I will admit, I felt a lot better the next day that I didn't realize how fast time can fly. It seems like the Monokubs are letting us have today to ourselves too. Regardless, Keebo wanted all of us to meet in the computer lab on the fourth floor.
At least I set the truth about Kiyo free to them. I thought as I went up to the computer lab.
When I arrived with Kaede, Kaito, Kokichi, Ryoma and Tokuko following behind me, both Gonta and Kiyo were there. But neither of them looked particularly comfortable around the machines; Kiyo in particular kept trying not to look at me as if I was solely responsible for his discomfort and to hide the fact that his mask and the lipstick from before were gone and that he had cut his formerly long hair to about chin length. Kinda like how Kaito kept giving the hallways outside panicked looks.
And not for Kaede for a change. I thought to myself.
Keebo was too busy to notice; he was fiddling with some of the wires hanging off the machine instead of telling us what this was supposed to do. If I had to guess, he was probably trying to buy time for Miyuji, Angie, and Tenko so he wouldn't need to explain the same things over and over.
"Do we really have to get involved in this showing? Even if this is about technology that seems more advanced than what the High Entia have, this also applies to this... 'Xbox' of yours, Keebo. This is barely a time for games you know?" Kiyo asked.
"...Dude, you can't be serious." Kaito said, looking completely dumbfounded.
"It's a large cubical computer with an 'X' on it and headsets attached to it, what else would I think it is?" The faux anthropologist replied, tilting his head a bit as if he was confused about why the astronaut now had his face in his hands.
"It's obviously not that! How could a bloody game console ever be that big and mass produced? Even I know this is normally impossible." Tokuko snarked.
"W-While you are right in that it is something of a game system, it's more complicated than that! And while our situation is obviously serious isn't escapism good to help humans in stressful situations?" Keebo said from his position.
"Escape-ism? Keebo found way out in that kon-poo-ter box?" Gonta asked.
"In a way yes! But please, let us wait for the others before we get to into it." The robot answered.
The robotic student was obviously nervous about what we would think about his work and went back to making sure everything was still as it needed to be for this demonstration. Me and the others didn't need to wait too long at least, as an out of breath Miyuji fell through the door a moment later.
It looked like she had tried leaning on the door before it opened by itself, so Tenko needed to catch her before she landed on the floor as Angie giggled. It looked like the vocalist had run all the way outside to get those two, but the run back hadn't affected either of her more hyperactive companions at all.
As Keebo double-checked that all of us were here and that there would be enough visors and chairs for everyone and he started to explain.
"I realize this may seem suspicious to some of you, seeing how this technology was granted to us by the Monokubs, and one of them, Monosuke, helped show me how this program was meant to work. But I assure you, I took every step I could to ensure that the other world this opens up to us will be completely safe! What began it's existence as a 'killing game simulation' is now merely a 'simulation' with little to no risks for it's users that even the Monokubs can't interfere with."
The robot looked nearly as proud giving this introduction as he did when he was trying to brag about his inventor's ingenuity or his own features.
"Wait, what? C'mon man, why would you tell Gonta this is some type of exit then? You just said this was something that was meant to help kill us!" Kaito shouted, looking frustrated about getting our hopes up for nothing.
"I didn't say it was an exit, I said that you could see it as a way out! Your mind leaves our current school setting and enters a safer space for us all to interact in. No Exisals, no Monokubs, no risk of motives." The robotic boy responded.
"So it's just like a virtual world, like the Matrix?" Tokuko summed up, clearly interested.
"Basically, but it should be incredibly realistic for all of you. I only say 'should be' on the off chance my sensory input data works a bit differently than for everyone else, but I can tweak things if I need to! This includes any changes you'd like me to make for the avatars you each will have in there."
"Neat! Sounds fun. But do we allll need to do this? I mean if Kiyo wants to stay out why not let him?" Kokichi said with a cruel Cheshire cat grin, as Kiyo looked a tiny bit confused at the suggestion.
"I would very much prefer he in particular comes with us actually." Keebo said. "While your consciousness is hooked up with these machines you won't be able to feel your real bodies anymore in favor of moving your avatars, so even with Gonta's supervision not including him could be… ill-advised."
"What's an 'ah-vuh-tar'?" Gonta asked.
"It's like Keebo made a smaller version of yourself for you to control in the world in the box, since you wouldn't fit." Miyuji explained simply for him.
"Oh, OK!" The entomologist said with a smile, while Angie and Kokichi laughed.
With a resigned sigh, Kiyo took a seat. "Can we please get this over with quickly then?"
"H-hey, we didn't agree we'd even be doing this yet so don't you degenerates go making decisions for us!" Tenko yelled.
"Indeed, indeed! Atua doesn't trust anything with the Monokubs involved either." Angie agreed. "Angie can understand wanting others to experience your work firsthand, but are you sure it'd be safe? How do we know they didn't hide a motive in there to take us by surprise?"
"I checked everything, there is no way he could have something like that still in there, and if I did find anything I would have told you all." Keebo explained. "I highly doubt there's any way left for me to make this system safer for everyone. I deleted absolutely everything that I thought could ever be used as a weapon, nothing can be broken, and I don't believe the avatars should be able to take any damage."
"You don't believe they can?" The aikido master incredulously asked.
"I couldn't test things too much by myself! But I wouldn't ask this if I had any doubts about your safety." The robot responded.
"At least try it you two. If we all stay together what's the worst that could happen?" Kaede asked, trying to convince them.
Both girls looked pointedly at Kiyo, who in turn looked at her as if to ask what else could she expect. The pianist just glared at him, while Keebo looked like he had a solution but didn't think he should mention it yet. Not that Kaito needed to hear it to get back onboard.
"Yeah, we should have faith in Keebo! He's not the sort of guy to lie about technical stuff."
"Or at all." Ryoma teased.
"Pfft, Not well at any rate. It's not like a robot like him could intentionally put humans in danger, riiight?" Kokichi mocked.
"I told you already Kokichi, I'm not entirely three laws compliant! The professor feared it could create loopholes that may harm my mental development or sense of self-worth if he made them impossible to disobey." Keebo responded.
Wow, that didn't help as much as Mr. Idabashi was hoping then. Poor Keebo. I thought.
"It probably would have been better for you to have gone with that excuse, Keebo. But your honesty also proves your point, doesn't it? I believe you at least!" Tokuko agreed.
Or maybe it isn't. Technically this could make us all 2D, or 'fictional', right? I thought.
"It's not that we don't trust what he thinks he did, but it was the degenerate Monokub that helped teach him how to change his and his siblings' program and he's still new at this on top of that! But if it means so much to him… Fine. I'll do it." Tenko reluctantly grumbled. "But if anything goes wrong in there someone's gonna pay big time when we wake up!"
"Nothing is going to go wrong, I promise! I honestly believe you all will greatly appreciate this." Keebo quickly said.
"This isn't more of your 'inner voice' stuff, is it? Haven't we all moved on from that Atua-type nonsense?" Kokichi asked, obviously trying to get a rise from the robot again. And as always he got one like clockwork.
"Of course it is, and this has nothing to do with Atua. My inner voice wouldn't steer me wrong. And while I no longer believe in it either it's still very rude to dismiss Angie's beliefs as being 'nonsense'!"
"I'm just saying Pinokeebo. For us humans, hearing voices isn't exactly a good sign of anything."
"Just because your conscience has given up on you doesn't mean the rest of us are crazy for having one."
"I'm not really sure I'd call that an 'inner voice', but Keebo is a robot. Maybe that's just how it is for him." I theorized.
Kokichi gave Kaede a scowl when he heard her giggling, but he let Keebo have this little victory and took a seat. It wasn't like he was normally good at comebacks in the first place, and the robot looked so proud of this.
With all of our biggest concerns addressed as well as they could be, all of us still standing found our own chairs and started setting up the visors the way Keebo told us too. I was a bit confused as to why the robot hadn't put the red and blue cables into the ports already, but he claimed it was because he didn't want to risk making a tripping hazard for anyone as he helped make sure no one made any mistakes.
Gonta nearly did thanks to Angie distracting him for a bit, as he initially put the red 'consciousness' cord in the left port that was made to handle the blue 'memory' cord, but the mistake was quickly found and corrected. When Keebo was satisfied that everything was finally ready to go without incident he told us to put the headsets on and press the button near our temples to enter the simulation.
He quickly mentioned he'd be the last to arrive as he wanted to make sure no one was experiencing any difficulties before going in, since our bodies would be relatively defenseless and wouldn't feel anything in this sleep-like state, but that was the last I heard before the world went black.
It was an odd sensation, watching as the data passed me by. I expected things to be instantaneous, but there I was, staring at the Ultimate Academy's handcuffed and scarred emblem with a 'Welcome to the Neo World Program' message in the corner of the startup screen.
Soon after, I found myself in a parlor. It was comforting to see I wasn't alone, as Kaede, Kaito, Ryoma, Miyuji, Tokuko, and Gonta appeared at around the same time I did. But we all looked… different. All of us were… well, cuter, for lack of a better term.
"Check it out, we've been chibified!" Tokuko exclaimed.
It made sense that she would think that. These designs might've been even more simplified than the game I've played before the Killing Titan War. And for whatever reason Ryoma looked a lot taller, but he didn't actually change much otherwise, so the feeling was just surreal. I didn't even need to look up as much to see Gonta's face either. Kaede wasn't wearing Shuichi's hat, showing a shortened ahoge on her head.
"...Is this what being tall feels like?" Ryoma asked as he looked around, and adjusted to being at eye level with everyone else for a change. His beanie's horns almost looked like cat ears now with how they'd been squatted down, which made Kaede giggle and got Ryoma trying to hide his blush.
"I think you mean more like 'being average size' in your case." Miyuji snarked.
"This feels weird. I can move this avatar so freely it's like it doesn't even matter what condition my body was in before." Kaito said as he did some stretches to prove his point.
Why didn't he say so sooner?! I thought.
"What condition are you talking about? Did you pull a muscle during last night's training or something? Jeez, you should tell us when something like that happens you know!" Kaede exclaimed.
"Y-Yeah, that's it. Sorry, I didn't wanna to worry ya."
"Liar. Like you ever do enough during training to pull or strain much of anything." Ryoma jokingly scoffed.
"Hey! Come one, don't be like that-" Anything else the astronaut might have wanted to say was cut off by Kiyo's arrival, much to Gonta's relief. The calligrapher was a lot less pleased by this development.
The second he showed up it was like he was on edge, looking around like he was missing something before taking in the state of his new body. Which didn't improve his mood any. He even has comical blue lines floating above his head. "...I want to leave."
"No! Keebo say he want to show friends his ver-chew-ul world, so we stay! Kiyo barely here at all, he at least need to thank Keebo for making this for friends." Gonta scolded him, so Kaede followed suit too.
"Yeah! No need to be so quick to judge it."
"But everything's so… quiet now. Warmer too. I don't like this. Worst than Makna Forest."
Before I could ask what he meant Kokichi, Angie, and Tenko arrived at the same time, like my group did.
"Oh~ so this is the Virtual World huh?" Kokichi started rambling with his little nods and Mm-hmms as he took note of everything around him, toying with the loose belts on his avatar a bit as he did so. He started walking around the room, getting a look at our avatars, before he stopped behind Kiyo with a wicked smile on his face.
The faux anthropologist barely had a chance to respond before being punched in the face, given the lack of their previous height difference. Angie laughed at that while Kiyo rubbed at his cheek where he was hit.
"What the hell was THAT for?" He asked.
"Keebo said avatars couldn't be hurt riiight? So I'm just testing that to see if it's true! Soooo, did it hurt?" Kokichi said with a grin as if he already knew the answer.
"Of course it did. I think he phrased as making them immune to damage, not pain, so I can't tell if this refutes his previous claim." The faux anthropologist theorized. "But couldn't you just pinch yourself to test this?"
"Nope! Doing it this way shows our senses are connected in here, since we know I didn't actually punch you. Besides, that trick never worked when I dreamed either, so what's the point?" The supreme leader said mockingly.
"I see, I see. This place could be considered like a shared dream, couldn't it? A peaceful dreamland we can enter by sleeping in our own paradise~" Angie hummed to herself.
"If this was my dream there definitely wouldn't be any males in it. But I love how CUTE we are now!" Tenko gushed as she bounced around, getting a look at everyone while nodding her head appraisingly at each of the girls including me.
And speaking of males, with everyone else accounted for Keebo finally entered the simulation. But his avatar was the most different by far.
His eyes were blue again like they were before Miu died, and the robotic lines under his eyes were gone. He was also wearing a fairly normal buttoned-up school uniform, instead of having his robotic parts exposed and styled to imitate one. There was even a pair of black gloves to hide his hands from view.
It was like he was trying to look more Homs-like in here, despite the rest of us being made to look largely the same. I wasn't sure if using a virtual program to change himself like this was ironic or upsetting.
"So, what does everyone think? If anyone has any issues with their avatars' appearances I can easily make some changes for you later, like my own. I just thought some equilibrium might be appreciated, and making their designs like this made them a lot easier to edit than what the system already had for us."
"You mean in terms of heights?" I asked him, looking between Ryoma and Gonta again.
"Well yes, that too! But all of us also have the same strengths and speeds, so we're on equal ground. It's not like anyone should really need them in here, since nothing can be broken."
"W-Wait, so Mini-Gonta weaker than real Gonta?! Then how Mini-Gonta protect girls from Mini-Kiyo?!" Gonta nearly shouted, while Kiyo perked at this information.
"O-oh, not to worry! Kiyo's avatar already has some personal adjustments to it. If he comes into contact with a female avatar, for any reason, he'll be paused for as long as he's touching her and for a brief window after it stops. This way Tenko's not the only girl fully capable of defending herself!" Keebo quickly explained. This did little to comfort Gonta, and Kiyo merely shrugged as if he saw this catch coming.
"Did that mean you had to make me weaker too though..? YOU REALLY ARE A MALE AREN'T YOU?! MASTER WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!" Tenko shouted.
"No he wasn't, there was no way he could've bloody known this would happen. You're just way too gullible." Tokuko replied in a teasing tone.
"So you know about the way our senses would connect, therefore our avatars' ability to feel pain right?" Kiyo asked.
"A-Ah. Right, I did leave that out didn't I? I mean, I haven't been able to test that much so I didn't want to worry anyone. The program directly affects the brains of everyone in it in real time, and by affecting the brain every sensation that you think should be occurring in here, like pain, will actually be felt by you. This applies to all five senses, and it's hard to get rid of any impulses that might be read as negative feelings." The robot explained.
"Doesn't that mean that if we think something should have killed us we really could die?" Angie asked.
"I really don't think so! I mean, even if you think you should be in pain if you can't see an injury on your avatar that should help right? Please, let's not linger on this stuff right now. Let me show you the map! So you can all get a better idea of what this world is like."
Keebo led us all from the room to the main hall to explain all the other changes he'd made to the program, clearly ecstatic to finally have something to show off for himself. And from what I could see he had every right to be. I wouldn't be surprised if the only other person who could have gotten this program working and made it so safe for us would have been Miu herself.
He may have even solved part of our problems with what to do with Kiyo if this all worked out. The world he had here might not have been that large in the grand scheme of things, but if he couldn't attack anyone he wouldn't need to be watched like a hawk. It could give him, Gonta, Ryoma, Kaito, and Tokuko all more freedom in a sense, which everyone could use more of in this hell.
I was impressed by the map she could see at least. There was a church to the left of the mansion we were currently in, that could probably be seen from the dining hall, and even a forest behind us. I wasn't sure where the bridge over the rightmost river could lead to, as there were just squiggles beyond there. There were more squiggles at the end of the road past the church too, which Keebo kept calling it a 'loading point'.
However, as he was explaining what he meant by 'loading point', there was a knock from the salon door.
Miyuji was the first to respond to it, but the rest of us had a similar thought. "...Huh?"
"Are there NPCs you haven't gotten to telling us about yet Keebo?" Kaede nervously asked.
"N-No! I mean the program does have the ability to make those in theory but in practice they were way too complex for me to get my head around. We really should be the only ones in here! Monosuke said not even him or his siblings would be able to harass us since they aren't compatible with it." Keebo admitted.
All of us were panicked at the robot's admission and stayed as far from the door as we could. According to the map there was only one way out of the salon so whoever was inside had nowhere else they could go.
But the figure that did eventually come out wasn't someone any of us could've expected.
My eyes widened in surprise when I saw Zellium come in.
"Zell!" I exclaimed as I ran to him.
"Sharla! I'm so relieved that you're OK!" My Cinderace partner said as we embraced each other in a hug.
"How did you get in here?" I asked.
"Me and Sae were watching without the mastermind noticing and I managed to find one of the helmets needed to get in here already set up the way it was supposed to." Zellium explained. "I figured something crazy like this would occur and thought you would be here."
"Hold on a second, if you and Sae were watching the mastermind behind their back then what did they do to Shulk?"
"They had him chained by his wrists and they also took away most of his ability to fight right out of his body. We saw it with our own eyes. The resulting transformation was... horrifying to say the least. He was breathing hard when me and Sae broke in and got him out. It seems like the mastermind's made you their primary target."
I gasped in shock. "So that's what they're planning! They're trying to get the traitors to kill me and plans to do it themselves if they fail!"
Zellium nodded. "Right. And all of the traitors were disciples of Zanza."
"Then I'm glad to say that the Disciple of Speed and the Ultimate Seamstress, Tsumugi Shirogane has died." I responded.
I could hear the confused conversations of the others as the two of us broke from our embrace.
"Ooook, will someone explain what's going on and who the hell this is now? Because I'm confused." Kaito said.
I turned to face the others. "Right. Everyone, this is Zellium. He's my Pokémon partner in the Killing Titan War."
"Nice to meet all of you!" He said with a wave.
"Your partner? Wait, he's the Scorbunny you mentioned to me earlier!" Miyuji exclaimed.
"Looks like that fiery little bunny has warp evolved into a Cinderace at some point." Tokuko said. "It's quite an extremely rare sight."
I wasn't sure what happened after that but after my reunion with Zellium, Keebo kept explaining how the Virtual World is supposed to work and we got a good look at the snowy scenery that reminded me of Valak Mountain on the roof of the mansion before we decided to call it a night and head back to reality.
Zellium told me that two of the remaining traitors have to die in order to put his plan into action before leaving.
The mastermind isn't giving up on trying to get me killed, aren't they? I thought to myself as I went to sleep.