"Who- Who are you, stranger?" Xander asked an unfamiliar sight she has never seen before.
"I am Sergeant Arthur Brown from the United States of America Marine Corps!" Arthur Brown saluted to the group In front of him in a military pose.
"Who is this that claims to be this United States of America?" An older grown man among the group said to the others with curiosity.
"More importantly, what is this Marine corps you speak of... Arthur Brown was it?" The young boy wearing a robe asked the modern soldier whose name was Pietro while he was helping Xander back on her feet with her arm around his shoulder.
"HM? You guys don't seem to know what it is, don't you?" Arthur Brown said casually before thinking that these guys are pretty weird not to know about War Horizon that is a well-known game around the world.
"No, sir, we do not know what that is but are you perhaps a foreigner?" The boy said with curiosity shown on his face as Xander straightens herself upwards.
"You can say that." The soldier responded while scanning his surroundings just in case if any of those monsters would appear again that the group fought against but didn't see any indication of movement.
"Hmm, I am very interested in the weapons you have I might not get it, but I do understand that they're very dangerous by the looks of it, but very strange because my ability scanning is telling me that it is classified information and it's only made of metal." The older man strokes his white beard who was also wearing a robe with a few blood smudges on it.
"Metal you say?" Another member of the group said curiously as he too approaches the modern soldier and tries to scan himself and got the same result. "You wouldn't mind if we can touch it?" The two members said at the same time, which made Arthur Brown uncomfortable at how close they were to him as if he was a popular student in high school or something.
"I'm sorry, but I cannot do that, the weapon only works with the user due to restrictions created by War Horizon," Arthur explains to the others which weren't a lie in previous times when he was playing years ago whenever a player drops their rifle it would teleport back in their hands which help a lot during many kinds of situations he was in but that was only in War Horizon.
He wasn't sure if that function still works but didn't feel like trying at all right now.
"War Horizon?"
'It seems that they do not understand what I am talking about neither know about War Horizon... Am I really in virtual reality or reality?'
"Do you know anything about War Horizon Luis?" The large man in plate armor shook his head while carrying his large shield and sword.
"No, not from what I heard of." He responded which cause many of the group members to question among themselves who was this stranger and the things he has mentioned to them so casually.
"I see that none of you know what War Horizon is but it is a video game! Surely some of you must know?" Arthur Brown said to the group with the feeling of skepticism.
"Video Game?" A teenage girl with a sword replied at the words of the stranger and wonder to herself if this man was just crazy or knew something that they didn't.
"A game? What child play are you speaking of?" The older man with the white beard said now that he was feeling annoyed at this point of confusion coming from this strange fellow in front of him.
"What is this video he speaks about?" A young man asked who was wearing leather armor.
'Dang, it seems none of them are aware of the technology of War Horizon, perhaps I should keep it to myself before things become more confusing for these people.'
"Anyways, thank you, Arthur Brown, for saving me and Pietro we are in your debt." Xander and Pietro bow themselves before him in a respectable demeanor and the others also bow themselves as well in respect.
"I do agree thank you, but if you would excuse us for a moment we have to loot these monsters now." Another female said who had two daggers equipped to her thighs before the group begins to scatter around the field and loot the fallen monsters one by one for crystals.
"That loud sound that came from your strange weapon probably alerted a lot of nearby high-level tier monsters," Xander said as she approaches the marine modern soldier and Arthur Brown couldn't help but admire the beauty of this woman who was able to fight head-on in battle but also had a stunning appearance mainly her face.
"She's right, let's get out of here as soon as possible!" A grown man said to everyone who was busy taking a crystal from a fallen zombie and it begins to incinerate and eventually vanish out of sight.
"But you can loot the ones you took down, Arthur but we must hurry before any high tier monsters appear!" The woman with the daggers said to the soldier before picking up another glowing crystal.
"Roger." Arthur Brown responded with a salute in a military pose fashion before walking over to the zombie archers that he eliminated that were attacking the Adventurer's group. But the United States Marine Corp soldier notices a strange glowing crystal on its chest and wonder to himself what this might be.
'Strange, it's similar to a roleplaying game whenever you eliminate an enemy and earn rewards for it, which leads me to be wondering if this is really war horizon or something else.'
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Arthur Brown opens his menu option and took notice that he has earned a couple of experience points throughout the battle that was taking place previously and level up 2 times. "So this is a game, but at the same time, it isn't? What's going on here?" The marine soldier said to himself before picking up the crystal that was laying on top of the chest of a zombie until a new message suddenly popped up in front of him.
[You have leveled up to Rank 5!]
{Arthur Brown, Marine Corps Infantryman.}
[Available units: 0/4.]
{Arthur Brown's status.}
[Health: 500/500.]
[Armor: 250/250.]
[Strength: 5.]
[Perception: 8.]
[Agility: 7.]
[Intelligence: 10.]
[Endurance: 5.]
'Interesting... my stats are just like an RPG, role-playing game! But would that mean that I'm not in war horizon anymore, or if this is some sort of glitch that happened? If that is the case, then how come I am still able to use some of the features like the menu screen from War horizon?'
[Would you like to spend 5 points on your attribute?]
[Yes/No?]
There was a moment of silence, Arthur Brown was making a decision to click yes or no option, but eventually, he decided to click the yes option and noticed that a new menu screen popped up in front of him this time.
[Please select an attribute you want to put your points into!]
[Strength 5.] 1+
[Perception 8.] 2+
[Agility 7.] 1+
[Intelligence 10.]
[Endurance 5.] 1+
[Do you want to confirm your choice?]
[Yes/No?]
Arthur Brown selected the 'Yes' option and afterward the menu screen disappear and his whole body started to glow before vanishing. The soldier turns his attention to the group that was busy looting crystals on the defeated zombies and realized that nobody didn't seem to notice his body glowing for a few seconds.
'Strange that nobody hadn't noticed that...'
Arthur Brown soon finished looting the zombie archers after leveling up his level stats which made the Marine soldier curious about his situation. He didn't understand what was happening to himself or if this was just some kind of game he was in or if he wasn't in a game at all or even both. After some time, the group of adventurers started to gather together and beckon the marine soldier to follow them along their journey.
"Follow us lone warrior! We are returning back to the village." Luis said to Arthur Brown, who responded by nodding his head and following the group afterward, and began to think to himself, what was this village they talked about?
The village came to view to show a very beautiful big town, almost in the middle of the forest, which reminded the modern soldier of a kids show. Arthur Brown, embarrassing as it was to him, watched after losing a bet with his clan members' years back from war horizon.
"Welcome to The Village! It's not much, but it sure does bring shine into your heart!" The young boy said with the robe, as he introduces the modern soldier to their town, and looking at Arthur with a smile.
"It sure looks nice." The soldier said with a stern expression on his face, but nobody in the group wanted to a question about his look. Arthur Brown always had a Stern expression look on his face, and people always mistake his moods, be gloomy or angry, but he was actually normal since it wanted to make his avatar look tough. The young boy kept glancing at the soldier and wanted to ask him if he was mad or something, but he felt like he wasn't, so he didn't bother to tell him about it due to it being rude. Eventually, the group of adventurers, as well as the modern soldier, took a break from their travels to make it to the village, and they sat under a big tree and begin to distribute food to one another.
Arthur Brown gladly accepted a sandwich that was given to him, which was consisted of cheese and tomato and lettuce. The group was mostly quiet and it felt nice to enjoy these people's company while spending time together under a big tree, and after a few hours of talking to one another, enjoying the meal as well as laughing at a joke that Arthur explained about in war horizon, which was about falling mostly on his butt and defeating a mini-boss by accident, but that happened years ago in war horizon.
"So, Arthur Brown, what would you do after this?" Pietro asks the modern soldier with a smile on his face, meanwhile, stuffing a sandwich in his mouth, which surprise Arthur a bit before composing himself and answering his question.
"I am not quite sure to be honest since I was expecting to fight against multiple people with rocket launchers earlier because of that explosion back there until I realized that it was just your group being attacked by zombies." Arthur Brown, burps, after eating his food and the modern soldier couldn't help, but wonder to himself in thought, what would he do when they entered the village that wasn't too far from them, and would he even be able to make any money as well to make a living now that he was in this fantasy world or even return back home?
"Since we haven't introduced ourselves, I am Annie!" Annie was the girl with the daggers.
"This here is Luis!" The large guy with the large shield and sword bowed his head respectfully to Arthur in a greeting fashion.
"This is Charleston!" The young man with the leather armor and sword nodded to Arthur.
"This is Pietro." The young boy smiled and waved at Arthur happily.
"This is Xander!" The female knight bows her head respectfully to Arthur.
"This old nosy guy is Jason." The old guy with the ropes looked at Annie in disbelief that she said that before protesting.
"I am not nosy! I just happen to be around at the same time is all! How rude to claim such preposterous towards an elder!" Jason said before crossing his arms and looking away while making a 'Hmph!' sound. Annie couldn't help but snicker at the old guy's reaction along with the group laughing except for the modern soldier who only smiled in silence.
"I do appreciate your hospitality, but I don't think I will be able to buy food or make any living here in the village without any money." Arthur Brown explains his situation to the group while taking off his MARPAT woodland helmet, and he places it on top of the head of Pietro, who happily accepts it and tries to adjust the helmet to get a better view in front of his eyes.
"We can help you with that problem lone warrior," Luis said to Arthur Brown.
"You just need to register to the Adventurers Guild and whatever quest you complete, then you will be rewarded handsomely," Annie explains to the modern soldier.
"There's also ranks as well too, so the higher you rank up, the more challenging the quest will be, and also the higher rewards as well!" Pietro adds into the conversation.
"That sounds pretty fun and not bad to make an earning for a living." Arthur Brown said before getting up and dusting himself off as Pietro hands over his MARPAT enhance combat helmet to the modern soldier who takes it back from him and places it on his own head again.
The group begins their journey again on the valley road leading to the village, and eventually, the place becomes more clear in view, which is breathtaking.
"Village, here we come!" Pietro said before running on the dirt road and going ahead of the group.
"Not before I get there first!" Annie said with a grin on her face as she begins to run ahead of the young boy, and the two begin to race each other in a competition to see who will make it to the village first.
'This is going to be an interesting journey from here on out.' Arthur Brown said within his thoughts while looking up at the large gates protecting the big city that seemed to be almost in the middle of a forest.