[MA] 110. What Do You Have in Mind? (Patreon)

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[A/N: 1/5 of chapters for this week. The next one should come out at night.]

Shen let go of the E- spear and sprinted at the fireball that was larger than he was tall. He pushed War Qi into his E+ spear and thrust it against the incoming spell. Mana met qi, and willpower battled willpower.

The system didn't show a value for someone's willpower, but Shen was confident in his. Overcoming the Core-Fate and Fate Resolution Tribulations, completing his Path, and mastering War had firmed his heart. The mage boy's willingness to attack strangers on sight for his king's glory could be interpreted as resoluteness too, but it wouldn't be enough.

When Shen had tried to cut Evelyn's spell with his Sharp-Qi-filled blade in their very first clash, her spell had stopped his weapon in place—or rather, their opposing energy had been unable to go through each other. Neither her mana nor his qi—and whatever was containing it—could move forth unless the will behind them triumphed over the other.

He had started avoiding doing that by simply using his innate soul defense. It automatically annulled any willpower in contact with it with no willpower cost to him, though he paid for that with some damage.

However, Shen wondered about something. The final boss had not had any willpower that could resist the mages' will, yet what if it had? What if the enormous, heavy, and fast fist had contained mana backed by a will of its own when it struck a fireball?

Shen was about to find out.

He was nowhere near as big or as heavy as the golem, but he was faster. That let him deal extra damage to his foes, and unless mana could simply ignore that, it would give him an advantage.

His spearhead hit the fireball head-on.

Shen felt as if his spear had hit a wall of dense water, losing some of his speed before continuing as the spell faded away. There was a brief clash of wills, but it wasn't terrible, definitely not enough to have won against everything the boy should have. Shen had to correct his movement when his weapon found a brief resistance, but it was no issue.

His attacker fared much worse. The boy yelped, took a step back, and immediately bent his body to throw up. Shen confirmed the physical power behind a strike did help, though smarter casters would certainly know how to work around that.

Shen was upon his foe on the next instant. His spear was already mid-swing when he remembered something crucial:

This was not the tutorial; the boy would die for good if he was beheaded.

Shen almost continued. Almost. It would be his right to kill someone who had attempted to murder him. Yet, he lacked information.

The boy was definitely in the wrong, and Shen would not forgive him—not without compensation, at least. On the other hand, Shen had been beside a person in uniform. Who knows what kind of enmity they had with each other or who was fighting for the honorable goal? This was not his war to fight. The boy was his prisoner by right, but Shen would withhold lethal judgment until he knew more.

So instead, he temporarily let go of his E+ spear and used one of the Feng Clan's general skills: the Snake's Rattling.

It was a subduing technique meant to be used against mortals. Shen grabbed the boy's head with qi-covered hands and shook it in a set pattern. Cultivators became resistant or even immune to that technique on higher levels for reasons unknown to Shen, but he hoped the boy would be mortal enough for it to work.

It did. The guy's brain hit his skull's walls repeatedly and in a specific manner that made him roll his eyes and faint at once. He only took two points of damage from that.

It happened so fast that Shen even grabbed his weapon again before it hit the ground.

"Fuck, it's the Crusade!" a girl yelled.

Her voice was young, and she was close enough to be heard over the constant, loud rattling of the firearms. She was perhaps a couple of huge fallen chunks of buildings away.

Shen considered going after her but decided against it. He had a prisoner to interrogate already. Then again, an aspect of the Concept of War told him having more people to match information against was better.

Shen repeated to himself that this was not his war and just waited there, over the fallen boy.

"Fall back!" an older male voice yelled at a distance, and soon after, the shooting ceased.

"Report," Shen heard the man who had taken him from the ground yell.

"Two lightly injured, no deaths, sir!" the same guy who had yelled "incoming," replied. "We fell five defenders, but they took them."

The leader exchanged some words with someone, but Shen wasn't close enough to hear. He turned to his prisoner. "Inspect."

| Zed Fisher (E) | 98 / 100 HP

| Charges: murder x57, attempted murder x388, torture x5, assault x1,221

In the tutorial, the system had told them to Inspect people before attacking them. That would let them know if they could lawfully attack the other party. Indeed, there was a criminal record below the boy's 's name and HP, where one would expect to find Achievements instead.

However, that wasn't all.

The system's translating function, which pushed the meaning of unfamiliar words into his head, also let Shen know that those charges were made by the Guardian System and would be accepted as proof in any court of law. Moreover, now that the boy had been made prisoner, he had to be judged by a B-rank—or someone with authority delegated by a B-rank.

There was only one issue with that: Earth had no B-ranks.

Then he remembered the Human Maiden had the same privileges as a B-rank. The system had said her position would be crucial for a while, but it had undersold it. She was the only person in the entire world who could officially judge anyone charged by the system. That alone gave her a lot of power—and made her a target to anyone who didn't want her to have that sort of power.

The issue might seem to be solved by simply judging people without her say-so. However, Shen got the feeling that the charges wouldn't be removed from the person then. Moreover, he heavily suspected that her punishments would be enforced or assisted by the system, while people here would have to deal with things in their own ways. It simply wasn't as effective.

After the system told him about the B-ranks' privilege and his mind made the connections and thought of the consequences of the Maiden Title, the system also let him know something else. A terrible exception to the rule that demanded he deliver a prisoner to be judged by a B-rank:

As the Human Rising Star, he could kill whichever human he wanted for any reason at all.

According to the system, the Rising Star was meant to rise. It seemed that also meant taking away many things that could stop their ascension, including little annoying things like answering for murder. Who had the time for that when they were trying to reach B-rank?

The Alliance disgusted him.

There was no appeal to honor at all. Anyone strong enough, any B-rank, could judge others. Shen guessed there were rules about it, but all rules could be bent. Without a way to verify and incentivize good morals, people would abuse their power and privilege.

It was even worse to let him kill anyone. Not only did power alone put people above others, but the Rising Star's pursuit of power also made him more important than any other. He had previously considered how the Alliance seemed to work like this and how wrong that was, but the reality was even worse than he had thought.

All that went through his head really fast, thanks to his learning ability. He looked at Zed Fisher a few seconds later. A mortal would remain unconscious for a while, but it was better safe than sorry.

"System, how much for a way to keep an E-rank imprisoned without any way of escaping?" Shen asked.

| Any Equipment (E+) — 9,000,000 AP

Nine million AP after applying his 10% discount as a Rising Star, and he didn't know whether he would be charged double for using the item on another person. It made the Maiden and her supposed system assistance dealing with criminals even more critical. Imprisoning people required constant supervision otherwise.

"Captain, we have a prisoner!" the blonde Lieutenant, who had been in shock until now, yelled with a victorious voice.

There were steps all around as people approached the area. Soon, two dozen people were surrounding Shen. Some were above the chunks of buildings, others on the same level as him. They said nothing until the Captain arrived.

"Report," the man said with a tense voice.

"Inspect," the guy who had given the earlier reports said. It was a young one, in his early twenties, with short brown hair and eyes. "D-rank."

His declaration made some people hold their firearms more tightly, and some gasp. A few even half-raised their weapon at Shen. But the reporter wasn't done.

"He has two Achievements too, True Pioneer and Pioneer. And a Title." He made a pause, then continued with a trembling voice, "Human Rising Star."

There was a moment of silence as people seemed to come to terms with that. More weapons were half-raised in his direction as their owners got very nervous. Shen guessed they had been better informed than him in the regular tutorial about how a Rising Star could kill them all without any legal issues.

"Well, fuck," someone said. "What do we do, sir?"

"We follow the protocols," the Captain replied. "Grab the prisoner, and let's get back to the base."

"No," Shen said. "This is my prisoner, not yours. You have also yet to tell me what's going on. I'm not accompanying you anywhere."

"This was not a request," the Captain said firmly, holding his firearm with two hands now. "Step away from the prisoner and surrender your weapon. Don't test us, son. This is not game-like tutorial bullshit. This is real life."

Shen willed it, and his Concept of War connected him to the exactly twenty-eight people around, two of them hiding behind cover, another approaching from a distance leisurely. He considered them potential enemies. "Are you saying you will attack me if I don't give in to your demands?"

"Yes," the Captain replied, now raising his gun toward Shen. Everyone did the same. "Put your weapon down and raise your hands slowly."

"Captain, I don't think that's a good idea," the blonde Lieutenant said. "He's fast."

"Faster than a bullet?" the Captain asked.

She didn't reply.

Shen shook his head. "I will gladly take a new prisoner to cross and double-check information with the one I already have. But I only need one, and the girl seems easier to deal with. I will kill anyone who attacks me."

Shen had already killed sapients in the tutorial, the bosses. They hadn't been humans, but he had crossed that line all the same. It was also one thing to hesitate against a child who might have mistaken Shen for a target, but these were grown men who knew well what they were doing. The last factor that took any hesitation from him was probably the extra aggression forced upon Guardians.

"This is your last warning!" the Captain shouted. "Drop the weapon and step away from the prisoner! Now!"

"This is your last warning," Shen replied. "Whoever shoots me will die."

"Drop your weapon!" the Captain insisted, as if yelling louder would scare Shen into submission. The man didn't seem to know what "last" meant.

"Now, now, what is the meaning of this, Captain Willow?" a newcomer said. He had a voice that sounded simultaneously bored and provocative.

Shen turned to see a tall man with as many muscles as him. The guy had stark white skin, almost like an albino. His hair was short and dark, and his eyes were green.

There was something different about him from the others. Shen Inspected him.

Rectangles appeared above everyone's heads. Almost everyone was F-rank, some were even G-rank, and the newcomer, named Samuel Louise Cox, was E-rank. Shen took his previous feeling to mean he could more or less feel people's strength even without Inspecting them. He had no idea why he hadn't noticed it on the tutorial though. Maybe it had been suppressed for whatever reason.

"Major," the Captain said with obvious disgust. "We have a situation."

"Your understatement skills never cease to amaze me, Captain. Lieutenant Stark, be so kind as to report the situation to me, will you?"

The guy who had Inspected Shen glanced at the Captain before complying. "Sir, we were attacked by the Sorcerer King's troops. We rebuked them, and this guy made an E-rank of theirs prisoner. He refuses to let go of the prisoner or accompany us."

The Major turned to look at Shen for the first time. "You see, they don't like me and try to make my job more difficult in barely non-insubordinate ways. The Captain refuses to call me sir, and our best scout just gave me the worst report I have ever seen him give anyone.

"The issue is that this unit is just too good at its job. The Captain won't refuse a direct order, and Lieutenant Stark didn't want to tell me anything about you, but he slipped up out of sheer effective habit. He said an E-rank prisoner, and I can see the man is unconscious and unharmed.

"Now, what kind of power would be needed to accomplish something like that, I wonder? Inspect." The bored look on the Major turned into keen interest almost immediately. "Captain, did the Human Rising Star state a desire to attack us before you threatened him?"

"No, Major," the Captain replied.

"Then lower your guns right now. This is a direct order." The men hesitated but obeyed. Barely. Their weapons were still half-raised to Shen. "Mister Feng, I just received a report of your impressive accomplishments in the Pioneer Tutorial. By the way, Captain, that report was more important than looking for survivors. We were ordered to treat the Human Rising Star as an allied one-man sovereign nation. And I was only one of all the people warned about it on the off-chance we met him; he is that important.

"I take it the prisoner he made attacked him first?" the Major asked. After the blonde nodded, he continued, "So it's his prisoner. Think of him as a walking embassy and ambassador. Wherever he walks is his sovereign soil while he's there. We are also supposed to be courteous with him. That means no shooting, no pointing our guns at him, and not yelling at him."

"With all due respect, Major, those orders make no sense."

"Oh, is that so?" Cox said with a glint of amusement in his eyes. "To be honest, I also find some parts of the report hard to believe. Mister Feng, would you care for a demonstration?"

Shen had no obligation to comply, but he also had no reason to refuse, not when it might prevent similar situations in the future. "With one condition," he said. "Tell me what is going on."

The Major nodded. "I will as soon as the demonstration finishes."

"Alright. What do you have in mind?"

"I suggest a shooting test," the Major said and took a smaller firearm, probably a pistol, from the holster on his waist. "This is a SIG Sauer M17, a handgun. It shoots a 9mm cartridge at a speed of 1,200 feet per second and can fire twenty-one rounds in quick succession before I need to reload. It is considerably weaker than the M4A1 carbine my colleagues are using. Those shoot 5.56mm cartridges at around 3,000 feet per second and can fire 33 rounds very, very fast before they need to reload.

"I would like to shoot you with this pistol to let each party know the capabilities of the other."

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