Chapter 24: Semi-Immortal Thief

We all arrive at the town and see a person who was already waiting for us. 

     The man said as he looked at us up and down,"Are you the ones who will get rid of the thief who has been stealing from our town?" I wasn't sure what he thought about us, but it was a quest so he couldn't kick us out since we were already here. Their problem wouldn't be solved either so there was that too.

     "Hey, when does this thief usually show up to steal from you." Sophia asked. We heard someone shout to help. We ran past the rude guy who greeted us and saw the person who stole food. He was like a bear in both size and looks. He had a lot of hair covering him in his arms and a beard. He had a pretty big build sort of what a lumberjack would stereotypically look like. The person who he stole from had a kid who was crying and looking helpless. We tailed him as a group until we reached a clearing where a tiny shack was.

     "Man you guys really followed me all the way to my place. Well I guess I'll have to use that on you people. I don't really want to, but I don't have much time before I have to fight her. Oh yeah my name is Rhodes, but most people just call me Rhody." He said to us. He seemed so nonchalant about facing us, then suddenly there was killing intent or something similar that left us all on our knees. The pressure from it wasn't like anything I ever felt. 

     "Sorry I just can't be late to fight her. I'm doing this partly for you system users." Rhodes says as he leaves. We all still felt the pressure that was weighing down on us was still there while his fading back started to disappear in the forest. Soon the pressure left and I sprinted towards the direction I saw him go. After 10 minutes of running I arrived where Rhodes was fighting with some lady who seemed to be fighting on par with him. She was wearing a black veil and after half an hour they were bloodied which caused the lady to say something and leave. Rhodes looks my way which I dash towards him.

     "So you saw that well first I need you to calm down." He said as he dodges. I kept attacking until he raised his hands.

     "Hey I just want to talk. I won't do anything ok." Rhodes said as he sat down. I thought it over for a minute and accepted sitting down because I had a lot of questions.

     "So what did you mean by system users before?" I asked him.

     "You don't waste time. Well you see the system is what you use to activate skills and other things. Your inventory, skills, stats, and everything tied to it. You have closed it or in reality turn the screen invisible. The woman I fought and I are both people who permanently closed the system. We can't open it or use skills like you can, but doing this gives us power and the inability to die from people who use the system. That crazy woman can kill me and vice versa. You can still kill us by indirect means like a stab wound that isn't treated. We are still susceptible to starvation and things like that. The move I used suppresses system users for some time. That crazy lady comes back everyday to try and overpower me to get to this town. She wants to destroy all system users. We can't kill you, but we can injure you. Although we are only strong enough to fight the top 30 people on the planet. We grow stronger each year though I've been like this for about 40 years. So either we kill each other, she kills me, I kill her, or we fight until we grow old, and end up dying that way. There doesn't really seem to be an end to it anytime soon." Rhodes explained to me which surprised me a lot. 

     "Something tells me that you have a history with that crazy woman." I say. I was suspecting some sort of bond between them that was broken.

     "Haha you are very perceptive. Her name is Shelby and we were to be married. The day we were going to get married a monster attacked and in our desperation and anger along with sadness we closed the system permanently. We cursed fate or at least I did for a bit. She became extremely different as if something possessed her. Her change was drastic. I tried my best, but I couldn't bring her back from the path she was going." I heard a few sobs from behind me.

     "THaT's sO saD." I recognized the voice. It was Chloe which was interesting who knew she was a sap for a sad love story. I didn't even realize that they had arrived.

     "So how long have you guys been here?" I asked. They have been here since the system user explanation Rhodes gave earlier. It was really surprising to know they were there pretty much the whole time. 

     "Shelby probably won't be back for a while right so let's head back to your shack." I said to Rhodes as we started heading back. Rhodes got healed by Chloe who's eyes were red still. It was about 9 p.m. when we arrived back at Rhodes' shack. 

     "So Rhodes do you still want to save Shelby deep down?" I asked him when everyone else went to scout while I stayed with our target.

     "Honestly I do, she was a kind and cheerful person when we were together. I have vivid dreams where we are married and happy together. I remember this as only a bad dream and I often want this to be a bad dream. Oh and you can call me Rhody." Rhody says. I could understand wishing that a certain event was a bad dream. I could relate to him in this way.