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Chapter 26 - The Second Step
🕑 Added 2025-09-01 19:59:56 +0000 UTCThe Olympics Committee has taken harsh criticism into advisement and attempted a Hail Mary. The Committee diverted all of their remaining funds to purchase sponsorship slots for the Trial System. This move has become one of the most successful rebrandings of modern times. The Olympic Trials enjoy worldwide support from both the Tyrants and most nations on Earth.
- Wait, isn’t this basically my idea?! WHERE’S MY CREDIT?! @Shimmerstare (unverified)
[Return To The Realm]
8 minutes remaining until you are ejected from the saferoom.
The white room with the singular table lay in front of him.
You have selected [Dangersense]
[Dangersense] level 0 -> level 1!
The change in his mindset was distinct. Not from the [Dangersense] skill but from his Epic. He could feel his doubts wash away as the Epic urged him forward. He knew logically that the skill was impacting his mental state. But it didn’t feel like he was someone else.
He was just a bit more confident. That was all.
He had a plan, now it was time to execute.
Ryan strapped Avale’s kite shield to his back. The strap he used for his knives could hook the shield, albeit in an unstable position. It went over the top of Zedart’s longsword, uncomfortable, but would protect his torso from any surprise shots from behind. He had a loaded crossbow in his left and a gun with three bullets left in his right.
It was all he needed.
He kicked the table in the middle over, then walked to the only exit in the room. The realm two saferoom’s door had more detail, carved shapes and stained glass. Ryan put his hand on the door and went through the system menu.
Exit portal Ulverra selected.
Ulverra was the largest city in The Realm. The population was in the tens of millions and could be compared to some of the greatest cities on Earth. No, it exceeded any city on Earth, even those around the System portals.
After all, the Archmage Tyrant ruled over Ulverra. Where a city in The Realm would normally have one System portal, Ulverra had two. The grand city also had a small portion that was within a leveled zone.
During the war with Earth, Realmers could rush into the leveled zone and fight off realm two grade superhumans themselves. They would then wait until the Tyrants retook the city from the forces of Earth.
But that was long, long ago. The city had advanced far beyond anything back in those times.
The Archmage Tyrant had never stopped improving the defenses of his city.
Now, the idea of someone assaulting Ulverra was unthinkable.
Ryan smiled.
Entering a leveled zone: R2
[Unrelenting Aura of Intimidation]
–
Mitezer swiped through his Guild issued phone, bored out of his mind. Yes, being a Guild receptionist was a highly sought after position, but most of the time, it never really quite felt like it.
There were only five adventurers in the exit hall of Ulverra. A paltry number compared to the hubbub earlier with the blacklister edict. Considering that the Trial entrance at Sector One did not start spitting out monsters or the blacklister’s corpse, it was assumed that he had survived and managed to solo the Trial.
Most teams had just shrugged and gone on with their day. A thousand realmcoin bounty was nice, but not something to scour the lands for. Camping the exit portals? That was silly, of course the blacklister would take the randomized teleport option. Every Sector Two exit portal had a Guild around it. And who would be insane enough to teleport into a Guild surrounded by other adventurers?
And even if they were, who would pick Ulverra-
The portal shimmered.
Mitezer straightened then frowned. Strange, nobody had logged their intention to use this exit portal among the recent Trial two challengers.
A black boot stepped out of the portal as the air changed. Mitezer suddenly shivered as he felt like -
A black-clad figure with silver buttons on his chest walked out of the portal. Artigan walked with such pressure that Mitezer felt like he was staring down a fifth realm.
The S-grade team killer smiled at him. The lower half of his face sneering at him under the hood.
“B-blacklister!”
One of the adventurers in the Guild scrambled, a [Warrior], unacclimatized, tripped as they tried to stand up. They froze as a black gun pointed right at his unhelmeted head. The blacklister spoke, voice deeper than in the video.
“Anyone who takes up their weapon dies. I’m giving you one chance.”
The hand with the crossbow was aimed at Mitezer. The guild receptionist almost shat his pants. He’d already lost his safety life, he didn’t want to die.
Not a single adventurer dared to move. Firstly, they weren’t all on a single team, secondly? They all felt it.
Fear.
A guaranteed slaughter. They’d all seen the videos, the blacklister had taken apart a cohesive team. Even if some people here had mocked Garbolt for his incompetence, they all hesitated as they came face to face with the real thing.
And the real thing was terrifying.
Artigan chuckled and lowered his weapons. Mitezer had to call someone, there was an emergency button at the -
The hooded monster turned his way as Mitezer shifted forward. He put his hands up and stepped away from the desk.
The blacklister knew Guild protocols.
“Good.”
Artigan turned around and walked out of the Guild. He didn’t give anyone else in the room a single glance as he simply walked out.
Screaming from outside pierced the stunned silence in the room. Mitezer scrambled for his phone as he punched in the numbers to the Chief Enforcer of the leveled section. He started screaming at his phone.
“The blacklister is here! He’s HERE!”
Mitezer looked at his phone and then wondered why he was panicking. The rest of the room started to snap themselves out of the daze as they shook their heads in confusion.
Then the Guild Receptionist understood.
“He has a Rare fear skill! Heads up!”
The voice on the other end seemed to have finally registered his words.
“On it. Move! Switching to local code red! What’s the casualty count?!”
The Chief Enforcer was panicking too.
“Z-zero, we were stunned by the fear skill.”
There was a moment of silence.
“All of you?”
“He had a gun and told us if we moved he’d shoot.”
It sounded really cowardly when Mitezer said it like that. It was a good thing the chief was good at prioritizing. Someone else might have yelled at them for dereliction of duty.
“Okay, they’re on crowd control duty. We’re on our way.”
Mitezer looked at the adventurers getting ready to charge outside and confront the blacklister. He shouted at them.
“Order adventurers! You are all to do crowd control.”
The adventurers in the guild were red with fury and humiliation. They heard the Mitezer’s call with the chief while some had figured it out themselves. It wasn’t a matter of being punished but rather a matter of pride. Not a single one wanted to let that go unanswered.
“What? We’ll just kill him. Now we know he has a fear skill, it’ll be far less effective.”
Mitezer started yelling.
“You just had your chance, and all of you failed. Clear the area of Realmers, crowd control! This is a direct order from the Guild!”
They were still red but obeyed. Fucking up once was a reprimand, belaying an order and potentially getting Realmers killed? That would be a blacklisting.
Mitezer hurried out too, he was an adventurer too after all.
–
Ryan ran through the streets. Where he stepped, people screamed. It was initially a shock of surprise at his Epic, then true primal fear as they recognized him as the famed team killer.
An adventurer caught sight of him and scrambled for their weapon. Ryan pointed his gun at the man’s torso.
“If you go for your sword, I will shoot. Leave.”
They scrambled away like a coward. Ryan took one look at the surroundings and then started running. Ulverra was a beautifully large city full of skyscrapers, wide roads and magic that far surpassed portal cities on Earth.
He didn’t have any time to appreciate any of it.
He started running, keeping his head on a swivel for any would-be heroic adventurers. More people screamed or froze in fear as they saw him. The air felt electric around him, was that his aura or was that magic? Ryan couldn’t tell the difference. All he knew was that his aura made everyone run.
And this was just the passive.
“Well, well, well. I didn’t expect to see you here.”
A ghostly figure in white floated next to him. Her fake curvaceous figure being quite distracting as she lay on the air at eye level, head propped up by her hand.
“Hi Gamielle, how have you been?”
“I’ve been busy. Haven’t you seen the video?”
“Yep.”
Gamielle stumbled in midair. She’d been leaning on the air with her head in her hand, but all of it fell out as he said something so unexpected.
Ryan paused to look around. The screams had stopped, and someone ran past him without looking at him. He looked to Gamielle for an answer. She was still stuck on his casual behavior.
“You saw that, and you still chose to teleport to Ulverra?”
Ryan looked around and sighed, finally taking in the sights. Enchantments ran through nearly every building around, humming with energy. Even pulsing in some circumstances.
“The busiest city in The Realm. Home of the Academy itself. Of course I’d come here first, why wouldn’t I?”
He started walking. Clearly, Gamielle was doing something to keep him invisible.
“Are you pretending to be stupid? I can’t tell, the enforcers will kill-”
“Are you really helping me right now? And here I thought even Epic invisibility didn’t work in leveled zones.”
She stopped floating in the air and started walking with him. She’d realized he was playing an angle and decided to play along. Gamielle waggled her eyebrows.
“Not invisibility but illusion.”
Ryan slapped his forehead dramatically.
“Oh, duh, that’s completely fine then.”
They traveled in silence. Gamielle spun in front of him and broke the silence first, head tilted forward as a plain human ear pointed at his face.
“So, what’s the plan, Ryan Robinson?”
He didn’t miss a beat.
“Sounds like someone’s rattled that their little pet project is doing something stupid.”
Even when Gamielle revealed that she knew his identity, he didn’t back down. After all, he would’ve been really disappointed if the Witch Tyrant and her daughter hadn’t found out his identity by now.
Gamielle pointed a finger at his chest.
“Don’t push it, bub, I’m still of a mind to leave you here.”
Ryan crossed his arms and gave her a smile.
“Then do it. Oh yeah, by the way, I got an Epic.”
The look on Gamielle’s face was quite satisfying, not that it lasted for long. She tilted her head, trying to figure out if he was lying.
“This fear effect? Doesn’t feel much like an Epic, no wait… the rebound effect? Even still…”
Rebound effect? He shelved the thought for later and waggled his eyebrows back at her.
“This is just the passive. Didn’t you see how the adventurers reacted when I used the active?”
Then he realized she hadn’t.
That was another limitation found. Gamielle wasn’t able or couldn’t monitor everything at once. She must have had direct access to the alert system. He kept walking, head held high, without a care in the world.
Now Gamielle was starting to get annoyed by his attitude.
“So what? You think because you got a shiny new Epic that I’d protect you?”
“Nah, you can leave if you want. Actually, tell me when you take away the invisibility, it’s only fair.”
Ryan was loving this. Having Gamielle truly confused and behind made him feel like he had wrested some control away from her. From her and her mother.
She was still trying to figure out his angle.
“You’re out of your mind. The enforcers are trained second realms with modern weaponry.”
“That means they’re trash, right?”
He said it more coldly than he’d intended. Gamielle flinched and had a complicated look on her face. One he couldn’t quite decipher. Guilt?
Good. Ryan spread his arms, the greatest city in The Realm as his backdrop.
“Isn’t this what you wanted? Me against the world?”
He’d started making this plan from the moment he’d returned to Earth. It wasn’t the sanest of plans he’d come up with, but it was one that would give him the most leverage over her. Create chaos and get their attention.
Gamielle wouldn’t dare cause trouble in the Archmage Tyrant’s domain. If the Witch Tyrant came herself, well then… It was known that the Archmage Tyrant wasn’t the most friendly with the Witch Tyrant. Not since he had absorbed her faction and posted ‘Hexes and their countermeasures’.
Gamielle looked into the distance and bit her lip.
“Look, I have a deal.”
Now this was what Ryan wanted, he tilted his head, pretending to barely be interested.
“What kind of deal?”
“Give me your gun and the ammo, and I will get you out of here safely. I even have a present for you.”
The gun? Achievements, right, that made sense. He could use that as leverage too.
“I can get out of here myself. If you want my gun, you’re going to have to answer a question for me.”
Then Gamielle’s attention snapped back to him. She changed her look, one less of concern and more of a realization that she’d been lured here.
“What’s the question?”
“What does the Manager really want?”
“Ah.”
This was the question that burned in Ryan’s mind. He wasn’t an idiot. He could see how everything had been set up for him. Despite his suffering, it felt like the Manager had his hands wrapped around every single event from the beginning. Barry, the soldiers, Zedart and Gamielle, then into Seffara.
What were the chances? How much more was he dancing in the Manager’s palm?
He’d been happy to ignore that thought, happy to follow the plan so he could achieve greater and greater things.
That was until his friends got involved.
Now he had to know what they were planning, the only way to figure that out was to know what exactly the Manager wanted.
That was the only way to win.
A different presence descended. For a moment, the world stilled. He’d experienced this in the cave with Zedart’s dead body. The Witch Tyrant.
She appeared next to her daughter. Her presence drowning out the city’s blaring sirens.
It weighed heavier than anything else in the world. Seffara’s anger was like a candle in a snowstorm compared to this. Leveled zone or not, the Witch’s presence broke through.
Ryan grinned. The [Rebellious Rogue] with an Epic aura stood firm against the storm. Defying the Tyrant.
The Witch spoke.
“If you truly wish to know, then we will discuss it if you manage to escape. We have interfered enough.”
Gamielle turned to her mother in surprise.
“But—"
Both of them disappeared.
Ryan blinked. That wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
“Wait, I’ll ask another question instead.”
The Witch’s voice whispered in his ears.
“You have ten seconds before I remove the illusion.”
“Aren’t you supposed to negotiate?!”
But there wasn’t a reply. Ryan started running and complaining.
“Ah shit, Gamielle tells me to learn to negotiate, then her mother comes in and shuts me down.”
Well, at least that was one thing confirmed. The Witch Tyrant was the one with the Legend, not Gamielle. Seffara had been right on that one.
All it had cost him was his plan going wrong.
He hadn’t expected a straight answer right away. The ideal scenario had been for her to whisk him away once he revealed his Epic, then negotiated her down until she accepted one of his conditions. But the Witch Tyrant had called his bluff. Now he was in a lot of shit and had to rely on his backup plan. His plan B.
He wasn’t completely stupid, he didn’t risk everything and assumed the Witch would bail his ass.
Fortunately, he was pretty much where he needed to be. Alarms were blaring in the streets, red lights ran through the enchantments in the buildings, warning everyone that they should be inside and indoors.
A red alert just for him. How nice.
Ryan stepped into an armorer’s shop, it had one of the worst ratings on realmnet, 1.1 star, it wasn’t the only reason he picked it, but it sure did help. The door jingled as it opened. He was pretty sure he was still invisible as he saw the shopkeep look confused and right past him. The shopkeeper was an old man, human, with a very large bald spot. He had a gun holstered to his belt.
Convenient.
“Damned kids,” the shopkeeper muttered, “I swear. Getting all uppity over a single--”
The old man froze as he saw the [Rogue] materialize in front of the door. He smiled.
“Hello Jecharim, I would like to trade.”
The old man’s eyes widened and he took a step back. A common reaction at this point.
“Y-you’re the blacklister!”
“Guilty. Apparently.”
Ryan expected a lot of things. Freezing and screaming certainly. What he didn’t expect was for the old man to start treating him like just another customer. Jecharim pointed at his door while yelling at him.
“You! Get out of my shop! No blacklisters! You’ll get nothing to trade from me!”
Ryan tilted his head in amusement, then took a step forward.
“Well, I don’t need cooperation.”
The old man fired.
Correction.
The man did a stunning quick draw, one that made a mockery of any gun toting adventurer that Ryan had come across so far. Unfortunately for Jecharim, Ryan hadn’t let his guard down. He jumped, barely getting out of the way despite his superhuman reflexes.
The quick draw hit the air, and Ryan felt his heart leap out of his chest. Despite having been ready, it had still been too close for comfort.
I’m starting to hate dealing with veterans.
He hid behind the shelves as the old man took a corner position behind the counter. Both their eyes met as they used the reflection in the shop’s glass to scope each other out. The old man was calm, he knew he had no chance. He edged towards the backdoor.
Ryan took out Avale’s shield from his back and leapt out from his cover. Shield covering most of his body, the old man fired as Ryan used [Instant Dodge] in midair to move sideways in the air.
The shopkeep was practiced, yes, but Ryan was a second realm adventurer.
He landed and dashed forward, wary of any openings, he kept his body covered in a low angle as Ryan closed the gap and swiped his shield sideways and up. The reflection in the shop’s glass showing him the positioning between him and Jecharim.
There was a snap of bone and a clattering of the revolver on the ground. Ryan looked up at the man’s broken hand and winced.
“Sorry about that, old man.”
Jecharim didn’t even blink. He just started spitting.
“You’ll get nothing from me!”
Ryan was honestly impressed, this old Realmer didn’t seem scared of him at all. Jecharim looked ready to throw down with a realm two superhuman bare handed.
He took out his team’s bag. He was sure there was a tourniquet somewhere. He dodged a wildly thrown fist, then tripped Jecharim up when the old man tried to retreat for the gun on the floor.
He took one look at the snapped arm, sighed, and took out his only healing potion as well.
“Alright, hold still.”
The old man did not hold still.
--
He looted the store. Looting a rude shopkeeper was totally an adventuring thing to do.
“Mmm! Mphh!”
The old man was tied to a shelf and gagged with a bunch of cloth from the first aid kit. Did Ryan feel bad? Maybe a little. Not enough to actually apologize. After all, the old man had actually come pretty close to landing a shot on him.
He had to respect that.
Not enough to not take everything he needed.
This was an armorer’s store. Jecharim’s store sold fairly decent quality medieval gear. Despite that it was still considered a fairly awkward shop. A little too high quality where you’d start getting concerned about it affecting achievements, but not too high of a quality where you could use it to tank blows and steamroll the lower Trials.
It was probably why it was located where it was, a fair distance from the main road.
Ryan found what he needed. He took ten very heavy throwing knives. Some more ammo for his crossbow and a better fitting quiver. He replaced his old Trial issued knife strap with two from the shop. Now it could hold both his shield and longsword comfortably. For now, it just held a bag and Zedart’s longsword.
He had newer straps now, five knives on his chest and two on each thigh, one strap for each leg. The remaining knife he had tied on his belt and behind him.
Avale’s shield in his left arm and a gun in his right hand. A new revolver at his belt. Crossbow and quiver hanging on the other side.
Ryan looked ready for a war.
Speaking of, reinforcements arrived. Enforcers, realm two adventurers that kept order in the leveled portion of Ulverra. They came in large vehicles and positioned themselves outside the shop. Perfect timing.
“Come out with your hands up!”
He grinned.
“Alright, showtime.”
