“Will, stop acting this hostile to any new one!” Lilith hit him with her elbow, showing how better her relation with Will than John.

“It’s just weird how humans didn’t cope with all this,” she said and I nodded for her to continue, “I mean… Just look at this? Isn’t this like any game popular in our time before this sh*it happened?”

I realised from her words who they were. “So you are all gamers?” I asked and the three nodded.

“We came here to play in a competition,” John explained, “all of us are either players or fans of popular games. So when the apocalypse came, we found it easy to live through what happened.”

“People are just retard! They missed the chance to train over the apocalypse years before it happened,” Will snorted, said in his usual aggressive tone, “if they didn’t mock us back then, saw us as nerds with everything we did, then they might have a better chance in surviving.”

“Not all the people mean this, Will!” John seemed to not be on good terms with Will, and I could tell why.

“Will is right,” Lilith nodded, as she took the side of Will in this argument, “I was mocked many times thanks to my cosplay. See now? If not for my hard working hours in making these outfits before, how could I even use any gears or adapt to any of this? They just missed their chance, and we were ready for it.”

“So you fought and survived using the game info only?” I jumped over this debate. After all I wasn’t literally someone from their time. I couldn’t relate to any of what these three said.

“Of course!” Lilith said in confidence, “we played games for most of our lives. These games always had harsh scenarios and poor environments where people had to survive using many skills and abilities.”

“Playing games saved my life,” Will admitted, “saved all of our lives.”

“Good,” I decided to close this meaningless talk, “I want you to go down there and do what I did to you with them,” I threw my compass again towards Lilith, as she seemed like their acting leader.

“You…” Will was the one to object, yet Lilith said, interrupting his words:

“We will scan them,” she paused before adding, “can I have this marvel?”

“It’s yours,” I still had many stored in my inventory.

“What about me?” Will asked, despite showing zero interest before in my compass.

“Your force will have only this piece as a gift,” I said before adding, “it’s sold in the market. You can work hard and pay for its price with your own money.”

“Humph, stingy,” John muttered but his voice wasn’t that low to not be caught by my ears.

“Just don’t think yourselves this special because your survived so far,” I shrugged, pouring cold buckets of water over their heads without mercy as I added:

“You didn’t do the world a great favour by staying alive. If you were like me, having such a mighty force behind you, then you might be enough to speak to me as my equal. But compared to me, you are still noobs in any game you play.”

“And you?” Will asked with a tone of mockery.

“A veteran,” I replied before taking out my glaive once again, “if you aren’t convinced, then I welcome any fight anytime. But I have to warn you…”

I paused as the eyes of Will and John flashed with desire to fight, “I only fight life and death battles, not the kind of time wasting friendly sparring fights.”

The shining in their eyes instantly dimmed when they heard my last words. “We will descend then,” Lilith said, putting an end to this experience of them.

“Ah, I forgot to tell you this,” before they would descend from my chariot using the rope, I stopped them as I added, “the ones who join me will have to sign a loyalty binding contract.”

“All of us?!” John was surprised.

“That’s absurd!” Will objected in his usual aggressive way.

“If you don’t want to, then I can’t help you at all,” I shook my head, acting all helpless here, “after all this city is mine. If you don’t plan to join my forces on my terms, then prepare to leave as fast as possible.”

“You…” even Lilith seemed surprised with my attitude. But I turned around, raising my fist in the air as I said, ending this debate before it even began:

“Go down there and think about it. You have half a day before my real forces come here. And a piece of warning…”

I walked towards my big ballista, caressing it like I was treating a pet or something, “my forces are much larger, far stronger, more experienced than the noobs players like yourselves.”

“You…”

“Don’t say it again!”

“Stop it!” Lilith shouted, stopping the other two from turning this situation into a disastrous one, “we will discuss it among ourselves, and give you the answer.”

“Cool.”

I watched them descend while laughing inside myself at them. I knew they wouldn’t accept such a thing if I showed any mercy.

They had to know this world wasn’t a free meal to anyone. If they wanted to join me, then they had to pay the appropriate price for it. After all this was my only way to guarantee my safety.

“Players… Hmm…” but from the second interaction with the player community, I started to grow much interested in them. I never read anything remarkable about gamers before in any records of my time.

Yet from what I saw so far, either from Leo’s actions or theirs here, I could tell how special this community was.

“Like a hidden gem in the dirt… I just need to work a little harder and gather them from all over the world,” my eyes shone brightly when I thought about that.

If I had no way to get to that community, I still had Leo. he stayed with me long enough to gain my trust. That boy, he was a real playboy. Jumping over from one beauty to another.