34 Where are your teammates?

Jake took one last look at that pillar of green light.

His stay at uncle Chad's Guild involved more trouble than expected. However, it all came to an end now.

During this week, Jake completed both of his primary objectives. But a new task popped up. Got to complete that boss battle quest now.

Experience the life of a chicken for 7 days? Nah. Jake was not interested in this at all.

No line up needed, Jake walked towards the exit station.

"Name?" The officer lady sitting in the station asked.

"Jake Collins."

The officer lady started typing.

"Where are your teammates?"

"We accidentally ran into field boss territories. So we ran off in different directions." Jake replied with half-closed eyes.

'As expected, things do get complicated...'

'How troublesome...' Jake stood there waiting with blank expressions.

The officer lady quickly recorded this information.

Seeing Jake in 'low spirit', the officer's face softened a little. "I'm so sorry to hear that hon. I'm glad you made it out alright."

Jake nodded in reply, waiting for more questions.

Seeing Jake's 'anticipating' look, the officer lady sighed. "I'm sorry honey. But H.U.G.S does not regulate anything inside the realms. So we can't send in a rescue team to get your teammates out..."

The officer lady opened and closed her mouth a few times. She seemed to have swallowed back a lot of words. "I'm so sorry honey. Do you need a hug."

"No. It's alright." Jake blinked a few times, processing this information.

'So the realms are basically lawless lands.'

'Which kind of makes sense. After all, in the world of explorers, power reigns supreme.'

'I wonder why that instructor lady didn't tell me about this. Well. Also kind of makes sense.'

'She is representing HUGS after all. So she probably can't say things like: If you kill your teammates in the realm, it's totally alright. There is no legal consequences in there. So have fun guys.'

'Yeah. No. Way too out of character.'

'Looks like I was a little bit too cautious. I over-thought things I see.'

'Beetle probably needed to report to the Shining Arrow Guild, not H.U.G.S. For me, I'm just a powerless detector. Nobody expects a reasonable answer from me right?'

Thinking this through, Jake's expression returned to normal. A blank expression.

Seeing Jake just standing there in 'disbelief', the officer lady quickly added to her statement.

"Don't worry though. Red explorers. Oh. Or explorer killers, the baddies, are reported to us. Also, we have a track record of suspicious explorers. Once confirmed, we would place bounties on these guys."

"Also." The officer lady paused herself for a moment. She took some time to choose her words again.

"Anyone can add to the bounties on our website. So red explorers are less rampant now."

"Thank you for the information." Jake nodded.

"No problem." The officer lady searched through a document drawer. In a moment, she pulled an envelope out.

"Well. Congratulations on becoming a professional explorer." The officer lady handed over the envelope.

"Hope you feel better hon..."

"Thank you." Jake nodded and left.

Jake walked past the exit station and entered the misty rain. Road lamps showered down dim yellow light onto this empty parking lot.

"Came out at a bad time I see." Jake nodded, accepting the situation.

Opening the envelope, there was a plastic card inside. It was his professional explorer's license.

Also, he received a pin. A plastic centerpiece with a radar icon. Plastic meant unranked. Radar meant detector.

Surrounding the plastic centerpiece was a metal frame. Looking closely, a shining arrow was carved onto the frame. This thing didn't look that impressive, but it's still a magical artifact. Basically functioned as a tracker.

Jake popped the plastic pin out of the frame. 'I'll return the frame to uncle Chad tomorrow I guess.'

After all, this frame was not cheap.

Walking back home, Jake turned on his phone. Apparently, it was 1 AM already.

Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.

Text messages loaded one after another. Also, he had a lot of unheard voicemails.

'Since when was I this popular?'

Looking at his call record, it was an entire page of missed calls, all from Samantha.

The text messages stopped loading. They were all from Samantha as well.

[ Wait. Don't go into the realm yet. ]

[ You there? ]

...

[ Earth Mage has told us about the situation. ]

[ Dad is looking for you now. Hang in there! ]

...

[ If you make it out, give me a text back ]

[ Hang in there... Don't give up. ]

Scrolling down the long list of text messages, Jake faintly smiled. He felt a little warmer inside.

[ I'm fine. Chill. ] Jake replied.

Edgy guitar music started playing on Jake's phone. Samantha was calling him back.

'Right. Forgot to change the ringtone.'

Jake picked up the phone. "Hey."

"I knew it was a bad idea. I shouldn't have let you enter the realm. What the heck was I thinking." Samantha quickly spoke in clumped voice. It's as if she had been crying or something.

"Erhm." Jake interjected Samantha's rap. "I'm pretty strong you know."

"You don't understand Jake. You don't know..." Samantha started whimpering again.

Samantha had always acted tough in front of Jake. When was the last time Jake saw Samantha cry? When they were seven or eight?

"You said uncle Chad went into the realm searching for me... Will he be alright?" Jake looked at the pillar of green light behind him.

Jake was hesitant whether to enter that realm again.

"Don't worry about him. There isn't much green zone monsters that can threaten him."

"Where are you Jake? Let me pick you up."

"... I'm almost home actually. Rest a little alright. Relax. See. I'm still fine and alive. Go get some sleep."

"Jake."

"Yes?"

"Promise me. Don't enter the realms again."

"Alright. Alright. I've seen enough. I won't enter the realms again. At least not before reaching iron-tier alright?"

Hearing Jake's promise, Samantha's breathing paced off a little. The girl grumbled a little.

"Relax. It's behind us now... Get some sleep." Jake spoke softly.

Hearing no response, Jake continued walking in silence for a moment. Hearing Samantha's faint snoring, Jake hang up the phone.

Walking down the empty street, all the house lights were turned off already.

Patches of light under the street lamps. Patches of darkness in between.

Thinking of all the trouble he'd caused to the Hudson family, Jake sighed. 'Looking back, I was not considerate at all.'

At this moment, Jake changed his plan a little.

'Maybe I should stay a bit further. Now that I can help, I'll leave you guys a satisfying gift before heading off.'