Into the… Vrains?
Senses returned slowly as I heard the faint beeping of something next to my head, along with voices. My eyelids slowly fluttered, my body felt like it had woken up from a dream, which is strange because I don't remember to have fallen asleep. In fact, I don't remember anything about the last week or so, weird. As I opened my eyes I found myself inside a white room, lying on a bed with a heart monitor at my left side and a man with spiky gray hair wearing a doctor uniform standing a few meters away, speaking with a nurse. Though, why was the color of her hair lemon green? That's weird.
"That's a relief, you are awake." The man told me. "How are you feeling?"
That's when I noticed that he looked like he was draw. Like a character from an, um… what was it again? Ah yes, anime! They looked like characters from one of those cartoons.
"Are you ok?" the doctor asked me and made a concerned face.
"Yes, uh, I'm ok." I nodded. "But my head feels a bit light and all. Sorry for the question but why exactly am I in a hospital?"
"Hm, your memories must be fuzzy from the medicine." The doctor put a hand under his chin in thought. "You were found lying unconscious on the street, a good woman called the hospital. We made all sorts of tests, you aren't ill. You must have fainted from exhaustion, or extreme stress."
"I'm sorry I don't remember anything."
In fact, that's what creeped me out, to wake up in a hospital with no memories of how or why I was there. Whenever I tried to think back about the time before I got here, all that I remembered was heading out for school and-! Wait, things didn't look like this before, the world and people that I remember weren't cartoonish at all! Oh god, was that some sort of a dream? Yes, as embarrassing as it sounded, there were more than a few times when my dreams were super realistic and I couldn't recall how I got in such strange situations. Although, all of them ended up as nightmares…
"We couldn't find an ID card on you." The Doctor told me. "I will need your name, address, just the basic information needed for the paperwork."
"Of course." I nodded. "My name is Roxana Nova Petit. Um, I can't give you an address..."
"Yes, I understand. You had just woken up after all, I may have pushed you too far with those questions. Well, now that I have your name I should be able to get the rest of the information from the hospital's database."
"Thanks!" I bowed nervously and jumped on my feet.
For a moment I lost balance fell forward, but quickly regained control before my face had the chance to slam into the white wall before me. The doctor ran to help me, I apologized and said that everything was fine, then I turned to leave, but before I could the doctor put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me.
"If you don't mind Ms. Petit, but I would suggest you to stay here for a few days." The doctor told me. "We need to make sure that your fainting isn't a regular occurrence."
"I understand." I nodded.
Not that I had anywhere to go. I was in a hospital at a place I didn't know, I would have to ask for directions in order to get home. Talking about that I should probably call my parents and tell them what happened.
"Good." The doctor nodded and turned to leave but quickly looked back at me. "Last question: Have you logged into LINK Vrains lately?"
"Link Brains?" I tilted my head in confusion.
"Vrains. The online network where everyone duels. Don't you know about it?"
"No… Should I?"
"No, I just thought you were a player since we found this with you." The doctor said as he pointed at some round object with cards in it.
This entire conversation began to shift to some really awkward grounds for me and I had no idea how to reply. Instead I reached to take the object and pulled out the deck, I fanned the cards and believe it or not they all had some super weird looking artwork and names. I realized that the color of some cards was the same as the one Elizabeth had showed me and one of them was even the very card she gave me: Monster Reincarnation.
"I don't duel." I told the doctor. "But a friend of mine is a huge fan of the game, so maybe I could give it a try."
I wanted to understand what exactly Elizabeth liked about the card game so much. I wasn't particularly interested in those kind of games because they all had too many rules to remember which were extremely confusing at times. However, for Elizabeth I could make an exception, she was really awesome, a good person and the best role model. She had helped me with a lot more than studying that in turn I wanted to get to know her better as well, but I always failed to do so. However I feel that this time around, this game would help me to strengthen my friendship with her.
"I see." The doctor said; he seemed to be thinking about something. "Recently, there were a fairy high number of cases in which people stay for too long in Vrains and not enough in the real world which causes their bodies to become weaker, sometimes leading to fainting, so I had to ask. But if you have never entered Vrains then perhaps it's safe."
"Thanks." I smiled kindly, then looked around for a computer or some sort of device to connect this circular thing onto. "Then, how exactly do I log in?"
"Your Duel Disk will do it through a voice command." The doctor explained. "Just put your deck inside and said 'Into the Vrains'."
Whoa, that was pretty simple actually. One would expect such technology to be much harder to work with, but it seems that I'm wrong about it. Still, how exactly would this, um, Duel Disk? Yes, this Duel Disk get me into Vrains? Is it going to magically teleport me there or something?
"But before that you must put this into the small slot of your Duel Disk." The doctor told me, holding a black chip. "Some of our patients insisted of login into Vrains while they were under medical care and, so a contributor of the hospital provided us with those chips which allows us to keep an eye on your vital signs."
"Thanks." I replied and put the chip into my Duel Disk.
"For nothing that is my job." The doctor said and felt the room; closing the door after himself.
The doctor's job was to give his patients access to high tech games? Never knew that. I smiled a bit to myself and turned toward the strange circular device that the doctor called a Duel Disk. To give a more precise description, the lower portion was white with a red circle over it, an orb on top and a blue part located at the side. I took a deep breath and put my Deck into the device; time to see what that Link Vrains thing is.
"Into the Vrains!"
A circle made from some sort of data surrounded me and a bright flash blinded me as I felt myself suddenly changing. No, it wasn't changing. It felt like my mind was being separated from my body and pulled into a space where it could exist all on its own. Next thing I knew, I was in a blue space surrounded by data with a white screen in front of me. I looked at it, the screen said that I needed to register in order to go further.
Well, ok.
Normally, I don't like giving information to others about such private things, but since I tell the story, I will let you know what sort of information I had to give.
Username: Proxy
Password: ******** (You thought that I will tell you my password?)
Date of Birth: 18. 11. 2002
Gender: Female
Afterward, the screen turned into a huge mirror that showed a reflection of a girl, however that wasn't me. She was the same size as me and her skin was tanned as well, but her hair was extremely pale shade of blue, maybe Alice blue with two Amber locks which ran through the middle of her hair and her eyes were amethyst. For that, the outfit was toned down (thankfully) as it consisted of a simple white dress shirt, a black shirt, knee-high black socks and brown loafers.
When I moved around, the girl did the same actions so she must have been some sort of reflection of me, or maybe she was just a template for my avatar since beside her I found another screen with multiple opinions on it about eyes, hair, skin, even species and gender! Whoa, that's a lot of customization available.
I chose to stick with the basics and first changed that ugly hair. I made it pink with light blue highlights that covered the sides of the head and pointed backward, thought I kept the usual neck length. I made the eyes pale blue and added earing in the form of music notes. After that was time to the most hard thing; the outfit. I mean, there was nothing back with the current one, but it just seemed out of place with the rest of the avatar.
The new outfit I choose consisted of a white choker with a pink heart on the neck, a black shoulder cape with pink borders and inside over a white long-sleeved shirt with open collar and pink borders. Underneath the avatar wore black shorts with blue patterns, thigh high black boots with golden rings around the ankles. Oh, I also added black gloves with white palms and triangular headphones because I liked how they looked on my avatar.
After that I clicked done and my body was engulfed by another bright light. Seriously are those added in just to blind the players before they reach the game itself? But I digress from the topic. When the lights died down and I could see again I was now standing in the street of a city with all sorts of avatars, both humans and non-humans, walking around me. It was so awesome!
I walked around for a bit, wondering where to start from. Should I ask someone to duel with me or were there tutorials for that. Though if they were, the designers must have worked very hard to hide them from sight. What the heck was I supposed to do now? And more important, where is the exit button since I don't see anything around me. Did logging out happened by thinking about it or did I have to said 'Exit the Vrains'?
I'M SO CONFUSED!
I sat down and sighed, looking around, the city seemed awesome. Since I grew up in a small town I had never seen skyscrapers and all other things that made this place look so alive. There were a few huge screens attached onto buildings that showed ongoing duels and information about duels scheduled for later today. Most people around me were talking about either Blue Angel of Go Onizuka so I guessed that those were the big stars of the server, due to how excited everyone seemed when they were mentioning those names.
I leaned back onto the bench and began to pick the Duel Disk on my hand. I had no idea what I expected to happen, but it was better than to just way for a miracle to happen, right? I tapped the orb on top and a screen with options and settings popped up. Finally!
Let's see…
I checked what options I had when I stumbled upon exactly what I needed: A Duel Tutorial! I pressed it eager to check what Elizabeth liked about that game so much and in a moment everything around me disappeared. After that a field appeared underneath my feet as I gently landed onto it. After a few moments the space at the other end of the field began to twist with sparks coming out, a slender robot with pointy legs and shoulders appeared and levitated over the ground, its glowing blue eyes looking directly at me.
"Welcome into LINK Vrains." The machine told me. "My name is Masou. I'm going to be your opponent today, Proxy."
"Cool! You know my name!" I exclaimed a little surprised.
"My program is made so that every player to be able to hear its own username during the tutorial." The robot explained.
"Still cool!" I told it. "So how will the tutorial work?"
"It's simple." The robot said. "We will duel."
"Doesn't the duel come after covering the basics?" I asked since that's how most games did it.
"Duel!"
『Proxy LP: 4000 Hand: 5 (VS) Masou LP: 4000 Hand: 5』
A huge screen appeared over my head showing me and the robot with our names, a huge 'VS' between us and the number 4000 underneath each of our names. Momentary my Duel Disk came to live, producing a straight pink energy blade with a small screen over it telling me to draw 5 cards. I did so and got three monsters with a single spell card and trap. After that the screen changed to another one that showed me about information about 'Normal Summon/Set'.
"I get it now." I shook my head. "I summon BrioGear Wave Crusade!"
On my field appeared a warrior in silver armor with a blue cape and a huge broadsword with blue symbols glowing on the blade. It wore a golden mask that covered its face expect its green eyes which glowed as it stared ahead.
BrioGear Wave Crusade
Level: 4/Attribute: WATER/Type: Warrior/Effect
ATK: 1700/DEF: 100
Effect: Once per turn: You can discard 1 WATER monster from your hand; this card gains 300 ATK.
Afterward the screen changed again to show me information about monsters, which monsters had effects, what kind of effects there are and how to activate them. I took my time to read everything the screen showed me, the AI probably wouldn't mind since it was in its programming.
"Let's give this a shot." I muttered. "I activate my monster's effect and discard BrioGear Cryo Raptor to gain 300 attack points!"
BrioGear Wave Crusade, ATK: 1700 + 300 = 2000
Afterward the screen showed me information about effects in the Graveyard as I got a notification that there was an effect I could activate. I checked it and found that I could activate Cryo Raptor's effect since it was discarded.
"I activate BrioGear Cryo Raptor's effect!" I declared as a card materialized in my hand. "If its discarded I can Special Summon a level 3 or lower BrioGear from my Deck! I choose BrioGear Pale Crawfish!"
A white, humanoid Crawfish wearing chest armor appeared on my field and puts its claws in front of its face in a defensive manner, probably because I put it in defense position.
BrioGear Pale Crawfish
Level: 2/Attribute: WATER/Type: Aqua/Effect
ATK: 700/DEF: 600
Effect: If this card is Normal or Special Summoned: You can add 1 "BrioGear Pale Crawfish" from your Deck to your hand. During either player's Battle Phase: You can discard this card; all face-up "BrioGear" monsters you control gain 600 ATK until the End Phase.
"Then Crawfish lets me add another copy of itself from my Deck." I continued, without reading the instructions anymore. "Turn end."
"Affirmative." The AI nodded. "Beginning Turn Two."
Well, that was pretty good for a first turn in my first game if you ask me. The instructions helped a lot too, but I was starting to get the hang of- I looked at the screen next to me that showed instructions about setting Spells and Traps and I realized that there was one in my hand.
"Hey, um, can I get a redo for a bit?" I asked, hoping the robot to let me set my card.
"Draw!" the AI said, as it drew its sixth card; guess no redoes are allowed.
『Turn 2 [Masou] LP: 4000 Hand: 6』
"I summon Marauding Captain (Lv. 3, ATK: 1200)." A knight with two swords appeared in front of the AI. "Marauding Captain's effect activates, I Special Summon Key Man the Key Warrior (LV. 2, ATK: 1000)!"
I sighed in relief. Of course if that AI was on tutorial level, then it should be easy to beat, this time I was able to get by for not setting my trap.
"Come circuit of Link!" the AI shouted as a portal opened in the sky and it jumped inside along with its two monsters. "Arrowheads confirmed! The summoning conditions are two EARTH monsters! I set Marauding Captain and Key Man the Key Warrior in the Link Markers! Link Summon! Appear, Missus Radiant (ATK: 1400, LINK-2)!"
The two arrows at the bottoms ends of the portal glowed as a dog wearing a blue scarf and all kinds of expensive jewelry appeared on the field. The screen before me then showed me information about Extra Deck monsters, how to summon them and what they can do.
"Missus Radiant's effect raises the attack of all EARTH monsters by 500!" The AI exclaimed.
Missus Radiant, ATK: 1400 + 500 = 1900
"Battle Phase!" The Ai continued.
"Hey, I'm trying to read here!" I shouted back at the machine; what kind of tutorial is this!?
"Missus Radiant attack BrioGear Pale Crawfish! Radiant Claw!"
I noticed the dog's eyes grow, it charged forward and jumped into the air before slashing my monster with its claws. The power of the impact hit me, I lost balance and fell onto my butt. Ouch.
"I set a card, turn end." The AI finished.
"That was unnecessary violent." I said, rubbing my butt. "Can't we slow down since it's a tutorial?"
"Negative, this is all part of learning." The AI told me. "A duelist must be ready to act fast in any situation. If you can't kept up, it's your fault not mine."
"That's pretty rude coming from a tutorial AI." I told it.
I'm not much of a gamer, but I had played a few games when I was at my friends' houses and there the tutorial NPCs were much kinder that this one. Although, this isn't s game, but more of a virtual social media, the point about having kind AIs still stands.
"That's how I was programmed." The AI replied and somehow I didn't believe it.
"Ok then." I took a deep breath and stepped back before running forward. "My turn, draw!"
『Turn 3 [Proxy] LP: 4000 Hand: 6』
I looked at the card that I drew and smiled. I still had no idea what I was doing, but after I saw this card, I knew that I had to immediately play it.
"I play Monster Reincarnation!" I shouted and looked at the screen for information. "I discard BrioGear Hydro Acid from my hand to add BrioGear Cryo Raptor from the Graveyard to my hand! And when it's discarded, Hydro Acid's effect forces you to discard a card from your hand as well!"
"That's certainly something else." The AI said as it discarded the card.
"Then I activate Cryo Raptor's effect, Special Summoning itself and one Level two or lower monster from my Graveyard!" I continued.
Two small portals appeared at each side of me as Pale Crawfish appeared alongside a pale blue lizard that stood on two legs with white smoke that came from its mouth.
BrioGear Cryo Raptor
Level: 1/Attribute: WATER/Type: Reptile/Effect/Tuner
ATK: 400/DEF: 100
Effect: You can target 1 Level 2 or lower "oGear" monster in your GY; Special Summon this card and that target on your side of the field in face-up Defense Position. If this card is discarded to the GY by a card effect: Special Summon 1 Level 2 or lower "BrioGear" monster from your Deck.
"Next, Pale Crawfish's effect lets me add another copy of it to my hand!" I explained. "How is that?"
"Beginner's level." The Ai replied.
"Are… are you for serious?" I asked it. "I think this is at least somewhat amazing."
"You are incorrect."
Damn, what kind of tricks must be able to pull out to be a really good duelist if this is a beginner level? If Elizabeth is so good that to participate in tournaments, then I should learn as well. I looked at my Duel Disk and saw a screen with a message.
"Check this out!" I shouted out and threw my hand forward opening a portal. "Come forth, circuit of life!"
As the portal opened I jumped inside and found myself in another blue space with Cryo Raptor and Pale Crawfish, looking down on a circuit with eight points.
"Arrowheads confirmed! Summoning requirements are two Level 3 or lower monsters! I set BrioGear Cryo Raptor and BrioGear Pale Crawfish in the Link Markers!" My monsters flew at the top middle and bottom middle arrow of the circuit. "Link Summon! The dancing spirit of storms! Grand Ranger Serene!"
I jumped out of the portal followed by my monster. It was a covered in white armor with blue accents. The head was protected by a helmet that was shaped like a beast or dragon of some sort with a mouth guard and huge blue hair that reached the ankle. The monster's armor also had huge shoulder plates with golden bottoms connecting them to the rest of the armor. Its gauntlets looked like claws but had a few differences from one another, with the right being white while the left was green and a bit larger with a small shield and two blades underneath. Finally there were the legs which were covered by armored boots with wings attached to each one. Serene raised its head and its eyes glow yellow as it landed in front of me.
Grand Ranger Serene
Attribute: WATER/Type: Beast-Warrior/Link/Effect
L-Markers: T, B
ATK: 2100/Link-2
2 Level 3 or lower Effect monsters
Effect: (This card is always treated as a "BrioGear" card.) When this card inflicts battle damage to your opponent: You can send 1 monster linked to this card to the GY; inflict damage to your opponent equal to the original ATK of the monster send to the GY by this effect.
"That was so cool!" I shouted and looked at the AI. "This card game looks awesome!"
A/N: After 3000 years chapter two is out! Yay! Now, I have a lot of things to explain here so lets get them one at a time. Since there seems to be a tradition in this sort of stories with the character's appearance changing when they enter the Yu-Gi-Oh world, Roxy's appearance in this world is different as well. Since this story is from her POV and she doesn't know it yet, the template that she was given when she started making her Avatar was her real appearance.
Next thing I want to explain is that this chapter takes place somewhere during episode 1 but before the Hanoi's attack which is why the duel between Proxy and the AI isn't a Speed Duel. Since Yusaku's AI hasn't unclocked the Cyverse data yet.
Last thing, I want to explain how grateful I'm to all of you for the reviews, the favorite and follows and even for the views. Thank you all and until next time.
Diabolic Tracer out!