23:45, 14 July, 20XY.
Dwara, Uttarakhand.
[David: Hey, has anyone seen my wife and son? They look like the image in the attachment; if you find them, please DM me! {>Extent for the imageExtend for the imageExtent for the image<}]
Alex, walking down the river bank, read through the world chats.
What was the world chat?
It was the new function that was unlocked after the first scenario.
It was a chat function, and people could chat about anything and everything, but Alex wasn't much interested in the world chat; it was just like a newspaper for him, as among the many useless chats, there were some useful ones as well.
Then there was one thing that many people were still doubtful of.
Was the chat safe from the system's prying eyes?
There was nothing about the World Chat anywhere in the information tab, nor were there any details about the World Chat given by the system before use.
So, people avoided talking bad about the system, in the chats at least.
But the thing that the system did today didn't make it easy for humans to hold their speech.
[You are being provided with the compulsory daily food supply.]
Just like yesterday, the daily food supply arrived today as well; it was around 8 p.m., the time when everything had ended and the bounty quest was already the talk of the area.
But unlike last time...
[20 coins are being deducted.]
20 coins were deducted instead of 10 like last time, sending another wave of shock and dread throughout the populace.
Many people who had somehow managed to collect the 10 coins they thought the system would ask for in exchange for the daily food supply.
But who would've thought that the number of coins was supposed to increase?
Alex searched for the penalty, and the most recent chats about it came up.
[Rania: I saw a man who wasn't able to pay the amount needed, falling to the ground with a thud. At first, I thought that he was dead, but then I saw his body jerk; only then did I realize he was still alive.]
[Michael: Yeah, I heard the the penalty of not being able to pay the required amount is an agonizing pain, which could break one's mind for a minute if you paid 10 coins lower than the required amount, and two minutes if 20.]
He didn't read all of them as they were all long paragraphs; he just read the ones that gave him everything he needed in short ones.
Now, he knew what the penalty was, and as he recalled the penalty, the bloody bashed-in, and cracked face of Shushant flashed in his mind for a second, causing him to stop in his tracks.
He frowned a bit, thinking why it happened, but then he just continued on his path as he kept looking through the chats.
The chats were all in English, making it easy for Alex to skim through them.
The chat had many functions, such as a search bar where you could search for a person and send them friend requests, or search for the kind of message or topic of the message you wanted to see.
There were some functions that Alex couldn't read as it needed for him to have a friend, but there were some that he could access, like the emoji, memes, and gifs sections.
Then there was the function of zooming into the world.
This function helps you get into the country, state, and city chats, which are different from the world chats, but the problem with these chats is that you can't search for anything or anyone on them.
As he thought about the city chats and the state chats, he shifted to the state chats.
[Arman: Can someone please give me 20 coins, I need them for my wife; she's pregnant and can't fight to kill.]
[Aman: What about you? Just go and kill some extra beasts and get some coins for your wife as well.]
[Arman: (@Aman) I never asked you in particular, so you can just ignore the message and move on.]
[Jayesh: Yo? Anyone knows where the bastard with the lowest bounty ranking on his head is?]
[Ritika: Why don't you try going for the one with the highest bounty ranking?]
[Jayesh: Bruh, his eyes are enough to scare me, and I don't wanna die so soon, so keep your advice to yourself.]
[Garvit: Hey! Hey! Why not come to hunt me? I'm on the bounty as well.]
[Jayesh: ... ]
[Ritika: ... ]
[Garvit: What?! The first ranker on the bounty list is my younger brother!]
[Gautum: Yeah? Go fuck yourself.]
[Garvit: MF!]
[Ridha: Sir Alex, if you're reading this message, then please accept my friend request, I'm the one you saved when no one did; give me a chance to make up for that, please.]
[Rangveer: Man, this lady keeps sending the same message after every 10 messages; is there something wrong with her brain?]
[Makhan: Who knows, but I do smell the scent of love in the air... ]
[Shivam: Take a better whiff, and you'll realize that it's not love but shit that you're smelling.]
[Makhan: Shit, man! You're right, it's shit! I'm surrounded by shit!]
[Shivam: Hahahahahaha! I know, I'm just behind you after all!]