Title: Bringing Culture in this Shitty Otome Game World
Julius Rapha Holfort sneaked out from the academy with a purpose after hearing a conversation from a passing by group of lower nobility.
"-ou became a woman? In another world? What did you drink to have such a wild dream?"
"I'm not kidding! I swear it's real! There's this shop in the capital where if you pay for a gold dia, you'd get to experience different worlds as an entirely new person if you want and do anything!"
"Yea, sure… *snort* Are you sure you aren't taking anything suspicious?"
"ARGH! Just follow me this weekend and let's see who's laughing at who!"
"Eh… Alright then, but if this is a scam, I swear I'll make sure you get the worse of the ladies for the following week."
"I don't care 'bout no bitches when I can get maidens from-"
That was all he heard from them, but it immediately piqued his interest. Another world. Another life. Another him.
With those thoughts within his mind for the whole week, he decided to try this shop and see if it lived up to what that heir from a far-off barony claims. He walked and asked around, and was helpfully pointed out by a nice uncle manning a skewer shop, and was even given a free sample!
Fiat Lux.
The store was definitely eye catching and hard to miss. It had a glass a big glass window covering the store front, but instead of being transparent, it seemed to block people from seeing inside. The store was seemingly carved from a single stone, different from all the brickwork buildings that surrounded it. And it was painted in a homely cream hue, which made it stood out from the drab greys around.
He saw a pair of students wearing adventurer clothes going in, followed by what looked to be a magician as well. Definitely weird.
"Well, I'm already here anyways…" He muttered, before mustering the courage to enter the building. He opened the door and he was surprised it closed for itself and let out a soft pleasant bell chime.
"Welcome to Fiat Lux. What will service will you be availing?" A rude voice that seemed to be disinterested called out to him, grabbing his attention. He noticed the source to be a young man with black hair and a bored face manning the desk, fiddling with an object in his hands. He seemed to be more interested in what he was holding than to serve his customer.
"May I ask what services you offer?" Nothing bad with asking anything if you don't know what to do right?
"A newbie?" The young man set down the object in his hand and pointed at a sign in front of his desk. "We rent out booths for playing games to our customers. 1 gold dia for an hour, 2 gold dia for 3 hours, 3 gold dia for 5 hours. We're open from 9am to 10pm, you can't bring your own food and drinks into the store and we don't offer refunds." He said the last one with emphasis.
"Games?" What would he want to play games for? "Do you not have access to another world? I heard a conversation say you do."
"Ehh, what a pain in the ass…" He mumbled. "It easier if you just try it for yourself. Just think of it as a Lost Item that can do so." He waved his hand and explained dismissively.
"Lost Item…" Wait, didn't Angelica said something about a new baron discovering a new dungeon and finding many Lost Items as his loot? "Are you perhaps Lord Baron Leon Fou Bartfort?"
"Knight actually. So you gonna play or not?" The now named Leon Fou Bartfort asked.
Well, it is pretty cheap, for whatever this is. There should be no harm in trying anything.
"Very well, I'd like to give it a try first and take the 1 hour service." Julius chose and took out a gold coin from his coin pouch, setting it on the counter.
"Pleasure doing business with you, hehe." The knight smirked while getting the coin before handing him a card with the number 9. "Now please go to your assigned booth and tap this card in the table there. Your timer will start after you do. Afterwards, wear the helmet and you can play any game you want. I'd recommend playing Resident Evil One first."
Julius nodded his head, before moving to where his booth was. He observed the people who are currently 'playing games'. There were some that seemed to be lying down on their chairs with helmets on their head with the Lost Item screen in front of them showing moving pictures, while others were looking at the Lost Item screens in front of them while repeatedly clicking on a set of board and a round object.
Julius located his booth and took a seat in the surprisingly comfortable chair that seemed to let him sink into it. He admired it for a bit and studied the booth curiously. There was a helmet placed neatly in front, with the Lost Item screen showing 'Tap Here' with a picture of a hand a card. He did as instructed and the booth's screen lit up before a loading screen popped up. Then the bottom of the table opened up and he now it seemed he had access to the board and round object others were using.
The screen showed the words 'Please Wear Helmet for Better Experience' and he followed, wearing the surprising snug helmet and leaned back to his chair. Everything turned black for a bit, before he found himself in a white room, surrounded by different icons.
He marveled at the experience of being in another space, with him retaining his sense of everything to be normal. He paid attention again to the various floating icons and searched for the one recommended by the shop owner.
Julius selected it after finding, and he found a warning saying 'Player will be ejected from the game upon Death'.
"What?"
That's how Julius found himself 3 minutes later questioning everything about life.
"It felt so vivid…" He was given three choices for who to be, but two were not yet selectable so he defaulted to the man Chris Redfield.
He then found himself in a 'helicopter' Lost Item and found out he and his Alpha team was being sent to a mansion in Raccoon City to search for the Bravo team that went in first. That was how he knew that everyone got infected by a biochemical experiment gone wrong, and turned into the walking dead, the zombies.
Just thinking about it gave him the creeps. He tried to cast magic, but it seemed no human has the ability to do so, and only capable of using weapons and guns for battle. He rushed ahead and was immediately swarmed by the zombies because his team couldn't keep up with him, he felt pain and found himself ejected out of the game.
"Heh, what a noob." He heard someone from a nearby booth say before going back to his own game. He didn't know what that word meant but Julius never felt so livid in his entire life.
"Owner! Give me an additional 2 hours!" Putting back on his helmet, he prepared himself to do better in this damned game. "I'll show you who's a noob…"
"Congratulations to Master for ensnaring yet another customer." A floating orb appeared beside the young man manning the counter, its red eyes shining ominously as it observed the many people currently playing.
"And you thought my idea was dumb, hehe." His plan was simple. When he went for the adventure to get Luxion and saw what it really was capable of, Leon decided to make additional steps to hide it.
Instead of using Luxion's matter converter and crashing the market, he decided to claim that the Lost Items he obtained during his stint were 'virtual reality pods and computers' Lost Items, and decided to set up a computer shop in the capital while gouging a profit from unsuspecting medieval people. He was unable to get a noble title because of his lackluster achievements, but now he'd made a tidy profit and is considering expanding his shop.
"I've got to give credit where it's due, master. And it would be fun seeing the New Humans get educated and see how inferior they truly are compared to the legacy of the Old Humanity." This was also another thing Leon took in mind when introducing Luxion his plan. The AI was too trigger happy to kick start a genocide of New Humans.
At least this way, he was pointing Luxion's attention to somewhere more productive.
"What's the current status for our fleet?" He asked distractedly while putting down his game console. He'd also planned to not get involved with the plot and planned himself and Luxion to be the protagonist's safety net if the scenario ever gets to that point, hence he'd been amassing resources while trying not be noticed.
"Our shell company is working as intended, and currently we have enough materials awaiting for processing stocked up. One fleet of war ships is currently on standby. The second fleet is estimated to be ready in three weeks, the third in 3 months and the fourth by the year's end. We also have 90 units of battle-class Armors ready for deployment." Luxion proudly reported and continued listing other miscellaneous logistics that his brain glossed over.
"Very well. Focus on drone production for this month, then continue with making our fleet. I do not want with our pants down if the protagonist ever fails. Also, buy up the surrounding land, we'll expand before the week's end." Leon orders after Luxion was done reporting.
"Affirmative, master." The orb disappeared again to wherever it goes. He sighed and massaged his head, thinking of all the future headaches.
"I also have to check upon the protagonist and her power ranger squad, ugh…" For now, he turned off his brain and reached out again for his game console. "After a Dark Souls campaign, of course.
Another installment for my MobuSeka brainworm. This time a different take during the story.
1. Leon wises up and didn't flaunt his very military grade Lost Item and instead shows up with some wealth to buy out his marriage and some appliance Lost Item.
2. He didn't obtain his baron noble title because of his 'lesser' loots from canon, but still gets some accolade as a fairly successful adventurer with his loot, and a knight title instead. The crown deemed him notable enough to give him a non-landed title to rope him in.
3. Leon starts a cultural invasion by inventing a net café in another world, introducing one media at a time.
4. Luxion is onboard this idea because of the following:
a. It gets to flaunt Old Humanity supremacy.
b. It gets to brainwash the New Humans with Old Human culture.
5. Leon just introduced a new way for people to vent stress as well as entertainment. Methinks that one of the reasons why the nobles are prone to sex is because of the very scarce amount of entertainment, which is understandable for a medieval society.
6. Don't really have an overarching plot other than Leon spreading Earth culture and corrupting the otome game world.