"So, uh... how does this work?" Mikan asked, unsure where to start. "Do I just... hit these trees with my fist? Until it breaks?" You know, like that Minecraft game? To her relief, her new acquaintance shook his head. "Okay. No bashing trees with my fist. That's good."
"I'm curious as to where you developed that sort of idea, but rest assured, no self-harm is required for any sort of construction in our world," Andrew replied.
He then put a hand to his chin, wondering how to explain the mechanics of the world, before deciding to just tell things as it is.
"From what I know, you should be able to access a sort of... inventory space... storage, if that makes any sense."
"...I guess," Mikan said. His words brought to her mind those fantasy shows where characters are sent to a game-based world and spend less than ten minutes getting used to real-life game mechanics. Seeing as how, and understandably so, she had never had to try fumbling around with accessing a non-existent storage space, the girl wasn't really sure how to go about it. I wonder if it just... opens up automatically.
Andrew watched as she took in some deep breathes. The girl then raised her hand and slowly reached forward, towards empty space.
The two waited in silence, in anticipation, for something to happen, anything at all.
Eventually, the guide tilted his head. "Did anything happen? ...in your field of vision?"
"Yeah, well... no, not really," the red haired girl said with a sigh, pulling her hand back. "I don't got nothing. This just feels stupid, really."
"Hm. How odd... I can always access my assist toolbox by just simply thinking about it when required," Andrew said.
"Your... your what?"
"My assist toolbox," the man explained. "When you obtain an item you do not know how to utilize, you may bring it to me," he said. "Then, by temporarily converting the item to data and inserting it into my virtual toolbox, I can analyze all the possible uses of the item, as crafting materials."
Mikan blinked. "Huh. Sounds... neat." Not like I have anything right now though... Tracing Andrew's words back to the first part of his explanation, she briefly wondered if her inventory worked the same way. "...how did you say you open these... toolbox...es, again?"
"Why, just imagine you're opening a pouch, I suppose," he answered.
She nodded. "I... uh, okay." So in contrary to her beliefs, it seems like the weird, magical mechanics of the game worked alongside the mind. Assuming she came to the right conclusion, unless she willfully wishes for storage access, the inventory space won't show itself. Preparing herself to probably fail and look stupid once more, the girl slowly reached forward again, this time imagining herself reaching for an item.
Seconds later, her hand phased through what seemed like a barrier in the air.
The girl shivered, not used to the eerie sensation it brought her. "Whohohoa. That's... that feels creepy. Eesh..."
Andrew smiled. "I suppose you'll have to adjust and get used to it," he said. "It's really not that bad, personally."
"I, I know, I know..." she muttered. "Just... first time experiencing this." As she relaxed into the sensation, a holographic screen appeared in front of her. "Whoa! Uh... oh, is this showing what I have in my bag?"
Andrew nodded. "I assume it most likely is," he said. "Although I can't see it myself, I believe that should be the case," he said.
"Hm. I see," she replied. "Thanks for the help, Andy."
"...my name's Andrew," the man said. Sighing, he rubbed his chin and tried to recollect all that had been taught to him, by the Order of the Guide. "From what I hear, within your inventory screen, there should be five rows of ten items... or slots," he began. "The first row is unique in that you can also access the first row separately if you wish so, making it a convenient 'quick use' row for weapons and useful items you want to be able to use on the bat."
That must be the hotkey row... hotbar... row? Mikan reminded herself not to get too lost in wondering about the terminology for that.
"Next, the other four rows are your main storage space. Unlike real bags," Andrew said, "duplicate items will be automatically stored as a 'stack' and take only one space... supposedly. All items have a limit to how much can exist as one item, however."
Mikan nodded. "Sounds normal so far."
"Quite. Next, there should be eight additional spaces somewhere, for money and for ammo," the guide explained.
"Uh... oh, yeah, okay. I see those."
"What else... oh, that's right. I hear there is also one extra slot for disposing of items temporarily," Andrew said. "From what I gathered, you can store only one item in this space, and if you store another item, the previous one is erased from existence. However, the Order believes it is recommend the space is used as an extra space for carrying one more item."
"That... makes sense," Mikan noted. More like, I never really thought about trash spaces like that... this guy's actually smart, she thought. "Okay, I think I get the hang of this inventory thing now. Is that all I need to know?"
"Hm... no, there's much more to teach," Andrew said, to her dismay. "However, I feel it'd be better if I provided more explanations only when needed, so as to not bore you or waste much time."
"...yeah, that'd be good, thanks." Sighing, the girl began doing some stretches, before she grinned and smacked her fists together. "Alright! Time to get busy!"
Andrew stared at her as she prepared her fists. "...please be reminded that you do not need to hurt your body to gather materials."
"Right, I know," Mikan said. "It's just... an expression, maybe, who knows. A physical one." Rolling her eyes, the girl reached into her hammer space and imagined pulling out one of the tools she noticed the game/world provided her: an axe. "Let's see... Iron Axe. So, I take this thing and..." She strutted over to the nearest tree around and glanced upwards at the height. "Uh. Yikes."
"What's the matter?" Andrew asked.
"...that's a tall tree," the girl note. "I... don't know anything about lumberjacking- that's a word now, don't question it- so I just hope it doesn't fall towards us. Or me."
Andrew chuckled. "I believe it should be fine if you do it," he said. "Players have special privileges even in reality manipulation itself, so you won't need to worry about trees falling on top of you."
Mikan raised an eyebrow. "The heck's that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"Why don't you give it a try and see how it goes?"
She rolled her eyes. "Alrighty, fella." Mustering her strength, she took her first, mighty swing at the tree. It shook a bit as a cut was etched onto its bark. "Oooh... doesn't feel that bad," she said. Pulling back her axe, she took another swing, and another, and another, and another, and- "Whoa!"
Suddenly, the tree- quite literally- did a small 'poof' and vanished from her sight.
She spent the next two or three seconds looking around, astonished, before something hard fell in front of her, causing the girl to whip her head forward. "What's... huh?" Before her eyes were several blocks of what she assumed was wood. Where they came from, she had no idea, until the dots were slowly connected in her head. "This... is the tree, right?" she said. Just like Minecraft.
Andrew nodded. "That's right. When players perform labor, materials are converted to small forms for ease of collection," he said. "If I were to chop a tree down, then I'd have to worry about which direction it falls towards."
"Geez, game convenience sure is nice," Mikan said. At the same time, obviously all the physical work goes to me... this sucks.
"Oh, look." The man pointed somewhere behind her, so she followed his finger and saw some items that weren't wood lying on the ground. "You're in luck. Some fruits were on the tree and didn't perish alongside the rest of it."
"...why would they disappear outta nowhere?" the girl asked. "Oh well. Hey, an apple. Neat." She picked up the apple, causing it to disappear into her hidden inventory. Then, glancing at the other fallen fruit, she blinked twice. "And a huge ass orange. Sweet."
"That's a grapefruit," Andrew said.
"...I thought they're much bigger, and yellow."
The man shrugged. "It... depends, I guess."
Mikan stared at it, before shrugging as well, picking it up and storing it in her inventory. Then, she looked back at the collective block of wood she obtained earlier. "Whoops. Not gonna forget these either," she said and took them into her inventory. Willing the holographic screen into her sight once more, the red haired girl read the quantity of her wooden blocks before smiling. "Twenty-five blocks of wood. This should be plenty enough to build a house."
...she doesn't know anything about construction, does she? the guide thought to himself as she began stretching her arms.
"Alright! Time to build a house. Help me plan it, Andy," Mikan said.
"...if you insist," the man said, rolling his eyes. "The first thing you should know is that as a player, again, the complicated process of construction has been limited greatly to allow you an easy time with building houses," he said. "All you have to do is-"
"Place the blocks and it'll be set in stone, right?" Mikan asked. "Don't worry, I think I got that much." No wonder why some people called it 2D Minecraft, she added.
Andrew nodded. "That's right. For now, why don't you construct a simple, square room? It's the fastest design we can work with right now, and..."
"Uh, hold on," the girl interrupted. "Behind you."
The guide looked behind him to see some colored blobs of jelly hopping from afar towards their direction. "Ah."
"Are those... are those what I think they are?" Mikan asked.
Andrew nodded. "Those are slime. They're mostly harmless, or at least, they shouldn't do too much harm to you," He looked back to the otherworlder and noticed she was staring hard at the monsters. "Oh, do not worry. If we finish building the house quickly enough, we can safely avoid them."
"No, no, it's fine," the girl said, and only then did the man realize that this stranger from the outside world wasn't afraid of slime.
In fact, it almost looked as if she was... excited.
Yes, what he didn't know is that as a character previously used to express carnal desires for the slime girl kink, even as she has been converted into her own character, Mikan Hatsumi still retains certain characteristics, such as an inner (perverted) desire for slime girls. And now that she knew slime existed in this world, who's to say she can't find slime girls somewhere?
Andrew raised an eyebrow. "...well, that voice in the sky certainly revealed things I am not sure if I want to remember," he muttered.
"..oh yeah, you did say something about a voice in the sky," Mikan noted, briefly distracted. "I'd like to say it's the narration because I'm used to that, but I'm not hearing anything this time, so honestly I think you're imagining it."
"...no, I believe I'm not, but I think this matter can come later," Andrew said, as he noticed more blobs of slime appearing. There sure are a huge number of slime appearing... this must be that 'difficulty' thing that the Order of the Guide taught us about. "Um, Ms. Mikan. I believe it's best if we hurry and-"
"No, no, it's fine, it'll be fine," Mikan said, gleefully strolling over to the nearest blob. It stopped hopping and stared up (or so she assumed) at her. "Hey, little guy... girl, whatever. Hey, little slimey... how're you?" she cooed. Receiving no response didn't bother her one bit - currently she was overjoyed. "Who's a cute little pudgy gooey thing? You are, yes you are!"
I'm not sure what I'm looking at, but this won't end well, Andrew thought.
"Now, want some head pats? I bet you want some head pats!" the girl squealed, a hand reaching out towards the slime.
"Wait, I do not recommend doing that-"
Sizzling pain spread through her hand the moment she made contact, causing her to quickly retract her hand with a hiss. "Aagh! Burning!"
"...please try not to interact too much with monsters," Andrew said, sighing. "They can and will harm you if you-"
"W-wait, no, it'll be fine," Mikan insisted and stared at the slime again. "I can... I can endure it. I can bear the burning... for the slime!" Once more, she put her hand on the blob, wincing slightly. The girl bit her lips, trying her best not to pull her hand away.
"Ms. Mikan, I must warn you, all life in this world has a measuring system for our health and condition," the guide explained.
"I-it's alright, it doesn't hurt!" the girl said, clearly lying through her teeth. "I'll be fine, all healthy and everything!"
Andrew grimaced. "Not that. If you keep that up, the damage will accumulate and-"
Suddenly the girl's body blew apart, blood and gore splattering the surrounding area.
A gravestone had also appeared from nowhere, planting itself right where the girl had been, well, 'slain', in a sense.
The man sighed as the head of his new acquaintance rolled away from his location. "Oh, boy..."
Above where the gravestone lied, a certain spirit floated still, invisible to the eyes of all the life around the area.
Mikan blinked twice, then scratched her wisp-like hair. "Well, this is embarrassing," she mumbled, not too bothered by her new, now-ethereal body.