AN: So...that happened. We are going to pretend that the first publication of this chapter did not happen. We are also going to pretend that I did not take several weeks to upload this chapter. Jeez, for the fourth chapter, this isn't going well...Anywho! We are going to pretend that all is well. Cool? Cool.

I found that I accidentally swapped the colors on the Switcheroos in the last chapter. I described the left gun as red and the right gun as blue when it should've been the other way around. We are going to continue this trend of deluding ourselves into thinking my writing is good by pretending that I described the colors correctly the first time around.

Anywho, enough self-deprecation. Onto reviews.

Lord of Tee: Final boss character? What? I have no idea what you're talking about! ;)

Coolka121212: Hey man, I actually need two hands to count the number of friends I have, which is a big step up from just last year! ...I'm going to pretend I didn't say that. Thank you for your consistent reviews on this story. I hope you continue to enjoy it going forward.

With that out of the way, let's begin!

000

A bit startled, I look up at the new arrival to the library: Blanc herself. She's shorter than I expected, standing at what I assume to be around one and a half meters discounting her overly large hat (I'm convinced that she only wears that to appear taller). The look in her eyes seems...distant, almost, like she's not really here at all. It reminds me of...me, actually, after a long day at school or otherwise. She sits down in the chair diagonal from mine and sets down two of her own books on the table, though I can't see their titles from here.

"I always found scientific works to be...boring," Blanc deadpans, resting her head on her fist and looking away from me towards the shelves. "Do you actually enjoy reading those?"

I give a small chuckle and shake my head, even though she can't see that. "Of course not. They're dreadful. It's like raking my head through highly educational mud."

"Then...why do you read them?"

"A good question. I read them because I find them fascinating. To be able to gain the knowledge it took those who came before me entire lifetimes to gain, in just short hours? Amazing, no?" I can hear my voice picking up intonation and energy as I go, funnily enough. I've always been someone to get very invested in things that I like. "And, more specifically, I find science in general to be uniquely interesting."

She gives me a curious glance, but averts her eyes again almost immediately after. It's almost like what a kid would do, fittingly enough. "You do, hmm? You'd be right at home with Nepgear, then. Sometimes I think she's crazy, the way she talks about her lab experiments."

"Somehow I feel like you just casually insulted me."

"No," she says rather firmly, "I didn't. I was just saying that I think you'd be good friends with Nepgear."

Sheesh, this is awkward, I think to myself, a small yet coy grin forming on my face. She's awfully defensive around people she doesn't know. It might be best to change the subject. "So," I begin, trying to sound as casual and nonchalant as possible, "what are you reading?"

"Two fiction fantasies," she answers as curtly as ever. "One is about a dragonkin warrior who has to choose their allegiance between two warring kingdoms, and the other is about a mythical sword that gives its wielder visions of the future."

"Oh, is that so? Well, how do you like them? They seem interesting."

She sighs, as if my questions are causing her discomfort. "They're fine, really. A bit boring, but I'm still in the beginning. It'll get better."

I start to weigh my options in my head. This conversation isn't going anywhere. It might be for the best to just cut it here and let Blanc read in peace. However—and I'm only thinking about this in my shock of meeting a CPU for the first time—perhaps I should push it just a bit more? Doing so would give me more chances to play cushy with her and get on her good side, but it also gives me just as many chances to get on her bad side. Should I test my luck and take that risk, or should I just play it safe and not make things bad for myself?

"Right...well, I'll get to reading then," I announce, choosing the latter option and hoping for the best.

"'Kay."

I sigh and throw open the book, getting a satisfying crack from the binding. I skim over the table of contents and then flip to page 73–where the section on past research of immortality begins—and start to read, allowing my surroundings to become duller and for my imagination to run wild. I wasn't lying with what I said to Blanc. These works are horrendously boring to read; all they amount to is a glorified retelling of things that have already happened, complete with esoteric vocabulary and confusing writing at the best of times.

However, the subject matter is simply fascinating. Overcoming death itself using only my own knowledge and understanding of biology has been a dream of mine for a very long time, and I'm now ever closer to realizing it. Add onto that the fact that I'm no longer under the limitations my old world imposed on me, and I'm incredibly happy, to put it lightly. Because of this, I'm willing to read as many boring, thoughtless, mind-numbing, and exceedingly drab texts as I need to. I won't give up on this goal, not this time.

I'm currently reading about old theories about immortality aging back to the earliest documented scientists of Gamindustri. Some people had some very odd ideas, actually—one scientist thought that transfusing magic from an ancient being would let them achieve immortality, and another thought that eating a human heart would grant them eternal life. It seems that this section is mostly focusing on the spiritual era of science, so I can probably skip ahead a few pages...

"So...that book," Blanc begins, her voice noticeably quieter and more measured, "what's it about?"

I look up at her curiously. Wasn't she trying to read...? "It's about research into attaining immortality, past and present. Why? Would you like to read it?"

"No, not really," she says, shaking her head. She pauses a moment, fiddling with her sleeves and still looking away from me. "You actually want immortality?"

"Of course!" I respond a bit too passionately, my voice echoing throughout the room and eliciting a wince from the both of us. Quieter, I continue, "I do. Why? Are you suddenly interested in what I'm doing?"

Blanc simply rolls her eyes at this and shakes her head exasperatedly. "No, it's just that most people actually don't want immortality. But you say you do? Why? Don't you have family?"

"Ah, the classic argument. Well, if they want to be with me, then they'll take immortality as well. And if they don't, then...that's a price I'm willing to pay."

"Really? You're really okay with leaving your family and friends behind, if they don't want to take it?"

"It's very bold of you to assume I have friends."

She sighs angrily and balls up her fists, now looking straight at me. "Look, you know what I mean. Maybe you shouldn't have immortality, so other people don't have to deal with you forever."

I can't help but laugh at this, before I feel Blanc's icy glare worsening and I'm scared out of my wits. I take a few deep breaths to calm myself—no use losing my composure now, after all—then try to steer things back on track, "in all seriousness, I'm okay with it. It'd be a big price to pay, to be sure, but I'm willing to do it if it means I can finally do something with my life."

"You don't really look like you've done much throughout your life," Blanc agrees with a small nod of her head.

"Again with the not-so-subtle scathing remarks..." I mutter under my breath, looking away awkwardly.

"Did you say something?"

I fervently shake my head. "No, no! Not at all! Don't concern yourself with me, Lady White Heart!"

"Tch. Just call me Blanc. I can't stand it when people call me by my official title, just to suck up."

"What, you don't want to impose your absolute authority onto all the ants beneath you?"

She clenches her fists tighter and gives another exasperated sigh. "No, I don't. Though maybe I'll make you call me by my full official title, just to get back at you. Goddesses, you're annoying..."

I give a nervous chuckle at this. "Umm...your 'full' official title...?"

She takes a deep breath, and I just know that this is going to take a while. "Lady White Heart, Official Ambassador and Representative of Lowee and all Constituent Courts."

"...Wow. Who came up with that?"

"Not me," Blanc scoffs. "The first courts of Lowee really seemed to like needlessly gaudy titles. That's just one of the ridiculous names they made that have survived until today."

"Gotta love bureaucracy, huh?"

"...I know what you mean."

I give a dry chuckle. "Man, you really are hard to get talking, aren't you? I guess it is my fault, though, since—"

Her knuckles are starting to turn white from how hard she's squeezing them. "Goddesses, would you just stop talking?!" Blanc slams her fists down onto the table and bores a hole into my spirit with her icy glare. "I came here to read in peace, and here you are, just talking on and on!"

One of my weaknesses is that I sometimes don't know when to stop joking around and take things seriously. It's often been said about me that I "don't care about anything" or that I "don't take anything seriously", but the truth is that I do sometimes take everything much too seriously. Unfortunately, for some reason, my mind has decided to enter one of those moods where I just stop caring about everything, which leads me to offer an amazingly genius response: "Geez, Blanc, why are you being so loud? People are trying to read, you know?"

Blanc shoots up from her seat as an aura of pure violence flares around her. Her voice lowers as she growls out at me, "You got a death wish or somethin'?!"

"Of course I don't. Immortality, remember?"

"GAH! GET OUT!"

Luckily, I am not so stupid to miss this chance, as I grab my book and run out of the door as fast as I can. I can vaguely hear Blanc muttering some profanities about me before the Archive door closes with a mighty slam, making me all the more thankful that I escaped in time. I breathe a sigh of relief as I make my way to the elevator at the end of the hall, rubbing my neck sheepishly.

"That could've gone better..." I mutter, pushing the button for the bottom floor of the Basilicom and standing in silence. My back hits the cool wall behind me as my mind replays everything that went wrong in the conversation I just had. "Why'd I have to go and blow my chance like that...?"

The elevator opens at my destination a few short moments later, and I drearily walk out into the lobby of the Basilicom. The people around me are giving me some weird looks, but are apparently too busy to stop me for anything. A weak, dry grin appears on my face as I walk past them, taking a seat in one of the posh chairs lining the waiting area of the reception room. I'm pretty sure I'm classified as an honored guest, since my assumption is that Blanc dragged me here after my quest with the Chocopi. Hell if I'm going to pass up an opportunity to read on government property and inconvenience the bureaucrats.

I open the book to the section on modern research into immortality. The beginning is nothing special, merely serving as an introduction to the concept, but the following passages are what interest me most. Listed here are the most prominent theories about how to achieve unending life, and the experiments done to test them. Chief among them is the Magic Therapy Theory, which postulates that magic can be used to modify human cells to alter their replication and sustain them in the state they were when the therapy was taken. I bring a hand to my chin in thought—that probably wouldn't work on me, since I don't have any magic. Is my theory on immortality here, I wonder...?

Funnily enough, no, it isn't. That's somewhat strange; "my" theory was the most commonplace theory back in my old world. I guess science really is different here, though I guess that only makes sense. I guess I'll just have to find a way to test it. Wait, hold on—what's this? My eyes narrow and focus on the page, frantically trying to capture as much as possible. It details something about a place called Ecclesia, where scientific research is held away from the rest of Gamindustri. Nobody knows where it is, but it's—

"Sir," a voice from behind me calls out, causing me to jump in my seat and spin around. A Basilicom Guard has placed his hand firmly on my shoulder and is looking down at me with disdain. "I don't know how you got here but I need to ask you to leave."

Without responding, I promptly stuff "my" book into my bag and bolt out of the door.

000

Upon further deliberation, I have decided that frantically running out of the Basilicom was a poor choice. An even poorer choice was to run in a straight line down the road for nearly half a minute before finally stopping to catch my breath. However—and I do not say this lightly, to be clear—worst among them was stealing a book from the Basilicom and making away with it. Luckily, the guard didn't seem to pay much attention to it, but I don't think Blanc is going to be too thrilled about seeing me again any time soon. Actually, I don't think stealing the book was the deciding factor in that, but it definitely didn't help.

I find a bulletin board map on the sidewalk and start to investigate it. It seems that there's several Guild outposts scattered throughout the nation of Lowee—that makes sense. There's one a few blocks over that I estimate to be about a fifteen minute walk from here, so I can at least occupy my mind as I go. I put on my headphones and start to listen to "Dimension Tripper" by 5pb., a newfound favorite of mine after being deprived of my classical music (apparently, despite the numerous references to Earth, Gamindustri doesn't have any of its music). I quietly hum along to the tune, though I don't actually know any of the words and it's more of an off-key mumble than a hum. I accepted my tone deafness long ago.

The walk to the nearby Guild outpost isn't long, but it sure is annoying. Once there, I check in to a computer and accept all of the quests that are within my level range. Kill quests, fetch quests, infiltration quests—I take them all, even though I have no intention of doing some of them. The first one in my log is a quest asking me to grab ten Mega-Mofo Mushrooms for some "Ordinary Magician", and they apparently only grow on the snow-capped Lugee Hills in the northeastern area of Lowee. Because of course they do; why would they ever grow in the Jublee Snowfields or some other nearby area?

I walk out of the Guild and towards my target. Fortunately, the Lugee Hills are basically flush with Lowee's northeastern border, so the walk isn't going to be too long, but it's still a pain in the ass. I pull out my MP3 player and thumb through my music list absentmindedly, as I'm unsure of what to listen to. Artists from Lastation put out surprisingly good jazz music, though that would contrast the mood...and Loweean music is too somber for the occasion...heh, never thought I'd be the one saying that...

My eyes dart around me as I walk through the appallingly empty street heading away from the capital. Most of the people here seem to be on official business, since they're all wearing suits and dresses (I pity the fool who wears a long dress in the snow), but some appear to be simply heading to a nearby store for a hot drink. Others still are playing in the snow and making snowmen or snow angels. I smile and slow my pace a bit, wanting to indulge myself in the scene. In my home world, I didn't get to see people just be themselves very much. Everyone was hidden underneath their own masks. Being able to see the truth behind people is something I'm coming to enjoy about Gamindustri.

"What a lovely little place..." I mutter to myself, watching a pair of children frolic about and laugh. I had already made up my mind that, given the chance, I would never return to my home world. But now, after seeing all this? I'm even happier to stay.

I sigh to myself and speed up again, deciding to focus my mind on the quest. I'm at the edge of Lowee now and can actually begin to see the Lugee Hills; it's an expansive range of towering hills that recede into the shore at the ocean and are capped with snow at the top, making them look almost like mushrooms themselves. Preceding them is a vast field of snowy plains with a few dead trees scattered about, though it seems like nothing has grown here for quite a long time.

My slippers trudge through the snow towards my target and I immediately notice that my short-clad legs are basically halfway submerged in the snow, putting me at risk of frostbite. I'll need to sort this out later if I plan on taking many more quests. Luckily, the snow seems thin on the actual ascent up the hill, so that part shouldn't be too tough. I should probably pick out a pair of jeans soon...

I shake my head to clear it of that horrid thought. I never much liked jeans. They feel way too restrictive and uncomfortable to me, which leads to me wearing shorts in basically all temperatures. Of course, I was never at legitimate risk for losing a limb to the cold before, but the game has changed and I may need to consider proper winter gear. Snow pants are a bit excessive, though they could add to the "homeless bum" look I've got going for me...

Before I know it, I've arrived at the foot of the first hill. I quickly change my music to The One Uppers' Snowy Night, Crackling Fire and begin my ascent up the hillside. It's a low incline trail, which is wonderful on my ailing knees. The people I knew used to joke that I was like an old man trapped in a teenager's body, and though I would always argue, I would still need to borrow my mother's hiking sticks on tough walks and would complain about back and neck pain non-stop.

A sigh escapes my lips and blows a puffy cloud of vapor in front of my face. No use thinking about that now. The peak of the hill is within sight, after all, and in all likelihood, that's only where the troubles begin. The rest of the climb is nice and easy with only a couple of near-falls to my death, and when I get to the top, I'm faced with a very lucky sight—there are many more than ten Mega-Mofo Mushrooms gathered here. Unfortunately, they're...disgusting.

Each mushroom appears to be a sort of cluster of several small fungi growing around a medium-sized rock. The mushroom itself is red with several white spots on it, and the rock is tannish, leading one to question the nomenclature of this thing. As I pick one up, I find that it's surprisingly light, but it's rather repulsive to the touch—the mushrooms are soft, leathery, and smooth to the touch and leave moisture on my gloves, despite the fact that there is no liquid on them. I reluctantly toss it into my bag, being sure to separate it from the pouch with the book.

"Eugh..." I continue to grumble as I pick up the other nine mushrooms, wiping my gloves on the snow after touching each one. Once I have my payload, I quickly descend the hill, though not without considering the execution of a slick slide down the side—my logical side really helped on that one.

I sigh and walk back to Lowee, just in time for my music to change to an upbeat tune by 5pb. I can't stop to look at what's playing now, though, since a Fenrir bounds towards me from my left and I'm barely able to jump backwards and avoid getting snapped in two. It rears its ugly head at me and bares its fangs, dripping saliva onto the snow beneath it. Even hunched over, it towers over me, at an estimated height of three meters, ground-to-shoulder.

I draw the Switcheroos and open fire at it, my wrists jerking upward from the recoil. The Fenrir growls in irritation and bounds at me, swinging both of its claws downward to try and pin me. In response, I spin to the side, dodging the attack and slicing at the wolf's front right leg with the blades of my guns. I take the left gun and shoot at its leg while preparing another slash with the right gunknife, but the Fenrir swings its leg and forces me to back off. Though it stumbles a bit, it's able to quickly recover and lunge towards me with a snap of its jaws, which I sidestep. Time seems to slow down for me as I raise both of my gunknives high above my head, hold them for a moment, and then drop their blades into the beast's right eye, eliciting a horrible pained roar from the Fenrir.

"Gah...DIE ALREADY!" I let out an inhuman growl as I retract my right gunknife and slash and stab at the Fenrir's head several times—once at its soft nose, once at its forehead, and once into the bottom of its opened mouth. I yank both of my guns out and take a step back, opening fire into the downed beast's head for a good few seconds before my guns automatically eject their magazines and reload themselves. The Fenrir disperses into data shortly after and leaves behind Credits and a Life Fragment.

I place the Credits into my bag before looking down at my blood-soaked hands. A familiar feeling of power and adrenaline is washing over me...no, no! Not this again! It was life or death! I had to kill that Fenrir! There was no other way! Why am I feeling so bad about it, anyway? It was an animal, and it was trying to kill me, so I protected myself!

My breathing begins to return to normal as I successfully rationalize my feelings and stow my guns in my pockets. It still doesn't feel right to kill these monsters—in fact, it feels rather awful—but I think I can get used to it. I'll need to, if I want to survive in this world. It's always been a dog-eat-dog world; now, I just need to kill to survive. It's just a small step up...isn't it?

I grumble something incomprehensible under my breath as my MP3 player autoplays Inner Feelings by OZGA and I make my way back to Lowee. It's probably best for my mental health if I just forget about everything that happened in the past hour or so. When I get back home, I'll treat myself to a nice, cool container of yogurt, and—wait. I pat down my pockets and then throw my bag open in a panic. The book's there, as are the mushrooms, but...

"I'M BROKE!" I glare down at the Switcheroos in my pocket and throw my bag back onto my back, gripping my hair tightly. "Gah, why did I ever think this was a good idea?!"

I guess the yogurt will have to wait.

000

Normally I don't leave ANs at the end of chapters (and I don't plan to unless I need to make an announcement like this), but there's something I need to say here. On Sunday my time, I will be flying a plane to America for almost all of the day, not to mention the complications that come afterward. Therefore, I will probably not be able to upload the next chapter in a timely manner. Aren't plane flights just so much fun?

Petty complaining aside, I want to issue a massive thank-you for getting this story to 50 follows! I'd like to do some sort of special, but I'm not sure what would be best. I guess it's just another thing to think about on the flight, isn't it (seriously, it's like 14 hours—someone please help)? If there's anything specific you'd like, please leave it in a review on this chapter. But nobody reads these, do they? Ah, well...I'll see later.

This is Hubble7, taking off for now.