He looked around, but he couldn't recognize any of it. As he looked down, he saw that his hands were locked in an iron chain that was tied to the ground. He also noticed that he was not wearing a shirt and had a brown skirt around his waist.
Where am I? What am I wearing? He wondered. Suddenly, loud footsteps came from outside the room. He turned to look at the direction where the footsteps were coming from and saw a wooden door that was built like the iron doors of a prison cell. The door opened, and three tall figures came to where he was. The men were wearing odd armor and strange helmets; they looked like bodyguards from one of those prehistoric movies Hudson had seen before.
One of the men asked in a deep, raspy tone. "Slave, I hope you are prepared for your forthcoming death?"
"Slave? Huh? What are you talking about?" Hudson inquired, raising a confused eyebrow. He was confused as to where he was and why he was chained up.
"You are going to be slaughtered at the palace courtyard tomorrow morning, and this is your last day in the dungeon, and you are asking me what I’m talking about?" The guard answered.
Hudson’s eyes popped wide open. slaughtered? What the fuck is going on? And where am I? How did I even end up here? The last thing I could remember was heading home from work after getting beat up by my college classmates.
"What did I do that I’m getting slaughtered for, and why am I tied up here? Where am I?" Hudson bombarded the guards with questions.
"You committed treason, and now you are asking all these questions as if you don’t know what is going on? This slave must be a joker." One of the guards said that as he laughed out loud, the other guards also laughed with him.
Treason? What treason did I commit? Hudson thought.
"Let’s get out of here, lads; we just came to tell you that you should say your last prayers." One of the guards said, staring at Hudson through his helmet.
After that, all the guards went out of the cell and locked the door behind them.
Is this some kind of dream or something? Where am I exactly, and how did I even end up here? I need to get out of here as soon as possible; I can’t skip my lectures. I hope all this is some type of dream, Hudson thought.
*****
The following morning,
Hudson awoke to the sound of footsteps heading in his direction. The dungeon door opened, and two bodyguards entered. They were both huge, and although they were covered with armor, Hudson could see how huge their muscles were through it.
One of the guards walked over to where Hudson was and unlocked the chains from his hands. After that, the other guard walked closer to him, and they both held his arms.
"Your time has come; you are going to be slaughtered in the palace courtyard in front of everyone." One of the guards said boldly.
Since I can’t awake from this world, this must mean all this is real, and truly, I am going to get slaughtered. How am I going to get out of this situation if I don’t even know the crime I committed? Hudson wondered.
****
Hudson was on his knees. The two bodyguards that brought him to the courtyard were standing behind him. One of the guards said some strange words, and suddenly an axe appeared in his hand. Hearing the strange words that the guard behind him said, Hudson wondered what the guard said, but from what he could tell, it sounded like the guard was enchanting a magic word. The guards looked behind them and waiting for the king to give them the go-ahead to behead Hudson.
A couple of people were standing in front of Hudson; some of them were looking at him in disgust because they knew the crime he committed, but Hudson, on the other hand, doesn’t even know the crime he was about to be killed for.
This world doesn’t even look like the earth I know. Looking around, Hudson saw a mysterious beast flying above the sky, and the clouds above the sky were made up of green and blue colors, which Hudson hasn’t seen in his entire life. What type of world is this? Is this some kind of magical world? he thought.
The king was standing behind the podium that Hudson was on; he was adorned in animal skin and was wearing a large golden crown.
He raised his hand up. "The time is upon us! Behead that traitor!" The king yelled with a lot of excitement in his voice.
After that, the bodyguard who was holding the axe lifted it up.
I guess this is it for me; I don’t even know the crime that I am getting beheaded for, Hudson thought.
Suddenly, a white glass doorway appeared in front of Hudson. As Hudson looked through it, he saw skyscrapers and cars driving past it.
His eyes opened wide. I think that is my way out of this mysterious world, he thought as he stood up swiftly from the ground and ran towards the glass doorway.
Everyone screamed as the guards chased after him.
"Come back here!" One of the guards screamed.
As Hudson went into the glass doorway, he saw that he could see both the magical world and the world he was in before.
Hudson dashed towards the doorway where the modern world was showing. Before he knew what was happening, he was standing on the sidewalk of a street that he was very familiar with.
"Oh my gosh, I am back in Los Angeles!" He screamed with a lot of excitement.
A voice sounded in his head.
[Ding!]
[Binding the dual empire building system….]
[10%...]
[40%...]
[60%...]
[80%...]
[100%...]
[Binding complete.]
Then, a screen that only Hudson could see appeared in front of his eyes.
[Host: Hudson Atonal]
[Magic powers: none, but they can be added freely.]
[Mission: None]
[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 fr
"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