*growl*

Connor’s stomach had growled once again.

‘Urgh… How the hell am I supposed to find my way… They could’ve at least given the players a minimap.’

Connor continued walking towards the village.

‘I don’t understand why these people keep looking at me like this though.’ he thought. It has barely been 5 minutes since he started walking yet he felt like they were staring into the depths of his soul.

Another thing that Connor had noticed, every time a villager got close to him or he had to walk closer to them due to passing horses and carriages, which was interesting for Connor once again, everyone would suddenly drop their heads as if they were sorry to be in his way.

After about 15 minutes of walking, Connor had reached the end of the road. The gates of the village, from a short distance, Connor noticed two guards standing and doing checks on various villagers coming in and out of the village especially stopping the villagers with carriages and asking for some sort of a bronze plate. One of the guards was receiving a bronze plate from the merchants, or that was what Connor had assumed, while the other guard was checking the villagers. The interesting part for Connor was that the guards were wearing somewhat shabby medieval clothing and holding some sort of a polearm that looked like a halberd.

‘Woah.’ Connor thought.

‘What’s with the super medieval look, with the wooden walls, halberds, horses and carriages and villagers with shabby clothes?’

Connor was mused. He looked to his left and right before moving his hands to touch his cheek.

‘No one questioned my attire, yet kept looking at me.’

‘No one approached to speak with me, the only girl who did was swiftly taken away by, I assume, her mother.’

‘Warzone was supposed to take place in an alternate reality that’s for sure but it should be sometime between 21st and 22nd century. Not 12th.’

‘A glitch?’

It was a feasible answer, considering all the weird texts he had seen before he was sent to this place. This could be a faraway land, a developer test zone or a zone that have not had their technology upgrades yet.

‘Hmm.’

Connor tried logging out again.

Logout is not available.

‘It should’ve been at least twenty- no half an hour since I tried logging out. How come it takes the developers this long to fix it?’

‘Help page?’

Help page is not available.

‘Okay, none of these still work.’

‘What to do…’

‘What to do…’

Reflexively, Connor started tapping his right foot.

While he was thinking, he realized that one of the guards who were standing at the gate started rushing his way. The armour he was wearing, even if it was not heavy, was still resounding clacking noises as he ran.

The guard ran until he was right in front of Connor.

The guard suddenly raised his right hand to his left chest before slightly bowing his head.

“My lord, what brings you to our village?” the guard asked timidly.

Connor was brought out of his stupor and looked at the guard.

“Huh, yes?” Connor replied.

The guard was surprised, accidentally losing his manners for a second.

“Wha- Oh, sorry for disturbing you, my lord. I saw you standing still outside the village gates, you were tapping your foot so I thought you were summoning one of us to help you out.”

It was now Connor’s turn to be surprised.

“Ah, uh… Yeah… no… I was just thinking about a few things, sorry for alerting you.” Connor managed to let out.

The guard’s face changed. He saluted Connor once again.

“I understand, my lord. I will now head back to my spot. Please do notify us if you need anything.” the guard said before turning back like a soldier and marching towards the village gate.

“What the heck just happened?” Connor said audibly.

The guards’ attitude towards Connor had attracted some attention from the villagers around them. Some people followed the guard with their eyes while some looked at Connor. Several villagers had surprised looks on their faces, just as the guard had.

As if reacting to what Connor said, some villagers flinched and quickly resumed their duties, afraid that the blonde-haired, blue-eyed young man was angry.

Connor noticed the movement in the villagers.

‘Okay, this is quite weird.’

*growl*

‘I really gotta find something to eat.’

Connor started moving towards the village gates, there were at least a dozen villagers, some with horses and carriages, some on foot queueing in front of the guards before giving them their bronze plates to check.

‘The bronze plates seem to be some sort of an identification paper. Well, plate. Not paper.’

‘Can I just shuffle my way through I wonder?’

Connor thought while he walked as if he was taking a casual stroll. Seeing the young man approaching the line some of the villagers moved their bodies to let the young man through while the guard who had spoken to him just a few minutes prior started yelling towards the villagers.

“Make way! Make way!”

Hearing the guard, villagers quickly started shuffling in the line.

‘Okay, have to admit. This feels really good.’ Connor thought, he hated lines. Mag-bus while going to school, waiting in line for the cafeteria bots to provide them with their daily lunch at school, waiting in line in basically anywhere, Connor hated it.

Connor had a minuscule smile forming on his lips. This did not go unnoticed by the guard who was approaching him once again.

“This way my lord.”

The guard said in front of Connor as he pointed through the gates.

“*cough*, Thank you. I can handle the rest.” Connor replied, trying to find a good answer for the guard.

The guard smiled and promptly replied.

“Yes, my lord. I understand.” before saluting and going back to the gates.

After passing through the gate, Connor could now see the rest of the village. It was definitely bigger than he expected for sure but it would be wrong to call this village a town, or at least in Connor’s terms. Wooden houses everywhere, small wooden hawkers selling various types of stuff, ranging from weird stones to interesting and yummy looking food.

The stench was… intriguing for Connor at best. With so many different materials’ smell mixing in the air, it was impossible to ignore it. Connor eyed the village left to right.

‘The village is… well… Exactly like I imagined. I remember reading some of these types of villages in the history books and seeing some of them on the TV shows and movies I watched…’

‘It appears so that I wasn’t wrong about thinking this was a relatively poor village.’

No matter how many glances you took, the village was really looking rundown, even though the streets were packed with villagers it was really rare to see someone smiling.

*growl*

‘Alright, alright, I am not going to ignore you anymore.’ Connor said to himself.

Glancing at the nearest hawker, he walked towards the man’s stall.

“Potatoes! Potatoes! Freshly farmed, only 7 coppers each!”

“Lettuce! Selling Lettuce! Just arrived from the farmers! Only 5 copper each!”

“Hey there, do you happen to know if there are any hotels or something nearby?” Connor asked towards the hawker.

The hawker vigorously turned towards Connor.

“What the fu- Ah! My lord, how this lowly peasant help you today?”

The hawker was surprised to see such a person visiting his stall and accidentally had a slip of tongue, cursing himself and hoping that the young man did not notice.

“Ah, hey. Sorry for interrupting your sales, I asked if there is a hotel nearby?” Connor asked.

The hawker started fiddling with his fingers.

“Ho- what? I am sorry, my lord, this lowly peasant does not know what that is.” the hawker answered fearfully.

‘What’s with this reaction?’ Connor questioned himself.

“Uh… Like, a building where people go to stay for a few days, maybe longer.” Connor replied.

‘So the NPCs do not know what a hotel is. Interesting.’ Connor thought.

The hawker suddenly formed a smile on his face before replying to Connor.

“Ahhh! Yes, my lord. We do have a place like that.” hawker said then started pointing down the road. “If you keep going this way and then turn left from the Raza’s Armoursmith you should see the Sleeping Oak Inn. While they are not cheap, they are definitely the best suitable for your lordship.” the hawker hastily answered Connor’s question.

‘Ah. An inn. Right, those were the things in… the… medieval ages?’

‘Huh…’

‘What to do…’

“My lord?” the hawker inquired.

“Yes, yes. I heard you. Thank you.” Connor replied as he started walking towards Sleeping Oak Inn.

In just a few minutes, Connor had reached the inn. It was a wooden building, the same as others, though it could be said that this building fared a bit better in comparison. It was a three-story building with glass windows whereas other buildings Connor had seen, some of them did not even have any glass windows on them.

There was a big sign with two beer mugs clashing against each other.

Sleeping Oak Inn

As Connor was inspecting the building, a party of four came out. It was a party consisting of two men and two women. Clad in armour and weapons.

“Thanks for the great hospitality as always Jeanne!” one of the women said while she looked back inside the building.

Suddenly, she was yanked in the arm by her party member.

“What? What is it?” the woman turned towards her party member and questioned.

Connor realized that the woman who yanked her arm was pointing at him.

‘What now?’

“Oh.” was the only thing that came out of the woman’s mouth. Quickly, the party of four started walking and disappeared amongst the crowd, without paying any heed to Connor.

Connor just raised an eyebrow and walked into the inn.

“Be with you in a second!” Jeanne while picking up the dishes left on the table. After she picked up the dishes, she turned towards the guest.

“Ah!” Jeanne accidentally raised her voice.

‘Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.’ she froze.

‘Alright, take it easy. This is your chance.’ she thought to herself.

Connor was checking the interior of the inn before he heard the maid, as he assumed, suddenly shout.

‘Okay, just like you always imagined. Jeanne, this is your chance.’

Jeanne pinched the ends of her dress and slightly curtsied towards Connor.

“Welcome, esteemed guest. My name is Jeanne Goldburn. Maid of the Sleeping Oak Inn.”