"This is useless." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

Uhtred heard a muted voice cut through the noise right beside him. He turned his head very slightly, and his eyes settled on a man who looked to be somewhere in his late forties.

The man was dark-skinned, possessing a full afro with traces of white showing his early aging. He looked like a scholar, especially with the flat, almost detached look in his eyes as he calmly observed the chaotic commotion happening all around.

Noticing he had captured Uhtred’s attention, the man continued speaking. "All of this stuff... diplomacy. It’s entirely useless. That man," he nodded vaguely toward the speaker on the stone ledge, "is a politician... Or rather, he used to be one before this system integration happened. He still genuinely believes his old-world skills of negotiation and diplomacy are going to work with Scorpion and his gang..."

"It won’t." The man paused, his gaze cold. "A method is only ever as effective as the specific situation it is applied to. The world has changed fundamentally under the span of a mere twenty-four hours, but the vast majority of people here have not realized the full, terrifying depth of it yet. They are desperately clinging to the hope that the previous global order will somehow still reign. An order where diplomacy ruled and the real power plays were safely hidden behind bureaucratic politics."

He let out a short, hollow breath. "But now, reality has been brought back down to basics. It’s still the exact same old game of survival and dominance, but the mechanics are now entirely raw and direct. And that transparency seems terrifyingly alien to everyone here."

The man went silent for a moment, his eyes drifting into the mid-distance as if he were briefly lost in his own thoughts. Then, tilting his chin, he turned his head and directly met Uhtred’s steady stare before reaching out a hand.

"Apologies. My name is Dennis."

Uhtred looked at the extended hand, noting the steady, unshakeable posture of the older man. He nodded curtly and clasped it, matching the man’s grip without exerting his strength. "Uhtred."

"Hmm. A unique name," Dennis responded, nodding in return.

He didn’t let go of the handshake immediately, his eyes shifting down to scan the unique structure of Uhtred’s black custom apparel before rising to trail the length of the massive obsidian star-metal battle-axe resting against his arm.

"You are a pioneer, aren’t you?" He stated it rather than asked.

And immediately he said those words, a sudden, sharp silence dropped over the immediate radius. Several surrounding men who had been covertly eavesdropping on their conversation instantly became alert, their ears practically peeling forward as they waited for Uhtred’s confirmation. An elite pioneer was exactly what this desperate refuge was praying for.

Uhtred didn’t bother to shy away from the label or mask his status. He simply gave a flat, single nod. In response to Dennis’s incredibly direct inquiry, Uhtred found that he didn’t even feel slighted by how forward the man was being. There was an authentic pragmatism radiating from Dennis that made his bluntness feel less like disrespect and more like a simple evaluation of facts.

"How nice..." Dennis muttered with a sigh, his hand dropping back to his side, "to possess the raw strength required to move through this world exactly as you please."

"Are you, by any chance, in need of an intellectual?" He suddenly asked, then caught himself. "I apologize for being so forward, but I don’t anticipate I will have many opportunities to offer my specific services to someone of your obvious capabilities. Not everyone was granted a class geared toward physical violence. If those of us without combat capabilities don’t actively latch onto someone powerful enough in this new world, we can only sit quietly and wait for our own demise."

Dennis’s flat, unblinking eyes remained anchored to Uhtred’s face, entirely devoid of the pathetic, victim-like desperation that characterized the rest of the refugee camp.

Uhtred stood perfectly still, considering the older man’s words for several quiet moments. He was clearly intrigued by the sheer lack of pretense.

It was this absolute directness, coupled with Dennis’s unreadable, almost mechanical demeanor, that prompted Uhtred to bite and ask a question of his own:

"You said you’re an intellectual," Uhtred murmured, leaning slightly against the shaft of his obsidian axe. "An intellectual of what, exactly?"

"I am a former professor in political economy and strategic management," Dennis answered without hesitation. "I have also dabbled heavily in the core sciences during my free time over the years. Because of that, I possess an above-average knowledge in matters of advanced biology especially, alongside a functional understanding of physics and chemistry."

Uhtred raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, letting out a faint hum of approval. A strategic analyst with a foundational grasp on the sciences was a drastically different breed of survivor compared to the standard Level 0 and Level 1 panicked commoners here.

"Alright," Uhtred nodded. "So what’s your actual take on this whole situation?" He gestured vaguely with his chin toward the crowd of shouting men and the politician sweating on the stone ledge.

"You clearly don’t agree with the speaker’s clamor for diplomacy. Are you of the same opinion as the rest of this mob? Do you think Scorpion simply needs to be killed?"

Dennis hummed, his brow furrowing slightly as he began to dissect the premise. "First and foremost, Scorpion cannot be killed inside this zone. It is a fundamental mechanical limitation."

He looked toward the shimmering blue light of the equator ring in the distance. "A shame, truly, considering how cleanly killing him would resolve the immediate crisis in this sector... though there would undoubtedly be immediate power vacuums to manage afterward, it remains the most viable theoretical path. But the System does not permit execution within this safe zone."

Dennis turned his head back, his flat stare locking onto Uhtred’s eyes to deliver the baseline rule of the sanctuary. "You can only inflict physical pain or cause bodily harm to another individual inside Zone 0, but you cannot kill... That is also the only reason why things have not escalated more than this."

Hearing that new rule, Uhtred quickly realized exactly why the situation was the way it was. There were other pioneers here already, that was for sure. Even within this particular camp, standing right next to the politician who was trying to pacify the crowd, was a young man brimming with energy.

Through Uhtred’s intrinsic [Inspect] skill, he could see the man’s level hovering clearly over his head, putting him at the peak of Level 3.

The young man had locked his gaze onto Uhtred the moment he joined the crowd, but he hadn’t made a single move, nor had he alerted the politician. He simply waited, acting as if he understood that Uhtred would do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.