A man stood over another, a knife to his throat, while the one kneeling on the ground clutched his hand, blood flowing from his missing fingers. A mere few meters away, the sand was wet from the blood of another man, dead from two wounds, one to his torso, and the other to his neck.

  Such a scene would surely terrify anyone who chanced upon it, and send them screaming for law enforcement.

  Or that would be the case, if it happened anywhere else but Tatooine. Here, the few curious citizens who heard the blaster firing simply poked their heads around the corner of the alleyway, took one look, and went about their days. This was all too common for them. They didn't want to be embroidered in a gang fight.

  Rumor saw all that, and grinned. Then he turned to Oloshk, the thug from Krayt Dragon Gang. And his smile grew wider while the small-time criminal trembled.

  Oloshk feared not because Rumor was scary, but simply because he didn't want to die. And yet, death was all he saw in the tester's gaze.

  "Now, I have no grudge against you, my friend. It's yours and your friend's own damn fault he's dead, and you should be following him. But there's a lot I want to know, and I think you can tell me. So answer everything I ask truthfully, and you won't die. Got that?"

  The Trandoshan gulped, shook his head, and then nodded. He didn't believe Rumor even for a second. But there was a chance, no matter how small, that the human in front of him was telling the truth. And he would grab it with all his remaining claws.

  "W-What do you want to know?"

  Rumor tapped his chin with a finger. Right, what did he want to know?

  "Start with the power distribution here in Mos Espa. Who controls what?"

  "T-The leaders of everything are the Hutts. They control the entire system."

  "Yes, I'm aware of that. But I'm asking about this piece of garbage of a city in specific."

  To emphasize his point, Rumor pushed the blade a little further in, drawing blood. Oloshk would have gulped in fear, but that would have meant cutting himself deeper, so he just kept talking.

  "O-Of course. The Hutt Gritta is His Eminence Jabba's hand in Most Espa. Everything that goes through here, every trade, every robbery, every ship and race, has to go through her first, and deliver the tributes and taxes."

  "And the local gangs? Yours was... Krayt Dragon, is that it? What do you control?"

  The Trandoshan let out a sigh of relief was Rumor pulled back his knife, even though just barely. The blade was still hovering there, ready to cut his throat, but the feeling of imminent doom was gone.

  "We oversee the spaceports. Take inventory of arriving ships, and collect taxes."

  Rumor knew Krayt Dragon Gang did a whole hell of a lot more than just that, but he let it slip. He just needed an overview of the situation right now. More specific questions came later, after he knew what to ask.

  "And your leader?"

  "That would be Valemerin. The Scourge."

  "Scourge?"

  "Ah, yes. Boss once slaughtered all the Tusken tribes in the Unending Plateau. Well, not all, but most of them."

  Oloshk eyes shone when he spoke of Valemerin, and he peeked at Rumor, clearly expecting some sort of reaction. Maybe for the tester to be so terrified he let him go. Rumor shrugged.

  "Huh. What else?"

  Oloshk's reptilian features shook in disbelief, but Rumor wasn't faking it. He really didn't care much. He was still trying to understand this new world - or worlds - The Mind thrust him in, but one thing anyone could predict was that, the more worlds he experienced, the more dangerous it would get.

  Rumor had no doubt that, should he survive that long, he would at some moment be pitted against the main characters, such as Darth Vader or Luke Skywalker.

  Of course, it might not happen in the Star Wars world, but since he would one day have to face people like Jack Sparrow or Dumbledore or - god forbid - Freedy Krueger, why should he be afraid of a little side-character that didn't even appear in the movies?

  "T-There's the Makeh Syndicate, who control the spice trade. And the Agellum Gang is in charge of slave trading. T-Those are the three big ones."

  Obviously, Rumor wouldn't be satisfied with just that. Over the next ten minutes, he squeezed Oloshk for all the information he could. His fear back in full force, the thug told him all about the composition of the Krayt Dragon Gang - who Rumor already counted amongst his possible enemies - as well as the smaller forces in Mos Espa.

  If he wasn't in the open and pressed for time, Rumor would have continued to extract intel from the Trandoshan for hours. As it was, he only had one last thing to ask.

  "If I wanted to find parts for a fancy ship from Naboo, where should I go?"

  Rumor didn't remember the exact type of ship the characters used in the movie. It had been years since he last watched it, and honestly, who would remember these kinds of detail?

  He probably could find the shop from the flying alien... What was his name? Wha... Watta? Watto!

  He should be able to find Watto's shop easily enough, and buying the parts from him to ingratiate himself with the Jedis was a fairly tempting idea, but flawed.

  First of, he had no money, especially not the kind of money to buy something even Qui-Gon Jinn couldn't. Secondly, he doubted he could interfer with the plot so massively considering how weak he was.

  After all, if Watto didn't have the parts to sell, Qui-Gon Jinn wouldn't meet Anakin, nor bet on his freedom.

  But Rumor had another idea.

  "W-What?"

  "Parts for a Naboo ship. A hyperdrive, probably, maybe something else. Who in Mos Espa could have that? Or, just who in general has the most expansive and rare ship parts?"

  Oloshk hesitated, his eyes darting around. Rumor brought the Ottegan blade close to his neck again.

  "T-The Toydarian Watto might have it! O-Otherwise... You can probably find it in the graveyard."

  "Graveyard?"

  "The ship graveyard. Behind the largest spaceport. Our gang controls it. We salvage what we can, fix ships, and sell them."

  Oloshk spilled everything, and Rumor smiled. A true smile, not the provocative and threatening grin he had earlier, a mere show to intimidate the thug. No, this was the smile of someone who saw the pieces of a plan coming together.

  Rumor cut open the alien's neck.

  [ You cut Krayt Dragon Gang member Oloshk on a vital area. Calculating attack value... ]

  [ Critical strike achieved, target's defense was ignored. You dealt 29 points of damage to Krayt Dragon Gang member Oloshk. ]

  [ Krayt Dragon Gang member Oloshk is suffering from a bleeding status effect, losing 3 HP every 5 seconds. ]

  Rumor watched as the thug gripped his bleeding throat and fell forward. Rumor had promised to let him live, and the Trandoshan seemed shocked by the betrayal.

  [ Krayt Dragon Gang member Oloshk suffered 44 points of bleeding damage. ]

  [ Krayt Dragon Gang member Oloshk died. ]

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Rumor stood there watching the bodies for a few seconds longer. Then, he shivered and soldiered on. Crouching, he started searching Oloshk's body for credits and any other valuables. Not a very honorable thing to do, but he was penniless at the moment, so that was that.

  But, as he was patting the body, he noticed a few things. The first was that the wound on his shoulder was hurting a lot less than expected, and, when he looked down, he saw that skin and muscle were already knitting themselves, and the injury was scabbing over.

  A quick check of his HP showed that, now that he was out of combat, he was recovering at an astonishing rate. His health, which had fallen to 76 points after he was shot, was at 81 already. He was healing about 0.5 HP per minute, way above what any normal human could.

  The second thing he discovered was that the blaster Oloshk was carrying, and which Rumor had batted away, together with two of the alien's fingers, had disappeared. And the third were the new notifications he received.

  [ Battle summary: You have slain two Krayt Dragon Gang low-level thugs. ]

  [ Your combat with the Krayt Dragon Gang members was witnessed by others. You can not hide the information. Your relationship with Krayt Dragon Gang has fallen from Neutral to Hostile. ]

  [ Your reputation with the Hutt Cartel (Mos Espa) has grown to Unknown (200/1.000). ]

  [ Your reputation with the Hutt Cartel has grown to Unknown (20/1.000). ]

  [ Your reputation in Tatooine has grown to Unknown (2/1.000). ]

  [ You have acquired: 217 wupiupis, C-21 Scout Saboteur (Damaged), 1-Star Random Skill Scroll. ]

  His eyes widened, and Rumor quickly read the messages again.

  "Mind, can you explain how reputation and relationships are categorized to me?"

  [ Relationships are related to the affinity and interactions you have with factions or storyline characters. There are five stages of relationship, two of which represent enmity, one is neutral, and the remaining two represent friendship. They are: Nemesis, Hostile, Neutral, Liked, and Respected. ]

  [ Reputation is related to how well-known you are to certain factions, or even in the world you currently are as a whole. Unlike relationships, your reputation can only ever grow, independent of how your actions are viewed. For example, if you kill a Jedi, your reputation amongst the Jedi Temple and the Republic will grow immensely, while your relationship with those two factions will receive several negative points. There are six stages of reputation: Unknown, Familiar, Well-known, Reputable, Respected, Venerable. ]

  [ As long as there are no witnesses, you can choose to hide your actions, but you will forsake any points in relationship or reputation you would otherwise earn. You can choose to reveal your actions later, but the number of relationship and reputation points you gain will vary. ]

  Rumor didn't miss the subtle hint The Mind sent him in one of the messages. If he ever planned on killing a Jedi, he should only do it if he was certain there was no way of anyone knowing, or if he was ready to completely fall out with them, and even be hunted.

  Although, Rumor suspected that, in the case he ever murdered a Jedi, his reputation with the criminal factions of Star Wars or the Separatists would grow by a lot.

  Those were thoughts for later. He didn't have a death wish, so no challenging Jedis for now. It was also quite obvious some factions were harder than others to earn reputation with, which made sense. He couldn't expect to attract the attention of all of Tatooine by simply killing two thugs. Shaking his head, Rumor inspected his rewards.

  [ Wupiupi ]

  [ Rarity: --- ]

  [ Description: This is a type of currency coined by the Hutt Cartel and widely accepted throughout the Outer Rim Territories. ]

  [ Observation: Cannot be brought out of this world. ]

  Money. Rumor eyed the tiny silver coins, then stored them away.

  [ C-21 Scout Saboteur (Damaged) ]

  [ Rarity: 1-Star ]

  [ Requirements: None ]

  [ Attack: 11 ]

  [ Attack speed: 3 ]

  [ Range: 150 meters ]

  [ Durability: 7/20 ]

  [ Effect: Instability - Every time you fire a shot, there's a 3% chance to ignite, dealing a fixed 11 points of damage and inflicting a burning status effect, dealing 1 point of damage every 2 seconds for the next 60 seconds, for a total of 30 damage. ]

  [ Description: This is an old blaster pistol, damaged by the lack of care over the years, causing it's firing rate to decline tremendously. The unstable trigger mechanism may cause the tibana gas magazine to vaporize, dealing damage to the user. ]

  [ Observation: Can be brought out of this world. ]

  [ Observation: Can be repaired. ]

  So, a ranged weapon with an extremely high attack, but low firing rate. Not to mention that effect. Rumor suspected that it was because the blaster was just a 1-Star item. If it had been in perfect condition, it would probably be 2-Stars or even higher.

  Still, it was a welcome addition to his arsenal. And, Rumor realized, of the small goals he had set for himself, three had already been accomplished - acquiring information, money, and a blaster. He didn't believe even for a second that The Mind wasn't involved in it. It probably set the two thugs on him as his first challenge.

  "So that's how things work..."

  If you wanted to get stronger, you had to risk it all. Rumor couldn't imagine how many first-time testers like him died in this first obstacle.

  If he hadn't grown up in The Quarter and been used to violence, would his first thought had been to kill the aliens? Obviously not. Most people would probably try to run, and die in the process.

  Shaking his head, Rumor turned his attention to his last reward. He could already guess what it was just by the name, but he was still excited. Hopefully this would be his biggest gain.

  [ 1-Star Random Skill Scroll ]

  [ Rarity: 1-Star ]

  [ Usage: Tear this scroll to acquire one random 1-Star skill. ]

  [ Observation: Only basic skills can be acquired through this item. ]

  [ Observation: Can be brought out of this world. ]

  Rumor was about to rip the scroll, but stopped when he saw the first observation.

  "Basic skills? Are there different categories of skills, apart from their rarity?"

  [ Basic skills are all those which can be acquired in any world. Other than that, there are also world-specific skills, which can only be gained in certain worlds, and inherited skills, which can only be acquired by having a storyline character teach you. ]

  Right. So probably something like being able to use the Force was a world-specific skill of the Star Wars universe. Made sense.

  Without hesitating anymore, Rumor ripped the scroll apart.

  [ You have used a 1-Star Random Skill Scroll. ]

  [ You have received the skill Hunter Sense. ]

  [ Hunter Sense lvl 1 ]

  [ Rarity: 1-Star ]

  [ Effect: Highlight the traces left behind by your target. Limited to material clues. ]

  [ Cost: 10 MP ]

  [ Cooldown: 20 seconds ]

  [ Description: Active. A skill to hunt down others. The higher the level of this skill, the more clues you can see. ]

  That... Was probably one of the best skills Rumor could have gotten. Maybe not as immediately useful as one which would increase his damage like the [ Blade Mastery ] one of the thugs had, but extremely fitting for him nonetheless.

  Putting away his rewards, Rumor glanced one last time at the two dead thugs, and left the alleyway. A few merchants and citizens who had seen everything peeked at him, but no one tried to stop him or call the police - if there even was one in his hell hole.

  Whistling, Rumor started walking. With purpose. He was already hatching his plans, but before that, there was one more thing he had to do. He wanted to visit a slave.