate analysis mode," Joe muttered to himself as he went up to the group.
{analysis mode activated} his system replied as he arrived at the group.
Analysis mode was something that Joe made after tying the control room supper computer to him and the control room so that in situations where he wanted to figure out exactly why something was done and learn to do it himself or even be able to do it better than shown, like how the rest of these people here would learn the novice blacksmith occupation and skills from the blacksmith by observing what the blacksmith did, then cheat by getting the system to do half of it, but still. Joe's however, observes what's happening, the similarities and differences in what is being done and tries to determine what is being achieved by each thing and consults all his databases to see what process is being done and gives the analysis, as well as finding alternative ways of doing things to achieve better results and finding alternative methods to achieve said results, and if requested integrated those methods into his existing knowledge.
As Joe approached, he saw the blacksmith was demonstrating forging techniques, Joe watched what he was doing with great attention as he saw videos of people doing this sort of thing back on earth but he never saw anybody do it in person. He catalogued all the tools he saw in the blacksmith as he knew that they were all used in blacksmithing as they would not be here otherwise. He watched the different circumstances that he used them and the effects that they were used in. Joe realised early on that the blacksmith was making a sword for someone and could only guess that it was for one of the few people off to the side that seemed to be waiting there disinterested and seemingly browsing the forums.
Soon he finished the sword that he was working on and handed it over to one of those people who were waiting before putting a new bar in the forge to heat up and explaining all the different things to look out for during the process and how you know the bar is at the right temperature to start forging with before bringing the iron to the anvil and saying that he was making a great-sword this time before restating all the hammering techniques he showed them before and detailed what to look out for and what hammers you use for different processes.
During one of the heats, a group of 5 players make their way to the blacksmiths and say to the blacksmith," Hey, we are back. here is the ore you requested."
"Thank you," the blacksmith replied while taking the ore he just received," let me just put this in the back and I will get you your compensation," he said in a dwarven stoic manner before heading to the back and placing the ore to the side before putting some in the smelter that has been billowing smoke since he came here yesterday, then returning to the front with a small pouch filled with coins before taking the partially formed blade out of the forge and continued his demonstration for the aspiring blacksmiths.
After that intrusion, the blacksmith continued his demonstration and continued to emphasise all the little details to keep in mind while performing the trade. Though all of a sudden his body started to move on its own before Joe could realise what happened, he had rotated on his left foot so that he was faced backwards and his hand raised at lightning speed, only just able to realise what happened before he caught an arrow that was headed straight towards the back of his neck. His attack avoidance protocol kicked in to avoid the attack that could have been deadly and stopped it from harming anyone else.
The sudden movement combined with the whistle of an arrow approaching shocked all the people at the blacksmiths, including the blacksmith himself making him lose his swing as they all turned to see Joe finishing his motion and catching an arrow that was now only half a meter from hitting one of the players.
'mental command: identify source, mark as hostile' Joe thought as soon as he caught the arrow, a player was immediately marked red, he immediately ran towards the player who was on top of one of the buildings part way across the village. With his newly increased stats as well as the swift step that he had yet to disable from yesterday, the people at the blacksmiths were astounded at the speed he took off at. After a few seconds, the location of the player was getting extremely close, with that, he put as much power in his legs as he could as he leapt aided by the extra force provided by swift step onto the roof of a house before leaping to the one the player was on.
The player whose username was 'swift arrow' was still confused by the message he received displaying,
{Your reputation with the creator consortium has decreased by 5}
Not noticing the rapidly approaching figure before he was directly in front of him, only recognising the mask the person wore after he was on the same roof as him and only had a single thought, 'oh sh*t', as he saw a fist rapidly approach him. However, unlike what he expected, either receiving massive damage or dying outright from that attack, something worse happened as he keeled over onto the floor in pain and agony while struggling to breathe while constantly feeling like he is about to die. The thing was that was not the case at all, he didn't even receive any damage, what actually happened was as soon as Joe reached the roof he slowed his speed significantly and due to his non-existant armour, he thoroughly winded him causing him to cripple over.
Everyone in the area heard the whistle of an arrow fire in the village drawing the attention of everyone in the area, most of all the village guard and chief, as well as the agents in the village. No one knew where it came from but were able to see and follow in time to see that it was heading straight for the blacksmiths and as it got closer they could see it was headed straight for Id 0's head. But counter to what everyone expected in that scenario where the arrow going straight through as there was no way for him to know it was headed straight for him, however, that was not what occurred at all, instead not only was he able to turn around and get out the way in time, but he was also able to catch the arrow stopping it from hitting the person behind him as well. However it did not end there as as soon as that ended he took off with the same speed the arrow did heading straight to where the arrow came from, the few agents in the area recognised this and started running as well to try and prevent the massacre of the child that shot at him as they assumed he would go for revenge, though due to his inhuman level of speed they were nowhere close when he bounded to the roof of a building and lept to the next. Counter to what everyone expected to see, the boy was not sent flying off the roof with fatal damage numbers above his head, in fact, no damage numbers appeared at all as he let out a screech and fell to the floor silently. After that Id 0 reached down and picked up the boy and jumped off the roof, falling at a gravity-defiyingly slow speed, especially for someone who is carrying someone else.
All the people who were at the blacksmiths ran over to them as well as the chief, guards and agents and demanded Id 0 tell them what happened and what he had just done to the boy as Joe put him on the ground.
"I used a movement skill to get to him before he had a chance to get away and get away with the act, I then uses non-lethal nor damaging force to stop him from getting away, I didn't even use a skill I just winded him and we all know how that feels, then I brought him down here so the proceedings would be less of a hassle," Joe replied to their demands in a confidant, mater of fact, modulated voice making things seem somewhat reasonable, at least to the people from the blacksmiths.
"But you didn't have to resort to that, it's not like he actually did anything to you," one of the agents protested in a stern voice.
Joe turned to face the agent directly causing cold sweat to form on her back, "That arrow was aimed for my neck and had sufficient velocity to do over 300 points of damage, I only evaded in time due to a unique ability that I possess and my high enough level and agility stat, that arrow was meant to kill and it certainly would have killed the person behind me if I hadn't had caught it, winding him is being more than lenient," Joe replied in passive-aggressive tone through his voice modulator before continuing, " And what would you have done if you got there first? used one of your skills to stop him from leaving or to incapacitate him? have a fight break out to try and stop him and hope no one gets hurt in the meantime? try to restrain him and have to struggle till another agent got there and then what would they do?"
"Look I only meant to trip him over and disarm him, I carried a bit too much speed and am not an experienced fighter, and still not entirely used to my strength increase but now it's over and no one actually got hurt," Joe replied in a more passive tone
The agent looked at Joe with shock after hearing the damage number and realised that with that knowledge and that the attack was unprovoked that that was an entirely reasonable reaction, and the reasoning and intent he provided put her into thought and concluded that that would probably be what would happen and could see the downsides to it as well as the fact of what he wanted to do was the most reasonable course of action and just accidentally overdid it a bit. After that, her mind turned to a more pressing matter.
"I guess you are right there, but now onto the reason this happened in the first place," she said as she turned towards the boy still on the ground, with everybody else following suit. The boy wearing a red cloth bandana on his head and has red clothes that he obtained in the obvious hope of looking cool by emphasising his toned mussels, his starter bow and quiver on the ground next to him as he slowly starts to recover, only now seeing the large group of people around him.
Upon looking around, he saw the person that did this to him just standing there, just out of reach. Anger filled his face as he hobbled to his feet and grabbed his stomach," YOU!!" he yelled as loud as he could while still struggling for breath," Because of you, that bast**d is going to get MY reward! I deserve that reward! Not that D grade!" he said between wheezing, before pulling his free arm back and launching it forward.
The others who took a step back as soon as he got up didn't know what he wanted to achieve by that as we were all out of range of a direct hit, however, the thing they weren't aware of was the fact that he picked up a small sharp off the ground and was preparing to throw it.
Joe suspecting that he was about to do something immediately thought' mental command: activate shield, apply auto-tracking protocol', the next second some mana came out of the nodes in his hands to form a thin circular mana shield about the size of a small plate that immediately moved up to the side of his neck as the next moment a small rock smashed into it with a loud hum as the shield stopped it instantly.
The others were shocked by the exchange and the mana shield that was still by his neck before floating back down to in front of his hand, 'swift arrow' looked scared after realising what he did in front of the people that he did immediately went to make a break for it but was immediately detained by the village guard though he continued to struggle before he had a sudden idea as a smirk formed on his face.
Joe realising something was wrong immediately received a pop-up from his system and realised that he had yet to turn off analysis mode,
{player has no viable means of escape, however, still retains the ability to exit the alternate realm as per regular circumstances}
Immediately after Joe read that he realised what he might be planning and immediately thought' mental command: assert administrator authority, suspend alternate realm transfer requests for ARS player 'swift arrow' duration: 1 hour', After that Joe immediately received an ARS notification.
[System notification: Admin request accepted]
After swift arrow knew that he could not get away and escape punishment, there was one thing that he thought of and that was simply to log off as there was nothing that they could do to stop him and all he had to do was wait a couple of hours come back online and leave the village as soon as possible, after he thought of that a smirk appeared on his face as if he couldn't complete his main goal, he could at least escape punishment.
"EXITING THE ALTERNATE REALM" swift arrow screamed as loud and fast as he could, but his face immediately turned pale as dread seeped into him as he received two notifications.
[system notification: you can not leave the alternate realm due to special circumstances]
[system notification: quest received "explanations"
description: the village chief and guard are enraged by your despicable acts and bold attempt to escape, they demand an extremely good answer to stop their outrage.
rank: B
time limit: 5 minutes
reward:
penalty for failure: cost are doubled for any transaction in the village, chief favorability - 15, blacksmith favorability - 25]
Everyone turned to look at him and the people involved in the matter all looked at him with hostile gazes, the guards and chief started chewing him out about how he dared attempt such a thing.
Swift arrow knew that it would be incredibly hard to explain that he just wanted to repossess the reward that the intended party received because he wanted to take the loot after they downed the giant rats in the mines but they were too efficient and he didn't get them in time.
After 30 seconds went by and he still didn't think of how he could answer without failing the quest one of the agents asked him, "Hey! Look at me! I'm a Penshalstine Shifter defence officer, I need you to tell me exactly why you attempted to kill someone, in a settlement of all places, it doesn't need to sound good but it needs to be the truth or else we will have to get your local authorities involved."
After hearing that swift arrow immediately stopped caring about the quest as this officer in front of him was from the shifter enforcement of his country, and hearing that a cold sweat began to form on his back, "ok, ok, that person had the loot I wanted from the mines and he wouldn't give it to me" he yelled in a panicked voice.
[system notification: quest failed]
The notification was the least of his concern at the moment as he was more worried about what would happen in real life.
"From the looks of it it seems you are from Penshalstine as well, " the officer said as he noticed how the boy was acting, " as this offence took place in-game, no legal action will take place but you will have to attend a power madness rehabilitation course, we will contact you within a week and if you don't attend other action will be taken."
After hearing that swift arrow didn't know whether to be relieved or afraid of what the officer just said as the officer began to walk away and left his final statement, " log off as soon as you can and contact us first and you will be treated kindly, in the meantime do with him what you will."
After the officer left, the guards took him to the holding cells, and Joe had a quick chat with Zandra about strength control techniques. He turned around to see the blacksmith still there waiting for him after he realised that he walked over and suggested heading back to his forge.
"So boy, after that demonstration and the other acts that you have done around the village, why are you so interested in blacksmithing? The blacksmith asked with curiosity.
Joe let out a slight laugh before replying in his modulated voice, "Well, as you may know, I'm who the rest of the people in the village call the lostworlder, I lost access to my home but I gained a great opportunity as well, if I don't capitalise on that then that would make my life to vulnerable to external circumstances, I need smithing to make the tools that in need to make the tools that I need to survive, as without the basics you can not build off them, right?"
The blacksmith let out a hearty laugh before replying, "True that, true that."
After they got back to the forge the blacksmith got back to work teaching the trade, but this time Joe was upfront rather than loitering in the back of the crowd.