“Woah, what happened there, buddy? Why do I feel like a girl did this to you?” Zellin asked with a raised eyebrow as he saw Liu’s puffy face. Liu’s hands were bruised, and Zellin assumed there was more underneath his clothes. At least he’s not dead, Zellin thought gratefully.

“Shut up, Zellin. I’m not in the mood to screw around with you today.” Liu said as he walked past Zellin and headed towards his room.

“Woah, buddy. Easy there.” Zellin said as he grabbed Liu’s shoulder. “Come on, I’m your brother. Tell me what happened.”

Liu let out a heavy sigh, and turned around to tell Zellin what happened. Zellin also let out a sigh, thinking, this brother of mine is too simple minded. Zellin could at least have lied his way out of the situation. “Liu, those guys probably just wanted to rob your class upgrade money, because they saw you were Level 5. Let’s go to the guild dungeon clearing tomorrow; I have a plan to get back at those a-holes.” He said comfortingly, patting Liu’s shoulders.

After being annoyed for so long, Liu finally let out a grin. “Thanks, brother. I’m counting on you.”

The next day, Liu and Zellin went back to the guild and traveled several hours with the first floor group of the guild to a cave, about 50 km from the outskirts of the city.

The guild, Noob Village, was divided into three floors, of which levels 1-10 are allowed to stay on the first floor, levels 10-20 for the second, and 20-30 for the last floor. Noob Village has multiple bases in Ultimate Super Fighter City and the first floor of the base Liu went to, the Noob Originals, had about 200 members; 50 of which, were joining the dungeon clearing. As Bo was the first floor’s Noob Leader, he was currently in charge of this group excursion.

The whole way to the dungeon, Liu noticed the three bullies (Guo, Wally, and Roj) keeping a close eye on him, making sure to stay at least within 10 meters from him. Liu simply smirked at this. Yeah, keep following. Liu thought to himself. You’ll get what you deserve soon enough.

Bo made sure to keep Zellin and Liu close to his friends, just in case Guo’s gang were intending on making trouble. He also noticed Guo’s gang’s behavior.

"Alright, everyone we’re almost there.” Bo called out, halting the group. He sent some scouts out before advising the group. “Remember everyone, although spider poison glands are worth a decent amount, hold back your Preserve skill; at least for this first fight. First, focus on eliminating all of the enemies.”

After the scouts came back, Bo lead the group forward, silently and cautiously spreading out. As they had the numbers for a blitz attack, they wouldn’t pass up this simple tactic. This would also prevent most of them from being blanketed in webs before the fight even began.

Unfortunately, the plan didn’t go as planned, as the group in the west encountered a stray spider on their way to the clearing and were somewhat slow in killing it, resulting in its shrieks alerting the other spiders.

But this groups of kids were quite disciplined for their age and have been working in concert for quite a long while. As the other groups heard the shriek, they immediately guessed the situation. The group who attracted the spider aggro pulled back, while the group in the east quickly moved forward, and the center team rushed forward from the south, slightly deviating to the left as they approached the clearing.

Liu had no idea what was going on, and simply followed Bo. He had heard the spider shrieks and assumed trouble, but he didn’t know what they were doing about it. Zellin saw that these guys weren’t phased at all by the disturbance in their plans, and assumed all was under control. This world’s kids are too abnormal, Zellin thought to himself. If he didn’t have his past lives’ memories, he’d probably still be at home with his parents, being coddled. Or would the circumstances of this world make me more resilient as well? Zellin wondered.

As Bo saw the clearing ahead, counting about 20 spiders, he gave a hand signal and a third of the group split off, swiftly heading north-west. Their group, naturally had more people, exactly for this type of situation.

Bo charged, letting out a battle cry as he headed into the clearing, signaling the beginning of the charge. Bo didn’t mind too much if the spiders who went out to deal with the intruders heard this, as it could only force them into a pincer attack even faster if they chased back to the clearing.

As Bo brandished his two short-swords, a flame enveloped them, making him look quite heroic as hr charged out at the spiders. Liu couldn’t help but widen his eyes and think, Damn, duel-wielding flaming swords? I should have picked that class…

Liu also charged towards the spiders, but was almost instantly covered in webs as he went into the clearing. Liu struggled to break free, but was unable to. These spiders weren’t like Leggy, as most of them were Level 8, causing their webs to be much stronger, especially for the unfortunate Liu.

Zellin simply stood aside and watched, observing the tactics and the different battle skills. He was so absorbed in watching that he didn’t even bother to help Liu free himself from the spider web. Is that the Duskblade class? But it looks like its specialized in fire… Hmmm… Zellin thought as he watched Bo.

You wouldn’t expect such heroic characteristics from Bo after first meeting him. Though he was handsome in a way, the fact that he was skinny lead people to believe that he was weak. But at the moment, he looked quite valiant as he slashed apart spider after spider, occasionally sending fireballs shooting out from his swords.

The battle was quickly ending as these spiders couldn’t compare to Noob Villages numbers, nor the synergetic capabilities of humans.

Liu would most likely have treasured the scene of this battle, but unfortunately all he could see was the ground in front of him.

“Hargh!” Bo exclaimed, stabbing through the head of the last spider. He quickly raised his hand and was just about to give the signal to move out, when he saw a group of people head toward them from the west. “How’d it go?” Bo asked casually, as the other Noob Village members moved to collect the spider remains.

“Meh,” A roughly 18-year-old youth expressed, rather unimpressed. “They tried to hurry back, but they quickly became trapped. Wasn’t too exciting. You?”

“Easy enough.” Bo said nonchalantly.

At this point, someone freed Liu from the webs and he stood up with an embarrassed face. I hope no one saw that… He thought to himself before turning his head and seeing Zellin looking at him with a smirk.

"Jerk…” Liu couldn’t help mutter. “A-hole, why didn’t you help me?” Liu asked, rather irritated.

“What, were you hurt? I was keeping you safe by not helping you.” Zellin replied, feigning a responsible attitude. Liu just shook his head, choosing to ignore this. He was almost used to this behaviour by now.

Bo discussed the situation of the spiders being on the defensive for some reason, with the other team leaders, before heading into the cave. This type of spider was usually much more aggressive and would have sent out at least half their number to meet the intruders, but instead most of them stayed behind to defend the entrance.

After coming to the conclusion that it was possible that there were more spiders than usual inside the cave, they went inside, as prepared as they could be. Zellin also followed, admiring Bo’s leadership qualities and instincts.

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"Stay close, guys. This dungeon is likely out of your level range." Bo said to Liu and Zellin. Liu simply nodded, hoping to not embarrass himself any further.

Inside, they found that that there were indeed more spiders than expected. Although this slowed them down somewhat, they still progressed steadily.

There were two paths inside the cave, which each led to a seperate boss spider. The two paths eventually lead to each other at the entrance of a large room and an even stronger boss.

As they trudged onwards, the Guo gang couldn't be bothered with Liu, with all the fighting going on, and put him aside in their mind for the moment. Liu also fought, albeit as safely as possible. These spiders were leveled higher than Liu; the difference was a little far and their skill levels were also higher, making them quite dangerous to Liu.

Zellin would occasionally send arrows flying out, trying to imitate the other archers. They timed their shots to moments before the spiders shot their webs and as they lunged in for a bite, obstructing all that they do. Some were also extremely precise in their skill; Zellin saw one of the archers continuously pierce a spider eye after each shot, until a fourth eye was pierced and the spider died.

Back on Earth, Zellin never played any sports, so he never truly understood the importance teamwork, but now that he was in a world where fighting was everything, he was willing to learn anything in order to survive. Also, fighting was kind of fun.

The first time Zellin had that thought, he instantly related himself to the serial killers of Earth, but eventually shrugged it off. Fuck it, he thought. When in Rome…

Liu didn't participate in the boss fights, as he feared the unexpected. From what Liu understood, anything could happen in a boss fight, thus he didn't want to tempt fate. But Zellin couldn’t hold back his curiosity as he had never seen a boss fight before. He intently watched from the side, repeatedly questioning his own instincts and comparing them to Bo’s leadership.

After clearing out the two bosses on both paths, they went to the large room's entrantce, and Bo called out all the Level 8-10s, instructing the lower leveled characters to stay put, as there was a good possibility of dying for them. A boss status Level 10 fight, for these kids, wasn’t something they could casually walk into.

When Bo saw that the Guo gang didn't intend on fighting the boss, his brows furrowed, and he seriously warned Liu to be careful and to stay with the group, before leaving with the others. If he could bring Liu with him, he would, but it was much too dangerous for a level 5.

Seeing that Bo and his friends have left, the Guo gang made their move.

“Hey, little man.” Guo, the armored teenager, said as he approached with his gang, fake smiles on their faces. “We just wanted to say sorry for beating you the other day. When you threatened us, we seriously thought you wanted to hurt us, so we defended ourselves. You understand, right?”

Wow, Zellin thought. These guys are seriously shameless.

“Ugh, you guys should have some talking to do, so I won’t bother you.” Zellin said, giving one last look at Liu, before moving away.

After Zellin left, Liu turned to the Guo’s gang and replied. “Yeah, it’s fine, guys. Let’s just forget it.” Liu said as he rubbed the back of his head, as if the whole matter was kind of embarrassing to him.

“No, no, we couldn’t do that. Let us give you something to express how sorry we are first. Then we can forget it.” Guo said in a courteous manner.

Liu tried to politely refuse, but eventually had to accept as Guo and his friends wouldn’t let the matter go.

“But let’s go somewhere private first.” Guo suggested casually. “If other people saw what we were giving you, they might get jealous, and perhaps their greed would overcome them. We wouldn’t want you to get hurt, right?”

“Sure,” Liu replied, following their lead, and getting further and further away from the group. Eventually they went into a side room that Noob Village had already cleared.

The gang turned to face Liu, their smiles even wider, and much more honest, as they looked at Liu as if he was a fly that flew into their web.

“What are you going to give me?” Liu asked innocently.

Guo snickered at Liu’s dense mentality. He almost had the urge to put him out of his misery, to save him from suffering in the real world. “We’re not actually going to give you anything.” Guo said with an amused smile. Liu raised an eyebrow, seemingly confused. “You’re going to give us something.” Guo said, his smile beginning to look a little darker.

“Give you what? You need something? I actually don’t have much, but if I can help, I’d gladly do it in exchange for a favour.” Liu responded nonchalantly.

“Idiot!” Wally, the pudgy assassin, exclaimed. “We’re robbing you! Give us everything you have or we’ll beat you to death and simply take it!”

Liu reacted quickly, attempting to take his sword out, but Wally was quicker and sent a swift punch to Liu’s face, knocking him down from the force. Wally then continued to beat Liu fiercely as Liu covered his face and went into fetal position. “Don’t make me beat you to death!” Wally warned menacingly.

“All I have of value is some medicine pills!” Liu yelled loudly, attempting to stop the beating. Wally momentarily stopped beating and looked up at Guo.

“Get up.” Guo ordered with his arms crossed, his face grim. Wally got off Liu and Liu struggled to get up, wincing at the pain in his stomach. “Hand it over.” Guo said with an upraised hand,

Liu opened up his inventory and took out a large pill bottle full of thumb-sized, pink pills, then threw them at Guo.

Guo looked them over and opened the information screen. The pills were named ‘HP Pills Version 2,’ and it was simply described with, ‘Heals 60 HP.’ As they looked like HP pills, and were described as such, Guo took them to be as such.

“Those should be worth a decent amount of gold.” Roj, the pudgy archer, said with a smile.

“Good, good. Get more pills like these and we’ll consider your debt even.” Guo said to Liu, as he handed some pills to Wally and Roj. They all swallowed several pills as they were somewhat injured from the previous fighting. “And you better not report this to anyone, lest you get bea-”

Guo suddenly stopped talking and his body become still, his mouth still open, as if he was going to continue talking.

“You-” Was all Wally could get out before his stiff body collapsed to the ground, followed by Guo and Roj.