Is this really a Game?!



"This should be enough, huh?" Shadow asked Reign who nodded at him as the entire group stared down at the city. They were currently standing on a building near the edge of the city and were observing things.

Aethion had managed to finish with the 'interrogation' which confirmed most of what the three had told them. The only difference was some personal thoughts and ideas the three had, as well as the total number of manpower that 'The Butcher' had under him.

It turned out that there were exactly 6 000 men working directly under the man, everybody else was actually working either for those men, or were working alone, doing their best to survive and become more powerful.

Even though it wasn't forbidden to go out and hunt, one needed to leave something at the entrance of the city in order to be allowed to leave. That was done so that they could hold a firmer grip on the population and the players that were powerful enough to survive in the wilderness by themselves.

There had been multiple people that had managed to reach a high level, placing them above even the heads that served The Butcher, but the fate of those people was all the same, they would all disappear, never to be seen again.

Many speculated that it was the Butcher, as well as the heads, that would get rid of those people as they were far too dangerous to be left alone, but nobody had any proof of that, not to mention that it should be fairly easy for people to notice when the Butcher left his building thanks to the fact that there were a bunch of people nearby at all times as it was located in the center of the city.

The dome was created to keep monsters out of the city, but it did nothing to humans, so Reign and the others, including Aelrinder and Greenie, were able to get in. Reign and the rest weren't completely certain why Greenie and Aelrinder could get in, but they thought it was either because they were friendly to people, or because they were all in the same party.

The system wasn't just a mindless entity that made hard rules, but one that knew how to differentiate between people. If a monster had been living with humans and was friendly to them, then the chances of the system giving them a lot of the benefits that humans had on Earth were highly likely to happen.

Reign and the others immediately made their way to the roof of a building, but of course, keeping themselves hidden proved to be a bit of a challenge, so they had to send Greenie back to Doncaster as he was way too inconspicuous and would be noticed immediately by others.

There were some beast tamers present in the city, as well as those that managed to gain a monster for a subordinate like Reign previously had done, but Greenie was different thanks to his physical appearance and the aura that came from him.

A mere glance would be enough for a person to notice that he wasn't just any monster, but a highly powerful one, and from what they had managed to learn from Aethion's interrogation, those that had managed to subdue a monster and make it a subordinate were all known in the city, a new person suddenly arriving with someone like Greenie would be noticed immediately.

Reign and the others wanted to do things secretly, they would first try to gain as much information as they could from the people in the city, of course, they wouldn't simply go around asking them many questions, but would try their best to blend in and listen in to conversations.

Aelrinder looked human, it was only his ears that were different, but thanks to his long hair that fell over his ears, nobody would be able to notice them. The first thing they did was get to the top of a building, which wasn't that difficult as there were quite a few buildings with empty apartments whose doors were open thanks to the fact that electricity was gone and all electric devices, including elevators, password protected locks and the such were no longer working.

Entering the building and climbing up the stairs before reaching the rooftop was easy and from there, they were able to gain a deeper understanding of the city.

People still walked around, but they were all visibly stressed. Normal jobs were gone, people could either go out and hunt or learn some craftsmanship in order to be useful. Schools, however, were still working here.

Thanks to the dome, the city had never come under attack by any monsters, and even the Butcher didn't want the next generation to be filled with idiots that didn't know how to do basic math or other simple things. Compared to before, however, the school was different.

Kids weren't only taught how to spell, write and do math, but how to fight, how to identify what kinds of fruits and berries were edible, what was poisonous, what kinds of monsters were present near the city, and the like.

Subjects such as art, geography, history, and such were gone, but music and PE were still there. For some reason, the Butcher liked musicians quite a lot and had employed quite a few of them in the past, either for some small gatherings he had made or for himself.

High school was gone, however. There was no need for teenagers to continue with their education right now, only elementary schools worked, and by the orders of the Butcher, kids would go for 5 years before finishing school and then would have to choose what to do. They could start hunting with older groups that would take care of them, they could start crafting, researching, doing alchemy, and the like.

That was the only way to earn money right now, and the only way that one could earn food. By bringing back bodies of monsters, the hunter would give them to a gang that was at the entrance, well, one of the many entrances the city had. 

The gang would take care of the bodies and would give a portion of the meat from each body to the hunter before paying him as well. Compared to how much one could earn by selling the body to others, the hunters earned less money in such a way, but they weren't allowed to bring bodies into the city, so this was the only way they could survive.

There was a silver lining, however, as hunters could choose to be paid less and get some parts of the body. They could get the fur, bones, tendons, more meat…

The top hunters were those that were not only good in a fight but knew how to make some weapons and repair them as well as they would be able to save up money.

Of course, the weapons the players earned by hunting would be inspected by the gang at the entrance. The players were only allowed to carry a certain number of weapons on them depending on their class, and if one was to gain a new weapon outside, they would usually have to give the gang their old weapon.

That was done in order for the players to not have enough weapons to arm others and try to rebel against the Butcher, which although would be for naught thanks to the sheer difference in power between the Butcher's men and the rest of the city, could still end up being a bit dangerous to them.

Reign and the others walked through the streets of the city before entering a restaurant. All the prices were written in S Coins, and restaurant owners would only take them, or some items as payment.

Reign and the others choose to go to a restaurant because they hoped to overhear information from the people around them. There were some members of gangs present as well, so they hoped that they would gain some info from listening in to them.

Unfortunately, all they heard were gross comments the men had to say about some girls, as well as them catcalling and even groping a girl that was nearby. Shadow's veins popped out as he wanted to get up and break their hands, but doing so would draw attention to them, so Reign stopped him.

Of course, they didn't let the men continue as Reign used his soul manipulation to attack them from afar while they were all eating. The 5 gang members all suddenly grabbed their heads and started rolling down on the floor from the pain.

They were merely Tier I and compared to Reign and the others, they were nothing, just ants. Reign could easily kill them with a simple thought, but he didn't.

After stopping his attack, the men started panting and got up before quickly leaving the restaurant. They were embarrassed, but they also felt that what happened was done to them by someone from inside the restaurant. Fearing that the person might even go as far as to kill them, they decided to simply leave.

"It's a bit better than I thought, the city still hasn't fallen to ruins, although the existence of these gangs makes it a bit difficult for people to live peacefully."