A/N: I had an idea floating around, and I thought 'What would happen if Yu was aware that he was in a video game? Personally I love these types of things, so I had to try it out.
He got on a train. He had no idea where the train was taking him, just that he would get 500 gold once he completed the story quest.
Narukami Yu is aware that is not something a normal human would say, but he knows he is far from normal. He remembers a time when his life wasn't invaded by pop ups and quests. Still, he doesn't know when he became aware of the fact that he was a game. Just a collection of ones and zeros.
In his boredom Yu checked his menu. It was the most interesting thing to do at the time, and it would give him insight on the quest he blindly accepted.
Main Menu:
Stats
Party
Characters
Items
Quests
Physical Attacks
Spells
$ &%£€#
This was strange. Two new tabs had shown up in his menu: Spells and... whatever the blocked one was. Yu quickly brushed this off. New things happened in the game all the time.
It had been roughly two months since he opened the menu last, so he decided to check each tab for changes.
Stats:
Level-15
Defense-26 (+10, Bullet prof vest)
Attack-40 (+15, Sharpened Katana)
HP-100/100
SP-50/50
Yu looked for the description on SP because he had never seen it before.
SP-Spirit Points. Used to preform spells.
You just had to love the game. Short, to-the-point explanations.
Party:
You have no members currently in your party. You can check past party members from the Characters tab.
Characters:
You have had no people in your party. {You must be really bad at this game (: }
Nothing changed in either of those tabs. Though to be honest he didn't really care. People in his party meant people he had to talk to. Talking meant choosing stupid choices the game gave him.
Items:
Gold (58,485)
First aid kit (3)
Sharpened Katana (1) -Equipped-
Throwing knives (5)
Bento (1)
Body armor (4)
Bullet prof vest (1) -Equipped-
(Key Items)
Dojima's Note (1)
Bag of gold -reward- (5,000)
Yu had never seen the item labeled Dojima's Note before, so he tapped the item for more information.
Dojima's Note:
Your uncle Dojima's address. He asked you to not lose it.
After reading the note Yu snorted. He didn't even know he had an uncle. Though he supposed it must have had to do with the 'Story Quest' he accepted. The train suddenly entered a tunnel and his vision turned to black.
Yu woke to the gentle rumbling of a car. His eyes were met with quite the sight when he opened them. It seemed like he was transported during his slumber. He did not recall how he got here, so after a few moments of deliberation, he decided he must be in a dream.
The limousine was covered in a beautiful blue that transitioned from light to dark shades in the matter of a few seconds. This gave the carriage an ethereal air. His chair looked to be hand carved, and a strange material covered the cushion and backrest. Seats were covered in a strange velvety fabric very much like his own chair's. To either side of the small limousine where cabinets holding various alcoholic drinks that he was definitely too young for. Finally, in the front of the car was a beautiful mahogany table with a deck of tarot cards sitting patiently on the side. Behind the large table sat two people.
Yu looked above their heads to find their levels only to discover he couldn't see their levels. This was strange. He was usually able to see everyone's level just from a glance.
The one with the blonde hair, far more beautiful than the other, lifted her head in greeting as she spoke, "Greetings, welcome to the Velvet Room." she giggled playfully at his confusion.
Next, the long-nosed freak jutted out his nose and spoke with a smirk and crazy eyes, "Ah, it seems we have a guest with an interesting destiny," he stopped so he could chuckle, "My name is Igor and I am delighted to make your acquaintance. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. It is a room that only those who have signed a 'contract' may enter. This may very well happen to you in the near future."
Igor then asked Yu for his name. He quickly responded, "Narukami Yu." He started to go off on some tangent about Yu's future, but Yu just ignored him most of the time. The only parts Yu picked out from it were: Tower, Hesitation, and Mystery. After a long while of Igor's speaking, Yu just interrupted him and asked if he could leave. Igor hesitated, but finally allowed Yu to fall back into the slumber that would lead him home.
Yu jolted awake on the train. His menu was still open, and he was about to check the rest of his tabs when a speaker announced that they were almost in Yasoinaba. Normally Yu would've ignored this, but pop ups were invading his vision practically screeching, 'get off the damn train!' So he did.
Stepping out into the bright sunlight, Yu's navigation system started moving. He called it a navigation system, but in reality it was just an arrow that told him where to go so he could complete a quest. The arrow led him to an old man with a young girl clinging to him.
"Over here!" The man yelled when he got closer, "You must be Narukami-san. You look even more handsome in real life than in your picture."
'The weird man knows my name. Why does he know my name? Is he stalker? I bet he's going to molest me.' Yu thought. Now he was really starting to regret accepting this quest.
"I'm Ryotaro Dojima, and this," he gestured to the girl behind him, "is my daughter Nanako."
After short introductions Dojima loaded them all into his car. Yu felt like an outsider, watching them talk. Quickly he checked for their levels. Nanako was level 2, as expected. Dojima however... he was a beast. Level 30. Yu felt weak.
A welcome distraction came when Nanako announced that she had to go to the bathroom. Dojima went to buy more cigarettes at the store they stopped at while Nanako relived herself.
Standing still was boring, so Yu decided to talk to someone. That someone happened to be the gas station attendant that was filling up their tank. While exchanging hellos Yu found no level above the attendant's head either. It was just like the Velvet Room attendants. Yu decided it must just be a glitch in the system (he didn't even think he was real anymore) and ignored it until he shook the man's hand.
The world turned into a stream of endless colour, and error messages popped into existence all over his vision. His body felt like it was slipping back into the ones and zeros he assumed it was made of. He bumped into something, but he couldn't see. His eyes were utterly useless when the world was made of flashing colours and most of his vision was blocked by error messages. Stretching out his arms to grab onto something to steady himself, he realized he couldn't feel his hands. When he finally deleted all the error messages, the world's colour had inverted. The ground looked like a white heaven ready to catch him, but the orange sky was hellish. The feeling in his legs was long gone, so he did what was natural at that point. He fell. And boy did the ground feel good.
Dojima was just leaving the shop with Nanako when he saw it happen. Yu was talking politely with the attendant and then suddenly the boy asked Yu to shake his hand. He was probably just being polite and saying good bye, but after what happened next Dojima didn't really care. When they finally stopped what seemed to be an eternity of handshaking, Yu stumbled. He bumped into the car, but it seemed like he couldn't see because his eyes wandered everywhere.
They were only two feet away. He had only met this kid once (when he was a baby), but he still felt strongly connected to Yu.
Next, Yu reached out with his arms, but he didn't seem able to grasp anything. Yu took a few steps away from their car and promptly collapsed. Dojima dropped his bag holding takeout and dashed over to Yu. He lifted his head up and searched for any damage on his head. When he found only a small bump he was satisfied and looked at Yu to see if he was awake. Yes, he was infact awake, but he only had a dopey smile on his face and a relived look in his eyes.
He got Yu into the car with Nanako's help, so they could bring him home. As they lay Yu across the seat, he told Nanako to keep an eye on him.
From inside the car Nanako could see her dad marching up angrily to the gas station attendant. "What did you do to him!" Even through the hard glass she could still hear him clearly.
"Dad is mad. Should I be mad too?" she asked her half asleep cousin.
"..ad... mad...I...too?"
Mad. Someone was mad. Did he make them mad again? He continued to have these thoughts until an impossibly loud noise startled him.
"Sorr...nako...just worried...Yu."
That voice was familiar. He thought it might be Dojima's but what did he know? It could be Santa Clause. He continued to listen to the broken conversation.
"..d...hur...home..."
"...will he...al..."
Their words went on and on until a voice rang clear through his head drowning out the others' voices.
'I art thou, thou art I. Open the door. I beg the.'
'Well, this is new.'
