Update time.
For that one guest review asking whether the little Weiss is still interest in attending beacon: At this moment in the timeline, I don't think she is yet. I always liked to imagine that Weiss wanted to go to Beacon, after seeing Winter going to Atlas academy, and military, to get some freedom from their father. I still want to write her going to Beacon later in the story though, so you don't have to worry about it.
A cheerful humming echoed through the Schnee manor, as little Weiss gleefully skipped around with a wide smile on her face while moving to the room she had her final lesson of the day in.
The sight, of the heiress of the biggest company on Remnant hopping around so earnestly, gathered a lot of attention from all the servants working for said family.
Yet, as the attention placed on her grew and grew, Weiss didn't actually bother acknowledging it with anything beyond some light confusion on her part.
Why would they bother looking at her so much when she was just excitedly walking around?
It was almost as if seeing her happiness was an absolute rarity, for them.
After a short moment of thought, she shrugged her shoulders in ignorance to all the possible reasons people could be staring at her, right now.
It wasn't like those stares mattered much to her, anyway, the only thing currently on her mind was excitement at the fact she only had one lesson left before she could get back to playing her video games.
Compared to that, focusing on her servants' weird stares felt a tad bit silly.
In the end, she couldn't pay attention to everything, and prioritising on video games was always going to be more important to her than some stupid image people working in the mansion had about her.
"You certainly look excited about your today's math lesson, sister."
Weiss shrieked loudly in surprise at the sudden remark from behind her.
"Don't sneak up on me like that!" She shouted as she turned around to see Whitley, her little brother, staring at her with an unimpressed expression on his young face. "You should have announced yourself from further away!"
Seriously, the boy was standing less than a couple steps away from her! He certainly didn't need to sneak up so close to her in order to get her attention or start a conversation!
If he called from further away, she would have reacted to him, too.
"I did announce myself earlier." Whitley said in a deadpan tone.
She blinked.
"Really?"
Her brother nodded.
"I called for you, the moment I left my classroom." Whitley pointed towards one of the rooms further away in the corridor. "For some unknown to me reason, you didn't react to it, at all."
She winced a little.
Okay, maybe she was too preoccupied in her mind to notice everything around her.
Now that she thought about it, the servants had most likely been staring at her because she was completely ignoring her younger brother while happily walking through the corridor.
Her wince strengthen, she probably didn't look like the kindest of older sisters, out there.
In her defence, the thoughts occupying her mind were so important to her, she likely would have ignored a real, living, grimm, if it appeared directly before her, at that moment.
"I'm sorry." There was no way she could explain her reason to Whitley, though.
Her brother sighed.
"It's okay, Weiss." Whitely massaged his temple with one hand, in a near identical way to how their father often did when someone angered him. "I was only curious about the thing which made you so happy."
Instead of answering, she only stared at Whitely for a few moments with her eyes slightly widened.
"I-Is there something wrong?" He asked.
She had never noticed it before, as she had never experienced an outsider's perspective, but after befriending both Knight and Chammy, she couldn't help but note, how weirdly grown-up she, and her siblings, usually acted.
Honestly, compared to how she chatted with Chammy all evening yesterday, or how she conversed with Knight before that, hearing her own younger brother talk to her felt uncanny.
"Uhm..." Whitley shifted on his feet from side to side under her uncomfortable stare.
Ah, she still didn't answer his question, didn't she?
"I'm just excited about something after my lessons." She said, while slowly raising her arm, and subtly smiling, to calm her brother down a little. "I was waiting for it all today, and quite a bit of yesterday, so I simply cannot wait any more."
Her brother looked at her for a few seconds in an uncomfortable silence, before finally calming down and processing her answer.
"What is this thing you are waiting for?" Whitley asked curiously. "Is it some special lessons from Winter? Or maybe, is it the chance to show father how much you've improved?"
She chuckled a little at her brother's guesses.
Had she never gotten the chance to experience the absolute miracle which were the video games, those would have probably been her answers. However, since she knew of all the video game wonders, it wasn't the case anymore.
"No, it's none of that." She answered.
"What is it, then?" Whitley couldn't help but ask.
A genuine smile appeared on her face.
"I will be meeting my friends."
Whitley's eyes widened.
"You have friends?!"
Her smile instantly turned into a small frown.
If she didn't know how living as a Schnee looked like, she would have considered her brother's surprised remark as rude, but with all the knowledge she had about her family, the strongest emotion she was currently feeling wasn't anger.
It was pity.
Whitely likely couldn't comprehend having friends with the lifestyle they were forced to live by their position in the world.
"They are online friends, I met while playing video games." She quickly clarified, before leaning closer to her brother. "Please, don't tell father about them. I'm sure he is going to forbid me from ever talking to them, if he learns of them."
Whitley nodded slowly.
Her smile returned.
"Thank you." She said.
"You're welcome?" Whitley more asked than stated.
She nodded, before noticing her math teacher looking around the corridor from her next classroom. It wouldn't have been a surprise if Whitley's next teacher was looking for him similarly, too.
Apparently, their short conversation was long enough for her teachers to wonder why they were late.
"We should probably go to our classes, now."
Whitley blinked a couple of times in confusion, before quickly checking his scroll, and widening his eyes in panic.
"You're right." Whitley said, as he pushed himself past her, to hurry for his next lesson. "Good luck on the math lesson! Oh, and I hope that your plans for later will be successful as well!"
They waved to each other as they separated for their classes.
A tired huff left her.
Math was far from her favourite classes, and usually it was the one she struggled with the most, as it was incredibly difficult to follow calculations while thinking about the games she played prior to it.
This time, considering how she was going to be actively counting down until the end in her excitement, it might end up being even worse for her.
She didn't let it discourage her, though.
After all, this was the final lesson before she would, for the first time in her life, play something with two of her friends at the same time!
"Miss Schnee, please hurry up for our lesson!" Her math teacher shouted at her from the door of their classroom.
An excited grin formed on her face as she ignored it.
Today's evening was going to be amazing.
(...)
The computer in her room buzzed quietly as it processed the boot-up sequence of GrimmBattle.
The game took her entire screen, and she couldn't wait for it to load.
It was all because last evening she had already received a notification on it that Arch06Knight1 had accepted her friend invite, and Chammy had promised to come online to play today, as well.
In short, it meant that she was going to have a chance to play with both her friends at the same time!
As the boot-up sequence ended, and the main menu of the game revealed itself to her, she instantly clicked on her friends menu to check whether both of them were online, already.
She grinned as she saw the window appear.
They were online!
Not wasting a single second, she sent both of them invites to her lobby. It was her job to do that, because neither of her friends had met each other yet, they only knew they were going to be playing with two other people, including herself.
Arch06Knight1: helo
MineChammy09: Yo
An excited squeal left her, as she saw the two messages pop up.
They were here!
Her two friends were here, and they were going to be playing together.
It was perfect!
SnowReh01: Welcome.
MineChammy09: sup snow
Arch06Knight1: hey snow
Arch06Knight1: what r we playin today?
Her body literally shook in excitement, as she read her friends' messages.
SnowReh01: I'm not sure, yet.
SnowReh01: Probably one of the three player missions for now.
Arch06Knight1: soudns fun
SnowReh01: Chammy will chose which one.
MineChammy09: ?/
A small chuckle escaped her at Chammy's reaction.
MineChammy09: y me?1
SnowReh01: You played this game the most of us.
She nodded with a confident expression on her face.
Although, they had played with each other for only one day, she could already tell that Chammy had to be as passionate about GrimmBattle as she had been about Sci-War, and none of the denial she heard from her newest friend could convince her otherwise.
They did play through every single two player mission in this game yesterday, because of that passion.
MineChammy09: I DID NOT!1
MineChammy09: archknight playd it way more
MineChammy09: just look at his level in ths game!
She slightly raised one of her eyebrows in response to this message, before quickly clicking at her other friend's profile.
To her no small surprise, upon opening her friend's game profile, she noticed that Knight had over two hundred and twentieth progression level in this game.
In comparison, Chammy had level sixty, and she, after a whole day of playing yesterday, had only come close to level twenty. She didn't even want to imagine how many hours her first friend spent on this game to achieve such a high level.
Arch06Knight1: mots of it isnt frm me!
Arch06Knight1: its from al my sisrets plyaing in the same acount
"Huh, that's a surprise." She didn't know her friend had any sisters. It certainly did explain a little why they were online during weirdly late hours, though, they simply had to share their computer with other people.
Curious of her friend's family, she moved to write a question about this.
SnowReh01: You have siblings?
MineChammy09: it doesnt matter if that level is divided by thre or smthg its stil to high
Arch06Knight1: its devided by 8
Arch06Knight1: i have seven sistrs
She widened her eyes at the message her friend sent.
MineChammy09: waht
It was difficult for her to imagine living in a family with so many siblings, even with just Winter and Whitley, despite their already large mansion, she sometimes felt that it was difficult to organise everything correctly.
She certainly couldn't imagine her mother living with so many children, when that woman was a wreck, after just three children, already.
Although, it might not have been such a big deal, if Knight's family functioned better than hers. Not everyone had to live in a family which focused solely on the growth of their Dust Company.
A couple more messages passed through her screen as Chammy accused Knight of lying, and the other tried to defend itself, but she didn't pay too much attention to them.
SnowReh01: Lets just choose a mission for us to play guys, alright?
SnowReh01: Can you do it, Chammy?
There was a small pause before Chammy send her next message, and she liked to imagine her friend was either grumbling something to themselves, or sighing in front of the computer, before responding.
MineChammy09: okay
SnowReh01: Thank you.
She smiled to herself.
MineChammy09: mision nr 13 is fun for three poeple
Arch06Knight1: its defecne of the valey right?
MineChammy09: yeh
It looked like she was going to be the only one among them who didn't know anything about this mission. Hopefully, it wasn't going to make her feel like a fifth wheel for the entire mission.
She shook her head slightly.
No, she couldn't think like that, this game wasn't some competition.
All that matter to her should be having fun.
SnowReh01: Alright, I will start it, then.
Arch06Knight1: ok
MineChammy09: ok
With a smooth movement of her mouse, she clicked on the thirteenth mission, lobbying them for it, right after doing that, however, she quickly noticed there was something off about it.
At least, if they wanted to play it with three people only, that was.
SnowReh01: Hey, this isn't three player mission.
SnowReh01: It says its for four players.
Why would they try to play a four player mission with only three of them?
MineChammy09: it only says that
MineChammy09: its actuly beatable by any number of players
A frown of scepticism appeared on her face, as she read her friend's message.
SnowReh01: Really?
Arch06Knight1: yea its true
Arch06Knight1: the frist time i playd it was wiht only one of my sitsers
Arch06Knight1: we did fine
A quiet sigh escaped her.
Well, if they said so, then it probably had to be true then.
After all, she did have the least amount of experience in this game when it came to all three of them.
SnowReh01: Alright, I will trust you two.
SnowReh01: Starting the game, now.
She moved her cursor above the being game button, at the top of the screen, before clicking on it, and starting the short countdown to begin the mission.
There were only five seconds to this countdown, and in a blink of the eye, all three of them were already mentally preparing themselves to take control of their in game characters. Hey, casual game or not, they still wanted to win it, in the end.
Just before the countdown hit zero, and they entered the game, she saw her friends send two more messages.
MineChammy09: remembr about the broken bridge
Arch06Knight1: yeh
After reading them, she nodded her head.
Any warning for a mission she had never played before was going to be useful for her.
The countdown hit zero, and the game turned black, before momentarily showing its loading screen. Right after which, a short introduction to the mission played out, talking about how they were going to be doing an important operation to protect the undefended village while the main striking force attacked Mistral.
A smile appeared on her face as the mission briefing cut-scene played out in its entirety.
They were going to absolutely win this.
As the game started, all three of them spawned in some sort of provisional armoury, from which they could grab their armour, and pick their weapons.
Arch06Knight1: imma take sword and shotgun
MineChammy09: i go sniper
She chuckled a little as she saw her friends scurry to get their favourite weapons.
In this game a player could at most carry three different, one melee and two ranged, weapons at the same time, so most players would usually decide on their favourite ones early in their journey into this game.
SnowReh01: Alright, I will take the usual, then.
Her personal favourites were middle-ranged weapons like assault riffles and spears. These types of weapons were perfect for the most amount of situations she could encounter in this game.
At least, from what she had the chance to experience while playing with Chammy the previous day, that was.
It might have been a pure chance of luck, but the three of them really made a decent team with their weapons of choice. Had there been one more member in their small group, they could have easily taken care of even the toughest missions in this game.
Unfortunately, one couldn't just magic another friend into existence from nothing.
Arch06Knight1: aight i will go down
Arch06Knight1: supprot me frm abov minechammy
MineChammy09: you got it knight
MineChammy09: also call me Chammy
She couldn't help but feel rather nice at the fact that her friends were getting along with each other. To be perfectly honest, before she invited both of them to the same lobby, a part of her was more than a little bit scared they weren't going to.
Arch06Knight1: okay chammy
Thankfully, her fears were unfounded.
SnowReh01: What do you two suppose I should do?
Her experience on this mission was so non-existent, she obviously was going to refer to her friends.
They did know what they were doing, after all.
Arch06Knight1: this mision is similr to tds
MineChammy09: yea
Arch06Knight1: simpy stop grim from raeching vilage to the east adn we will win
Arch06Knight1: they come molsty from a singel canyon but later ther will be a push on brigde
She nodded her head.
SnowReh01: Got it
SnowReh01: I will be guarding from the edges of the canyon in that case.
MineChammy09: good idea
MineChammy09: we should hurry up tho
MineChammy09: grimms about to arrive
As if coordinated by some invisible timer, all of them left the armoury at once, before heading directly to their chosen guarding locations. She moved towards the high slopes at the sides of the canyon, Knight went directly towards the canyon's middle, and Chammy proceeded to the village's entrance in the back to snipe down any Grimm that would get past them and close to the village.
If they somehow found a way to protect the entrance with the broken bridge at the same, as well, they would have set up a perfect defence for their objective.
She shrugged a little.
Well, when they were undoubtedly going to be attacked from there later in the mission, then she was sure they would be capable of adapting to it, somehow.
They were great players, after all.
SnowReh01: The Grimm are coming.
She had sent her warning upon the very first sight of grimm, and the very next moment, she opened fire at the small horde that was travelling through the canyon, slowly mowing them down with her continuous barrage of bullets.
Unlike in strategy games, like Sci-War, the act of defeating enemies in GrimmBattle was a far more skill dependent process.
Not only was she required to hit all the incoming enemies accurately by herself, but also hitting different parts of enemies would have different results, based on what type of enemy they were, too.
For example, while hitting any humanoid enemy, whether they were human or faunus didn't matter, would always result in the enemy dying, there were multiple types of Grimm which could easily survive multiple accurate headshots.
In scenarios like those, it was more beneficial to aim for the limbs, instead.
A couple of Grimm in the horde, she was shooting at, dissolved into nothing as they were met with the attack from Knight.
Of course, when someone was using a heavier type of weaponry, like her friends were, then they could sometimes ignore such mechanics, and simply blast their foes to pieces with bullet power alone.
It was rather unrealistic when compared to how the game was presenting itself, but she did have to admit that seeing a whole Grimm dissipate, after being hit with a single powerful shot, was beyond satisfying to see.
MineChammy09: leave some Grimm for me guys!
MineChammy09: all the Grimm disappear before i can even see them!11
A small chuckle escaped her.
Had it all been happening in real life, such complaints would have been uttered only by the most battle hungry madmen on the battlefield. In the game, however, those types of words were pretty common, especially when playing with someone like Chammy.
Arch06Knight1: ok
Arch06Knight1: im stoping shoting
Her chuckle escalated.
MineChammy09: NOT WHAT I MEANT!
To go along with Knight's scheme, and, of course, grant Chammy some enemies to fight as well, she also did stop her barrage on the incoming enemies. Who was she to deny her friend from experiencing the game on her own?
MineChammy09: YOU GUYS CAN SHOOT NOW
Ah, they truly were the greatest of friends, if they were willing to sacrifice so much of their own fun for Chammy.
MineChammy09: GUYS?
After she calmed down a little, she quickly turned her camera towards the broken bridge to check on the Grimm attack on that side.
There was a mini-map in the right corner of the screen, which technically could display the locations of enemies, but to give it that capability they needed to first set up a radar somewhere on the map. Some maps in this game had it already on them, others gave pocket radars to the players in order for them to set it up by themselves, and this map unfortunately did neither.
Thankfully, it wasn't an issue to quickly check the bridge from where she was standing.
SnowReh01: Start protecting the canyon again, Knight.
SnowReh01: I saw Grimm coming from the bridge.
There weren't a lot of them from what she could see, but a single group coming in to the village at a wrong time could easily lose them a mission.
Arch06Knight1: got it
With the confidence Knight and Chammy were going to guard the canyon, she moved towards the broken bridge.
From the way the game was depicting it, no normal human would have ever bothered with trying to cross it, and the majority of Grimm, she knew of, would have been stumped by it, too.
The small amounts of Grimm which actually were coming from there were all either extremely nimble looking, or they were just flying right above it with their wings.
Having chosen a rapid-fire type of weapon, unlike both her friends with their slower but stronger ones, she was the perfect counter among them to that whole group of enemies.
As she came close to the bridge, she pressed the reload button to make sure she would have the full magazine for engaging the Grimm.
While it was true that switching to secondary was faster, and more effective, in the middle of a fight than actually reloading, there was absolutely no reason she shouldn't be able to reload outside the battle.
The reload animation took less than three seconds.
In that time, the first couple of Grimm managed to pass through the bridge.
After the animation finished, she quickly aimed at the wings of the flying Grimm, before firing.
The flying Grimm fell one by one, as her barrage of bullets swiftly moved from one to another, after making sure the targets were falling to the ground. It wasn't enough to defeat the whole group, but it surely took care of the most immediate danger.
As the nimbler, non-flying, Grimm made their way towards her, she heard a single sniper shot being fired from right behind her, before seeing the Grimm closest to her dissolve, right after.
MineChammy09: nice work
MineChammy09: focus on the flyin grim first
MineChammy09: i can handle some monkes
Seeing that none of the flying Grimm were coming towards them for now, she allowed herself a moment to write a reply.
SnowReh01: Shouldn't you be helping Knight?
Another sniper shot flew through the battlefield, defeating some more aggressive Grimm which had been rapidly coming towards her.
Arch06Knight1: its ok
MineChammy09: he can handle himself
The messages came at roughly the same time, and seeing how both of them essentially agreed with each other, she could only shrug a little before going back to shooting the Grimm ahead of her.
If Knight needed help, they could simply write something, so it wasn't like they were left completely in the dark.
Besides, with how Chammy was positioned back in the village they were meant to be protecting, it was far from impossible for them to simply cover both their pathways at the same time.
Groups of Grimm fell one after another before her as she fired volleys of bullets at them with a wide smile on her face.
This mission was almost too easy.
After a good minute, or two, of diligently guarding the bridge, with Chammy as her support, she started to notice that the amount of Grimm coming through there was slowly decreasing.
It looked like they had managed to fight off the force coming at them from that direction.
Arch06Knight1: big ones r comin
Having received a warning from her friend, she quickly glanced back at the canyon to see what was going on, and after doing so, she noticed a bunch of Goliaths slowly marching towards the village.
She couldn't help but recoil a little at the sight.
Had the Goliaths really attacked this barely known village during the Great War?
From what she knew, this game was supposed to be based on history! At the very least, the missions should have been based on real historical reports, and operations, from around that time!
Were the people present in this village during that Grimm attack falsifying their reports?!
MineChammy09: were comin
Her indignation at the blatant inaccuracies in this historically based mission were strong enough to prevent her from sending her message on time, and instead making her go to help her friends silently.
A quiet sigh escaped her as she and Chammy reached the canyon, and opened fire on the approaching Goliaths.
Well, shooting the slow giant elephant Grimm coming towards the was certainly fun.
She couldn't really argue with that.
Her bullets didn't do much against the heavy Grimm on their own, but the constant pressure she made with her assault riffle did make Chammy's sniper shots way more accurate, and made Knight capable of coming closer to unleash the full power of their shotgun.
It took a bit under half a minute of their constant barrage to down a single one of these Goliaths, and it still left them with two more to be defeated.
Downing a single one of these Goliaths also updated their task list in the top right corner of her screen, and put down a completely new marker behind them, closer to the village.
MineChammy09: ok
MineChammy09: lets go back
MineChammy09: we can finish the mission now
She quickly read the newest task to see what they were supposed to do.
SnowReh01: We are collapsing the canyon?
A small frown appeared on her face.
Okay, it was possible that such a thing might have happened, if a Grimm horde like that had really attacked this village. It would only make sense as a last attempt defence plan to stop the approaching Grimm.
She still didn't believe that it was attacked by three Goliaths at the same time, though!
Arch06Knight1: retret
Not needing to be told more than twice by her friends, she quickly joined them, and run towards the village, shooting down some Grimm, and slowing the Goliaths along the way.
By the time they reached the entrance to the village, they were far enough from the approaching Grimm, and the places the explosives were hidden, that they could safely fire a couple rounds at the hidden, now revealed, explosives, and collapse the canyon.
MineChammy09: OPEN FIRE!1
With a small chuckle at her friend's commanding message, she aimed at one of the explosives, and fired a bullet.
The moment their shots met their targets, and all the explosives were detonated, a cut-scene of the collapsing canyon played, and a mission finished message appeared in the center of her screen.
Arch06Knight1: good wrok guys
MineChammy09: yeh
MineChammy09: were the best
She smiled at her friends' messages, and could help but feel a subtle feeling of satisfaction because of their game.
Whether it was fully historically accurate or not, she had to admit it had been a long time since the last time she felt so happy about something. Arguably, she could probably say that she had never been as happy as she did today, ever before.
SnowReh01: It was fun.
SnowReh01: One more?
Arch06Knight1: sure
MineChammy09: you bet
With her smile not leaving her place for a single second, she chose another mission for them to play, this time without asking for Chammy's recommendation, and booted up another game for them to play.
Hopefully, it was going to be as fun and satisfying as the previous one was.
Although, if it was going to end up being just as historically inaccurate as the previous one was, then she would really need to start looking out for that Benjamin Port guy, whose journals the historical sources quoted, on her history lessons in the future.
One couldn't just make stuff up when talking about their past!
She shook her head a little.
Whatever, she had another mission with her friends to focus on, things like her history lessons could be simply ignored for the time being.
The game turned black to reveal a loading screen, once again.
After all, she still had a lot of incredible games with her friends ahead of her.
And cut!
The first game with all the three friends, and it went rather well.
Have to say though, writing Jaune's nickname every time he writes something can become rather tiring as I write these chapters (I don't have the same issues with Weiss's and Illia's for some reason). Also please tell me whether you prefer for the word Grimm to be capitalised or not, I didn't do it the previous chapter on the same logic one wouldn't capitalise the word animals, but now I tried it and personally I don't think it looks too bad.
There might be a small time-skip after this chapter.
BTW, the game they were playing, GrimmBattle, is something akin to early Battlefields/CoD/MoH, so a typical military shooter of their world.
Although considering that they use melee weapons on top of their range ones, it's not quite the same.
Anyway, that's it for now.
See ya!
