NOVEL NEXT #011 – Do you guys believe me now?
I took a deep breath and glared at the dungeon’s entrance.
It still looked incredibly out of place and not at all what one would imagine when you said ‘dungeon’. But to be perfectly honest, everything in this world felt weird like that. So with that in mind, I made the executive decision to just roll with it. It was going to be better for my sanity in the long run.
“Alright, chat. Attempt number two,” I declared as I stepped over the threshold and let the uncomfortable feeling settle over me once more. I didn’t flinch or yelp this time.
No. I was confident now. Or at least, I pretended to be confident and hoped it would be enough. Fake it till you make it, right?
SpoOo0oOon: I still think you should sleep first…
Jeofffff: now just don’t get swarmed again
JamieWasTaken3: mb make a run for the chest
Jeofffff: no go for stealth
“I’ll advance slowly and will keep checking both sides with my heat vision. Not getting swarmed again… I’ll go to sleep later, Spoon… I want the chest first, at least.”
I advanced slowly and carefully, sword in my hand, eyes scanning my surroundings while periodically switching between normal and heat vision.
I hadn’t investigated the rooms on the other side of the windows last time a whole lot, but now that I looked, they didn’t make much sense. Some of them were tiny cubicles, others were massive sprawling rooms. The truly odd thing was that from the looks of things, some of the rooms were large enough that two or more windows would logically have to all connect, but when scanning the next window over, it led to a different room.
“Chat, we have non-euclidean physics going on…” I murmured as I finally spotted the room with the chest in it. “Oh, hey. It’s the chest room!”
It was one of the bigger rooms and I couldn’t quite see all of it. But I could see the chest opposite of the window as well as several empty tables with chairs strewn around the place.
I swiftly looked around myself one more time just to make sure I wouldn’t get ambushed and then gingerly climbed inside the room over the windowsill.
As soon as I did, I spotted the pair of faceless zombies in the corner milling around. Naturally, they also spotted me and began charging at me the moment my feet hit the floor on the other side.
I readied my sword, breathed in, and spat fire at one of them, trying to concentrate as much of it on one enemy as possible, as I’d learned to do during my little practice session.
In the meantime, the other one stumbled all the way around a table and into my weapon’s reach and I brought the blade down on its head. Unlike last time, I didn’t miss and the sword hit its mark, splitting the zombie’s skull and stopping it in its tracks.
I instinctively shuddered at the sensation of slicing flesh and cracking a skull. Last time, I had been panicking too much and hadn’t had much time to think about it, but now that I was relatively calm, I couldn’t help but feel disturbed.
By the time the zombie clattered to the floor and stopped moving, the other zombie reached me as well. Its burning body flung itself at me, warped hands aiming at my throat. I side-stepped its lunge while swinging my blade through its trajectory.
It made a shallow cut along the zombie’s arm and made it stumble and crash into a nearby chair, but otherwise didn’t seem to hinder it a whole lot. I didn’t let it recover and rammed my sword forward, aiming for the head.
I missed, but still hit its throat.
It didn’t take long until the thing stopped thrashing and stopped all motion.
I belatedly realized that my breaths were quick and heavy and my body was shaking as I backed off from the downed zombie. A few seconds later, the zombie and the fire burning it suddenly turned into a fine mist and dispersed into the air, leaving behind nothing but the faint smell of burnt flesh. The other zombie had also disappeared at some point.
Okay, VR games had not prepared me for this. Just seeing and hearing things was different from having all of my senses confirm what was going on. That sensation of slashing the zombie’s skull open… I felt like I’d murdered someone, even though it had only been a dungeon monster that despawned after I’d killed it. And the smell…
I took a deep shuddering breath and then slowly breathed out.
JamieWasTaken3: yo good job!
Jeofffff: loot time!
bloopbooper: blooop! ♡⸜(ˆᗜˆ˵ )⸝♡
GonguuH: that went well
PrestoFive55: is this even allowed on snitch?
“Well, that was intense… And also disturbing. God, that felt nasty… I can still smell the burnt flesh, ugh… And I think I understand the real horror of zombie movies now. It’s not the zombies themselves, it’s the act of killing them that’s the most disturbing…” I shuddered again and shook my head. “At least there was no blood, but still… This was way too different from just VR.” I frowned. “Is what allowed on Snitch? The gore? I dunno…? Actually, speaking of… Is this really being streamed to Snitch? How does that even work?”
JamieWasTaken3: snitch viewcube punch
Jeofffff: viewcube too
RetconRanger: There is also an entire separate website dedicated to this stream.
I briefly checked my surroundings to make sure nothing was trying to creep on me before leaning on a table I stood next to and relaxing.
“Huh? Really? Wait, but I don’t even have a Punch account! And wait, how does the chat work, then? Am I seeing the chats from all the sites combined?”
I probably should have thought about the implications of streaming back to Earth sooner, because seriously… How was it even possible? Granted, everything in this world was weird as heck, but if it all interacted with the very normal non-weird Earth, then there had to be some kind of method to the madness, right? How did the logistics even work?
Jeofffff: wait there’s a special site?
RetconRanger: The website is StreamerSkill.out
PrestoFive55: anyone figure out what game this is yet?
SunOfABeach:
PrestoFive55: or did she set it up herself?
And apparently, there was a special website someone had made just for the streamer skill output? Was it the creator of the system? Was it my kidnapper? Either way, it meant the two worlds were connected in some way. And if they were connected, then it had to be possible for me to get back, right?
“Not an ARG,” I grunted in annoyance. “And I didn’t set anything up. This is all news to me…”
Obviously, I wanted to find a way back home. As cool as an isekai adventure was, I wasn’t a fan of starving and nearly dying to killer robots or faceless zombies. Although, if I somehow found a way back, I would be in the body of a little girl… who could breathe fire. Yeah, I probably wouldn’t be able to live as a normal Vcuber. But still, I wanted to get back home, if possible.
Actually, why hadn’t the quest generator given me a quest to return home? Was it because I hadn’t thought about it at the time?
I shook my head.
“Well, anyway… That’s all really weird and suspicious, but I should probably think about it once I’m not in the middle of a dungeon,” I said out loud.
Once again, I quickly scanned my surroundings and found that luckily, no more zombies had decided to gank me while I pondered about the Streamer skill.
With that, I turned to the chest and approached it.
Jeofffff: no idea
GonguuH: I don’t think this is a game
Jeofffff: could be some pre-release?
GonguuH: there’s too much detail
bloopbooper: bloop ('-')?
JamieWasTaken3: yea idk I think its legit isekai
repeaeaeat: this is either a culmination of years of work or she’s actually in another world streaming to Earth
I perked up at the discussion.
“Yeah, this isn’t a game or an ARG! I’m actually in another world! Finally someone who believes me!”
PrestoFive55: I’m skeptical
GonguuH: could be a next gen VR game but I doubt it
repeaeaeat: both options are outrageous
GonguuH: would have heard about it elsewhere
Jeofffff: do something that would be impossible in a game
“Yeah, I know! There’s no way this is just a game…! Something impossible? Like what?” I leaned on a table again and thought about it for a moment.
Then I reached into my pockets and pulled out the damn ‘Good luck! ;)’ letter – still stained with blood, ugh – carefully folded it into an airplane, and then gently threw it across the room. Despite being soaked with blood, the airplane actually flew two meters before crashing into the floor.
I walked up to it and unfolded it again, carefully watching the paper’s folds and how they didn’t disappear like they might have in a video game.
“How’s that?” I asked.
GonguuH: yeah I don’t think this is just a game
repeaeaeat: a game wouldn’t let you do something so random
PrestoFive55: is that supposed to convince me?
JamieWasTaken3: lol what
repeaeaeat: but if it’s not a game then what is it?
“Look, I don’t know, chat! Maybe it is a super advanced full-dive VR game and someone stuffed me into a headset and I’m not really here… but I don’t think VR headsets can emulate touch and smell. And I doubt that anyone with access to that technology would kidnap a random Vcuber and have them stream the game,” I argued. “So the only conclusion left is that some damn phoenix actually isekai’d me and now I can stream everything back to Earth for some reason.”
GonguuH: the question is why?
“I have no idea! If anyone figures it out, please let me know. It would probably help with my quest too,” I said, before once again glancing around and confirming that I was still safe. “Anyway. Got distracted again. Let’s open this chest.”
I mentally filtered out the discussion about my predicament and finally approached the chest, but stopped just short of it. Again, it probably wouldn’t be a mimic, but I still wanted to be careful. I held out my sword and poked the thing from several angles and when nothing seemed to happen, I sheathed my weapon and tried to pry the thing open.
Just like the chest in the spaceship dungeon, it was quite heavy and difficult to open, but still much easier than back then. Whether that was because the chest was lighter, or because I’d gotten stronger… Well, who knew?
I liked to think that I was stronger than I was before though. After all, I’d done a bunch of pushups… and also, I’d grown up a fair bit because of the blessing, hadn’t I? I’d hardly even noticed. How come my clothes still fit? Were they enchanted with automatic size adjustment or something?
With these idle thoughts, I managed to pry it open just a smidge, at which point the lid automatically opened itself all the way just like the chest in the spaceship dungeon.
I expected amazing loot just like in the spaceship, but instead, I got a small pile of coins and… a black pen.
“What is this…?” I frowned.
I picked the pen up, looked at it from all sides, took off its cap, and inspected it, but it looked and worked like a regular old black pen. It even had an ink eraser on its other end. I tried drawing some squiggly lines on the floor and the pen worked with no issue, but…
“Magical pen…?” I said, wanting to be hopeful.
Irid123: it’s a meta pen!
JamieWasTaken3: its a thrown weapon lol
Irid123: write your own script and it will happen!
Jeofffff: ah yes a pen is mightier than a sword
I rolled my eyes, but still walked to a nearby table and wrote ‘And then suddenly, Nana magically teleported back to Earth.’ I waited a couple of seconds and when nothing happened, I shrugged.
“Nope. Not a meta pen.”
Irid123: aww
bloopbooper: boop… (;_;)
I put the pen in my pocket and went back to the chest to inspect the coins next.
There were four of them and they seemed to be made of copper. They all had the same design on them – the number eight on one side and a creepy slitted pupilless eyes on the other.
“...Demon coins? What kind of denomination is this, though? Eight? That’s just weird.”
GonguuH: it could be infinity
JamieWasTaken3: 32 demon copper acquired
“It could… So four demonic infinities…? Still weird.”
I shook my head and put all the coins in my pocket as well. My pockets were starting to get pretty full…
“Well, this is a little disappointing…” I sulked. “Nothing useful. No food…”
I glanced around the room again, pursed my lips as I thought for a moment, and then nodded to myself.
“Okay. Let’s keep going for a little bit. Maybe I’ll find another chest!”
SpoOo0oOon: it’s getting really late though…
Jeofffff: you’re gonna run out of Ether and get yourself killed
SpoOo0oOon: what if you get hurt because you were too tired?
JamieWasTaken3: rip you
“Jeez, thanks for the vote of confidence guys!” I grunted in annoyance and dug through my pockets to fish out the potion. “Look, I still have this thing. When I start running out, I can just eat a drop of this… Actually, let me drink a bit right now, just to make sure I’m all topped off.”
I stuck out my tongue, uncorked the thing, and tilted it just above my mouth and carefully tried to let a drop of it land my tongue. The moment it finally dropped, I tilted the thing back up and felt as it landed on my tongue.
I immediately felt a massive surge of energy through my entire body and gasped in delight… But then it kept going, getting more and more intense and I soon felt like I was drowning in energy. At some point, I must have collapsed and convulsed on the floor because of the intensity.
When I came to, chat was shouting at me.
JamieWasTaken3: you dumbasssss
GonguuH: that was unwise
SpoOo0oOon: are you okay?!
“Ugh… That was… way too much…”
Now that I thought about it, it had only been the residue of a single drop – what with the effect spreading through the blood and what not – last time, and it had still felt like all the energy in the world. A full drop was apparently way more than I could handle.
“Okay chat, I messed up I think. Good thing no zombies ambushed me while I was out…”
I stood up and noticed that even though the vial had tipped over, nothing had spilled out thanks to the viscosity, so I put the lid back on it and put it back into my pocket.
I stopped and thought about quitting right now and just going to sleep like Spoon had suggested. On one hand, it was probably safer, since I apparently couldn’t help but keep knocking myself out with either the lack of Ether or an overflow of it.
On the other hand, I had way too much energy right now.
“Let’s just keep going until the gate and see what that’s about. Then I’ll turn back.”
Despite the protests of pretty much everyone in the chat, I continued.