chapter 23

After telling Kunai and Zero, I went to sleep.

*

Waking up the next morning I went to the mercenary guild to meet up with Samuel.

'So after we finish with what we're supposed to do at the mercenary guild, you guys can use the body. Any plans?'

[Yeah, we decided who's going to go out first.] (Kunaigai)

'How did you decide that?'

[We just played rock, paper, scissors.] (Kunaigai)

'How'd you do that? You guys don't have any arms.'

[We just said it out loud at the same time.] (Kunaigai)

While conversing with Kunai I arrived at the mercenary guild.

I met up with Samuel.

"What do I have to do today?"

"We have to shoot a video of you sitting in your own office space."

"What's that for?"

"A type of insurance. If by any chance somebody suspects you might be a mercenary thanks to you being at some place, we can just show this as evidence that you were here."

"I understand. How long will we shoot the video for."

"A couple of minutes. We'll just play it on loop."

"Wouldn't that be too short. What if somebody notices the loop."

"This is just to show you were here working. We don't really have to play it for long."

Just like that, a video was shot of me working in an office.

After the video was shot, I walked up to Samuel.

"Is that all for today?"

"Yes, that is all. You can leave. If need be, you can actually use your office space if you want to work on something in silence. We can also use that as evidence of you being here."

"Noted. I'll be leaving now, do I have to come back tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow you choose what you'll be called, and you'll also get a briefing on what you'll be doing as a mercenary."

I nodded and then left.

I walked around and said something in my head.

'Blitz switch.'

Now Kunai was the one in control of the body.

*

Kunaigai's pov

It felt weird.

Being able to use a human body's limbs after a couple of years feels disorienting.

[So, how do you feel?] (Zero)

'Extremely weird.'

[What are you planning to do right now?] (Zero)

'I'm gonna go to the arcade. Last time you went to it Shadow and I couldn't see what was going on. I want to see what it feels like to use a VR machine.'

[Suit yourself. What are you planning to do Shadow?]

[I don't know yet.]

Leaving Zero and Shadow to converse with each other, I headed to the arcade.

Entering the arcade, I had a question.

'Why is this place even called an arcade? It's more like a game room than an arcade.'

[I don't know.] (Zero)

[I don't know either, and I have access to the internet. I'm guessing arcades just changed with time.] (Shadow)

Without saying anything else I walked into the arcade building.

Unlike what I'd seen before with Zero, I had to pay a fee before using the VR capsule.

The more I looked at it the less it felt like an arcade.

Walking in further, it looked extremely clean.

The floor seemed to be wooden, the walls of the room were white, and the capsules resting on the walls were evenly spread out across the room.

When I was about to walk in further, the person that I paid the fee to spoke up to me.

"Oh, right. I forgot to tell you the capsule you're supposed to use. Sorry about that. It's capsule number 23."

Yet another thing that made this seem less like an arcade.

I nodded my head and went to the capsule that had the number 23 above it.

Once I was in front of it the capsule opened up.

In it was a comfortable looking chair.

I sat on it, and once I did so, I saw the capsule closing up in front of me.

Once it fully closed, I was suddenly standing in a white room.

Looking around, I didn't see anything else, and the transition to the virtual world was so quick, it left me confused for a couple of seconds.

What snapped me off of my confusion was something that looked like a status window that popped up in front of me.

In it were various game titles which I obviously didn't know of.

I was also able to see the genres of the games so I could at least know what they were about.

It also had a section which showed off the games based on popularity.

I headed there and saw the game that was on top of the list.

It was a fight game named Strike Down.

Reading its description, it seemed to be a simulation type of game where you fight other people without abilities or skills.

You could even choose your weapon to one that you preferred.

I quickly put on the game and it sent me to another screen.

I could choose if I wanted to fight one on one or with teammates.

I was alone so it was obvious to choose one on one.

I tried to queue up for a match, but it first told me to write a nickname to use.

Since this was Zero's body, I just put Kunaigai as my nickname.

Before I entered the queue, it also asked me to choose a weapon.

I searched to see if there were any guns, but there were none.

It seems this game only has melee weapons.

I wasn't proficient with any type of weapon, so I just chose to go bare handed.

After that, the game asked me about my appearance.

It asked me if I wanted to still look like myself or if I wanted to use a mask to hide myself.

This game doesn't allow any type of character customization it seems.

I still looked just like Zero.

I decided to hide my face with a mask.

I was quickly sent to my first match.

My first opponent seemed to use daggers.

He had one dagger on each hand, each held in a reverse grip making him look like an assassin.

Then a countdown starting from 5 appeared in front of my face.

I slightly clenched my fists and brought them up to about eye level.

Without watching the countdown, I looked straight at my opponent.

Let's see how well I can fight against people in this world.

The countdown then finished as I heard a loud voice screaming: "Fight!"