Sword God in a World of Magic

Shang looked at the first poster.

He recognized the person in it.

It was one of the bandits that he had killed.

Why did he have a missing poster?

Wasn't he supposed to be a bandit?

The officer noticed that Shang hadn't said anything in several seconds. "The local bandits mainly get their recruits from the beggars and rebellious children," the officer explained.

"People that have stepped onto the path to power are not lacking money, which is why a lot of them don't need to become bandits. Of course, there are still some that enjoy that lifestyle of freedom and doing whatever they want, but most of them don't want to deal with being hunted by society."

"However, the normal people often need money for multiple reasons. Some need to take care of their family. Some want to take care of their friends. Some need money to survive themselves."

"Others don't care about the money but want to do something else other than overtaking their family's business, shop, farm, or whatever. Some of them only want adventure. However, they all will run into the problem of money and power again."

"When you have power, making money is easy. When you don't have power, making money is difficult. However, to make money, you either need to be outstanding in a specific field or power, and to become powerful, you need money."

"You need medicine, tutoring, equipment, supplements, and many other things to become significantly more powerful than the average person."

"Most people can't step onto the path of power due to their minuscule finances."

"That's where the bandits come into play."

"They scout out these troubled individuals and entice them with resources. That's how they get their recruits."

"Of course, the bandits aren't directly handing them the resources to become powerful. What they do is to give them an opportunity to make big money, which would, in turn, allow them to start their journey to power."

"Nearly all recruits start with Rat Raids. That's when a group of normal people charges at something valuable and bank on the possibility that the owner of these things doesn't have the conviction to kill a bunch of unarmored, normal humans."

"These raids are called Rat Raids because, like rats, the group mindlessly charges forward to gorge themselves on wealth. They know that some of them will die, and they will most certainly get injured, but they are betting on the possibility that they won't be the ones that will get killed."

"After they plundered the valuables, the new recruits will give them to the bandits, who, in turn, will teach the recruits about training and how to become more powerful. They are also willing to trade in supplements and medicine for outstanding contributions."

The officer leaned forward and put her right index finger on the top missing poster.

"Most of these missing people should be recruits for the bandits," she said slowly as she looked into Shang's eyes. "The bandits force them to abandon their old life for fear of someone leaking out their camps and locations. They can't allow any of these recruits to come into contact with their loved ones."

"They are only allowed to return when they have proven themselves."

"Most of them will never reach that stage."

officer leaned

recruits. According to what I've heard, some of

offspring of Pest Cats. They might not be a danger

the officer said as she finished her

officer's words entered Shang's

lot, but Shang didn't agree with

didn't agree that one needed money to start their journey to

didn't have any

received some things from the God, but

humans wanted to become powerful without any money, they could just get some wood and some stones. With that, they could easily make some spears, which they could use to hunt animals like boars

these corpses, they could buy some basic survival gear, clothes, and maybe

wouldn't even need supplements or medicine

had become quite powerful even before he

training, meditation,

couple of weeks, the people would already be strong enough to take on the weakest beasts. Even more,

these words to explain the way the bandits worked to Shang. She wanted to

he shouldn't feel guilty for killing

still humans, and they still had families. They had their reasons

the officer only accomplished the first

an easier alternative to power and one that was less morally

the opportunity to

Yet, they didn't.

the line in hunting and combat, they decided to

less hard work, and it didn't need the person to

Shang had seen the missing posters at the beginning, he had feared that the bandits had kidnapped these people and forced them to do these

had also been a major regret Shang had over

it turned out that these bandits did these things

had had no other option, Shang could

they did have

simply didn't choose

that, Shang's suppressed guilt was reduced by quite a

to have relaxed, and she released a quiet

her words

the first missing poster

"Dead," he said.

pen and a piece of paper to write down what Shang

he do? How did

one of the ones that ran with my Ice Wood, and I killed him by diagonally

the right choice. Even if he was already running, his fate will deter others from doing the same