Chapter 0 - Welcome to Manaburger

Earth 2025

The day dragged on for Ryan, his attention captured by the endless scrolling of his phone. An obnoxious advertisement popped up, interrupting his doomscrolling flow.

“Do you want unmatched power? Unending wealth? Eternal life? All of it might be yours this weekend with the CaliLottery. The CaliLottery has obtained two sponsorships to the Trial System for the lucky Powerball winners. Choose your adventure today.”

“Yeah right.”

It had to be a sign of maturity that he didn’t fantasize about winning the lottery for even a second. The fact that a lottery had managed to get two Trial slots? Now that was a little sad. There was so much he could do as an adventurer… he might have ended up daydreaming.

A large figure approached the counter. Ryan snapped himself out of his daze and turned to a touchscreen, ready to be a professional again.

“Welcome to Manaburger, may I take your order?”

He took this time to actually look at his customer. He looked up and up. Ryan was six feet, well, six feet on his dating profile. This customer was at least two heads taller with a bulk to match.

Plus, he had green skin. An orc. The customer raised a bushy eyebrow.

“Got a problem, runt?”

He realized he was staring. Ryan shook his head and cleared his throat.

“No, sir, may I take your order?”

Non-human species were rare in this neighborhood. It was too poor for adventurers’ children, and this orc looked too old to be an adventurer’s kid. The green man barked his order like an army sergeant talking down to a recruit.

“Combo D, upsized.”

With the way the orc talked, Ryan would bet his paycheck this was an ex-adventurer. One old enough to have fought in the war. The orc took out a tattered wallet and tapped his card on the terminal.

It declined.

Both cashier and customer looked at the terminal. Ryan blinked at the orc with a frozen smile, half wondering if there was going to be a problem. He spoke with maybe a little too much tension in his voice.

“Would you like to check your bank account?”

The orc sighed, “That’s fine.” 

The green giant turned around to walk away, stepping quietly despite the bulk. Ryan made up his mind as he called out to the man.

“Sir? Are you an ex-adventurer? I’m happy to offer a meal, on the house.”

It would have to come out of his own wallet, but then he’d have an excuse to strike up a conversation. A single meal for a chat with an ex-adventurer? A steal in his opinion.

Ryan’s dreams shattered as he saw the expression on the orc’s face. The orc turned back to him as he pointed a thick finger at his poor chest. Enunciating each word with a stab.

“I. Don’t. Need. Charity.”

Ryan stepped back, his trained instincts kicking in. They told him to get out of striking range. Videos flashed in his mind of how volatile ex-adventurers could be, especially the ones from the older generation.

In hindsight, it was a little racist. 

The orc saw the fear on the cashier’s face and blinked, then he closed his eyes and sighed, regretful. The green giant then walked away, going for the exit.

When the orc was out of earshot, a voice called out from the ice cream machine.

“Damn, and I thought I was the newbie.”

“Oh, fuck off Clara, and you’re not a newbie anymore.” Ryan shot back.

He watched the orc leave, feeling terrible about the encounter. The ex-adventurer made his way to the exit just as a group of teens entered the Manaburger. The kids all jumped in surprise at the orc and gave him a wide berth as the orc continued to walk through them.

Like he was a dangerous monster. Ryan somehow felt even worse.

Then he saw a flash of something and tensed. He whispered towards his coworker.

“Hey Clara?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you go to the kitchen real quick and just stay there for a bit?”

She looked at Ryan in surprise, but noticed his expression as he stared dead at the kids. For a moment he thought she was going to argue, but just nodded her head and walked behind the counter.

“Ooo, I’ll go tell Milo about you and Mr Orc just then.”

Ryan chuckled and just shook his head. He watched the teens that were using the self-checkout and tried to be casual.

Two teens in hoodies, two others in plain shirts. One kid kept looking behind him, more like he was making a show of it rather than actually worrying about people sneaking up behind them. The other two just looked around for a place to sit as one of them came up to the counter.

Ryan gave the customer a professional smile.

“Welcome to Manaburger, may I take your order?”

“Cheeseburger combo.”

Ryan put the order in as the teen paid cash. He relaxed a little as he realized he was probably overreacting. The kids went to a table in the corner as they started chatting away.

Ten seconds later, Clara walked around the corner and nudged Ryan, curious.

“What was that about?”

“Two of them have guns. Just sent you back, just in case.”

That was the thing he’d noticed as they jumped up in surprise from the orc. The girl’s eyes went wide at that as she stared right at them. Like a deer in the headlights.

“Oh shit, should we call the police? They’re way too young to be carrying.”

Ryan blinked, incredulous that his friend would say something so stupid. He leaned down towards Clara.

“Are you serious?” He hissed, “Look at me, not them. We don’t get involved, you don’t know if they’re just kids or part of a gang. You don’t want to be the one to have called the cops on them.”

Clara blinked in surprise at his intense expression and then looked away. For the second time that day Ryan felt like an ass. Her next words didn't help either.

“Oh, sorry.”

“Uh-it’s fine. Sorry about the lecture.”

He had known that she wasn’t from around here. In a sense, she was a lot like him when he had first moved into this area. Sometimes unbelievably naïve.

Ryan kept a casual watch on the youths as he pretended to be another bored employee swiping at his phone. The acting became real as he actually got bored and kept swiping through the internet, accessing the most recent realm news.

“Mezhar’s great feat in saving -”

Ryan swiped.

“Zellinc is hiring adventurers for-”

And swiped. Then paused when he heard the kids getting louder.

“Nah, I swear you pissed your pants!”

“You were the one who had your eyes popping from that green pig.”

“Fuck off, you were the one that hid behind me, like a scared rat.”

Ryan barely heard the next words.

“What did you call me?”

The teen in the hoodie and concealed gun stood up from his chair, the legs screeching across the ground. Ryan sighed, just as he was starting to think nothing would happen too.

Clara looked at him in worry as he signaled with his head for her to go back.

“What about you?” she asked. 

“I’ll head on over if it gets worse. Don’t call the police, I’ll do it if we need to, okay?”

She looked a little reluctant, but nodded her head as she walked around to the kitchen.

Ryan eyed the teens and tried to evaluate them again. Youths skipping school, no visible tats, the kid who had been pretending to look for enemies didn’t even care about it now. He was egging on the fight instead. Probably not actual gang members. Just idiot kids with guns. 

Good old America.

That was when the one in the sweater twitched for the gun in his front. Well, that was enough for him, none of this was worth the risk of sticking around. He stepped away and walked to the side. 

He tapped the employee working the drive-thru on her shoulder. 

“Trouble, guns, get the fuck out.”

Eve didn’t even question it, she just shrugged and walked straight for the exit in the kitchen. Ryan walked with her to find his friend Milock there. His coworker tilted his head towards the exit.

“Time to dip?”

“Yup,” Ryan answered, “where’s Clara?”

“Already told her to leave. Might be a little early though, Steve’ll write you up.”

He scoffed, “Yeah, like he’s going to fire his best employee.”

He walked out with Milock as the shouting became background noise.

Now that was how you did it. Leave with the team before any gun-waving could even happy. He was probably going to be given shit for it by the manager if a shooting didn’t happen, but he didn’t care. Not after the last gun waving incident.

Ryan smiled at a job well done.

“So, Ryan was really just trying to pay for a meal because he loves adventurers. He’ll probably want an autograph too.”

His grin froze as he heard Clara’s voice outside. She was talking to the damned orc from earlier. The ex-adventurer that, through teen conflict, Ryan had blessedly forgotten about.

“Clara what the f-”

She interrupted him before he could finish.

“Oh, hey Ryan. I just saw mister Orc on his phone and asked him to help us with the kids. I offered him free meals a day for a week.”

Ryan just stared at her with his mouth open. For the second time today, he wondered about Clara's common sense. The ex-adventurer just gave them a nod as he walked past them.

“I was just waiting for you two to get out. Two kids with guns?”

“Yeah, the one with a hoodie and the tall one with baggy pants. Actually they all have baggy pants, there could be more guns though.”

“Nah. Good eye, though you did miss the pocket knives.” The orc said while ducking under and into the doorway.

“They’ve got guns though,” Milock repeated dumbly. 

The orc looked behind at them, “and I used to be an eighth-realm adventurer.”

Ryan stared as the heroic adventurer ducked through the employee exit and into hostile territory, once again remembering his past, willing to brave dangers for the common folk, for achievements and coin and-

“Okay, that was cool.”

“Thanks, Clara.”

“No problem!”

“That was sarcasm, and did you really offer free meals to him?” Ryan asked.

“He seemed like he needed it! Isn’t that what adventurers do in The Realm? Do quests for food or something?”

He didn’t even know how to respond to that. Milock however did, his friend started laughing, then Clara joined in. He couldn’t help himself, he joined in the laughter too.

After a moment, Ryan looked around.

“Oh shit, I think Eve actually left. Clara, you’re going to have to man the drive-thru.”

“Aw.”

“It’s quiet,” Milo commented.

The yelling that had been constant background noise—had stopped. Ryan poked his head back into the kitchen so he could listen to the confrontation.

“-either of you can shoot before I grab you? Try it and see what happens.”

“Yo f-” The squeaky voice of the kid made it harder to hear, “...can’t do that!”

For some reason, the orc's voice was as clear as day.

“Can’t do what? Do you want to know what I did in The Realm?” 

The tone sent shivers down his spine. For some reason Ryan started tasting blood in his mouth and worried if the orc was about to go overboard. Maybe this hadn't been a good idea after all.

“I don’t need enhancements to beat the shit out of a bunch of runts. Now scram, I want my meal.”

This time Ryan peered through the equipment and saw that the kids were frozen in fear, something else was heavy in the air… aura? They all started backing away. Ryan changed his mind, mister ex-adventurer orc was definitely getting fresh fries with his free meal.

One kid pointed with a shaky hand.

“You-”

“Nah, fuck this, Kerlin. We out. You better watch yourself you failed pig. You ain’t tougher than us real people.”

Ryan really felt like this kid deserved the idiot of the day award. Or maybe the kid was smarter than he gave him credit for. It wouldn’t look good for the ex-adventurer if he attacked the kids first. Guns or not.

He heard more jeers as he watched them leave Manaburger.

“Well, that wasn’t cool.”

Clara had also poked her head through the doorway under Ryan. He looked down.

“Shut up Clara.”

–

Fifteen minutes later, Ryan was in the middle of the biggest crisis of his life. War raged in his head between the potential of further embarrassment versus not getting to know more about an ex-adventurer. One who had supposedly reached the eighth realm.

He had handed over the combo meal with a ‘thank you’ and tried to internet stalk all the known ex-adventurer orcs that had passed the eighth Trial. Unfortunately, the list was thousands of names long, and it wasn’t guaranteed to have every adventurer. Especially the older ones that were active in the days before the internet.

The orc sipped his drink and sighed.

“Are you going to keep staring or are you going to come over here and actually talk?”

Well shit. He could have sworn he’d only taken a few glances. Apparently, a few glances was all the orc needed to understand that Ryan had been staring. It was too late to back out now, He made his way over. Only one other customer was in the restaurant, and they’d already been served. It wouldn’t pick up for another hour at least.

Ryan sat down nervously as the orc seemed to evaluate him with one eye open.

“What do you want to know, runt?”

“What generation are you from?”

“The Settlers.”

So, Ryan had been right about him being old. Also, it was a good thing he had asked this first. Asking someone from the Settler generation about their story was definitely a bad idea. Ryan tried to change the subject.

“Okay, what was your build, and what did you think about it?”

“It was shit. I was a [Berserker] after the Fifth Trial. I had skills built for a single role on a specific team. Don’t do that, despite what they might tell you.”

Actually, that was a pretty common consensus among adventurers these days. But he wasn’t going to say that to the orc's face. Ryan just shrugged.

“Well, it’s not like I’m going to be able to, don’t have the money or talent for it.”

Ryan pointed at his uniform and the Manaburger he worked at. That was how it worked, you were either rich enough to buy a slot in a country that sold Trial System spots or you were some sort of prodigy that could compete against adventurer’s children. Ryan was neither.

Both of them sat in awkward silence for a little longer. He had expected some words of encouragement or an interesting jab at the state of the world. The large orc gave neither, he just sat in silence staring at him with one eye open.

"Is that all you wanted to talk about?"

Ryan narrowed his eyes. Now that sounded like a challenge, he made a quick decision and threw caution out the window. The orc’s temperament seemed good, and he was asking for it after all.

“So how’d you lose your first life? And why haven’t you gone back?”

The green giant chuckled and shook his head. He leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. Ryan was so focused on the orc that he barely noticed a white car pull up sideways into what should have been vertical parking. Lazy drivers. Then the windows went down-

what was-

“Well, believe it or not, it was the Tyrants when they-”

“GET DOWN!”

Ryan dove forward to push the orc away. It turned out that he didn’t need to do that. Faster than he thought an unenhanced orc could move–the green giant leaped back, practically flying backwards.

Everything seemed to slow down then.

He saw an ex-eighth realm adventurer in midair, glaring daggers outside. Then the orc’s face changed into surprise as he snapped back at him. Panic and horror reflected in those golden eyes as they met Ryan’s

Ryan who was in motion to push the orc into safety. In the place where the orc had just been.

It was too late for regrets now.

Two bullets pierced his side.