Chương 4: Chapter 4 - You Didn't Ask

Although Thomas had seen a lot of blood and death as an actor, it was all fake. He had no immunity to the smell of dead bodies and burning flesh. The only saving grace so far is that he felt that the body he was in wasn't in his control or else he would have been crying out loud already. While being carried by some ugly and smelly middle-aged man he could feel that the body was slowly coming under his control. There were some new memories, likely from the little boy's body that he inhabited, but since he was still young there weren't many. Thankfully the boy knew how to read, write, speak, and understand the language of the people around him or else Thomas would probably be killed by this large bear-like man in front of him.

"Take it. Kill this man in front of you and you get to live." Thomas felt like this man's speech was more fitting for an old martial arts teacher instead of some bandit leader. {Isn't he basically saying 'kill or be killed'?} Shaking his head to throw away these unnecessary thoughts, Thomas reached for the dagger. Thomas wasn't an idiot and could tell that he was in the body of a child given the low perspective and the difference in strength that he currently had compared to the him of the past.

Lifting the dagger, Thomas turned it over and looked at the edge. {It's a bit dull but I think it could still pierce this guy's throat if I put my weight into it.} The idea of not killing the guy named Balder never appeared in Thomas's head. This man had clearly done terrible things and the alternative is death so obviously he's not going to let this man live; he already died once and felt like that was one time too many!

Crawling over to the unconscious Balder, Thomas then lifted the dagger above his head and stabbed down--using all of his body weight to drive the dagger in as deep as possible. Although he used enough force to stab through Balder's throat, Thomas ended up missing Balder's neck and instead ended up stabbing him in the eye. The unconscious Balder woke up from the pain and started screaming, to everyone's surprise. The bandit leader's boot remained on Balder's chest, holding him down. Retrieving the dagger in panic, Thomas stabbed Balder several more times; each one aiming for his throat. Some of the strikes missed but enough landed for Thomas to put an end to Balder's struggling. Tired from stabbing and mentally exhausted from killing a man for the first time, Thomas broke down in tears.

The bandit leader watched on as this little boy killed a grown man. The first strike was filled with determination which piqued the bandit leader's interest in this boy. Although his attacks after that were sloppy it's true that he still managed to finish the job. If he could be trained properly then he'd surely become a great asset. Judging by the boy's appearance he should be around eight years old and none of the bandit leader's sons managed to be as ruthless as this boy was at that age. If he was a bit older then all he had to do was gift the little boy one or two of his older daughters. Maybe he could still use his younger daughters to become the boy's friends and give him more incentive to stay with their group. After all, a pet that wants to stay is less likely to bite its master.

While the bandit leader was thinking about what to do with this boy, he saw the boy pass out. Turning to the entrance to his tent, the boss yelled out to his men. "Get someone to carry this body out of here! And make sure to strip him of his equipment before throwing him into the fire!" The bandit leader turned his attention to the boy and picked him up, carrying him to a medium-sized cage. "It's a bit small but he should still fit." Tossing the boy into the cage, the bandit leader locked it, threw the key into his pocket, and then lifted the cage. "Now he really does look like a pet."

Walking to the back of this tent, the bandit leader entered another tent that was attached to his tent--one that was much larger than the one he was currently in--and brought the cage to a group of girls sitting in the corner. Each one of the girls had a wild appearance but seemed well-fed judging from their pudgy appearances. "Take care of him. When he wakes up then you can give him some food but not enough to cause him to bloat. I'll need him to squeeze into a tight space for me later."

"Yes, father." One of the older girls, still only 12 years old, grabbed the cage from the bandit leader. Although the boy wasn't heavy, the girl still struggled to carry both his weight and the weight of the cage that he was in. While grunting with every step she still managed to carry him to the corner of the tent behind some crates and set him down as gently as she could. Although she tried to be gentle he'd still likely wake up with a bump on his head, judging from the sound that it made.

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<Hello, Master>

{I understand that I likely got the 7,500 points when I killed that man but when did I get the 100,000 points?}

{You mean to say that I could have bought a weapon or something to help me get out of this mess earlier on? Why didn't you tell me this?}

Thomas felt like this conversation with his AI gave him a headache. The AI basically told him that the only reason it didn't tell him about the points was that he didn't ask. Partly through the conversation he could feel a light throbbing and by the end of the conversation the headache became massive. In reality the headache was caused by his head hitting the inside of a cage a couple times; once when the bandit leader tossed him into it and another when the bandit leader's daughter dropped the cage on the ground a bit too roughly.