The middle-aged man pointed a gun at Ash's head with a calm expression.
Feeling the tip of the gun in his head, his body stiffened. His mind was racing to get out of this situation, but he continued to bandage the wound pretending to be calm.
"Are you going to kill me?" he asked him cautiously.
"Why not? I can have the items you've gathered if you die," the man said calmly.
Ash raised his hands in surrender, and cold sweat started to drip down his back.
'Activate Shadow Sword,' he ordered the system inwardly.
Ting.
[Skill: Shadow Sword activated.]
"Wouldn't we be able to get more items if we are together in this?" he tried to persuade him with a calm expression.
The man was silent as he looked at Ash blankly.
He lowered his hand holding the gun, exhaled, and then said in a whisper, "I can't do this. I can't kill another human..."
With pity, Ash looked at the man.
"I have children and a wife in the real world. Why did I have to be dragged here?" The man started to sob.
Ash didn't say anything. He just pretended to fix the bandages on the man's legs, which were already well attached.
The man rubbed his snot and stopped sobbing.
"We need to get out of this place, it's too damp and cold to spend the night," Ash said when he was done pretending to be sympathetic.
'After all, he pointed his gun at me earlier,' he thought a little annoyed.
"Yeah, but I can hardly walk," the man said.
"Hmm. I'll find and make something to make you walk," Ash said after thinking for a moment. "You wait here, okay? I'll be quick."
The man nodded weakly.
Ash left him with some food and canned coffee from his supplies, then walked to the riverside while thinking about how sad the man's children and wife would be.
He took a deep breath.
'Same with me, how is mom doing there?' he thought, and this encounter making him wanted to go home quickly.
He climbed to the top of a tree not far from the river and chosen a tree trunk that was as thick as his fist and had two branches. He wanted to make a walking stick for the man.
'Oh, I forgot not to ask the man's name. I'll ask later.'
He was cleaning the trunk carefully with his knife when he saw five people walking from upstream. The five people looked like market thugs, with all of their bodies were covered with tattoos. And they also chatted with loud voices.
Ash quickly ducked under the leaves on the tree, his instincts telling him he must not be seen by these people.
They walked towards where the middle-aged man was!
Not long after, the five people arrived near the hole and found the man under the rock. Ash watched their actions, without knowing what to do.
Then two shots were heard, but after that was silence.
And all the five men left the hole with laughing and exchanging jokes with each other.
"Game Map," Ash muttered quietly.
Ting.
The map screen of the game spread out in front of him, and he immediately pressed 'Show Others', then pressed one of the five red dots that showed the five people which were leaving this place.
Ting.
[Player Number: #77926.]
[Profession: Robber.]
He furrowed his brows then pressed the other red dot.
Ting.
[Player Number: #03639.]
[Profession: Robber.]
He seemed to understand something and pressed another red dot to confirm his suspicion.
Ting.
[Player Number: #88264.]
[Profession: Robber.]
He pressed the remaining two dots again, and they all showed the same Profession, Robber.
His suspicion was confirmed, and that made him gasped.
'So, this is what Robber means? Do they commit a robbery in groups?'
If so, he should avoid players who had the Robber profession, especially if his skill level was still low.
'Ah, that man!!' he remembered the middle-aged man who was injured earlier.
He hurriedly climbed down from the tree and ran towards the hole under the rock, to check on him.
But what he saw made him freeze. The man was no longer alive with a sharp stick stuck in his chest.
***
It was already afternoon when Ash finished digging a hole near the river and buried the middle-aged man in it. He regretted not taking him away sooner, and that made him a little bit emotional.
All of the man's belongings, such as his gun, were gone. The robbers must have taken them.
There was one thing that he didn't understand, why the Robbers were only targeting the middle-aged man but didn't find him, even though he was hiding not far from where the injured man was? Meanwhile, they could immediately determine the position of the middle-aged man.
'Hmm…'
Putting aside this strange thing and thought it was the game's bug, he gritted his teeth and determined to hunt down the Robbers.
***
Ash buttoned up his jacket while watching the map screen. The five red dots did not move, and he was in a tree close to his prey's position.
Those dots shown that they were in a building that looked like an abandoned warehouse. It was on a hill, with no trees around it. On the sides of its walls there were several large fans, mounted through the walls, and none of them were on.
They lit a bonfire inside, and occasionally he could hear their laughter.
When the moon was above his head, he climbed down from the tree and approached the warehouse carefully. He didn't forget to activate his Shadow Sword skill as well.
The flames of the bonfire could still be seen between the roof and walls of the warehouse. The sound of burning wood was heard, but there were no more voices from them.
He peeked out from one of the large fans and saw a campfire burning in the middle of the warehouse. The five Robbers were sleeping around the campfire.
This was his chance.
The distance between the fan frame and the gap between the roof and walls was not that far. He climbed up the fan and reached into the gap, then pulled himself up so he could sit on the gap.
From the gap, he could see everything inside the warehouse. There were boxes stacked on random sides of the walls, and some places had hays scattered on its floor.
Slowly he drew his sword then jumped towards those sleeping robbers.
His sword immediately pierced one person's chest. The man screamed, but his voice was choked with his own blood, then died immediately on the spot.
Hearing the screaming, his friends woke up and tried to gang up on Ash.
Ash, with his Shadow Sword skill, nimbly avoided and counter-attacked these people. Not long after, the people lost and fell to the ground, lifeless.
One two three four, ...
'Where's the fifth person?!'
"You bastard!" a voice came from behind him. It turned out that the person had come out while Ash was climbing the warehouse wall and came back exactly after he killed his friends.
He turned around in quick motion, but the person fired the gun in his hand and hit his shoulder.
Ignoring the pain, and preferring not to die himself, Ash immediately jumped towards the person and swung his sword at the person's neck.
The fifth person's body knelt, and his gunshot pointed towards the ground. Then the body fell with a thud on his stomach.
But his head rolled away to the side of the warehouse.
Seeing the rolling head of a human being, Ash, who only relied on his skills to face his enemies, immediately vomited.
This was his first time killing humans, and it left him feeling unwell.