I was expecting a lot of things, but this? Certainly not. Though the atmosphere was grim, brutal, and dark; the entire vibe didn't feel all that threatening if you ignored the skulls, blood stains, and white stuff splattered all over. Everyone was busy minding their own business, and my sudden entrance barely drew any attention at all, even as I stood there watching them all awkwardly.

  Snapping out of my dazed state, I hurried over to the task board and began scanning it.

  (Highly Mutated Rat Beast Extermination:

  Tag: 12

  A group of highly mutated rat beast have made their nest near a very important smuggling route leading to the myriad water river. So far, 12 people have died, so you might want to bring a few friends who know what they're doing with you. Among them is a suspected tier 2 mutated specimen rich in meat, bone, flesh, and hide. If you do manage to kill it, bringing it back will earn you additional contribution points.

  Move to the reception desk for the exact coordinates of the location, if it is empty, go over there yourself and look for a thin strip of wood with a matching tag, then, insert it into the wooden box underneath the table to gain a map.)

  (Root Out Spies:

  Tag: 13

  There's apparently a lot of spies in the gang nowadays, eliminating them and providing suitable evidence will earn you a massive amount of contribution points. Move to the reception desk for more information, if it is empty, go over there yourself and look for a thin strip of wood witch a matching tag, then, insert it into the wooden box underneath the table to gain a booklet.)

  (Firewood Torch shortage:

  Tag: 18

  We're always in dire need of Firewood torches as the gang constantly uses them. +1 contribution point per normal quality Firewood torch, if you manage to supply us in bulk, we might buy at a higher price.

  This task is repeatable, and has no limit; if you do accept this task, head out back and find Old Man Burns.)

  (Guard Duty:

  Tag: 22

  We'll pay you to remain at the gate every cycle, the longer you're there, the more contribution points you earn. Your task is simple: stop suspicious individuals, and spies. Move to the reception desk for more information, if it is empty, go over there yourself and look for a thin strip of wood with a matching tag, then, insert it into the wooden box underneath the table to gain a booklet.)

  (Market Cleaner:

  Move around the market, pick up scraps, and things that should not be there, and throw them in the myriad water river, repeat. This job doesn't earn you any contribution points, but, anything you find is yours; you decide if you want to throw it away or not. And, nobody can mess with you either; once something hits the ground, they lose ownership of it, unless they can defend it. If you're interested, just take this task message and keep it on your person and you'll officially be a Market Cleaner.)

  I rubbed my chin as I gazed at the various tasks, contemplating which one I should take; the first one that came to mind was the first one, but that was too high-key. A task that has claimed the lives of so many people couldn't be simple; there had to be something else going on. Either the rats were stronger than described, or something.

  For me to suddenly arrive and complete it would no doubt draw a great deal of attention, or maybe not, who knows?

  'I could just be overthinking things, again, but I'll stick with my gut on this one.'

  The same logic applied for the second task, but what took me by surprise was the fact that they knew the gang had a spy problem, and wanted to fix it. But, I felt like the task was both a reward and a trap; some spies would see it as a chance to rise within the gang rather quickly, and end up exposing themselves if they took it.

  'Maybe I'll take it once I've firmly rooted myself have connections in high places, if someone hasn't taken the task by then, that is.'

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  The Firewood torch one also kept my attention was a bit; I could so it, and I could do it very well, too. In fact, I could probably produce so many that the market crashes; all I needed was wood. But, I didn't want to touch that one yet; I wasn't quite sure how valuable these torches were, or the process of making them. I also didn't have a way to properly hide my identity yet, so there's also that.

  Guard duty wasn't even worth mentioning; I'm sure there's a lot of corruption involved, and vested interests. I wanted nothing to do with that, as that would only invite unnecessary problems unto myself.

  The only one that suited me was the market cleaner; it was low-key, and perfectly suited my personality. There's also a very high probability of me acquiring valuable items. But, people would most certainly fight me for their stuff, they'd be brain-dead if they just let me grab it up and leave like that. After all, people drop things by accident, and they'd want them back.

  But, did I care? No, I did not.

  While the risk was medium, as long as I selected my targets carefully and didn't do it too much, I should be fine.

  I grabbed the task, looked around, and then flipped it over out of curiosity and blinked when I saw the tiny map on it labeled: Myriad Water River Map.

  It was quite detailed for something so small, too, which was interesting to me.

  'Who even posts these tasks? They have to be a fairly powerful individual within the gang, knowledgeable too. Could be more than one though; who says that it has to be a single person?'

  But anyway, that wasn't important.

  With no reason to stay, I turned around, and left.

  My first though was to head to the myriad water river, but that'd be foolish; I had no real reason to go there now, and it was dangerous; the writings from that accursed book were still fresh in my mind. Things weren't right there, many things, and I didn't want to die a horrible death.

  Heading back to the market, I found a nice secluded spot and began sweeping the ground with my eyes, stopping on a shabby, run-down stall selling human femur bones. Quite a few robed individuals were gathered around the stall, bickering and browsing through what was displayed.

  'How do they even buy things? I'm curious, do they have a magical system that automatically transfers contribution points, or some sort of currency system?'

  'Are you dumb? Do you not see how run down and shabby this place is, how would they develop a magic system just for money? Wouldn't it be better to invest the resources elsewhere?'

  'Fair point, brain; that's why you exist.'

  But anyway, back to the matter at hand; the people at the stall.

  One of them suddenly pointed at a rather thick and imposing human femur bone, took out some things that looked like wooden chips, and handed them over to the stall owner. The stall owner then took it down, and handed it to him.

  At the same time, a shadow suddenly blurred past him, and he tripped, dropped the bone, and fell on his face.

  A swarm of black descended like a tide, engulfing both the man and the bone.

  I blinked, and both were no more.

  Cold sweat dripped down my back, and a headache suddenly manifested.

  'What the hell just happened? A guy falls with his bones, I blink, and both disappear?'

  Why the hell did I think it was a good idea to pick this job? If these were my competitors, how was I supposed to compete? How did they even move a fully grown adult in short time? They really took the rule of anything on the ground being up for grabs to the extreme, even going as far as to take an entire living person.

  They seemed to be working as a team, too; one would trip the person, and the rest would spring into action as soon as they touched the ground. Nobody even batted an eye,were people really used to such cruelty?

  It baffled me, but thinking about it made me realize that if I too were to live in such a place long enough, I'd slowly get used to all the crazy things, to the point of becoming numb to them. I was already becoming slightly desensitized to it all; the scent didn't bother me anymore, nor did the waste, human body parts, or the rats.

  'I didn't even feel bad about killing that guy, was I some sort of psychopath?'

  But to be fair, he was trying to kill me, and I have no memories of my past life, no complete memories anyway.

  I continued searching the market, looking for any piece of scarp, trash; anything at all. But, I found nothing at all, the entire place was clean, so clean that the place didn't even smell.

  'I might have picked the wrong job; the market cleaner space was just too packed, too competitive.'

  What was I going to do?

  Hmmm, honestly, this was good, in a way; this'll force me to use my brain so that I don't die, and my power, too.

  I needed to observe more though, and gather more information about the big players.

  It didn't take long before another incident happened; a man was buying some dried human flesh at a packed stall, but couldn't seem to take the scent of the stall owner, and staggered back slightly. The pouch in his hand somehow slipped, and fell to the ground. All known human expressions flashed across his face within an instant; shock, anger, sadness, horror, and finally despair followed by a touch of madness as he dove after it.

  A swarm of men in black robes crawled out from god knows where; they were simply too much, so I din't have the time to see where every one was coming from. The crowd peeled away from them, and they surrounded the man like hungry dogs. The last thing I heard was a pained scream of madness, and he was gone; one of them snapped his neck, picked him up, and dove into an alley nearby, vanishing from view with the rest of his crew.

  I was horrified beyond measure; they din't treat the man like a human being at all, but more like a piece of treasure falling from the heavens, one that could grant immortality.

  'As far as I know, human flesh can't grant immortality, even here, but it can fill one's stomach, and in a place such as this, that was enough.'

  Literally nothing went to waste here; I didn't even want to imagine what they did with you know what.

  With a sigh, I continued looking, but I didn't have any luck.

  At least, not until I changed my mindset; instead of looking for perfect opportunities, I should either make them or take them, else they wouldn't come.

  With that in mind, I looked to the ground, and found nothing; not even a piece of wood.

  Grinning from ear to ear, I looked over to a random stall selling mutated rat tails, this one wasn't very crowded because the rat tails were rotten, and looked funny, but people did pass by it a lot so it was the perfect target.

  My gaze landed on the wooden floor and I activated my cheat.

  [Floorwood:

  The creation of a a certain old man's grandson, supports the entirety of Woodcity and keeps the harmful variants of myriad river water out.]

  I grinned from ear to ear; things were about to get real slippery.