C1 - Let's Dive
Beep! Beep!
A beeping resounded inside a room, alarming the sole occupant and pull him out from his sleep.
The youth groaned and tried to locate the source of dream destroyer, eyes half lidded from sleepiness as though his soul was only halfway in the world of the living.
With face down rubbing against soft pillow, he reached out to the phone on the bed stand and started tapping the screen randomly until the sound stopped.
But before he manage to continues his sleep, the phone in his hand started to ring again, jolted the youth from his slumber.
With eyes closed, he answered the call smoothly as though he was used to it.
"Uh, who the hell..." the youth grumbled into the phone.
"Hey mate, it's me!"
"Oh, Hiro. What are you doing so early in the morning?"
"Hah? don't tell me you're still sleeping. it's nine Jake! damn, you must have also forgotten today we are going to Dungeon Dive."
"Ah, I must have overslept. You can go ahead without me. I will dive soon." Jake rubbed his eyes and sit on the bed.
"I already have, I am on my way to complete a quest now."
"What, you can call me inside the game?" Jake was surprised.
"Nope, there's a delivery at the door."
"Yeah right, should have known. Where should we meet?"
"Meet me at the guild once you finish with character creation." A munching sound could be heard from the phone. Jake bet his smelly sock it must be Pizza. The guy was addicted to it.
"Sure." Jake hang up the phone and started to take off his pajama. He yawned and went to the bathroom. Soon the sound of drizzling water can be heard inside the room.
Twenty minutes later he was cracking an egg open into a pan. With a flurry of finesse befitting of high school student's cooking skill, a plate of fried rice is coming into being.
"Okay, that will take care of the leftover rice." Jake put the apron away and clasped his hand, "Ittadakimasu."
Clanking sound could be heard inside the room. It was not loud, but considering the place was too quiet, the spoon and plate clash against each other become loud enough to hear even from the next room.
After he done with his meal, Jake wash the dishes and went to his room. He took out a helmet carefully from the closet and put it on his lap. The helmet was grey and smooth to the touch, Jake could see his blurry reflection on it. it was a VR helmet he got by emptying his saving for the whole two years working as a freelancer translator.
Why did he go so far for a mere VR game? well because it was not ordinary VR he used to know. He saw the streaming and he immediately fell in love with it. The realism was over the top, especially with five senses including the pain sensation. Of course it was adjustable with 50% being the maximum threshold. He could guess why, it would be disaster to set it akin to real life. Some people might get traumatized or go insane after having a single bad day. After all it was the world of monster, brimming with violence.
Jake didn't didn't really care either way because he set it at 10%. While he doesn't like pain, he was reluctant to set it with no pain in case he might die without realizing why. He had done his homework and there are no UI interface to view his status and inventory in-game, taking the whole realism seriously. So without pain he night overlooked some attack against him such as bugs or curse magics and the likes that do little but continues damage.
Jake put on the helmet and rested his body on the bed.
A moment later, he was inside a white space, Jake took a quick glance, and noted there's nothing here but a single mirror. He walked to the mirror and saw his reflection in the old fashioned mirror. The corners of the mirror was blurry, as though it was ravaged by time. It only enough to reveal his face above the neck.
While he doesn't looked too pretty like Idols on TV, he was not that far behind. If he walk around the street, it's guaranteed there would be some stolen glances here and there. Though not big enough to cause traffic.
Typical Japanese black eyes and black eyes albeit on the handsome side. Though he always wondered why he was named Jack when both of his parent are Japanese, at least on the paper because Jack never saw them at all. When he was a child, they caught on a traffic accident and got themselves killed. Jack as a child only had a blurry memories of their time together and it's not much. So he doesn't really feel that sad. And he also got some Insurance money on the side and a house which made his life smooth sailing.
Jack examined the mirror carefully and find out that he could alter his appearance according to his will. After some experiment, it's clear that he can't seems to change it beyond some threshold, just some small adjustment. So ugly people won't be able to drastically change their appearance and choose a handsome avatar. It made him a little disappointed, he was planning to make a big man bursting with muscle as his avatar.
Jack sighed and quickly reset the avatar and make a slight adjustment to his hair. Gone was his black hair, and blond hair started to grow longer bit by bit.
Satisfied, he nodded at the mirror, it was longer than his original hair, but not long enough to be uncomfortable.
Jack was caught off guard when light suddenly burst out from the mirror, blinding his eyes. Before he figured out what happened, he was immediately greeted by a bustling plaza with plenty of people. Human, dwarves, elves. There are many races intermingle in the magnificent city, Orario. Medieval buildings with fantasy vibe mixed in were lined up on the street, he feels as though he was inside a fairy tale. Jack also saw some new players with newbie clothes chattering among themselves not far from him, obviously excited.
Watching it online was one thing, but seeing it close and personal was different. it's pretty breathtaking to experience so much feedback from his five senses. It was not different from real life which was a little scary.
But to him, it was beyond mere scary when Jack knew that this game was not normal at all. In other word, it was beyond extraordinary considering the technological advancement of this world. A no name company and sudden breakthrough of real VR game.
Not to mention the game had a familiar setting of romcom anime about certain boy and his journey to pick up girls in dungeon. While this is not weird for the habitants of this world, it was weird for him as there was no Danmachi anime here in this world. It only exist back on his Earth.
That's right, Jack was from different earth, an alternate earth if you prefer to call it that. There might be countless alternate Earth for all he knew, so he won't spent many braincell to worry about such high level subject. Even though the years and date was the same June 2021, what make Jack sure it was alternate Earth other than this suspicious game was there's no original him here. He contacted his number, scouted his friends social media and the likes, but anything that had relation with him was gone without a trace. Even though the president stayed the same in every countries.
If Jack could point out what stay the same as his previous life, it would be that in this life he was also an orphan. So he had no slightest idea what having family feels like, which is a bummer.
He retained his previous life memory, but strangely he don't remember how he died. His latest memory was kind of vague. What he had for breakfast and dinner, the clothes he wore that day, they were blurry.
But it was clear that DanMachi was an anime back in his old world, and he remember it clearly. And yet there are no mention of Danmachi in this world, whether it was novel, manga, or even the anime.
Even though Jack was worried he might got implicated in this suspiciously advanced game, his curiousity got the the better of him, especially when he knew the plot of the anime. Well, and a little bit of greed. Imagine the advantage he would gain by using the plot known only to him. It might bring him great riches, adding plenty of zero to his bank account. The thought filled him with excitement. In the future he won't need to slaving himself away to some companies to fill his belly.
But soon his excitement was quickly subsided and replaced by befuddlement as he arrived inside the manor of Loki Familia. The member of the familia led him to this spacious main Hall inside the manor with three huge stone statue of flat chested Loki posing in some weird pose. And around them, new players are crowding the statue. Occasionally light shone on the player, and thoughtful look immediately popped on their face one after another as though they're having an enlightenment. The sight leave him bewildered. It shouldn't be like this...
Jack stopped a Loki Familia member and asked, "Senior, don't we have to meet with the goddess Loki to join the familia?"
"Huh? who do you think you are? You're just a newbie, how could a nobody meet the goddess." He laughed at Jack's question, as though finding it funny and ridiculous.
He tried a few more times with other NPC and he got the same answer.
"Only the core members of the Familia got to meet with Loki. You got a long way to go little brother. Even I am a level 2 adventurer are still not in a position to meet with her." A bald man shook his head at him, somewhat helpless.
Jack suddenly had a sinking feeling as he glanced at the players. He walked to the statue and when the light engulf him, immediately a mental image appeared in his mind, which soon disappeared. Lasted only a minute or so. It was typical DanMachi barbone status without any skills whatsoever with his name on top. So he knew right away that his plan of riches and greatness was immediately gone in a smoke. Updating status without Goddess help? what the hell, is this even DanMachi?
With a heavy heart, Jack walked out from the Loki Familia mansion.
Just as there's alternate earth, there's also alternate game. This alternate universe business had truly gone too far. Jack was fuming and his mood got worse as he walked around the city. Especially when he found out his pocket was empty and he got no coin to buy even a cheapest dagger to start his adventure life.
He then remember Hiro, he mentioned something about a quest. Jack might need to do some chores to earn some coins to purchase his starting gears.
But he had better go to the guild and meet up with Hiro first before questing. On the way, Jack sneezed as a heavy parfume invaded his nose. It was an Amazon with lack of clothing. She walked into a street with plenty of men wandering about with lecherous eyes.
"The game is too realistic." Jack laughed as he scratched his nose. He quickly left the place in a hurry less he attracted unnecessary attention. Even though he knew it was very unlikely given that the game was quite different from the anime, Ishtar familia notoriety left quite big impact on his high schooler heart.
Jack waved back and forth amidst the crowd, avoiding some bloke here and there. The place was too crowded for his liking. Especially when he got closer to the guild.
It took some sprinting and some walk with heavy breathing before he arrived in the guild. Jack saw a familiar figure walking back and forth in front of the guild. The figure eyes lit up in delight when he saw Jack walking toward him.
"Jack! what took you so long? For a moment I thought you were spending a night on red light district."
"Hiro, I don't know you had talent for divination."
Hiro laughed, "All healthy male will definitely going to visit that place sooner or later. But we can talk about this later, I got a big quest going on here and I need a helper so we better hurry before someone snatched the prize away. C'mon follow me."
Jack didn't have the chance to ask anything before Hiro bolted right away, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and continue to run with a heavy breath.
The way to the top truly steep and filled with hardship. Paired with this AU setting made the plot unpredictable and the game harder. Thankfully he has confirmation from fellow familia member that the danMachi cast such as Ais and Finn also exist here. So that's a bit of good news.
"Let's just hope there's no Kayaba Akihiko in this world."