The Axe Gang

"Before we get to Team making, let me tell you all about Supporting Characters, first. That way, you know what you're getting yourself into," said Magnus, with his gaze remaining at his parents for a bit longer. They understood what their son wanted immediately; he was going to place them under his protection. As Magnus started his explanation, they listened to him intently.

After the Prolog, a lot of people would become Supporting Characters. Not everyone, but most would find it more beneficial to join a Team instead of going solo. Supporting Character was a status that stood below a Protagonist in terms of overall power and privileges granted by the gods.

They were the people gathered by a Protagonist to be on their Team, to be part of the story. Different from Protagonists, they were not chosen, nor were they controlled by an Author. They either stumbled upon items blessed by a certain god and eventually followed a Protagonist authored by the same god, or they heard about a Team and wanted to join to gain power regardless of who the Author was. And it was a Protagonist's job to entice them to join their Team, because the Author had no direct control of a Supporting Character's movements.

Supporting Characters would usually be involved in completing Objectives, mainly to assist the Protagonist, with the rewards being a power-up or a guide to their god's weapons and treasures. The power-up here usually meant stat boosts—both temporary and permanent—or a new skill, granted with the Protagonist as the medium.

However, since a Supporting Character's path and decisions couldn't be manually narrated, not to mention they were mostly following the Protagonist of their own volition, they enjoyed some leeway around the god's control. Which was the reason why the gods didn't like giving them powerful skills in the case of desertion or betrayal caused by another god's trickery. Well, it wasn't as if the gods liked giving them skills in the first place. The power-up these people enjoyed via the Protagonist drained more AP after all, since solidifying a follower meant greatly adding strength in number for the Protagonist; this was especially true in the case of Protagonists who thrived in building an army. Most skills bestowed upon Supporting Characters were standard ones that most other Supporting Characters got. They weren't specially made for the person. The stat boosts were also minimal.

Supporting Characters often grew using their own effort, since they didn't have the privileges a Protagonist received. Not entirely relying on the lackluster skills the god would sometimes grant them, Supporting Characters liked learning skills based on the ones they'd seen Protagonists used, while at the same time finding items that granted skills. In rare cases, they could also create skills that they could name themselves. However, this required them to refine such skills to perfection and to execute them over and over before the system registered it.

This didn't mean that Supporting Characters had to always be around the Protagonist. Case in point, Magnus' best friend, TJ. He had been a Supporting Character for Azrael's Protagonist, yet he spent most of his journey alongside Magnus. He would only approach Vulture whenever he was notified that there was an Objective he could take on for a worthwhile reward. Once he was done with that, he would return to Magnus' side. Thankfully, Vulture was sort of like an acquaintance of Magnus, so she had never strayed too far from him.

For now, though, Magnus couldn't recruit anyone other than his family to be his Team's Supporting Characters. Or more like, he couldn't be bothered, for he wanted to preserve his AP and just focus on helping his parents and Protagonists, which included himself. He didn't have enough attention to spare on other people—

"Right, Team Magnus it is!" shouted Matt.

—except these other people were also his friends, and he didn't have the heart to just leave them to fend for themselves. He should've seen this coming, seeing as how TJ would most definitely not welcome anyone other than his parents to his Team, and Summer was already eyeing to take in Mrs. Wang's family.

Magnus had no other choice. Besides, Matt, Garrett, and Katja had been members of his Team in the original Universe, anyway. Problem was, they had brought their parents this time. 'Oh well, I guess the more the merrier,' he thought sarcastically. He then sent a questioning look toward his parents. "So, are you guys with me?"

"Of course, sweetie," Fiona answered with a smile.

Magnus returned her smile. He then said to TJ and Summer, "You can follow my example. You just need to say, 'System, I'd like to make a Team, please.'"

A new holographic screen then came to life. The screen was invisible to everybody else, but Magnus was hoping TJ and Summer could at least understand what he was trying to do. Written at the top of the screen was the word [Team Menu]. Below that was a line that said [Enter Team name].

"Hmm, what should I name my Team…" Magnus mumbled. Suddenly, a random idea popped into his head. He pulled his [Wayward] axe out of Inventory, drawing a chorus of gasps from everyone. However, Magnus was too busy entertaining the idea in his mind to care.

"Whoa!" Garrett shouted. "How did you do that—"

"The Axe Gang," Magnus finally said after a few seconds of consideration, while returning his weapon into the Inventory. "My Team name is The Axe Gang."

"Excuse me?" asked Katja, for some reason looking slightly disgusted. "Absolutely not!"

Magnus shrugged at her overreaction. "You can always withdraw from the Team. Oh wait, I haven't officially recruited any of you, yet. So I can just NOT put your name—"

"Okay, fine!" Katja gave up. "I knew you would come up with something stupid, what with your poor naming sense." The tall blondie harumphed and crossed her arms. Magnus had always known she was a bit on the eccentric side, but she seemed especially pissed today. Well, considering everything that had just happened, it was probably fair that she—

"This fucking sucks. Those fucking stupid gods couldn't have chosen the worse fucking day to mess with the whole fucking world," the Russian girl said, pouting her lips.

"What's wrong?" asked Matt.

"Everything's wrong! Also, I'm on my period."

"Ah."

'No wonder she's been having that murderous look on her eyes the whole time,' Magnus 2.0 remarked. 'I thought she was angry at us or something.'

After watching the Team name change to [The Axe Gang], Magnus gave the system another order. "System, assign these people to be members of my Team, please. Fiona Helvig, Markus Helvig, Matt Liu, Mei Liu, Katja Alexandrova, Nikolai Alexandrov, Garrett Williams, Henry Williams, and Gina Williams."

Immediately after he finished listing all the names, a screen glimmered to life in front of the people mentioned. Magnus couldn't see them, but he knew what was written on those screens.

[You have been invited to join Team [The Axe Gang] led by Protagonist Magnus Helvig. Do you wish to accept?]

"Yes, please."

"I do."

"'Kay."

"Recruit me!"

All sorts of confirmation sounded out from several mouths.

[Congratulation! You have been recruited to Team [The Axe Gang] led by Protagonist Magnus Helvig!]

[Link has been created.]

Magnus had been keeping his eyes on his parents the entire time. Once he could finally see their names on the Team Menu, he sighed in relief. It had become official; his parents were now within his Team, bringing them under his umbrella of protection. That meant the gods wouldn't be able to touch them. At least not directly. Still, at least he now had a way to protect them better.

With his parents' status now as his Supporting Characters, he didn't need to worry about the gods trying to mark them as potential Protagonist. Upon recruitment, the system locked the Supporting Characters' status, preventing them from being turned into a Protagonist unless they denounced themselves from the Team. Sometimes a god would implement cheap tricks to make them betray their own Team, therefore making it possible to push them to join another Team, or even turn them into the god's new Protagonist.

Once Supporting Characters were recruited into a Team, the system also created a link between them and the Protagonist. The link would send notifications to the Protagonist informing them of the Team members' statuses, for example whether they were in danger. The link also provided a group messaging system, where the members could send texts in the public room or whisper each other if they wanted to talk in private.

[Matt Liu: "'sup lol"]

[Matt Liu: "oh I just said it in my mind and it worked!"]

Instantly, Matt had already discovered the messaging system and tested out the public chat room.

"No spamming, please. Or I'm blocking you," warned Magnus.

'Speaking of messaging system, we'll probably have to establish a communication method between the Protagonists,' Magnus 2.0 pointed out.

'You're right. Remind me later.'

Suddenly, the voice of Magnus' system was heard.

[The system would like to remind the hosts to create Aliases for the Protagonists.]

'Ah, right!' Magnus 2.0 shouted. 'Aliases!'

'Right. You know what to do, then.'

Magnus 2.0 then minimized the Team Menu screen and pulled up the Protagonists screen. 'Add an Alias to all Protagonists' Status Windows, please. And err, other me's Alias would be 'The Great Mag—''

'Yeah no,' Magnus cut him off. 'Remember what The Oracle said?'

'Dude, you know I was just joking,' Magnus 2.0 retorted. 'Well, I guess you're now 'Dreamer'. Again. Also, add 'Death' as TJ's Alias, and as for Summer…'

Magnus stole a glance to his girlfriend, who was standing next to him, busy tweaking with her own Team Menu. 'When we introduced one of our favorite songs to Alana, it instantly became her favorite, as well. Considering that, I think we already know what Summer's Alias would be.'

'Right,' agreed Magnus 2.0, immediately ordering the system to add her Alias.

Suddenly, both TJ and Summer received the same message from their system.

[Your Alias has been created by your Author. Please check your Status Window.]

Curious as to what it was all about, they paused their Team managing and brought up their Status Window screen.

[Status Window

Name: Tyler John Haysmith

Race: Human

Author: Magnus 2.0

Alias: Death

Age: 18

Title(s): None…]

As for Summer, it looked like this:

[Status Window

Name: Summer Murphy

Race: Human

Author: Magnus 2.0

Alias: Glósóli

Age: 17

Title(s): None…]