Should I just jump over the wall? I could, but… should I?

***

[ Quest: Get Across The Great Border Wall! ]

Built by the Coalition of the Three Kingdoms, The Great Border Wall stands as humankind's foremost line of defense against the regular invasions of the Demon King’s army.

You may need an identity plaque or a guarantor to get you across.

Good luck!

***

A few hours had passed since Yuu arrived in the Great Border Wall, and parted ways with Anna and William. He was currently sitting under one of the dozen giant open tents set up outside the border. He was sitting among thousands of evacuees, all from frontier towns scattered around the great forest.

Looking around, he noticed that all the evacuees looked so haggardly, likely from abandoning their hometowns and evacuating in a hurry. Their clothes were dusty and torn. Their faces marked by exhaustion. Some lay down due to injuries. Some searched for lost family members. Others murmured about what would happen next. Most, however, just sat in silence, aware that they would have to wait for who-knows-how-long identity approval process or else find a guarantor from the inside to cross the wall instantly—two things that Yuu, and likely most evacuees, didn’t have.

According to what Yuu heard from the grapevine, most evacuees were the new generations born in the frontier-towns. They had never crossed the border before to get their identity registered, hence the slow treatment.

Fortunately for them, the treatment didn’t get any harsher. In addition to the tents that protected them from direct sunlight, dozens of public toilets were set up along the wall; there were a free meal service provided by some altruistic princesses near the main gate; and there was even the unintentional spectacle of knights and soldiers marching out from across the wall toward the great forest.

Let’s say I jumped over and then inevitably got noticed by one of numerous guards on top, wouldn’t that make me a wanted man after? Could I handle getting chased around everywhere I go because I just had to illegally crossing a fucking wall? Maybe I could, but… nahh, it’s not worth it. I’m not desperate enough to try yet. I still need to check on those kids’ orphanage too. Maybe also helping them get rid of their problems if I could. And getting chased around would definitely bring more trouble to them than I can afford. Hahhh…

Yuu stood up and began to walk around the area, hoping to get some fresh air.

***

As Yuu walked, the sun was about to set. Soldiers were lighting torches around the area and distributing night blankets to the elderly and children. The spectacle of knights and soldiers marching out from inside the border had stopped for a while now as the sky get darker.

“Hey there!” A man approached Yuu from the front. “Are you perhaps looking for a guarantor to get you across the border?”

“Nope.”

Yuu had noticed the man carefully following him for the past five minutes. He let him be, curious to see what the man’s business with him was.

“Are you sure? I could be your guarantor, you know? You could get across the border right this instant if you have me as your guarantor.”

The man was persistent. He kept following Yuu despite being promptly rejected. From the impression alone, it was very obvious that the man would request a scamming amount of money for the service.

However, the moment the man showed Yuu his identity plaque that have the same design that other guarantors carried when helping people cross the border, Yuu’s curiousity got the better of him.

Okay, I’ll bite. There’s no harm in asking for the price. If it’s too much, I can just say no, right?

Yuu stopped walking, looked the man in the eyes, and said, “What’s your price?”

Not a little bit surprised, the man smiled. “Can you toss me a copper coin?”

“Okay. Sure.”

Yuu briefly opened his dimensional storage and tossed a copper coin to the man.

According to what he had learned from the kids, the common currency used in human society, ranked from least to most valuable, consisted of the copper coin, the silver coin, the gold coin, and the platinum coin. Their exchange values went like this: one platinum coin equals one thousand gold coins, one gold coin equals one hundred silver coins, and one silver coin equals ten copper coins. A family of four living in an average town spends at least one gold coin per month to get by, and Yuu, who looted caskets full of money from the emptied frontier town that morning, wouldn't worry about being scammed for a mere copper coin.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The man, who successfully caught the copper coin in his hand, enthusiastically said, “Great! Now, follow my lead.”

***

Out of curiousity, Yuu followed the man, wondering what the man would do with his copper coin. The man led him to the main gate, where he spoke to one of the stationed guards, and handed over his identity plaque. Under the torchlight, the guard examined the man’s identity plaque, confirming the legitimacy of it. After that, the guard told Yuu to come closer to him.

“Name?” the guard asked Yuu, his voice lethargic but his gaze sharp and scrutinizing.

“Hoshino Yuu,” Yuu answered nervously. Being questioned by border guards—or immigration staff—always made him uneasy, even back on Earth.

The guard wrote something on a wooden plaque, and handed it to Yuu. Yuu’s name was written on it, but without the space: Hoshinoyuu.

Hoshinoyuu? I guess this is my name now. Suppose with the area beyond the wall being kingdoms and all, a commoner having a family name is an uncommon thing. Whatever.

“Your temporary ID. Make sure you go to the local civil office for the permanent one,” the guard said, knocking on the main gate, which opened just enough for the duo to pass through. “Alright, you two can cross now.”

Wait… is that it? The price was only a copper coin? No way… From the documentary that I watched back on the internet, crossing a border like this should cost me an arm and a leg… This guy must be planning to extort me after we crossed the border or something. I should be prepared.

The man led Yuu once they were inside the Great Border Wall. The interior was more spacious than Yuu had expected, which made him glad he had abandoned the idea of simply jumping over it.

Oh, great… This wall is like a long castle. That’s cool.

It took the duo to what felt like several minutes of walking to arrive at the inner gate. There was a guard stationed there. The man handed over his identity plaque to the guard, followed by Yuu who showed his temporary identity plaque. Without saying a word, the guard promptly opened the inner gate, and let the duo finally cross the Great Border Wall.

***

[ Quest Completed: Get Across The Great Border Wall! ]

[ Calculating Rewards… ]

[ You received a temporary identity plaque. ]

[ Starting Chain Quest: Go Get a Permanent ID! ]

[ Calculation Complete ]

***

Beyond the wall, they were greeted by the beautiful sight of a golden sea of paddy fields stretching to the horizon bathed in the pale, cleaved moonlight. A wide, rocky road divided the fields, linking the Great Border Wall to the castle-town of Tiada.

The duo arrived to the castle-town in no time. What Yuu worried about getting scammed or extorted on the way didn’t happen. The man just followed him in silence, and it vexed Yuu even more.

The duo decided to camp outside when they found out that the town closed its gates to outsiders at night. Finding a small clearing not far from the main road, they began setting up for the evening.

On one side, there was Yuu. He opened his dimensional storage, pulling out a medium-sized tent kit, along with some bedding and a bundle of firewood. He set up the tent, laid the bedding inside, and started a campfire outside—creating a cozy setup with the tent and a campfire in front of it. He then sat by the campfire, pulled out a chicken he already prepared beforehand, and began grilling it.

On the other side, there was the man. He watched Yuu finish setting up before opening his own dimensional storage, and laying out a simple sleeping bag beside Yuu’s campfire.

“Okay, this is weird,” Yuu said, confronting the man as he turned the chicken over the fire. “What do you want?”

The man, who also sat beside Yuu’s campfire, answered, “I would like the breasts, please.”

“No. Not the chicken. You offered to be my guarantor out of nowhere—helped me crossed the Great Border Wall for almost nothing. And if anything, I know there’s nothing free in this world. You must want something.”

“Yeah, true, there’s nothing free in the world, but you already paid me, right?”

“With just a copper coin? Are you a lawyer or something?”

“What’s a lawyer?”

“Nevermind.” Yuu turned the chicken over the fire once again, making sure that the heat spread evenly. “Actually, now that I think about it, I haven’t heard it, yet. Your name.”

“Didn’t you read my name when I showed you my identity plaque?”

“I did, but is that how people are supposed to introduce themselves to each other?”

“Right. You’re right.” The man extended his right arm toward Yuu with a smile, offering a handshake. “Nice to meet you. My name is Charlie.”

Yuu accepted Charlie’s handshake. “Yuu.”

“Me?” Charlie awkwardly giggled as Yuu frowned at the attempted joke. Yuu decided he would only humor one bad joke about his name per day for his own sanity.

"Come to think of it," Charlie said, snapping back to reality. "Your dimensional storage must be pretty big to hold this much stuff. Mine's pretty small compared to yours," he added, looking down at his own.

“Oh, come on, don’t get all self-conscious in front of me. Size doesn’t matter; it’s about how you use your dimensional storage that counts.”

Charlie laughed. “You know what—you just sounded like my old man.”

“Let me guess—does he also have a dimensional storage as small as yours?”

“I would say mine is averagely sized. Yours is just massive.”

“Okay,” Yuu wanted to laugh, but he held it in. “Let’s stop with the metaphor, and start speaking about what you want for me.”

Charlie was taken aback. He figured Yuu wouldn’t let go of the topic no matter how much he was deflecting. He took a deep breath before saying, “I think this will be a long conversation, are you okay with it?”

“Sure. We have a whole grilled chicken and the entire night to waste.”