5 Lord Balls!?

"L-lord balls? You don't recognize me? It's me! Luck!"

"Luck!?" Ren blurted out, caught entirely off guard by what he was seeing in front of him, a creature that was all too familiar to him yet moving in totally different ways than what he was usually programmed.

A small, slightly glowing figure around the size of a middle finger. His short, deep, purple hair slightly spiked, his eyes that were a mystical uniform colour matched his hair and complimented the soft, almost feminine-like features of his yellow, slightly glowing face. He flapped his almost see-through matching purple fairy wings in the air wearing absolutely no clothes, his private parts fully missing from where a normal person would usually have them.

It was a custom fairy NPC that he always created on every play-through of the game he had ever done, one that proved to be extremely useful every time, yet not one that he expected to see in his new playthrough of the game.

"Lord Balls! I'm so happy you're finally awake! I was so worried about you!"

His voice completely caught Ren off guard.

Firstly, he usually had all of his party members on mute, that was if he had any, so he didn't have to listen to their ramblings and pre-programmed voice lines over and over.

And secondly, he had never heard an NPC ever refer to him by name. It was always "Hero", "Traveler", "Young Wizard", Etcetera, but never specifically by name.

'Damn, they must have really updated the AI… He sounds so good... And why is Luck here? I thought I started a new game. Is this the new starting cutscene? Did they put my own custom character in the game as an homage to me!?'

Ren couldn't really contain his excitement, a clear look of Joy on his face.

"Ummm… Lord Balls? Are you okay? Can you talk to me? You've been asleep for 2 days… I was so worried about you… But don't worry! I made myself useful while you were asleep!"

Luck's tone was very joyous and worried at the same time, the emotions on his face very expressive, which made Ren inwardly nod, taking in everything, not speaking a single word back at the NPC ahead of him.

"Ummm… Lord Balls?"

"Can you please stop calling me lord balls!?" Ren blurted on instinct before sighing to himself as it was just as effective as talking to a brick wall, thinking nothing of it as an NPC wouldn't be

able to respond to such a command.

"Oh… I'm sorry… Would you rather me call you by your full name? Lord BallsDeep69?"

"NO! That's even worse!" He instinctively responded once more, before taking a step back as he came to a sudden realization...

'He responded!? What!? He responded!?'

Usually, NPCs only respond to very direct commands, or prompts given by the game to tell the player to say what he needed to say, like multiple choice. This was the first time he had seen such a thing.

'Did they program realistic AI in the game? Just like in all those novels and anime? Can I now have a full-on conversation with an NPC?'

He felt his excitement well up, even more, everything seemed almost too good to be true, him not sure how the developers could allow such realism in the game.

"Umm… So… Lord… What would you rather me call you?"

Ren's eyes grew wide with a massive smile on his face. He finally had the chance to change his own name.

He had thought, no, more like fantasied about it many times— about a cool, fitting vampire name to call himself but simply never received the chance to use it. And, after years of contemplating, he had ultimately narrowed it down to 1, simple name…

"Alucard… Call me Alucard…"

Luck's slightly worried and confused face looked up brighter than ever.

"Alucard! Lord Alucard! I like that! I like the new name lord! I was worried that you were going through an identity crisis,"

Ren ignored the part about the identity crisis as he felt a great sense of pride now being referred to as Alucard, which was his favourite character in all vampire media and somewhat of a role model to him in some sick, distorted way.

"So, luck— What can you tell me about where I am now? You said I've been asleep for 2 days right? You must have done some sort of exploring right? You also said you got some work done too?"

It felt somewhat odd talking to an NPC, yet the fascination of the new update got the best of him as he wanted to test the limits of this new AI.

"To be completely honest. I have absolutely no idea where we are and how we even got here. All I remember is that you and I have been on many adventures together and I feel some sort of loyalty to you that not even I'm fully sure of… I did do some exploring, but I wasn't able to go far since the nearby village was being raided by mercenaries or bandits, so I was only able to explore the nearby forest ahead."

'Amnesia… A classic start to any new tale! Oh! And a Village raided… Noted! Maybe a side quest, might even be part of the main quest too!''

In the game, there was no proper quest or notification when a player was told something, so it was up to them to keep track of anything important said to them.

"And what did you make yourself busy with?"

"Oh! Here! Come outside! I spent the last 2 days retrieving good armour pieces from the bandits and soldiers that fought for the village a few days ago! They are very heavy for someone small like me so it took a really long time to do it… I hope you like it!"

Luck seemed to be holding in his excitement, like he was proud of what he had accomplished as he flapped his wings and flew out of the cave with haste, Ren following suit, making sure to avoid any spikes or pebbles protruding out of the ground as he learned his lesson the previous time.

As he exited the cave, the light of the moon fell down on his face, the fresh wind breeze hit his face once more, the slushy feeling and texture of the mud under his feet entirely different from the previous rocky ground as he could not help but stare at the forest ahead of him with complete awe and fascination, almost like it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life, a scene so real and majestic that he only imagined it in his dreams, almost shedding a tear from its sheer beauty…

'Wow…'

Ren had never in his life felt freer as he, in his still naked body stared at the forest ahead, taking the best, deepest breath of his life— his addiction seemingly never going to end as he was quite literally high on air.

He was stood at the entrance of a seemingly endless forest that spanned far as his dark vision eyes could see.

The heavily swaying trees affected by the howling wind were of completely foreign, unknown origin to him, noticing 3 or 4 different species that looked somewhat similar and distinct in their own ways.

The vegetation was rather compact and shot out high up into the illuminated pitch-black sky enabling cascading light from the bright moon to bounce between the rich green leaves; this allowed for a variety of saplings to flourish in the thick layer of leaves below where several types of plants and flowers grew.

On top of that, what sold the beauty of the scene even more was a massive hill in the distance with a waterfall protruding from it, the sounds of the water crashing clear to his ears despite the massive distance.

Yet, despite all the beauty and grandeur, he could not help but notice patches of burnt trees and greenery, that along with an odd, rather disgusting stench coming from somewhere close to him that he had only just noticed yet did not demean or take away from his experience at all.

"Lord Alucard! Come here!"

Suddenly, his moment of pure bliss and freedom was interrupted by a small, almost child-like sound, making him turn around only to see Luck once again, hovering over a set of rather disgusting, bloody leather armour and daggers laid directly beside a black rock not too far from where he was standing.

"Come here! It took me a while to get it here. I hope that you like it!"

***********

Don't forget to vote to support the story in the contest and for a chance at an anime adaptation!

Extra chapters if we get to the top 10 of the new/monthly rankings!