Hyperdimension Neptunia

The CPU Of Ocurift

Chapter 1 – A Fifth Nation!?

~Virtua Forest, ?'s POV~

I groaned quietly as I finally, slowly, opened my groggy eyes. The back of my head hurt. Pounding in fact. I sat up slowly, as if my movement would only worsen the aching in my head. The more I moved, the weaker I felt, and I shielded my eyes from the sharp ray of the sun overhead.

As I finally got onto my feet, I looked around me to find my bearings. Not that I actually knew where the hell I was. It seemed like I was lying in an open field, but the area was surrounded by thick and dense forest, weird creatures walking, jumping and slithering all over.

The many unknown things made me nervous, and I didn't like it here. I ached all over, but despite the pain, I forced myself to limb forward, along the nearest dirtpath. Might as well try my luck.

~Leanbox's Basilicom. Vert's POV~

"Come on guys, we only have 5 minutes left before the raid ends!"

I tapped viciously on my controller as if it had my life on the line. Well, at least my avatar's. It was the last raid of the day, and it had "Only" taken 4 hours to get to this point, and I didn't feel like giving up on the final prize now. I was about to attack the final raid boss, when…

"My darling Vert, I am sorry to interrupt, but we have a situation"

I felt a hand rest on my shoulder and I looked up to see Chika Hakozaki, my oracle, looking down at me with a serious expression.

"Chika, you know I'm doing a raid today!" I said, a displeased expression on my face "Can this issue not wait for a moment?"

"I'm afraid not, miss" She said, a frown on her features "I'm afraid this craves your attention"

I sighed silently and pulled the mic on my headset up to my mouth for a second.

"I'm afraid I have to leave for a moment, guys" I mumbled with a sigh "Keep the pressure on the boss as much as you can, and protect the healers at all costs. I'll be back soon"

I ignored the irritated cries I could hear from my headset, even after I had set it down, and stood up so I could follow after Chika down the hall.

"So what is this problem you're talking about?" I asked as I eyed Chika "What is so important that you have to pull me away from my gaming?"

"Well, it's easier to let you see it rather than explain it" She mumbled silently "Though, I can tell you that your opinion on the whole situation is what matters the most"

I frowned quietly at this. What did she mean by that? When we got to the main hallway, funny enough we didn't take a right to head to the main entrance like I had expected. We instead went straight towards the nursing wing. Receiving soldiers or citizens who had been injured in battle with monsters was not uncommon, so I didn't know why I had been summoned to the nursing wing.

When we finally arrived at the nursing wing, we turned left at the third door to the right, and Chika swiped a keycard over the lock, before letting me inside. The patient inside was a young man, unconscious, with bandages and cuts all over his body. He was harshly wounded, but at least stabilized.

"What happened to him?" I asked in worry as I approached his bedside, and crouched down beside him.

"He was found like that near the entrance to Virtua Forest by a leanboxean soldier on an item gathering quest" Chika said with a frown "Since the soldier finding him was leanboxean, she brought him back here"

I nodded quietly and sighed "What kind of monster in Virtua Forest could have done this to him?" I mumbled as I checked his temperature, laying a hand on his forehead "All the monsters there are relatively low level, even if you're low level yourself"

"As much as I can tell, Lady Vert," Chika said as she crossed her arms over her chest "His cuts and injuries are not the result of claws or teeth, but rather man made weapons, like spears or swords. BECAUSE it happened in Virtua Forest, and it most likely isn't because of monsters, I thought you needed to know about it"

"So he was assaulted?" I looked up at Chika in shock "Who would attack innocent people like this? Well besides Arfoire, but she has been inactive for several years now"

"I don't know, my lady" Chika mumbled with a frown "But if it does turn out to be some kind of new organization, I wanted you to know the details, hence the reason I called you here"

I nodded silently and gazed up at her thankfully as I stood back up.

"Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Chika" I frowned quietly and looked back down at the misfortunate young man "I'll keep it in mind, and look into it when I have time"

She nodded and bowed a little before heading out, leaving me with the young man. As badly hurt as he really was, the doctors had been lucky enough to stabilize his blood pressure, and eventually save him from dying from blood loss. Or that's at least what the nurse at the entranceway had said. The fact that he had so grave injuries worried me though.

I frowned quietly as I gazed over the young man's face. He had several wounds on his cheeks, but nothing too serious. What gave me that bad feeling, was that his whole head had been bandaged, and a makeshift patch had been placed over his left eye.

If he truly had been attacked by some villain, and would lose his eyesight for it, I would never forgive the criminals who had done this to him.

I decided to stick around the patient's room for a bit, and wait for him to wake up. Maybe he would be able to answer a few of my questions. To figure out who or what could have mutilated him like this, would be the first step to have them removed from this world as fast as possible.

~An Hour Later, ?'s POV~

I groaned quietly and hissed as I suddenly felt the pain run back to me all at once. My vision was blurry and mixed as I slowly opened my eyes, to surroundings that were unfamiliar to me. Even when I tried to open both eyes, I soon realized my left eye was patched. Despite the blurriness of my vision, I could still grasp that I was looking up at a grey and boring ceiling, sharp lights blinding me overhead.

From what I could hear and see, I could also determine that a person was sitting next to the bed I was lying in, though who, I was not yet sure. After a moment where I tried to concentrate on focusing my vision, the blurr finally started to disappear, and I blushed as the person, more accurately a woman, came into view.

She was stunning. Bright blue eyes and long blonde elegant hair. A long green and golden patterned dress, and tall white boots to follow. The first thought running through my head was that she was a goddess taking me to heaven, but even in my fucked up state, I knew that that was absolutely ridiculous.

As my strength began to return to me, I sat up and leaned against my arms. The pain made me want to lie back down, but I had a strong urge and want to get up, not cubed up in a warm and stiff bed. I sat up properly and looked over at the woman beside me, who seemed to be looking at me with a worried expression.

"Where am I?" I mumbled silently , looking around me.

"You're currently in Leanbox's basilicom" She said with a small smile, leaning her head against my forehead "How are you feeling?"

Leanbox. The name rang a bell, but I didn't remember anything.

"To be honest, my whole body hurts" I mumbled silently, blushing quietly at her cooling hand on my forehead "What happened?"

"I hoped you could tell me that" She said with a worried expression "How did you get all of these wounds?"

I frowned quietly and gazed down at the sheets, deep in thought. I couldn't remember anything. The only thing I had a vague memory of, was something like a dark purple flash or light of some kind, but besides that, I was completely blank. I explained this to the woman as best as I could.

She frowned quietly and sighed as I finished explaining, pinching her chin in thought. Maybe she had expected some answers? She seemed disappointed, whatever it is she expected. After a moment of thought, she looked up at me.

"It's okay, you provided me with whatever information you had" She mumbled "I wish the writer would come up with something a bit more original than memory loss though… This is Neptune all over again"

"What?" I mumbled in confusion. I had no idea what she was talking about.

"No matter, just talking to myself" She said with a sweet smile "You just focus on getting some rest. You might remember more once you've recovered for a while"

I nodded quietly up at her. This seemed to make sense to me somehow, even though I didn't know much about memory loss. In this state, I didn't know that much about anything at all.

As the woman lifted herself from her seat and fixed the long skirt of her dress, I looked up at her with a confused expression. I felt like I needed to know the identity of my savior.

"Wait, before you go…" I mumble silently "Who are you? What's your name?"

"Call me Vert" She said with a small smile, a twinkle in her eye "Can you remember YOUR name?"

She turned back to face me and I looked back down at the sheets to try and focus.

"I-I…"

I felt like I could dig that information out somehow. Suddenly it clicked, and I looked up at Vert in realization.

"I-I think my name is Vivus…"

She nodded a little, a small smile widening on her features. Maybe I satisfied her somehow?

"What a cute name" She said with a giggle "Now, lay down, and rest, okay?"

And with these final words, she turned and walked out of the room, her dress swaying behind her elegantly. I sighed silently as I leaned my body back on the mattress, wondering what even had been the point of this whole conversation.

Clearly, she had been looking for answers to why I was in this condition, but why, I didn't know. The most obvious conclusion was that she was worried that whatever had attacked me was still lurking around and attacking other people, and that she wanted to prevent it. Had I been victim of a crime? Or was it not a human creature that had attacked me, inflicting all of this damage upon my body?

But why would she care? She didn't seem like anything like law enforcement, but more like a fine lady, or someone close to royalty. Someone like her didn't have to worry about a creature stalking in the slums Leanbox, as she would always be safe and sound behind some castle's thick walls.

Of course this was all only speculation at this point, and unless I could get out and find the answers myself, they would stay speculations. But in the state I was currently in, I was not fit to move as much as an inch out of the soft bed I was currently laying in.

I felt so incredibly tired, but the thing was, that I didn't know why. It was weird. Normally you'd think people would be able to tell why they felt exhausted. I only had a vague clue. I had been attacked by something. But by what?

~A moment later, Vert's POV~

His name. Vivus. It seemed oddly familiar, but I could not remember where I had heard it before. As I walked down the hall, deep in thought, one of the servants of the basilicom suddenly ran up to me, out of breath.

"Lady Vert! You need to see this!"

"What is the hurry, Milly?" I asked in surprise as she grabbed my wrist, and began pulling me over to one of the large monitors of the office nearby.

"It's all over the news! Look!"

I looked up at the monitor and widened my eyes in shock. On the screen was a continent I had never seen before, forming in the sky over the southeastern seas. It looked like a depiction of a floating island, floating just over the water's edge.

Where the hell had this continent come from?

"What is this, Milly?"

"It seems to be a brand newborn area, my lady" Milly mumbled with surprise in her eyes "And the trackers are picking up immense amounts of share energy coming from it. What is weird, is that it doesn't seem to be a share crystal that is the source"

"What are you saying?" I mumbled, looking over at her in suspicion.

"I'm saying, that maybe a brand new CPU has been born!"

I frowned quietly and looked at her in suspicion.

"Do you know who might be the source of this share surge? If this is the birth of a new CPU, then we should be able to track who's the source of so much energy"

"We've been trying, but because of the unstableness in the share division between the current four nations, it is tough. Tracking the new CPU will probably take a few minutes yet"

"Alright, thank you"

I frowned quietly over this. This was unheard of. Not since Eden and Orange Heart had such a thing occurred, and even that had had some sort of windup, some expectation. This had been a part of The Seven Sages' plan for domination over the shares, but this time, it happened out of the blue, and apparently without some evil organization behind it.

That made the situation all the more serious. Never in recorded history had a fifth CPU existed, that was not artificially created with the help of a CPU Memory. Having 5 different nations in Gamindustri through natural means was unheard of, something that had never happened.

I sighed silently and rubbed my temples in frustration. All of this speculation brought me nowhere. Maybe it was time to contact the other goddesses, and ask them if they've found something out, since they must know about this by now as well.

I booted up a new monitor and immediately opened up a group chat. Not long after, Noire was the first to pick up, immediately followed by Blanc and Neptune.

"Have you guys seen the news?"

"Of course we have, I'm drowning in phone calls" Noire said annoyed "What the hell is happening?"

"An enormous amount of Share Energy is immerging from that place, whatever it is" I mumbled with a frown "the news reports suggest that the source isn't a sharing crystal"

"But how can it be a new CPU?!" Blanc asked with a frown "And where did all this share energy come from?"

"I don't know Blanc" I said "Share energy is created by people's faith. But how do you put your faith in something that doesn't exist?"

"Lady Vert! Lady Vert!"

I was interrupted by Milly, who ran up to me in a panic.

"We've identified the share source! It's in the hospital wing!"

I widened my eyes as I realized. Vivus. Was he the source of all this share enery?! But how!? I looked over at the other goddesses and frowned.

"I'm looking into it right away"

Before any of them could answer I closed the chat and ran off towards the hospital wing. When I got to his room, he was sleeping in his bed peacefully. But I could sense the power, his amounts of shares, resonating off of him. I stepped up to him to take a closer look at him, every step letting me feel his power even stronger.

There was not much I could do. He might be resonating share power, but that was not definitive proof that he was a CPU. I decided to keep my eye on him until he seemed to give off any hints to our predicament.

I frowned quietly and sighed as I looked out the window. If Vivus had not yet realized his power, how would a new nation just appear out of nowhere?

Only time would tell.

A/N

Hey guys!

So I wanted to try out a new story idea and I finished this one really early, so I thought, why the hell not just upload it and see what people think?

You will probably enjoy this story further if you know the setting and the characters behind it in advance, but I'll put that up to you guys.

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this early chapter, and I'll see you at the end of the month.

Keep reading guys!