Fighting off thugs

I lifted my head in anguish as I died for the hundredth time at the game's tutorial. My specially created character who was supposed to represent the descendent of an old - thought to be extinct - family of wizards was lying on the ground, and above him was a text written in red with a font that seemed to be soaked in blood.

[You Died!]

GenVolution was a popular arcanepunk dating sim with fantasy elements sets in the world of Lunaria, rather than its anime aspect where you actually got to watch and make decisions of what would happen in the story it was the insane gameplay skill-cap that attracted people to it.

I could still remember that top 1 review calling it the dark souls of visual novels. The game had very flashed-out action RPG elements in an open world that made even me interested in it. In order to beat this game, more than EQ you had to have pretty good reflex and control skills to maneuver your character properly during battles, from blades to bullets and magic, you had to be extremely good to avoid your enemies' attacks and kill them.

Even though I considered myself quite good, I couldn't comprehend just how the hell the game expected me to go against an entire group of Augmented Thugs with a literal level 1 one character! For fuck's sake, I don't even have augmentations at the beginning, how am I supposed to defeat them?

"What a shitty game!" I was already tearing up but couldn't quit playing it.

Although more than a day had passed without rest, I couldn't simply stop, I got addicted very quickly to the learning curve. While I should have been able to pass it already if I had been playing at either easy, normal, or hard difficulty, I learned so many things by playing nightmare that I was sure I could probably defeat anyone in this game's PVP matches so long as they hadn't started playing nightmare mode as well.

In my next attempt at beating the tutorial stage, I noticed something strange. Because the game was played in full-dive virtual reality, almost every mechanic had to be learned manually, there were no such things as tapping a button and learning a skill by accumulating experience. The game incentivized players like me to win fights, steal money and do whatever to buy weapons and spell tomes and learn how to use them on our own.

When the game started, one of the first things you are introduced to is the protagonist's ability to use the Magic enhancement. In GenVolution there are two types of magic a person can cast, Spells and Magic.

Spells could be learned from other people and spell tomes, but Magic was considered a miracle type of skill that could only be inherited and not learned. There wasn't much explanation on how they work or why you can't learn them, but you are told right from the start that the protagonist is able to upgrade things but they never explain how.

That's why even after an entire day since the game launched has passed, nobody on the internet has managed to use his Magic.

But when I grabbed that pipe on the floor and waved it around, I managed to feel something leaving my character's body and entering the pipe. When I hit the NPC in the head with it, he instantly fell down dead with a large depression on his face, as it had caved in.

"Fuck! Isn't that too OP?!" Before I could contemplate on what had just happened, a character shot me in the head and I was killed instantly.

Sighing at my lack of attention, I was about to start a new game when a wave of dizziness suddenly hit me.

"W-what...?" With my head spinning, I tried to keep standing but I eventually fell on my back and lost my consciousness.

[ -------- ]

"Who can tell me the solution to the problem of an overflow of mana presented by Head Researcher of Pranter Institute during the Iron Wars in regards to spells of the Fifth rank and above?"

The voice of an old man rang loudly in my ears. With a great headache, I struggled to open my eyes and they took their time to adapt to the dark and dimly illuminated room where I was at.

I was seating on an old chair and across me stood some sort of holographic television screen that was playing some sort of academic channel.

Blinking my eyes, I felt so tired...

There was a sense of familiarity in all of this that I couldn't put my finger on, everything was blurry and almost invisible in my mind. Still, the light shining through the curtains that blinded me somewhat reminded me of who I was.

"Where am I?" Looking around I realized I couldn't recognize this place in any way. This definitely wasn't my house.

"Am I dreaming?" As I thought of the possibility, a ringtone sounded in the room. I did my best to reach the object on the table and noticed that it was some sort of big smartphone. The call was from a private number so I couldn't tell who was calling me.

Picking up the phone I did what any normal human would do. "Hello?"

"What do you mean by hello, you fucking lazy bag of bones! Do you know what time it is?!"

How rude... who is this woman?

I couldn't tell her identity from her voice, but she spoke with such familiarity that I would have probably thought that she was my sister or something along those lines.

"Eh?" I looked at the smartphone to make sure and answered. "It's 10:00... why?"

"Why? Why!? Have you forgotten already? Military Academy starts today! You only have one hour before the entrance ceremony begins!"

Although I honestly didn't know shit about what the woman on the other side of the line was speaking about, I suddenly felt anxious about something and jumped on my feet. For some reason, I was really nervous about this matter, to the point I somehow managed to dress up for the Academy in less than five minutes and just grabbed some candy on the fridge to shoo away the hunger.

"If I get word that you missed the first day of class, I'll make sure father and mother know of this!" The woman shouted with a threatening tone and hung up the call just like that.

"Just... what the hell?"

Despite being confused I simply couldn't stop myself; it was like my body had become self-conscious and was doing all the work for me.

I hopped on a train and left towards the Academy District on the west side of the city. Standing near the windows, I gasped as I watched scenery that seemingly came out of a movie. Steel buildings of different shapes and sizes blanketed the land, megabuildings towered over the city on the horizon, and many floating highways with hovering cars could be seen everywhere.

The train I had entered was seemingly a magnetic one, it floated a meter below the magnetic steel road that crossed above the ground streets and was supported by various pillars that were hundreds of meters away from one another.

"Is this real?" I couldn't believe the scene. Maybe I passed the game tutorial and didn't notice, or someone drugged me... there couldn't be other explanations.

Caught in my delusions and hope of this being nothing more than fantasy created by my creative mind, I almost failed to notice a girl falling on the floor of the train.

"Yaah! G-get away from me!"

Despite her scared expression, this girl with long shining blue hair and violet eyes still managed to steal a beat out of my heart. Her face was charming, giving out an innocent feeling, her chest was ample and her legs were just perfect. Out of all girls I had ever seen on a train, she was definitely the most beautiful one!

"Give me your money, you bitch!" A man in tattered clothes and arms full of tattoos approached and looked menacingly at her.

"Please, help!" The girl cried for help, but everyone seemed to turn a blind eye. It was like nobody wanted to cross paths with the man assaulting the girl.

"Fuahaha, are you kidding me? Anyone with a brain knows not to mess with me! Since you don't want to give me your money, perhaps I should have a taste of you to compensate!"

"W-what!? No! Please, anyone, help me!"

Seeing this, I couldn't help but frown in anger, just what the hell was happening? Why was nobody helping? Although my motto was to stay away from all and any trouble, when I saw this girl suffering for nothing, I felt conflicted in my heart.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a wanna-be-hero with delusions of saving a damsel in distress, nor am I the kind to put my nose in such situations, but c'mon, the guy was threatening to sully a pure flower! How could I stand back and watch as a girl went through that? Plus, she was so beautiful... wouldn't she like me if I helped her?

With some indecent thoughts on my mind, I almost let out a lecherous smile but quickly controlled myself.

Before he could touch her, I grabbed the man's arm and punched him in the nose, throwing him back.

"Aggh! What the fuck!" The man cried in surprise and pain. "Who do you think you are, you fucking brat!"

"Tsk, what a bad smell... ever heard of toothbrush?" I couldn't believe just how bad this guy's mouth smelled, even from such a distance I could still feel it!

"Fuck off!" The guy put down his hands that had been holding the broken nose and pounced at me.

Seeing his stance, I smirked at his naivety. I went through four years of compulsory military service and had experienced many forms of combat through full-dive virtual reality games. There was no way such a shrimp would pose me any threat.

At the middle of the train, the crowd gawked at our awe-inducing fighting, they were clearly astonished by my display of martial prowess. Punches were deflected and kicks were parried, no matter how he went at me, I could always easily predict his moves and return either a punch or a kick.

I defended another one of his kicks and held his leg before he could try pulling it back, I lifted him off the ground after kicking his other leg, with him falling on his back, I jumped at him and hit him straight in the face with enough strength to knock him out.

"Wow, so fierce..."

"This boy is in for trouble..."

"I hope he doesn't die, not many are this brave nowadays."

Turning to the girl that had fallen on the ground, I reached out my hand to her. "Sorry for scaring you, I hope he didn't cause you any harm."

She looked at me and blushed slightly. "I-I mean... no... thanks for helping me."

Somewhat uncomfortable, the girl accept my hand and I helped her get up on her feet. Holding her hand, I couldn't help but exclaim at how soft and warm her hands were! It was such an amazing and comfortable feeling, I wish I could hold it like that for more time, but realizing her troubled looks I hesitated for a moment but still let go of her.

"Thanks again... My name is Nomura Kyoko."

Nomura Kyoko, huh... that seems to fit her well, although it's a bit common.

"Kyoko-san, you don't have to thank me twice. My name is..." Although I was about to say my real name, I felt like my head became dizzy and what I said made no sense to me! "Ishihara Masato..."

What the... who is this Ishihara Masato that popped on my head out of nowhere? Wait... don't tell me I have somehow transmigrated and taken someone's body!?

The idea seemed absurd, but I was so familiar with it from novels that I couldn't help but consider it, what else could explain this situation?

"Hmm... Masato-san, are you perhaps going to the Military Academy too?" Following her line of sight, I noticed that she was looking at the coat of arms strapped to my chest, it was a drawing of a sword resting on top of a book on an escutcheon.

I looked at her chest (purely out of curiosity and not because of what you perverts are thinking) and noticed that she had the same coat of arms strapped to her uniform. "Ah, are you going to study there too?"