(Katze’s POV)
I park my truck on the park that I usually jog with Cass, half an hour before our time of meeting. The climate today is fairly cold, so I’m dressed in black jeans, black leather combat boots, white shirt and black leather jacket with inner fun padding, my dog tags hanging from my neck. my beard is well shaved, and my hairs is well combed. I’m even using something that I rarely use, colony, a good and popular one.
Against my best judgement, I decided to leave the container back at home. After all, it will look a bit excessive if I bring my truck together with a black container, it would kill the mood completely. I get out from my truck, leaning on the front, recently washed since it needed a wash today, since I took heavy rain and mud with it yesterday.
After a few minutes, still twenty minutes before our meeting time, I see Cassidy walking towards my direction. I wave to her when she notices me. She smiles, waving back and picking her pace. She’s dressed in blue jeans, with white shoes. She’s also using a white shirt, with a red coat, her red hair tied in a ponytail again.
- Wow, I didn’t know you could look so good in simple clothes, old man! – she said, trying to provoke me. I just smiled.
- And you look pretty on your normal clothes too, surprisingly! I thought the yoga pants were holding everything together! – although the joke is fairly offensive, she laughs at loud, since it’s the type of joke she likes. I point to the truck behind me. – Should we get going then? We’re already here after all.
She nods, going to the truck. I help her to get in by holding her hand and giving her support. After that, I go to the driver’s side and enter the truck, turning it on. Cass look at me surprised.
- Did you modify this truck? It’s much quieter than I expected!
I smiled smugly.
- Military brand, Cass. I wanted the truck for the size and for the container, but I didn’t like the noise. Si I requested a silent truck as my retirement present.
I start driving off. It’ll take a few minutes, the mall is on other side of town after all.
- Now that you mentioned it, you were from the army, right? Is army retirement that good? – she asks curious. She’s technically right, I retired through the American army. After all, they paid me a lot to join them.
- Not that good, I’m a bit of a special case. Let’s just say that I did a lot of contribution to the American government.
Cassidy frowned at that,
- Wait, now that I think about it, you’re German, right? You even have the accent and all of that.
I smile, paying attention to the road.
- That information is classified. – I answer mysteriously.
- Oh? So where you were? In the marines or something like that? Special forces? – she asks, genuinely curious.
I smile wryly to her questions.
- I can’t really answer most of those questions… well, at least I can talk a little about myself, is that ok?
- Please do so! Your story seems really interesting!
She says, excited. I smile to that, making a turn in the street.
- Well, I was born in Germany, and I was an orphan for as long as I could remember. When I was 13, I was involved with some bad people, and ended up smuggled to Africa during a struggle of power with some local warlords. – say, telling her my earliest recollections of life. – from there I worked as a mercenary until I got old enough to buy my way back to Germany, where I joined the army.
- … Wow, that’s… unusual… - she said in disbelief. I just smiled at that.
- I know it’s hard to believe. It seems like the stuff of movies, right? But that’s what happened to me. It wasn’t a peaceful start… and from there things didn’t change. I dedicated myself to the army and ended up in special forces. But I was dispensed from a battle injury during a hostage rescue. – I say, taking one of my hands of the steering wheel and raising my shirt on my left side after pushing my jacket out of the way, revealing a big scar right above my waist. – This is what is left of the wound that made me retire.
I say as I take a glance at her, since the road is clear. She’s looking at my scar, shocked. She knows I have scars, when I jog with her with short sleeves, she commented once on the few scars that I had in my arms. That’s how I told her that I was retired from the army.
- After that I struggled with money for a bit, the payment from the government wasn’t enough to get by. So, I went to mercenary work again. After all, that was all that I could do. After that, it’s history, I was eventually hired by the American government and retired through them. I really can’t tell you what I did most of the time though, it’s confidential for real.
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She looks at me, shocked for a moment and speechless. After a few minutes, she finally talked.
- Wow, you had a hard time, didn’t you?
- Yeah. – I say, the tone in her voice letting me a bit more insecure since she didn’t sound that pleased. I thought she would like it, since she pestered me a lot for wartime stories.
- That’s… so cool…
I frown, taking a look at her to be met with sparkling eyes of excitement.
- Goddammit, Kat! You’re way cooler than you let through, you know?
I laugh out loud.
- Well, thank you! Most people don’t really like when I speak about my youth.
- Are you kidding me? – She said, excited. – That’s so cool! It’s the first time I ever talked with someone that has a cool story like yours!
I smile, entering the parking area of the mall.
- Well, that’s the first time someone that I’ve met didn’t get awkward from hearing my story. – I turn off the truck, looking at her. – So, I guess we’re even on that. – And then I smile. She smiles back, and we get out of the truck. After I lock it and we start walking to the mall, she approaches and hugs my right arm.
I look down at her, since I’m around twenty centimeters taller than her. She looks up to me and similes widely. I smile back, and we walk silently to the mall. The new mall is big, and it’s extremely crowded. We walk around for a bit, taking a look at some stores as we talk.
- So, Kat, do you have any interesting stories about your time as a mercenary that you can share? – se asks, curious. I think for a second before answering.
- Well… there was that time I captured 50 enemy soldiers and rescued 20 hostages while naked. – I say, making her look at me with a weird face.
- Please tell me, I have to know it now. – She says, squeezing my arm, making me thing that they’re fairly big and soft.
- Well, I was on the middle east on mission. I was supposed to make a recognition for my team so that we could do a hostage rescue on a warehouse. And that was to be a three days mission. – I say, remembering the hot days in the middle east. – on my second day I was getting near the warehouse in the middle of the rocky desert, and it was extremely hot. Since I was still far from the area that the warehouse was supposed to be, I took a break near a river.
She nods, completely interested on the story. Since she didn’t stop me, I continue.
- So, since it was hot as hell, and there weren’t supposed to be any enemy troops in the area, I decided to take a bath. – She smiles, seeing where this is going. – I left my equipment on the edge of the river and took a dive. However, - I say, scratching me head. – The imbecile who gave me the map messed up with his calculations, and I was much closer that I was supposed to be from my objective. So, a patrol caught up to me.
- Oh no, what happened?
I smile, remembering what happened.
- I hid under the water, and when they got close to my stuff, I took them by surprise and knocked out two of the three soldiers. The last one managed to shoot his gun but missed horribly and I took him out. but that was enough, the others heard the shots.
And then I paused. Curious, she urged me.
- Then what? What happened?
- Well, they started to surround me, and since I didn’t have time to put on my stuff, I just took a weapon and started picking them off. It was surprisingly easy, actually. They didn’t expect a naked German mercenary, so they didn’t take me seriously immediately, and with some surprise grenades, they surrendered.
She looks at me with wide eyes.
- How that even happen?
- Well, they were a just formed terrorist group, so they didn’t have any good equipment, that kidnapping of hostages was supposed to be their big hit of money…
- Well, what they got was a hot naked German! – She said, poking my arm. I laugh at her joke and we chat a little bit.
- So, want to buy something? – I ask. – You can get anything, on my tab.
Her eyes sparkle.
- Oh my, such generosity, my War Hero! – she looks around for a second, spotting a store. – how about that one? I’m really needing a new set of lingerie.
She says, pointing to store.
- Oh, that’s a good idea. – I say, nodding seriously. She laughs, hitting my arm lightly.
- Well, not that you’ll get to see it! at least not now… - She says, looking at me with a sly smile. I smile back as we walk to the lingerie shop. Cass walks around for a while, dragging me around and making me hold her underwear, making me receive weird gazes from other people in the store.
After a few minutes, she enters the booth to change, taking the underwear with her. Without much to do, I stand not too far from the changing booth. I take a look at my wristwatch and fiddle around with my phone a bit before I lose my balance.
I don’t fall to the ground, since I’m used to shaking surfaces. It takes me a second to realize that it’s an earthquake, quite a shaky one at that. The whole building shakes, knocking most people off their feet. After a few seconds, the tremors suddenly stops. What the flying fuck?
- Kat? – I hear Cass calling from inside the booth.
- Don’t worry Cassidy, it was just a tremor. – I say, getting close to the booth.
- KAT! – she calls with a lot more urgency this time. I hurry to open the door of the booth as I hear a weird sound. The sight before me shocks me. Cassidy is falling on my direction, completely naked, a short sword stabbed to the hilt on her belly. The preparator of the stab is a small, humanoid red creature with white belly and a scaly skin.
It’s extremely ugly, with a large mouth with sharp teeth, with a skinny but lightly muscular body, dressed only in a loincloth with four pair of thumb sized horns on the top of its bald head. I caught Cassidy, stopping her from falling. She looks at me weakly, her hand weakly holding her wound.
The small creature tries to attack us, but since it’s disarmed, it’s attacks with its fists. Since my right arm is busy with holding Cass, I extend my left hand quickly, too fast for the creature to avoid, grabbing its thin neck. With a mighty squeeze, I break the neck of the creature, its corpse falling limp on the ground.
I also crouch with Cassidy in my arms, holding her gently. She raises her left hand, and I hold it gently.
- Am I… going to die? – she asks meekly. I hold her hand firmly.
- Don’t worry, I’ll take you to a hospital. The wound is bad, but not lethal, we just ne-
My speech is cut when my body paralyzes, a light glow starting to emit from my skin, a painful tingle going all over me.
Notice Welcome to the World Management System! You have been introduced as the First Player to kill a monster barehanded! A bonus skill will be given as a bonus! For now on, struggle and survive for new experiences and adventures!
Age parameter recognized, inefficient age. Resetting Avatar…
The light shine turned into a violent pain, but I could not move. Under the shocked gaze of Cass, I watch as my body changed painfully. I could feel my clothes turning a bit baggy, and some of my old pains simply disappearing, like the wound that I got years ago on my left shoulder that stopped hurting simply disappearing.
After a few seconds, the light stops, and the pain on my body disappearing. I hold myself from falling over Cass due the sudden release. I also feel an extra weight on my head, something brushing against my neck and falling over my forehead and the sides of my head, bothering my skin.
- Sorry about that, I have no idea what happened to me. – I told her. She looks at me shocked for some reason, staring at my face, her own getting paler by the second. She weakly points to the mirror, making me confused. I glance at the mirror, shocked at the sight.
It’s me… an 18 years old me, with thinner body, at the peak of my youth, the body still muscular. The younger face without any traces of a beard looks good, with green eyes and longer, black hair falling over my neck with some white strands still, the skin pale and the same height.
- What in the flying fuck?