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[break][break]“Well alright kid, play it that way if you want to. At the end of the day, regardless of how old you are, I’m just going to keep calling you kid until you tell me your name, maybe longer.”

[break][break]Continuing to mock the fact that this girl wanted to be older than she was, Hilbrand decided to move on to a different topic. Whatever her reason was for wanting to appear like an adult and not like a child was entirely up to her, though part of him could understand why one might want to appear bigger and stronger in a world that seemed easy to navigate, yet hard to survive. Whatever the case was, no matter how much she would fight it, one could not increase their age overnight, not unless they went into a coma and woke up ten years later, which seemed like the only real loophole to get around such a thing.

[break][break]“A month? I’ve been here for a day.”

[break][break]Feeling like he needed to ponder on this for a while as this was incredibly unwelcome news, he brought his hand to his chin as if stroking an invisible beard. Narrowing his eyes as he thought, the girl being here for a month meant that if she had been struggling to get stronger since that time, she would be a good deal stronger than him. Such were the rules of literally every game he had ever played. When one no-life’d a game, it meant that they would get a lot stronger than those around them that put in fewer time. And in their case, them being in here being their new life meant that they were no-life’ing by default. Which in turn meant that there being people who had a head start of a month or longer on him put him at a severe disadvantage.

[break][break]Instantly putting him into a bad mood, this meant that he couldn’t stay in one place for too long and would need to keep moving, keep fighting and keep training to get his experience up, in quite literally every sense of the word. If he was to survive here, he would need to get a lot better at cracking skulls with his bat, or it would be his skull that would end up getting cracked.

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[break][break]“I imagine the clear difference being that, unlike the old world, there are actual freakin’ monsters here. Facing your issues down is one thing when all you’ve got to deal with are kids. However, dealing with your issues when it comes in the form of a massive dragon or a horde of zombies, I imagine running might be the preferable option.”

[break][break]Responding as what the girl said made sense, he didn’t make a point out of the whole bullying thing. It had made him stronger, sure, but it had also cost people their lives, taken out of sheer desperation because they believed things would never get better. But that was another part of growing up, learning what kind of criticism to take to heart and what to ignore. At least he could say that he had made it past that point by busting up a bunch of faces, tearing some clothes and breaking a few bones. Allowing his baseball bat to disappear as he freed up his hands, he put them back into his pockets as the discussion wasn’t over yet. Because as it were, the girl was still trying to deny the fact that she was a kid, which going by her outward appearance and height seemed difficult to accept.

[break][break]“Well alright kid, if you don’t want to be a child, that’s fine. Though I wonder, how long have you been in this world for, how many days? Or has it been longer than that. And while we’re on the subject, how old are you?”

[break][break]Releasing a barrage of incredibly simple questions that could make due with receiving a bunch of equally simplistic answer, if the girl turned out to be older than her appearance would suggest, Hilbrand was going to drop it. One way or another, she appeared as someone who hadn’t been a teenager for all that long, and seemed closer to being a teen than an adult, at least as far as their exterior went.

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[break][break]“Hilbrand Kildare, Bruiser I guess.”

[break][break]Accepting the proposal and returning a firm handshake, Hilbrand took two steps back, allowing the man a chance to do his stretches in peace. Believing it to be a good idea to do the same, he listened to what the guy said when he set out the parameters of this spar. Claiming that he was not going to be using any items but would not be against Hilbrand using any, it would have made for a quick spar if it had been the case both ways.

[break][break]Calling his Louisville Slugger to his hand, he gripped it with both hands and performed a couple of swings in place, aiming at imaginary balls flying in his direction. Making sure to loosen his ankles, hips, shoulders and wrists, he was just about ready to get into it as he thought about what this guy would be doing. Since he proclaimed himself to be a Summoner, that likely meant that he wouldn’t be doing a whole lot of fighting on his own, but rather planned on calling in something else to do the fighting for him. Regardless, pondering on what was to come wasn’t going to do him any good.

[break][break]“Honestly, I don’t think I could come any more prepared than I am. Lets get this show on the road.”

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[break][break]Setting foot on the other side of the waypoint, Hilbrand looked around, seeing a place filled with those that seemed to embrace the more combat oriented side of this new life they’d all been dragged into against their will. Up until now, he had managed to visit two ‘Safe Zones’, which was where the majority of the people of this world seemed to have flocked to as most did not wish to take up arms and go out to explore and better themselves. They were the boring folks, the ones that wanted for nothing more than to go back to the old world, or to live safely in this new one while surrounded by comfort and wealth.

[break][break]Not knowing whether or not they would ever get a chance to go back to the old world, the raven-haired man had already decided that this was where he was now, and that he had to either make the best out of it or just leap off of a tall building and put an end to things. And if he was to be making the most out of this existence, it meant getting a more firm grasp on his own powers and abilities, as well as figuring out where their current limits were. And that was not so easily discerned, as he could not just ask a hostile monster to hold their punches until he was ready to go for a second bout. As such, this colosseum as people called it seemed to be the best location for him.

[break][break]Reminding him of a certain MMORPG he had played as a teen where people gathered in front of one of the capital city to beat the snot out of one another in a friendly competition, he watched as people entered into strange rings of light that formed an area around them once both parties agreed to the terms. Likely meant to keep any of their attacks or powers from hitting surrounding individuals or breaking the colosseum itself, it was at that point that Hilbrand noticed someone else who was clearly waiting for a challenger. Truth be told, the guy looked quite odd, though he wasn’t the kind to be picky or judgmental of appearance. Years of being bullied would do that for you, which was arguably one of the better things to come out of it.

[break][break]“Oi, it seems to me you’re looking for a sparring partner. I for one am looking for someone who can help me figure out how this world functions, as well as the extent of the powers I was given. Think you can help with that?”

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[break][break]“Hmm… fair enough. And yeah, I guess I did. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to it since I was busy cooking at the time, though I vaguely remember the term “Bruiser”, as well as my trusty bat here.”

[break][break]Figuring this person was likely an ‘actual’ person such as himself, there was really no way of knowing whether this was some kind of elaborate NPC or not, as them having seen their birth certificate and remembering their past life did not mean anything to him personally. That said, he figured the same could be said about him, as he had those same memories, but had no recollection of ever having been in a desert before. All in all, he did feel a lot stronger than he did before, as well as more resilient and less easily tired, which was a strange sensation. It was like experiencing several years-worth of exercise, batting-practice and eating responsibly all at once. And honestly, it felt really good.

[break][break]“Ornithologist? What does that mean? That you have intricate knowledge on which birds might be found within the area? Did that come with goggles for spotting?”

[break][break]Asking in a joking manner, he knew that choosing his own ‘class’ had come along with a rather useful weapon, the Louisville Slugger. And not just any slugger, but the very same that had once been used by Babe Ruth himself. Normally within a game setting, named objects were often worth more than your regular equipment, which meant that he had likely done something right when coming here against his will. Or at least, that was what he wanted to be true in his own head canon. At the same time, it made him wonder how something like having knowledge of birds would end up being useful in a world such as this. As he pondered on the matter for a bit, he felt a shift in the sand that forced him to shift his own footing, followed by the girl calling out to him.

[break][break]When the warning came, the fact that his slugger was already out meant that there was no time wasted in responding to the threat. Turning his body as his left hand moved towards the bat, pushed against his right hand as both held onto the handle, Hilbrand swung the piece of wood against the head of the strange worm. With a loud thump, the bat redirected the worm as it got smacked against the sand. As if in a focused state of fury, the black-haired man brought his bat up and slammed it down on top of the monster several times, making sure that whatever breath was left inside of it got pushed out with the last beat of its heart. With green goo still stuck to his bat, Hilbrand tried using sand to get it off, though it just ended up making a bigger mess.

[break][break]“What in the bloody fuck was that?”

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[break][break]Waypoints, what a technological marvel they were, and useful too.

[break][break]Before the formation of the new world, traveling the way Hilbrand had done would have taken days, though the actual journey itself had now just taken several minutes. That, and he didn’t need to worry about the ship he was on sinking or the plane he was on falling out of the sky, two of the irrational fears many an individual was stricken with. Especially those that hadn’t actually traveled anywhere before.

[break][break]Getting to see some of what America had to offer so far had been quite an interesting sight to see, whether it be the Hollow Hills and the strange creatures wandering inside of it, New York city and the ghouls and robots that he had encountered there, as well as Los Angeles and the interesting individuals he had come across while wandering through that “Safe Zone”. Due to the events at the latter of the three locations, Hilbrand had decided that it was time to go back home to the United Kingdom, or England as he’d prefer to call it. According to his mobile device, venturing from safe zone to safe zone was quite recommended when heading to a different part of the world. And so here he was, in the city of London.

[break][break]While it was the safer option, it was also more or less the only option he had. After all, the main reason why he had come back to England was to see whether or not his parents had also appeared here. Refusing to believe that they were back in the old world, if such a thing as an old world still even existed, the likeliest option was that they were in fact out here somewhere, perhaps in the place they had lived. But therein lay the problem, as a new part of the world had seemingly overtaken that entire area, a place that was now called “Gothica”. Registered as a “High Risk” zone, his mobile device had been against him going there, meaning he had to somehow get there by other means.

[break][break]Unsure as to what to do, the raven-haired man had decided to go to London, to see if there was anyone with any information regarding the place, as he could use all of it at this point if he was to go there and not outright die. Believing that it might be a good idea to go by the museum, as it might now be home to pieces of art, old weapons and clothing or otherwise ‘liberated’ from the place, someone who worked there might be able to tell him a thing or two about it. Knowing that a normal museum would not have such things, a museum situated within this new world very well might. And so, he marched himself into the museum without so much as a care in the world, or so it would seem, as he was in fact carrying quite a bit of stress along with him.

[break][break]Noticing one guy that seemed to almost be pushing his head through the glass rather than just looking it over from a distance, Hilbrand looked him over, finding that he wasn’t dressed as the average curator or archivist.

[break][break]“Oi, since you seem to be ‘very’ much into these museum pieces, would you happen to know if they have anything here regarding Gothica?”

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[break][break]So far, Hilbrand’s time spent in this strange world had been rather fruitful, if one could call it that.

[break][break]Passing through something he believed was called a Tutorial before passing through a waypoint and ending up in an altered version of America, which looked nothing like the textbooks back at school. From there on, he had encountered his very first Mission, a rather straight forward task requesting he return a bunch of sheep alive, or in the case of their deaths, just with the bad news of their passing. While it had all been rather simple in nature, much like some of the MMO’s he used to play as a teen, it had at least awarded him with some of the points he would be needing to make himself stronger, faster, or simply put, better in every way. Which would more or less explain why he now found himself in what remained of the once great “New York City”.

[break][break]With his trusty Louisville Slugger, the very same that used to belong to the legendary Babe Ruth, resting upon his shoulder as his hand was gripped firmly around the handle, the raven-haired young man found himself wandering the streets. Sticking to the middle of the street for the sole reason of not being jumped the moment he wandered too close to a building, an abandoned car or a heap of trash along the side of the road, he had both of his ears peaked in the hopes of picking up anything potentially hazardous. His time spent on his first mission, as well as the Tutorial that had taken him into a desert filled with strange beings hiding away amidst the sands, had taught him one very important thing.

[break][break]And that was the fact that Hilbrand did not fully grasp the scope of his own powers and abilities, the capabilities of his chosen weapon, or of the threats that existed in this new world. And rather than sitting down somewhere and moping about it, he had chosen instead that while he was in America, he might as well go to New York. Knowing very little about it, he knew based off of the information his mobile device could give him that there was a wide variety of threats skulking about these parts, and that it was considered a Medium Risk Zone. Believing that if he could survive out here for a while, that he might be able to traverse this world with more confidence, he had swooped in through the waypoint and went about ‘surviving’ the streets.

[break][break]With a bit of luck, he might even work in a bit of practice.

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