Armipotent

Rene was the big sister, and Rona was the little brother. The little guy fell asleep on the way back to their village after crying non-stop. The big sister was carrying a half-full basket filled with green plants. That was how the big sister got the money to feed her little brother and also why they were in the wild, being chased by a bear in flames.

There were so few herbs around the village, so she took the risk to go further for the research until they entered Burning Urside's territory. The big sister was quite tenacious. She did not allow Tang Shaoyang to help her to carry her little brother even though she looked quite exhausted after the run and chase with the bear. She did not look frightened after the near-death experience.

"Do you want to take a rest? I don't want you to collapse before we arrive in your village." Tang Shaoyang started to hear her breathing, an indication that she was out of breath.

Rene paused and glanced toward Tang Shaoyang. "Mnnn." She nodded and walked to the nearest tree. She sat on the ground and leaned her back against the tree; as she was about to close her eyes to get some rest, the man offered her a bottle.

Rene looked up instead of taking the water; hesitation was apparent in her eyes. However, Tang Shaoyang reached her hand and put the bottle in her hand. "It's just a bottle of water. I won't ask you for money for a bottle of water."

She took the bottle, but instead of opening it, she stared at the tip of the bottle. She was for sure thirsty, but she tried to figure out how to open the bottle. Instead of twisting the bottle cap, she tried to pull the cap by force. The bottle made a noise as she held the bottle too hard. Startling, she let the bottle go.

Tang Shaoyang was amused with what he watched. He took the bottle and showed her how to open the bottle. "You twist the cap, not pull it. I don't know that a plastic bottle does not exist in another world."

"Thank you." Rene reached for the bottle and drank the water. Her voice was so low, like a mosquito. Even though she looked so exhausted and thirsty, she only drank the water in two gulps.

"You can drink more. I have more water in my inventory." Tang Shaoyang could tell how thirsty she was by how exhausted she looked. If he was in her position, he could drink like two bottles of water, not two gulps. "You don't need to worry about running out of water."

Rene did not hesitate to drink the whole bottle of water. After finishing the water, she returned the bottle, and she handled the fragile bottle carefully. Hearing the noise of the bottle when he used some force was enough to scare her.

"Thank you for the water, Sir." Her voice was a little, just a little louder this time.

Tang Shaoyang nodded and sat a few meters away from Rene. He did not want to sit too close, as Rene seemed too tense when she was around him. No one spoke, and Tang Shaoyang closed his eyes. He was not in a hurry to reach the village, taking his time since he had shaken off his pursuers as well. Of course, he also kept watching the surroundings with his Spirit Eyes.

"Hmmm… Sir." Rene called Tang Shaoyang hesitantly.

"Yes? Do you need more water?"

Rene shook her head. "There's something I want to ask… Can I?"

"Ask away, don't be too tense. I don't eat humans." He tried to joke, but it did not work. The girl still had a tense expression.

"Are you perhaps coming from outside the tower?" The hesitation was very clear in her tone, making Tang Shaoyang wonder what made her this cautious around him. He recalled everything; not just he saved her, but he had not done anything that scared her.

'This is tricky. It seems the natives are aware of the world outside the tower. Things would be hard with the native if they knew about the world outside.' That was his experience from the last three floors: the eighth floor, the ninth floor, and the tenth floor. He considered lying to Rene.

"I am. Do you perhaps know something about us?" Tang Shaoyang decided to be frank and answered honestly. He felt like there was nothing that Rene could do to him to know his origin.

"Mmmnnn…." Rene shook her head. She seemed to have something to say, but she was scared to say it.

"It's fine. Just say it if you have something. If you want to know what the world outside is like, I can tell you that." Tang Shaoyang encouraged her to speak. It made him curious about what caused her to be scared around him.

After some hesitation, Rene spoke out. "I heard from my mom about the people from the outside world that they will come one day, and she warned me to stay away or hide from the outsiders. She said that the people from the outside world are bad and will kill us who live inside the tower. But it seems my mother is wrong. Not only did you not kill me, but you also saved me from the beast."

Tang Shaoyang was not surprised to hear such a story from Rene. Her mother was not wrong; some factions maybe would hunt the natives for Authority level. Maybe that was much easier than completing the quest. "I don't think your mother is wrong, Rene."

The girl was shocked to hear that from Tang Shaoyang, and she jerked back. Of course, Tang Shaoyang did not mean to frighten the girl. He wanted her to be cautious. "Of course, I don't want to kill you or the others. However, there might be a group or a few groups of people that may try to kill you and the others who live inside the tower. You have to be cautious if other outsiders approach you."

Rene looked at him suspiciously, but Tang Shaoyang continued. "It's the same with the others who live in the tower, no? There are bad people, and there are good people. It's the same for the outsiders." Only then the girl lowered her guard a little, nodding her head. The explanation made sense.

"Then, can you tell me what the world outside looks like, Sir Tang?" After a while, Rene asked the second question. She seemed to be less tense after their first conversation, yet her voice was still low as before. Seemed to be afraid of raising her voice.

"There's not much difference, actually. In fact, the beast in my world is much weaker than the beasts here. You can hardly find that fire bear…." Tang Shaoyang told her more about his world, the world before the game and after the game. He even shared how the system worked, the earth's technology, and much more. That was how he tried to get Rene to trust him, thinking that Rene could put some good words for him to the people in the village.

Rene's eyes shone as she heard the story. She even had the yearned gaze when she heard that the beasts and monsters on earth were much weaker.

"My mom said that we are punished by the System because our ancestors did something the system deemed unacceptable. My mom never said what our ancestors did, but we are put around strong monsters. We can't level up because we can't kill any beasts or monsters. I am still level, and only a few people in the village have a level. The only way to level up is by killing the newborn beasts, but it's still hard because the parents are guarding their baby." Rene shared the situation in her village. "My parents tried to hunt the baby, but they failed and were killed by beasts…."

After that, Rene remained silent as the story brought back her bad memories. Tang Shaoyang understood by not asking anything from the girl afterward. After ten minutes of resting, Rene stood up. "I think I have recovered, Sir."

Even though Rene opened up a little bit, she was still stubborn. She kept carrying her little brother even though Tang Shaoyang offered a hand. It was an hour of walking, and they arrived at the village where Rene lived. The village was surrounded by a wooden fence. It was quite big for a village as he counted there were eighty-one houses in the village. If a pair lived in one building, there were at least a hundred and sixty-two people living in the village.

Two guards with wooden spears stood at the gate. They raised their wooden spear when they spotted Rene and Tang Shaoyang. After hearing Rene's story, it made him curious about the level of the guard. He used [Detection] on them.

[??? — Level 7] [??? — Level 5]

'What is this? Does the system encourage us to slaughter the natives?' Tang Shaoyang could not help but think so after he discovered the two guards' level. He recalled that this was their punishment, and maybe the death penalty was the punishment. There was no way that no one would be tempted to slaughter these people to gain Authority level. There were two fates awaiting them with such low levels. They either would be a slave or be killed.

"Who is he, Rene!?" The level 7 guard yelled at Rene.

"He is Sir Tang Shaoyang, Sir. Don't worry; he is not a bad person. He saved my brother and me from Burning Urside." Rene quickly explained as she did not want there to be a misunderstanding between Tang Shaoyang and the guards.