|
|
Waking up to a [World Law] contacting me was a new one. Not bad (yet). Just new.
I hadn't even gained the memories of this vessel yet.
No time for that, I guess, the [Law] had transported me to a strange place.
I was standing at the foot of a forested mountain, there were four others with me, all in different states of dress and cognition.
While the others had yet to process their circumstance, I took the opportunity to scope out my situation.
Let's see-
Glasses for one- not sure if they're prescription.
Subtle check- no- no they're not.
Young body- high probability of being underaged.
Male- thank Nod.
Lean- fit- good- less we'll have to work on.
Clothes were a black button-up and pants, modern, clean, untattered- means we're most likely aboveground, at least.
There's a watch- silver, polished- expensive- we're well off than.
Hair's long- to the waist- it's tickling my neck- greyish-silver- reminds me a bit of [C2]- in a high pony tail right now.
Don't know eye color- but a quick bloodline check from Dark tells me it's definitely not a common one.
Huh- that indicates that there are bloodlines in this world- or it might just be us and our unique existence- some information for later than.
Anndd- that's my signal that free time's up.
'Menu.'
Hmm...
'Blank!'
|
Hmm... 'Good job'.
|
|
|
|
{/<'Ho?'>\}
'Interesting.'
We were about to pull up the so-called "storage" when the group I'd found myself in finally got their act together.
One of the two women out of the little group of five (including me) had pulled away from the rest, she was clearly out of her wits, scared, and unbelieving.
"Wha-what's going one! Is this a prank?! Just so you know, I'm a big lawyer! I'll sue you if you don't come out and explain what's going on!"
Maybe I was too quick on the "got their act together" part.
A rather unimpressed, office-looking- he had a suit- man took another look around us before saying, "Stop your nonsense. You should already know that we were pulled into the Infinite Worlds. It's not like we're the first group. The news isn't recent."
I noted the fact that it sounded like whatever the [World Law] was doing wasn't unknown to the average citizen of this plane.
Before the rest of the group could descend into hysterics however, a high pitched screech was heard and an attention-grabbing, bus pulled up next to our little group.
We all watched as the shiny- the sunlight caused it to reflect rainbow-like patterns- black bus rolled up and out stepped a larger group of "interesting" characters.
There were seven of them, one that the rest of the group avoided, two that stood together, and the rest bunched up but clearly still wary of each other.
They all had strange outfits and weapons on them, one had vines and flowers in her hair, another had a crossbow and swords, and one even had stitches all over their face and what I could see of their body.
There was a heavy silence and tension as the two groups assessed each other.
As the tension was rising, and I was considering whether to just leave them to the silent stand off, it was finally broken by the Loner from the other group.
*loud clap*
"Seeing as everyone is here-", Loner stepped forward, "I'll introduce myself. I am, code,
As he introduced himself, a gray panel showed up with a dramatic *ding*.
|
|
The Loner, Trite, gave everyone a minute to read through the information before moving on.
"As this is an Investigative Copy, our first task is to reach the objective's-"
He was interupted by that lawyer woman again, "Wait! Wait! Aren't you going to explain what's happening to us? I'm not going to just follow along with this mess!"
Trite was clearly annoyed with the interruption and scowled as he turned to look at the rest of the bus group.
"Any of you want the extra newbie points? This ain't in my job description."
The guy with stitches stepped out, "I'll do it. Need the extra points."
Trite nodded, stepping aside to give Stitches the stage.
"Okay. Now. I know that it's all sudden and scary and all that. But if y'all wanna live, ya' better listen up. This isn't a joke. Isn't a prank. And no matter how it appears, it sure ain't no game."
He took a breath then, taking a second to look over our group with an intent that conveyed just how serious he was.
"If you die here, there ain't no restart, no second chance, nothing. No one will help you here. There are no laws, no police, no army, no government, no god. The only one concerned about your survival- is yourself. Your beginner stats, titles, and artifacts are all you're getting for help here."
He grinned, but it wasn't comforting, all teeth, bloody, crazed, sharp at the edges, a warning.
"I sure ain't help you for the goodness of my heart either, once- if- you get through this first copy- the only thing waiting for you is the
, you're stuck as one."
He spared a hard look at the lawer woman, "Not sure if some of you've been living under a rock or what. But all our actions here's filmed. It's called the
Just like with Trite, it was as if his words were a trigger.
Annndd- that's enough of that.
I blinked away the screen and refocused on Stitches as he waited for the rest of our group to finish looking up from the pop up.
Once he saw that everone had finished he continued, "Some of you might have seen some
He finished with a nod to Trite and a wave as if to flick away our attention and returned back to his original position.
Trite ignored everything that had happened and continued from where he was before being inturrupted, "We've already lost a lot of time so I'll get straight to the point. First things first, we have to get to the objective's *zone of activation* and from the copy prompt I'm assuming that's the manor somewhere on this mountain. So let's get going."
He then walked off without waiting to see if we would follow or not.
The rest of the "bus squad", I'll call them, followed him while the rest of us "newbs" looked at each other for a few seconds before trailing after them.
The hike was quiet, the duo from the bus group whispered to each other, and a few other small couplets formed but most were keeping an eye on our surroundings.
No one wanted to talk to me but I could feel some of them giving me a side eye every once in a while and shaking their heads, most likely because of how young I looked- was, really.
So I took the extra free time to finish what I'd wanted to do before the other humans interrupted me, 'Storage.'
The panel showed a bunch of square grids, at a passing glance, I'm seeing 50-ish, with only the first two grids with little icons in them and names when I looked at them.
I tried mentally clicking on both of the items to pull up their descriptions.
|
I had to read through the descriptions a few times to get the mechanics but I think it'll be easier to understand when put into practice.
At some point it had started snowing.
Speaking of practice-
'Blank.'
/Actually. Light's more suited for this environment.\
'I don't care who does it. Dark and Light can share, but I'm not in the mood for a fight right now.'
While we were trying to push the responsibility around, the group finally noticed what we'd been talking about.
"Enemy at 8 o'clock," the one with the crossbow warned.
Trite had already noticed it coming up behind us about the same time I had but only then did he motion for the team to bunch closer.
"Newcomers stay in the middle. Veterans stay alert. I think there's more than one."
I obediently stayed in the middle of the group but still made sure that I was in position to jump out at any time if something went wrong.
What happened next would have been a blur to anyone but me, and maybe Trite, Flower Lady had been chomped on the leg by a wolf looking thing and dragged away from the group before anyone could even say "ah!"
It ended up being a combination of Light and Dark that had jumped out to give the thing a good kick on the side of the head before it would let go of the woman.
|
|
|
Multiple things happened rather quickly after that, Crossbow dragged the lady back while Trite pulled out a spear out of nowhere, '-inventory?', to attack the one I had stunned with my kick but while we were dealing with that one.
A second one had appeared behind us.
This time it wasn't just me and Trite who noticed it but the whole group as the second wolf attacked the rest of the newbs that were exposed from most of us stepping forward to deal with the first one.
"AHHHHH!" Ah, and there's the screaming I was expecting.
As we were fighting, I noted that both of the wolves were a very light grey that was almost white- made them blend into the snow- especially with how fast they were- tied together with those glowing crimson red eyes, 'Hmm, that copy prompt.'
"Aim for the legs! They're fast!"
Someone shouted but I didn't have the time to find out who.
I managed to duck under the first one as it recovered enough to attack me, angry over the kick in the face I'm sure.
Taking the chance, Dark elbowed its soft belly while Light grabbed a leg to throw it down back to the ground in a move I'd aLmOsT call a judo flip.
|
|
I jumped on it to hold it down as I walloped its face and moved in to give it a good choke hold.
|
|
|
As Dark and Light focused their attention on dealing with the dog. I took the time to jot down its traits mentally for the Bestiary percentage.
Let's see, its fur is cold as ice, as expected, doesn't smell of anything, except cold air maybe, though I do smell a hint of blood, not sure if that’s intrinsic or from the Flower Lady’s blood, teeth are a bit weird though, they feel more like ice than actual teeth.
Checking the claws, yea, same there.
'Hmm', I don't like it but- looking at the eyes, yup, as expected, mild mental fear effect, then-
|
|
|
|
Well that proved that at least.
'Dark'-
/Yea, King? Kinda busy right now.\
'Do me a favor.'
/Wha- oh- are you serious? Fine. You owe me one. This is digusting.\
Dark did me a favor and dug our hand into the wolf's eye socket.
/Ewww- squishy.\
I helped a bit with the extraction since I wanted the eye somewhat intact but, thankfully, it was quick and the wolf had already died from asphyxiation and blunt force trauma at that point.
I stuffed the eye into my inventory- storage, whatever- and turned to assess the rest of the group.
Unbeknownst to me I had just had my first
Meanwhile, Ace's Live Broadcast: