Chaos in The Neighborhood

As Magnus was about to ask the system where he could start in his quest on learning divine magic, a couple of gunshots were heard from outside. It didn't sound like it came from right in front of the house, but it was pretty close.

Everybody perked up their ears, and it was Matt who immediately ran inside the house to take a look through the front window. Everyone else then followed suit, and Magnus didn't stop them. He knew this was coming. The riot had begun.

He calmly strode to the living room and observed as everyone glued their eyes on the windowpanes, struggling to peer toward the scene taking place somewhere down the street. To be specific, Magnus' sharp hearing deducted that it was happening about three houses away to the left, right around the intersection. Despite of the mild earthquake weakening some of the buildings in the neighborhood, there were indeed a couple of establishments at that location that were still standing and, more importantly, lootable.

Frustrated at the limited field of vision, Matt decided to open the front door just a bit, creating a little gap for him to get a better look at what was happening. "It's like The Purge…" he muttered under his breath.

Magnus, who heard that, frowned. The title of the movie reminded him of a certain individual and his gang of 'demons'. He had a bad feeling. Approaching the door, he tapped on Matt's arm twice.

Getting the signal, Matt stepped aside.

Magnus then pushed the door a bit further and practically walked outside.

"Hey!" Matt shouted in a whisper. "Don't attract their attention!"

Ignoring his friend's panic and several pairs of eyes looking at him from behind the windows of neighboring houses, Magnus observed the group of rioters. They were carrying all kinds of weapons, from knives to baseball bats to golf sticks to guns. One even had somehow got their hands on a katana.

It seemed like some of them were in the middle of ransacking a convenience store while the others had just broken into a liquor store. Magnus could see a couple of uniformed clerks huddled a distance away, occasionally glancing in horror at the dead body of their colleague lying on the sidewalk, covered by shards from broken window.

'Even after an earthquake and system screen popping up and whatnot, they still couldn't get a day off. Bet others would have started evacuating by now.'

The scene wouldn't have bothered Magnus in the slightest, had it not been for the fact that the looters were all wearing masks. He instantly knew what kind of trouble the presence of this masked group meant.

All of them donned multiple types of demon masks—a couple of Oni masks, goat demons, some sort of scaly female demons, along with a few others. However, standing with his hands inside his pants pockets, was one man wearing a plain white mask with no mouth. He stood calmly in the middle of the street between the two stores, as if supervising his minions doing their tasks.

Seeing the man's mask, Magnus cursed inside. He wasn't a fool; he knew that just by being back in the past, he would alter the future. But this was too big and sudden of an alteration. That man was not supposed to be here—no, scratch that. That man was not supposed to be even remotely close to this neighborhood. He had no business being this far from his 'territory'. Unless, of course, his Author had stationed him near Magnus' territory to prepare for when one of his people dared to step outside his circle of protection.

That god had probably given him an Objective to stand by and watch the situation for the time being, instead of stupidly knocking at TJ's door like Wayde and co. had done. He was to bide his time, like a predator watching its prey from a distance.

Except, there was no way that masked man was the predator here. Magnus was. However, there was just a teeny tiny problem that made it a bit troublesome for Magnus to satiate his predatory instinct.

Magnus may be able to snuff him out of existence with just a single flick of a finger, but that man excelled in using his people—and basically just any random person he could find around him—to his advantage. Those store clerks, for example, were currently being guarded by three gun-wielding asshats and one carrying a baseball bat. In other words, they were being held hostage.

Still, it wasn't impossible for Magnus to end the masked man's life quicker than he could instruct his subordinates to kill the hostages. Besides, Magnus cared little for the poor hostages. It was unfortunate, but they were just a few of the many more that would die senselessly in this changed world. All Magnus needed to do was avoid their eyes so he wouldn't have to feel their dying moments.

Yes, he would try to keep the numbers of casualties low—after all, he would hate seeing the neighborhood turn to rubbles just like how it had been in the original Universe. But that didn't mean he would save every person he encountered on the street. Some were just…that unlucky.

However, even with those green lights, Magnus was still reluctant to go for the man's neck. He thought it would be a waste when he could use him as a source of XP for TJ. Or for anyone currently taking shelter in his house, really. It was free for all.

That masked man was a Protagonist, and after the slaughter he must've done before he got here, by now he had to be at least on Level three or four. Or higher. Defeating a Protagonist several Levels above would definitely be a massive help for TJ's Level.

When looking at the chaotic scene in front of him, Magnus didn't see a bunch of lawless twats. All he saw was an XP farm for his people.

He glanced at his black-haired friend, who was currently just a step away from the door, slowly inching toward where Magnus stood. 'Not now, though' he mentally assured himself.

TJ wasn't ready, yet. The guy still needed more practice battling against big numbers. That was what Chapter 3 was gonna be for. Everyone would get real battle experience after Chapter 3 began.

So, instead of the masked man and his Team, it was Magnus and his people who were biding their time.

As soon as TJ arrived at Magnus' side, the masked man could be seen shifting his attention toward him. Behind the two holes on his mask, the man's eyes were locked onto TJ's brown eyes. As their gazes met, it was as if a silent challenge had been issued.

'Oh, it seems I'm not his target. Isn't this just the perfect arrangement,' Magnus thought. He silently mocked the stupid god for going after TJ. She clearly hadn't totally understood TJ's true combat prowess. The only thing the guy was lacking right now was experience and fighting abilities. Other than that, he was pretty much unequaled.

Magnus observed the masked man staring at TJ with his chin raised arrogantly. Along with his upright posture and relaxed shoulders, the man gave off an aura befitting that of a leader. Plus, he was wearing a full suit and tie, so that just completed the image.

His mask kind of contrasted that vibe, though. It was plain white, but there was a bit more to it. For some reason, atop the eye holes, the man had drawn a pair of sad eyebrows using black marker. Below the eyes, there were several teardrops, also drawn with black marker. Finally, he was wearing a crown—one that was typically used by prom kings—on his head. This crown suited him well, given his Alias. Magnus had never found out which came first, the crown or the Alias. However, Magnus could still remember the terror his Alias had spread upon north side of Chicago.

The Mad King. One of the few Protagonists originally meant to amass manpower in order to devastate this whole part of the city. But lo and behold, here he was now, making some ruckus in this inconspicuous neighborhood. So Magnus couldn't predict how the man's role would change in the future.

'He's gonna bite the dust soon, that's what,' thought Magnus.

"Come on, let's get inside," Magnus told TJ while tapping his back. "It's rude to stare."

TJ didn't object and obediently followed inside. But not before throwing another threatening glare at The Mad King.

Once they were inside and Magnus locked the door, everyone visibly sighed in relief. They knew Magnus could protect them from any danger, but that didn't make them any less uncomfortable inviting unnecessary trouble to the house.

Summer could be seen having a bit of an inner struggle. Magnus could tell what it was about. She had noticed The Mad King's hostages. Her conscience was probably admonishing her for not voicing any concern toward the poor store clerks. Even if she wasn't strong enough to get out there and save them, she could've at least asked Magnus to do that.

However, another part of her knew it would be stupid. Not only would that attract problems, she also knew this wouldn't be the last time she witnessed such a sight. To put it simply, she had to be prepared to avert her eyes and steel her heart more often in the future. Besides, those people had nothing to do with her and her family, and asking Magnus to help keep her conscience untainted by risking his or the others' safety just didn't feel right. If she wanted to save as many people as possible, she needed to use her own power.

Magnus approached her and gave her a reassuring hug. He knew she wasn't blaming him for not taking any action. His girlfriend was quite a sensible person, after all. Still, he didn't enjoy seeing the conflicted emotions behind her eyes. Stroking her head, he whispered, "It's going to be harder from now on, but I'm here for you."

He could feel her head nodding slightly while leaning against his chest. After a while, she pulled away from the hug and looked straight into his eyes, her emotions slowly settling down. "Please teach me something like an offense skill. I need to be able to at least defend myself."

Magnus nodded. "I was already going to do that."

With all that said and done, everyone got back to the backyard to continue their training. Magnus had had to cancel [Unbreakable] and the anti-god coating earlier, so now he would have to re-cast them.

He then started with Summer. "I'm going to teach you the skill [Earth Bullet]. You've seen [Wind Bullet], right? The two skills basically work on the same principle, just with different elements. [Wind Bullet] may be faster than [Earth Bullet], but what the latter lacked in speed, it made up for in density and strength, therefore creating greater impact and bigger damage on the target. In other words, you don't have to…"

And just like that, the training resumed while The Mad King was watching the house like a hawk. Meanwhile, his subordinates had started targeting other nearby stores, causing more chaos in the neighborhood.