Races: Online (VR Smartphone App)

"Hey, sis. What happened to this guy?"

"Should we get his wand?"

"Do you even know how to use magic?"

"You'll never know unless you try—"

Han groaned and sat up, nearly stabbing himself in the eye with his wand, but then dropped it in his lap to look at the gathered gremlins—children, rather. All of them were young kids, with the oldest only looking around at twelve years old? It was the same girl who dragged him here.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

A small boy spoke, "Not too long, Mister—"

He got shoved by a much-older boy who shook his head.

"Oi, don't answer him."

"Why not?"

Ignoring the two, Han glanced all around him to check if it was a trap, if there was another one of those Thugs waiting to hit him with a metal bat or anything else, but it didn't seem so. They would have gotten his wand if they were here. "Is it safe here? I really should get going if I evaded those men thanks to you guys."

"We know who you are," the oldest girl spoke up.

"You do?" Han dusted his pants and stood up, storing his wand in his pocket and glanced at them. While he hadn't exactly towered over them like some sort of creep—he was fairly tall enough to make it apparent that he was the adult here.

The girl scowled at him, raising her gaze to meet him. "Should have known that you'd be stupid."

Han glanced back at her and frowned. "Wait, wait—that's just mean. We barely met, kid. You can't go around judging me—"

Another kid snorted. "Mister, nobody walks in this street all by themself unless you've brought protection from a gang here."

Kids. Kids were smarter than they looked like. Even so, the talk about gangs and street cred made him frown. The biggest city really do be holding the worst pack of criminals that managed to keep their heads above the water and not drown. Or hid in the shadows.

The eldest girl shook her head. "More than that, we tried to mug you before."

Han blinked, stared at the girl and then half-grinned, "Oh, you were the kids who were friends with Doug—I remember that. Not so fun times… Is he here with you? What is this place?"

"We live here."

The question of 'Where are your parents' stuck in his throat as he assessed each and every kid around. None of them looked like they were actually blood-related siblings, except for one or two of them. "I see, that's cool—the rent must be cheap, huh? It's nice to have your own place, being independent and everything."

"He's weird." another kid whispered to her friend.

Han scratched the back of his head. "I don't want to trouble you guys, so if you could show me the way out—"

"They're still looking for you." Another kid piped from the back.

"What—come on, I'm just one person!" Han rubbed his face and sighed. "They could probably get a bigger fish to fry." It wasn't like they could tell that the wand he got was a priceless wand from a Wood Elf Player, right?

The oldest child shook her head. "It's probably getting a bit personal. It isn't nice hearing about how ten different gangs got outwitted by one guy that escaped."

"Geez," Han couldn't even curse with these kids—wait, they probably had mouths like sailors. "It's not my fault that I didn't want to be mugged. I mean, they'll probably get someone next time, right?"contemporary romance

One of the boys laughed and elbowed the eldest girl. "Hah, this guy doesn't mind if another person gets mugged!"

"Wait, I didn't say that—"

"You actually did, Mister. I heard it, you did too, right, Hailey?"

"I sure did." Hailey nodded.

Han scratched the back of his head. "Fine, it's not like I can go out and eliminate the entire gangs overnight or something like that."

"You sure don't look to be that powerful." one of them nodded in agreement.

"But he managed to outrun them! And on the rooftop too, right, Hailey?" Another kid tugged the girl's shirt. The child then turned to Han and asked, "Are you a high-leveled person like them?"

He wanted to say yes, that he was high-leveled. At least he grew really fast and even consolidated his Class, but instead asked. "Who's them?"

Some sort of vigilante group?

Before Han could get an answer, a bell rang in the room. Hailey looked down at the kid in the back, who immediately ran off without a word. Sooner than later, the boy returned with someone in tow. And it was finally the face he actually remembered.

"I'm here—"

"Doug!" Han waved and nonchalantly grinned. "What's up? Did you grow taller since the last time we met? It seems like you did. You were only this tall since we last met." He motioned to his hip and earned some guffaws from the crowd of kids surrounding them.

"It's really this guy." Doug slapped a hand over his face.

Hailey still stood taller than Doug and gave him a look. "What are we going to do with this guy? Are we going to give him up to one of the gangs?"

"Splitting me up into pieces might be the better option." Han frowned and looked at the girl warily. Was he not as safe as he thought he was? Did he have to punch through kids and get out—

"It's better we get him back to where he's studies, the Academy will probably look for him."

"Woah, you're studying in the castle, Mister?"

"And my friends are probably going to look for me—er, if they notice," Han said. It was still weird thinking about what happened in the bar, but at least it meant those guys wouldn't be looking for him and getting endangered anytime soon, either.

The two oldest children were still talking, too busy with their conversation to even pay heed to him. It was almost a little insulting that they haven't even tied him up or anything if he attempted to escape them by himself or anything.

Doug stuck a thumb at him. "Plus, it'd be impossible to try and make an alliance with one of the gangs by just giving this guy up. We only just got out of—"

"I know, I know. Fine, let's get this guy out of here. But you're in charge of busting him out, Doug."

"That's easy, you'll be talking to a Master Thief soon enough."

Han quirked a brow and then said, "I just need directions. I don't need you kids risking your lives or anything to get hurt."

"Who said that we'd be risking lives?" Hailey wrinkled her nose at him. "We're not that stupid, well, maybe Doug is since he wouldn't stop—"

"Shut it, Hay." Doug coughed and cleared his throat. "You see, even if you manage to get into the Academy all by yourself, it'd probably be difficult to get in the city and feel safe anymore. Maybe one day you'll find yourself buying apples and then getting stabbed by the person right next to you with a poisoned knife."

"... That's really how far they'll go?" Han raised a brow. The option of not visiting the city seemed just fine for him. It wasn't like he was going to die not visiting here… but then he looked at the kids. "Is that what you guys are dealing with?"

"Well, things have changed up a bit when Doug and Hailey started leveling up!"

"Yeah—Doug actually managed to deal with about five guys all on his own!"

Doug puffed up a bit at the comment, but nodded. "It's all thanks to those folks who helped us back then… but they're gone now."

"It wasn't like you could expect them to stay with us." Hailey frowned, but then shook her head. "Anyhow, we managed to get a couple of places in this street to be our territory. Our clout isn't that big, but the other gangs still think our sponsor will attack if they attack us."

"I see…" Han nodded. So it didn't seem like they needed that much help?

"Well, we should get going now. Some of the guys are just waiting outside." Doug motioned for him to follow. "We need to show that you're one of us, or at least you know us so they can quit following you."

"Hah, it seems like I owe you guys for this." Han grinned and walked beside him. "Can't believe it, but I guess not everything's as clean as it is on paper." He wasn't sure if he wanted to get involved in this mess, but as far as he could tell, the younger kids were under Hailey's care and Doug and his crew managed the rest?

"What the heck did you just say—but is this the only weapon you're using?" Doug held up the wand and looked at it. "It's extra shiny, I guess. Is this expensive?"

"Woah, fast hands." Han chuckled, but quickly snagged it back and shoved it into his pocket—Inventory this time. "Guess you really did level up."

"You got stronger too, I think." Doug squinted his eyes at him. "One of my Skills lets me know if I'm facing a higher-leveled opponent, and if I should make a rapid escape… But just because we're kids and you know me doesn't mean you should let your guard down, Mister."

Han shrugged. "Hey, I just think you were nice—and if you guys really had ill intentions, then you or the rest of the kids could have sold me out earlier when I passed out." Some of them could have even done worse, like sell his organs if there was a black market around here or anything.

"Whatever," Doug huffed and swung open the door.

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