"Stranger, your actions are disturbing the peace of Thalendor. Why do you insist on dishonoring the dignity of a citizen with your inappropriate behavior?" the guard asked, his voice laden with an authority and power that made the air around him vibrate.
Instead of apologizing or backing down, the Player responded with a disdain that left Lohan and Lisa in shock.
He gave a smirk, crossing his arms over his chest and looking at the guard with youthful arrogance.
"What’s the problem, big ears? I was just looking," the human retorted, his voice loud and defiant. "I didn’t do anything wrong, I didn’t even touch her. Since when is looking at a pretty woman a crime in this game? You NPCs take everything way too seriously."
The Player’s friends, who were standing right behind him, laughed at his response, finding the situation amusing. They seemed to believe that, as Players "favored by the goddess," the residents’ rules of etiquette didn’t apply to them. However, the guards of Thalendor didn’t care one bit about his response or the "NPC" label he used.
"The way you looked at that woman made her uncomfortable and violated our capital’s protocol of respect," the guard insisted, his hand now resting on the hilt of his crystal sword. "In Thalendor, freedom ends where harassment and disrespect begin. You were warned to stop and apologize, but you chose insolence. You must leave the square immediately and accept a conduct penalty."
The Player took a step forward, puffing out his chest. Although his own level was only 11, he seemed to believe that his immortality as a Player made him superior to the beings of this world.
"I have the freedom and the right to look wherever I want and however I want!" the human shouted, his voice echoing across the square. "You can’t force me to do anything. This is a free world, isn’t it? And I am one of the chosen of the goddess Astraea! If you try anything, my friends and I will destroy this guard post!"
The leader of the guards closed his eyes for a brief second, as if lamenting the stupidity he was hearing.
He then opened his eyes, which shone with an intense emerald light, and gave a short order to his subordinates.
"Seize him. He will be taken to the detention cells in the Purification Towers for contempt and disturbing the peace."
The human Player, feeling powerful because he was level 11 and had recently undergone a class evolution, tried to resist.
He tried to draw his sword from his waist, but before the blade could leave its sheath, the guard’s hand moved like lightning.
With frightening ease, the elf grabbed the human’s wrist and twisted it, forcing his arm behind his back. With a firm and precise shove, the Player was hurled to the ground, falling heavily onto the white stones.
The difference in power was insane.
Lohan activated his perception and realized that all the guards there were Level 21 or higher, veterans who had been protecting Thalendor for centuries.
To them, a Level 11 Player who probably hadn’t even undergone combat training in the real world was as dangerous as a wolf cub trying to bite a bear.
The Player’s friends were outraged and, in a moment of sheer collective folly, tried to rush forward to prevent the arrest.
"Hey! Let him go! You can’t do this to one of us!" one of them shouted, already preparing a basic fire spell at his fingertips.
The guards’ response was a synchronized and relentless move.
Having worked together for centuries, it would be shameful if they didn’t have enough coordination to handle a group of troublemakers like these.
The other three elves drew their weapons, and the Mana pressure in the square rose so high that the surrounding Players, who were merely watching, found it hard to breathe.
In less than ten seconds, the entire group of friends was immobilized, their arms pinned and their faces pressed against the cold ground of the square.
They screamed and cursed, threatening the guards with retaliation from their future guilds, but their voices were quickly silenced as they were dragged together toward the dungeons beneath the city.
After they left, a heavy silence fell over the square.
The elven citizens and residents of other races who had witnessed the scene sighed collectively, their expressions a mix of weariness and deep disappointment.
Some merchants began whispering among themselves, eyeing the other Players who still remained there with suspicion.
"Why would the Goddess allow people like these to be so favored by her?" remarked an older elf in a low voice, as she helped the young woman who had been harassed gather some fruit that had fallen from her basket. "They have so much potential, they’ve been given the gift of rapid evolution and immortality, but their souls seem to have been dragged from the depths of the sewers. They don’t love life; they only love the power they can extract from it."
Lohan and Lisa watched all of this from a safe distance, keeping their presence discreet. Lohan let out a sigh that made his vocal cords vibrate with a note of bitterness.
He looked at Lisa and saw that the fox, too, had her ears drooping, with a glimmer of sadness in her golden eyes.
"The elf is right, Halon," Lisa said, her voice heavy with a weight that didn’t stem from physical exhaustion. "Knowing humans, this is only the beginning. Those Players will get out of jail and post on the forum about how the ’oppressive NPCs’ treated them unfairly. More Players will come, and they’ll bring the same mindset of divine right that they believe comes from the Upper Zone."
Lohan agreed, recalling the trail of Elle’s silver pollen that still shone in his memory from the guild headquarters and comparing it to the scene before him now. "To be honest, Lisa... the paradise Aeliana showed us is being overrun by rats who don’t know the value of what they’re trampling on. And coming from the Lower Zone, I know that what we’ve witnessed so far is still very mild compared to what they’re capable of... for many of them, this world is just a game with no consequences where they can do things even worse than in the real world. It’s only going to get worse from here on out."
They continued on their way, but the lightheartedness they’d felt upon leaving the guild had vanished.