“Any signs of suspicious activity?”

“No… not yet, at least”

“Good, but I want you to take s--!” The ground beneath their feet began to shake, and a loud, ear piercing blast that sent rocks and debris to fly everywhere hit most of the men standing guard near the city hall.

They screamed in horror and pain, even though they were wearing plated armor. The impact of being tossed into the air and being hit by small fragments of debris in the gaps of their armor caused most of them to lose consciousness. And to those who were still awake and conscious, they wished that they weren’t.

The whole city hall’s structure began to wane, and it’s foundation was nowhere as stable as it was before.

After a few seconds, one part of the building fell down crumbling into the Earth, and then a domino effect soon followed. The castle has toppled.

People broke out into wild panic, but not over the ruse that was the explosion and collapse of an important central building. No. It was due to the chaos that they rushed to the stalls and into the stores, and took everything that they could possibly carry along with them by force. They weren’t free to do as they pleased, though, because the owners fended them off with a whack from a baseball bat or from a few rounds of their M1911.

“This people really are the very definition of the word ‘opportunists’, are they not?” My King commented, and I just nodded along with his words.

“Costs of living are way too high given the small opportunities to make cash, couple that with the scarce supplies, rotten environment and people, shit compensation, and voila” I pointed my thumb at my back where the raiding was happening, and then looked to my King at my front.

“So, this came as no surprise”

“Still, it astounds me what this place has done to its people to make them behave this way… and I quite like it”

Putting my King’s poor taste in how people behave, it wasn’t always like this. Or well, it wasn’t this bad in the very beginning.

From the story that got passed on to me by a kind auntie here. I know, it sounds unbelievable, right? But, there are those that really are just unfortunate enough to land themselves in this dark abyss, or were already inhabitants of Sunnydale to begin with.

But, moving on from that, before the whole Ranking Wars started, this place was just a normal and plain old city that you’d find just about anywhere else. Only when the world changed that this place took a drastic turn for the worse. First, it was just the economical breakdown from the panic and terror of trying to survive the onslaught of the system, then came human trafficking and drug dens from the deprived wanderers that came afterwards, and after that, the more heinous crimes like human organ harvesting soon followed within a couple of months. All in all, it didn’t change that much from before, I guess.

“Oh! The achievement window’s been updated” Wise informed me of our progress. “We’ve got the points now, but it seems the system wants to give us an additional task”

“And that is?”

“Hunt down one of the city council’s members. Dead or ali-… crucified? What?”

“Did it specify who?”

He squinted his eyes and took a better look at something that I couldn’t see. “Not that I’m aware of, no”

Well, that makes things more dangerous for us… and more interesting as well.

“I’ve got someone in mind, then…”

Payback’s a scornful bitch that screams insults at you whenever you’re tired or weak.

“Uhp! Before we do anything else, I’ll let you enjoy spending your points first. We need to celebrate for this glorious occasion, of course”

But, she’s my bitch now and I’m going to love her silly.