Chapter 5 – Suspicious Hooded Figures and Snowyfield Village

Third person POV

 The drive took 5 hours because the village is located up north of the Southern Plains and into the snowy mountains. To get there, they have to go through a sloped road. But before that, as they went through a paved road towards the mountains, Russell noticed 3 hooded figures standing by the roadside, as if they were waiting for a ride. So, he stopped by and opened the door. "Hi there." One of the 3 hooded figures stared at him without showing his face to him.

Russell was taken aback and became nervous, before the 3 hooded figures climbed in, catching the passengers' attention.

But then, those hooded people drew their swords and started threatening him and the passengers on board.

Russell and his passengers are now panicking.

It was now an act of hijacking.

 "Don't move!" yelled one of the 3 hooded figures. "We'll kill you!"

The passengers didn't do anything and just raised their hands.

 Russell, however, didn't want to let them kill his clients so he stood up, stepped in, and grabbed the hood of one of the hijackers, before throwing him to the front with all his strength. This surprises the other two attackers, too. "Nobody is messing with me or my bus and passengers," Russell said to them coldly. He then grabbed the second one and threw him to the front, so as to the third one.

 "What the hell?!" one of the hijackers pointed her sword at him as she and her two accomplices tried to get up.

Russell looked at them with coldness on his face. "You better stop this crap."

 "Ha! What are you going to do now, little man?" another hijacker responded while summoning some magic with his hand.

Then, Russell responded by grabbing his knapsack and using it to hit the three hooded people repeatedly. "Take that…you…evil people!"

His passengers were amazed to see how brave and determined he was to protect them.

Then, finally, he managed to drive the three invaders out of his bus.

 "Then stay out!" he yelled at them as he went down the steps.

But then, the third hooded figure pointed his sword at him. "Ha! We'll kill you anytime, anywhere, bastard!"

Russell then responded by closing the bus door, breaking the guy's sword in half.

 "What? My bus door is that strong?" he commented in his mind.

The guy whose sword broke by the bus door was taken aback.

So, in response, he and his accomplices blocked his way while hurling out threats with magic and curse words.

Russell and his passengers are alerted by it, and Russell immediately thinks of a plan to drive them away.

So, he started honking his bus horn to try to scare them away.

But, they won't budge no matter how many times he tried to do so.

 "That's it…" Russell was cold with anger once more.

 "What are you going to do, sir?" the adventurer asked him.

 "I'll ram them."

Russell then sat down, buckled his seatbelt, and shifted his gear to Drive. "Hold on, everyone. This is going to be hard."

He then stepped the gas pedal, causing the bus to accelerate fast.

The three hooded figures were surprised by his response, but they had no time to move.

So, they were rammed by Russell, and they were dead seconds later.

Russell stopped again, unbuckled his seat belt, and got off to see if they were dead.

 Russell saw that the three suspicious people were dead, indeed. Life was taken away from them. Then, he took a look at their dead bodies on the road, before giving one of them a very low movement with his foot. The feel, however, is mushy, indicating that their bodies somehow turned into mush or a mush-like state. But this makes Russell shiver a bit from head to toe. "Man, I was too much in the speed of my bus. I should consider using that before actually doing that to my enemies."

And then, now suspicious of their possible agenda, Russell took a closer look at their black hoods. Then, he saw a square shape with a symbol resembling a fox in its center.

 "Hmm…what is that?" he asked himself.

He then took the hood from one of them just in case he would know something more about it in the future.

Then, he dragged the dead bodies out of the way and took their weapons and armor for his self-defense.

 After that, he returned to the bus with all that loot. As he puts them in an open compartment in the front, the adventurer asked him what he was doing. "Those are my loot," replied Russell back. "These people really tried to kill us after all." He then returned to his driver's seat, closed the door, shifted the gear to Drive, and continued their way towards Snowyfield Village. And then, the bus began its slow ascend towards the village through a sloped road, which was gradual and long.

 Later, at 4:22 p.m., the bus arrived at Snowyfield Village, which was a big village in the snowy mountains. This is where the snow falls year-round. Upon pulling over, Russell was amazed to see how snowy it was. "Wow…"

Then, his passengers looked out the windows, happy that they had arrived at their destination in just a few hours.

 "Is this it?" Russell looked at them.

Then, one of the passengers, a scholar, stood up and nodded. "Yes, this is it. Thank you."

Russell then opened the door. "Okay, that will be 7 gold coins for each of you, please."

His passengers did so and gave him the money.

 "Thank you," Russell said as he received the money. "I'm happy to help."

With that, his passengers get off the bus with their belongings.

The number of passengers was 8, so the total amount of money earned was 56 gold coins, much to his happiness.

He had earned a lot of money on his second day in this new, fantasy world. "Wow, awesome…"

 Then, he remembers what the old man from the group told him: a bunch of bandits are raiding the village, or, will raid the village. So, with that in mind, he parked his bus somewhere off the road and turned off the engine, before getting off with his book and knapsack to explore the village for some time. Along the way, he checked for any bandits roaming and loitering around the big, snowy village while exploring and looking around. He was enthusiastic and willing to explore up to the point of near exhaustion. He looked and checked out stands, small stores, and small restaurants, but barely spent anything since he wanted to save up. At one store, he bought a wooden spoon for 1 gold coin, and at another store, he bought a skewer of roasted mutton because he was hungry, since his lunch made him bored, and wants to eat something different.

Then, as he pulled the first piece of the salty, roasted mutton from the stick with his teeth, he tasted it so good and tasty. "Delicious…"

He said that while getting distracted by the food's deliciousness.

 Shortly thereafter, he sat down on a bench in the snow. Before sitting down, he wiped the snow off the wooden oak bench. And then, he sat down to finish his small, but delicious snack. After that, he looked at the snowy mountains that surrounded the village, admiring its beauty in the high altitudes.

 "My life is so much better here," he thought as he gazed at the towering mountains.

His life is getting better by the day now.

Because he rammed some bad people last time, Russell leveled up to Level 5. "What?" Russell said to himself while looking at his bus driver's license with his new level. "No way!"

Every time Russell levels up, his license updates his current level, and with enough levels, his rank will go up.

As of now, his rank is now at A, 7 levels to go before ranking to AA.