Chapter 42. Return of an Enemy

The park was large enough that even though there were a thousand people in it, there were still many large unoccupied spaces available. There were also several areas with trees in them, and a pond that stretched out from the sculpture to near the city hall. It created a serene atmosphere meant to give park goers a relaxing time.

There were benches along the small path that wound around the park. Most of them had already been occupied. People were chatting and doing their own activities to pass the time. If not for their unusual garments of armor and robes, the scene would not be much different from what the park looked like before the world changed.

As they waited for the time to pass, the three of them went to a more secluded area shaded by trees.

"Can we share your tent tonight?" Bowler asked as they sat down to rest.

"No," Jack replied.

"It will be difficult to find things to use as bed here."

"The grass is soft enough for lying down."

"What? You can't expect to have a lady sleeping on the ground, can you?" Bowler said with an expression of chivalry.

"Speak for yourself. I feel comfortable here," Flame immediately disagreed and demonstrated by lying down on her back with her hands behind her head as a pillow.

"What if it rains?" Bowler was not giving up.

"Look at the sky, do you think it will matter if it rains?" Jack said.

Bowler looked up and saw the sky covered by the unnatural glittering light that spread out and formed the dome surrounding this park.

"No, I don't reckon it will," Bowler said. He then looked toward the not-so-distant City Hall.

"How about we take shelter in that building? It looks like the light dome also covers it."

"You can go if you want, I will just stay here," Jack rejected the idea.

"Why? It seems like a pretty decent place to spend the night," Bowler insisted.

Jack looked at him with exasperation, but before he could reply. A hand slapped onto the back of Bowler's head.

"How dense can you be?" Flame said with some annoyance. "Can't you see those men standing outside the building? Do you think they are just standing there for fun? Don't you think everyone would go into that building if they could do so?"

"Oh, you mean…" Bowler finally came to an understanding.

"Forget it, man. The building has been taken," Jack added.

"Maybe we can negotiate with them to let just the three of us in?" Bowler was relentless.

"Like how you negotiated with those guys on the bridge? You go ahead then. Stop getting the rest of us into your messes."

Jack also laid himself down on the grass and looked up to the sky. Bowler was still chattering, but Jack had decided to ignore the fellow. It had been a while since he could safely relax like this. He would try to enjoy it.

"So, what did you folks do before this?" Bowler decided to change the topic after finally realizing he was being ignored.

"Huh?" Jack was in the middle of his own thought when it was interrupted.

"What was your job? Before the world went to shit."

"I was an office worker," Jack said as he sat up.

"Oh? What field?"

"Home furniture retailer stores. I stayed in an office and crunched the sales and purchasing data."

"Sounds boring."

"It was. What about you?" Jack asked back.

"I was a university student. Would have been doing my final term assignments this week if things hadn't gone sideways," Bowler answered.

"What subject?"

"Architecture."

"Sounds difficult," Jack said.

"It is. What about you, Flame?" Bowler turned to the woman who was still lying on the ground.

"Student," she answered.

"University?"

"What do you think?"

Jack could sense the annoyance in Fierce Flame's words. She must dislike being disturbed during her peaceful time. Bowler, however, was either unaware of her attitude or simply chose to ignore it. He kept on asking questions. As Jack continued to listen to their banter, he noticed some close by blue dots approaching them. He stood up and looked in their direction, and saw a group of almost twenty people walking towards them under the shade of the trees.

"Hey," he lightly kicked Bowler to get his attention. "Get ready, we got company."

Bowler and Flame, immediately alert, stood up and took positions behind Jack.

The group of people coming over all looked like hardened folks. Jack scanned them with radar and found the weakest amongst them were level 9, while the highest four were level 11. When they got nearer, Jack could finally see their faces clearly.

One of the level 11 people was actually someone that the three of them knew. It was the guy called Bigarm who Jack had robbed as compensation for letting him live. After looking at the hostile faces of the group approaching, he realized that this act of mercy might have been a terrible mistake.

"We finally found you, punk!" Bigarm spoke once he saw his three targets clearly. The friends he brought spread out to surround Jack and the others.

"I told you that you would regret crossing Death Associates, right? Now my brothers are here. Let's see how cocky you'll be this time."

Jack was amazed. People had been pulled into this game world randomly but this guy could still find many of his guild mates here. But after he thought about it, he thought it made some sense. Everyone in the city was assembling at this place and Death Associates was a large guild in the city. So it's not such a strange thing to find many of their members here.

Bowler, however, was unfazed by being surrounded. He looked at Bigarm and asked, "so what? Are you planning to use your numbers to bully people again? Like last time you tried with Flame? We don't mind teaching you another lesson."

A middle-aged man with a bald head and a scar on his left cheek gave a laugh when he heard Bowler's words. He said to Bigarm, "he is a fearless one, all right. You really know how to pick your enemies."

Bigarm gave a disdainful smirk, "he is not the one we should be careful of. It's the other guy."

"Hm," the man with the scar looked Jack over, then turned to a young man beside him. "What's his level?"

Actually, the young man he asked had been scanning the three people since they arrived. He had no problem identifying Bowler's and Flame's level and class, but he just couldn't detect Jack's level even after trying several times.

"I can't read his info," the young man reported.

The man with the scar looked at Jack with an interested expression. "This is intriguing," he said. "But it's all the same regardless. Those who cross Death Associates will not be tolerated."

With these words, all the people surrounding them drew their weapons. Jack and the others immediately drew theirs as well and prepared for an assault. However, they were interrupted by a loud voice accompanied by laughter.

"Ha ha, this is a fine coincidence! I didn't know that the people we were looking to teach a lesson to were also the enemy of Brother Scarface."

They turned and saw another group of ten people approaching. Amongst them were Weary Wolf's leader and the magician woman called Fox.

"Brother Boulder," the man with the scar, who was, unoriginally, called Scarface, replied. "You have a matter to settle with these three as well?"

"Damn right we have! They have interfered and ruined our business. We were originally waiting for more of our members to gather, but, as we saw Brother Scarface make a move, I thought we might come over to give a hand."

The Weary Wolf people moved to Jack's rear and worked in coordination with Death Associates people to form a complete encirclement. Jack looked around at all the people surrounding them. It would be very difficult to break away from this siege.

Bowler whispered to him, "brother, what do you think of our odds? You can still take them down, right?"

Jack was speechless. "Bro, do you think I'm Superman? You'd better get ready to run if you find the chance."

It turned out that Bowler's fearless demeanor was due to his confidence in Jack, but now that he heard Jack's words, his face turned pale with worry. Actually, even though Jack thought it was impossible to defeat all the people here, he could still cut through their blockade if he utilized his dual-class skills and the Overlimit skill of his weapon. But he would not be able to guarantee keeping Bowler and Flame safe.

While he was lamenting his poor alternatives, yet another voice interrupted.