The Place Where Everything Begins

After that last punch, Eddie finally felt tired, for he had just fought with the outlanders and now come to 'practice' his martial arts with the soft dummy.

*Huff* *Huff*

*Fwuuu...*

Eddie let out a long breath...

Then he suddenly turned his head towards his right side, spotting the one who had 'convinced' him not to kill the mongrel, Benjamin, earlier.

"What are you doing here, glasses bastard? Leave me alone, won't ya?"

*Sigh*

Mitchell let out a sigh upon hearing Eddie's annoyed voice. Then he said,

"Please don't get mad at me. I also want to get the man killed as much as you. He is a fucking troublemaker and self-centered bitch, after all."

When Eddie had heard Mitchell's opinions about Benjamin, Eddie finally calmed down a bit and asked back,

"Then why did you bloody prevent me from stomping his fucking disgusting head?"

But Eddie's tone of voice was still a bit heat...

So, Mitchell could only try to settle him down further,

"Calm down first. Let me explain. Give me a chance, okay?"

*Fwuuu...*

After letting out a long breath originated from the depth of his lungs, Eddie gave Mitchell a chance to explain himself,

"Okay, only this once. Also, if your reasons do not add up, I will smash that disgusting-mouther's head once and for all. Nobody can stop me anymore. Not even you."

"Alright. Alright. Nobody will stop you. I promise." Mitchell gave his promise to Eddie.

But that was actually a trigger as Eddie suddenly thought about his promise with Skylar,

"Fuck! The more I think about his nasty face, the more furious I am. Now talk your things." Eddie fumed once again.

'This guy is almost hopeless. Still, at least he wants to listen...'

Having thought like that, Mitchell started his reasoning,

"Then calm down and listen. If you kill that guy now, some people might become dissatisfied and think their lives are also being grasped within your hands the same as Benjamin. They will think that whenever you want to kill anyone here, you can do so easily. Thus, they might think of a way to..."

"But that man is a fucking murderer!"

Eddie interrupted Mitchell again as it seemed like he still didn't quite get Mitchell's logic.

*Sigh*

Having let out a sigh, Mitchell continued his piece,

"I said to listen carefully. Do not interrupt me just yet."

*Hmph!*

Eddie let out a harrumphed sound as a result.

That was to be expected, though...

Nevertheless, Mitchell spoke again,

"Do you know the meaning behind the word 'hypocrite'?"

Upon hearing the sudden question that didn't want an answer, Eddie shook his head in annoyance, whereas his mind felt a bit more sobered than earlier,

'Hypocrite? The word sounds familiar...'

"Then let me tell you its meaning." Said Mitchell while adjusting his glasses frame like some kind of expert.

When Mitchell realized he finally got Eddie's attention, he explained further,

"A hypocrite is a person who claims to have moral standards to which that person's own behavior fails to conform with those mortal standards themselves. That's why yo..."

"Wait, wait... Can you elaborate a bit more first?"

Before Mitchell could even describe further, Eddie, who was scratching his bald head in a muddle, interrupted him,

With a roll of his eyes, Mitchell gave more detail about a hypocrite,

"In other words, a hypocrite is just a pretentious bastard who thinks he is always right while other people who don't share the same worldview as him are judged as bad people and criminals. That's why yo..."

"Wait... Are you saying I'm a criminal now!?"

Again, when Mitchell tried to go in-depth into the topic, he was interrupted by the 'fuming' Eddie.

'For fuck sake. This dickhead...' Mitchell cursed Eddie within his mind. Then he continued earnestly,

"That's right, that type of people will look at you with the same eyes they used to look at Benjamin and Angelo. Because you do not share the same worldview as them, and you also lead them like a dictator, they might rebel at your 'coup'. And I know, you don't want that to happen, right?"

After seeing that Mitchell was finally done talking, Eddie replied uncaringly with an 'I don't care' expression,

"Hmm... Well... Who cares?"

Having heard Eddie's uncaring tone, Mitchell suddenly felt dumbfounded,

"What? Are you for real?"

"Yeah. If they somehow rebel against us or don't listen to us, what can they do with that amount of people? After all, they are just the minority here. They also have to rely on everyone else for their survival. What if I just kill one scumbag? At worst, we will use force to press them down the ground. More importantly, I have killed so many people in my life already; there is no problem adding one more to the list at all."

It was indeed, as Eddie had said...

That was... if someone viewed it from a soldier's point of view.

As for Mitchell?

He was never a soldier, so he had a different worldview...

"Aiz... My friend. You are such a straightforward bigot who acts according to his own belief, the very definitive opposition of a hypocrite itself. That's why when you said, "there is no problem"; it is, in fact, the real problem we're discussing now because you can not kill people as you wish."

"You are trying to cram your worldview into my head; you want me to think like you. Now, don't you think you are the real hypocrite here?"

That's why people back on Earth usually said, "Everyone has their own reasons for everything."

The two friends would never be able to come into a real truce...

But they were still friends anyway.

"..."

"..."

After a short silence and having a look at one another's face silently, Mitchell opened his mouth first, trying to sound as serious as possible,

"Don't try to change the topic."

"So, you are not gonna accept that you are the real hypocrite." Eddie spoke back with a hint of amusement within his eyes.

"No, I won't listen to a bigot."

"Nah... You are a hypocrite."

"Fuck you."

"Fuck you, too."

"..."

After cursing at one another as a formality, the two finally had light smiles plastered on their faces...

When he finally felt a bit better from the earlier rage, Eddie asked,

"Now what?"

"Do you believe in me?" Mitchell suddenly asked mysteriously.

"Why do you ask?" Eddie replied with a skeptical face.

"If you believe in me, then we will kill that bastard my own way."

"..."

Upon hearing that Mitchell's words, Eddie's eyes suddenly lit up. Then he said,

"Okay... but if your plan fails to satisfy me. I'm going to kill him even if everyone considers me a brutal and cruel bigot afterward."

"Alright, regarding the plan, it is simple..."

Unbeknownst to the two of them, as they had already thought about a plan to kill someone.

If they were still on Earth, those thoughts of killing someone so easily like this wouldn't come into their minds, at least not so casual like this.

That only meant one thing, Eddie and Mitchell had started to adapt to the sudden change of their current environment already.

Strange but true, humans could indeed adapt to any circumstances they were put in...

...

Within the normal-difficulty door...

The sky was bright, but the sun was absent, no cloud, only some light wind coming and going here and there.

Before Jeremy came into this place, the winter forest had already looked lonely with only some wolves and other animals in some areas. However, the ever lonely winter forest now looked even more desolate than before, as if few to no life had ever existed here at all.

Well, that was obviously the doings of a certain someone...

The eco-unfriendly culprit, Jeremy, was sitting under a big parched tree, recuperating his exhausted body and mind with a particular breathing technique.

Earlier...

When Jeremy went away from the brick house, he decided to find someplace to rest and get back the energy and strength that he had spent fighting with almost a hundred wolves and accessing his sea of consciousness after that.

As a result, Jeremy had to rest more than an hour before starting his wolf hunting season. Afterward, Jeremy tortured many wolves, making them call forth their packs...

Whenever a pack of wolves came, he fought and won almost effortlessly...

Whenever two packs of wolves came, he kited them away and fought cleverly until none were left...

Fortunately, as Jeremy had 'disbanded' many packs of wolves within this trial, so the wolves had more territory space to share, causing them to sparse out everywhere inside the forest.

That's why the place looked even more spacious and desolate now.

That's also why they could not rally up more than two packs at a time to hunt Jeremy down.

As of right now, Jeremy had already slain more than four packs of wolves. Well, combining with the four packs from before, that would make it eight packs of wolves.

Regarding the number, Jeremy had wiped out more than 250 wolves already...

That was a colossal number considering it was an astounding feat achieved by a newly arrived Earthling, low-ranked organism.

As a result, the wolf carcasses had been clustered lifelessly at the places of battles. But that was not important in any way, for Jeremy would come out of this place soon enough.

Soon enough, which meant after he had gained enough SP...

Then what would be considered 'enough' for our greedy former sage?

Those were the things that only he himself knew...

Come back to the current situation...

After resting well for some time, Jeremy was ready to continue another round of massacre again.

'After counting the number so far, it should be around half of their total amount. Well, am I making the winter wolves become extinct now? Maybe killing some hundreds more will get me a cool title like Wolf Hunter or something?'

'Nah... They were just some lowest-ranked organisms arranged by those designers anyway, as these animals are only regarded as half-real beings...'

Having thought this and that, Jeremy stood up from the cold ground. Then he chose a direction to where he had never been before to walk in.

*Scrunch*

*Scrunch*

His footsteps' sounds echoed out unsurprisingly pronouncedly inside the silent, desolate winter forest...