GOD FRIGGIN DANG IT
Sooo… I did say in the last chapter that the next would have been posted sooner.
But has it already been like, what? Nearly a month since I updated this?
Jesus Christ my sense of time is really messed up...
Also, my laptop broke.
The thingamajig won't open. All I have now is my phone. Wasn't easy having to edit and type everything on this diddly dang phone.
And uhh… I rewrote the whole dang chap. Didn't dig the whole thing. All that 3K word long draft, wasted.
Now, I wanted this chapter to be longer, but I really want to post at least ONE chapter PER week as I promised to myself, and it's already been more than a week since I last updated this.
So yeah. I hate myself.
Not really that satisfied with this chapter… but done is better than perfect, so whatever.
...
"Run!"
Hertha used her adrenaline-fueled strength to pull the two up in haste. John and Timaeus dashed madly as far as they could from the gate entrance.
"Just go to higher grounds!"
John glanced behind, witnessing Hertha who stood her ground.
She drew her shining sword, the sound of metallic screech resounding as she pulled out of its scabbard, glinting as she poised for battle.
The workers who survived the onslaught fled from their jobs like spooked mice, as other knights stood beside their Logistics captain.
More boots clattered the grounds.
John brushed shoulders against mercenaries, all armed with either spears or halberds, where they joined Hertha and her group. They locked in a line formation tightly knit like woven fabric.
The mitachurl, raising its titanic wooden shield, remained unperturbed by the spear wall. It slammed the bottom of its shield to the floor, an announcement to everyone for what was to come.
The Abyss Mage floating beside rubbed its hands in excitement with distorted laughter.
Its fellow mages used this opportunity to teleport to who knows where to do who knows what. Their being glittered out of existence leaving their comrade behind.
Everyone braced. Their expression focused on the biggest threat. Hertha's colleagues were poised, swords forward, standing at the ready.
"Let it rain!"
Red hot arrows eviscerated the mitachurl in flames and ashes while humbling the Abyss mage into mere tinder. The hilies standing around fell victims, but countless more replaced its ranks.
"Take care of the rest! I have to find those other mages!" Shouted the Outrider standing on the rooftop with a determined look. Hearing the bells and the screams of the city, she hopped off to where her service was more critically demanded.
"Charge!" Commanded Hertha. Spearmen and halberdiers loosened formation as they clattered for a kill. The clash of bodies and metal echoed in the cobblestone streets.
...
[Special quest!]
[Description: With Mondstadt's peacekeeping authorities reduced down to a mere fraction, the forces of evil saw this as an opportu-
He ignored the damn wall of text, flowing with the crowd beside Timaeus.
"Where the fuck do we go?!" John followed behind.
"The city's high grounds! The Abyss Order can't teleport there with all-" Timaeus huffed. He wasn't the fittest within the Knights of Favonius, nor the most adept at running, "There are lots of countermeasure magi-"
He tripped forward, tumbling like a tumbleweed. His body slapped the street as he faced the stony floor.
The others simply ran for their lives and many passed them by. Timaeus was stamped down by the stampede of shoes stepping over him.
"Timaeus!" John resisted the flow of bodies and made himself seen and known. The panicked people were aware and smart enough to avoid the man standing in place as they flowed around him avoidantly.
Timaeus had dirty footprints all over his back. No one noticed in the chaos. Everyone was for themselves.
But not John, out of guilt rather than camaraderie. If he'd have just shut up and run this wouldn't have happened.
This was his fault.
His fault!
The crowd left them in the dust seconds ago, leaving only the two of them behind. He looked at Timaeus with pity hearing his groan, deciding to carry Timaeus by the shoulder but stopped midway. As if a test given by the gods, his heart drummed when he heard the savage chatters.
Hilichurls, three of them, each holding round wooden shields and a neolithic club, rushed out of the alleyway. Their names floated above their heads.
[Wooden shield hilichurl guard]
[Wooden shield hilichurl guard]
[Wooden shield hilichurl guard]
His eyes bore the three enemies. While their faces hid behind a mask, he could feel their intention for violence when they noticed the two defenseless humans. By this time, he should have run in fear. Giving it some thought, he's not the kind to be calm when situations arise. His self-awareness screamed as something inside him changed. He knew for a fact that it was no apathy or shellshock, otherwise he wouldn't have the acumen to assess the situation.
If he left Timaeus, then he might die.
The hilichurl in the middle chose to go first, raising its wooden club with reckless savagery.
Between fight or flight, John chose the former.
His expression contorted into anger, running towards them. With his momentum, he leaped off the ground to dropkick the hilichurl - like a ragdoll, it was thrown back with questionably exaggerated physics. The hili crashed to the sharp corner of the brick house with a bodily thud.
John landed on his back and recovered to stand, his dark pair of jeans stained with dust. It lay there unmoving. If it was still alive, then that wasn't his biggest concern. The two other hilichurl who first thought he was no threat suddenly changed their attitude. None of them didn't waste time choosing to rush in a pincer maneuver.
Quick and flashy, he somersaulted to his left like he was in some Dark Souls game. Rolling past the hili, he stood in a running pose to do what worked earlier.
With a loud stomp, he charged to dropkick again. Both of his feet connected to the center of its shield. Thrown back, its backside crashed to its brethren - the two were knocked like bowling pins. They tried to stand with grace no different from drunkards.
The noise of a sharp clack of a solid object caught his attention. Looking down, it was the round wooden shield, domed in shape like contact lenses.
[Wooden Hilichurl Shield]
[A set of planks held together with an iron rim, this tough rotund shield can block normal attacks with ease. While excellent in construction, it is poorly maintained. Likely to have been stolen.]
Its geometry reminded him of Captain Imperialist from the Marvelous Universe by Stan Leeds. That got him an idea. He picked it up holding it like a frisbee.
In his vision, appeared a white line superimposed in his perspective stretching out straight like a taut ribbon.
Is this what I think it is? He adjusted his body to aim the line at one, giving them no time to reorient. Winding his torso in a twist like a baseball player, he swung the shield with a deep gruff as the shield sharply whistled through the wind. Its trajectory followed the white ribbon. Direct hit. The shield bounced from one's head to the other. The force knocked them down.
I guess it is. It's videogame mechanics.
"You… can fight?" Timeus recovered from his vertigo, pushing to stand with drunken grace.
"I… yeah. I think so?" Blanked out by the question, John himself was even surprised he could do that.
"You think!? You slayed them!" He had this combined look of amazement and bewilderment, even if a little disoriented, "How'd'u do all that?!"
The most puzzling fact is that he did it not-so-hard, despite never having fought in his life. While he did feel the tension of his limbs, every one of those moves had been as easy as… how he could only describe as pressing a button. He stretched his legs to find any faults, looking at his feet like a child seeing them for the first time. Understandably, he was confused about his body, wondering if it was his original in a metaphysical sense.
No feelings of fatigue. No muscles begging for rest. No strain from his joints. No nothing. Thinking about it, there's barely any sensation of adrenaline rush. It's like… his body changed. He was different. The idea implanted itself deeply in his mind and brought both confidence and concern to his psyche.
"Don't mind me. Are you alright? Can you run?" John averted the question.
"I'm fine enough," Timaeus groaned on the ground.
"Look. You go. I'll stay," John ordered confidently, ecstatic for action. The decision left an odd taste in his mouth. What is he thinking? Why would he do this? For fun? To help people? To get his revenge on the monsters? He didn't know. But if there's one thing for sure, it is that he was more than he was before.
More than some nobody.
Looking at his hand like some protagonist having a dramatic self-realizing moment that he was destined for a great cause, goosebumps caused the hairs of his forearm to rise. He wasn't normal, that was for sure. He had a lot of things shoved to his throat the moment he woke up in some other place, having to shrug off every other thing that concerned countless details.
The System, as he aptly named it purely for convenience, was another revelation he still has difficulty swallowing. Wasn't easy to just accept everything in a force-fed buffet. He was just glad he still managed to keep his marbles, but perhaps that was just societal pressure not to make a mess with the locals.
The fact that he was in some weird world knowing he might be the only one seeing the videogame UI implies he was in a simulated reality… He winced, shaking his head a little. Perhaps, for now, the less known the better. There are things he felt the need to do and questioning reality shouldn't be it. But his cynical side whispers that he might just be playing the hero as a mere distraction.
After all, are the people around him real? Is everything an illusion?
Does anything matter at all?
"I… I don't understan-" Timaeus vomited, splashing his lunch to the floor. His arms hugged his waist, skittishly shaking with all the anxiety flooding out of his stomach. The color on his face drained, bending forward with hands on his thighs woozy.
John looked in silence, eyes moist and tongue dry. Long breaths blew out of his hung mouth.
That felt… real.
Timaeus felt real. The expression of his eyes felt real. His frenzied emotions felt real.
John comforted Timaeus by patting his back.
"I'm just glad you didn't leave me," Timaeus huffed between breaths, bending down to hide his teary eyes, "I owe you my life."
Timaeus is just as real as him.
And so were the people suffering in this city. People needed help. In the complexity of everything, where his questions about reality are likely to be forever unanswered, maybe that was all that mattered.
He can help.
"Just go and find safety," John looked at the horned silhouettes littering the streets from a distance. Though they numbered little, they caused a ruckus, vandalizing window frames and doors no doubt trying to get in. They must have sneaked past the defenses.
Before he ran into action, the sound similar to a wine cork being popped open entered his ears. Curious, John looked over his shoulder to see Timaeus drinking a vial containing some glossy rose-red liquid. Abrasions on his forehead healed at a magical rate.
The fuck? John fixated on the vial. He had an idea what it was, but seeing a real one in action was a miracle in… well, action.
"Here. You'll need this," He unfastened his work satchel, looking at John with a stressed frown, "They only work for minor injuries though."
End
edit: oct 26 2023 - slight edits
Edit: Jan 25, 2024 - edits and all that crap
Sup.
Author here.
First of all,
I'm going to explain why I completely overhauled this chapter. Supposedly, this chapter would be a short time skip. John gets ambushed and wakes up in the ward, then blah blah blah I'm not gonna tell what happens next.
But that felt lacking. Did some self reflecting. What should I have added? A bit of action.
(That, and to show that his Gamer powers work a little differently compared to your usual gamer fic which i'll explain next.)
That, and it felt bleak if I just focused only on the main concept of this story.
Second of all.
Ya'll might've noticed that despite being a gamer story, there are barely any game text. For a good reason.
I decided not to add any stat system, pop up numbers showing quantifiable damage, skill descriptions, or the likes. I'm not doing something radical compared to most gamer fics for the sake of it.
Reason being, that this is not an RPG. After all, for the most part, this is a story focused on tech.
In RPGs, we have quantified milestones that takes the form of point system or stats system like Strength, Wisdom, Intelligence, HP, MP, EXP, etc etc. Those shows you readers that there is a quantifiable progression you can read in a table.
But why should I use that when tech fulfills the same role? Like evolving from flintlocks to one shot rifles, and from that to semi auto self loaders? You get the idea.
That, and I wrote a RWBY gamer fic back then in 2017 that I deleted long ago... where I focused a lot on game texts and numbers. No way I'm gonna fall down that rabbit hole again.
Third of all.
I usually reply to the reviews via DM… but I figured I do so differently this time.
So here.
BUT!
Before I start, I just want to say that welcome to all who took a glance at this story :3!
Like.
The fact yall even bothered to add this to your favorite/follow list is meaningful to me ( Q/u/Q)
So thank you thank you thank you! Especially for those who left a review!
ShinySpiritomb
Reply: Well, Mondstadt is the "beginner town"… so can't expect much. So I'm quite excited to change Mondstadt's status as an "underdeveloped" nation, with its only notable feature being an exporter of wine.
Wine? Ha! Fuck wine. Let's go make Mondstadt an exporter of FREEDOM!
American eagle screeches on the background
(Note: I'm not American mind you.)
dvd181
Reply: welcome to the show! be sure to bring popcorn :D
engineer2172
Reply: Muahahahah~!
Now imagine that Liyue's neighbor suddenly becoming a growing industrial power :3
meCrazylol
Reply: yeah sometimes I just get lost into details… overanalyzing everything and all that. It's why sometimes I get delays in my writing.
I decided to make transport balloons a significant part of this story hence why I focused on writing them, but then it got a bit out of hand when I calculated its approximate lifting capacity compared to hydrogen…
Only to be later discovered that they are actual hot air balloons, not something similar to helium or hydrogen blimps…
Eh. Whatever.
HIDDENMENACE
Yup. I was thinking about what device or thing that'll help him speed up the tech tree, so I decided on a pyro vision for future projects.
Smithing, casting, molding, war crimes, etc.
But mostly war crimes.
So I decided, hey, why not push that as a magic welding torch lol.
And yes. Ill do some research on welding. Gotta have that suspension of belief ya know.
And… that's all the reviews since the previous chapter :D
Oh. By the way, if y'all don't mind wasting a dollar or so, you can buy me a coffee. It would help me fund my laptop's repair fee. Ill put my Ko Fi name in my bio. It would mean a lot to me.
But honestly, with how things are, I think I might need a new laptop with all the damages… my repair dude hasn't updated me bout nothin' :(
