It has been quite some time since the last update, but I decided to upload this, even though I am supposed to be studying right now.
This chapter will mark a significant turning point in this protagonist's life, as well as others'.
Woodbury Middle School
The school hallways were buzzing with talk about the popular students during the recess, be it good things or odd rumors and sightings. Otherwise, it was something typical happening in school during daytime.
Maxwell had been eating his own handmade sandwiches in the canteen when he saw three students out of the corner of his eye, sitting on another table. They were close enough for Maxwell to eavesdrop.
"So, who do you think will make it to the Top Ten in the Most Popular Poll?" a red-haired boy with glasses asked.
"Mmm, for starters... maybe Midnight, in tenth place," a girl with short and straight cut violet hair answered, looking rather confident with her statement.
"That cool Chinese girl from last year?" the girl with green hair and rectangular glasses asked. "The tall one in Class 2-4?"
In Woodbury School, it takes four years to complete each level. '2' means second-year, and the number after that represents one of the four classes the student is in, so Midnight was in her second year in middle school in the fourth class on the second floor. Those in different years stayed in separate floors, but anyone can visit any class.
"Yes, her. You know how no one was able to keep up a conversation for like, ten minutes or so? Guys and girls seem to find that pretty 'mysterious' and all. Top it with the black hair and ladylike air, you get one of those 'cool beauties' some people like."
Then the informative girl lowered her voice, saying, "But even though she has friends, it's rare for her to be seen with any of them. And any guy who tries to ask her out gets turned down before they could even confess!"
"It's pretty tough for those guys huh?" the boy mused.
"Yeah," the glasses girl agreed. "You don't think she's got weird hobbies...? She's quiet and all..."
Closing his plastic lunchbox with a quiet snap, Maxwell left for the classroom.
He never knew about a poll in the first place. But moreover, it must be really hard to be popular with people talking behind your back.
Maxwell used to be well-known in his old school, but then again it had been a rather small school. Every student there was friendly with each other to a degree, but anyone was willing to help the other. Here on Woodbury Campus, some people would pull their own weight in a rather lone fashion. It kind of felt as if there was a hierarchy or something here.
In any case, Maxwell still has not found a friend. This Midnight girl could make for a really good one, but judging from what he heard, she might refuse.
The next lessons soon passed by like a blur for him, and he was just getting up from his seat when a student came up to him.
"Excuse me!" he squeaked. He might as well have been talking to his officer.
He was somewhat shorter than Maxwell by a few inches, having short cut black hair that covered his forehead. His grassy eyes studied the taller student from behind purple-rimmed glasses.
"Can I help you?" Maxwell asked.
"Ah, my name is Harvey, of Class 1-2, and head of the Newspaper Club. Obviously, we run the school newspaper. I was hoping to recruit new applicants from the new students this year."
"Really? It's not like I could be that good for your club."
He was only here for a few days after all.
Harvey seemed to brush it off. "I simply want to see any potential students, you included. If it's not any trouble, could you come to Room 3-6, in the Extra Activities Building? Just think of it as a trial run there after school."
Maxwell considered it. He knew an old friend who had joined a club at the old school. He was able to make friends with all of his club members, so Maxwell could do the same thing as he did.
Although, another friend of his had also joined a club, except she got very different results. Instead of making Japanese mochi, the club members dunked her head into French flatbread, like a form of asserting dominance on a new student. She obviously told the teachers and students on them, resulting in eight students landing in three-months detention and two expulsions. The poor girl took a while before she could place trust in any of her friends again.
It sure feels dangerous...
But hey, how were you supposed to know you like it if you never try it?
"Count me in," the taller student answered.
~~~LD~~~
Extra Activities Building
The E.A.B. was seven stories tall; the two top floors acting as halls for any large-scale event, and the rest of the floors each containing eight separate rooms for any club to settle in, forming a total of forty rooms in the building. Currently, over thirty clubs were formed, but more are on the way that there was talk of expanding the building.
Maxwell easily entered it, passing by several rooms buzzing with activity. It was clear that all of them were as large as the other, that all the clubs were hard at work on something.
After reaching the door to Room 3-6, he knocked on it politely. Seconds later, it opened, a girl being the one who greeted him.
She was shorter than Maxwell by a few centimetres, sporting mousey brown hair tucked under a grey and worn ascot cap. Like most students, she wore the girls' uniform.
Her blue eyes examined Maxwell briefly before saying, "Hey there!" She had something like a British accent. "D'you happen to be our 'trial guy?'"
"Uh, yeah I am. What's your name?"
"Dill," she replied simply. "Harvey's second-in-command, and top journalist too!"
Maxwell decided she was more energetic than him. "So can I come in now?"
"Oh yeah, sure," she said, moving aside to let him in.
The Newspaper Club Room seemed like that of an actual workplace. Club members wrote and typed down new stories, rushing here and there to get this printed for their next headline. Papers and folders were stacked on top of each other, but the mess did not seem too bothersome.
Harvey himself was busy analyzing a report of some kind before he spotted the two of them.
"Maxwell, I'm glad you could make it."
"Why wouldn't I?" The student gave slight smile of his own.
The club leader then turned to Dill and told her, "You can go back to your station now Dill. The monster cases aren't going to solve on their own."
Dill gave a mock salute before going elsewhere to her desk.
"Now then Maxwell," Harvey said, pressing his fingers together, "there's something I would like to show you, just beyond that curtain."
At the far end of the room, a black curtain hanging from metal rings looped around a metal bar extended from one wall to another.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Where we make our photos. Come now, I want to show you something intriguing."
The shorter student pushed a part of the curtain aside and went through, Maxwell following him the same way.
Inside, there were a few machines and cameras lined up on a shelf. A window allowed the afternoon light to shine through, but Harvey, somehow, was nowhere to be seen.
"Harvey, where's the thi-"
Not a second later, he felt something that stung on his neck.
Everything around him faded.
When Maxwell came to, he looked around wildly, and found himself bound to a chair in ropes. His hands were tied behind his back too, like handcuffs.
He could tell he was in a dark room, illuminated faintly by moonlight behind him. The only furniture in front of him were a sofa, a wooden table and some chairs. Other than those things, the wooden room was bare save for walls of logs around him.
He was unsure if this really was a kidnapping, but he did not really want to stay long to find out what his captors wanted from him.
He tried to move his hands, already feeling them a little loose. He put in more effort in breaking them apart. The ropes felt less constricting.
Just as he was about to break his hands free, the door at the far end of the room opened.
It was Harvey entering. He still wore the same uniform, but there was something... off about him.
"You're awake," he said, stating the obvious, as he closed the door behind him quietly.
"Uh, Harvey? Were you the one...?"
He was cut off by Harvey's 'Ha!'
"Of course idiot." The other student clearly wanted blood, more or less savoring every moment of this predicament. "Now... Who sent you?"
"What?"
"Who sent you?" he repeated.
"N-No one sent me! What are you yapping about anyway?"
"Tch. I meant your Guild! You Summoners must have heard about me, and they sent some... some rookie to deal with me. Now answer the question!"
There was nothing polite about Harvey from when Maxwell first met him. Now, he was some deranged, paranoid psycho to him.
"Hey!" Maxwell protested. "I don't know what the heck you're talking about, or whatever this Guild is. I mean, I'm just an ordinary student!"
"Impossible. My radar managed to detect you, and a few others. All of you apparently are some squad like the others back then, except you all just happened to arrive. Unless..."
Harvey paced around his room before a creepy smile crept up his face.
"Meh, more free EXP," he said, like it was finality.
He then dug around his left pocket for a moment before taking out a smartphone, except it was a different brand from Maxwell's. He tapped a few things, probably a message to his followers to dispose of Maxwell.
Maxwell was partially right in a sense. Harvey swiped his thumb up, and a bright light filled the room.
A white circle filled with elaborate lines and runes appeared on the floor, shining as it slowly went up, leaving behind the lower body of a suit of dark armor.
The white circle eventually seemed thin out once it finished moving, taking light with it and leaving behind a man in black armor, a large side-shield attached to the right of it, and holding a particularly advanced-looking sniper rifle.
The sniper's right eye glowed purple as it scanned Maxwell briefly before turning to Harvey.
"Another one?" he said, voice slightly muffled by the helmet.
Harvey nodded. "You know what to do."
The sniper, while very interesting and very familiar, was obviously going to take him outside for 'clean-up'.
As soon as the man got close enough to reach out for Maxwell, the hostage got out of his bindings easily enough and socked the man in his left eye, following up with grab of the rifle and smashing it down on his head.
Not forgetting about Harvey, Maxwell swung the heavy rifle down on the other student's temple, sending him to the ground like he did with the other.
Dropping the rifle, Maxwell did not waste time knowing where to go.
~~~LD~~~
Woodbury Shopping District
Maxwell somehow dodged another bullet there, literally.
The strange sniper was obviously not from this world, if the white circle from earlier did not indicate that fact. His shots were very accurate, and it was only physical cover, instincts and sheer luck keeping him alive at this point.
Another lightning-bolt-like shot raced through the air. Maxwell ran again, leaving a lamppost to fall over from the force of the shot. Glass shattered as the lamp crashed.
It had only been a few minutes ever since the shooting began, that Maxwell wondered how the entire shopping district did not hear the environmental damage and the shots. How was the entire town essentially still asleep?
Soon, there were no more shots as Maxwell ran through an alleyway, going through a glass door that led into a building. He briefly glanced the green directory sign next to it inside:
Rifferton Pine Mall
5F - FOOD COURT, CINEMA
4F - SPAS, HAIR SALONS, TOY STORES
3F - ELECTRONICS, CLOTHING
2F - RESTAURANTS, PARKING LOT
1F - FURNITURE, HOME APPLIANCES
GF - LOBBY, Cafés,
1B - ASSORTED GOODS, SUPERMARKET, PARKING LOT
2B - PARKING LOT
Enjoy your visit!
Although there were many kinds of shops that provided several goods and services outside in the shopping district, the most popular amenities and facilities can be found here. It was said that some shopkeepers were planning on moving in here.
Still, Maxwell silently hoped he was not going to get fined for leading a sniper capable of destroying a tank into the mall. It looked really nice, with its dark and calm beige colors, wide-open spaces and not-so loud atmosphere. It would be a shame if something came along and wrecked the place.
Luckily, the mall was still open, so shoppers and store managers interacted with each other in their respective stores. Wait, lucky?
With all these people here, who's gonna be that guy's target!? Maxwell thought quickly.
As if on cue, shots rang out throughout the mall. The loud cracks of thunder quickly got everyone's attention, and they instinctively ran for the nearest exit.
While Maxwell was somewhat distracted by the screams and chaos happening, he saw light dim around him. He turned to look back.
And when he did, he barely threw himself out of the way of a huge chunk of rock. It went whooshing past him and smashed into marble.
He picked himself up, only to be held up at the collar of his shirt. The boy got a good look at his captor though.
And it was someone he recognized very well.
"Target secure. Area cleared of unnecessary lifeforms. Awaiting orders," the hulking android rumbled.
"Good work Gildorf. Rowgen, continue scouting. Make sure no one interferes."
The kid-who-was-not-what-he-looked-like came from behind Maxwell, looking rather content and-to be plain-villainous.
"Well, it's a shame you can't give me a level-up, considering you are a newbie after all, but threats like your heroic sort must be eliminated for my future," the Newspaper Club Captain spat, looking at his phone momentarily before shooting Maxwell a piercing look.
"The game's laws dictate I must leave no traces as much as possible..." He said, trailing off...
And then he grinned. "But where's the fun in that? I can pay the fine. Gildorf! Charbroil."
"Commencing neutralization," Gildorf replied, arms and legs clanking.
Gildorf and Rowgen. Two well-known characters from Brave Frontier, the game Maxwell had been playing. They are new and old respectively, but nevertheless powerful in their own right, even as 'Five-Star Units'.
Although, this supposed Gildorf was going to kill him.
"I definitely don't plan on being anyone's backyard dinner yet!" Maxwell declared.
The boy backpedalled and ran into a hallway lined with shops on either side.
Shots like the ones from earlier came by him as yellow streaks, some grazing him but leaving him mostly alive.
As smoke curled off his blazer, Gildorf slammed its tonfas into the ground. Cracks started to appear around the ceiling, walls and floor of the hallway Maxwell ran through, and they all glowed orange-hot.
They exploded, quickly caving in his escape route.
"Nice try," Harvey said, "but you aren't getting away this time!"
Gildorf gave a low mechanical rumble and approached Maxwell, its red eyes glowing with something like malice? Maxwell had to admit: dolls, even robots like him, were scarier than silent snipers that can kill from afar... sort of, like a cousin said. It was hard to see what emotions they had, if the smiles were genuine happiness or hidden cruelty.
Oh man...! Bye Kit, bye old man Jay... bye Jem, bye Simmy... bye Elle... and Isabelle... and everyone else...
And he would never meet this Midnight girl. For some reason, characters with unique personalities are some of the best friends you could ever make, but just about anyone really could be a good one if you just get to know them.
Too bad Harvey made it clear that would never happen.
Kashiing!
...Well, that was the best sound effect he could describe just a second ago.
But Maxwell looked up to see the android stop moving. Its eyes blinked in confusion before it suddenly split cleanly in half at the waist.
Both halves fell to the ground, Gildorf still rumbling, "ERROR. ERROR. Heavy damage taken... This unit is deemed unsuitable for combat-"
Then its eyes dimmed, indicating it was switched off. It shone with white light for a moment before disappearing in brief flash.
"What in the-guh-!?"
Harvey was probably going to curse in shock when he was interrupted by something shiny and coated red sprouting out of his chest.
It sank back inside, leaving Harvey to fall over and create a red puddle that spread under him.
Behind him was a teenage-looking girl dressed in an ashen grey dress shirt with red stripes running diagonally from the upper left of her chest to the bottom right. Her trousers were similarly grey with a red faded symbol of a feather on her left kneecap. She wore black sneakers to suggest she was a runner.
But she was clearly dressed for war. She wore a dull russet strap-on chestplate with steel armor covering both arms except the shoulders. Her segmented thigh armor was a plain brown but with red stripes running down on the middle of both sides. Her brown greaves were dull-looking too, but they looked just as sturdy as the rest of the armor. An elegant silver helmet with a visor covered most of her face, although her chin was exposed.
In her right hand was a double-edged broadsword inlaid with red and outlined with gold, while her left hand held a vicious serrated longsword. The diamond-shaped red blade was inlaid with something like rusty iron. Both sported a sooty black glyph at the base of the blades.
Overall, she looked like a hero from the shadows... or maybe an actual knight.
The girl was sort of familiar, even as she flicked blood off her longsword. She sheathed her swords into scabbards on her back, looking at Maxwell for a moment. Finally, she walked off, just like that, out of the corridor.
Then the environment around Maxwell suddenly flashed turquoise for a moment.
"Huh...?" Maxwell ran out of the corridor, snapped out of his trance.
The entire mall had started to flash turquoise again, then crimson, then silver, like there were flashes of every color he could see.
More flashes of different colors came, seemingly fitting the environment: orange from the mall's lights, dark blue from the night sky seen from the skylight, pink from a accessory store for girls-so many colors flashing until they all stopped suddenly.
"What the heck..." Maxwell was incredibly confused, but for everything he could see so far, he could say this.
It was something he'll have to sleep and think on.
The shoppers though...
One was talking with her friend excitedly about a bargain sale nearby. An otaku was buying figurines of the latest anime. There were not as many shoppers during nighttime as during daytime, but the mood here was calm and pleasant, unlike what happened just a minute ago.
Harvey, Gildorf and the rubble were gone.
...
Okayyy... Something weird is going on. Even that sounded obvious enough.
All the people here have lost memories of what happened. And whatever happened here reset back to its previous state.
It was definitely a messy world mechanic out of a comic, a movie, a story, a game... And all of it had something to do with Brave Frontier.
Although, he had another thing to worry about. What time was it?
"Right. Sis is gonna be worried."
Deal with an angry Elle first. THEN he can deal with the more pressing matters.
Silently, Maxwell left for home.
"So the kid survived?"
"He did."
"That girl... She ain't some psycho or something right?"
"Why do you ask Observer? Surely you have seen some... more horrifying sights?"
"I see a lot of messed up stuff time-to-time, but that girl's dangerous. Ya think she'll be a hell of a soldier against the gods?"
"Oh she will. Months of experience, hardship and love turned her."
"Heh. Our gods are gonna act soon alright."
Author's Note: Okay, I just finished my exams and now updating. Finally!
I hope to use a few 'game mechanics' from a certain game and a few fanfictions here on this site. I will mention them later in the next few chapters, seeing as I do not want to take credit for saying the 'mechanics' you will be seeing later is my idea alone. I had inspirations.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review to see if this needs improvement, and perhaps a favorite and a follow?
EDIT (12 October 2016): Changed having to spend three years in each level at Woodbury Private School to four years instead. Then a few corrections...