Subdue the Beggars

After running for half an hour, Nolan got a little tired. But he didn't stop running because the city gate was in sight.

He ran for another five minutes before arriving in front of the large two-winged wooden gate.

The large city gate was closed, and several guards leaned on the city wall with the spears next to them, guarding the entrance.

It was late in the night, so the guards were asleep, clearly slacking off their work.

Nolan didn't want to wake them up. After all, they would surely question him. Why do you want to leave the city so late? What are you going to do outside the city? And so on.

Because he wants to leave the city so late at night, they might even take him as a criminal who wants to escape from the city after committing a crime.

Thus, he snuck past them and slowly pushed one wing of the city gate open. Of course, he didn't open it fully. He just opened a mall gap so he could exit the city.

"HALT!!" A guard who just woke up screamed from the bottom of his lungs as he took the spear in hand and pointed it at Nolan.

Nolan, who was just about to leave the city, froze on the spot. He turned back and saw the guard pointing the spear at him.

The other guards slowly started waking up too.

Nolan didn't plan on collaborating with the guards. He knew that even If he stopped and didn't exit the city, they would still treat him like a criminal and lock him up.

Thus, he stormed out of the city through the small gap he opened.

The guards chased after him, but when they exited the city, Nolan had already disappeared into the darkness of the night. They couldn't tell the direction in which he had gone, so they gave up on chasing him. But as not to be punished for letting anyone out of the city without inspection, they decided not to tell anyone what happened tonight.

…

"Haaa!" Nolan let out a tired sigh. The moment he exited the city, he stormed to his left, east.

Now, after running for about fifteen minutes at full speed, he was too tired, so he rested on a stone on which he tripped while running.

He had exhausted himself just to arrive at the city gate. But he didn't expect that after just arriving before the city gate, he would have to run again.

"Thank god it's not a full moon night. Otherwise, I might not have got away from the guards so easily." He muttered.

After resting for half an hour, he got up and started walking east again.

He walked till dawn and arrived at the bottom of a mountain surrounded by many smaller hills. In fact, you can't actually call that a mountain. Yes, it was bigger than a hill, but not as tall as a mountain. Something in-between.

Most hills were bald, without trees, and only high yellowish grass. But some had a few trees randomly grown up on the hills.

Seeing the not-so-tall mountain, even though he was dying for sleep, Nolan proceeded to climb the mountain. He knew, to find the best place for building a village, the best option was to search from a higher point.

He wanted to sleep as soon as possible, so ignoring his low energy, he stormed up the mountain.

It took him a little less than an hour to arrive at the top of the mountain.

Arriving at the top of the mountain, he collapsed to the ground, exhausted. He had run for almost a whole hour with only a few short breaks along the way.

'Let me rest for a second.' He thought as he closed his eyes. He fell asleep instantly.

…

"Aghh!" Nolan slowly opened his eyes. It was daytime. "How long have I been asleep for?" He muttered as he stretched.

"I feel refreshed. Though it's a little cold." He stood up. "Well, it's time to search for a place."

With the intention of seeing what was on the other side of the mountain, he walked to the edge.

His eyes shone in excitement from the sight he saw.

A little further from the bottom of the mountain, there were two high hills. The hills had a very large distance from each other. Behind the two hills, a river passed horizontally. And starting from the other side of the river, a green forest stretched for as far as the eyes could see.

"Hahahahahah! Perfect! Perfect! Even god is on my side!!" Nolan screamed excitedly, various ideas popping into his mind as he looked at the scenery before him.

"Hills protecting the village from both sides, river and a dense forest protecting it from behind. It leaves only the front. If an enemy attacks us, we only need to defend the village from the front. No one could break into our village by force!"

If Harley and Nara saw Nolan right now, they would not want him in their house anymore. After all, who wants to sleep under the same roof with a crazy person?

It took Nolan ten minutes to calm down.

When he calmed down, he went down the mountain to better analyze the place.

Going down, he arrived at the foot of the mountain very fast.

"Good, this place is too good, just as I saw it from up there. We could mine stones from the depths of the hills, and there is also a lot of wood. There is no shortage of building materials." Nolan spoke to himself. "The restaurant will be finished and start doing business in a few days. I could start building the village very soon."

Nolan stood in the same place for more than half-hour. He racked his brain, forming a detailed plan in his head.

After he finished making the plan, he turned back and started going up the mountain again, heading to the city.

…

The sun had already started setting when Nolan arrived before the city gate.

The city gate was still wide open, and a long line of people waited to go through an inspection and enter the city. Some of the people were travelers and only had a bag in their hands. But there were also businessmen waiting in line with two-wheeled carriages full of goods.

Nolan stood in the line and waited patiently for his turn.

Fifteen minutes later, his turn came.

"Where are you coming from?" A guard asked, blocking Nolan's way.

The guard held several ink-painted posters in his hands. From what Nolan could see, they were most likely posters of wanted criminals.

"I am a traveler, traveling from city to city," Nolan replied.

" Do you have any luggage?" The guard blocking Nolan's way asked again.

"No."

"Alright. You are free to go." The guard permitted Nolan to pass and got out of his way.

Nolan entered the city.

However, he didn't head toward Harley's house.

The night fell quickly. He walked from street to street.

After an hour of walking through the busy streets, he stopped in a dark, dead quiet deserted street.

The buildings throughout the whole street were ruins and abandoned.

"BROTHERS!" He screamed from the bottom of his lungs.

Nolan's voice echoed through the deadly quiet street, but soon it died down, and the previous dead quiet atmosphere returned to the street.

However, even after the echoes died down, Nolan remained in the same place, unmoving for five minutes.

"What do you want this late at night?!" An angry voice came from one of the buildings.

Just a few minutes after the voice sounded, people started coming out of the abandoned buildings. They started coming out of the buildings like ants with seemingly no end to them.

More than a hundred people, of which all beggars, surrounded Nolan.

"Brothers, are you not tired of being beggars?" Nolan spoke.

A man, much older than Nolan stepped out of the group facing Nolan face to face.

"Brothers? Why are you calling us that? We are just beggars. How can we be brothers with a young master like you?" The man spoke in a low voice.

"I probably don't look like that, but I was a beggar before. I know you won't believe it." Nolan spoke. "But that is not important now. I came to you with a proposal."

"Let's hear it." The man uttered instantly. The other beggars didn't complain either. It seemed like they had accepted this man as their leader.

"Let's build a village. I will be the village head and will provide the village with food, money, and clothes. And you just need to help me build it, after which each one present here will get a house as a reward for building the village. Brothers, what do you say? Are you in?"

"Hmph! Do you want to be the village head? On what basis?" The man spoke, clearly provoked by Nolan's words. But, can someone blame him? After all, Nolan sounded like a spoiled rich young master with too much money who wanted to play the King's Game.

"On what basis? Are you stupid? I just told you." Nolan spoke calmly, but his words were extremely provocating.

"Boy, get out of our sigh!" An angry voice came from the crowd of beggars.

"How dare you speak to the elder like that?" Another angry voice sounded.

"Enough!" The man shouted as he raised his hand, signalizing them to shut up.

The beggars surrounding Nolan soon quieted down.

"I told you," Nolan spoke again. "I was a beggar before, and I know how hard it is to make a living as a beggar. But If I am the village head, I will naturally provide all you need.

However, If you can provide food, clothes, money, and other necessities, I don't mind you being the village leader."

"Okay. Let's say we accepted your offer, but how can we trust you? I don't believe that you were a beggar before." The man spoke. "How can we trust and leave our lives in the hands of a village leader who is not honest with us?"

"That's right!"

"Get out of here!"

Many beggars shouted angrily, completely agreeing with the statement made by their leader.

"Why don't we make a deal then?" Nolan asked.

"What deal?" The man asked curiously.

"I will beg for five days together with you and will also live with you. In those five days, you will see I was truly a beggar before and a very skillful one at that, at least much more careful than any of you." Nolan spoke arrogantly. In fact, he was dying of embarrassment inside. What was there to be arrogant about? Who was a better beggar?

"If I truly was a beggar, you would follow me and we would build a village with me as the village head. If I truly lied to you, then you would be the village head, and I will provide you with money, clothes, and food. You won't have to move a finger but will still have everything the village needs to survive. What do you say?"

"Deal!" The man accepted immediately without thinking about it even for a second. After all, this was an offer too good to even think about, let alone refuse.

"Alright, it's settled. Then I would bother you tonight to sleep at your place." Nolan said and headed inside one of the abandoned buildings.

[Ding]

[Side quest: Subdue the Beggars]

[Make the beggars follow and trust you]

[Time limit: None]

[Penalty upon failure: None]

[Reward: Exp 15, Basic spearmanship manual, 10 rice bags]

[Accept/Decline]

Lying on the cold floor of the abandoned building, a new quest appeared before Nolan's eyes.

'Haha. The system sure is generous today. Since I already decided to make them follow me, I would do that with or without the system reward. But I don't complain. This quest is like a cherry on top of the cake.' Nolan thought. 'Accept.'

After accepting the quest, he closed his eyes. He got too tired running around during the day, so he quickly fell asleep.