Raif hastily got to his feet to greet the other young man, hoping he spoke English “Hello Sir! I'm Raif its a pleasure to meet you, do you speak English?”
The young man sneered at him slightly before replying in perfect English “No, why would I learn the language of the West, besides you speak Chinese perfectly well.”
“Ummm.... you just replied in English, and I struggle with Spanish much less Chinese” Raif replied, looking confused.
“..........”
“..........”
“Strange” they both said at the same time.
“I wonder if this dream/world is translating everything we say into a different language and helping us understand each other as well” Raif wondered out loud. “I guess it makes sense, after all the odds John spoke English are pretty unrealistic...”
Shrugging, Raif held his hand out to the other young man and introduced himself again, hoping for a name this time around.
Ignoring the offered hand, the young man gave a slight bow of his head and introduced himself, “I am Second Lieutenant Wang Wei.”
Shrugging again and deciding he probably wouldn't get along with the somewhat arrogant Wang, Raif decided not to mention his equivalent rank in the Army National Guard as it wouldn't be productive and he wanted to see what Wang's take had been on John and why he thought he was here. “So do you know why you are here?” Raif asked hopefully.
Wang shook his head before replying, “After what John told me I believe I am here as a representative of my family and the Communist Party. I believe my duty is to grow strong so that I may lead the party through what may be trying and difficult times in the future. What I don't understand is why you are here, what use would the guardian have in sending an American or Englishman here when you are doomed to fail regardless.”
He had already been a little irritated at Wang's arrogance upon meeting him, but this guy really was an asshole Raif decided. Shaking his head Raif replied “Who knows, last time I checked China was the one having trouble with keeping everyone fed. So while I'm sure your rural population will do ok, unless you and whatever other people from your country that are selected really have their shit together I'd be more worried about your own problems rather than mine. Then again even with people starving maybe the sudden lack of pollution when electricity stops working will save more lives than the starvation and rioting will take.”
Face going red in anger and fist clenching, Wang sputtered “You know nothing you imperialist dog! Who cares if we lose a few, it is the duty of the few too sacrifice for the many! I don't know if you are from the United States or England, but it doesn't matter. When technology fails our numbers will mean everything and we WILL once again lead the world into a new era of prosperity even if we have to do it on the ashes of the West!”
Deciding this might be a good opportunity to see what these consequences were really like for someone attacking another person, Raif decided to antagonize this prick until he lost it and attacked. He didn't see any weapons on him but the wrinkled uniform made it somewhat difficult to tell for certain, still he was certain he would have noticed a fire-arm if he had one assuming they even worked on this world.
Shaking his head and grinning ruefully, Raif replied “Umm OK but without electricity I think it might be a while before you guys make it to either the United States or England, but you do realize you basically have the same population as India right? So I'm not really sure that's the most important factor. Finally there is the whole matter of what happens when you attack someone outside the wilderness, the world is WAY too big to only have one but something tells me nations as they are won't exist for very long anyway so I'd get over your nationalism if I were you. I'm really not sure why you're getting so self righteously angry anyway, you got here by falling asleep in your uniform apparently so I'm pretty sure you're drooling on a desk somewhere in China right now anyway.”
Wang's face went from bright red to a dark purple before he spat out, “Perhaps for one so disloyal as yourself you think that is an acceptable outcome, but the People's Republic of China believe in the Party and will stay true regardless of the obstacle! And what would a miserable westerner even know of duty, you are too busy pursuing your own selfish needs and desires to ever understand a cause larger than yourself!”
Sighing, Raif replied, “Well I was hoping to compare notes and work together, but it seems to me like you're to busy being a nationalist asshole so if you'll excuse me I have better things to do than waste time listening to you spout bullshit.”
Raif fully expected what happened next, and had even hoped it would happen so he could see these so called consequences of one person attacking another outside of this “wilderness” John had mentioned. What he didn't expect was for Wang to pull a collapsible metal baton out from somewhere before swinging it like a bat at Raif's head. Not sure how the hell he hadn't noticed Wang was carrying a baton, he ducked his head and raised his shoulder trying to block the blow as best as he could while simultaneously turning and creating some distance. The blow took him on his collar bone with a loud crack and dull throbbing pain that was immediately replaced by the incredibly sharp pain of what he could only assume was a broken collar bone. Raif was stunned by the pain and dropped the stick he had been holding from his now non-responsive hand, losing his balance in the process and nearly falling over.
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Wang raised the baton again, apparently to strike at his head again and finish the fight saying “The new world will belong to the People's Republic of China and there is no place for the West!”
Unable to recover in time Raif knew he wasn't going to be able to dodge the blow, and felt a strong sense of regret at antagonizing Wang just to see what would happen when suddenly a metal sword was two inches above his head blocking the baton with a dull clang. The blade didn't wave a millimeter from the blow and suddenly John was there without warning an iron grip on Wang's arm keeping him from trying to strike again.
“Well Mr. Wang, it seems you didn't quite understand me when I warned you about conflict with other people in places other than the wilderness. Had you attacked Mr. Raif in there, it would have been his own fault for being there unprepared and to the winner goes the spoils or so they say. However, since this is not the wilderness you get to deal with the penalty I warned you about instead. Take note Mr. Raif, do you see Mr. Wang's name and level above his head when you look at him now, see how they are both red? Normally you can only see someone's name and level in the wilderness, however if you attack someone outside of the wilderness you become marked and a target of bounty hunters everywhere as you can see with Mr. Wang here. The significance is that anyone may attack them with no penalty to themselves, and will receive a random tier 50 resource for killing them along with a large amount of experience depending on their level, which makes it extremely lucrative. So without further ado, I believe your time in the tutorial is over Mr. Wang.” finished John as he thrust his sword through Wang's Chest with a twist before withdrawing it and wiping the blood on Wang's uniform.
Wang fell to the ground, eye's wide and staring in surprise at the suddenness of the attack. It looked like he tried to breath or say something but all that came out was an inarticulate rasp before his jerking slowed and stopped, his eyes going blank. After a moment Wang's corpse began to fade before disappearing completely leaving behind a reddish black branch in it's place. Letting out a low whistle John bent down and picked up the branch with a smile, “God Damn, I've been wanting a deathgrove branch for a while now that I finally got my fletching up to level 50. With bounties so rare I volunteered for this job to save the money for this and some dark steel ore, now I nearly have enough money for the dark steel alone and I'm going to have a brand new bow once I can get this beauty crafted.”
Raif was barely paying any attention thanks to the pain in his shoulder, but as soon as Wang's body completely disappeared he could see two glowing wisps, one moving towards John and another towards him. As the wisp reached him a message flashed in front of his eyes:
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have reached Agility Level 3
You have reached Perception Level 2
You have reached Constitution Level 2
As the message faded John heard a pop and felt a tingling sensation as his collarbone seemed to shift back into place and the bruise faded. Startled he looked at John who laughed.
“Now you see why despite the risks and moral quandaries, some people prefer to hunt each other in the wilderness rather than challenge monsters in the countryside or the towers. The experience you gain is ridiculous, what primary attributes leveled up?”
Debating whether he was happy about it or not Raif replied, “I reached level 3 in agility, 2 in perception, and 2 in constitution. I understand constitution, but why agility and perception?”
“Well from what I could see it looked like you noticed the blow coming, which is why you gained experience in perception. You also managed to keep your feet even through it threw you off balance which explains the experience towards agility. Of course constitution is self explanatory, just be careful that you don't make too much of a habit of getting hit without hitting back. Constitution among other functions also makes you tougher by making your bones denser and skin tougher, so you'll notice you have a bit more weight to carry around now which is why it's important to keep you strength within a few points of it." John said
"But why am I already level 3 in agility and only level 2 in constitution and agility?" Raif asked.
John smiled before answering, "Well that's a bit trickier and something I'm less certain of. Before now you were likely past the threshold for level 0 in some of your primary attributes just from training your body. That is most likely caused by whatever system your Guardian was using prior to the cataclysm they are about to enact on your world. Energy gained from defeating or taking part in the defeat of a foe will be the only way to advance your primary attributes going forward, but babies don't come out of the womb at 0 strength able to carry 50 kg. Instead they start with a negative value and cannot advance even through gaining energy in combat until they grow up and train their bodies to reach level 0. When you go back to your world and the cataclysm happens I believe you will find a large number of people, even adults, with negative stats. For those cases it will be up to the individual to improve themselves before they can take advantage of the changes."
"Now I noticed you were reading the book so I left you be, and I'm glad I did because now I have this deathgrove branch for a new bow, however its time for you to go and get through that portal to the Island of Vanos and continue your tutorial. Conflict here should be kept to a minimum and if I let this turn into a traveler meeting zone, we could have a lot more “accidents” especially since it seems like your species isn't quite as peaceful as others.” John said as he pointed at the portal before beckoning Raif to go ahead.
With a sigh and a nod Raif thanked John once more before stepping through the portal.