“Thank you all for gathering. As you may know I’m your lord, and from what I’ve been made aware over the course of the past couple hours, being a lord means something. It means I have to lead you…in this…game. You may not know what a game is, but it means something where I come from.”

Sean stood up a bit straighter to balance himself on the barrel one of the soldiers had brung over for him.

“God, for some inexplicable reason has put me in charge of this place all for some entertainment,” he said the sentence with some vitriol he hadn’t meant to allow. The anger in his heart inflicted by the spontaneous transport still stung.

“But I’m not going to play this game,” He continued. “—at least not how God wants. The system tells me God wants to see us, other players like myself, try and kill each other. He wants us to try and conquer each other like the humans of old, leaving blood in our wake with no regard for anything but ourselves. And I refuse to do that.”

“Together, with everyone’s help, we will survive here and build a place everyone here can be proud of. And if anything or anyone does try to stop that I will do my best to protect everyone here…. Thank you. Now let’s eat!”

Sean stepped down from the barrel as the crowd of villagers cheered. They might have been cheering for the food rather than him but it didn’t matter. What mattered was the notification prompt from the system.

[Quest completed: Give idealistic speech to subjects to increase loyalty.]

He frowned at the voice. The speech had been a success for all intents and purposes but the little white lie felt wrong. He didn’t know how he was going to protect himself, much less a bunch of people he’d just met a few hours ago.

Sean had given the speech because the system demanded it—the annoying voice kept repeating the quest in his head until he completed it. And since it was his first quest, he couldn’t say no. He needed to understand how quests work in case he got another in the future.

The system, in its own words, said it gives a quest at random that can be accepted or not accepted. They are small actions and they’re supposed to happen once a day. The speech was his quest for the day.

“My lord, the soldiers can hand out the food now if it pleases you,” Leo said. He and the three other soldiers had all armed themselves. With the swords and armor they all looked like proper soldiers.

“Yes, but not too much. Only what we agreed upon earlier. I don’t want to run out of food before we even get the chance to get the farming started.”

The soldiers began handing out premade loaves of bread and salted meat. Leo had found both foods in labeled barrels in the corner of the main barn while the soldiers had been searching for food for the inaugural feast.

Sean grabbed his loaf and salted meat and popped a squat on a barrel a little ways away from everyone else.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Hey, system, Sean said in his head. Now that system was mentally connected to him, Sean could talk in his mind to the interface without even opening his mouth.

[yes.]

I know you can’t tell me about anything related to Earth, but what about the other players?

In the time since he’d explored the village, Sean had managed to ask close to a hundred questions to the system. And almost none got answered.

[There are 998 other players in the tutorial.]

“You’ve already told me that,” he said out loud. It was frustrating that the system refused to work alongside him. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

[There are 998 other players in the tutorial.]

“Wait did you say 998 or 999?”

[There are 998 other players in the tutorial.]

“Did someone die? What happened?”

[One participant failed the tutorial.]

“How did they fail?”

[One participant failed the tutorial.]

“If I could rip you out of my head, I would,” Sean muttered.

“Excuse me Lord Sean,” a tiny voice spoke up.

The voice came from a little girl in one of the peasant families. She had light brown skin and curly hair that was tied up into two buns. The girl couldn't be older than six or seven.

Sean didn’t know her name. As much as he’d tried to remember people's names, remembering fifty names and faces at once had proved difficult.

“Yes…”

“I asked my mom if I could give you this and she said yes.”

The little girl was holding a bundle of thick leaves close to her heart. The leaves were tied together to form the shape of a person.

Sean put his hand out and the girl thrust the leaf-man into his hand as if eager to hand it over.

“Thank you,” he said as he accepted the leaf-man. “What’s his name?”

“Her name is Belle, like me.”

“Well thank you Ms. Belle. I’ll treasure her.”

The little girl rushed off bask toward where her and her family were eating, leaving Sean all alone again.

As the day turned to night the villagers started lighting up lanterns all around the village. Leopold brought one over for him to use.

“How much of the oil do we have for these lanterns?”

“There were barrels of this stuff, my lord, plenty to go around. It should last us long enough till a trader comes if we’re frugal,” Leopold said.

“Then we’ll be frugal,” Sean said. There was no telling what the future might hold. “Leopold I think I may retire for the night, I’ve had a pounding headache for a while.”

“Of course, my lord! Should I escort you?”

“No no no, it’s fine. I can find my way up the hill.” Sean started to walk but stopped and turned around. “I wasn’t lying to the villagers. I am going to really try to keep them safe while I figure out what will become of me.”

“We already trust you, My lord.”

“We’ve just met; I don’t want your trust yet. I don’t want it till I’ve had a chance to earn it. But I do appreciate it nonetheless. Good Night, Leo.”

“Goodnight, my lord.”