The sounds of ghoulish moans permeated the air, the scent of rotten flesh lingering while various debris littered the forest. Signs of damaged wagons and torn supplies littered a forest.
"They're coming in hot! Guys I think we might've tripped over more than one nest." a voice called out as there were six people surrounded by a hoard of sickly gray skinned ghouls with dimly glowing light yellow eyes. They were coming in on all sides with the back of the group facing the cliff of a rather deep ravine bel
"Just means more loot and EXP, told ya guys this was a sick event to come to! Worth the effort." The sole feminine voice of the group called out excitedly as the shortest member of all was in a tight situation with one ghoul clawing at the armored chestplate she wore overtop a navy blue long coat, while she was currently struggling with another ghoul trying to bite at her neck, barely keeping it at bay.
"No doubt Jun, but is it worth ditching your Neural Stimulation session?" The one wearing glasses and wielding a neon glowing staff said, a bit more nervously and referring to the biweekly appointment Jun had for her health, usually every Friday and Wednesday and required her to remain laying in a machine inside a special clinic. Jun had turned off her phone before going on this road trip to ignore the calls as the event was taking place over a four day course, however it went from a Thursday to a Sunday.
"Relax Satoshi, I've been in that machine over a hundred times, missing one appointment won't kill me." Jun said as she managed to throw the ghoul she was holding by the neck to the side before making a gesture with her right hand as suddenly a pair of knuckles with runes on them appeared on her hand before igniting sparks. "Mjolnir Inbounding!"
Jun called out and smacked down the other ghoul on the chest, hitting it at the bottom of his ribs at high speed before there was a sudden bright light as lightning exploded from the impact. The ghoul was quickly reduced to a crisp however Jun winced from the pain as she shook her hand.
"Yo boss, the Uru Knuckleduster is still too much for ya? Guess the system boost really gives it a kick." A member wielding a dark metal musket with a glowing bayonet said as he fended off a ghoul before stabbing it and firing into it point blank, watching the monster disintegrate into red fractals before quickly starting to reload.
"Whatever Yohei, I just need to actually put muscle into this body, it's practically the same as my own. Besides, the Valhalla event items are some of the best we've ever gotten." Jun said as she stood five foot one and weighed barely over a hundred pounds, there was a distinctive crossed scar on her right cheek but other than that the resemblance was barely above a sibling like state to their previous form.
"Oh yeah, sounds about right. Aside from the fact it's nearly a full foot shorter, a full hundred pounds lighter, less muscular, and oh yeah, a woman's!" One of the more sarcastic players in the group chimed in as he switched out an ax weapon for two batons as he charged forth, smacking the ghouls left and right trying to get them to follow him to bleed off some of the swarm coming for his comrades. "Seriously, how did they screw up so bad and leave your personality intact? Honestly, part of me wishes I forced your folks to say no!" He added as he was being surrounded. Jun scoffed as she would follow, using her knuckleduster to pick off a few ghouls with some lucky shots.
"Come on Arisu, I mean it was cutting edge tech, would you rather not have Jun alive with us?" Satoshi said as he was casting debuffs onto the ghouls to lower defense. "Besides it was a glitch and things had to proceed along, we always did, this ain't any different." He said as Jun chuckled. "There we go, Satoshi's got the right idea. Now you bros mind not talking about me like I'm still in my dead body? How many people could say that?" Jun said as she was starting to get surrounded by ghouls and slowly started to back off when she had four starting to follow her. Yohei managed to reload and shoot one in the head, before charging and stabbing the other with a bayonet allowing Jun to fight off the remaining too.
"I mean doesn't the ethical philosophical concern of whether or not you are even the original Jun but rather some lab and test tube grown clone with memories imprinted on to make you believe you are them, whether or not you are a person with a soul or just some soulless husk carrying out a desire for a humanity so close but so far away?" Arisu asked as Jun stared at him for a moment, cocking her head to the side as she stared blankly before shrugging. "Nope, not really my thing. I'm here and I don't care, but if it's really important, wager it, if I don't have a soul somehow, I'll pay you a million yen." She said as Arisu chuckled at that, he didn't need much proof to know that Jun's personality definitely carried over. Though the other three definitely had a bit of a rough adjustment to what was at the time the new normal, they all agreed it was better than a funeral for their comrade. "Deal." He replied snarky.
"So how are you going to prove it? Not exactly an easy thing to determine?" Satoshi said as Arisu and Jun stood stunned for a moment before bursting out laughing, realizing it was practically a stalemate of a bet. Jun was enjoying herself as she knew this was starting to feel right, like she was finally starting to come back home to who Jun Fuji really is. However this sense of peace wouldn't last for very long.
Soon on everyone's HUD display through special contact lenses, the mini-map was starting to fill with red dots, and even a few larger ones as well. "Shit! The Six hour mark already! Final Frenzy mode and we're still in this spot!" Yohei said as the group was concerned as they all realized they lost track of time. Final Frenzy was the ending part of the event they did not want to be exactly where they were at the beginning. All events had six hours from the beginning, before ending with half an hour of exponential spawns before nightfall in addition to the mini-bosses being more likely to spawn. However that also meant around a group of players, it was more probable for groups like Jun and her team to be quickly surrounded. An issue with the hard light system in places such as the forest where the event was taking place, was it had a minimal ground value in the playing area. Which meant the cliff into the ravine was not registered because both sides were within the boundaries in terms of longitude and latitude, however height was another issue.
All the projection emitters were above the cliff, and extended only a few meters below the edge. Which meant for all intents and purposes, the group was in real danger as the hard light ghoul constructs were in front of them and with several bosses in the mix escape wasn't an easy option unless they wished to surrender or reach zero health. Neither of which were good options as using the emergency quit option would guarantee safe passage until they left the border of the playing area, they'd forfeit all gains since they entered, which none of them wanted to do. If they accepted game death, they would have the same guaranteed safe passage and only walk away with a 40% loss of EXP and Currency gains.
"So, are we fighting or dying out?" Satoshi said as he was using a spell to create four light screen barriers, connected to resemble a pentagon all around. This was so the others would have a moment to gather themselves and take up any alterations to their setup needed before the ghouls charged in. Jun bit her lip slightly excited as she would relish the challenge. "I say we will fight out! We stand more to gain either way." She said as the remaining silent two looked at eachother, sharing a glance and nodded. "So basically we storm them like our lives depend on it." Arisu said with a cocky grin but Yohei grimaced as he switched out his musket for a weapon that resembled a blunderbuss with a glowing tip at the end of the barrel. Jun and Arisu kept their weapons the same as they saw the small horde of ghouls pressing against the waning barriers. There was a tense race between durability or time limit but eventually the barrier would collapse.
Jun was about to charge forward but out of the massive horde, however she stumbled for a moment. Starting to feel dizzy as her senses were distorted, everything looked blurry as her body began to spazz slightly. Her mind was barely able to process until she regained her mental footing to realize what was going on at the same time her allies did. A small seizure that was beginning due to the nature of adjusting to her new body. However after time she was able to steady herself before falling.
Right after the barriers collapsed, a ten foot tall miniboss came charging out of the trees roaring, tackling Jun, or rather grabbing Jun by the head and throwing her back. It was a tense and scary moment as everyone was stunned silent, scared as Jun was flying through the air. Everyone wanted to scream her name or reach for skills to come rescue her, none more than Jun herself. She was about to switch to a chain weapon in her inventory but her momentum was too fast as she soon saw the warning screen in her HUD as she was falling.
"WARNING: USER IS LEAVING THE PLAYING FIELD. DEMATERIALIZATION OF EQUIPMENT AND DEACTIVATION OF AUGMENTS IMMINENT."
At that point Jun knew it was too late as that warning appears while the user is getting close to the border. Suddenly the neon glowing lines that traced her body faded away, the chestplate turned into red fractals that vanished into the ether suddenly exposing her open navy blue long coat to the full effects of the wind. Her white Sarashi on her chest was plain as day visible as she was wearing nothing else underneath her coat on her upper body. Her jeans were torn up and her boots slightly scuffed as well. Her long orange hair sticking up as she fell down towards the bottom.
"Well, I guess this is how the story ends… not satisfying huh, can't even understand the screams coming my way..." Jun thought to herself as she would feel as though time would be moving slower by the second. She couldn't see her friends but she knew they were shouting, calling out for her but no words were audible. Jun had survived much in her life, including death once. But she knew that at this point, there would be no miracle save this time- until there was.
The river at the bottom of the ravine was deeper than initially thought and while it did hurt, she was able to survive. She tried to start to swim but to no avail, the current of the river was hard and heavy on her small body. It was nearly two minutes before she managed to get swept outside of the water.
Rolling onto the dry land she coughed out water before laying on her back for a few minutes, just staring at the sky. She soon let out a laugh as she would start to find the entire situation a bad joke. "The devil must really hate me if I can't die after all this." She mused as she would wait for her to regain her own strength before reaching into her phone, grateful that she paid for an industrial grade waterproof phone case. However she wasn't happy to see that there was no signal. "No Signal, little sense of location after falling off a cliff… tons of pain." She said as she would start to shiver a bit. She would start to feel cold and curled up for a bit, waiting until she could feel the shock wear off for her to stand up again. She would pick a random direction and start to wander in it, this lasted a few minutes until a strange instance occurred.
The HUD contact lens she was wearing responded to Holoprojectors, forming the HUD for the ARMMORPG "Fantasia Invasion", as well as serving other purposes such as displays for advertisement normally unseen to the naked eye. Outside of game instances the HUD shouldn't all, however it did appear before her. She was confused as she looked down at herself, seeing her game equipment wasn't appearing, but studying the HUD as well revealed further curiosities. The Minimap showed nothing, her HP and MP bars had 0/0, and her inventory as well as other tabs was inaccessible. This was confusing until suddenly a glitched Quest Window appeared in front of her.
"
Quest: THE HAND HERO'S QUEST
Details: THE HAND WEAPON HERO IS REQUIRED TO SAVE THE WORLD ONCE MORE.
Reward: ?͔̣̳̼̙͚͙̬̉̇̆͞?̋҉̙̮?̲̹̪̣̺͈̅ͧͥ͜?̧͖̟̰͚͔̙̞͇̓?ͭ̓̚͏̰̦̦͕̮̖?̮̼̰̓͢?̡͉̼̦̩͚̘ͤ͆?͚͓̯̳̀͠ͅ?̨̺̥̺̭̓̏?ͥ͂̂҉͕͇̖̪͖͚?̶̟̣͙͍̪̪̓ͬͅ?̭͔̱̳̒͜?̶̭͎͐̃̉̂ͅ?̤̼̫͖͇͊̕
Accept: [YES] [̶̨͙̝̥͚̯̮̀͑͊̾͒͒͘͜Ņ̸̰͇̰̼̞̜́̈́̇͋͌͂̽̉̀͠O̵̞͕̥̲̗͕̭̹̞̗͊́̆̄̄͝ͅ]̷̼̻͔̺̤̱̪̟̩̀̍̽̈̿͗̈͘̚͝"
"What the hell is this? The background is glitched and the reward text is as well, and even the decline option is glitched over? Never even heard of this quest before. Must be a glitch caused by being the first to go out of bounds on a Z axis or something" Jun said as she tried to opt out but there was a static shock on her finger tip. She winced back a bit as she tried again. She knew better than to try and remove the contacts while they were still on but the system wasn't responding to her. It was an obstruction and she didn't want to traverse the lands without as clear a view as possible so she decided to accept the quest just to close the window.
When she hit accept however, she was met with a blinding light as suddenly she once again lost all sense of perception. "Shit… not again… not here…" She said thinking she was having another neurological episode. She's had several since she entered her clone body but this was different. This time it felt more like she was being removed from the world rather than the senses of the world being pulled from her in a swirl of red, orange, blue, green, purple, and beige felt as though she was falling but her body was perfectly horizontal as it happened, a strange sensation.
There was a brief high pitch sound and white flash of light, reminding Jun of the flashbang effect seen in movies or shows but never believed such a thing was how it actually happened. Suddenly the damp sensation of uneven muddy terrain beneath her feet was gone, replaced by what felt like flat stone, potentially marble. She covered her eyes with her left sleeve as she would come to terms with the flooding sensory inputs. What was once gentle natural sounds of water and fauna was now a torrent of voices, the flashing of lights made her regaining sense of sight delayed until she had covered her eyes.
"Wait- that's a woman- The Holy Weapon picked a woman?" Jun was able to make out someone saying as another picked up. "The first Holy Dame in recorded history, does this prove the Church false?" Another voice said as Jun was getting confused. "What are your stats for a Hand Weapon hero?" Another reporter asked, making Jun initially confused as to why someone was asking about her Fantasia Invasion account. While she did appear in tournaments and whatnot she wouldn't call herself famous, though the fact that people were asking about that at all at the time was confusing enough.
However she felt something on her right hand. She recalled she wasn't wearing gloves out as she was wielding in-game gloves created by hard light in Fantasia Invasion, but as she regained focus she saw she was wearing a white fingerless glove.
It had a red gemstone on the center of the back of the palm surrounded by a gold ring. There was a pattern of thick dark rings around each of the six ends with lines extending down from them before diverting to the center, and a similar pattern on the opposite side. There was what appeared to be dark padding along each of the knuckles and the palm itself was padded. The gloves reminded Jun of what she saw being used by boxers or martial artists, and cyclists as well.
Though the flashes started to make more sense as she felt confident enough to lower her arm as she saw what appeared to be press reporters of some sort, except their cameras weren't normal digital cameras, instead they were strange contraptions. Strange box devices with two cones, one on the front of the box and a larger one of a connected rod, both pointed forward towards where Jun was standing. The higher ones had a white half sphere gem at the base while the bottom had a green gem, however Jun was able to piece together these were some sort of camera device by the behavior.
She had no idea what was going on, her eyes would dart around the room as she was barely able to make out the familiar long bench style of pews typically found in western religions, while the stained glass windows along the side were a dead giveaway though Jun didn't have time to make out what the multicolored panes were trying to depict. She didn't want to get lost in the moment so she refocused herself to get her footing on the situation.
She was standing in front of what appeared to be an altar, atop of a small magic circle about a meter in diameter, smooth marble with intricate patterns. Nearby were what appeared to be either wizards or priests, potentially clerics. Jun didn't like the look on their expressions, while everyone else seemed positive they were almost sulking at what they did, Jun could almost make out mutterings of pleas for forgiveness which set off a red flag in Jun's mind.
"Seems like the ones that brought me here are remorseful while the others aren't… Something isn't adding up… well technically everything isn't. I need details." Jun thought to herself as she would look up at the balcony, seeing several figures including one surrounded by guards in what appeared to be a different sort of individual, they wore a white and red trimmed cassock with a silver pendant. Due to a red veil and lack of visible details from the distance Jun couldn't tell if this was a man or a woman, but their abrupt departure and visible body language left their disgust plain to see. Jun suspected this was a cardinal or similar higher tier member of the religion.
"Where the frick am I? Who are ya lot? And what's with the bloody onslaught!" Jun yelled in response as she felt like she had to figure out a way to cut through the nonsense and pointless questions. "Dame Hand Weapon Hero, how's it feel to be the first Female bearer of the Holy Hand Weapon?" One reporter asked bluntly, Jun felt a bit ignored as she was being asked a question as though she already knew everything. "The what? Also I'm a man- wait, yeah, forgot, new cutting edge tech and body and all…" Jun said which in turn confused the audience.
"So are you a boy or a girl?" Another reporter said, visibly confused. "Are you one of those folk who try to change their gender or-" Another said before Jun clicked her tongue and cracked a knuckle. "Nah, I just happened to nearly die and technology had the chance to give me a new body but there were a few errors, it's a new cutting edge process and I was the first successful subject don'tcha know? It made national headlines- Oh… wait, am I in a whole new world?" Jun said as she was starting to catch on as she ran through everything in her head, this story reminded her of those types of books and anime her little brother likes to watch.
"Yes, well, you see… that weapon on your hand is the Holy Hand Weapon, the legendary weapon that choses a bearer in the world's time of crisis. The world is in crisis so we enacted the ritual for the Spirit of the Holy Hand Weapon to call forth a worthy bearer." One of the clerics trembling at Jun's feet said as Jun looked down on the man. "Why are you down there? Get up, I don't need worship or shit, just straight answers."
"Thank God the Hand struck true." He muttered as he slowly started to stand up, Jun was confused as she was not sure what to make of it. "Great Hand Weapon Hero, please forgive me-"
Before he could finish or she could get any answers out of the humble man, he was knocked down by the trampling of a Red haired woman wearing a purple skirt suit and holding what appeared to be a thermal mug of something that reminded Jun of coffee but the scent was mixed with oranges and vanilla. This woman was surrounded by three tall and strong men dressed in dress pants, a white button up shirt, and strange vests with glowing lines across them of multiple colors. Each man had what appeared to be a collapsing baton with a gem embedded in the bottom and a large bulky brown revolver on either side of their belt; meanwhile each man had a strange sunglass like visor over their eyes and a small device with a long and thin white gem pointing out from one ear. In all honesty Jun wasn't sure what these men were as they looked like bouncers for a neon nightclub with exaggerated earpiece devices.
Right behind the red haired woman was a younger woman with shaggy brown hair, freckles, auburn eyes concealed behind thick glasses, wearing a much cheaper and barely together black suit. She was acting sheepish and klutzy as she was holding a binder and pen, clear of the other woman's assistant. Jun was about ready to ignore the woman until she saw the matter she moved about wasn't random or nervous, and her erratic breathing was more in line but that seemed to escape the notice of the woman. "Weird… is she?" Jun wanted to think before the red haired woman groaned.
"C'mon we gotta get out of here. Negloid let's go, we can still make the initial press rounds but I want to get ahead of this woman fiasco, make all the arrangements and I want them done ten minutes ago if you want to avoid a pay cut this month!" She hissed to the assistant quietly but Jun could still hear. "Ye- yes Miss… I'm already working on it, already called the hotel, as well as Reinhuld and the assistants of Manaflow's interviewing reporters are working on it, still a matter of trying to get a hold of the Hunting Division in case they want to reassign since you did put Marlon on the expedition tour… Also my name is Negliad-" She said as the woman sighed exasperated. "You're a lot of fucking trouble." The woman said to Jun who was trying to resist the grip of the woman.
"Excuse me? Where the fuck are you taking me? I want bloody answers-" Jun tried to say before the red haired woman sighed and snapped her fingers before two of the guards picked up Jun and ran her outside the church, all the while her struggling to resist. "Whiteout protocol." She said to the guard next to her who nodded and pulled out a ring from his pocket, picking it up and holding it up to cause a flash before the green gem everyone's camera device blinked red for a moment. "Alright folks, as you see the Hand Weapon Hero is a bit off. Sudden teleportation brings that out of everyone right?" She said trying to save face by acting charismatic. "Let's not sully her reputation, I'm sure you got a few good pictures but the Hand Weapon Hero will make her debut at the Eagportian Adventure Guild Corporation Main Branch Office, right in front of the Hourglass in a few hours." She said before quickly following after the rest of her group.
"Let me go or I swear I will break your skulls in!" Jun said struggling to fuss as she was practically thrown into the back of what appeared to be a tall limousine, with a rather bulky exposed and glowing engine in front. The two women from before quickly followed in as one of the three men started to drive while the other two got on strange motorcycle devices to ride in front.
Jun could barely stand up before the car started to drive. "You got some fucking nerve lady…" Jun said as she tried to get up. "Let me out or I'll cut your throats out!" She said as she pulled her pocket Knife out of her pocket before seeing the gemstone on the strange glove she was wearing almost shining for a second.
"I got nerve? You just nearly threw me under a bus by being here?! Did you get in the way of the actual man to be summoned or something?! Urgh… no matter, spin control mode, I am not losing my promotion over some crazy little girl." The red haired woman responded viciously. "Um Miss Selana, keep in mind they are still disoriented and there were memos about this happening… A lot of memos." The nervous wreck of an assistant tried to break the argument.
"What Memo suggested we'd get a psycho level one trying to pull a knife on us?" She said after backhanding Negliad quite hard it nearly knocked her glasses off. Negliad adjusted her glasses back before removing four notes from her binder and handing them to Selana. "Give me those-'' She snatched the pages as Jun was confused for a moment at the display, just gobsmacked at the outlandish situation she was in as she watched the dominant woman rifle through them. "Oh… huh… okay, Head of PR, the District Manager, Head of HR… the CEO!" She said as she looked at the nots before throwing them back at Negliad. "Why didn't you tell me these sooner?" She said as Jun felt really bad for Negliad at the moment. "You said you thought these were outlandish exaggerations and replied to each with a copy of this." She said before handing Selana another note.
"Thanks for your concern but I believe if the legends are true a little limelight right after summoning won't phase a, quote unquote, true hero. I have everything well in hand, pun not intended. Selana Rouz… You are not escaping this unpunished Negliad." Selana hissed near the end as Jun folded the knife back up. "Answers, now, or I will jump out of the car." Jun threatened the two women, seeing as though she at the moment was confused, technically kidnapped, and surrounded by weird people using strange terms.
Selana would grab a silver case of what appeared to be orange and blue cigarettes from her purse before lighting one with a strange capsule the size of a walnut containing a red gem inside. "Look kid, you see, you were summoned from whatever back alley sewer you call home as part of a ritual to summon a Hero in the time of need, wielding that weapon called the Holy Hand Weapon. Archaic piece of work but it predates a lot. The world only summons it and whoever it wants when a crappy set of storms comes every couple centuries and brings monsters down trying to destroy the world. You don't need to know more, just smile and look pretty for the cameras for now and you'll be as big as the Kings and Queens of the world." She said bluntly before blowing smoke out the window.
Something in that didn't sit right with Jun, the behavior of the priests, the wording and cavalier attitude towards what might be described as something of an apocalyptic event. "Yeah… Well it's not that simple, see… Oh- right! What to do with a summoned hero…" Negliad said as she flipped through her binder before finding a page. "Introduce the Hero to Status Magic and ask them to look at their own stats… ah, here it is. As a holder of the Holy Weapon, you should see something square and transparent inside your field of vision. Focus on it and you'll access Status Magic." She said which confused Jun as she was looking around until finding the strange item and focused on it, before finding a Heads up Display in her field of vision.
Jun Fuji
Class: Hand Weapon Hero LV 1
Equipment: Initiate's Glove (Legendary Weapon)
Otherworldly Clothes
╔»¶â€š »
Skills:
Magic
Seeing the strange list she winced at the garbled text item. However the HUD was different from the one she was used to with Fantasia Invasion, this one looked more like something out of a traditional fantasy game as it was much more, beautifully detailed. She would start to look at her equipment and was confused until she saw the two items. She slowly reached fingers up to her eyes, removing her contacts as she would still see the HUD display, her heart skipped a beat as she was silent, realizing they were still there. This wasn't a game… and Jun was getting excited for her new life, though there was something ominous going on with how she was treated so far.