Infinite Realm

"That would be 75 ALDs." The automated sales-bot reported.

'I'm beginning to run out of cash.' Sato sighed as he transferred the reported amount to the designated account and registered his goods for delivery to his place. 

After spending 1000 ALDs to purchase the IR VR headset and a few other accessories, spending almost 300 ALDs for energy drinks and now spending 75 ALDs, Sato's past savings were almost emptied. If things went on as they did, he would need to collect some money from his grandfather which Sato didn't want to do. 

First of all, their family wasn't that well-off and also, his grandmother had recently contracted an illness so every amount of money they had mattered.

'I really need to speed up on my plans.' Sato thought as he recalled the announcement regarding IR that he happened to have spotted just a few minutes back.

The announcement was regarding a few changes to IR with mainly started with the application of the fiat currency-to-In-game currency feature. This feature would finally enable the copper, silver and gold coins in IR to have a value, being available to purchase with real money. As things stood, the coins in IR didn't really have a specific value as exchange wasn't allowed by official channels as a result, when two players wanted to perform a transaction with real money for an in-game item, the value of the item in real monetary price is determined by the persons involved. But with the implementation of this feature, all these would change. The coins would have a fixed value and a platform for exchange would b made available in the game. This would better help in making transaction and also increase the value of the game even more. If Sato made use of this opportunity by forging weapons and selling at a profitable price, he would then have a stable source of income. But this was just one of his plans for making money in Infinite Realm.

Walking outside the store, Sato was about to hail a taxi to school when he suddenly felt someone staring at him with a vicious intent. If not for his gaming experience where he had to walk between a fine line between life and death, Sato wouldn't have noticed it.

'Who is it?' Sato wondered but he didn't react to it and acted as if he never noticed anything. 

Instead of going through with his original idea of getting a ride, Sato decided to take a walk. While the distance was a bit far, it was still within trekking distance.

Sato kept walking towards the university with a steady pace as he tried to pinpoint the location of the stalker. The person wasn't a professional so it wasn't difficult for Sato to do this even with his back turned towards the opponent.

'Right there.' feeling the unhidden rage within the stare, Sato was able to pinpoint the stalker's location to be 21 feet diagonally behind him and walking just enough to match his pace.

'Hm?' Just when Sato was thinking of how to solve this issue, he noticed a new gaze locked on him.

'Wait… there are 3?!' Sato was shocked as he felt a total of 3 different gazes from 3 different directions locked on him. 

'Who the heck are these guys?' Sato thought with a bit of suspicion. While he wasn't exactly friends with everyone, he wasn't their enemy either. For someone to send a group of people after him meant that they had a serious grudge.

'Is it Ichiro?' Sato recalled the guy who took Mia away from Yato and sent some guys after them. In his mind, this was the only guy who would go so far as to still pull the same shit again.

'Let's have some fun then.' Sato smirked in an unnoticeable fashion as he headed to an isolated area. He wasn't worried about being injured or getting beaten since Sato usually did the beating. As for getting killed or getting mugged, he was the least worried about that. Unless someone had mentally gone ill, they wouldn't normally dare to commit murder.

It wasn't difficult for Sato to find a remote area. The route from the Gamebox guide to Shinjuku School of Engineering and Mechanics had been covered by him for god knew how many times. The place he went to was a little open space witha building planted in the middle that was hidden behind a few other buildings. It originally housed a store but the owner went bankrupt and the place gotten seized by the bank. Due to the lack of buyers because of the remote location, the place slowly became ignored and forgotten.

Once he had walked in front of the building, just 2 metres away from the entrance, Sato paused and stood still as if he was listening to the winds.

"You can come out now." 

There was no reply to Sato's words but he wasn't bothered at this but smirked with his hands in his pockets. There was a pen in his right pocket which he bought on his way here. Since the stalkers didn't want to receive his warm welcome, he decided to give them a proper invitation.

*Phew*

As his hand left his pocket, Sato abruptly turned and tossed the pen at a direction behind him. The pen was too quick that the shadow hidden at that spot couldn't react in time and got hit.

"Argh!"

A masculine voice sounded out in pain but Sato ignored it and instead tossed another pen with his left hand at the source.

With the pain and surprise from the first hit, the figure never expected another hit and got pierced again.

"Argh!" Another pitiful scream resounded less than a second later.

"You bastard!" Another voice from elsewhere cursed as a figure jumped out of its hiding spot. The new arrival suddenly dashed towards Sato and punched ta him but Sato expected this and was able to dodge before he arrived. After seeing that he had missed, the assailant didn't make any move but glared at Sato.

"Kijin bro, you okay?" The third and final character made an appearance.

With no one bothering to make a move on him, Sato was finally able to get a good look at his 'followers'.

The first one, Kirin, who got attacked twice by Sato was an average looking man. Apart from his slightly long face, he was average in every other regard. The two pens had been removed from his body but two bloody holes were left on his right shoulder and left thigh as mementos.

The second man who attacked Sato was a middle aged man with a roughly shaved beard. Sato was astounded at why someone would look like this after all, shaving was anything but difficult. 

The third man wasn't anything special but he looked familiar to Sato.

"You…you're the old dude from back then?" Sato was a bit stunned. 

It was the 'old' man Sato and Yato had met back when they both went to purchase a VR set for Yato and some energy drinks[1]. Back then, Sato had commented one how he felt that Infinite realm would reach a billion players in a month's time but the man contradicted him instead.This almost lead to the two parties clashing if not for the man exiting at the last moment.

"Well well well. Look who remembered me." The man grinned.

"It's quite difficult to forget an ugly face." Sato responded. 

"You….!"

"Why the hell are you after me? Don't tell me that a simple comment got you all riled up?" 

This was what Sato was earnestly confused about. Sato never insulted him no made any violent move on the man so there was viable reason for him to stalk him(Sato).

"No one mocks me like that and gets away with it. Ether pay a 100 ALDs or break an arm and kowtow to me." The man grinned silly. Despite seeing Sato injure one of his men and also witnessing his skills firsthand, the man still felt he had a good shot at victory after all, Sato was outnumbered.

"I see. You're one of the dumb ones. And here I was getting a bit worried." Sato shook his head. He had originally thought that the man was hired by Ichiro but it runs out he was one of those gang guys that always felt threatened and liked to carry their weight around. While security had improved considerably, thugs could still be found in different places. So far as they didn't commit a crime, the government had no reason to arrest them.

"What did you say?!" The man shouted.

"I just said you're dumb. What are you gonna do about it?" Sato stared at the man with cold eyes.

Hoji didn't know why but eh suddenly felt like he was in the presence of death. That glare alone was more than enough to weaken his will but being in the presence of some of his gang mates, he didn't want to show a weak side to the weak man in front of him. 

"You damned little kid! You wanna die?!" Hoji roared but didn't make any other move.

"It depends on whether you could actually pull it off. Though I doubt you lack the balls for it." Sato taunted. 

It had been long since he had had a proper fight in the real world. Though that event with Wu Shiyi was good, it still didn't satisfy him. Sato wanted to test out some new moves he had learnt this past few days and the proper practice dummy was right in front of him. There was no way he would miss this opportunity.

"You fucking bastard! Die!!"