“Mom, I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s true. I’m a Summoner. I have the ability to bring things into this world using magic, kinda.”

Since Matthew knew that his mother wouldn’t believe him unless he proved it, he grabbed her left hand and said “Watch this…” It was dark inside the house, but the fire across the street and the lights from the fire-truck were providing some illumination. A card suddenly appeared out of thin air, between Matt’s thumb and forefinger. Then he placed the card on her palm, as she frowned.

“If you want to be a magician, then that’s fine. But there’s no need for you to pretend like magic is real.” Anaishe grumbled as he closed her hand, with the card crumpling up inside. Then she gasped and yelled “How did you do that?!”

Dozens of copper coins started bursting from their hands, falling all over the carpet. Matt muttered “Probably should’ve did that on a table or over a plastic bag…” It was extremely dark in the room, so without a flashlight or candles, he had no hope of finding most of those coins.

“Anyway Mom, it’s not a trick. Not really. I can just Summon things and people. I got this power when I was about to die a few days ago… That crazy white guy didn’t just randomly save us. I Summoned him to save us. Well, I didn’t really do it on purpose, but I did do it. Look, these are some of the things I Summoned too!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ten Water Qi Crystals.

“They’re like, magical crystals that can turn into water. Aside from that, they apparently glow in the dark and might be radioactive now that I think of it…”

Anaishe pouted, “Fine Matty, I’ll believe you! If Jesus could turn water into wine, then why can’t my son conjure silly coins from another world? But Matty, if you’ve got this magical ability, why haven’t you used it to take us out of here already?!”

“Ah, umm, well…” Matt smiled wryly, “I don’t really have any Spells that can do that so…”

“So we’re still going to die here in this damn city?!” She threw the coins onto the floor dramatically and stormed off up to her bedroom. Then she came back downstairs and screamed in frustration, but ultimately just went over to the back window in order to get some fresh air.

“Mom, it’s gonna be alright! Look, they’re putting out the fire and I’m sure the National Guard will deal with-”

Before he could finish, Anaishe shouted “No they won’t! Matty, you don’t understand how bad things are going to get! You don’t know! They aren’t just going to kill the ‘terrorists’! They’re going to look for dissidents!”

“Wait what?” As Matthew spoke, the System responded.

[It is true. Abel Lincoln and Andrew Jackson have begun their war in full force. Many of the ‘Blue States’, Maryland included, have seceded from the Union. In order to quell the rebellion as quickly as possible, President Lincoln has mobilized the National Guard to take back Baltimore, Manhattan and many other cities… However, considering Baltimore’s low population and negligent strategic value, it is mostly controlled by Andrew Jackson’s criminal organization “Charm City Killers”. Ironically, this gang is responsible for robbing your house and bombing the hospital you were staying in… They know where you live. It is possible that they might be coming to kill you right now. Also, since you and your mother were both strong supporters of Andrew Jackson for the past few years on social media, it is extremely likely that you will be considered ‘terrorists’ and eliminated by the National Guard.]

“Oh my God! Holy shit! Why?! Why the hell is this happening to us?!” Matthew started hyperventilating, as his mother was crying.

[As I have said before, multiple times… You are a Player. The Admins and Moderators, along with the System responsible for Generic Earth Server-1927 know that you are a Player. Thus, the members of both Spaghetti Applesauce the 11th’s and Abel Ham Linkin’s respective Guilds will obviously know of your existence as well. This should be fairly easy to comprehend, but you have been utilizing Mana quite frequently lately… When you utilize Mana in the form of magic, small amounts of Mana will radiate outwards. Normally it would not matter, but there are likely many weak Players within Baltimore City right now. Some of them should be able to sense the Mana radiation that is being emitted by those Water Qi Crystals in your hand.]

“What?! What do I do?! What can I do in this situation in order to survive?!” At that moment, he saw all five of the cards in his hand appear before his eyes. Then he crushed those ten Water Qi Crystals in his hand, muttering “I’ll sacrifice these for Mana…”

With his Mana reaching 4/5 points, he pulled out two cards at the same time and they glowed brightly, attracting his mother’s attention. She asked “What are you doing?”

Matt sighed, then tossed the glowing card towards the middle of the living room. When it touched the ground, she screamed “What have you done?! Did I tell you to bring the Devil into our home?! What’s wrong with you?!”

“Holy fucking fucksauce! Hahaha~! God damn it! I can’t believe I actually had a fourway with a bunch of sexy orcish girls!” A masculine voice came from the mouth of that nearly six-foot tall skull-faced black knight. Then it started coughing violently, before growling “Motherfucker! Who the hell is smoking in here?! Oh wait, ah, wow!”

He quickly walked over to the window and looked outside, totally ignoring the stupefied man and terrified woman who jumped out of his way. Obviously Matthew had Summoned Michael and Azrael’s Black-Skull Knight Armor at the same time. However, the strange thing was just how much taller and wider that suit of armor made the relatively small man appear.

“I see you finally decided to give me some fucking gear for once!” Michael snickered, “I gotta admit though… This suit is pretty damn fancy! I would’ve settled for your run of the mill leather shit, but this is like, an all-in-one badass armor!”

“Oh Lord! It’s just a costume!” Anaishe was holding her hand over her chest, “Who is this person Matty?”

Matthew sighed, walking over to his mother’s side and introducing “This is Mike… Mike, this is my mother. Please don’t try to kill her, okay?”

“Damn it Kid, do I look like I just go around murdering people for no apparent reason?!” Michael glared at him with his glowing red eyes. Since there were protective pieces of thick glass covering the eye-sockets of the helmet, it truly appeared as if there were flames burning within his skull due to the reflection from the fire across the street.

“Ah~!” Anaishe screamed, as she hid behind her son’s back.

Then Matt complained “Yes actually, I’ve seen you kill over a dozen people so far and you didn’t even hesitate for a moment… I’m sorry, but I’m legitimately afraid that you might randomly decide to kill my mother if I don’t say anything!”

“Oh calm down~! You should relax a bit! Every time I see you, you’re always on the verge of a fucking mental breakdown!” Michael snickered, then looked outside at the burning houses across the street and murmured “This all seems so damn familiar… Like, I feel as if I’ve seen that house burn down before. Ugh, it’s all foggy. I do hear gunshots though, so I know shit’s goin down! Hahaha~! What’s the deal this time? Is this some kinda Apocalypse maybe?”

“I really hope not!” Matthew shouted, “Seriously Mike, don’t jinx this! It’s just a stupid civil war! The world isn’t ending… Yet! Anyway, we need to leave as soon as possible! The National Guard and a crazy gang called the ‘Charm City Killers’ are both coming to murder us! What do we do?!”

“Hoh~ hohohoho~! Hyahahah~! Oh hell yeah~! That’s what I’m talking about! This is gonna be great!” Michael started laughing hysterically and managed to frighten Anaishe even more. In fact, even Matt was starting to panic and was debating whether or not to directly Unsummon the heavily armored lunatic.

“Ah, I just thought of some lyrics for a song! Shit! Get a pen and paper! You better fucking write this down! Hahaha~!” Before Matt could respond, the window shattered as a molotov cocktail smacked into Michael’s helmet. Fortunately, the bottle didn’t actually break and just bounced off onto the floor. As the gasoline inside leaked out onto the carpet and set it ablaze, Michael roared “You fucking piece of shit!”

Then he picked up the bottle and threw it back out the window. Not only did the bottom of it shatter on the masked man’s skull, the gasoline inside drenched that ski-mask and lit it on fire. He was screaming in terror, while rolling around on the snow-covered ground for only a few moments before one of his companions put him out of his misery with a shotgun blast to his chest.

 

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