Ascension: Online

"Of course. You're right. In that case, let's all do a little introduction about ourselves, then," Qin Yao said. "I'll go first since that is only natural, as the leader."

As Qin Yao shifted his position on the rock in preparation for his self-introduction, I noticed my neighbor pick up a pebble off the floor and twirl it around in her hand. Just when I was wondering what she was going to do with it, she suddenly whipped the pebble at the one Qin Yao was standing on with a single flick of her wrist.

I blinked in surprise as I attempted to track the projectile with my eyes. The pebble struck the rock Qin Yao was standing on-

"My name is Qin Yao. I am 14 years old, and- wah!"

-He stumbled off the rock and crashed painfully onto the rough ground. My neighbor, the perpetrator of this humiliating display, snickered as I watched on in amusement. The other players, surprised at this epic fail, also started giggling at this shameful display.

"Hero Qin! Are you alright?" Captain Ling Ye hurried over to help Qin Yao up.

"Ah, yeah... I'm fine," he said, pushing away Ling Ye's assistance and getting back up on his own. He then scanned the audience, searching for the one who had done this to him. Immediately, all the other players ceased their laughter, my neighbor - Chiaki Furuwa - included.

"A-Ahem..." Qin Yao cleared his throat, attempting to hide his embarrassment. "Like I was saying... my name is Qin Yao. I am 14 years old, and in real life, I am the son of the CEO of the largest company in China."

Ling Ye frowned in confusion at all this. It was hilarious - he must've been wondering, 'China? What the hell's that?' Still, Qin Yao's arrogance knew no bounds. Despite the utter humiliation he just went through, he still had the audacity to declare the completely irrelevant information known as his social position back on Earth.

"I am currently Level 10 in-game," Qin Yao continued, ignoring the awkward grimaces he was receiving from his audience. "However, I only started playing this yesterday. I'll reach the top of the rankings soon enough."

Again... useless information. Unable to take this any longer, I decided to raise my hand to ask him about his stats, but-

"Cut the crap. What are your stats?"

... My neighbor, Chiaki Furuwa, stole my thunder.

"H-Huh? My stats? Uh..." Qin Yao, startled, began to spin his brain gears at Mach 1 to try and come up with a suitable response. After a short silence, he finally answered.

"Strength, 40. Agility, 35... Intelligence, 40. Dexterity, 25. Magic, 50; and... Luck, 10."

Everyone fell silent. Not because the stats were too impressive... but because they weren't even possible in the first place.

Man... if you're going to come up with a lie, at least make it somewhat believable. I mean, clearly, your intelligence is not 40.

"Um..." the timid girl from before looked around anxiously, to see if anyone would point out Qin Yao's mistake. But all of us just stood there, watching him in amusement to see when he would realize it himself.

"Er... Qin Yao, was it? I don't think your stats are that high... did you make a mistake in your memory, perhaps?" she said at last, seeing how none of us were going to speak up and ruin this beautiful moment. She was far too nice. 'Mistake in your memory'? Nah. Anyone with an intelligence higher than Qin Yao's would be able to tell that was merely a lie to make himself look better.

"H-Hm? Oh, wait... you're right, ahaha... sorry, my memory has always been bad," he hurriedly apologized.

The rest of us all just stared back at him like, 'who're you trying to fool?'

"A-Anyway, let's move on to the next person," he continued, changing the topic. "We have around thirty people here - let's get a move on."

"U-Um, I'll go next, then," the timid girl said, taking a deep breath. "M-My name is Hua Yi Lian. Hua Hua, for short. I'm 14 years old, and I'm currently a student! As for my stats... um, I spent most of my SP on intelligence, since I don't really like fighting..."

"If you don't like fighting, why the hell did you even join this hunting party?" Qin Yao asked insensitively, his hero facade wearing off. He must've already gotten pissed after that embarrassing fall earlier, and the humiliation he suffered from realizing his lie had been exposed the moment it came out of his mouth didn't help.

"H-Huh? Ah... y-you see... I am trying to conqueror my fear of fighting because that might be able to help me stop being so... shy all the time," the girl replied quietly, pressured by Qin Yao. "I-It's complicated..."

"..." Qin Yao didn't seem convinced but didn't say anything further. "So, you'll need strong teammates. Okay, who's next?"

"I'll go, yer?" the man in his thirties from before said. He seemed to be foreign - from the Americas or Europe, maybe. "The name's Jim Fitzroy. 34, turnin' 35 this year... but ay, real-life stuff don't really matter, do it? 'Nyway, my stats 're mainly strength n' luck. I've always 'ad bloody bad luck, ya know? Decided ta see if uppin' my LUC stat could do the trick. Cheers, mates."

So... I guess he's Australian. The translation system A.R.X.A. implemented was truly a fascinating thing. Somehow, I could understand what he was saying - but not because his speech had been translated to Japanese. I was hearing his original, Australian English, but my brain could somehow process it and understand it despite me never learning the language before. The same thing applied for Chinese, which Qin Yao spoke. The NPCs also appeared to speak Chinese - at least, in this region. I didn't know if the same applied to the other regions, though.

"I'll go next then, I guess," another person spoke up and proceeded to introduce themselves.

This process repeated until nearly everyone had given their introductions. This one guy wouldn't stop rambling on about his life and took about ten minutes alone. None of us interrupted him, mainly because he started bawling his eyes out in the middle of his venting session. It was truly heartbreaking, the way his ex-girlfriend dumped him...

Still, while I felt bad, I really found it difficult to just stand here and listen to a guy I didn't even know ramble on and on for ten minutes straight. The other players, even Qin Yao, were the same. By the time he was finally done, we all collectively let out a sigh of relief.

Anyway, very soon, there were only two people left yet to go. Chiaki Furuwa, and I. We looked into each other's eyes, both of us telling the other to go first, with neither of us actually wanting to do so. We were both equally stubborn and anthropophobic, it seemed.

Eventually, she gave in. I was the victor.

"Tch... my name's Chiaki Furuwa. But if you call me by my first name, Furuwa, I'll kill you. All my stats are balanced, except for MAG. But from what I've heard so far, we're all around level 10. I'm the same. None of us have even unlocked hidden arts yet, so there's no point in talking about that stat."

"Speaking of... does anyone here know when we will unlock hidden arts?" a guy asked. His looks were a bit hard to describe - if I had to say, he would be a nerdy-type if only he had a pair of glasses on.

"It shouldn't be that far off from now," Qin Yao said. "If MAG is a base stat, they should be giving us access to hidden arts pretty soon. And now... our final member?"

He looked at me, and I returned his stare intently. Immediately, he averted his gaze. What a wimp.

"Kaze. Igarashi Kaze. That's my name," I said calmly. "I'm level 11, and my stats revolve around STR and AGI. Looking forward to fighting alongside you all."