Chapter 4 - First Completed Quest

When James opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was white system window.

<Quest: Living Place (Completed!)>

<Description: As a human, you cannot stay alone in this arid place. Find a city for your adventure.

<Reward: 50 SP (Debt Issued: 20 SP)>

He frowned as he read the text, but then sighed. On the bright side, he had gained thirty SP. The first thing he saw when he woke up was this text, so he was not fully awake and found himself staring at the white ceiling.

As soon as he straightened his back slightly and tried to look around a bit idly, he heard Fox's voice, confused with complaint:

[You're really crazy! I've never heard of such a feature in the system].

At the sound of Fox's confused voice, James came to his senses. "Oh, can't you be a bit quiet?" he said, his brow furrowed in obvious annoyance at the noise.

But what he received was an even louder barrage of questions:

[How can I be quiet? This is complete nonsense. How can the system accept such an order? No, why does the system have such a function!]

James then said angrily, "You're too loud. A little bit quieter." By this time he was able to fully observe his surroundings.

He was clearly in the hospital. He was lying in a hospital bed. Apparently his plan had succeeded. Moreover, he still had his clothes on. But his leg was bandaged. He didn't think he had hit it that hard... He found it strange.

'Fortunately, the plan succeeded.'

Instead of thinking more about this strangeness, he tried to stand up, but this time he felt a pain in his leg. He had felt the same pain when he stumbled, but this time it was noticeably less. 'How inconvenient,' he thought with a sigh. He sat on the bed.

He glanced around, there were curtains to his left and right. He deduced that he was not the only one in the room. He remembered from memory fragments that there were hospitals like this, but there was an awkward silence.

James was unsure what to do next when a nurse walked in. She was a woman in her twenties with short black hair. When she saw him sitting up, she said anxiously, "Ah! You're awake. Hey! Sir, take your time." and rushed to his side.

James gave the nurse a quick look and said, "I'm fine, I guess." He tried to stand up but the nurse stopped him immediately:

"Sir, you can't leave until the doctor gives you permission. Please wait. Also, the polices would like to see you."

At the nurse's words, James paused for a moment. His eyes widened and he turned to the nurse and asked:

"Of course, but... Can you tell me where I am?"

The nurse looked at James with a strange expression.

"Sir, this is Trinity Medical Center in Alpha City. Are you sure you're okay?"

He paused as he was about to answer the nurse. He started to hold his head as if a sudden pain had entered his head.

"I-I-I can't... I can't remember! What is this place? I've never heard of such a city."

He looked at the nurse while holding his head tightly as if trying to remember. The nurse thought he was having some kind of attack. "Calm down, please," she said as she hurriedly laid James back down. It seemed to be the first time she had encountered such a situation. "I will inform the doctor and he will see you right away. Please wait." she said and ran in a panic.

"Uh-okay," James said as he held his head with his right hand against his forehead. He looked like he was trying to remember as best he could. When the nurse left, he could barely breathe a sigh of relief.

"We're lucky, huh?" he murmured in a relieved voice so low that only he and Fox could hear him.

Fox asked in amazement:

[Where did you learn to act like that?]

James reacted quite normally to the bewildered questioning. He defended himself in a low voice as if it was quite normal.

"I really do have amnesia. It's not a very difficult role."

[Okay, okay.]

Despite Fox's obviously dissatisfied tone, James tried to prepare himself for the doctor. Pleasantly, it wasn't too difficult to mimic who he had been before. The blank stare, the lifeless expression. It was as close as he could get to the way he had looked when he first opened his eyes.

After a short while the doctor arrived with a policeman to his left and right. The doctor was a middle-aged man with white hair. He was holding a strange device. It was the first time James had ever seen such a device.

He touched the device first on his head and then in several places. Finally he pulled the device away, put his hand on his chin and after a thoughtful pause he asked:

"Do you remember your name, your age?"

James stared blankly before answering solemnly:

"My name is... James, I think. My age... I don't know."

Immediately after he answered, the impatient policeman on the doctor's right asked:

"Where did you come from? What were you doing outside?"

James looked at the policeman, pulling the hair on his head. Then he hesitantly replied, "I-I... I don't know." The doctor then spoke in a soothing voice:

"Okay, calm down. What's the last thing you remember?"

James had already expected it to come to this and had prepared for it. His eyes unconsciously glowing with pale, disturbing, white light, he replied thoughtfully.

"Hmm... The last thing I remember... Someone with orange hair was attacking me. Her Bakugan was the Subterra element. And then... Then I lost to her. I think."

One of the policemen shook his head while the other mumbled to himself.

"Hmhm. Understood."

The doctor made the diagnosis after a few more questions. The questions were mostly about himself and his parents. It was not difficult for him to have the exact same reaction as he already had a headache when he thought about such questions.

With a sigh, the doctor explained his diagnosis:

"Yes. Memory loss, as we suspected. I guess you are a Bakugan brawler, right? My guess is that you suffered an accident during the battle that resulted in a complication that I can't figure out, and you lost your memory for a short period of time."

James tried to maintain a blank expression, trying to remember something, though inwardly relieved to have received the expected prognosis. The doctor frowned for a brief moment. For that brief moment James was worried, but the doctor's expression quickly cleared.

Whether he succeeded or not, one of the policemen began to enter something he could not understand on the tablet in his hand. Meanwhile the doctor asked:

"Do you remember anything about the rules here?"

James naturally replied, "No." Although some of the information about this place was clear, the details and especially the rules were not in his memory. The doctor explained calmly:

"First of all, you can't have a Bakugan match in the city except where allowed. You are already aware that there will be no theft or similar crimes. Apart from all that, you cannot force someone to fight. If you are reported for coercion, you will be punished. Your Bakugan and activation card will be taken away."

He nodded his head in understanding.

"Hmhm. I see. Any other questions?"

The doctor continued as he handed him his glove.

"The cops loaded your temporary ID and the necessary information into your gauntlet. You won't have any difficulty getting in anywhere. Here you go."

James took the gauntlet and put it on without much thought. The doctor spoke after a short thought:

"Let's keep you for another day. There may be some unexpected complications. If there is no change in your condition, you will be discharged. Rest well for now."

James nodded his head in agreement. Only after the doctor and the others had left did he breathe a sigh of relief. He wiped the sweat from his forehead as he lay fully on the bed.

'That was hard.'

For the first time he felt a combination of excitement and nervousness. He managed to hide it until the last moment, even if it was difficult. Still, he felt that he could go back to sleep as soon as he woke up with the relief that came after being so tense. However, there was a strange smile on his face.

"Bakugan brawler, huh? I like that."

He closed his eyes as he lay down. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep as he lost himself in his thoughts.

[I'm really sorry...]

Before he fell asleep, he heard Fox's regretful voice again. Perhaps he had been moved by what he had said. Unfortunately, James fell asleep before he could think about it.

…

A day passed after that.

When he finally came out of the hospital completely, the air seemed too bright for him. The harsh rays of the midday sun were shining on his face. He tried to block the light with his arm and looked around.

He was wearing a dark purple jacket with black and gray trim. Under the jacket was a black T-shirt. Below it he wore pants and shoes of the same color. It could be said that it was too simple.

These clothes were the third item he had received from the Starter Pack.

He mumbled as he walked forward, looking around:

"Alright, now... Let's move on to the next phase of the plan."

Meanwhile, he noticed vehicles, big and small, moving left and right. At first he was naturally surprised, but then a strange feeling of closeness greeted him. Curious, he asked:

"What are those, Fox?"

Fox explained briefly to James:

[They're cars, a mechanical vehicle traveling on four wheels.]

"Hmm. Understandable."

After nodding his head in agreement a few times, he lost interest.

[Seriously, you're not going to care about anything but what's on your mind?]

Fox sounded reproachful. James replied calmly and changed the subject:

"I'm not interested in mechanical means. Especially now that I'm trying to stay human. Do you have any idea where these battles are taking place?"

Fox thought before answering. Then she spoke:

[Hmm... Straight ahead.]

James followed his instructions and went straight ahead from the hospital.

[I think this kind of thing should be in the center of the city. Just go straight ahead until you come to a building.]

"The center thing makes sense... You're right, actually. That's where the Dimension Controller is."

He pointed to a big dome. There was a big rod going inwards. Outwards, the rod continued to extend and was connected to some kind of emerald. This is probably where the energy was transmitted.

"That's the building we're looking for. Thanks for reminding me, Fox."

So he started moving towards the building. There was a lot of noise around him. Car noises, Vestals chatting with each other, the sound of billboards.

There was great noise pollution.

Nervously holding his head, he finally reached the arena. Contrary to what he expected, the sound pollution was much more intense.

"Hey! This new girl is very good."

"Yeah. She's already in the top hundred."

"Tsk. She's not a Vexos, though."

"No one can be like the Vexos. Don't be a fanboy."

These and similar voices could be heard. He walked in and saw a big scoreboard.

'So this is how they work when it's not a big tournament.

Right at the entrance there was a scoreboard showing the top hundred. The top six belonged to the Vexos, just as predicted. But below that were names he had never heard before.

"Interesting."

He didn't remember anything like this being mentioned in the original. It could be that his memory was incomplete, it could be that such details were different because this place was real. There were many possibilities. James just saw it as interesting and an opportunity instead of thinking about it now.

There were a lot of vestals around. He touched one of them:

"Hey, can you take a look?"

The man responded to James with an irritable demeanor and voice.

"What is it?"

The gruff response angered James, but he managed to keep his patience.

"Well... I'm here to fight, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. Can you help me?"

The moment he heard the word fight, the man's eyes lit up.

"Did you say fight? Of course I did. What would you like to know, my little friend?"

The sudden brightness of his eyes, which were not bright, typical of Vestals, was quite evident.

'Apparently he's a fanatic.

Laughing inwardly, he maintained a gentle demeanor.

"Thank you. First, can you tell me exactly what's going on here? How can I battle someone?"

The man explained with a smile.

"My friend, there are many ways. You can join the weekly tournaments, or you can challenge someone who is on the list."

He nodded his head in agreement. Tournaments had existed in the original. He didn't remember the details clearly, but it wasn't surprising. Looking up at the Spectra Phantom inscription at the top, glowing flame red, he asked:

"Sure. But who can I challenge? Is it possible to challenge the winner directly?"

The man laughed, thinking James was too passionate:

"Haha! Calm down, newbie. You think it's easy to challenge the Vexos, especially Spectra? To do something like that, you either have to be extremely lucky and make it to the finals of a tournament. Or you have to be in the top fifty on the leaderboard."

James smiled at the information.

'Good. I'm not interested, even though the tournament is quite close, I need to get a foothold on the side I want by the time Dan Kuso arrives.'

With that, he started skimming through the leaderboard.

"What do I need to do to get on the leaderboard?"

The man put his hand on his chin before thinking.

"There are a couple of ways. You can challenge the number one hundred directly. But I wouldn't recommend that. You can also move up slowly. There is a separate top five hundred list apart from the one shown. You can challenge yourself and work your way up."

James smiled and thanked him while thinking to himself, Five hundred list, huh? I'm not surprised.'

"Thank you very much, sir, and finally, can you tell me how to apply?"

The man laughed at his polite behavior.

"Hahaha! What's the big deal? We're both players after all. What you need to do is, you know the line in front of that painting? You just have to go in there and apply to the receptionist there."

"Thanks again."

With that, Fox spoke as James contemplated leaving:

[You forgot to ask his name. It might help you in the future.]

James wasn't sure how anyone here could help him. He was not much different from ordinary vestals, including his appearance. Still, one never knew what might happen. So he nodded his head in agreement and murmured:

"Mm... you're right."

The man didn't understand what she was saying over the noise.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

James quickly took advantage of his lack of understanding and spoke as if repeating himself:

"I said, what's your name, sir?"

"My name? My name is..."

He pointed to the sixty-ninth row.

"Sixty-nine. Daron."

James was stunned. Here was someone in the top hundred. He recovered quickly, thinking to himself, 'This is a really big opportunity!' A moment later he held out his hand.

"No number, James. Thanks again for the help. I hope to see you again."

Seeing James' reaction and hearing what he said, Daron laughed.

"Hahaha! No number, huh? Hope to see you, newbie."

He took the outstretched hand and shook it. Smiles appeared on James and Daron's faces. Although it didn't matter to Daron, James could feel that he was building a relationship that could be useful in the future.

He then walked over to where he was pointing and waited in line.