Chapter 3 – Introductions
As I walked into our shared bedroom, my eyes swept across the room. It was about the equivalent of a 4-star hotel. Not bad.
The beds were extravagant, being at least a king size, maybe even California kings. The crown surely didn't spare any expense while they built this room. An elegant chandelier hung over the room, its candles lit and illuminating the otherwise dark room. A few trident shaped candlesticks also served this purpose, lighting up the four corners of the place.
The carpet had a circular pattern in the center, upon which a round table with a tablecloth draped over it was placed. Four chairs with velvet lining were placed around the table, with golden rims and accents. There was a velvety smooth sofa abutting the large, paneled glass windows leading to the balcony. A cozy, brick fireplace sat at the far-right side of the room, brining great warmth to the otherwise freezing castle floor.
The castle servants certainly were good at their jobs. A kettle of some sort sat on top of the tablecloth, with four goblets centered around it. A container filled with scrumptious snacks was also sitting there. We certainly were important, eh?
Motoyasu took a seat on his bed located in the left of the room, crossing his legs and shining his spear with his coat sleeve. Naofumi plopped himself on the sofa, and Ren leaned on the fireplace, crossing his arms. All of them began inspecting their weapons closely, trying to familiarize themselves with every nook and cranny of their new possessions. I was also closely examining my beautiful bow, taking a seat next to Naofumi on the luxurious sofa.
Looking out the window, I realize that the sun had almost set, and the room was beginning to darken. A reflection of the crystal-like chandelier was clearly reflected through the glass panes, interrupted quite briefly by the wooden beams. I decided to follow my comrades and started skimming through the weapon manual.
The manual did contain a bunch of useful information. Let's see now. The weapons required no maintenance and were extremely powerful and durable. If the owner of the weapons leveled up and fused materials into said weapons, new forms of those weapons would unlock, and would be recorded into something called the "Weapon Book". Got it.
I tapped on the weapon book, and what looked like a technology upgrade screen popped before my eyes, closely resembling the technology trees of certain online games. Although this infographic covered up much of my field of view, I could still see the outside world though; it was just slightly obscured. Much of the menu was somewhat transparent. Man, this GUI was pretty nice. This reminded me of Sid Meier's Civilization, where each technology tree would have many unlockable abilities.
Keeping that thought in my mind, I proceeded to share it with the rest of the group.
"Yo, isn't this kind of like a game? The mechanics, and leveling and all?"
"That's what I thought of too!"
"I think this might actually be a game. In fact, there's a game just like this called Emerald Online."
"What?"
"It's super popular. Haven't you heard of it?
"I haven't either. I'd consider myself a pretty die-hard otaku." Naofumi joined in.
"You can't call yourself an otaku if you haven't played Emerald Online!"
"Said who?"
"You're all wrong. This is like a VRMMO." Ren interjected.
"Like Sword Art Online type of VRMMO? That anime is super-famous!" I responded.
"Sword Art What?" Everybody asked.
"Guys," Motoyasu said. "I think something weird is going on here."
Everybody briskly nodded.
"Excuse me. I have a question to ask." Naofumi questioned us. "You all think that this is like some sort of game you know. Would you all name the games that you were talking about?"
"Sword Art Online is a popular anime that introduced the genre to much of the Western World, and a new season of it is going to be released soon. However, the technology required to realize the concept is not anywhere near to being developed."
"Emerald Online. It's been the hottest game for years on end, and it keeps getting brand spanking new updates!"
"Brave Star Online. The most popular VRMMO in the world."
It seems all of us are familiar with different games and franchises. I'd never even heard of Emerald Online, nor Brave Star Online. I'd love to play a VRMMO though, since Sword Art Online seems fun. Well, except the dying part. I'd prefer staying alive, thank you very much.
"Ren," I reiterated. "Does this VRMMO you are talking about mean Virtual Reality Massive Multiplayer Online, like those games where you put on headsets and get fully immersed by the world in the headset?"
"Yep, that's right. Do you have VRMMOs in your world?"
"We have some of those systems in our world, though they do not provide nearly as much immersion as those in science fiction. No senses, no smell, poor graphics. However, the topic of fully realistic ones is very popular right now. Everybody wants to play one, but the tech is not nearly there yet."
It seemed to me that virtual reality was quite commonplace for Ren. I was pretty much certain that we were summoned to a new world, but were we from different universes? That idea sounded too farfetched, even for me, and I was quite quick to accept my new reality. Man, I wished I could play VRMMOs every day. Who knows, maybe this guy was summoned from Kirito's timeline?
"All the games and anime we're talking about," Motoyasu spoke up. "They're all uber-famous, right?"
"Yep." Ren, Naofumi and I responded.
Since all of us appeared to be massive otakus, something just didn't make sense. If the games we were talking about were truly as popular as they were, why did none of us know about their existence? These games seemed to them to be about as famous as Minecraft, so how could we all have such different statements?
"Guys, we should ask each other some simple questions that everybody could answer. First, let's start with the simplest of all. What country are we from?"
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
Pause.
*gulp
"Japan."
"Japan."
"Japan."
"America."
"You're American?" Motoyasu asked. "Your name is quite Japanese."
"Well, I was born in Japan," I replied. "But my parents moved to the United States when I was 3 years old."
"Anyways, that question's a little bit too obvious," Naofumi said. "Let's ask a different question."
"Which country hosted the last Olympics?"
"Australia."
"Japan."
"America."
"Rio de Janeiro."
What the hell? At this rate, we must really be from different parallel worlds. So many inconsistencies. The last Olympics were in Brazil, and they performed a huge, unforgettable fireworks show, costing the city much of its annual budget. Surely no one could have forgotten that. Billions of people tuned in, after all.
We then proceeded to compare our knowledge of everything in the world, from videogames to history to celebrities to the Internet. Nothing matched up at all.
"Well, it seems to be that we are from alternate planet Earths."
"Guess so."
"Uhuh."
"I thought we might be from different eras and years, but we all seem to be from the 21st century."
"I knew that we were in a different world since near the very start, at least from when we were talking to the king," I contributed, "But I couldn't imagine that we were from different parallel universes as well. Stephen Hawking, you were so right."
"Stephen who?"
"Never mind."
The only thing that we had in common was our love for nerdy things and anime. Otherwise, we were as different as anybody could be.
"Who thought that alternate Japans would exist?" Ren sighed. "Guess the world, or the worlds, are a very big place."
"Well, there's still the possibility that we come from the same world but from different eras-"
"-Though that is very unlikely due to the discrepancies." I finished the sentence.
"I guess we all ended up here under different circumstances, huh."
"Well, that seems quite likely. If we are going to be working together to save the worlds, we might as well gather up any information we got. Ren, you go first.
"Alright. Where do I start…uh…I was on my way home from school, when out of nowhere I saw a murderer try to stab my childhood friend. After that, uhhhh…"
He probably got stabbed by the murderer. By the looks of things, he probably ended up saving his friend, though at great cost to himself. He probably suffered a fatal wound or something. Although the story seemed cliché, it was a noble deed, nevertheless.
"You saved your friend!" I commented. "That's pretty sick! You're a real hero, Ren!"
Ren gave me a thumbs up, and a smile. He seemed pretty happy that I complimented him.
"I'll go next." Motoyasu, the handsome foreign looking person, spoke up. "I had a lot of girlfriends before I came here."
Typical player, huh. Not like I haven't experienced that many back in Stanford. Those transfer students with their shiny new Ferraris attracted quite the fanbase from those girls around the Bay Area. In comparison, I was more frugal, driving a Lexus instead. Hey, Lexus' are nice cars! Don't tell me otherwise! And they're reliable too!
"And because of that, you were sleeping around with all of them and got stabbed, right?"
Sheesh! Ren really didn't know how to chill, in contrast to his cool personality.
"Women are scary."
That I couldn't agree more with. Though, I never had a girlfriend, so I'm not really one to speak. For good reason, though. Accomplishments are everything, anyways.
"Well, I was in my dorm room studying for a test, when out of nowhere a notification popped up on my computer. It directed me to an email, which I clicked on, and suddenly I was sent here after reading a pdf about cardinal heroes. If we ever go back home, I'm never, and I repeat never, ever going to open an email from an unknown sender again."
The three of them nodded in agreement.
"What about you, Naofumi? How did you get here?"
"Right. Me. Um…I was at the library when I noticed a book I never read before. Out of sheer curiosity, I picked it up and started flipping through it, and before I knew it, I was here."
"Anyways," Motoyasu proceeded, not interested in Naofumi's boring backstory or mine, "It seems that we all have a pretty good idea on how this world works?"
"Yep, I've done it countless times."
"Pretty generic, actually." I remarked. "Every isekai on TV has a plot like this.
"Am I the only noob here?" Naofumi whined.
Poor Naofumi. Well, it seems like Ren and Motoyasu knew way more about our current situation than myself, but I at least somewhat knew what was going on.
"Well, big bro Motoyasu is here to help you." Motoyasu said. "According to the game Emerald Online, you are a Shielder. That means that your job is to protect people, using, you guessed, it, a shield. You have amazing defense, but barely any attack, and as the game progresses your class begins to become useless as the damage taken will far surpass your defense capabilities."
"Did anybody play it?"
"Nope. It sucked so bad that nobody would want to ever use it. Besides, who wants to just sit there and not attack at all? Hell, even tanks in regular RPGs have at least some attack."
"Was there at least any class advancement?"
"Sure, there was, but the whole line sucked. You couldn't unlock a good shield."
"What about class switching?"
"Nah, that wasn't allowed."
Naofumi just sat there, holding his face in sorrow. Man, that's gotta suck. I got the bow, which honestly is super fun and enjoyable. I get to just sit back and deal colossal damage to whoever would dare cross my path.
"Nooooooooo!" Naofumi cried. "Why did I get stuck with such a crappy class? Can I at least change it?"
"I don't think so." I replied. "Shielders can be useful! And besides, our current world might not be exactly like a game. Maybe there's like a spiked shield that you can use to bash people with?"
"Thanks for the encouragement, Satoshi." Naofumi smiled. "Hopefully there is one."
We proceeded to discuss our game plan. We discussed where to go to level up, and how to be maximumly efficient. We talked about which party members would be the most useful for the each of us and combined our game knowledge to figure out what to do later on.
I decided that since the RPG worlds were generally pretty large, my best bet would be to get a mount quite early on and ride to the high experience providing areas before the rest of the heroes. Sorry, but it's survival of the fittest out here. If they needed help, however, I was more than happy to assist, as long as it didn't screw me over too much.
"I guess I'll be fine," Naofumi sighed. "Even if I'm not the strongest, I'm sure I'll find a way to work things out!"
"That's the spirit, Naofumi!" I encouraged him. "Let's do this!"
Suddenly, we were interrupted by a castle guard.
"Heroes, we have prepared a meal for you. Please eat to your heart's content!"
Apparently, it was time to eat dinner. About damn time! I was hungry as hell.
We opened the creaky wooden door and followed the guard to a banquet hall, with all sorts of exotic foods being served. There were roasted beasts of every sort, boundless amounts of vegetables, and glistening wines of every hue imaginable. You name it, they had it. I'd never seen a feast this big before!
"Everybody, please help yourselves to whatever you like. The crown is paying for all of this."
"Seriously?" Ren complained. "We have to eat at the same time as the knights?"
Why was he complaining about that? Food is hella expensive back in college, with a single plate causing double digits. I mean if its free food, why does it matter? Does he know that children in the third world are starving?
"No." The guard replied. "After you've had your fill, the knights will dine."
"Well then, let's dig in!"
Food wouldn't be free anymore, so better to eat as much as you can while you can.
I walked up to the plates of food and grabbed myself what resembled a giant chicken leg. I also poured myself a glass of water, since I refuse to drink, and a side plate of vegetables, which I then mixed into a salad.
"Naofumi," I asked whist gnawing on the food, "Do you want to eat together?"
"Sure thing, Satoshi!"
Picking the table closest to the chefs, I proceeded to devour my food at the rate of a starving dingo. I tried to keep as much table manners as I could, but I was too hungry for my brain to function properly. After finishing one plate, I sprinted to the food and grabbed myself another one, this time filled with roasted lamb chops of some sort.
Weird. The food here tasted completely differently than what it did back home.
As I took a closer look at the dining hall, I realized that most of the people in the room were cooks. I didn't think much of it, though. For so much food to be prepared, it was essential to have at least this many cooks, if not more.
After completely filling ourselves with a delicious dinner, we returned to the rooms, rubbing our bellies in satisfaction.
*burp
"REN!" I reprimanded. "Don't do that in front of us! Disgusting!"
"You're one to talk. You devoured that food like you were starving!"
"Well, I was."
We all had a hearty laugh. These guys were pretty chill.
"Excuse me," Motoyasu questioned. "Do they have a bath?"
"Well, it appears to be the middle ages, so probably not. Maybe they have a washtub outside?"
"We should let it go for now," I told them, "It's just one day, so you can perfectly take a bath tomorrow with no issues. Let's just get a good night's sleep, as the adventure begins tomorrow!"
"Yeah, you're right. Let's just hit the hay."
Ren and Motoyasu jumped onto their beds and began snoring within three seconds. Man, those guys sure could sleep. I'm so pissed I didn't have my noise cancelling headphones with me.
Before I could step towards my bed, Naofumi tapped me on the shoulder and asked me a question.
"Hey, do you think we'll be fine here? I'm kinda concerned that something bad might happen."
"Nonsense. This will be the time of our lives! Haven't you always dreamed of being transported to a new world!"
Well, I didn't really think that. I still had my gripes and qualms and concerns, and I didn't fully trust the king or the stuff he said, so I would still be diligent. I can't be too naïve, after all. As Sun Tzu probably said one time, a smart man never lets his guard down. But, better to encourage the man anyways. That's what a good friend would do.
"Well, I guess so."
"Go get yourself some sleep. Remember, the king is going to give us some companions. Who knows, maybe you'll get some hot chick! Don't quote me on that, though."
"Yeah! This is gonna be just fine."
After that, Naofumi returned to his bed, twisting and turning for a bit before finally falling silent. I neatly folded up my jacket, which for some reason I was wearing in my own dorm, and placed it inside one of the cabinets. Then, I neatly tucked myself into the bedsheets and drifted asleep.