13th Floor · Yodelling Yonder
"So let me get this straight," Eraser grumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose.. "You knew… Zuzu from beta-testing."
"Uh-huh."
"And you knew he knew about secret programmes and other national secrets because of his detection, deduction and hacking skills."
"Mhm."
"And you assumed he had won a battle for an item you weren't even sure existed—"
"To be fair he's a really good fighter," Cat'astrophy cut in with zero remorse. Zuzu blushed from how matter-of-factly he said that. "And the item had existed in beta, and I knew Zuzu contacted another hacker to check the info as I've also gotten said info, so I knew the item existed."
"...right. And then you called him, said my… name, and revived me."
"Basically yes."
"Well I'll be eternally glad to not be dead, but do you have a drop of self-preservation in you or are you all self-sacrificing bastards?" This time Eraser directed his gaze at the entire Let's Go guild, and they looked down in shame. They had no reason to be ashamed, after all they saved his life, yet something in his gaze told them he was very, very disapproving of their choice.
"Don't be so hard on them, Eraser," Cat'astrophy said without an ounce of fear, as if talking to the man without manners was normal. "They acted because I asked them to… and on that topic," he turned towards Zuzu, "What do you want in turn? It was a big favour to ask, I'm aware."
Zuzu's first instinct was to say nothing was needed.
Zuzu's second instinct was to grin evilly.
"Well, I can't let you get into more of those situations until next year at least," he intoned menacingly, and waited until both Eraser and Cat'astrophy realised what he meant.
"Oh no. Nonononono—"
"Join me."
"Ah goddammit." Zuzu nearly did a double-take at how similar Cat'astrophy's curse sounded to Eraser's. Now that he paid attention they sat the same, had matching expressions of being done with his shit… Almost like a father and son. If he didn't know Eraserhead had no children, biological or otherwise, he would have thought it's the truth.
Amusing.
"Well… I do have a life debt to you. Could have been worse." Eraser sighed, but didn't protest otherwise. Zuzu wasted no time sending him a friend invite that he begrudgingly accepted. Now as for Cat'astrophy…
"C'mon, you're not gonna make me, are you?"
"Cat'astrophy, for the sake of old days… please."
They held eye contact for a long while… until the crossdresser blinked, and groaned. "Fine! Send the invite before I change my mind."
"About that…" this time it was Chargebolt's turn to speak, "We have been meaning to split from Zuzu for some time. I think that this would be the perfect occasion."
And oh, right, they did mention there was a pretty big gap in levels between them, and since the monsters spawned according to the highest levelled member of the group, they were starting to have a hard time… A quick look towards Cat'astrophy and Eraser's levels confirmed they were much closer to him than the rest of their group.
What was apparent to him, wasn't exactly clear to his to-be teammates though. Cat'astrophy furrowed his brows and looked at them quizzically, "Why?"
"Not exactly your business, bitch," Melodica crossed her arms and tilted her head back a little, to be more eye-to-eye with the man sitting in front of her. "We want to split for reasons, and this creates a perfect opportunity, since we don't want to leave Zuzu alone. Having two friendly teams also creates an opportunity for co-op guild quests, and similar."
"No need to be so hostile."
"—is what we said to you the last time we spoke face to face," she shot back immediately.
Cat'astrophy opened his mouth to reply somehow, but his witt seemed to be buried beneath the layers of exhaustion, physical as well as emotional. Well, as physical as it got in a NerveGear game, but still.
"Alright, does everyone agree to this? I split off from Let's Go guild and create a new one with Mr Eraser and Cat'astrophy."
"It's just 'Eraser', kid. But sure, go ahead." The man shifted and slid down on his chair a little, slouching enough to be in a half-lying position. Cat'astrophy just snorted at his actions before nodding to proceed. Zuzu already knew the opinions of the rest of his crew, and so he quickly found the correct menu and selected to leave the guild. Creating a new one took an equally short amount of time, all that was left was to name it…
"What should we call ourselves?"
"Guild," came an emotionless reply from Eraser.
"As funny as it would be to be called the guild version of Moon Moon—" Cat'astrophy started, before his words caught up to his brain, and his expression brightened. "Actually why not? Let's be the Guild guild."
Tapeman and Chargebolt lost their collective shit, laughing so hard their avatars started flickering—a sign of a really intense emotion messing with NerveGear—and even Melodica cracked and started laughing, albeit less intensely.
Zuzu smiled at his friends and inputted the name. Guild guild. Could be worse.
13th Floor · Yodelling Village · Tavern
Let's Go guild left the tavern of Yodelling Village early in the morning, after hugging the life out of Zuzu, and listening to his cry-wailing for five minutes straight. They didn't really want to separate… but closing the level gap was a priority.
And so they left, leaving Zuzu alone to wait for his new teammates… Who apparently took their sweet time sleeping even in a game. That was fine though, everyone needed sleep, especially when the rest of the day was spent in the sensory overloading environment of the game.
Eventually Eraser rose first, Cat'astrophy following a few minutes later. They ate breakfast together, enjoying the yodelling egg special (which was just scrambled eggs with additional liquid egg yolk, to help the yodelers' throats) which was quite a tasty combination.
"Alright, so we've got to get something for support," Cat'astrophy strayed from just eating to begin a more serious conversation. "A healing pet or something."
"That's true. Neither of us is a healer, and with the first quarter of the game behind us it's a little late for a rebrand," Eraser murmured, before shoving another bite of food into his mouth. "So a pet is a logical next step to take before we do… anything."
"I never thought I'd play with a familiar," Zuzu laughed, thinking about having a bird or something next to him while he fought, "They're usually a pain in the ass to level up."
"But it's worth it in the end, isn't it?"
"I suppose it is."
1st Floor · Pet Market
"I never would have thought having a familiar is that much of a pain in the ass!"
Cat'astrophy's word were true for all three of them, as it has been nearly an entire day and they haven't found a familiar that would suit their needs and wants. They've agreed to get three pets, one each, two healing ones and one that gives a strength buff, but so far the only healing ones they've found were… unsuitable for their specialisations, as they required healing experience from their owners to level up, meanwhile familiars with buffs mysteriously had neither agility nor strength buff. There was literally every buff you could imagine, just not those two. Zuzu wanted to scream.
"One last vendor and we're going on a manhunt," Eraser intoned seriously. "This is literally worse than shopping with Mic, and that should say a lot."
"Wait, Present Mic? I knew you two were friends!" Zuzu did a little victory dance as Eraser sighed. "What, I'm allowed to celebrate when I'm right."
"What else did you find about my personal life?"
"Nothing much. I was just looking at UA's graduates and that's how I found you."
"So dumb luck in short?"
"Eh, if you want to call it that…"
"For the sake of my sanity—yes."
They checked the last vendor. They found much the same as in the previous one.
They were going on a manhunt.
…tomorrow.
11th Floor · Mythical Forest
"Zuzu, catch!" Cat'astrophy ran up and threw an egg at him, which he barely caught, while Eraser groaned in the distance.
As the highest levelled person in the group, Zuzu was responsible for hatching all the eggs they found or got from quests, since the familiar's level and abilities depended on the level of the hatcher. Now he was surrounded by eggs, as they needed to be near him after he set off hatching, while Eraser guarded him in case anyone appeared, and Cat'astrophy went around the forest searching for eggs. His tracking level was the highest of the three.
"Zuzu, catch!"
"HOW DO YOU KEEP FINDING THEM THAT FAST!?"
"ONE MORE COMING!"
…Cat'astrophy was impossible. But at least he was good at his job. Zuzu was now surrounded by twenty-odd eggs, all in various stages of hatching. They figured going for quantity was the best strategy, as they could just sell any pet that didn't fit them. Considering Zuzu was the hatcher, with him being level 54, they could make a lot of money like that. Rare or high-levelled from the beginning pets were rare on the market, as it wasn't often that a higher levelled player went on a manhunt for them.
"Catch!" Cat'astrophy darted around with the egg before throwing it, but as he was about to run away Eraser held him by the scruff. "Wha—"
"That's enough of them, I think. Let's wait and see what hatches." The man sat on the ground, dragging the poor boy down with himself. "Some are gonna pop out soon." True to his words several countdowns were nearing, or had passed, one minute mark. Soon the entire place would turn into a monster kindergarten.
The first egg opened with a ray of light encompassing the entire place. What hatched was a small, blue dragon.
Before Zuzu could check its stats, another egg bursted open, then another, then another, until he was swarmed by various animals, all in different bright colours.
"Okay, okay! I'm gonna be checking them and handing them to you guys, alright?"
"Yes," "I want the cats," came two simultaneous answers.
"Okay, alright."
Zuzu took the first dragon and gave it a look. A small minigame appeared, making him twirl the dragon around to see spots appearing on its body, until he completed it, and the skill list appeared. "Level 5, fire breath, and hell yeah strength boost!" He handed it to Eraser, who minimised it to an item, and put it in his inventory.
"I'm gonna keep track of them, don't worry."
"Neat," Cat'astrophy hovered over his shoulder. "I didn't know you could do this."
"You've never had a pet, huh?" Zuzu took another pet into his arms and repeated the process. This time it was a black kitten with bat wings. "Level 4, healing breath, healing boost!" Man, we should have started with this place!"
"Who knew the marketplace would be such a trash, though? Now gimme," Cat'astrophy mentioned for the kitten and took it in his arms, not minimising it like Eraser did, but petting it on his lap. "Awwww, who's a good boy~"
"Right…"
Zuzu took care of the rest of the animals, which were as follows:
Lion, level 5, fire breath, no buff
Cat, level 5, no breath, agility buff
Dog, level 3, no breath, no buff (+levelling bonus)
…actually counting out all of them was a chore that Zuzu didn't want to do again. Doing it once was enough, thank you very much.
In the end they ended up with 27 pets, and decided to keep six, three actively, and three in the inventory until they could handle two pets at the same time, which happened after the first pet was level 15.
"Add pet, name: Kuroo," Eraser had the first pick. He immediately took the level 4 flying cat with healing breath and healing buff, which Zuzu hatched as the second. The other pet he took into his inventory was another cat, this time without wings, with icy breath and healing buff.
"Add pet, name: Midori," Cat'astrophy took a green, level 5 flying kitten with healing breath and agility buff. The second pet was another cat—and Izuku was starting to see a pattern, damned cat lovers—a purple level 1 kitten, which had two breaths: fire and shockwave, and a speed buff.
"Add pet, name: Quicksilver." Zuzu chose his pet last. A silver, level 2 dragon with fire breath and two buffs—strength and speed. His backup pet was another dragon, this time purple and level 3, with icy breath and a strength buff.
He also found a labrador with a cooking buff and sent it to Chargebolt as a gift, immediately getting an emoji spam that showed just how happy they were.. Non-fighting buffs were really rare.
"So, are we done here?"
"Let me pet some more cats." Cat'astrophy grumbled before looking at Eraser, in the exact same position as him, petting the leftover cats. "Let us pet some more cats."
"Fine."
1st Floor · Pet Market
"HOW DID YOU GET THOSE!?" The vendor they went to for selling leftover pets yelled, eyes wide and hands trembling. "This is high quality stuff! How am I meant to pay you!?"
"With money," Eraser deadpanned.
That seemed to make the vendor shake himself off. "Right, right." He got his bearings and straightened. "I can offer you ten thousand col for the double breath singular buff and singular breath double buff pets, five thousand col for the singular breath singular buff combo, and a thousand for all others. Does that work for you?"
"It does. Let's trade." Eraserhead completed the transaction quickly and efficiently. "Well," he said, turning away from the vendor. "I guess time to test them out, huh?"
14th Floor · Monster Mountain
Fighting with a speed-buff pet was… something. It felt like all his nerves were on fire, his reaction speed put to test as he zoomed across the battlefield. At least that's how it felt, the boost wasn't that big, but it was still noticeable. So was Cat'astrophy's and Eraser's agility buff.
It mostly just upped their in-game numbers though.
Still, levelling up with pets was almost hilariously easy, and Zuzu idly thought about why exactly more people didn't do this. Pets were, after all, the only form of magic aside from crystals allowed in the game. Maybe that was why? Hm… He thought as he slaughtered more rabid rhinos.
Oh well, no matter. He had other things to focus on. Like survival. What others did shouldn't matter that much to him… but he would suggest Let's Go guild to take on some pets as well. Maybe that would help them close the level gap.
Yeah. That was a good idea.