Chapter 33 - Big Brother?

Mai looks at Jack with a toothy smile, some red can be seen on her lips but she quickly licks it up before noisily licking the rest of her lips leaving Jack standing there watching the little girl, she lets out another yawn "You need to give me your blood now, I did something for you so now you give me blood" she smiles towards Jack with an almost evil smile.

"You need to give me lots of blood every morning"

"Why do you need so much blood, does it help you do this plant stuff?" Jack asks motioning towards all the plants in their surroundings.

"No… maybe… your blood is just yummy" her gaze turns towards the sky, as if she is thinking hard about what to say, "when your blood touches my tongue is tastes so sweet and when it goes down my throat it tastes better than the best juice in the world and when it goes into my tummy it feels like BOOM and everywhere feels nice from my fingers and hair down to my toes"

She looks at him with an evil smile again, "It makes me feel so happy and it makes my body feel so happy that I feel like I need more, like it's part of my body that was always missing so I want to drink it all…" her gaze almost turns vicious as some vines appear from various parts of her body.

"It almost sounds like my blood is some sort of drug for you…" Jack listens to the girl explaining and mutters to himself, not caring about the vines. Mai's gaze returns to normal, having the familiar toothy grin "What's a drug?" she asks while tilting her head.

"Uhh, it's like medicine" Jack says simply, it'll get too technical to explain the differences between so called bad drugs and good drugs to this girl currently. "How many times can you do that?" he asks trying to make a plan, if Mai is going to stay at the village then she will be a good source of money.

"Ummmm maybe one hundred times a day?" Mai tilts her head in the other direction while thinking, "I only want to do it for pretty plants, that black and gold grass was pretty but all the other ones were ugly".

"One hundred times you can make two of them or one hundred times you can make it grow or both?"

Mai lets out a yawn indicating that this talk is boring, "All of it one hundred times unless you give me lots more blood". Jack feels like that's all the information he'll get out of the girl for now, his thoughts start to race with thoughts about how he will exploit this girls' abilities.

Dragon – Phoenix village's minimal trade with the outside relies almost entirely on the trade of spiritual herb grass that was doused with Dragon qi during the city heart creation, there's not much left but because it's used in a cheap general-use medicant it has a big market demand, Mai can reproduce lots of them or perhaps grow them larger.

He will need to speak with Leah when she gets back from doing whatever she is doing to, lost in his thoughts Jack reaches down towards Mai's head, she winces thinking that he'll hurt her but he just tussles her hair while giving a big smile.

This is the first time anyone that wasn't her sister has shown her any sort of kindness, her experiences before meeting Mai weren't nice causing her to be scared of most people. The only reason she's willing to be near Jack is because of his blood but reaching up into her long messy hair, touching the part that Jack tussled, her heart beat feels slightly erratic.

Acting like a shy little girl instead of the vampiric little monster, her face blushes as she quietly speaks, "Can…. Can I call you brother… Big brother?" the last part of the sentence is almost inaudible.

"Sure, I already have a little sister but she's not as cute as you anymore and I haven't seen her in years" Jack responds not noticing the change in her.

"Big brother!" Mai clings onto Jack's arm holding his hand. Jack gives her a smile and walks into the tent placing the bag of valuables down, while Mai is stepping with him like glue now, not like before where she was trying to only get his blood stealthily, she just wants to spend time with him.

A few moments later there's a soldier by the tent entrance, he's unable to knock because it's a tent so is left standing there until Jack notices him. Jack organises a few things within the tent before noticing the soldier shouting out, "WHAT?".

The soldier feeling like he did something wrong nervously explains, "Great Lord sir, your subordinates are incompetent, we were clearing out the sites of the proposed kobold villages when we ran into issues and need help to resolve them, as General Laoshe is currently not located in the village, you are the next military commander"

Jack asks for a few more details, there are giant rats that have a nest near one of the sites, another site has the appearance of a strange den and finally the last site has the signs of a giant creature recently rampaging around.

"Understood, I will set out with the heavy cavalry to assist shortly. You are to organise the teams to focus on clearing out the earlier sites while I will join you at the first site before proceeding to the other sites" Jack responds to the soldier, his aura shifting into a regal one while giving orders but that's offset by the little girl hanging off his arm.

The soldier gives a salute and rushes out, passing off the information allowing the other soldiers and labourers to prepare. The village is quickly abuzz with the sounds of people rushing about preparing to set out compared to the construction noises previously.

Jack changes into a battle-ready robe, he isn't really satisfied with having to wear robes all the time. It's comfortable but it's not what he would consider normal wear, he would like to wear just a pair of jeans and a t-shirt but that just doesn't have that kingly aura about it.

"Are you going to stay here or come with me?" He asks Mai who hasn't stopped holding his arm and hand.

"I'm going with you… big brother" Mai is still blushing as she says big brother.

"Alright then let's go" Jack doesn't really care that she is going, she has been following Mai around for years and should have some combat skills herself otherwise why would Leah just leave her alone?

Jack and Mai leave the tent, Sleipner is close by and Jack lets out a loud whistle with his fingers, shortly after Fenrir can be seen running down the main road towards Jack bounding happily as though he's a normal dog, a wolf look dog.

Jack gives Fenrir a quick pat, luckily avoiding the licks to the face before mounting Sleipner with Mai, they trot down the main road slowly. The heavy cavalry is still gathering so they need to wait a few moments, Fenrir lets out a howl to signal to the pack that they're going to set out.

Howls can be heard from all over in the distance, currently the wolves are acting as a scouting regiment. They will howl if they spot anyone suspicious allowing the soldiers to intercept them, they haven't had to stop anyone from coming in yet but they have stopped one of the people Albert brought back from leaving with raw herbs.

The shift in the town, going from calm and construction to frantic and war-like has caused most of the people within the buildings to stop work and find out what's going on including Jessica, she is currently still weaving undergarments but it's incredibly difficult for her as she has only knitted simple clothes before.

Jack spots Jessica leaving the tailor and calls out to her causing her to come over to Jack and Mai.

"What's going on?" Jessica asks Jack, she has a smile on but looks suspiciously towards Mai thinking that she's involved.

"Big brother… is going to help the soldiers do their job because they're useless" Mai speaks up sheepishly.

"Uh, we're going to help clear out the sites of the kobold villages because I heard reports that they need some help doing it and Drakon isn't here" Jack tires to speak up for the soldiers, it's not their fault that the village is so new and under resourced.

"Ohhhhh big brother is it?" Jessica speaks with slightly annoyed tone; she has spent hours talking to Mai about incredibly embarrassing topics but Jack is somehow big brother and she isn't big sister or elder sister.

"Yep he's big brother but you can't be big sister until you mate with him" Mai remembers the talks she had with Jessica and how flustered she gets over this topic, as if on cue Jessica's face starts to go red.

"Mai…. Don't say that…. What about your elder sister, she hasn't mated with him yet…." Jessica's mind is frazzled speaking the first things that come to mind, forgetting who she's speaking with, a little girl with almost no filter that likes to tease her with this topic.

"Elder sister will mate with him when she gets back, she said it to me secretly before she left" Mai smiles toward Jessica, Leah didn't say anything like that, Mai just wants to tease Jessica.

"No, she didn't" Jack interrupts the two trying to speak up for Jessica.

"Yesssss she did, you just didn't hear because it was a secret code"

"Nope", "Yessss", "No", "YES" ….

Jack and Mai argue back and forth for a few minutes, Jessica is left standing on the ground watching the two. She feels glad that Jack is speaking up for her but she isn't happy with just being defended by someone else, she wants to be able to stand out by herself.

"It doesn't matter if Leah wants to do that stuff, I will be the queen while Jack will be the king!" Jessica interrupts the two's back and forth. "Move over, this queen is coming with you two!" she reaches up to Sleipner's saddle and climbs atop it.

Jack and Mai shift forward allowing Jessica some room to be seated, it's a tight fit now on the saddle with Mai in front of Jack, Jessica behind him with numerous military goods strapped to the saddle such as spears, daggers, swords, food and water.

Jack is put into an awkward position, because it's a tight fit Jessica is pressing up close against him and for some reason, he's able to clearly feel her breasts poking into his back causing his mind to feel enormous pressure due to the little girl sitting essentially in his lap. He just knows if he has a certain reaction, the little girl will not shut up about it so he just considers this cultivation for his mind.

It doesn't take too much longer for the heavy cavalry to gather where upon the group set out, the group ride Jack wants to ride in silence because he needs to concentrate but Jessica is asking him questions while Mai wants to suck on Jack's thumb.

"How are cities founded in your world?" Jessica asks.

Jack starts to remember his lessons taught in school, university didn't cover this topic and primary/high school was almost useless in this topic, "Uhh I think it's something like proximity to a port or a natural resource and sort of develops from there".

"Natural resource?"

"Yeah like ore or wood, sometimes farming land too" Jack answers unsure what else she would know, Jessica didn't have any sort of schooling because she grew up in a small village.

"Oh, that makes sense, what about the city creation stone? Who gets to use or where do they come from? What sort of Guardian Beast does your city have?"

"We don't have that sort of stuff in my world, everything just starts as single buildings that go up over time without any sort of bonus stats or population limits, the only limit is how much you can support with money and military"

"We don't have anything like guardian beasts either, my world has a big problem with animals. We are destroying most of their home lands putting our rubbish everywhere so they get sick and can't find anywhere to live, most of the bigger animals are dying out" Jack tries to summarise the state of the world for these two girls, it's much more complicated than that but he has always felt that wild animals need far more protections including a ban on commercial fishing.

"Do none of the animals speak up or fight against all of this?" Jessica asks confused, animals in her world are able to understand human speech, turn into humans and often are more powerful than humans of the same rank.

"Nope doesn't work like that in my world, animals are just animals, they will change over time but so far none have developed like humans, it's one of the reasons your world seems like a fantasy"

"In my world we don't magically get powers from an orb called a city heart that gives bonus stats in a region, we have to work hard overtime to get something similar to bonuses, It's sort of like jobs in this world" Jack explains, "In this world, you can just change your job at the profession change stele and you're magically good at your job. In my world, you have to study for years and years for the change to have a good job, which you need to have money to pay for everything."

Jack then lists several of the problems with the economy to the two girls that understand none of it, he doesn't notice the girls bored expressions while Mai is sitting there sucking on his thumbs blood and Jessica is just sniffing his neck.

"Do you understand?" Jack suddenly asks after speaking for a few minutes while the trio are riding Sleipner, Fenrir is jogging along with the group giving out commands to his wolf pack at times. Mai shakes her head while Jessica lets out a "Un" while her face is flushed and shifting in her seat, feeling a slight heat build up under her body from all the rubbing and sitting in close proximity to Jack.

Jack rubs Mai's hair again he doesn't care that she didn't understand what he said but Jessica did which makes him feel that his soapboxing was worth it.

"Do you guys have sects in this world?" Jack has been wondering this question for some time, this world seems to lack Kingdoms and Empires but it shouldn't lack sects given the Eastern Fantasy setting.

"I'm not sure, I think I heard about some sects but in my village, they never went there so I don't know." Jessica responds trying to shift her seating position so it's not rubbing as much.

"Sects? Those boring places full of stinky old men that smell weird and have weird life energy" Mai speaks up with Jack's thumb still in her mouth.

"You know about some of the sects?" Jack asks.

"Yeah, elder sister and me would have to visit them sometimes, there are 4 old sects that think they control the world and many smaller ones that think they're the best but they're nothing compared to my elder sister" Mai speaks while recalling some information.

"I think the four big sects are called 'Demon Suppression Palace', 'Fallen Sun Sect', 'Sacred Mountain' and 'Seven Sword Valley' but there's also many sects similar in strength to them that aren't in the open…" Mai recalls some information that Leah has told her previously, Mai needs to be mindful about offending certain influences because even if Leah is incredibly strong, she's just a single person.

"Interesting, I'll have to find out more information from Leah when she come back" Jack comments while trying to remember this information, it'll be incredibly important later on.

"What about your world?" Jessica pipes up not wanting to be left out.

"Uhh, I think there might be but I don't really know about anything like that" Jack just shakes his head.

"Ohh…" Jessica softly sighs, her face still flushed as the heat doesn't stop building up and making her uncomfortable, she wants to start kissing Jack's neck that is right by her mouth but she stops herself.

The group continue riding to the first kobold village site, the first group of kobolds have set out and will be due to arrive shortly so they don't have much time, unknown to all within the game world, some movements happen in the real world.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

Within a tall high-rise office building with a familiar sign on the door, Tom is on his computer carrying on about his work when he hears the knock at the door, "Come in" he says while pausing his work.

A group of well dressed, well built men wearing glasses and honestly looking like Russian Mafia start to enter his room, 12 of them enter before finally a smaller younger looking man enters the room.

"Tom Carrington, 26 years old and already a department head for one of the biggest financial companies in the world acting as the US and Australia liaison officer. One might say that lets you be privy to certain pieces of information" The young sinister looking man with black hair looks coldly at Tom.

Tom has no reaction to the words of this person, "Since you were allowed in here, I assume you have been approved to be here, please make it quick and don't waste my time as I am very busy" Tom coldly returns the same gaze to the young man.

The sinister looking young man has a smile on his face that is anything but friendly, "My organization acquired some information recently that a certain group of people, let's say who are well known for leaving body parts where they shouldn't be, is very interested in the leak of information regarding 'A01' and a little birdy told me that your name appeared on their list" the man doesn't lose his smile.

"My organization is also very interested in this information and would like to offer protection from these groups in exchange for…. Priority access to future information among other things"

Tom lets out a sigh, it finally came to this sort of situation all because of Jack leaving the information around where John could access it and leak it, "Your organization doesn't need to worry about this, they are out of their depths and unless they wish to deal with the 'Imperial Court' I suggest you tell your handler to back away" Tom slowly explains before turning his attention away.

The young sinister man's face immediately changes to one of shock, 'Imperial Court' is considered one of the highest ranking ancient sects of the world, they have numerous high ranking members within militaries all over the world able to act without almost any oversight, able to personally utilize the military of nations around the world to bring 'Justice' before an ancient courtroom.

If Tom truly has the backing of 'Imperial Court' and is able to say their name calmly while also using it as a threat, this means a big deal for the young sinister man's organization and any plans involving Tom they were going to act upon need to stop immediately.

"Please send my regards to the court" The man says through clenched teeth, he's furious that he has to leave in this manner but he has no option. Tom doesn't look at the man and calmly waves him out of the room where they all leave.

Tom picks up his phone, dials a number before speaking, "A rat is leaving the building, find out where its nest is and bring them to court" before hanging up and returning to his work.