A New Base

Even more quicker than a blink of an eye, they have teleported. Danny opened his eyes.

They were inside a house. It was an old house, filled with all kinds of things. Reno had teleported them to the living room.

They were standing beside the fireplace. It was a cold day, so the warmth made the cool chills go away. There was one couch and three chairs surrounding the fireplace, with a  table right in front of it.

"Take a seat, new folks!" 

Draco greeted them, showing them to one of the large couches. Danny and the other two, sat down as Claus walked away up the stairs. 

It was a large house. And from the looks of it, someone in Reno's team was rich. And Danny surely knew that it wasn't Reno. 

There were wonderful paintings hung on the walls. The framed artworks looked like they were high in price. There were also some stone statues lying around the house. 

"Yes Danny! Draco's a rich boy!"

Spoke Reno looking at the boy who was shocked by the enormous house. Danny looked at Reno raising his eyebrows. 

"So how did you manage to find him?" asked Danny, from the blonde boy. "Very easy question! Social media! He was a total noob when I started to practice with Claus." answered Reno.

Danny sat on the comfortable couch as Draco went to greet the visitors with a cup of tea. Reno sat on the chair beside them, to talk a little more with the new visitors.

"So.. What system are you? You said it was a coincidence right? A mage?" 

Danny asked with confusion. He couldn't believe that Reno had that much power. Even Conor didn't have much power. 

"Kid... Flying doesn't make you anything special in this game. I mean, the best class you could achieve in this game is your class idiot!" 

Reno praised Danny, leaning closer from the chair. "And that guy right there, he's a God-level.. You can't imagine how he destroys players.." whispered Reno, pointing a finger at the top floor, where Claus went.

"Too true," hopped in Draco, serving them the tea he had made. "That guy is just a monster.. No-one can surpass him, at least among us.." 

"Well he looked like a thug!" blurted out Conor, who was waiting to say that for a long time now. Danny and Hannah took a sip from their tea, staring at the brave Conor. The cup of tea was very delicious. 

"The tea was very good, mister!" rejoiced Hannah to Draco. "Yeah.. it was really good." commented Danny along with Hannah. 

Draco smiled kindly.

Conor felt like he just got rejected. He was expressionless. Reno saw this and quickly spoke up.

"Yes! He does look like a thug! And he was a bounty hunter in the underworld.. So.. there's nothing to be worried about!" 

Reno howled looking at Conor's expressionless face. Danny suddenly gobbled his tea and started to cough, by the shock of hearing Reno's words.

"An underworld thug! There are people in the underworld playing this game! It all makes sense now!" thought Danny, thinking about the crime blogs, and the murder cases he wrote about, every weekend.

Most of the outskirts of Mandorin was filled with criminals. Most criminals played underworld games and the main centre of their crimes always led to Calliberone. 

Calliberone was also in the outskirts of the city. So it was quite hard to live with the constant crimes. It was one of the reasons for the people in Mandorin to dream about leaving the city behind. 

The unsolved cases always had suspicious and strange things, involved in the murders and the drug deals. 

"So.. there is an underworld involved in this system thing?" asked Danny from Reno, a bit frightened. Hannah was listening patiently to their conversation.

"Will they kill us for XP? Will they kill us to level up?", Hannah's mind filled with suspicion. 

"Yes boy.. the underworld is involved in this system game. But those players aren't the real deal. The players who hunt just to become immortal, that's the real deal.." Reno explained looking down. It looked like he was suffering inside.

"Well.. nothing we can do.. we'll just reach immortality then. I don't think there's a way to drop this system.. so we can't run from it.. so we'll just play it.." Danny said becoming brave all of a sudden. But those weren't the words echoing inside his head.

"I'll kill you! For Linda!"

The words were echoing inside his head. His main target was revenge for his best friend. 

"That's the spirit Danny! And you are more of a man than the Danny I met before.." Reno praised the brave act of Danny. 

Suddenly, Claus came back down the stairs. "So people! How's it going there?" Claus asked as he sat down on the only chair left beside the fireplace. 

The floor of the house was wooden and there was a large red carpet lying on the floor. It was quite an old house. Dusty bookshelves, old paintings, some statues and even the latest game sets, computers and laptops. 

The house was perfect. 

"It's going well.. Just a little talk with Danny.." said Reno with his usual witty smile. 

Claus placed his legs crossed and laid back on the utterly comfortable chair. "So... Tell me.. what level are you guys?"

"Hmmmm... I'm level 2.." said Conor quickly jumping into the conversation. "I'm level 1.." answered Danny. As the boys spoke up, Hannah still refused to trust them and give them information.

Claus's deadly eyes went to Hannah. "And you, girl?" 

Hannah couldn't do anything but answer. She was silent the whole time. "I just reached level 11.." said Hannah to Claus.

"Oh.. the girl is better than the two boys.. how manly!" howled Claus looking at the team. Hannah suddenly felt shy and gave out a little chuckle.

Claus's skin was a little dark. He had 3 claw marks printed on his face. His hair was very long, even more than a girl's. His hair could tell that he was old. The black leather overcoat suited Claus.

He had a wild and bushy beard and the dark eye bags told that he was a man of the night. Most criminals are. But from the looks of it, this wasn't an ordinary thief that goes to prison twice a year.

"So.. I overheard you guys talking down here.. I think you guys have the same expectations as us. To win the game." said Claus, taking off his hat and placing it on the stool beside his chair. 

"Yes.. That's the only expectation we have.." said Conor to the old man. "Yep.. that's the only thing we can have, in this meaningless life.. this meaningless country.." ranted Claus. 

Suddenly he was talking like a normal old boy. "Well shit! I started to rant! Can't believe it!!" yelled Claus suddenly figuring it out. 

"Now... What was I expecting to ask you?" Claus asked himself, reminding the question. "Oh.. Since you kids are new.. did you know the rules of this Witch Hunt?" 

"Yes.. it showed on the day the Witch Hunt began," said Danny. "Oh.. then did you know, a player only has 30 years to reach immortality before death?" asked Claus with a witty smile. 

All 3 of them were shocked.

"Only 30!!! But.. what happens if you don't reach immortality!" affrighted Danny. 

"Then... You die.." said Claus. 

"What the fuck! If you don't complete the survival quest you die! And if you don't become immortal in 30 years you die!"

Conor roared out. The game was just unfair. 

"Yes.. You die.. and boy, look at that hunger in your goddamn eyes! I can assure you that those emotions will lead you to immortality in no time." complimented Claus to the child. 

"So how the fuck are we going to kill so much players and creatures?? There's only a few humans who play this in this town.." asked Danny, who was frightened by the thought. 

It meant he only had 30 more years to go. "And we haven't even completed our survival quests yet!"

Claus looked at the ranting boy. "Look who's ranting now.. hahaha.. then get the fuck up. We're going to fish some lives or I'm going to kill you three before the clock hits 0.." 

Claus suddenly got up. "Get up quickly! It's 7pm. We might have time.." 

"But what about ours?? I didn't either!!" cried out Conor. "Wow.. you idiots! And what about the girl?" asked Claus, turning to Hannah.

"Still have some more to go.." said Hannah. 

"Well then get up guys! I'll take the white haired boy.. Draco shall take the blondie!" spoke up Conor. Then he turned to Danny and Claus. 

"And these two could take care of themselves I think.." 

Then the three parties departed at the house. Conor and Reno teleported easily, using their magic. Draco and Hannah took off in Draco's bike. 

Danny went with Claus and they got in his jeep. "Get your seatbelt on kid, I don't let go of werewolves that lurk here and there in the streets.." 

Danny strapped his seatbelt on. Claus was sitting on the driver's seat and Danny was right beside him. 

"Well I think we have gotten a new base now.." said Danny smiling at Claus. Claus smirked and started the jeep. Then he turned on the radio and changed it to a rock n roll channel.

"Hell yeah kid! And we're winning this game!"