"Here..." Ron stood at the exit of the auditorium, giving each player their own key as they walked by him. "Your handler will wait for you in your room."
"What is a handler?" Seth asked as he took the key from Ron.
"Your handler will explain everything; now move." Ron pushed Seth out of the auditorium and then handed the key to the person walking behind him.
A short while later, Adam accepted his key from Ron and checked the number to see whether it was the same as in his previous life.
However, it wasn't, just as he expected.
"Congratulations for the kill of the first boss." Ron added as Adam accepted the key. "Most impressive."
"Thanks..." Adam then walked out of the auditorium and pocketed his key.
At that moment, he saw Seth walking ahead with his shortsword dangling from his hip, as if he were announcing it to everyone.
Adam's eyes turned cold, and he slowly approached Seth.
As Seth looked at the key in his hand, he suddenly felt a strong tug on his arm and then felt his back crash against a wall.
"W-who!" He tried to draw his weapon, but Adam grabbed him by his wrist and held him in place.
"Y-you, what do you want?" Seth asked, his voice trembling.
"I want your weapon," Adam said, pulling out his pitchfork from his inventory and stabbing it on the floor. "Give it to me."
"Y-you can't attack me in here!" Seth said with a shaky voice and saw other players moving by, only glancing at them briefly without caring. "T-they w-will punish you."
"I thought you were smarter than that." Adam smiled. "They said if they catch you doing it, do you see them here?"
Seth looked back to the auditorium and saw its door closed—neither Ron nor Dakota were here.
"We'll do a trade." Adam said with a smile. "I'll give you the pitchfork; you'll give me your sword. A fair deal, I would say."
"F-fair, hah!" Seth laughed mockingly. "T-this is blackmail. How is it fair when I get a worse weapon? This is my weapon; I got it!"
"You don't get it." Adam glanced at the players who were walking by. "You flaunt your weapon like an idiot. Do you think you'll survive through this day if you have this? You won't."
"E-eh?" Seth looked around, and just as Adam said, many eyes glanced at him briefly before moving on. He thought he saw other players looking at him before but didn't realize it was because of the weapon he was carrying.
"It's a fair deal, because this will save your life." Adam said and snatched the steel shortsword from his hip. He then dropped the pitchfork in front of Seth's feet.
"D-don't even say you do this for me." Seth angrily spat. "You are doing this because of greed."
"Exactly." Adam tied the sword to his belt, with its blade sheathed inside a scabbard, and said. "I don't do this out of kindness. You had something I wanted, simple as that, but it still doesn't change the fact that I transferred the bullseye on your back to my own."
"Y-you aren't afraid of dying?" Seth asked with a scoff. "How do you have higher chances of survival than I have?"
"I am stronger than you; that's why." Adam said and began walking away from Seth. "Also, mercenaries have to be bold. You aren't a proper mercenary if you are afraid to make some bold choices."
Seth clenched his fists and shouted. "O-one day, I'll come to take that sword back from you. No matter how long it takes!"
Adam waved his hand lazily and said, "Sure, whatever. Focus on getting through the tutorial first; it's not looking good for you, pointwise."
Seth gritted his teeth and picked up the pitchfork from the ground, which was left behind by Adam.
"I'll show you..."
After a while, Adam reached the front lounge of the Safe Area and saw the stairs leading to the second floor of the mall, as well as the entrance of the mall that led back to the first floor of the tutorial.
At that moment, more players walked through the door, looking exhausted and disheveled. They were players who didn't participate in the boss fight.
"Look, losers have arrived!" Ramon shouted near the mission board while his friend, Hannibal, looked at the missions.
"W-who did you call a loser?" One of the players spoke up, their voice trembling with anger but also with a slight fear as he saw the man's tattoos.
"You and the rest of you fuckers!" Ramon laughed loudly. "Watch your backs, losers. If I see any of you leeching any more, I'll kill you myself. Fuck the punishment!"
The players looked frightened and quickly moved by, their faces also looking slightly ashamed as they felt like everyone was staring at them with mockery and ridicule.
"Making friends looks like." Adam approached the mission board, where Ramon and Hannibal were standing.
"Hmph, you..." Ramon's gaze dropped to his hip as he saw the steel shortsword. "Hah, poor little Seth. Is his corpse somewhere? Did you kill him like you did Parrish?"
"No, he is alive." Adam stopped in front of the mission board and glanced at the tattooed man. "Unlike Parrish."
"Fucker..." Ramon gritted his teeth, but then laughed loudly. "You have balls!"
Adam looked away from him and looked at the mission board—there were two posters made of goat parchment. One included the weapon and skills ranks, while the other had mercenary ranks.
***
[Weapon, Armor and Skill Ranks]
[1. Basic]
[2. Common]
[3. Uncommon]
[4. Rare]
[5. Azure Rare]
[6. Epic]
[7. Purple Epic]
[8. Legendary]
[9. Golden Legendary]
[10. Mythical]
***
[Mercenary Ranks]
[1. Coinfeeder]
[2. Mercenaryman]
[3. Ordergiver]
[4. Beyonder]
[5. Holyman]
[6. Grandeur]
[7. Archwarrior]
[8. Royal Mercenary]
[9. Prime Mercenary]
[10. Royal Prince]
[11. Grand Lord]
[12. High King]
***
'Hah.' Adam laughed inwardly as he looked at the mercenary ranks. 'I am back at the bottom, a fucking Coinfeeder. In my previous life, I reached highly respected Prime Mercenary, and Coinfeeders looked nothing but ants to me.
'Now, I am that ant.'
Adam glanced at the missions, which were quite different from his previous life, but some were the same. However, he didn't plan on taking any missions today, even though they gave quite good points.
'The handler is waiting in the room. I wonder who I get this time; the one in my previous life was annoying as hell.'
However, before going to his room, he planned to go sell his stuff in the store.
Adam left the mission board while Ramon's gaze followed him like a hawk, and he walked up the stairs to the second floor of the mall.
Soon, he found the merchant store, which had a few players from different groups browsing through the shelves.
"Hello, young man. How can I be of assistance?" The mercenary asked with a smile, his name hovering above his head.
[Flamekeeper]
'NPC.' Adam thought as he approached the counter.
Most of the mall's workers were NPCs, also known as Non-Player Characters. It was easier to hire them than have players do everything, as most of the players working in the tutorial areas also had to leave for real life often.
"I would like to sell my stuff." Adam said and placed his Goatman claws, feet, and tail on the desk.
Then, he also took out the claws and teeth he received from the players he killed, as well as the mallet and baton.
Flamekeeper nodded and took out his monocle, then looked at the items intensely.
"Hmm, those are definitely Goatman's, also in good condition. However, those claws and teeth are from a basic Chaosbeing and are in quite poor condition.
"The basic weapons aren't also worth much.
"So, you'll get 8 Shinecoins from all of this."
Adam nodded. "All right."
Flamekeeper's eyebrow jumped in surprise as he had gotten used to players arguing after receiving the price—they always have the illusion that the items they fought hard for were worth a lot.
When they were struck by reality, they thought the merchant was trying to scam them.
"You don't want to bargain, huh?" Flamekeeper chuckled. "Fine by me."
"I expected to get less." Adam smiled. "These are only worth 5 Shinecoins. You gave me some extra, so I appreciate it."
"Oho." Flamekeeper laughed. "You're very informative, aren't you?"
Adam smiled and then accepted the eight coins—the coins were shining a little bit, and they had a person's face engraved on them—it was the face of Konrad Moriarty, the High King.
Whenever a player became a High King, their face would be engraved on the Shinecoins. It was the highest honor a player could receive.
After Adam accepted the coins, they were sucked into his interface.
[Shinecoin: 8]
'All right, now that I am done with that, time to go meet my handler.'