“Is there anything else to do here?” Alex turned to Lumiere and asked.

“There is nothing left for you to do here. You can now proceed to the game.”

“Let’s go now, Alex. I’ll keep the call connected so that we can meet up once we are in.”

“There are currently two hundred twenty thousand villages spread across Terran that are used by the players. The system will transport you to a random village once you are in the game. Do you want to go now?”

“I don’t think we can meet up very soon…” Alex was beyond shocked hearing the two hundred twenty thousand villages. “Why are there so many villages in this world? The chance to start at the same point can almost be considered as 0%.” Alex thinks that the Earth in this game must be MASSIVE.

“That is because one village can only accommodate up to one thousand players. You can use the number of villages used as a reference for the current number of human race’s player base at the…” 

“Hey, stop asking questions!! are you not done already?” Ezekiel can’t believe this woman. Once she found something that pique’s her, she will immediately sidetrack away from her main objective. 

“I was just amazed by the number of players playing on the first day. The human race’s player base alone is around 200 million.” Alex defended.

“Anyway, don’t worry about not starting at the same place…” Ezekiel is already forcing his self not to click the yes button to leave this place. 

“If I am lucky, I will meet you at the start. If you are unlucky, you’ll meet me at the start.” Ezekiel muffled his voice in the first part of his sentence.

“What did you say? How many times do I need to tell you that I am not unlucky!” 

“Let’s go! Lumiere, I want to leave this place now. My friend right here is now suffering and stressed to play the game already.” Even Alex now has high expectations of what they will discover in the future. 

[Do you want to enter Parabellum]

[Yes/No]

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

Ezekiel’s confirmation also resonated with hers.

“Transporting you now to Terran. Please don’t forget, Parabellum, good luck…”

At Lumiere’s last words, Alex and Ezekiel suddenly got sucked in by an unknown force. With a flash of light, Alex disappeared into the white room. 

…

In the middle of a random village on Terran, two bright flashes of light appeared simultaneously.

In a blink of an eye, Alex appeared in an unfamiliar place. The commotion of people’s discussions and chattering rang through her ears. The scene right before her eyes was exactly the same as what you will see in the real world, with busy people coming and going. 

Alex was shocked, but it was only for a brief moment, she soon calmed down and observed her surroundings. 

Players that passed by her are easily recognizable when everyone is wearing the same old fashion ragged white long-sleeved clothes as well as ragged black pants. 

Alex was loving the things she was seeing just a moment ago, but the moment she turned to observe the scenery on her left side.  Ezekiel’s smug face appeared in her vision.

“Hi,” Ezekiel greeted, waving his right hand in front of her face. With a very long wooden stick as long as her on his other hand. 

“I guess your luck stats really don’t lie.” As Ezekiel teased Alex, he spun the weapon in his hand, then swung it a few times in the air. After that, he performed some actions such as jumping, punching, and kicking.

“It’s not a bad thing that we can play together in the start.” When she saw what Ezekiel was doing, she also followed after him. 

As Alex takes a deep breath while gathering all of the strength in her body, she threw out a punch an inch away on Ezekiel’s face. 

Seeing the incoming punch going towards him, that is slower and weaker than usual. Ezekiel did not even bother batting an eye.

The outcome that Alex expected to happen did not happen. A strong gust of wind did not appear, and only a sharp sound occurred. 

“So weak!! This body is too weak.” Alex complained, noticing that Ezekiel did not even blink. She then just continued to condition her body on her own in the side.

They are doing these actions to get accustomed to their current body, as they felt that this body is even weaker than the one they used in the character creation.

“If you are done warming up, we need to hurry and go to the village chief to get our starting armor and skills. My A.I. gave me a reminder that we only have 20 more minutes before the tutorial officially starts.” Looking at the short time they have. Ezekiel can’t help but think that they really took their time creating their characters. 

“Ehhh? We have our A.I. with us?” 

“Yes, a blob of light should be floating around you right now. You can’t see other player’s A.I. that’s why you can’t see mine.” Ezekiel doesn’t know why Alex did not notice her A.I. when it should be in the player’s line of sight when they started. 

Alex then looked around once more, but she couldn’t see Lumiere’s blob of light around her, no matter how hard she looked. “I don’t have mine…” 

“Maybe your A.I. malfunctioned, and the system is trying to fix it. Anyway, we need to hurry. We are running out of time.” Ezekiel urged Alex. 

“But I like Lumiere the way it was. it doesn’t need any fixing.” Even though Lumiere is acting very weird, Alex doesn’t dislike it at all. Alex loves to ponder and asks lots of questions. So having someone around who can answer her immediately is a great help.

What she doesn’t like is Lumiere’s first time talking with a robotic tone.

“We will ask for help if it doesn’t come back after a few days, okay? Ezekiel comforted. 

Ezekiel then dragged Alex to the northernmost part of the village.

… 

When Alex and Ezekiel arrived at the place where the village chief lived, they saw an old man in black, dirty clothing watering some plants in front of his house. 

The old man then noticed the two approaching people. “Ahhh, Guardians, welcome to my Honey Combed village.”