The Strange Boy

"Liz, don't eat the leaves," Otto had run up to Elizabeth, dragged her away from a protesting Lola, and sat her down on a spot of somewhat clean grass, "They're not safe." Elizabeth stared at Otto in disbelief as he continued.

"I'm serious."

"I'm sure it's fine," Elizabeth tried to continue, "The leaves were checked and washed in a nearby stream too! Look! They even have teensy bits of water still on 'em. It'll be fine." Otto glanced at the dark green leaf that had a single streak of clear water dripping from it.

"I'm really sure it's fine. Jack gave it to me."

"I'm 100% sure it isn't fine. You can't just trust people when you just meeting them," Otto argued.

"Lola is trustworthy. She may be a prostitute, but she's a nice one! And I trusted you," Elizabeth argued back, "They're leaves, it's not as if we can die from plants. We're in a weird place with fucking swords and a computer interface!"

Otto looked around to see if anyone could hear them. Elizabeth huffed, "I'm fucking eighteen, I'll live."

"You can eat as many leaves as you want, but I don't think it's safe," Otto warned, "I doubt it's Lola who did it anyway." Elizabeth stood up and glared at Otto before she ran off to Lola, who was sitting at their original spot. Otto glanced over to Jack, whose charitable acts were going to get them killed.

Otto watched as several people ate more than ten leaves. Their smiling faces leaving a bad taste on his tongue as he stared at their gobbling. Throats bobbling as they swallowed the tasteless leaves, leaves that were normally bitter. Any and all weapons were stocked into their inventory, something that Otto noted and did himself.

"How long will it take for the effect to take charge?" He said aloud. He hadn't noticed the person who was behind him, staring at him from behind a tree. The person made his way towards Otto and tapped him on the shoulder.

"You know?" Otto turned around surprised as he heard the soft small voice from behind, "Can you see it too?" Behind him was a small kid with light blond hair and what appeared to be green eyes that glowed. He was probably using his skill like Otto.

"No one is going to believe you, they don't believe me either."

"Who are you?" Otto asked, "I've never seen you before." The little boy grinned something wolfish and looked around, eyes widening slightly in something akin to insanity. His bright green eyes luminescing at everyone, staring at them intensely.

"What do you mean by I can see it?"

"You have an appraisal ability right?" Otto's eyes grew large as he listened to the other talk in a slow monotonous voice, "I have it too, but mine only lets me see the basic skills and stuff. I think yours is better because I can't tell anything about you. There's a wall between you and me." The boy suddenly swung around, blond hair swishing as he turned to stare at Otto.

"Absolutely nothing."

"... Yeah?" Otto blinked in confusion, voice wavering as he answered, "What about it?" The boy looked at Otto as if he was a dumb fish.

"Are you kidding me?" He asked, "Have you seriously never played an RPG before?" Otto shook his head.

"... Okay then, listen, there was this new game called [Veni, Vidi, Vici] and it was really awesome, as in everyone liked it, but there was one thing that annoyed everyone. While having an encounter-fighting system, no stats for anything were shown. So like, a level 100 could end up fighting a level 1. Basically, people were getting beat up in the game because they didn't know who was strong and who was not. Unless you knew the gear they were wearing, which is impossible because there's over a dozen million pieces of gear."

"How does this relate to our current issue?" Otto asked, "Nobody here is strong or weak, we're all the same. And I don't even know you, you're a stranger." Otto stared at the blue information screen that had popped up upon mentioning the issue, "Or I do."

[Player #1733: William Lindberg

Level 1

HP: 1500

M: 400

S: 100

AG: 500

DEX: 550

RR: 100HP/min

Skills: Comprehension, Hide, Invisible, Sneak Attack

Class: Assassin]

"And you are... Otto Bettering. A... Twin Hitter?" William asked, tilting his head in questioning, "There wasn't a class like that. And you're really weak." Otto drew out a long sigh.

"It's true. I met someone else with stats like yours and frankly, he died right next to me. Like five minutes in and he's lying in his own pool of blood from this crazy person called Edward or something."

"... It's Kettering. I'm still alive though," Otto stared at William, who didn't seem to care much if Otto was called shithead, "And how is it that you can't see my stats? You're reading them off." William picked at his shoes, causing Otto to see the small traces of blood on them.

"You probably didn't look hard enough."

They were tiny little speckles that were small enough to pass off as someone who was near an incident. He probably didn't steal a dead person's shoes when everyone had them.

"I couldn't, until now," William replied, "Something 'bout you giving me permission. Now 'nough with the chit-chat. We need to get on with the more important stuff! How to get that-" William pointed at the leaves that others were eating, "-out of those thick-headed, moronic, gluttonous idiots, though I doubt you could pry it from them even if they were dying as they ate it. They would rather die than starve, although same thing."

"... Rude," Otto replied, unable to come up with another reply to the point, "They don't know any better, and besides, what are you here for?" William laughed out loud and patted Otto on the back, "Everyone here had done something. I'm assuming that."

"I used to make problems in class, as in big problems. Big horrible problems that didn't affect me, but affected others. Eventually, I started to skip," William answered, "What about you? What're you here for?" Otto hesitated a bit, much to William's dissatisfaction.

"Can't be worse than murder. Or homicide. Or genocide." The 'ur' sound was drawled as he sat on the grassy floor, bringing his knees up, waiting for Otto to reply.

"Well," Otto cleared his throat, "It is murder."

William barked out a laugh and narrowed his eyes at the people on the fields, his green eyes glowing with amusement as if he knew something everyone else didn't or at least believed something others didn't. He didn't seem bothered by Otto's possible crime. His smile, that was more so of a smirk never-ending.

"Why did you head over to me anyway?"

"You're strong, or at least you will be, though now I'm not too sure. I think. Most isekai mangas are like that anyway," Otto furrowed his brows in confusion, "Stop looking so confused, it's nothing important anyway. Just do whatever you want. Anyways, lemme join your party, I won't kill you so don't worry."

Otto stared at William, becoming more and more confused, "If I wanted to kill you I would've done so earlier."

"What? Hell no," Otto replied, "I don't even know you."

William pointed at Elizabeth. Otto pursed his lips, "She's different, or not. I don't know. The screen thing just came up and showe-"

[Player #1733, William Lindberg, has asked to join your party, would you like to add them to [Strawberry Pudding]? Reply yes, or no]

"What?" Otto said, "Did you do this? William answer me." William turned around humming, his eyes were looking around the scenery, calculating something.

"I don't even know your age or personal contacts or anything."

"I'm 16 and there is no other way to contact me other than the party," William stared at the slightly disappointing look on Otto's face, "You're an old man you know that? An absolute old man, hopefully not a pedophile, but too late for that now. Now lemme into your... Strawberry Pudding party. You should get Adrian too, he's a fun guy to talk to. And he listens."

[Party member, William Lindberg, added. Welcome William Lindberg, may your choice be a fine one]

Otto pressed the button before he knew it and on his stats, it read [Member of Strawberry Pudding]. William seemed to observe it for a while before he nodded and circled around Otto's dumbstruck face, "Then how do we message each other using the party system? There isn't anything like a chat."

William let out a long-troubled sigh and poked at seemingly nothing.

"Call on your stats and press the member of whatever thing. There's a telepathy messaging system on it. Keep it on so we can hear everything you say. It's annoying to turn on and off," William explained, "You're such a nitwit sometimes I swear. You're not even that much older than me... Probably."

"I'm older than you by nearly a decade," Otto answered, "Willia-"

"It's Will."

"Really?"

"Yeah, stop wasting syllables," William mumbled, "William is too long anyway. Who says William now anyway? It's either Will, Willy, and even once I heard someone say Wi. Which just sounds like why."

Otto nodded and opened his stats to see the newly added area. It was written in a slightly glowing tone as if to say 'press me'.

[Player #1001: Otto Bettering

Level 1

HP: 500

M: 100

S: 50

AG: 150

DEX: 200

RR: 10HP/min

Skills: Eye of the Devil, Two Shots, Twin Teleportation

Class: Twin Hitter (Currently Gunslinger)

Party: Strawberry Pudding (Creator/Leader)]

"Why am I the leader?" Otto asked pressing it and suddenly there was a slight cooling of his head, "What was that?" William snickered to himself and it was suddenly just loud, loud enough for him to hear the slight intake and outtake of stuttered breath.

"Stop laughing at me."

"That, Otto, is the messaging system so even if we're thousands of kilometres away we can say a 'hiya'," William laughed and patted Otto on the back, "Now, back onto the most pressing issue, the Ms. Mills issue of her being completely, utterly useless. The damn broad* Milly Mills."

Otto grimaced at the brashness of William's words, "She's our problem, you deal with it. I'll ge- No I can't. You'll get Adrian in the party, and another few people that aren't as stupid as those lot and then we will all solve Milly Mill's dumbass issues."

"Why would I even agree to this? Liz is her own person, she can make her own decisions and she doesn't listen," Otto grumbled, "And I didn't add you into the party, I was surprised and pressed the 'yes' on the screen."

William shrugged, it was the same thing to him. He didn't want to make a party with all the possible responsibilities it might bring.

"Basically a yes," William cried out as he went out to look for someone else, his arms swinging in a loose 'bye'. His green eyes glittering as he looked back again, "Don't waste time, you ass, get Milly Mills on board!"

Otto stared at the screen before he realized that William didn't have a familiar. Unwilling to deal with him, he trudged forward to where Elizabeth was sitting, chatting with some unfamiliar face. Lola had gone to sit beside Jack, her eyes flitting over Otto, but never really registering him.

She looked timid amongst the crowd, her soft, younger feel leaving everyone who was already damaged by everything scrambling for a spot next to her to babble. Like some wayward prophet. The girl currently next to her looked rugged and had brown hair and brown eyes like nearly everyone else.

No one apparently looked much different than before, just some colour adjustments. Even the major colour adjustments didn't block some people from recognizing each other, "Sachiko, it's fine!"

"Ah, Liz-Kun shouldn't be so not worried. It's unfair," The woman, now that Otto was very sure she was older, grabbed Elizabeth's arm and whined at her, "We're stuck here! With... these people."

She gave a strange look to everyone else in the vicinity - They were all chewing leaves, Elizabeth included.

They weren't really suspicious. It was just everyone didn't know everyone and some looked unsavoury. Otto wasn't sure how much she ate. It was slightly worrying if not for the fact that she was still well awake.

"I'm not completely worriless," Elizabeth replied, "Just sometimes, besides you all seem nice so it's fine." Otto stared at Elizabeth from the back of the group surrounding her. He didn't want to help her as much anymore, not with the difficulty it provided. The issues that would arrive.

The simultaneous chewing of leaves continued in somewhat low chit-chat until it happened. Slowly, the air was filled with drowsiness and Otto immediately headed elsewhere to hide and see what happened. He hid behind a bush, leaves not even covering the top of his head.

"You feel tired?" Someone asked, "I feel tired, but it's only somewhat sunset." Another person grumbled a response.

"Been a long day, whatcha think? We tuck ourselves in sooner."

Another one chirped up, "No sleep gonna hurt us."

The English was less than comprehensible at times, but they had the best excuse - Having never been in a place like New York or London, they picked up their English through poorly made lessons on the language. Someone yawned. Another one yawned.

"'S right, we should sleep," The person who yawned, yawned once more, "It's been a long day." Ater padded his way up to Otto. He had travelled a little bit with Adrian, not really going anywhere and giving little sway to what Otto might be doing. He plopped his small self near Otto's feet and looked up as if asking to be allowed to be picked up.

"Oi, Otto," Ater called, "Lift me up. I'm tired. The Romanian guy kept me with him." Otto stared at Ater for a moment before he complied.

"So what's going on?"

Otto sighed as he petted Ater, who didn't seem as bothered by it as Otto would suspect. It was probably comfortable, that would be the only reason Ater would allow him to do it, "C'mon what's going on? Tell me."

"Met another person," Otto paused, "A William. Forced himself into my party and has an appraisal ability." Ater snorted and swore something under his breath about Otto being a stupid shit. He let random people into his party.

"You stupid shit," Ater replied, "Anyway, these idiots should be falling asleep soon. It's been a little bit over ten minutes, although some of them had poison resistant abilities." As soon as Ater mentioned it the first person dropped down on the grass, asleep.

Soon they slowly, in the most lethargic way possible, drifted off to sleep. Elizabeth fell on top of Sachiko, hair splayed out as Sachiko hunched over. Her eyes rolling around under her eyelids before she drifted off on top of a sleepy Sachiko, still mumbling incoherently.

"Fucking idiots. Let's go, Otto. We can't keep Liz," Ater huffed before he jumped off of Otto's hands to flick something in the air with his tail. Otto frowned and walked over to the edge of the hill, "We'll go find whatshisname."

"I'll get Liz," Otto said as he filtered around the lying bodies to pick up Elizabeth's snoring figure. He wrinkled his nose, "William said that we should keep her after all."