An unusual visitor

Fully completed story on:

patreon.com/FanFictionPremium

***

It had been four days since Risotto and his friends had arrived in Antokiba. Nothing interesting had happened in that time. They had tried to find any information related to the arrow, but it had all been in vain. No one had ever even heard of such an arrow or anything similar. They also found out that money from the real world didn't work here, and in order not to go hungry and have a roof over their heads, they had to take on various jobs on the notice board. The pay wasn't much, but it was enough for food and hotel rooms. The tasks they took on were not too difficult for them.

Illuso decided to try to participate in a local tournament. This time it was rock-paper-scissors, but he faced Killua and lost immediately.

- Come on, let's get out of here,' Illuso said to the others as he left the venue, 'Let's go to the café, I'm starving.

- Come on, - Risotto agreed, - We'll think about what to do there.

When they came to the cafe, they sat down at a table, ordered pasta and began to discuss the further plan of action.

- So, - Risotto began, - We have not found any information about the arrow, we have no idea what to do, where to look for, etc. Also the situation is complicated by the fact that Diavolo is also looking for the arrow, and we don't know how far he has travelled and where he is now, but I hope that his situation is not better than ours. What do you think?

- What is there to think?' said Gyaccio, 'We must keep looking. We've only been to one city so far, and based on our information there are several more.

- Exactly, - Melone agreed, - We should look for something in other cities. What about the maps, by the way?

- Well, we've got the cheapest cards in the game so far, which we got for completing missions. We also learnt that in the city of Masador we can sell and buy cards.

- So why don't we go to Masadora? - Illuso suggested.

- That would be fine. We need to visit other cities anyway, so we'll start with Masadora.

- Sounds good. When do we leave?

- Tomorrow. For now, we'll do a few errands, get some rest, then tomorrow we'll buy some provisions and hit the road.

The next morning, they bought a map of the island, bought information about Masadora's location, stocked up on provisions and set off.

- How long is it going to take us to get there? - Gyaccio asked.

- Probably more than a day. - Melone answered him.

- Damn, that's a long time...

- What do you want? We have not passed the steppe yet, but we still have forests, mountains and canyons ahead of us.

Slowly moving forward, they gradually found themselves closer and closer to their goal.

After they had passed the steppe, the mountains with a rather large forest belt stood in their way. On their way they met some bandits who were suffering from a disease. They asked for help, but Risotto was adamant and refused them, even when they begged for help on their knees.

- Maybe we should have helped them? - Melone turned to Risotto.

- No, they would have deceived us. Maybe they're really sick, but I don't really want to help bandits.

When they came down from the mountains, they continued on their way and soon found themselves in a canyon. On their way they met a group of several healthy cyclops.

- What are we going to do with them?

- Let's punch them in the face! - Giaccio replied, a little angrily and cheerfully.

Even without fighting at full strength, they easily defeated the Cyclops, some of whom turned into G-ranked cards afterwards.

As they continued wandering through the canyon, they occasionally came across other local flora and fauna, which they still had no trouble defeating. In the end, the strongest monster they managed to defeat was rank A.

- We've already collected enough maps,' said Risotto, 'If it's really possible to sell maps in Masador, we'll make a lot of money from it.

They decided to spend the night in the canyon and the next day they would finally reach Masadora.

The next day they set off again on their way, slaying a few more monsters along the way. By the middle of the day, they finally reached the city.

The city itself had a completely fantasy design, and looked more like a toy city.

- What the fuck is this? - Giaccio wondered, 'Even Disneyland doesn't have such a fantasy design. What kind of drug addiction is this?! What kind of bong-town is this?!

- Well... We have what we have, - Said Risotto, - Let's find a place to sell the cards.

After wandering around a bit, they found a shop where they could sell and buy cards. However, as it turns out, there are some nuances to buying cards. Cards are sold in packs of several pieces. You can only open a purchased pack from the outside, and once opened, immediately place them in a book.

After selling the monster cards, they bought many such packs and went outside to open them.

Of all of them, they found the following to be really necessary: escort, attraction, contact, and exit. The rest were of no interest to them, so they sold them.

A few days later, Risotto was once again in Antoquiba. Late in the evening, he sat alone in the café, slowly eating his pasta, drinking the juice he had just brought, and reflecting on the past events.

'Nothing... We still haven't found anything about the arrow. Not the slightest bit of information... Even though we've only been to two cities, I'm already wondering if we're doing the right thing. Where to look? What do we do? There are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers. Maybe it's just me being inattentive and missing something.'

While he sat and pondered, at a neighbouring table, two other players started a conversation that interested Risotto.

- Did you hear about what happened in the centre of the island? - Asked the first player to the second.

- No, what happened there?

- I heard that there was some kind of anomaly or something like that in the centre of the island.

- An anomaly?

- Yeah, an anomaly. I haven't heard what it looks like, but I heard it appeared somewhere in the centre of the island in one of the forests.

- An anomaly... Maybe it's some new update for the game? Like some kind of event or something.

- An update?! All these years after the game came out? I don't know...

The information he heard interested Risotto.

'Anomaly? What kind of anomaly is that? Or maybe... Maybe it's a clue about where to look for information about the arrow? I'll have to go and check it out. Somewhere in the centre of the island, right? But that's all tomorrow anyway. It's getting pretty dark and I'm tired, so it's time to go to bed.'

He went to the hotel where everyone else was already resting and went to bed.

***

Risotto opened his eyes and saw the familiar bar, a juice carton, and the bartender sitting on a stool wiping a glass. It was still raining heavily outside and music was playing on the radio.

'This bar again? Pretty weird though... Well since I'm here I'll just chill out like last time.'

He picked up the juice packet, which was completely full, and poured himself a full glass. Slowly sipping the juice, he was finally able to remember the song that was playing on the radio. It was The Rolling Stones and their famous song '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction'.

Suddenly the door of the bar opened, much to Risotto's surprise.

A man who looked to be in his mid-twenties or early thirties entered the premises. He was dressed in a purple hoodless sweatshirt with cutouts on the shoulders, dark trousers and brown shoes. As odd as it was, he looked a little like Jesus, only without the beard. He had purple hair with what looked like a crown of thorns on it. When Risotto looked closer, he saw that he had scars on his palms, like Jesus had when he was crucified on the cross. But these scars were larger. They weren't nail marks, they looked like bullet marks from some kind of large calibre gun.

The man approached Risotto and spoke to him:

- Do you mind if I sit next to you?

- Y-yes no... Have a seat.

He sat down next to Risotto and looked around.

- It's a bit unusual for a bar that serves juice,' he said, 'I think I'll have one too. Why juice? You don't like alcohol?

- It's not that I don't like alcohol, it's just... It's just my job. I have to stay sober at all times. Alcohol impairs co-ordination and clouds the judgement, and in my job, that's not allowed.

- So what do you do?

- It's hard to say. I'm in charge of a group of several people who need to be properly managed. And what do you do?

- I'm a professional sculptor. Oh, and by the way, let's use the first name. My name is Scolippi.

- Risotto Nero.

Scolippi ordered a juice, relaxed, and just like Risotto, drank his juice and enjoyed the music.

- Good music playing here, he said, 'Real classic rock. Do you like The Rolling Stones too?

- Who doesn't love the Rolling Stones? Like you said, it's classic rock. I prefer metal, though.

- By the way, I've been meaning to ask you... Why are you so gloomy? Did something happen in your life?

- Well, how can I put it? A lot of things have happened. My life was bad enough as it was, and now I have to fight with fate.

- Fate you say...' Scolippi gloomed a little, 'That's a pretty tough topic.....