[Empire building level: Level 0]
Before Hudson could understand what was going on, he heard the sound in his head again.
[Welcome, host Hudson Atonal, to the dual empire building system. This system is a one-to-one single-binding system and cannot be transferred. Once the host dies, the system will disappear.]
[This system enables the host to transport from the modern world to the magical world. The host can take advantage of this system by doing business between the two worlds, making money, and storing skills and magical powers, and the system will give the host missions from time to time and reward the host with gold coins or magic powers after each mission. The host will level up on the system until it reaches the final level and becomes a legend]
Hudson didn’t want to question the genuineness of the dual empire-building system because he was just about to be killed in the magical world and was saved by the system.
"What is the magical world? Is it the world that I just escaped from?"
"Yes, it’s the world you just came back from," the system answered.
"Why would I want to travel back to that world? I don’t think I want to go back to that place ever again; I was almost killed there," he complained.
"You don’t have to worry about that; you don’t have to go back to that kingdom; there are multiple places there; your missions are going to be between this world and the magical world, so you will have to travel from here to there from time to time," the system explained.
Although Hudson just had a near-death experience in the magical world, he was curious as to how he was going to make money in the magical world; he didn’t want to go back to his shitty bartending job; and he also wanted to take revenge on those course mates that made him die in the modern world, because he could recall clearly that he had died before he woke up in the magical world.
A loud sound came from his mind. [The system will now issue its first mission.]
[Mission 1: Make your first trade, sell an item from the modern world to someone in the magical world, and earn money.]
[Mission Time Limit: 48 Hours]
[Reward: 50 gold coins]
"It hasn’t been up to ten minutes since I arrived back here, and you want me to go back to the magic world for my first mission? I am currently dressing like a slave, and I will have to go home and get some clothes before I commence with the mission, but first, what is a 50-gold coin worth in the modern world of money? Or rather in dollars?" Hudson questioned.
"50 gold coins are worth about 4000 dollars," the system answered.
"Wow! That’s a good sum of money. But what can I sell from the modern world?"
"You can sell anything you want, but you have to make a trade; that’s the only way you could pass the mission," the system answered.
"Alright, that sounds good; I will have to head home and get ready," he mumbled.
*******
Later in the afternoon at Hudson’s apartment, he was sitting at the edge of his bed. After everything he had gone through during the last twenty-four hours, what he needed most was a long rest. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment with his sister and mom; when Hudson got home, there was no one at home. He knew his mom would be very worried that he didn’t come back home last night, but he didn’t want to bother her at work, and he thought his little sister would be at school by now.
Hudson stood up from the edge of the bed and walked over to a brown cabinet at the side of his bed. He opened the cabinet.
"What are the possible things I could sell in the magical world?" He wondered out loud. Hudson saw multiple items in his cabinet, but he was confused as to whether any of the items were sellable. He started reminiscing about what he last saw in the magical world; he remembered that everyone in the magical world was dressed prehistorically and used prehistoric vocabulary. Then an idea hit him: I just have to bring things that were invented within the last ten years; someone over there would definitely want to buy it, he thought.
Hudson picked up a blue backpack and started taking the items in his cabinet and putting them in the backpack. He collected an hair comb, a touch light, a lighter, and a few other items and closed the backpack.
He took out a pen and a white sheet of paper and started writing a letter on it for his family. He wrote that he was fine, that he was going on a school trip, and that he would be back soon. After that, he took the white paper and went into the living room, where he placed the paper on the center table.
**********
Hudson was feeling nervous as he stepped out of the apartment. He was scared of going back into the magical world, and now he was about to embark on his first mission there. He took a deep breath and tried to steady his nerves.
"Are you ready to leave?" The system asked inside his mind.
"Yes," he answered out loud. Suddenly, a white screen appeared in front of him. [In 15 minutes, you will be transported into the magical world; kindly find a safe place where no other human can spot you.] Hudson gasped with his eyes wide open as he swiftly opened the apartment door and rushed into the living room, where he stood. Suddenly a white glass door appeared in front of him; he then went inside and found that he was back in the magical world.
He looked around and noticed that he was not in the palace area, where he almost got killed previously. He noticed that he was in a tiny corner where two buildings met. He came out of the corner and saw a beautiful city. His mouth and eyes opened wide.
"Oh, my God!" He screamed out loud. A few people that were passing by turned around to look at him, and he quickly covered his mouth.This place is beautiful, but the people here are dressed like prehistoric people. How do I go about making my first sale here? He wondered. He walked down the street and looked around the street; he noticed that all the structures of buildings they had were very old and outdated.I can’t believe such a world exists; this is amazing. With this system, I can definitely turn my life around in the modern world and become as rich as I want, he thought with a huge smile on his face."Bring the magical match over here, boy!" A deep, manly voice screamed from beside Hudson. He turned to look at the man who yelled. A boy who looked like he was about ten years old ran over to where the man was. "Sir, we ran out of the magical match," the boy said."What the hell! How am I supposed to light up this firewood now? You should have told me we ran out of it sooner." Th
"What? How did you enter the city if you didn’t know its name? You don’t even look like you are from around here," the man bombarded Hudson with questions."I’m new here, sir, and truly I might have forgotten the name of the city; that’s why I asked you, can you please tell me?" Hudson inquired, raising an eyebrow.The man looked at Hudson from head to toe weirdly. "This town is Magnitoz, the Land of Wizardry," he answered calmly."Okay, thanks for answering that for me; I appreciate it," Hudson said with a smile. Hudson didn’t want to stand in front of the man any longer, so he bid him farewell and walked away from him.This place is extremely different from earth, and I don’t think cellphones can work in here; how do I access some type of map that could show me around? Hudson wondered. Then an idea hit him: since this magical world is somehow prehistoric, it must mean that they have some sort of paper map. After that, he walked around looking for a store where he could purchase a ma
Everyone turned to look at Hudson. "Hudson, you are back!" Tricia screamed as she scuttled over to where he was and hugged him tightly."I was so worried about you, sweety; I thought something bad had happened to you, but as I came home and saw the note you wrote, I was relieved that you were fine," she said excitedly."Yeah, I am fine, mom," he replied. After that, they broke the hug. "Why is the landlord chasing us out, mom?" He asked curiously."I haven’t been able to meet up with the schedule of payment, and he couldn’t be patient enough to wait,” she responded."Patient? You want to talk about patience?!" The landlord screamed as he ambled over to where they were."I gave you enough time to make the payment, but you weren’t able to do that, and now I have run out of patience; I want you and your family out of my apartment now!" The landlord yelled.Hearing how the landlord was yelling at his mother, Hudson felt a lot of pain inside; he couldn’t tolerate it, and he decided that he
He opened the map and started looking at it. ‘This is what I will use to navigate through the city the next time I go there; I wish the system could give me that info and the direction, but I guess since it’s just a dual empire building system, there is so much it could do, I will have to figure out the rest on my own’ Hudson thought.As he looked through the map, he saw that the city has a magical academy that is not too far from the town he last visited. He also saw a landmark that was designed with the face of a man that was wearing a crown.He was curious about the magical academy because he recalled that when the system first bonded with him, he saw a column that said, "Magical powers," which signified that he could learn magic from the magical world. So, he concluded that he was going to visit the magical academy when he next visited the magical world.******Six days later, Hudson was walking down the hallway of the large mall that was close to his house. He was going shopping
Wow, ten lighters—this is great; I am glad I brought more than enough lighters with me, Hudson thought.Hudson removed his backpack and placed it on the counter as he brought out ten lighters from inside the bag. As he brought them out, Atticus saw that he had multiple lighters in his bag."Wow, it seems like you have enough lighters," Atticus said."Yeah, I am a businessman, and selling lighters is part of the products I sell," Hudson replied as he counted out ten lighters and dropped them on the counter as he closed his backpack and wore it on his back."That’s cool, these lighters are revolutionary to us here in this town," Atticus said as he carried a huge brown bag from behind the counter and dropped it on the table in front of Hudson.From the sound the bag made, Hudson could tell that the bag contained gold coins. Atticus carried an empty bag and placed it near the bag as he opened the bag containing the gold coins."You sold the last lighter to me for 100 gold coins, but now t
"Is that all, my lord?" Balthasar inquired calmly."Yes, and if he tries to resist you or fight back, make sure you kill him and don’t get caught. You can corner him in a dark location, but make sure you come back with the bag," Atticus instructed. After that, he described Hudson to Balthasar and told him Hudson’s name, just in case."OK, I should head out now," Balthasar said as he attempted to leave the store."One more thing, I don’t think he knows any magic, so he is not that big of a threat," Atticus stated in a rumbling tone."OK, my lord," Balthasar replied. After that, he went out of the shop.Atticus clasped his hands on the table in front of him. "That lad must be very foolish to think he can just come into this town with such instruments and think he would go back to wherever he came from freely. I am Atticus, Lord of the 16th! I only make profits," Atticus said out loud.******Hudson was walking down the street with a bright smile as he looked around. He was still ponderi
"I am sorry, my lord," Balthasar apologized as he raised his head to look at Atticus; his lips were trembling. He was scared to look at Atticus."I gave you a simple task and you couldn’t get that done; that bag could have changed everything around here. Get out of my sight at once!" Atticus screamed.Balthasar did a half bow as he went out of the shop through the back door behind Atticus.Atticus sat down behind his counter, placed his hands under his chin, and let out a long sigh.Balthasar failed me; those lighters and the things in that bag would have been very valuable and would have made me a lot of money. I should have gone to retrieve the bag myself, but if I had done that and failed, Hudson would have known I was the one after the bag and wouldn’t want to deal with me again. I hope after this incident he will still come around; I still need to get my hands on those lighters, Atticus thought.*********Hudson was walking down the street with the map of the city spread across h
Suddenly, he saw about three students walking past the front gate. He quickly thought that he should walk up to one of them and ask about the academy. As he was about to take one step forward, he felt a strong force dragging his legs backwards."What the hell is pulling me backwards!?" Hudson screamed as he turned to look behind him.A man wearing a long dark coat with a hood that was covering his head was dragging what seemed like an invincible rope backwards. And from how the rope was dragging Hudson backwards, he could tell that the man was the one pulling him backwards."Who are you? And why are you pulling me backwards?" Hudson asked in a rumbling tone.Suddenly, the man stopped pulling him and removed the invincible rope from his leg. Hudson could feel that the rope was no longer around his leg.The man walked slowly over to where Hudson was, removed the hoodie from his head, and looked at Hudson with his dark green eyes. "You are not a student in this academy, so why are you tr
Ajax picked up the pen and dipped into the ink as he started composing the letter “Julius I caught a couple of your men in my territory they killed hundreds of my men and now they are all dead including the head Hercules. With all this information, I would like for you to pick inside one of the two options that I’m giving you. One is either you get ready for war in the next three days as me and my men will be invading your city, two is either you come to my palace tomorrow with 3,000,0000 gold coins and 500 of your men that are going to be working under my kingdom. There are no negotiations, if I don’t see you in my palace tomorrow, I’m going to assume that you picked war. Have a nice day,” Ajax ended the letter.After that, he sealed it up and gave it to the guard that was standing in front of him.“Your job is to deliver that letter to King Julius, after you give the letter to him, get out of there and head back straight away,” Ajax instructed. After that, he dismissed the guard.Hu
“Sounds perfect,” Ajax muttered.“Now I want you all to move back from the prisoners,” Ajax said in a rumbling tone as he stood up. Telling them to move back didn’t entail that they should leave the room. So, they understood his orders perfectly.Ajax came down from his throne and walked toward the men who were kneeling on the floor including Hercules.“Now, I can tell that you lots are not from this city, hence why none of you know magic and couldn’t even dress accordingly like a true Magnitoz citizen. That must mean that you all are from Human Valley, so, I would like for you all to help me understand who sent you here and why did you target my guards,” Ajax said in a rumbling tone as his voice echoed throughout the room.All the men were quiet, they were now four in number including Hercules. “Are none of you going to speak!” Ajax screamed with his eyebrows tightly pressed together. Hudson and the guards that were in the room were all quiet. They could sense how angry Ajax was.Aja
‘Oh my goodness, could it be Julius’s men behind these attacks? Does that mean that Julius is trying to start a war with me? I don’t think he would want to start a war though. I will have to give him the benefit of the doubt, if I catch one of those men tomorrow, I will interrogate him and get the information I want out of him. I will have to get to the bottom of all of this, Ajax thought.***Meanwhile, inside a large bush that was filled with a lot of men, they were the 50 trained men that Julius had deployed in Magnitoz city and their leader was a 35-year-old man named Hercules, he was about 7 feet tall and built with a lot of muscles. They had killed 23 of the men that Ajax sent to them and dumped their bodies in the river that was at the back of the bush. Hercules was told that two of the men escaped from them.“Listen up everyone!” Hercules screamed calling all their attention over to him.“Yes, commander!” They all answered in unison as they shifted their attention over to Herc
“You are right honey, this is what we are going to have to be doing now,” she replied with a smile. After that, Hudson told her goodbye as he ended the call. He sat down on the chair.***Later in the night,Hudson was lying on his bed; he was scrolling through his contact list as he saw Maddy’s contact and remembered that he hadn’t called her just like he promised her he would. Also, Hudson had an idea for a second date that he planned for when he got back from the magical world from his mission. He dialed her number and placed the phone on his ear. After a few rings, Maddy answered the call.“Hey Maddy, how are you doing?” He asked in a loving tone.“I’m doing fine and you?”“Fine, you know, I’m sorry I didn’t call you yesterday, I was occupied with a lot of things,” he said calmly.“Nah, don’t worry, it’s fine, I was also occupied with a lot of things,” she replied.“Cool, you know, I had a lot of fun time with you, and I have an idea for a second date, I don’t know if you would be
“I will do it, I will hang out with Maddy and go with the flow, I won’t think about secrets for now,” he said gazing into her eyes. Tricia let his head go as she stood up.“That’s good, just let everything flow for now,” she replied. She was happy that Hudson was going to lose up about the whole thing and let everything flow with Maddy.“I will be heading down to the dining table to set up dinner, I will call you when I’m done,” she said attempting to leave the room.“Okay Mom,” he muttered. After that, Tricia went out of the room.‘My mom must want me to get close to Maddy or even be dating her or she just wants to see me dating a woman or be happy, I don’t know which might be the case, but I am happy to oblige, I truly do like Maddy. I don’t know why I have never tried going on a date before, but I felt alive talking to Maddy today, and talking to a woman other than my mom is not that bad. I did feel a lot of sexual tension with her, even if I am still a virgin’ Hudson thought.As h
"Yes, I have been in love three times before and in three relationships overall. My last relationship ended five months ago; he was very toxic and abusive. It took a lot for me to get out of the relationship because I loved him a lot, but after I gathered the courage to leave him, since then I haven’t been able to get back into the dating pool as I had poured all my efforts and myself into my work. But I will say this: I am attracted to and interested in getting to know you," she stated calmly, staring into Hudson’s eyes.Hudson smiled upon hearing the last words she said. ‘I wish it were that easy for me to let her into my life; I wish it were that easy, but I am not sure she would be able to handle the truths that come with being in my life, and I am sure if she got to know the type of person I am, she wouldn’t want to stay or even believe what I actually do for a living’ Hudson thought."I am equally attracted to you and interested," he replied. ‘It’s not bad after all; I am glad m
***Hudson arrived in front of a fancy restaurant that had bright fancy lights all over the place. As he entered the restaurant, the sound of classic music hit him, and that was when he realized that the restaurant was not a regular restaurant. Hudson looked around and saw multiple people occupying the tables in the restaurant. He looked around to see if he could spot the description of the lady that his mom gave him and a lady that was sitting alone. Hudson spotted a table where a blonde woman was sitting alone, and from the way she was sitting, he could tell that she was short. "That’s definitely her," he mumbled as he ambled over to the table."Good afternoon, are you Maddy?" He asked with a smile. She raised her head to look at him as she realized that it was Hudson; she had seen photos of him that Tricia had sent to her prior to the date."Yes, I am. Have a seat. It’s nice to finally meet you, Hudson," Maddy said with a bright smile. She was wearing a red dress with bright crysta
"For this particular job, I will get it done for 20,000 dollars," Joshua responded."Sounds good. When do you think you are going to get it done?" Hudson inquired. Joshua assured him that he was going to get it done within three days. After that Hudson escorted him out of the house as Joshua carried the bags of gold coins with him."I look forward to doing a lifetime of business with you," Hudson said in a rumbling tone. As Joshua was heading towards the gate."Me too, sir!" Joshua replied.***Later in the afternoon, Hudson was getting ready in front of the large mirror that was inside his closet. He wanted to head over to the mall and get the items for his shop in the magic world."Hudson, where are you?" Tricia called out to him. Hudson was shocked to hear his mom’s voice; he didn’t think that she would be home at this time of the day."I’m in here, mom!" Hudson answered as he swiftly closed the button of the blue shirt that he was wearing.As he was about to come out of the closet
"Yeah, you are right; do you know any goldsmith?" Hudson asked, hoping that she would know a goldsmith.Tricia told him that she doesn’t know any, but that Hudson could look for one himself and that Goldsmith is everywhere online. After that, they both agreed that Hudson would look for a goldsmith himself, negotiate everything with the person, and then keep in touch with the goldsmith."It is settled then; you are going to work on getting a goldsmith," Tricia said, staring at Hudson. She noticed a sad look on Hudson’s face. ‘I don’t think Hudson is himself at all; he looks down. I think I should do something nice for him, something that would lift his spirit’ she thought."Yeah, I will start doing the research tonight," he replied. Tricia stood up from the couch."I should get going back to the restaurant; I need to get a few things done. We will catch up in the night when I’m back," she said with a smirk. Hudson stood up as he hugged her, and after that, Tricia went out of the house.