Walking through the central district for 20 minutes, Tyler quickly realized that the name of the planet he was on probably didn't start with the letter E. People were walking around in metal armor of different colors, some were clothed in magician's robes but the one most prevalent thing was the abundance of young upstarts in silk clothing and frills. Tyler felt a feeling of minor disgust towards the presumably young nobles walking around in groups. It was a feeling as if they were simply beneath him in the food chain.

Compared to his own mansion, the other large buildings in the district didn't look nearly as polished, except for three. One was the governor palace located at the district square, one the Merlinger family estate in the eastern part of the district and the third the Hallten crafting guild HQ in the northern part.

He quickly found out that the city was called Damarcus, and that it was the commercial center of the large Axus kingdom due to its' large harbor district. There was a war going on in the neighboring kingdom of Elys which meant a big quantity of refugees had been gathering in Damarcus' eastern district, probably being the main cause of why his mother wanted him to 'take care' of whatever the Hauberg business was about.

Closing in on the canal separating the eastern and central districts, Tyler noticed an alleyway which felt familiar. Intrigued, he put the Hauberg business to a temporary halt and went in to explore. There were 2 pubs in the alley and one of them felt like his own home in a way, going close to the entrance he suddenly heard voices inside.

"B..but the boss wouldn't.."

"What boss? A kid with some coin? He's more of an employer than a boss, and it would be better just to take out early wages from his corpse." A sinister voice reprimands the speaker.

"Dan, the fuck are you on about? You want to destroy the Neighborhood Storage Space?!" Another angry voice called out.

'Neighborhood Storage Space.. A very good name. The founder must have been a thoughtful pers..'

"BOSS!" a surprised female voice from behind calls out.

"Shh" Tyler silences her and turns to face her. A young lady with a petite build roughly 1.60m tall clad in tight leather and a cloak with a pair of daggers at her side stands in front of him. 'Mhm, this boss could've had worse tastes I guess, nice leather and.. wait BOSS? I'm the boss?'

The woman being confused walked up next to Tyler looking for what he was doing while the loudmouth lackeys inside were continuing to argue.

"...Calm down, calm down. The reason I'm telling you this is that the Haubergs approached me with an offer. They said that they'd taken care of that 'boss' of ours and were looking to invest in our business"

"""THE BOSS IS DEAD?!"""

"That's what they told me yesterday, poisoned food like those nobles usually do their business.." There was an edge of glee in his voice at this point.

"So I'm not trying to destroy our group, rather trying to save it under a bigger umbrella. They offered me to take over the group with fair terms as long as we keep them posted about them nobles and help them develop in the central district."

"You're basically telling us to go full criminal with you as a leader here.. You're nowhere near the smarts of our boss, I could just join a real gang in the northern harbor district if you're gonna lead this place."

Sounds of a weapon being drawn came from the side, the woman.. Lucy? had taken out her daggers with a pensive expression on her face.

Tyler waved his arm to her to calm down before preparing to enter the building and show them the true meaning of boss.

"You think you can just walk out of here knowing about the Haubergs getting rid of the bo.." Dan began drawing his weapon but was quickly interrupted.

The door slammed open revealing Tyler in his grand perfectly timed entrance.

"You. What's your name again?" pointing at Dan

"""BOSS?!?"""

"What are you talking about boss? I'm Dan of course"

"Ye, you're a Dan. I'm a Tyler. There's the point. A small-time Dan like you has no place handling lackeys. Understand?"

Little Dan got shut down hard by accusing glances from the rest of the people in the room.

"In fact, they DID get rid of your old boss Tyler yesterday, I'm just the bigger and better Tyler that will clean up his lackeys and failing business model for him." Tyler said, adressing all 5 people in the room.

"What do you mean, boss?" Lucy asked.

"This bully king woke up yesterday in this kid's body with some Brain Worm in my head, lil' Tyler probably kicked the bucket from it but this Tyler ain't going down like that. This bully king has been taking drugs worse than some worm for years." If anyone wasn't previously paying attention, those words made their heads go blank from confusion.

"BRAIN WORM? How are you alive?" the lanky Dan suddenly burst out. Sweat clearly forming on his forehead.

'Dans are the same in every world it seems..'

"...As I just told you, little Dan, the old Tyler kicked the bucket and now this bully king is in control. I think it's time to reform this place a bit don't you think?"

"You say you're boss, but also that boss is gone, what's gonna happen to us then?" The guy arguing with Dan previously spoke up. A rough looking man in his thirties in guardsman plate armor, almost 2 meters tall.

"What's your name?"

"Brad, boss"

"Good name for a lackey. Don't get into fights just because you're strong though."

"Thank you boss, boss told me the same when you found me."

'Indeed, a Tyler is a natural leader no matter which world they come from.'

"Mhm, So for starters, the Neighborhood Storage Space is a good name, but I believe we can't expand our business properly without having an exceptional one. From now onwards, this place will be called The Safekeepers HQ. Our goal will be to recruit lackeys, help people from their strained muscles and back pain by holding their wallets for them as well as keeping the streets safe for a security fee. The Safekeepers are not criminals. We operate within the law by persuading our fellow citizens to use our fair services for their own good. Money is just a currency while your health and business is what keeps you alive and going." Tyler started pacing the room, all eyes focused on him.

"We, The Safekeepers, teach our clients this, at the same time as we take care of small-time crooks like little Dan trying to steal from others by teaching and turning them into our own lackeys."

During Tyler's monologue, the sneaky little Dan had quickly disappeared from the room when noone was watching. The only sign left of his presence were small puddles of sweat

"BOOOSS" "THE SAFEKEEPERS RULE!!!" "KEEP THE STREETS SAFE!" "KEEP WALLETS SAFER"

'These guys are very good lackeys. They know their priorities and when to cheer their at their boss' work..'

"Boss, what about those Hauberg guys? They tried to kill you!" Good Lucy asked, looking concerned.

'This one is even more impressive, concerning herself with the well-being of the boss and revenge on his enemies..'

"About that, my mother told me to 'deal with the Hauberg upstarts' today, so that was my intention all along before stumbling in here."

"Mother?"

'These guys don't even know my identity yet?'

"Nevermind her, I need some information and time to make a plan before we do anything against the Haubergs."

"You, the small guy over there. What's your name?" Tyler said, pointing at the extremely average looking guy who shouted 'THE SAFEKEEPERS RULE!'.

"Wilbert, b..Boss!"

'Mhmm now that's a loyal one'

"Good, Wilbert, you will be my spy lackey in the Hauberg business."

"I..Haven't done anything like that before?"

"Mhm, little Tyler definitely missed an oppurtunity then, you're the perfectly forgettable candidate for spying. I need you to gather some information about their business and who the bigshots are around those parts."

"Y..YES BOSS!" Wilbert suddenly started smiling and looked very happy for some reason, as if someone gave him a nice compliment.

'Lastly that guy..' Looking over at an unnaturally tall older man in a dirty noble suit with a monocle over his right eye he immediately got the answer without even asking.. although not quite the answer he expected.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"My name is Wallace Ardvil. House Ardvil was burned down due to my brother's collusion with foreign forces 3 years ago. I escaped punishment but was stripped of title and wealth. Since then I've been living like a rat.." He paused and flames of anger were visible in his eyes. "I lived like a rat and all my previous friends I'd known for decades abandoned me to the streets. I even found out that my kid was probably not even my own as my wife left with him to live with a goddamn merchant!" He clenched his knuckles and looked down into the table.

"I lived like a rat until Boss found me dying in the street in the eastern district one day. He took me to this place and it's been my home ever since. It's better to live as a dog of the Boss than as a rat in the street. He gave me another shot at this miserable life.."

'Oookay. At least he's loyal.. I think. How did little Tyler even manage to gather these jewels? There's a ruined old noble, some kid who I already forgot the name of, a chick with daggers and a goddamn guardsman?! Let's not even mention how he got his hands on a Dan of all things.'

"Dog? I don't need dogs. I need lackeys. A gang without a boss will split up, and a gang with no lackeys will break. You're a former noble which means you know a lot of stuff right? Management and information is what I need. You're the new Head of lackeys as well as my personal library."

"Library?? ..Head of lackeys is certainly a step up from dog. Thank you boss."

"We need to recruit more lackeys. a group with 5 members can simply not be called a gang. We also need some kind of lawyer if we don't want to get discovered. Any ideas?"

...

"All in good time then. Wil... Spy, go look over at the Haubergs for anything you can find. Library, I got some questions I need help with. Got nothing to do for both of you though" Tyler says looking at Lucy and Brad who simply look back at him like puppies after his announcements.

"Whatever, you guys can stay here with me and Library. We got any drinks in this place?"

They definitely had ale, and every question Tyler asked them made them realize the actual situation: The Boss is actually different. They hadn't really believed in the Boss when he told them what had happened, but hearing all these questions even kids could answer made them seriously reconsider. Wallace himself was completely dumbfounded but quickly answered whatever Boss asked him.

Tyler found out much more about the levels, how to earn them, how jobs and perks worked and confirmed that the colors usually meant rarity, rarity rank also corresponded to the power level.

Grey rank was normal, which was pretty much the base for any job/title you could get.

Green was special, either having certain prerequisites to earn, or being an upgrade from the grey rank.

Blue was rare, usually a quite specialized job/title that focuses on a single thing but being very strong for that purpose.

Purple was exceptional and from rumors were nigh-unique versions of other jobs/titles, primarily based around personality traits and gained from the onlooker's eye.

Golden stood for unique. Unique jobs/titles were specialized around the wielder, and a unique job/title couldn't be gained by 2 different people.

Perks were gained from your jobs leveling up. Level 1 in a job gave you its' base perk, future perks were gained at level 3, 6, 10, 15.. In some cases, you could have more than 1 perk to choose from if you fulfilled the requirements.

Levels were mainly gained from killing creatures, be that monsters or humans. Some tasks specific to the job could also earn you levels, such as a crook stealing a purse, a noble attending balls and gatherings etc. The higher your levels are the higher the requirement for the task or monster level to progress. You could also not gain more than a single level at a time, even if defeating a dragon.

Weirdly enough, there were 3 ways of "changing" job. One way was the expected "to fulfill requirements for a job evolution" which was usually done by reaching level caps (15, 40, ??). Another rare way was for your job to stop existing. In Wallace' case that happened when the Ardvil was removed from the map and his wealth was stripped away. Together with his house, his Noble job disappeared together with his 28 levels in it. This would also happen when a beggar got employed. The last way was when you accomplished an exceptional feat according to the level system. As previously mentioned, slaying a dragon could be an example of that.

"STATS"

Tyler Level 26(17+6+3) Unspent points 0 STR 36 Increases damage done by abilities (118%) Increases overall body strength and tenacity. DEX 36 Increases critical hit multiplier from spells and abilities (168%) Slightly increases reflexes and body INT 77 Increases damage done by spells (143.5%) Slightly increases brain processing power. VIT 140 Increases HP (2800) Increases toughness of your body. END 140 Increases SP (1400) Decreases the wear on your body and improves your lifespan slightly. WIS 140 Increases MP (1400) Slightly increases mental resilience to attacks and persuasion. CHR 250 Slightly ncreases favorability with ALL creatures, your look is slightly improved in the eyes of the beholder and your words are more convincing than usual. (250) Creatures are less likely to get angry with or attack you unless the cause is Envy or Greed. PER 10 Rely more heavily on your intuition and perceive details you might otherwise miss. LCK 30 Skews odds slightly in your favor.

'...Not hard seeing where little Tyler spent his focus.. In a world with magic and probably dragons exist, it looks like my job will have to be to recruit loyal lackeys, charm the ladies and extort the merchants... Of course, bullying the weak and the people who stand out is included. I won't complain but.. Adventure?'

Lackeys: 4

Lackeys lost: 1