Problem Child (1)

"Yeah... We just have to make sure we succeed this time. No excuses. We'll definitely pull it off this time," Kaizer said, the wide grin on his face gradually fading until his teeth were no longer visible.

Vari saw this and thought to speak up, but he had no words.

They moved forward in Silence.

--

"God damn rats!" Moon spat in disgust, his voice laced with frustration, as he wiped away the putrid dark red blood that marred his path. Ahead of him lay a forest veiled in a slowly moving fog, an eerie shroud that added to the tension in the air.

As Moon ventured deeper into the forest, a sudden cry shattered the stillness. "WHO GOES THERE?" The shout, fueled by a flickering firelight, sliced through the misty air like a blade.

Moon's brow furrowed at the archaic manner of speech, and he couldn't help but voice his amusement, albeit condescendingly, "Who even speaks like that? I know this is supposed to be an RPG, but—" His ironic commentary came to an abrupt halt as an arrow whizzed past his eyes, so close that he could feel the displaced air brushing against his skin.

"Well damn." Moon said as he ducked and rolled towards the cover of a huge boulder.

"Shoot all trespassers on sight!!" The attackers screamed.

"Territories? Already!?" Moon's words held a mix of disbelief and frustration as he attempted to make sense of the rapidly unfolding events. The pace of their progress puzzled him.

"First a whole Lesser Demon king, then skills and now territories, this is all Scenario 0.9 and over shit." Moon mused aloud, his thoughts racing to connect the dots. He peeked out from behind the boulder, only to be met by another arrow that effortlessly pierced through the rock.

The protective shroud of fog played to Moon's advantage, obscuring his position. Seizing the moment, he yanked the arrow from the stone and examined its length, his curiosity piqued by carved initials etched onto the shaft.

"SHT… Who is that?" He said to himself as he carefully placed all the weapons he could no longer carry right beside the boulder and charged forward.

With a surge of determination, Moon charged forward. An archer, emboldened by the hope for better visibility, stepped out from the fog to take aim.

"Why the fuck is he naked!!!???" The badly geared archer with his wood bow screamed out as he shot an arrow at Moon.

Moon's instincts kicked in, allowing him to evade the incoming arrow by a hair's breadth. In a seamless motion, he retaliated, thrusting the grabbed arrow into the archer's eye with ruthless precision using his momentum to shove the arrow further into the back of his head.

The attacker's muscles convulsed as pain seared through his body, a testament to the violence of Moon's counterattack. Moon seized the opportunity, swiftly collecting arrows and a bow before retreating cautiously.

Luckily, he anticipated a flood of arrows after the dead attacker screamed "Naked".

[A/N: Just to clarify; Moon was clothed, but the Rodent's Plague corroded said clothing, and allowed Moon to survive going through a whole stampede of them. So, he is naked again. The reason it wasn't mentioned is because the narration is from his perspective in a way, and he doesn't think being naked is any different from being clothed at this point, so it isn't an outstanding thought. (To clarify again. Yes, it is a third person narration, but the narration is almost always slightly inclined to the way of thinking of the person being focused on.) Thank you!]

"They've been briefed too. This always puts me in hard positions, I'm just trying to be myself!" He muttered, frustration seeping into his voice. He deftly evaded a renewed barrage of arrows, his agile movements a testament to his survival instincts.

"Kill the NAKED ONE, KILL THE PROBLEM CHILD." Someone yelled out as the arrows rained down.

"These people act so much like NPC's, I'll never believe they are real people, cuz how can you be so fucking dumb!?" Moon mumbled as he waited for the barrage of arrows to be more sparsely scattered, it simply meant most of the attackers were preparing for more shots.

For some reason, they were smart enough to not all stop and prepare new arrows at the same time, but still too dumb to make sure there are enough people still shooting when the others are preparing, especially in the fog.

Moon's strategy hinged on the attackers' lack of synchronization. Their actions bore the hallmarks of programmed behavior, allowing Moon to identify gaps in their defense. With a quick glance, he assessed his targets, and with deadly accuracy, his arrows found their marks.

"Headshot!" Moon yelled in celebration as he watched the arrow plunge into one of the attackers head through the fog and in a second he had already found another target and killed them too.

One of the arrows stabbed his shoulder unexpectedly sending shockwaves of pain through his body.

He grunted, the sensation intensifying before dulling slightly thanks to the Mediocrity of a Sinner skill that offset 60% of pain. Gritting his teeth, he assessed his options, his hand instinctively finding the hilt of his dagger.

"Agh, fuck fuck fuck." Moon whimpered sharply.

He put his back against the boulder and held the wound as he weighed his options.

"Might as well go in, since none of them seem to want to pull up and throw melees then maybe they are just a badly placed archer brigade." Moon reasoned, his resolve unwavering. With a swift, painful motion, he removed the arrow from his shoulder and discarded it, then picked up his Dagger and leapt out the cover of the boulder.

"Call me Sung Jin Woo with how I'm boutta clear these shitheads out!!" He screamed out cornily, even giving the narrator second hand embarrassment.

[A/N: I feel you bro, I'm embarrassed to.}

He charged into the fog and encountered just three shadow figures in the fog their silhouettes dancing in the mist.

Perplexed for an instant, he quickly grasped the situation.

"Skills already. This is that Phantom attack thing, isn't it?" he mused, his realization accompanied by swift, lethal strikes.

He still relentlessly sped up towards one of them and swung a swift upper cut with the dagger that he was wielding back-handedly- slashing a jagged rip into his opponents face from lip to forehead before he finally understood what this was.

"Skills! already. This is that Phantom attack thing, isn't it!?" He yelled out as he pounced and stabbed his dagger into the head of another unsuspecting archer without remorse.

He couldn't rip the dagger out the victims head fast enough to not lose momentum so he just left it and continued, the last one had already noticed him and suddenly a bunch of arrows flooded in his direction but he knew how to navigate the fog without making a very visible silhouette and he pounced straight to the final attacker and grabbed them by the neck and tossed them violently out the border of the fog, aiming right for the perfectly placed large boulder he was just hiding behind.

Moon walked towards the archer who was almost passed out at this moment and grabbed his dagger out from the head it was left in on his way out.

"Answer my question, Gilipollas!" Moon said as he walked towards his opponent with blood dripping from his shoulder and a look that was trying too hard to be menacing. Even though on the inside this kid-like personality was cracking up because the Spanish insult he used was what he commonly used only on Vari and also because he thought his opponent wouldn't know what he meant.

"I know what that means, bastard!" The attacker said, as his dark brown head covering fell and revealed dark brown hair.

Adam stayed silent, then whispered "Gimme a moment. I forgot how this shit worked with Imbeciles like you."

As he walked around to grab one of the blades he had and slowly but surely dug into right into his victim's shoulder until it passed though him and went into the boulder too.

"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" They screamed out, the universal 60% pain offset was not enough especially when Moon was involved.

"So… It's a skill, right?" Moon asked as he sat in front of his victim.

"Put on some clothes you sick bastard. We have kids around." The victim said back with a smug expression on his face.

"Witty huh? Aight." Moon response was swift, his patience thinning.

"Go fuck yourself." Moon's victim said and without another wasted second Moon pushed the dagger straight into his victim's head, killing him on the spot. A fatal strike

Moon stared at the blood trickling down out of his face while tilting his head slightly to the side and using his index finger to scratch the side of his neck. Then he sprang up and stripped his victim naked.

Moon's gaze lingered on the aftermath, his mind wandering as he processed the scene.

"Maybe I should wear clothes." He said as he put the rags on, he at least recognized that low level noob Archers mostly wear this.

Before he took the corpses of the six archers he killed and shoved them into the herd of Plague Rodents to hopefully be carried far away from where he was, or eaten.

He patted down his new clothes and managed to craft a make shift bag for his other small weapons and ditched the basic iron long sword and axe near the boulder as he took the treacherous plunge into the fog.

"He said they had kids. Could this be an already fully established Territory. This early? Unbelievable." Moon said.

"I'm gonna turn this place upside down then!" He said silently.

Holding onto the wound on his forearm, as his hand subtly vibrated due to the wound's weird pulsations.

"Fucking filthy rodents." He muttered, his voice laden with grit and disgust.