“There he is! Look at him, he doesn’t look exhausted and his clothes are fine. I told you there was no way he could solo the portal! he must have stayed hidden all this time.” Marco pointed.

“You’re right. I guess we'd struggle just the two of us without a healer. Should I call the boss then?” Frank asked.

“Nah! Do you want to keep this shit assignment forever? We take care of him ourselves and then show it to the boss. We might get promoted! Think!” Marco retorted.

“Plus, he looks weak and he's by himself, that’s perfect for us, right?” Marco continued.

"Right, right. How do we do it then?" Frank asked. 

"Looks like there's nobody around. I'll go talk to him. Stay here and prepare a spell." Marco decided, thinking it was a good strategy. 

'I've only fought players with a larger group before. Same for Frank. But he looks weak, this should be fine.' Marco thought. 

“Wait for my signal.” Marco said, before going.

Frank stayed where he was and Marco walked toward Matthew. 

—

"Hey there! Are you a new player?" someone called out. 

"OH? Uh, yeah, I am. You too? Did you come here for the portal?" Matthew answered, surprised by the sudden appearance. 

"Well not exactly… Now!" the man said, as a longsword appeared in his hand. 

"Fireball!" someone else shouted from a distance, his hands aiming at Matthew. 

'Huh? Ow Ow Ow it burns!' 

The fireball had hit Matthew right in the chest. He quickly jumped back, pulled a bucket of water from his inventory and emptied it on himself, before pulling his knife. 

"What the hell, where did he get the water from?" the magician wondered, confused. 

"Pfffft! Check out his chest, that guy's into cute animal shit! Hey, Steve Irwin, where's your dog at?!" the man in front of him sneered, ignoring his companion and pointing at Matthew's chest scars, visible through his burned clothes.

Ring.

At that moment, Matthew heard a ringing sound from the system. He ignored it, focused on the situation in front of him. 

"What's wrong with you?" Matthew asked, still unsure of what was happening. 

"Shut it and die, weakling!" the man said as he charged, sword first. 

Matthew stopped the sword with his knife and jumped back. The blade of his knife had shattered. 

'What? Shit!' 

He didn't have time to think as another fireball was headed for him. 

He dodged it this time. 

"Fuck, now we both have restrictions! Get him quickly!" the magician pressed. 

The swordsman dashed forward, slower this time. Matthew abandoned the knife handle and pulled a hatchet from his inventory in its place. Or he tried. The hatchet appeared not inside his palm, but outside, and fell down. 

'The hell?' he thought, and jumped back to evade the sword coming at him. 

"You're fast! You little rat!" the attacker taunted, angered that he missed. 

"Cast Nightmare on him! That'll stop him." the man ordered the magician. 

"Yeah, give me a sec!"

The swordsman dashed forward again.

'If I can't hold stuff, I'll just drop something worth dropping.' Matthew thought, jumping back and, this time, pulled the anvil from his inventory and laid it on the swordsman’s direct path. 

"Ouch! Motherfucker! What the fuck?" the swordsman screamed after his foot hit the anvil. 

As he was slowed down, Matthew tried to pull another hatchet from his inventory. This time, he grasped it in his hand. 

'Why did I miss earlier?' he wondered. 

"Nightmare! Go for it now!" Matthew heard, shouted from a distance before his thoughts stopped.

His vision darkened and he froze.

A split second later, his vision returned and he saw a sword approaching him. 

Matthew dashed to the side reflexively, and slammed the hatchet deep into the chest of the unexpecting swordsman in front of him. 

"Keuk" 

A look of surprise had replaced the grin on the sword wielding man’s face as he coughed blood and collapsed. 

Ring ring … ring.

The system sent a salve of ringing sounds. Matthew ignored them again and directed his gaze at the magician.

"What was that? Even with the restrictions you shouldn't be able to move right now! How? How?!" the magician asked, visibly panicked, his companion now lying on the ground. 

His brain pumping adrenaline like a medical laboratory, Matthew rushed at the confused magician.

He pulled two other hatchets, and only when he felt them in both of his hands did he throw the one from his right hand, scared that he could be left with no weapon again. He then switched the hatchet from his left to his right hand and repeated his action. 

The hatchet appeared inside his palm again, but both hatchets he threw missed his target. 

'Damnit, why?!' 

The magician tried to cast fireballs in a hurry but Matthew easily dodged them and reached him. 

Once he was in melee range, the confused face of the magician turned colorless. In a swift motion, Matthew swung his arm and slit the throat of his enemy with the hatchet he kept in hand. 

Ring ring ring. 

Matthew hurriedly turned back to check that the body of the swordsman was still on the ground. After checking back and forth between the two bodies multiple times, he realized that the battle was over. 

"What was that? Why did they just attack me out of nowhere? I can't just stay here. I can't leave the bodies like this either… huh?" 

When he got closer to the swordsman's body, he realized that there were a few items dispersed around him that were not there before. 

'I don't have time for this, let's put everything in the inventory and leave this place.' he thought, not wanting to spend a second more than needed. 

He approached the body and put every item in his inventory when he grasped them, even the knife handle and the pieces of the broken blade. He then tried to do that with the body as well. 

'Even human bodies can go in… I don't know if I should rejoice about it.' he thought, after making the body vanish. 

He turned back and did the same with the magician, before washing away the fresh blood on the ground with buckets of water.

'Right, my clothes!' he thought, noticing his tattered clothes. 

He quickly put on his motorcycle gear and ran to his motorcycle. There was still nobody around when he reached it. He hopped on and raced home.