NOVEL NEXT Chapter 77: New Thread City
"By the gods… it's amazing." I whispered out as I finally got a good look at New Thread City.
The ride to the airport had been quick but the wait and flight had taken forever. However, it'd been my first time ever truly flying and staring out among the clouds at speeds unimaginable left me in awe. One day, it wouldn't be a giant piece of metal carrying me through the air, but my own self. I couldn't wait.
Seeing the clouds and vistas from inside a box had reignited my desires in a whole new way than just revenge ever could. The way the dark clouds and moonlit sky looked, how at a certain height whether you looked up or below you only saw a large roiling thing of pure cloud, how in certain areas all you saw was endless black on both sides.
It was awe inspiring what one day I could achieve merely through growing stronger. A lesson was there. That power came with more benefits than just power. An old thought and old desire resurfaced. Well, perhaps that was a lot to call something that was only around half a year old. That power meant ascension. Growing into another, newer, being. Power alone might not make you more… but it sure as hell opened up the door for evolution.
And this tournament would hopefully provide just that. I'd not forgotten my dream and desire to grow my own technique style. To make the Ultimate Martial Arts and Techniques. But to do that, I needed so much fighting experience that it was daunting. My focus had been and still was on Ki… but I'd take the opportunity where I could get it.
When we'd finally gotten off the flight, Vincent having watched movies, listened to music, or slept the whole way through mostly, it was nearing dawn. And when we finally exited out to see the city itself, the sun had broken over the horizon, painting New Thread City in all its glory.
And I saw why it was named that.
It was made of thread.
Every building was made of thread. Of so many different colors but mostly staying towards bright ones. Bright red, yellow, greens, and blues dotted the horizon, and nothing was monolithic. No building was made from a single color. Nor were they just giant rectangular or blocky things. They were all either a bit homely, like they were made with love and care by an old witch or mother, or made grand like a palace. And damn nearly every public building seemed to be like that second choice. It was… it reminded me as if I'd walked right into a story book. Compared to Vega City, New Thread City felt… happy? No, not particularly happy, more like… cheerful. Brighter, happier maybe, but overall, just more cheerful. The colors helped a lot with that, but they weren't the only source.
Unlike Vega City, with its many, many myriad of races, New Thread City leaned a particular way.
Dolls. Just looking out onto the sidewalk, I felt like a giant. Most citizens here were dolls. Usually two or three feet tall, but there were a good amount that were six feet or more. But the variety is what shocked me even deeper. There were porcelain dolls with faces that seemed to move effortlessly, wooden dolls, dolls clearly made of yarn and thread, and they were by far in the majority, but there were even more esoteric dolls.
Plastic, rock, metal even, and ones made out of materials I couldn't tell at a glance.
It left me struck dumb. I'd lived in Vega City for over four years now, and yes, I'd seen living dolls before. But they'd been, well, rare. I had no idea- I'd never realized or thought that where one was… there must be a whole living community. But even if I made that leap, which I sorely didn't, I'd never imagined a whole city of them!
"It really is." Vincent nodded. "I've heard of New Thread City but I'd never been here."
"How… is this possible?"
"Which part? The houses and buildings? No idea but I'm sure it's just as odd that we build out of metal and glass. Hell, my blood is metal. It always confused me as a kid that we made things out of our blood. I only learned later on that we didn't, and that metal came from the ground. That only confused me more as a kid."
"Okay, yeah, I'm sure technology just kind of found a way there but…"
I looked at all the people walking to and from their daily lives, staring at their bodies probably more than I should have.
"How did they… make more of themselves?"
Two dolls looked at me strangely and then muttered 'pervert' under their breath, quickly moving away.
I blushed fiercely even as Vincent chuckled.
"What, you want to ask them? Booble it. I'm sure Hoardapedia has the answers. Now let's get a move on, I'm tired and I'd like to find a place to put our stuff."
"Yeah, okay."
We hadn't just hopped into a plane without anything on us but our bodies. I hadn't prepared for my independence for nothing. I still didn't trust those damn capsules anymore… but I still had a lot of stuff. Deciding what to bring hadn't been that hard, but it had felt good to pack and be prepared. Vincent also had brought his own bag of necessities, mostly blacksmithing tools.
It didn't take us long to find a hotel and I was thankful most buildings had two doors. One at the 'normal' height for this city, around two or three feet, and one for giants like me and Vincent. It was… bizarre, both walking in and walking around. Being three times everyone else's height was… it made everything feel strangely fragile. Even the insides of the building were still mostly made up of thread but the kind had clearly changed. I couldn't tell more than that, but what they used for walls, they clearly didn't use for floors and counters. It gave me an interesting look into what it must be like for other races to come to Vega City, which had originally been designed for humans and kept that building code.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
"Checking in?" Said a male porcelain doll whose face I noticed didn't move when it spoke. I resisted the urge to find that incredibly creepy.
"Yeah."
"Here for the tournament, I assume?"
Vincent and I perked up at that. We hadn't had a lot of time to find out more and Master had been pretty rushed with our removal. Probably worried Vega could literally pop up at any moment to kill us. Well, for us to suicide against.
"Yes, actually." Vincent replied. "How'd you know?"
"We don't get a lot of non-threads here. Yet there's been more than a few showing up and your bodies and power level… well, they are impressive."
I sometimes forgot that just how I glanced at everybody's level I saw, everyone else was subtly checking their Vambrace whenever a new person walked up or into the room.
"What can you tell us about it?" I asked.
Despite the man, Maurice according to his name tag, not changing his looks, I got the distinct impression by the turn of the head he was confused.
"What do you mean? You don't know?"
"Know what?"
"About it in general, I mean. Most people don't just randomly go to join tournaments you know? Anyway, I guess if you're just looking for the basics, you can check out the website later. You do know the website right?"
Me and Vincent looked blankly at him.
"...You two haven't even registered yet have you?"
He sighed deeply, which was still bizarrely creepy given he didn't even have lungs as far as I knew, let alone a mouth to release it from.
What followed was beyond enlightening. After giving us the website to actually register, which closed in only two days, he explained the basics for us. It had a power level cap of [70], which immediately had me and Vincent very, very concerned. It didn't mean someone actually at that level would show up, but if they did, we were toast. The 10% rule assured us that [55] would be tough, but I was personally confident we could probably handle up to [60] given our training and my experiences in actual life or death battles.
But as for the name of the Tournament…
"What do you mean? Why on Vega is it called that?" Vincent asked, bewildered.
"Huh? You guys really don't know? It's because that's the whole prize of the tournament! Well, that and 50,000 Zeni."
New Doll Tournament.
An extremely awkward and enlightening discussion and multiple, many multiple, searches through our Vambraces later, and a wealth of knowledge opened up to us. There were, some… surprisingly 'organic' ways Dolls had children. But for the initial creation, for the first of their line, there always needed to be a blueprint. Not that different from androids, well, kinda.
The winner of the tournament got to be a voice, a strong voice, in what the new doll species(?) would be. The strongest would get to put their input on what the final blueprint would be. It wasn't unlimited, and there were more than a few outright denials and other things, but brown hair? Blue eyes? Made of metal or crystal or human sized like I'd seen outside? Well, most of the rare doll species I'd seen had originated from this very tournament.
It was an interesting bit of culture. The way Maurice phrased it and talked about it, it almost seemed like borrowing genetics in a way. The strongest 'doll', but really any body who won, would try and make the blueprint 'stronger', to contribute more to 'Threadians' or simply 'Threads' as the Living Doll race was called.
After registering and leaving Maurice, we finally made it to our rooms.
Also nearly entirely made out of thread.
"Well," Vincent started. "I can't say I'm exactly… comfortable with the tournament reward."
"Why not?" I asked.
It felt good to give back to others. I mean, sure, I wasn't some genius, and the actual people making the new species would do way better than I ever could, but offering my advice didn't seem like such a hassle. Didn't seem like much of a reward either, more a responsibility than anything, but-
"It's… too close to having a child. No, creating a whole new race entirely. That doesn't bother you at all?"
"Whoa whoa whoa. It's nothing like that! It's just giving some tips, right?! Like, saying 'Yeah, those leg muscles should be stronger' or 'Maybe make them out of rubber?' It's not… well… no it is kinda sorta like that isn't it…"
I hadn't thought of it like that but now that Vincent had mentioned it, I felt a particularly strange tingle going up my spine. I'd been thinking about it much more like giving some advice to an expecting couple, except for a whole city and maybe race, not like… making one yourself. That was a bit…
I felt a strange shudder go through me.
Yeah, that was-
Then it didn't stop. My eyes widened in panic as that shudder grew and grew and I saw it reflected in my eyes, as Vincent's skin visibly roiled. Panic began to eat away at me as everything started happening all at once.
My eyes lost focus, my hearing dimmed, my taste and feeling left me, and I fell sideways on my bed like a sack of rocks. Everything was leaving me, escaping me like the air outside of a balloon. I tried to move and merely flopped uselessly, waiting for it all to go away.
And surprisingly, it did. Slowly, the effects receded away and I once more felt in control of myself.
But not entirely.
Everything was… lesser. Like a grey filter had been applied to every sense I had. Sounds were quieter, my vision was slightly blurry like I needed glasses, and my whole body felt strange and more like rock than flesh.
I stared in horror at Vincent as he seemingly adjusted to the same damn thing. Moments passed, before one of us spoke up.
"Well," Vincent said, looking uncharacteristically scared. "I think we now know how the poison works. Seems it's going to come in waves."
I ignored everything else as I immediately started trying to figure out a way to tell time, hunger, and thirst with Ki Sense alone.
There was no time to waste if I didn't want to die from this damn thing.