1.03 The Curse of the family

"I just need to act like a player for a while, it's about time the militia came and sent us to the barracks. Though the only problem for now is." Girisia said while rubbing his hair. "My dirty face and plausibly, my smell."

In a corner, unbeknownst to the birth of his own NPC hunting brigade, Girisia rubbed his beard that smelled worse than a dead rat. For the last six months he had lived as a no name beggar and Karabit no less, Girisia never had the opportunity to divert his attention to anything else besides scrounging for food along with others who shared the same fate as him in the Riber city. Most of them are only even allowed to live in the city because of them being injured veterans.

He had planned to look for a sharp tool to clean his hair just to make himself presentable and go bald for a while. But it was hard to accomplish in such a short notice and that too while being outside of the walls. It's not like players here have spawned with any weapons, all they had was their 2 day worth of food and water along with a set of clean clothes.

As for giving out a quest to a player to search for a small knife? It would take just a lot of time.

"It's also about time Gyatri and Greya left for the farm, though now they may face some competition. Meaning my opportunity to approach GrannyRussia will be close." Girisia paused with his thoughts for a while. "Though they will be on the same path as in the previous timelines with only differences being, I will not be ever present in their group anymore." With a sad sigh, Girisia thought.

Girisia was never a courageous man, nor did he have a low emotional quotient, so he was still a bit shook by the things that have happened, he too desired a shoulder to cry on, but he didn't have the luxury. The only tool he had in this world at this moment was his knowledge of the future and his own master class acting ability, a talent he had sharpened questing through in his previous timelines.

So even though he looked normal on the surface; minus the dirty bum part, he was still struggling all the time. The conflicted emotions he felt when looking at his family never abated, he may even break his character if they came any closer. The only way to fix this problem is more time, enough time for him to calm down the chaos in his mind.

It was this reason he chose the barracks, without them he could act more in the open without worrying over them approaching an NPC like him. Though that was not the only reason, the barracks were also known as the tutorial section of the game, it had the highest collection of players in one place hence it would be easier for him to spread his fame and always have players around for him to give quest to.

And even though he will be under tight scrutiny of the authority managing the barracks, it will be better than searching for the player out in the wasteland. They were just too far apart for Girisia to fully take advantage of his quest system.

As for the danger this barrack will face in the coming month and the exploration mission he may be forced to take part in, Girisia didn't give them much weight even though he was weak with a bad base stats.

Stats were not everything, one should never forget he was a veteran with 80years of experience in this game. Adding some spineless maneuvers and some meat shields that were the players on top of his experience, he had a high chance of living through most of the early beta problems. It was also the fact that facing actual combat during his stay would be pretty rare for him and the countless players can instead act as a veil for him to hide.

*****

Two hours later, the rain stopped and the acidic water was absorbed back into the land.

The steel and concrete walls that have kept the player at bay now shined with glistening delight, as the acidic rain washed the dirt that had accumulated with time.

It was also this time that Spoon while donning Girisia's old dirty clothes walked along with eight other players toward the west, ignoring the players who were still ignorant about the game and waiting for the gates to open.

In Spoon's mind, Girisia was a weird eccentric that lived to cause pain to players, he fooled innocent players to create his own enjoyment. And from his experience with gaming since he was a kid, NPC's like these are usually pretty high leveled, so he can't just be suicidal for now. He needed to grow strong enough.

As for Girisia's suggestion being a lie, Spoon didn't even cultivate this thought. He had already seen what happened to the player who couldn't find shelter in time from the acidic rain and the kind of debuff they were facing.

All these players obtained a debuff that deteriorated their health slowly and a permanent debuff that locked their health at 80%. And knowing they didn't have any cure with them, these people jumped towards the guards and died in glory. Their way to take advantage of resurrection mechanics and heal themselves back.

Hence, Spoon became a smelly Moses that led the other eight players to the farm mentioned by Girisia.

After Spoon left with his entourage, multiple army trucks with the insignia of guns and shields showed up at the entrance, carrying elite soldiers who were used to carry out excursions in unclaimed land east of Riber city. These men were used to hunting down mutant beasts and to the east to secure the walls, they have even fought awakened legions of ancient androids for days without complaint.

These men may not be responsible for expanding the safe zone for humanity, but these men were the one who were defending it with their lives on the line.

For players who were still ignorant of the foe that came on trucks, they still acted ignorant, though some were already giving space to the trucks.

There were ten armored trucks that arrived on the scene, among which two had soldiers within them while the rest were empty. Some intelligent players already had an idea of what was going to happen next.

Most of the player's faces were still looking at the trucks and army with scrutiny, though every one of them were happy. Something was finally happening in this game for them.

And this desire of theirs was soon going to be satiated by these Militia men.

The trucks stopped just 50 meters away from them and the soldiers dropped down out of the two of the trucks wearing brown military vest and army cut hair while carrying Bolter Handguns that looked closer to a shotgun and a warblade on their back

Their bloodthirsty look was enough to cause the natives who were used to this world to move away from the players, the merchants and the other drivers who carried goods left their trucks knowing something was going to happen. They didn't fear for their goods though, as these good were being sold to the military to begin with, so if something happened to their goods, Riber City would compensate them.

But the inexperienced player had little to no urgency or self preservation skills, instead they are gawking at the guns and the blade on the soldiers with greed in their eyes.

"At last, I was getting really bored with this gift." One of the players took a sigh of relief looking at the leaving merchants and truck drivers.

"Isn't that gun too fat? Looks so archaic. I thought the guns in this setting will be more sifi, but these ones seem to be steampunk guns, but thicker." One girl player took a jab at the gun design, but her gleaming eyes told a different story.

One of the many reasons so many chose Tauras planet as their starter was just to experience the bizarre warfare that was born out of the futuristic weapons against supernatural powers

For them, it was more interesting than the generic Knights and magic system. And this same thought was carried by the players on the beast planet of Danav. Though they didn't know what these classes and powers were, they have predicted the different classes from the setting of the world already.

"I am more interested on the blade on their back than the gun itself, look at its handle, it's not a normal machete… probably something unique about it too." These words shifted the focus of the surrounding players on the back of the soldiers.

He continued," Just imagine, how cool it would be to use both the gun and machete at the same time, cutting the enemies when they come close while shooting them if they try to run away." Saliva dripped from his lips as he said this.

The common players were not alone in appreciating the weapons of the soldiers, the rankers attention was also drawn towards the weapons they will be using in the future.

When the soldiers started to round up the players giving the natives a way to leave, Girisia slowly snuck in a group of players much to their surprise. The players are able to identify their brethren by the floating name on another player's head, they can't see any kind of details of an NPC unless they awakened a unique ability or possess a database that is able to scan and name the character or item or place.

So from the player's point of view, GIrisia stood out like a sore thumb, but they didn't speak out and the soldiers who were rounding them up also didn't notice much as Girisia tried to hide his dirty face from their view.

"All the undying beings listen closely, from now on you will all be called Anomans. This is the name that has been given to your unique existence." A loud voice from a man shook everyone in the vicinity, this man seemed to be on a higher rank than the rest of the soldiers around him based on his clothes and his commanding voice just solidified this thought in many player's minds.

"For now, you will be moved to the barracks out of the city bounds, from these trucks. Don't act foolish and break the lines, don't shout needlessly, don't make any unnecessary movements until we reach our destination."

"And don't think your rebirth ability scares us, there are worse things in this world besides dying and we have ways to deal with you without killing you. So it will be better if you follow our orders properly." The Leader of this militia threatened with a straight face looking at the players.

"Now onto a single file and get on the trucks!"

The players after listening to the speech and threat showe dismayed expression. Even though they hated the boredom caused by uneventful experience in this game till now, what they dreaded more than anything was a tutorial. A tutorial section that was 24 hours late.

"Sigh! This will be annoying to go through, if not for the …" Gyari, who used to be Girisia's older brother thought, but his words were stopped mid way.

<<Beginner introduction quest: Initiation>>

Follow the army to the barracks and learn the common sense of the natives.

[Reward: 200exp points and +5 to Riber city affinity]

[Failure to complete the quest will result in getting thrown into jail. You can't deny this quest.]

"I don't mind this tutorial if it means we are finally going to see some action." GrannyRussia doing a guts pose, said to Gyatri and his little sister who stood there in complete confusion.

Unlike Gyatri who found his popularity doing lore and exploration videos during streams, Granny herself was just a talented gamer who blew into popularity when the world found out through her debut interview on a podcast that she was not just a great competitive gamer, but also a beautiful tomboyish girl from russia.

And much like her, Gyatri sighed in relief seeing the quest and spoke to his subs about it while his sister's stream acted as a camera for him.

Due to ⅛ time difference and with real time streams available, most of the people onus streams come for clips and watch it at normal speed in the real world. So his reply also came out a lot later due to this too. But he didn't mind it much, these streams were still popular.

As for his sister Greya, she who has had no experience with games in her life just watched the screen in confusion and without scrutinizing it much tried to follow the quest that she received.

On the other hand, Girisia was hyperventilating after noticing the expression of his brother, the reason being he understood Gyatri didn't plan to leave. He recalls how his brother in the previous timeline had led his sister and him away from the soldiers using his personal trait 'limelight fiend' after the fight he had with GrannyRussia.

But as the fight never happened to begin with, it seemed his brother planned to stay for the tutorial and will be seeing him a lot in the barracks.

Girisia was frustrated and angry at the same time, his reasoning and plans were ruined once again, he didn't think the butterfly effect would start to show its head so soon.

In the previous timeline, when Gyatri left this place with his siblings, he created his own force among the free players who also didn't take part in the tutorial. Giving GrannyRussia complete control over the player from the tutorial.

But now it seemed, barracks will house both tigers instead of one. Girisia cursed, he thought that he should have left for Thorn City when he came to this world, at least he would not have to meet his siblings once again like this.

As for running away now, there was no chance as he was already on the truck. And even though he could prove that he is not a player by getting naked to show his orifices in front of the soldiers, the bloodthirsty Militia will just apprehend and throw him into jail if he tries to do anything crazy. And earning a label of a spy will not be hard for him through such actions too.

So he did what any sane person in his place will do, hide as long as one can. Now he was worried he may still get caught with his current disguise if he made any wrong moves. 'Family truly is a curse' Girisia thought.

To distract himself, Girisia instead gave a side eye to the soldiers. 'Probably over level 10 and majority went through race refinements too. I never noticed how strong these guys were during early parts of the game.'. With instincts and experience he polished in the previous timelines and with the trait of danger discernment, he was able to predict the level of danger each of these soldiers posed to him. 'Yeah it's instant death.' Girisia mocked himself.

In the Riber City hall, Wilkis seemed relieved. "It seems they are happy with our announcement." Wilkis pondered after watching the screen, the gates of the city will soon be able to open after these Anomans leave and maybe life can go back to normal for a while.

*****

Noobsman64: My quest has been fucked over, the military caused it to fail. Those bastards forced me out of the truck as a rat…. Nani da fuck!! devs. Fix your goddamn quest structure."

Noobsman32: @Noobsman64 , this is what you deserve your same name traitor. I knew you told everyone how you got that quest beside me. I would have licked your shoes in exchange for the info…. Now I won't. Your loss dude.

Monketron: Well I was already not able to follow in your footsteps OP even with your directions, it seems each NPC has a different way to interact. My money has gone to waste it seems. At least you are also in drains like us.

HandSlave: OP I saw you getting hauled out of the truck… It was a pretty funny NGL!! **The Gif of the incident** Here, everyone not at Riber city has some fun.

Noobsman64: @HandSlave, I never met you nor I ever harmed you. Why have you done this to me? Why?? And @Noobsman32, just stay away from me you retarded asslicker, I don't want anything licked. And why are you following me? If I meet you in real life I will probably PK you.

Noobsman32: Hey don't use the "r" word in vain. And I am not an asslicker, I am a taster of fine dining and if the thing I am dining is an ass, don't blame me for being an ass licker.

Noobsman64:…

Monketron:…