MMORPG: Rise of the Peerless Pumpkinmancer

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A man went from shadow to shadow as if a spy. 

Jack followed Lilly's footsteps, reaching a medium-sized building where tons of rough-looking men seemed to be gathering. 

They all shared one point in common: tattoos, lots of tattoos! The problem wasn't the ink but the fact that they all shared the same pterodactyl one: a gang?!

What the hell had happened for Lilly to be mixed with them? Either way, he would soon know. Jack pushed the door open, entering the gang's lair. 

— 14 Mobsters Appeared! — 

They stared his way with penetrating gazes. 

They were not one bit friendly, staring daggers at him and zeroing in on the notepad he carried with him. 

This was his cover —> Recruiter for a Security Company 

He would start with a friendly greeting and get to know more about them under the guise of recruiting strong men for a contract. 

"Hello everyone, I work for—" 

"We're not interested. Get the fuck out!" 

Their leader, an ox-like man the size of a mountain, spat out, not even letting him finish. How rude! The man approached menacingly, towering over him. 

"What if I have an opportunity for you all to make lots of credits?" A few seemed to falter. "Ah, right, I saw a girl enter this place earlier. Do you know what—"

"GET OUT! And never come back!" 

The enmity was palpable. They were already cracking their knuckles, getting ready for some action. Those guys knew Lilly! 

"Why don't we resolve this like adults and—" Jack tried to resolve things peacefully one last time. 

"SCRAM! Our Boss already called dibs on her. She's his: get lost!" The man bellowed as he sneered, the minions chuckling following his lead. 

Dibs?! Boss?! This was BAD! As they evilly chuckled, memories flashed past Jack's eyes, images of her broken corpse. 

He observed the men in the surroundings: how they laughed, how they stood, and even how they breathed. 

They were amateurs, martial artists but amateurs nonetheless. As long as he could shock them, he could take control of the situation and get answers out of them. 

He'd target the leader to subdue the others. He had to be ruthless and take them by surprise. He opened his mouth, "giving up". 

"Alright, I'll leave right—"

Jack never even finished his sentence, striking as soon as he felt them lower their guard. 

He wasn't fast, nor was he strong, but it didn't take him long to cover the short distance between him and the leader guy. 

There was a cold glint of metal, the sound of flesh being penetrated, and a scream of surprise more than pain. Then a dagger rested on an exposed throat. 

"Twitch a muscle, and you die. Do you understand?" Jack stated. 

"W-what?!" A panicked hostage cried out. 

The gleeful atmosphere turned dark, the laughs getting stuck in the goon's throats. Panic filled their faces, not knowing how to handle the situation. 

Many stared at the blood that flowed out of the hostage's arms. That's when they realized they were in over their heads. This guy was crazy!

Jack grinned. Crazy was precisely the look he was going for! 

"Who's your Boss? What does he want with the girl?"

"Y-you, who the hell are y—"

"Answer!" 

The man scoffed, remaining silent. Fuck! Jack had miscalculated. While the man seemed like a rookie gangster, his loyalty to his "Boss" was extremely high. 

But, not all was lost. The man's subordinates were looking over, as terrified as worried. He could use this! 

"Now, why don't you all tell me everything you know? I may just spare his life if you guys cooperate. What do you say?" He gently coaxed them. 

He felt his hostage squirm, seemingly about to try something. Jack put his hand on one of the man's pressure points: one that controlled pain. 

"Don't you dare say anyth— ARGGG!" 

As they heard the gut-wrenching scream of agony, the subordinates shivered and opened their mouths in a hurry. 

"We'll talk, we'll talk! Please don't hurt him anymore!" Just like that, they started spiling a lot of information. 

But, the more they spoke and the stranger's Jack expression became. He may just have fucked up.… 

━━━━━━ POV ━━━━━━━

Lilly couldn't stop her heart from beating excitingly. Today was officially the start of her martial art journey! 

- Tiger-Crushing Fist! 

- Roundhouse Kick from Hell! 

- Dragon Swoops from the Sky! 

- Heavenly Jugular Destroying Fist! 

- … 

Those moves were so damn exciting and hard to perform! Still, there was no way she would give up! As for what had brought her here… 

—

Recently she had been learning to defend herself with her brother. Whenever he took a break from gaming, Jack would show her a few moves and give her plenty of advice. 

Every time she heard him talk, it would blow her mind. He was akin to a living mythical Infinite Guru! He knew everything there was to know! 

But, there was just one issue. She had realized she needed a training partner if she wanted to improve. Finding one was proving to be quite complicated: 

- Her friends in Infinite were weak 

- Her brother was strong but would never injure her. 

- The school PE teacher was evading her ever since their duel. 

She needed to expand her circles! That's when she found the perfect place to help her progress: Pterodactyl-Fang Dojo! 

The owner was an eccentric that only cared about raising the ultimate students, and there were plenty of p̶u̶n̶c̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶g̶s̶ good brothers to practice with! 

Sensei Laurent looked quite handsome for an uncle. His only flaw was that he'd get excited way too easily for apparently no reason. He just LOVED to exaggerate.

For instance, his eyes hadn't stopped shining during her entrance test as he kept shouting: "Incredible!" "Such strength in this small frame?!" "Once in a millennium talent!" 

He had even bowed before her, tears in his eyes as he begged her to come under his tutelage. He even promised to make her the greatest warrior, whatever that meant.

This simply wasn't necessary. She just wanted to train IRL to give herself a solid foundation to improve upon in Infinite. 

Really, he was a good guy with a few screws loose. 

1. He actually had money and only did the Dojo thing as a hobby. 

2. All he asked in exchange for his help was for her to recognize him as her teacher once she reached greater heights…whatever that meant. 

3. He seemed convinced recruiters would magically appear to take her away. He had even instructed his students to sternly turn away anyone asking to meet her ASAP! 

Still, she loved his enthusiasm and followed his teachings. 

She'd do her best to copy the moves he showed her. It was hard at first, but it was getting easier and easier. Success after countless failures felt so exhilarating! 

Pushing one's limits was the best feeling in the world! 

She could finally understand why Sensei Laurent played Dojo instructor. It was super fun! Still, she couldn't wait until they were done with the basic easy moves! 

She would train diligently and evolve into a badass Lilly 2.0 ...or even 3.0! Then she'd show her brother all her cool new moves. How impressed would he be?!

She hadn't told him anything about this since she wanted to surprise him. At this moment, he was probably kicking ass in Infinite, right? 

She kept focusing on her training, a small smile on her lips. 

Meanwhile...