Ch 3 - First acquaintance

As I walk towards the monolith, I can feel the eyes focusing on me.

It's strange to be the center of attention once again... Last time was in the initial course of uni... before we went online learning. Eh... Yeah, they still keep pushing kids and younglings onto personal classes because they think we develop something special, like social skills. I mean, it's already proven that all it causes is bullying and trauma for most kids, but the old farts on the administration think it's nice... And the private school owners love being able to charge the premium of having those. Anyhow, let's not talk about my dark past ok? I... don't like it that much.

As soon as I read the monolith, a slim white overlay appears, and a symbol. It is... A bus station? Really? Public Transit in a game? What kind of weird flex is that!? I hope after the initial thing we are able to have better means of transport and all that good stuff. I guess they just want us to experience the exploration aspect of the game first, to make a statement. Yeah.

I bear the looks of all the men and women around. Men's gazes are... strange. I can't know whether they are looking at my legs or my ass or my face... But most of them are filled with either desire or just plain curiosity. It's actually quite endearing, despite being able to see one sick bastard or another with a disgusting face. But women on the other hand, Jesus Christ! Why are they even that weird about me!? I don't even have boobs! Their gazes are awful! I feel like one of them could slap me to death at any minute. I mean, there's one or two lewd stares from smirky Hawks, but they are so rare I feel sad...

Why do I feel sad? Why do I care about how many girls desire me!? The heck. I don't even like people in the first place.

Anyhow, look. There's the bus...

The sound of pneumatic brakes resounds as the humongous thing stops and opens the front door. It's a rather militarish thing, covered in thick plating and with slim tinted glass windows. As I blink, a couple dozen people appear around me, walking towards the bus with no order at all. I feel they'll soon push each other and stay behind.

Yeah, it happened. A hulk looking Grunt pushed his way first into the bus, annoying the others. I saw him being pushed to the grounds, punched and stomped. Eh... His health bar is appearing now. Guess because he's being hurt? But it doesn't seem to be going down… More importantly, a small green text is appearing every time he's hit, but I can't seem to be able to read it.

Since most of the people forgot about them, and are entering the bus as if nothing was happening, I also walk towards it... The small text slowly becomes readable.

<This is a PVP-Free Zone.>

Ah... I see, he's not taking damage because of that. Eh. Scary! My eyesight crossed his. Rather, despite his scary looks he doesn't seem like a bad guy. Eh, why am I empathizing with him? "

[ BEEP! ]

< The bus will leave in 45 Seconds >

Eh, what's with that!? A horn sound? Oh, right, let me explain. Aside from the sound, I saw a yellow marker on the corner of my view. When I looked towards it, the SFX name of the sound appeared. This shouldn't be a thing, right? Eh... I need to check my Skills later. Anyhow, the white text appeared and the five people beating the other guy rushed towards the bus.

I halt, as there's a lot of people pushing each other as they get into it. I look towards the guy on the floor, and seeing him slowly rise and seat, I lend him a hand to help him up.

"Thank you." He says, looking down.

"It's nothing. Rather, are you okay?" I ask, not from worry, but curiosity.

"Yeah." He begins patting his clothes in place. "Only my honor is damaged."

"Ouch... That must feel like crap." I say, giving a wry smile. I guess he really isn't a bad person.

"Oi, we are gonna lose the bus, hurry." He says, before dashing towards the thing.

"Huh!? Waaaait!" I yell, running behind him and barely making it towards the bus, before it begins closing its door.

Oh no! I lost it!

The door closes just before my hand reaches it and the bus starts accelerating, leaving towards the Terrarium.

"Aaaah..." I let out a sad, hopeless, cry. As I see it leaving without me, another dozen people watching my downfall...

Eh. It stopped. Why did it stop?

A few meters ahead, the bus stops, opening its door again. I think for just a second, and run towards it, holding someone's hand and pulling on it to get in as quick as possible.

"Happy to see you made it in."

It was him. The man looking like a wardrobe, who got beaten. He somehow stopped the bus and had the doors open, and helped me in. My heart starts racing as I stare at his large well defined muscles... Eh? What are you saying!? I'm still a woman you know? It's not because I like small and cute girlish boys that I'm unable to feel this kind of thing when a strong-ass man helps me.

"Thanks."

"You had my back, so I had yours." He states, warmly. Wow... His behavior completely betrays his looks, enough that I think him pushing his way in was an accident or something.

"The fuck are you doing there loser! Leave the girl and sit down so we can leave!" One of the players who hit him stands up and starts yelling. I, blushing, look down and walk towards an empty seat, still holding his hand.

Eh. I'm still doing what!? I look at my hand in embarrassment as I let go of his. What the hell did I just do?

"Sorry! I forgot I was holding it!" I cry out embarrassed as I take my seat to the side.

"It's fine. I understand." He says, seating beside me.

Now that I see carefully, this bus looks a lot like a normal executive bus, it's just rougher looking and more militaryesque, with rough treadplate flooring and bare metal details. It looks very war-machine like, despite being the same as a normal bus. I guess color profile matters a lot. Now that I think about it, the driver's place was just a black metal area. How did he make the bus stop?

"I was wondering... How did you make it stop?" I asked, looking towards the hulky man as the bust started accelerating once again.

"There's a button over there." He pointed to the side of the driver's thing. There really was a small blue button there. I guess it's for asking to stop in the middle of the way or something. I can see it being annoying since the bus is almost full.

"Thank you, again. May I know your name?"

"Ah... It's L-, sorry, it's Streetsnort."

"Oh, I see." I say, thinking about something else as I stare at the window, only to see a giant concrete building the same as the one I came out of.

"What's yours?" He asks in the meantime, before I asked him his. I guess it was a lack of manners on my part.

"I'm Kyuna. Nice get to know you like this, Street.

"Oh, please, don't. Call me Nort."