Creation began on 02-15-21

Creation ended on 02-17-21

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Eva Art Online: A Merciful Route

A/N: Asuka receives some degree of aid.

Asuka Langley Soryu, her avatar name R3d B3auty Bar0n3ss (Red Beauty Baroness), couldn't believe that those three people that shattered her Scarlet Sirens group had gotten the first key to find this egg that could also aid in defeating the game and logging everyone still alive out and back to the real world. She had participated in the first trial eight times and was never able to get past Godzilla after dodging the werewolf! She was going to give up and go reinvigorate her level and inventory…when she received a message from Ronin-2004.

That bastard, she thought as she accessed the message and read it. "Meet me at the inn inside the Feudal Myths Realm where we clashed for the last time. I'll tell what you need to need to do to get the Alpha Key". He wants to tell me how to get the key? Why would he do that?

-x-

The inn was still the safest place to be in the safe zones within the game. Since mostly everyone else was in different realms in the game, Shinji, Kensuke and Mari had some privacy and safety from the masses. At least until they met with Asuka, as per Shinji's invite.

"Are you sure you want to tell her how to get the key?" Kensuke asked him as he was going his new weapons in his inventory. "You two did almost duke it out over a lack of desired information."

"If I tell her nothing, she'll probably go crazy searching for someone that she thinks knows how to get out of here," he explained, "but if I tell her, then at least she has a chance to find out the next course of action on her own."

"Maybe she doesn't have to, Shinji," Mari suggested. "She's welcome to join us if she wants. No one is a failure if they have friends."

Shinji looked at her as he stood by the window and nodded. But Asuka had to accept an invite to join their group, and all he really sent the girl after searching for her avatar name was the message explaining that he would tell her what she needed to know in order to get the key.

"When do you expect her to show up?" Kensuke asked.

"She should be around any moment now," he answered, returning his gaze to the land outside the window. "I'll extend an invite to join us after I tell her."

-x-

Asuka returned to the Feudal Myths Realm and located the inn; as she was inside the safe zone, fighting was forbidden. Then again, the boy wasn't looking to fight her.

"You're here," she heard his voice as she turned to see him walking out of a room and sliding the door closed.

"Your message said you had information on how to get the first key," she responded. "Please… I need to know how."

"Whatever you use to ride on the track, don't go forwards. Go backwards, towards the wall. There's an alternate road that enables you to get past the obstacles. Do that…and the Alpha Key will be given to you by Etheria's avatar."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"Thank you," she sighed and praised him before she turned away.

"Wait," he stopped her. "If you're solo, you can join my group…if you want to, that is."

She looked at him like he had an agenda.

"Why?" She wanted to know.

"Nobody out there should be alone," he stated simply.

"I don't play the game to make friends. Why do you play the game?"

"Life in here…it used to be better than the life I had out there in the real world. There's nobody in here that knows who you are or gives a damn about who your relatives are. Here, I can be anybody I want to be, go anywhere, do anything. Why do you play?"

"To prove I'm the best."

"Everyone wants to be the best…or they wanted to be the best. Now, most of us just want to get out of here because the lives we have now are like a prison we can't escape from without meeting certain requirements. This was supposed to be an ordinary game where we could escape from the mundane troubles of our day-to-day lives out there, and now we're all stuck in here while our bodies are being kept alive by hospitals and vulnerable to whatever dangers that lurk around the corner, and we can't do anything to defend ourselves against anything out there. While I still enjoy my virtual life over my real life, the two people in my group, I want to meet them in real life. I want to be able to log out every time I want to go to the bathroom or get something to eat. I want… I want to be able to see the sun outside of this place."

Asuka didn't want to admit it, but he was right about how they were vulnerable outside the game right now. As incapacitated victims, they were barely alive in hospitals and anyone could just come along and do whatever they pleased to them if they were deviant enough. As far as she knew, some guy out in the real world probably left a scar on her face.

"I'll think it over," she told him, "and again, thank you."

Then she left the inn to go back to the Modernity Realm to get the first key. Even if she wanted the egg and the money that woman left behind to whoever finished this quest, there was no amount of money in the world that could undo what they were going through. Her body was vulnerable, probably in a place where anyone could touch her, and she'd have no awareness of it even happening, and she had to get out and back to it. Back to her life out there.

To be continued…

A/N: I did say that Asuka would get some aid. Until the next chapter.