After what felt like hours, in which only half an hour had passed, the house looked much more like a proper house now.
"Wow, I think we did great," Mikan said. "It's starting to look like a palace now."
Andrew stared at the structure they worked on together - it looked like an amateurish, block house, nothing like a palace at all. "..."
"I can hear judgement, but I appreciate you not saying anything," the girl said, chuckling to herself. "And thanks for getting rid of all the slime around, too. Even though it took way longer than I expected, and even though they did't deserve any of that violence..."
"Such is the way of the world, Ms. Mikan," the guide replied. His infinite supply of arrows was reassuring, of course, but it'd be troubling if the girl didn't do any atual combat at all, especially as the player of this world... He glanced at the hole in the wall they left uncovered, square-shaped, for the door. "All we have to do now is craft a door to attach to the building, and you'll have your first, completed house."
Mikan smiled. "A'ighty! This should feel satisfying." The girl ran inside and hopped in front of the work bench she crafted earlier. Going through her options, she eventually found the choice to craft a wooden door and tapped the option. Wood was subtracted from her inventory, and out came a small, door figurine in her hand.
"...no matter how many times I see it, the sheer convenience that players get is really... amazing," Andrew noted.
The girl ran over to the open entrance and held the door up to the empty space. Magically, the door enlarged itself and fit into the gap, closing the open entrance entirely. She smiled. "Yeah, this really is amazing... look at this metal part that lets you swing doors open. I never knew how creating doors work, but this means I don't have to bother learning that stuff."
"I... suppose you don't have to, not in this world, at least," Andrew said. "If you want to become a carpenter in real life, though, you should probably do that..."
"Haha, nah, I don't have that problem," Mikan replied. "Real world future issues only apply to the voice. Us concepts get everything decided for us, so I don't have to bother with none of that stuff!"
"...? I... see." Voice? Concept? The outside world sure is strange, the NPC thought. "Anyways, I've been thinking about how to proceed from here. Perhaps you should take the opportunity to explore around the world and see what new things you can discover and gather, to bring back to craft new things," he suggested.
"And die like the beginner I am? Who're you kidding, Andy?" Mikan asked. "But... you do make a good point, yes sir."
She sighed and sat on the floor, legs crossed. This is troublesome... I don't wanna get burned by damage and die again, that's not a nice feeling.
"Considering the blessing of revival granted unto players, I believe you shouldn't worry too much," Andrew said. "Although I do understand that pain is not a nice feeling. Think about it this way though..." The man raised a finger as if to make a point. "If you happen to chance upon any great equipment, you'll be able to fend off the monsters and explore even more."
"Oh, yeah, didn't think about that," Mikan said and quickly got up, all traces of hesitation completely gone in a flash. "The spirit of an explorer resides within me! I can't let death stop me! The world needs me!" she yelled like a delusional and narcissistic idiot.
"I suppose if you put it like that, then that isn't wrong," the guide replied. And the mysterious voice in the sky sure likes making fun of her.
Turning to face him, Mikan smiled. "And I guess yeah, you should probably stay here. NPCs don't revive, do they?" she asked, to which he shook his head. "Yeah, thought so. After all, people die when they are killed."
"...yes, they do," Andrew said with complete agreement, confused why such an obvious statement needed to be stated at all in the first place.
"So... I guess this is it, huuh?" Mikan said and scratched her head. "Man, now I'm feeling awkward all of a sudden. Like... not used to these touchy feely stuff."
"...I mean, it isn't as if you were departing forever," the guide pointed out.
The girl blinked. Then she she laughed. "Oh, yeah. Oh well, never mind that. Heading out, keep my house safe, guard!" The excitement within her peaked and resulted in the girl quickly turning around and running off to experience some good ol' exploration, immediately forgetting to be cautious and, well, essentially everything one should think of before exploring an unknown world.
Sighing, Andrew turned around and walked back towards the new house they built, opening the door and entering the structure. "I didn't think players were this strange..." he muttered. Then again, it seems she has her own circumstances too, so... oh, whatever. He glanced out the door once more, before shrugging and closing the entrance.
I'm sure she'll be fine, he thought.
...
The sky was darkening at an alarming rate, and to her surprise, it seemed like slime had some kind of sense of time. She could hardly spot any slime now, and as much as she'd prefer not to sustain damage and go out like bloody fireworks again, the few that she encountered expressed no more interest in her, which was honestly somewhat saddening.
But of course, night time often introduces new monsters, as many games do, and Mikan soon remembered this.
Which is why, she was now running through the forest, several flying eyeballs soaring towards her, a horde of zombies trailing behind.
"Andrew you son of a bitch! You should've reminded me that it was getting dark!" the girl screamed, running straight ahead to escape the deadly horde, unfortunately also getting further away from the house she had built.
What gave her an especially difficult time was how zombies were pouring in from basically every possible direction, and through last-minute maneuvering, Mikan barely managed to slip through small gaps between the slow walking dead and continue her survival marathon.
"Damn it! I'll remember this, you stinkin' rotting lot!" the girl hissed as she briefly glanced behind her. "Next chance I get, I'll kill you 'till you be more killed than you already are!"
Suddenly, she remembered her inventory. There was a short sword provided for her, which she forgot about, but that was a weapon, wasn't it?
Spotting some more zombies, less in number than the horde behind her, the girl willed her storage into existence and pulled her sword out the following holographic screen. She spared no time examining her sword and threw her blade of iron forward, knocking (in an attempt to slash) a zombie away from her. "Huh. Game physics I suppose." She tried a few more times, while running, to stab the zombie in front of her, but to no avail.
It was still neat watching it eventually explode in a shower of blood, though.
Mikan sighed with relief, somewhat proud of herself for successfully killing one of the many walking deads.
Then the nearing growls of the others snapped her back to reality and she continued running.
"Starting to feel like I'm not on an easy difficulty world here!" the girl said, then glanced upwards to see some more floating eyeballs soar past her. "Ah, fuck. You know! It'd be nice for the main character plot armor to kick in around right now!" she yelled, hoping the authority above would be nice to her and let her survive this night.
Which would indeed be a respectable thing to do, but let's be real: who likes Mary Sues?
She hadn't ever received any responses nor heard any narration so far, so she wasn't too surprise that nothing went in her favor. "When I get out of this world I'm gonna fucking break his neck..." the girl then muttered.
Come on, brain, quick thinking! Mikan willed her inventory list open again and racked up some more ways to defend herself.
Eventually, the girl pulled out her infinite wood block supply and began crafting an extremely small, cube structure around herself. The girl finished in around five seconds, rushed by panic and fear for the scorching pain of receiving damage in this world, and glanced around waiting to see if the mysterious barriers really worked.
True to what Andrew had told her, the zombies crashed into what seemed like empty air, but was an invisible wall blocking out everything that wasn't inside.
Even the flying eyeballs were reflected by the magic between her and the outside. (Although the split second of the eyeballs squished against the barrier wasn't really pleasant to look at.)
Sighing with relief, Mikan slid down until she was on her rear, taking in the cool sensation of the grass underneath. "Damn. This world sucks," she muttered. I'm tired and probably can't outrun these creeps forever, so I probably have to sleep here. The girl looked up again and grimaced - zombies sure were hideous up close.
Once more, she sighed, and closed her eyes gently. Sleep was the only option for her right now, she supposed.
...I hope I don't have bad sleeping habits, the girl promptly thought.